Non-Boring Cleric Ideas

[hamishspence]

Cleric/druid ideas

There are some druid-centric anti aberration classes in Lords of Madness. Not sure if they work well for clerics.

The hard bit is finding new and exotic ideas that do not require so much crunch: new spells? Picking spells for flavor over power? Interesting cohorts?

 

[waterdhavian]

Did your party start in 2e? Do they still think that clerics are mostly for healing and stuff like that? It was like that in an old group of mine. The cleric was usually played by the new guy (who got conned into playing it) or something like that. In 2e (and/or, their 2e games) that might have been right, but it changed in 3e. A lot.

That was me...I started my life of RPG's as a cleric, more like, a walking bandage. In the time since I have played a few clerics and found them to be way more capable or are now allowed to be capable of doing things other than acting as a medic.

In a campaign I'm in, we have a cleric who is no where near the medic/walking bandage, he is a walking dreadnought and has a military history. I had a cleric who was a tactician and would power up for rounds and be a devastating warrior. You can jazz up your cleric and customize him/her to the gameworld and your tastes, you don't have to settle for just a medic's role. But if you do you can add some uniqueness to that too. My first cleric was devoted to keeping his brothers in arms healed and threw a fit when his healers kit was stolen from him and did some not so priestly things to the guy he found it on, of course everyone elses possessions were taken too, but the priest took it personally.

 

[Herobizkit]

You could always take the all-too famous Order of the Bow Initiate and be a competent range- as well as melee warrior. I mean, if they expect you to hang back and heal, might as well take potshots, too.

And don't forget the joys of multi-classing! Strap on a few levels of Wizard for some extra tricks (since most DM's enforce the xp penalty for "breaking the rules of the standard D&D world"), or if your DM is more lenient, multi- into Ranger.

I would probably stick out Cleric for one more level so as to gain those all-too rare 8th-level spell slots. I'm pretty underwhelmed with Clerical PrC's in general, and I actually have Complete Divine...!

Maybe there's a, um, elven-themed PrC out there somewhere for you...?

 

[Satori]

Have her reincarnated as a giant slug.

Problem solved.

 

[Nightfall]

Any chance you might try another god/goddess?

I just figure if you're not happy with Ehlonna, you might try someone else...?

 

[Herobizkit]

Nightfall, I'm shocked and appalled! Clerics just don't change their faith on the drop of a hat, and especially not for meta-game reasons!

Now, IIRC, the old penalty for changing faith was a level of XP, taken from either the 2ed Cleric's Handbook or the 2ed FR supplement featuring specialty priests. d20 doesn't have such a ruling, I don't think.

But this character isn't exactly a "specialty priest"...

If you have access to Deities and Demigods, and your DM allows it, maybe you'd consider the Soldier of Light PrC near the rear of the book. It's orignally intended for the "Goddess of Light" in a two-god Pantheon, but it's easily adaptable for any Good paladinesque-undead-hatin'-type of class. I thoroughly enjoyed the class with my own Cleric when she started to get boring.

 

[sniffles]

You could always take the all-too famous Order of the Bow Initiate and be a competent range- as well as melee warrior. I mean, if they expect you to hang back and heal, might as well take potshots, too.

I've done an elf cleric/Order of the Bow Initiate, and it was a lot of fun. It was definitely cool to stand in the back and shoot/cast at everything while the rest of the group went toe-to-toe. I don't think my character went into hand-to-hand combat once in three levels.

I agree with crazypixie's comment regarding spell selection. When playing a spellcaster of any class I always narrow down the spell list to things my character would use and things my character would never use. It helps me set a tone for the character as well as making it easier to choose spells. That's especially crucial, at least for me, when running a cleric.

I've got a fellow player who's currently running a cleric as a summoner. You could take your cleric of Ehlonna and focus on summoning certain types of creatures. Imagine if she developed a friendly relationship with a pegasus or something similar. You could work with your GM to arrange that every time you summon that creature type you get the same one. Fun for roleplaying possibilities. And there's no reason you have to only summon something when you need a flanking buddy.

Or you could take the "motherly" aspect and go overboard with it. Have her insist on buffing up the other PCs before every combat, fuss at them whenever she has to heal them, or even get overprotective and start heading into combat in front of everyone else so they won't get hurt.

 

[Nightfall]

Nightfall, I'm shocked and appalled! Clerics just don't change their faith on the drop of a hat, and especially not for meta-game reasons!

Really? What do you call the death of a god if not the biggest metagame reason of all time?

Just saying Hero, it's Cyber's character. If he/she is unhappy with her choices, there's always room to change. Maybe.

 

[WhatGravitas]

*doh* - wrong thing.

 

[Nightfall]

Try the right one next time Lord T. It might help save you from embarrassment.

Maybe. *isn't trying to be mean or anything just saying...*