D&D 5E Powergamer Cleric= Variant Human?

[Shadowdweller]

The Traditional Cleric:

• Stood at the back of the party, to be an armored rear guard and keep an eye on the Thief.
• Used most of his spells for healing.
• Maced the occasional orc.
• Wished he had ranged weapons, anything better than a thrown hammer would be lovely.
• Turned Undead, saving the party's bacon in encounters with way too many undead for the party to handle any other way - which was every encounter with Undead.
• On rare, rare, occasions, collected a Girdle of Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and Hammer of Thunderbolts and really gave the fighter a run for his money.

* Levelled slower than snot and cried while the Thief was nearly double his level.

 

[Zardnaar]

Clerics leveled the second fastest after thief.

Beaten at certain levels by Druid perhaps. Only time I saw a thief twice ahead in levels was via optional rules such as 1gp=2xp or new player joining established party at low levels. Maybe level 2 MU, 4 thief if the wizard missed a handful of xp or the thief went out of their way to acquire more.

 

[Shadowdweller]

Clerics leveled the second fastest after thief.

Beaten at certain levels by Druid perhaps. Only time I saw a thief twice ahead in levels was via optional rules such as 1gp=2xp or new player joining established party at low levels. Maybe level 2 MU, 4 thief if the wizard missed a handful of xp or the thief went out of their way to acquire more.

Hrm, seems you are correct. My bad, I don't know wtf I was thinking. Been a while, I guess. (The double thing was intended to be a bit of exaggeration; but still).

 

[Zardnaar]

It normally means the thief is a level or two ahead. But they could get more with variant rules or using their initiative to acquire gp independently.

More HD is also useful in OSR games due to spell effects being tied to HD.

 

[Garthanos]

The Traditional Cleric:

• Stood at the back of the party, to be an armored rear guard and keep an eye on the Thief.
• Used most of his spells for healing.
• Maced the occasional orc.
• Wished he had ranged weapons, anything better than a thrown hammer would be lovely.
• Turned Undead, saving the party's bacon in encounters with way too many undead for the party to handle any other way - which was every encounter with Undead.
• On rare, rare, occasions, collected a Girdle of Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and Hammer of Thunderbolts and really gave the fighter a run for his money.

And managed to be REQUIRED anyway. probably due to function 2

It normally means the thief is a level or two ahead.

And still was pretty much the most useless character in the party.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah the OSR thief is not great. 2E maybe YMMV based on rules used.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Cha based classes are to easy to min max due to Paladin's, Hexblades, Warlocks etc. Let's face it you can build an entire party of charisma based characters and they will be decent to great level 1 to 20.

Unless you have to open a stuck door. Then everything you do is waiting till someone opens it...

 

[Zardnaar]

Unless you have to open a stuck door. Then everything you do is waiting till someone opens it...

The Paladin's probably str and charisma based, the Dex one not so good.

 

[Tony Vargas]

And managed to be REQUIRED anyway. probably due to function 2

Sure, we didn't call 'em Band-aids because they organized benefit concerts. But turning also made the cleric obligatory - modules, for instance, assumed you'd have one, so undead encounters were scaled approriately.

And still was pretty much the most useless character in the party.

Nonsense: Thieves were a very important food source for mimics, a vital part of the earseeker lifecycle, and the only thing keeping the makers of sling bullets in business.

 

[FrogReaver]

The Paladin's probably str and charisma based, the Dex one not so good.

you have some odd ideas about optimization