D&D 5E Lack of Evil Cleric Options "Not Exactly a Typo;" Cleric Changes Incoming

[GX.Sigma]

One of my players in my playtest campaign (the only experienced player) wanted to play an evil necromancer Cleric. Animate dead didn't exist in the playtest packet then, but I told him I'd import it from 3e when he got to high enough level to cast it. He has since been running around inflicting wounds on people with great glee.

Now this new packet comes out, with animate dead, and it's not on the Cleric spell list (not even as a Reaper domain spell). Bane and cause fear have also been removed from the Cleric list. I tweeted at the D&DN designers about this, and this was Peter Lee's response:

gx: The cleric in the new packet doesn't get animate dead, etc. (not even Reaper domain). Is that a typo?
minipete: not exactly a typo; we have other changes that we're testing. Those changes aren't quite ready yet.
gx: Like splitting it into good cleric / bad cleric classes?
minipete: in that general direction, yes.

Maybe this has to do with the idea of subclasses. Maybe they're going for something more like 2e, where different kinds of priests were actually separate classes with separate spell lists.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm not a fan of this. I'm worried that evil clerics won't be able to heal, so every party will need a good cleric.

(Not a fan of evil PCs, but the more classes you have, the harder it is to "enforce" having a certain class in the party.)

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm not a fan of this. I'm worried that evil clerics won't be able to heal, so every party will need a good cleric.

Why would you need a good cleric, when you could easily instead go with with a druid, ranger, paladin, or bard? They all get Cure Wounds at level 1.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Why would you need a good cleric, when you could easily instead go with with a druid, ranger, paladin, or bard? They all get Cure Wounds at level 1.

Most good clerics can channel divinity to heal, and have more spell slots than classes that aren't full casters.

 

[gyor]

"transitional update - classes all going through the wringer at once"

You shouldn't have to enforce having a certain class in the party for playablity, Clerics should not be required for a party to survive.

I'm curious what this means, could the Cleric be split up into say Cultist and Priest classes say?

Or could it be that Animate Undead is simply reserved for certain domains they haven't released yet?

Could the Warlock become an Evil Cleric?

The Qoute at the top of the page is from Mike Mearls, don't know if its somehow related to this as I don't really understand what he means.

 

[howandwhy99]

Healing is pretty mandatory for a long term game. Otherwise those Hit Points are never coming back, right?
Magical healing is really nice and should be available too. Probably just in town, but some could be in dungeon treasures.
Characters who can heal should probably be available too, but it's not quite as necessary. They fall into the hireling category and are a maze unto themselves.
PC's who can heal shouldn't be mandatory.

My understanding is every player is playing their own private game. But as they may optionally work together, the hallmark of a cooperative game, they can help each other's lot more than each could manage on their own. Stronger together than apart is a central element of D&D's design.

 

[Dragongrief]

I'm not a fan of this. I'm worried that evil clerics won't be able to heal, so every party will need a good cleric.

Unless they get rid of the Channel Divinity feature, I don't think that it would come down to that.
ALL clerics could have access to healing spells (technically, healing should be "neutral"), but clerics who worship deities of Life/Healing would have extra options through Channel Divinity/subclasses that would make them better at it.

 

[Sunseeker]

Most good clerics can channel divinity to heal, and have more spell slots than classes that aren't full casters.

And this is exactly why I was more than happy to trot away from 3e's "You need a dedicated healer cleric to play this game!" design. We has SO MANY ways to run non-standard parties in 4e, WHY are we not learning from that?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've always thought that classically, D&D clerics filled two different roles.

The "Life Priest" (defender/leader) who uses healing magic and buffs and turns undead. Good.

And the "Death Priest" (striker/controller) who uses fear and death and undead. Evil.

I'm not a fan of this. I'm worried that evil clerics won't be able to heal, so every party will need a good cleric.

Man, if a cleric (good or evil) is the only class that's able to heal, this game is gonna have deeper problems.

 

[Alzrius]

Perhaps 5E is going to revive the idea of the anti-cleric.