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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 3801886" data-attributes="member: 11999">I don't think that each deity should have a different and separate class, as I don't think it really makes that much sense.  But the whole D&D clerics and deities thing has become this weird entity unto itself that doesn't really resemble real-world or fictional mythologies -- he whole "utterly devoted to a single divine entity" cleric who is granted the ability to cast spells by his/her deity.I think that religion should be most de-coupled from the character class system, as I think that would make more sense.  It seems to me that the "high priest" of a god of War would be more likely to be a Fighter than any other class, perhaps with a touch of divine favour enhancing his martial skills.I think it robs the Paladin of must of its flavour to simply make it a divinely-powered warrior.  I prefer the older concepts of the Paladin as a warrior devoted to the ideals of good, and he receives his power from that devotion, not granted by a specific deity, which essentially makes the Paladin into a Cleric with worse spells and slightly better hit points and attack bonus.I think the role of a "priest" can and should be fulfilled by a member of any class.  Being devoted to a deity or pantheon, a scholar of all things divine, and a scribe doesn't have much to do with being granted the ability to cast spells by a divine entity.  Why would the church of the god of knowledge or magic have priests and scribes of a Cleric-like class, rather than Wizards or Bards, for example, which seems to fit the theme a lot better.But D&D isn't about to dump Clerics and divine spells, so I'd like to see Clerics move away from the devoted to a very narrow and specific cause sort of character.  The way the class is currently structured, I think better fits the idea of a divine agent of a church (which could represent a pantheon of gods, a philosophy or belief, or even a single deity if people really insist on that) whose responsibility it is to go out into the world and act on behalf of the church.  They are the protectors and warriors of the church, far too valuable to waste by having them hang around the church scribing documents and giving lectures to the common folk.  Most of the members of a church who aren't taking an active (i.e. dangerous) role in the world should be commoners, experts, aristocrats, or what have you.The idea of being a priest of the God of Thunder seems a little silly to me -- what possible useful purpose could he serve in the world?  It's not like the God of Thunder needs mortal agents to run around the world stomping their feet really hard to make thunder happen.I'm not necessarily opposed to divinely-powered characters, but I would really like to see a move away from the devoted-to-an-extremely-narrow-and-specialized-deity model to one where the priesthood represents an actual belief system (in the game world) that has some relevance in society.  The Cleric is an extremely versatile class, as written, and it would be nice if the game's flavour actually worked with that concept instead of against it.  I like the idea of a divine-powered Mystic who spends a lot of time in isolation, pondering the mysteries of the divine and of the world; he's a fairly well-rounded character.  But if he's a Mystic because he's a priest of the God of Philosophy and Navel-Gazing, then that strikes me as a bit silly.I really disliked the 2nd Edition era where we had a Forgotten Realms book with essentially 80 different Cleric/Priest classes, one for each god.</blockquote>

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