Does anyone miss the generic cleric?

[Chacal]

I agree with Henry, the 3e cleric is plenty generic, I'd say too generic for my tastes. Specialty priests are one of the few things that I miss about 2e.

Count me in this category. except I think
the 3e cleric is not generic, it's specifically a combat cleric, IMO.


Chacal

 

[Chacal]

go ask DM Magic that one on Nutkinland.

It might be too late for that ....



Chacal

 

[WizarDru]

Except Gandalf is. The distinction between Arcane and Divine is a very modern one - Gandalf was a Divine Spell caster (and divine - but thats something else)

Except this isn't called out in LotR. The Silmarillion explains what the Istari are, but within the context of LotR, he's just one of five Wizards. Furthermore, I'd argue that he's not a cleric, he's a celestial with levels of Druid, but that's another discussion entirely.


And Diaglo, you can sputter all the ludicrous statements you wish about min-maxing being an invention of 3e all you like...but please stop with the feigned attempts to get around the profanity filters. It's insulting and irritating, and I'd like to think you're better than that. It wasn't funny the first time and it doesn't get better with age.

 

[diaglo]

And Diaglo, you can sputter all the ludicrous statements you wish about min-maxing being an invention of 3e all you like...

i'm not saying this edition invented min/maxing. hell this edition hasn't invented anything.

they, at least according to the fanboys, have just perfected it.

 

[Spatula]

Count me in this category. except I think
the 3e cleric is not generic, it's specifically a combat cleric, IMO.

So was the generic 1E cleric that the 3E cleric is being compared to. D&D has never had a non-combat cleric - in the official rules, anyway.

I seem to recall an oooold issue of Dragon that had a "cloistered cleric" class, that was meant for the non-combat clerics. I don't remember the details of it, though.

 

[Ranes]

Diaglo, your diehard championing of OD&D is always amusingly idiosyncratic but please, keep it believable. You saw your first generic cleric with 3E? And you've been playing how many generations?

 

[Numion]

Never in all my years of playing previous editions did i have 2 clerics the same.

it wasn't until tur...3ed and the advent of feats,skills, domains, etc...into one mix. that i started to see players min/maxing the hell out of the game; where i saw the first generic cleric produced. i have seen a ton on the net and in game of generic clerics now. all with basically the same stats (thanks to point buy), the same hps (ditto), the same domains, the same choice of spells, the same equipment, the same....blah.

This goes contrary to my experiences, even though my group powergames a lot. Now there are several different archetypes for clerics, all pretty different. You can play a melee-oriented-, archer- or a caster-cleric. There are variations even within those groups. And those don't have the same feats and stats.

If your players have only a single cleric type they play, I'd say they aren't very proficient powergamers.

As I recall things, all the clerics were same in OD&D. You couldn't differentiate them with game mechanics, because there wasn't much choice. And if your gripe wasn't with mechanics, why would the 3e clerics be same even though they had the same feats, etc? Those don't dictate the PC RP-wise.

 

[Gez]

Etymologically, "mage" means "priest". The word comes from the name of the Persian priests in Antiquity.

So, generic clerics are there -- they are called "wizard".

 

[Gez]

Don't pay attention to Diaglo. He's really just a glutton for punishment. One would expect him to stay at Dragonsfoot, if he was true to his words...

 

[WizarDru]

Don't pay attention to Diaglo. He's really just a glutton for punishment. One would expect him to stay at Dragonsfoot, if he was true to his words...

I understand he's "forced" to play 3E, and that he prefers prior editions. Somehow he thinks that means that he should lounge around here..perhaps because he's scorned at Dragonsfoot for being a sell-out and playing 3E, especially since he dislikes it so much?

[shrug]

Not sure of the reason, but it'd be nice if he can find something positive to contribute, once in a while. We already have a clown prince, and his name is hong. And hong knows more than one joke, thankyouverymuch.