gods in the PHB and custom clerics/special powers based on them?

[StarFyre]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but do people think they will go to the extent of having clerics gain different feats, powers, abilities, and even have access to special spells only associated to their gods in the PHB, based on the gods they choose?

Maybe to help make them more unique?

What do people think?

(i think this would be more like 2E legends & Lore?)

Sanjay

 

[WayneLigon]

I doubt it and I hope not. I think the Domain system provides enough in the way of customization and though a system where you had different powers, spells, and other abilities based on the god itself it seems to me that it would make attempting to balance the class even harder. Eventually someone's going to find that 'perfect storm' of abilities in one deity that makes them virtually invincible.

 

[Howndawg]

One thing I dislike about the 3e cleric is that it tends to encourage similar ability scores for different deities despite what the deity's portfolio is actually like. Shouldn't Boccob's clerics be encouraged to have a high INT? Or Olidammara's clerics be encouraged to have a high DEX? I would like clerics of different deities to be encouraged to be different by the rules, just as say a greatsword fighter and a rapier fighter should be encouraged to be different.

 

[fba827]

Will they do it in the 4e PHB I ? I highly doubt it. It would involve making it over complex for what will only take up a single chapter (10 pages or so) in a PHB. Too much to detail for this release and too much detail for the mainstream campaign.

Will they later hint at it in some later release? Probably.. just like they did with 3.5, later books started having faith-based spells (some book had initiate of pelor and other god spells.. don't remember which)

Will I customize it to be individualized per faith/religion from the start -- you bet. I love that sort of detail in my games. I did it for 3/3.5 edition and I'll continue to do it for the next edition

 

[KingCrab]

In general, I feel more customization in character creation is better. It's nice to have special abilities tied to the gods themselves. It's also very hard to balance. If done well and with a lot of playtesting (which they may not have time for at this point) it would be a great addition.

 

[Belorin]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but do people think they will go to the extent of having clerics gain different feats, powers, abilities, and even have access to special spells only associated to their gods in the PHB, based on the gods they choose?

Maybe to help make them more unique?

What do people think?

(i think this would be more like 2E legends & Lore?)

Sanjay

They did something like this in the 2E Forgotten Realms, they had Specialty Priests, many of which became PRc's in 3.x.
I thought it was a great idea, myself.

Bel

 

[Wepwawet]

In general, I feel more customization in character creation is better. It's nice to have special abilities tied to the gods themselves. It's also very hard to balance. If done well and with a lot of playtesting (which they may not have time for at this point) it would be a great addition.

I'm pretty sure they didn't started creating the rules just now.
If most of the PHB is finished and they're playtesting, they've been doing it for some time (I hope so... )

I really expect that they made clerics work different, depending on the gods or domains chosen.
In my opinion 3.x clerics only work fine in a few archetypes, like the good cleric, the war cleric and the evil cleric...
Other options for clerics (I'm thinking now of Obad-Hai), you can make them flavorful with the right roleplaying, but they simply don't offer much power or playability.

 

[Danzauker]

I really, really, REALLY there's more specialization room for Clerics from the get-go in 4e than there is in 3e.

All 1 level Clerics in 3e:

- could wear heavy armor
- could not use martial weapons
- could (must?) heal
- could turn undead

And they had to take a PrC 5 or more level later in order to model more accurately the archetypical follower of their divinity.

That was LAME! PrC should not be forced for this purpouse (and it was a boomerang effetc of the bad multiclassing rules in 3e).

I'd like to have a 1 level Cleric of, say, a nature deity that does not have my PC to wear heavy armor and use heavy weaponry, and have appropriate powers and abilities.

This should be accomplished by a good set of talent trees, feats and powers to chose from, let's say something a little more reminescent of 2e spheres instead of only 9 domain spells.

 

[Wepwawet]

This should be accomplished by a good set of talent trees, feats and powers to chose from, let's say something a little more reminescent of 2e spheres instead of only 9 domain spells.

A good approach is the Mantles system used by the Ardent class in Complete Psionic. The turning attempts/day could be substituted for channeling uses/day, and the channeling would be used similar to the psionic focus powers granted by the mantles. This was channeling of positive or negative energy, used for healing turning or whatever. But just one pool for everyting.

Another thing, apparently in 4ed. there are no Druids ( ).
So my guess is that they arranged a way to play a good druid using the cleric class, like a specialized cleric. If it works this way for the druid, I think we don't have to worry about 4e clerics (wishful thinking)

 

[Li Shenron]

I think the 3e way with Domains was quite ok, but should have been more brave!

I would have liked to see the common cleric list of spell shortened, and then the domain spell lists widened to include 2-4 spells per level instead of just 1.

I would have preferred the domain's granted powers to be more vast, for example including more proficiencies and several class skills (and have the base class grant fewer of both of these).

Then maybe after these changes, it could be so that each deity granted all its domain by default (no player choice). The 3e way allows too much for clerics of the same deity to be more different among themselves and similar to another deity's clerics, but overall all clerics of different deities are still too similar with each other.

I'd like the cleric class (and any other class) to be as diverse as the wizard class. In 3e it was actually possible but only at player's discretion, by choosing to prepare typically certain spells instead of others.