Aidan mac Culloch
First Post
I am curious if anyone else has experience with the following scenario, or just wishes to comment on it, offer sage advice, etc.
I realize that cleric variants exist and I have looked at many. I also feel that the 3.5 cleric is too powerful and on the hokey side. I've never been comfortable with the full spell list being available to clerics, and it seems that spontaneous spell-casting would be more suitable for a character that asks his/her deity for the divine power. This is all an aside, really, because my biggest gripe with the cleric is that it doesn't really perform the function of a priest of his/her church. No mechanisms for converting followers, shepherding the faithful, preaching, proclaiming XXX's greatness, prayer and holy rituals, etc.
I have been working on a homebrew, and I was considering redesigning the cleric class so that spell-casting was removed in favor of some holy abilities which seemed more in line with what a clerical character should be doing. My initial thought was to leave most of the other character features the same (BAB, saves, hp). Does anyone have any experience with altering this class, removing it entirely, or something similar? I am concerned about the impact the changes would have.
I realize that it is easier to answer this question if I had more specifics, but that's why I'm looking for input. I don't want to dump time into changing the cleric class if I hear horror stories from others...I am particularly worried about the reduction in healing magic available to characters and the lack of some of the divine spells that are clerical only.
I realize that cleric variants exist and I have looked at many. I also feel that the 3.5 cleric is too powerful and on the hokey side. I've never been comfortable with the full spell list being available to clerics, and it seems that spontaneous spell-casting would be more suitable for a character that asks his/her deity for the divine power. This is all an aside, really, because my biggest gripe with the cleric is that it doesn't really perform the function of a priest of his/her church. No mechanisms for converting followers, shepherding the faithful, preaching, proclaiming XXX's greatness, prayer and holy rituals, etc.
I have been working on a homebrew, and I was considering redesigning the cleric class so that spell-casting was removed in favor of some holy abilities which seemed more in line with what a clerical character should be doing. My initial thought was to leave most of the other character features the same (BAB, saves, hp). Does anyone have any experience with altering this class, removing it entirely, or something similar? I am concerned about the impact the changes would have.
I realize that it is easier to answer this question if I had more specifics, but that's why I'm looking for input. I don't want to dump time into changing the cleric class if I hear horror stories from others...I am particularly worried about the reduction in healing magic available to characters and the lack of some of the divine spells that are clerical only.
