Quick and simple Cleric question [warning: n00b content]...

[Greylock]

Does a Cleric require a full night to replenish spells, ala a Wizard who is studying his books, or only one hour?

The PHB is straight-forward in saying the Cleric only needs one hour, but this took me and my DM by surprise. I'm playing a Cleric for the first time, 3.5, and in our last campaign we always assumed that the party Druid needed a full night like primary arcane casters [rules for Druids only say "like a Cleric"], so we operated that way until I actually read the text for the first time tonight.

Clarification, plz.

Noob Cleric out.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Nope. Arcane casters require 8 hours of rest and preparation time (one hour for wizards, 15 minutes for sorcerers and bards).

Divine casters, however, only require one hour of prep time. Doesn't matter if they haven't slept in days. (Of course, they do have to choose their daily prayer time; that one hour can't just occur any time they feel like it.)

 

[Greylock]

Thanks. It came up because, like many, my Cleric prays at dawn. We bedded late, around one or two am, because of a forced march, and the DM ruled that my Cleric had no spells for the next day. Real pisser, as he'd just lost his weapons, arrows, and everything else. And he was out of spells. So I looked it up, for the first time.

Powerful things, Clerics.

Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Jhulae]

As Mousferatu mentioned, the 1 hour has to be a specific time of the day all the time.

Note that if you're playing in a published game world (such as Forgotten Realms), the required prayer times are usually listed in with the deity's description in the books, so you can't just say "I'll pray at noon" if you're cleric follows the Moon Goddess (for instance).

 

[Jhulae]

Thanks. It came up because, like many, my Cleric prays at dawn. We bedded late, around one or two, because of a forced march, and the DM ruled that my Cleric had no spells for the day. Real pisser, as he'd just lost his weapons, arrows, and everything else. And he was out of spells. So I looked it up, for the first time.

Powerful things, Clerics.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Yeah, your DM was wrong. You can tell him or her that Mousferatu and Jhulae said so. And the books, too.

 

[Greylock]

Yeah, your DM was wrong. You can tell him or her that Mousferatu and Jhulae said so. And the books, too.

Funny thing is, the current DM was a player in our last game. The game where the party Druid got a full nights rest every damned night while the rest of us stood guard.

Can't wait to post this to the Yahoo group...

 

[Jhulae]

Ooooohhhhhhhh.

So, the druid was just trying to shirk out of guard duty... Pretty clever!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Quick addition:

Divine casters must set a specific hour of the day to meditate. If they miss that hour, they do not regain spells until the next day. The time of day is set based on the religion of choice and tends to be timed with an observable event such as Dawn, Noon, Sunset.
Also, any spells that they had cast in the prior 8 hours counts against thier new days allotment. So if you uses a Cure Light around midnight to help the guards recover from the nightly random encounter, you don't regain that slot in the morning.

Lovely things you find reading the rules

 

[Shellman]

My DM has a house rule:

Divine casters lose a spell on a one for one basis if they cast spells within 8 hours of preparing spells for the next day.

So: a cleric who prepares spells at dawn and casts a 2nd level spell and a 3rd level spell within the 8 hours preceeding his prep time will lose one 2nd level and one 3rd level spell from his next day's spells.

Just a balancing factor for the arcane casters.

 

[MichaelH]

My DM has a house rule:

Divine casters lose a spell on a one for one basis if they cast spells within 8 hours of preparing spells for the next day.

So: a cleric who prepares spells at dawn and casts a 2nd level spell and a 3rd level spell within the 8 hours preceeding his prep time will lose one 2nd level and one 3rd level spell from his next day's spells.

Just a balancing factor for the arcane casters.

That's not a house rule. See Primitive Screwhead's post above. It's a core rule.