Domains rankings

reanjr

First Post
There's been some recent discussion on clerics spontaneously casting from their domain spells. I have suggested allowing them to have 4 domains (for better versatility and to better represent their patron's entire portfolio), but forcing the player to choose a single domain to receive their granted power from. Now I'm thinking maybe each domain should have kind of a cost attached to it. So a domain with a powerful granted power could be chosen or two domains with weaker powers. (Assumably, since the spells have a level, they should be balanced already).

Which domains are more powerful than average?

Which are less?

Just wondering how other people saw each of the domains.
 

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Well, judging by the domain granted powers, this is how I'd rate the 3.0 PH domains (I don't have the 3.5 books). I'll use a scale of 5 points for rating the feats, and I'll assume you give clerics 10 points to 'purchase' their domains with, so they end up with 2 strong domains, 4 weak domains, or something. 1 - weak, 2 - below average, 3 - average, 4 - above average, 5 - strong (mind you, I'm of the mindset that granted powers should ideally be about equal to 1-1/2 or 2 feats in potency or usefulness).
Air - 3 points. Elemental creatures typically aren't very common, so being able to turn/rebuke them is rarely useful. Still, it's not bad when it works.
Animal - 2 points. One class skill and capacity for animal companions. Clerics don't get any useful animal-buffing spells like Magic Fang, and in my experience, that makes animal companions mostly useless except as pack animals; in my Oriental Adventures game, we found the party shaman's tiger to be useless when fighting mere wererats or anything else with DR. So I houseruled later that shamans would get Magic Fang/Greater Magic Fang on their spell list.
Chaos - 1 point. +1 effective caster level for a tiny handful of spells is useless. Woopity-doo, 1 more round of duration for Cloak of Chaos, Dispel Law, and Summon Monster spells that summon Chaotic stuff. Plus 1 more minute of duration with Protection from Law and +10 feet or something to the range of some of these spells. Pffffft.
Death - 3 points. It may be useful at high levels against mediocre opponents, but I'm not sure. Usually better to just smack something with a mace or Smite it with the Destruction domain's granted power.
Destruction - 4 points. Useful ability here, smite anything once per day with a melee attack. As long as the cleric doesn't multiclass much, it's bonus damage will be decent. Then again, it's only useable once per day.
Earth - 3 points. As with the Air domain.
Evil - 1 point. As with the Chaos domain.
Fire - 3 points. As with the Air domain.
Good - 1 point. As with the Chaos domain.
Healing - 2 points. Slightly better than the other +1 caster level domains, since at least there are several spells with the Healing descriptor and they get used frequently. Still though, +1 HP per Cure spell isn't terribly wonderful.
Knowledge - 4 points. The extra class skills may be useful, and with divinations in general at least +1 caster level is somewhat useful. Applies to more spells than the alignment domains do. And more of them have durations better than just 1 round per caster level.
Law - 1 point. As with the Chaos domain.
Luck - 4 points. Very useful on occasion, sometimes useless though. And only useable once per day. Tends to be useful more often than not though I suppose, though the clerics I've seen use it tend to have bad luck with their re-rolls.
Magic - 3 points. Allows the use of various magic items, but not significantly better than what magic items a cleric can already use. Effective wizard level for using the items is halved though, so might not help much sometimes.
Plant - 2 points. Even less useful than the elemental domains for turning/rebuking. Plant creatures are few and mostly in the low-middle CR range. Some are even friendly, so no need or point in turning or rebuking them. One minor class skill.
Protection - 3 points. Useful sometimes, but usually only against enemy mages.
Strength - 2 points. Lasts only a round, useable only once per day, and it's horribly weak until high levels. The Destruction domain grants twice as much of a damage bonus to a melee attack, and the attack bonus it grants is better until 10th-level. This is too weak of a Strength bonus usually to be of any help in other situations, until high level.
Sun - 4 points. Undead are reasonably common and being able to obliterate a handful of them at once is useful, even if only do-able once per day.
Travel - 3 points. A somewhat useful class skill and freedom of movement for a brief time. Usually only useful in middle and upper levels, and then only briefly.
Trickery - 2 points. Three class skills of mixed usefulness, one of which doesn't even fit with the others well (what good is Hide as a class skill without Move Silently? Disguise would be more useful if Hide were replaced with Sense Motive or something). Bland and relatively weak. Clerics only get a base of 2 skill points per level anyway.
War - 4 points. One bonus feat and a potential second bonus feat, but the weapon it gets applied to is very specific and limited. The cleric doesn't get to choose really, and only a few deities have the domain, so there likewise isn't much variety of favored weapons to gain WF in.
Water - 3 points. As with the Air domain.

If you want to keep it simple, and use just 2 points for judging each domain, as in 1 - on the weaker side, and 2 - on the stronger side, then here: Air 1, Animal 1, Chaos 1, Death 1, Destruction 2, Earth 1, Evil 1, Fire 1, Good 1, Healing 1, Knowledge 2, Law 1, Luck 2, Magic 2, Plant 1, Protection 2, Strength 1, Sun 2, Travel 2, Trickery 1, War 2, Water 1.
 

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