Do you make clerics research new spells not in the PHB?

[joethelawyer]

Wizards must, regardless of they are in the PHB or not. They must either loot them, buy them, or research them. How about clerics?

I am thinking about introducing some spells not in the PHB into my campaign for clerics. It seems somewhat unfair to wizards that clerics just get them if they are allowed into the campaign. Does anyone use the option that a cleric must research a non-PHB spell in order to get it? Through a program of prayer, meditation, burning expensive incense (hence introducing a cost factor) etc? If they get it, does any cleric of the order of that god get the spell too? Or just the cleric that researched it, hence making it more special? Do you use a cost similar to that of wizards reseaching a new spell? Do "prayer books" exist with new spells for clerics, much the same way as spell books do? If looted, would they be generic or just to certain gods, or gods of certain alignments, in a language only clerics of that god understands or can make use of? Can a cleric pass along that special prayer to his acolytes setting up certain sub-orders in a faith, depending on a common theme of these specially researched prayers, and a master teaching it to his acolytes?

How do/would you guys do it?

Thx

Joe

 

[ExploderWizard]

Researching and studying divine magic kind of makes the division between divine and arcane more cosmetic than anything else.

Some ideas:
Have the cleric's deity reveal the existance of new powerful prayers but the cleric is required to undertake a quest to prove worthy enough to receive them.

Have the PC's find them in an old forgotten place. The same can work for wizard spells.

IMHO study,research, and development is the price wizards pay for being in control. Low to zero cost access to divine magic is a benefit of wielding power that a deity can take away if service has been unsatisfactory.

 

[fba827]

I'm presuming this is 3.X based on the tag with the title. Having said that, in 3.X, yes, any cleric/druid/wizard/whatever spell NOT in the PHB were unique or unknown and therefore had to be specially researched. That's how I handled it in my games.

 

[Jack7]

Me personally, Joe, I've done away with spells for Clerics. Instead Clerics, Monks, and Hermits gain spiritual and saintly power for deep prayer, contemplation, meditation, communion with God, pilgrimages, and the doing of good works. (Then again I've done away with spells for Wizards too, but in a different way. Or rather I should say Wizards can have spells if they wish, but don't need to have them, they can control magic without spells.)

Clerics pray and do other things for spiritual power and then later on, when in an adventure they pray for specific effects and then God either grants that prayer, does not grant that prayer, or grants in an unanticipated or unforeseen way. But there are no spells, though players can use spells to give them ideas for what to pray about. (Spells become idea-templates for what one might pray for as an effect, but they aren't spells with preconceived formulaic reactions.)

God does all the actual deciding of how what the cleric prays for works. (I have a system for this.) This way divine magic becomes what it really should have been all along, not magic at all but a miracle based on spiritual power and capability. The spiritual power and authority comes from God but the spiritual work is channeled (though channeled is not the proper word I sue it for sake of easy understanding) through the agency of the cleric or monk or hermit.

If however one were playing a more rational Cleric-deity spell structure I think EW had a few good ideas.
Especially these:

Have the cleric's deity reveal the existance of new powerful prayers but the cleric is required to undertake a quest to prove worthy enough to receive them.

Have the PC's find them in an old forgotten place. The same can work for wizard spells.

You might also have angels or other godly servants deliver them by dreams, vision, or visit, prayers might be found in ancient prayer books and sacred texts (maybe even in disguised form), written into monuments, stored in secret or invisible writings on icons (maybe even the Icon Image itself reveals the prayer or spell), revealed as pilgrimage or a trip to a shrine or "sacred spot," connected with a relic (such as inscribed into the bones of a Saint), woven into the threads of a sacred shroud, and so forth and so on.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I handle it essentially the same way as wizard's spell research, with flavor changes:

To gain spells beyond those listed in the Player's Handbook, a divine spellcaster may choose spells from any d20 source, subject to DM approval. However, the spell must be conceptually related to their deity's areas of influence, or otherwise appropriate to their class, such as light spells for a cleric of a sun god, or combat-oriented spells for a paladin.

To gain access to a new spell, the character must spend a day in prayer and meditation, burning incense and other materials worth 100gp/spell level during the process. At the end of the day, the character then makes a class level + Wis Modifier check against a DC of 15 + spell level. A successful roll indicates the character has been granted the spell by their deity and may add it to their spell list. Otherwise, the character has used up one half of the gp value of the materials and may try again later.

If a character performs the above check based on a spell they have found transcribed on a scroll or similar object, they receive a +2 on the roll (provided they are able to read the spell initially.) Having the assistance of someone who already knows the spell also gives a +2 bonus to the check.

Of course, adding in different delivery methods (visions, divine servitor) or requirements (the spells must be prayed for at a specific holy site) are the DM's prerogative as well.

 

[Greg K]

No, but that is for two reasons
a) I have changed how cleric spell lists work.
b) I have made clerics spontaneous divine casters (UA)

 

[Grymar]

I added the Spell Compendium spells a few at a time through long lost tombs and such. I too some time to print them up, using crazy draconic fonts, then made the paper parchment-like by soaking them in coke or coffee and putting them under the broiler. The players loved it and kept a hold of the spells even after they no longer needed them.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Joe,

I understand from previous posts that you are anti-splat so I might have a pair of ideas for you. I've done this in two ways:

- When the cleric levelled, I would allow the player to choose a spell from either the complete series or the spell compendium to add to his list (but needing to be ratified by me the DM).

- When the cleric performed a special service to his deity or performed a service with outstanding success, his deity would gift him with a spell. This involved me choosing a spell that I thought would be handy in the adventures to come. In this way, it would act as a portent and a piece of divinationary knowledge in its own right.

The emphasis here is on the deity providing for his followers rather than the Cleric meditating or researching (although all Clerics that I have done this for do this anyway).

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Alisair Longreach]

3E Cleric spells. That gave me as DM a lot of bother.

See, for 3.5 I had just about every WotC rulebook plus Monte Cook's Books of Might. I also had this compulsive-obsessive need to create lists. I created a ten page list with my own revised version of the Cleric Spells and Domains list. I constantly fiddled with it and updated it.

But when it came to playing, the Clerics PCs in the campaigns I DMed just used the PHB spells and usually ignored the rest.

In my experience, casual, non-DM players just ignore everything outside of the PHB. They might take a look at the stuff in the rules supplement for their PCs class. Anything more and they will suffer a breakdown from information overload.

As a rule-of-thumb, a casual but committed player can handle two rulebooks, anything more will be ignored.

 

[Voadam]

I use the Unearthed Arcana spontaneous divine caster variants for clerics in my games. They have sorcerer spells known chart plus domain spells and not daily access to the full cleric list.

This means I have no problem allowing in a huge variety of cleric spells beyond the core, it just makes more opportunity for cleric spell configurations that are unique to the individual clerics.

It also means I only have to review spells when players gain new spells from leveling instead of potentially every game day.