The reason for the cleric class' lack of popularity?

[Flyspeck23]

I don't think that's got anything to do with clerics unpopularity though. The vast majority of players are game-focused rather than literature-focused, IMO. Personally I don't like playing clerics cause I don't like having to be the servant of a god. Prefer to do my own thing.

That's the very reason some people I game with take the cleric (or paladins, for that matter).

The main reason not to play a cleric is because most people don't want to serve the party (as in: roleplayers more often than not want to accomplish something, not merely be the party healer).

 

[Aust Diamondew]

That's a good point. There are no clerics in the classic DnD literature - Tolkien, Howard, Moorcock, Vance, Leiber, Anderson. No druids, monks or bards either.

I don't think that's got anything to do with clerics unpopularity though. The vast majority of players are game-focused rather than literature-focused, IMO. Personally I don't like playing clerics cause I don't like having to be the servant of a god. Prefer to do my own thing.

Just pick a god who's objective is the same as yours.

 

[alsih2o]

I am no expert, but didn't Lancelot and Arthur have a holy aura/connection type thing?

I always wanted to play a cleric based on the Lancelot of "Excalibur". Angry, suffering a self-imposed exile and mean as a bag of wet ferrets.

 

[Siochain]

In experiences from my playgroup, most of the guys don't want to play clerics because they feel as if they're bound to ask their god/gods/etc. before they do anything. The way I see clerics is as the wandering warriors of their god - PC clerics usually aren't the guys sitting in church delivering mass. PC clerics are the guys out their representing with a mace, wearing plate and kicking arse for their deity. Restrictively speaking, if you "play by the book," paladins are much more restricted in terms of what they're allowed to do/say, and yet I have move of my group play paladins then clerics.

I guess it all just comes down to how you want to portray your character. He could be the meek, subservient priest; or he could be the guy who's out there converting the heathens with steel and spells.

Oh, and hi all. Long time lurker, just starting poster Love the community here.

 

[National Acrobat]

What about Allannon in the 'Sword of Shannara?' He's a druid, and let's not forget Katherine Kurtz and the Deryni and Camber of Culdi series.

Lot's of priestly figures there.

 

[Barak]

Well, in big part it's a hold out from previous editions in which clerics were rather sucky, and pretty much had to memorize only healing spells. I see more and more clerics in 3E, as people realize that now, clerics are pretty fun to play.

In my group, the only people who have played clerics were the 2e veterans. None of the 3e people EVER wants to play a cleric. Except for one who likes to dip cleric for a level.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Low cleric count suffers from the typical mind-set of a gamer, aftrall, who wants to be known as the "character-that-heals-the-hero" when you can *be* the "hero" instead!

 

[alsih2o]

Oh, and hi all. Long time lurker, just starting poster Love the community here.

Welcome to this side of the screen.

 

[Psion]

I've always thought clerics had a lot of potential as fun characters because they had a built in philosophy, one which may or may not coincide with the general attitude of the party members.

I do agree with the notion that players wanting to march to the beat of their own drum, among the rather large group of roleplayers who prefer to play fantasy versions of themselves vice play a character, is a pretty big factor.

Though oddly, the one player of mine who was the most decidedly anti-religious IRL tended to play clerics and paladins more than any other class.

Another player of mine who didn't like the cleric didn't like it because he felt that prayer and miracles are not well represented by prepared spells (a notion that I can understand, if not necessarily agree with 100%). Which is fine, but in his own game he let clerics cast any spell spontaneously (which I would never do in my own game, but as I was a beneficiary of this policy in his game, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.)

 

[Doug McCrae]

Another player of mine who didn't like the cleric didn't like it because he felt that prayer and miracles are not well represented by prepared spells (a notion that I can understand, if not necessarily agree with 100%). Which is fine, but in his own game he let clerics cast any spell spontaneously (which I would never do in my own game, but as I was a beneficiary of this policy in his game, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.)

Maybe he should've replaced clerics with favoured souls (from Complete Divine).