Removing Clerical Domains for Individual Spell Lists

[Erekose]

In 1E I made individual spell lists for each deity based on their sphere's of influence which their clerics had access to.

This meant that clerics of different deities were very different and that all of them could not cast the traditional cure spells. (I also altered the weapons, armour, etc.)

I'm planning to do something similar with 3.5E but was wondering if anyone has done this already and can share their experience with me?

 

[Nifft]

I didn't go so far as you did, but I did make Clerics able to cast Domain spells spontaneously. This required re-working the spells granted by each Domain, as they had to retain the theme, but were no longer limited to once per day.

Here's my Domain list: Domains 3.5e

Now, I also have this class called the Mystic, which can ONLY spontaneously cast spells -- they only get Domains, but they can pick any Domains they want (and can gain more as Feats). It's probably not quite balanced -- it hasn't been play-tested at all -- but it might be closer to the kind of Cleric you want.

Here's the Mystic

-- Nifft

 

[Erekose]

Thank you for your reply Nift - you've certainly developed an interesting alternative system. However, as you say it's not quite what I had in mind.

I'm sure I've read on previous posts that others have done this - I just wish I could remember who - I think it could've possibly been one of the moderators . . .

 

[RuminDange]

Specializing Divine Casters

In tradition of my older campaigns this is one of the first things I set out to do. I not customize the spell list selection for each deity but also the Priest class that goes along with it in regards to weapons, armors, shields, skills, skill points and some special abilities.
IMC the generic cleric doesn't fit what I wanted so I customized everything. Priest's can be a little more powerful now because of it, but I still don't have a player playing on except for a druid. One player was, but he wasn't into the character very much or the game at the time and was dusted during a massive battle with fiends and giants. (Watch out for the Erinyes Sorcerer casting Black Blade! )
He chose a fighter for his replacement character after refusing to come back under True Resurrection.
It takes a lot of work and thinking to do this but I believe it is very much worth it for the story. Plus my campaign is very divine oriented, with a God war approaching if the heroes of the world cannot stop it.
On a similar note, I also customize paladin and rangers for the deities they follow as well in similar fashion. It makes more sense if the paladin following the god of law is more concerned with law not good or evil.
Just a few thoughts on the subject.



RD

 

[Beholder Bob]

Hey Erekose,

As you did, I made unique spell lists for clerics of each god, as well as powers (most couldn't turn undead), weapons, armor, and such. A priest of Y got CLW at 1st, while a priest of Z got it at 3rd, and a priest of X didn't get a single cure spell. It made the clerics more unique and temples less of a one stop cure shopping trip. I would love to see what you come up with for 3.5. Mind you, I use my own gods, so nothing is directly translatable, but none the less, it would be great to see your method of division and power distribution (my favorite power in my old game was the priests of the blacksmith god having a small chance of breaking weapons not dedicated to their god at creation. The priests were not allowed to weild a metal weapon or wear metal armor not made by them or a member of the priesthood!).

 

[Tywyll]

So did anybody...?

So does anyone have any of these varient cleric's availible for posting purposes or on a website? I loved clerics back in 2e, and have found their generality a bit stiffling in 3e. However, my world is very god intensive, so its a fairly important issue. Luckily, I only have one player playing a straight cleric, and from one of the Gods that kind of fits the core cleric. However, some of the other gods could use a make over.

I would really like to hear about other people's experience with this, or read their house rules on it.

 

[Erekose]

Beholder Bob - sounds like you did something very similar to what I did in 1st Edition.

I'm sure I've read on a different thread that nemmerle has done this in 3E. Although I could be wrong!

I had created the alternative spell lists for 3E but before I go updating them for 3.5E I thought I'd check for advice from anyone else who has done this already?

 

[Li Shenron]

In 1E I made individual spell lists for each deity based on their sphere's of influence which their clerics had access to.

This meant that clerics of different deities were very different and that all of them could not cast the traditional cure spells. (I also altered the weapons, armour, etc.)

I'm planning to do something similar with 3.5E but was wondering if anyone has done this already and can share their experience with me?

Although I am playing a Cleric and quite successfully exploited his spell list I also don't like very much the fact that Clerics of different deities are always casting the same spells, and in general I don't like the cleric spell list to be so huge.

I think domains should have been the way to further differentiate different faiths clerics, but at the end the most a domain can do is to add 1 new spell per level, castable only 1/day. And there is no domain which actually adds 9 spells, they usually just add 2-3 spells otherwise unavailable. That's just too little for my taste.

I tried to modify the domain spells so that they can be only of 2 types:
1) new spells (not on the Cleric general list)
2) spells on the Cleric list, but at lower level

There is no domain spell which is simply a duplicate of an already Cleric general spell. I am still not sure if to go further and allow preparation of domain spells also in the non-domain slots.

Note that at the same time I took many spells off the Cleric general spell list: I used this idea in 3.0 to get rid of stupid spells that has nothing to do with Divine magic (such as Find Traps), or to restrict too powerful spells (Harm, Energy Drain) to Clerics of specific deities. With 3.5 I will have to re-think all the lists anyway, since they were reshaped better.

I can post here the file with all the modified domains if you want.

edit: if you prefer, with a list-per-deity you don't have to worry about domains, and every Cleric of a deity will have the same list. I used domains because I wanted a base list with spells available to ALL clerics, like basic healing, blessing and protections. Obviously you could just have a bunch of spells in every deity's list, it's just the same... If you use domain, you will have clerics with same deity but different spells, so you should go the way it appeals you most

 

[bensei]

In the Umbragia Setting (free for download) in the book in development (Volume IV on divine casters), the Priests and Crusaders (replacing Clerics/Druids and Paladins/Rangers) cast all spells from domains, i.e. all D&D spells and new ones are put into domains, and a divine caster can only cast spells from the domains he knows. Character evolution grants more domains. Each domain contains 15 spells (2*(0-4),1*(5-9)) that belong to one topic. Currently the whole thing is being worked over for 3.5.

I am not sure if a current version of the book is downloadable, but on the Umbragia Messageboards you should find enough sneak peaks.