The reason for the cleric class' lack of popularity?

[Gez]

Threads like this one and that one, and comments like this one, below, made me think about it.

Greyhawk seems to be the default fantasy world we've all got in our heads after being raised on Tolkein, right?

No, wrong. But still, there's an underlying assumption that's rather interesting.

There are no clerics in LotR. There are warriors and wizards (even if you can argue that these wizards are rather like D&D's solars than like a character class). There are, arguably, thieves.

Same thing in Vance's or Leibner's books. No clerics -- although you have cultists, they're usually evil mooks that get killed by the heroes, not heroes themselves. Just like there's a lack of non-Kung Fu monk archetype, there's a lack of divine magician archetypes.

Do you know of any (outside of TSR literature, of course) ? The only examples I can find are either non-spellcasters, or "non-devout" (like Gandalf who isn't constantly singing the praise of Eru and brandishing a holy symbol).

 

[Staffan]

Do you know of any (outside of TSR literature, of course) ? The only examples I can find are either non-spellcasters, or "non-devout" (like Gandalf who isn't constantly singing the praise of Eru and brandishing a holy symbol).

Well, there are spellcasting priests in Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion books. Those seem rather D&Dish, however, so it's probably not the best example.

 

[Psion]

I tend to think that most prophets and similar figures from the Bible are a major inspirational archtype, given the cleric's spell selection.

 

[diaglo]

what about the guy who presents his holy symbol to keep Count Dracula at bay?

or the stories of druids.

or the saints. st cuthbert, st nicholas, st george

or florence nightinggale(sp?)

 

[hong]

or florence nightinggale(sp?)

She was a statistician, mang, not a cleric.

 

[Doug McCrae]

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.

 

[hong]

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.

I solved this problem by banning gods. For a short time there, I had more bloody clerics than I knew what to do with.

 

[diaglo]

She was a statistician, mang, not a cleric.

good point. what about Bones? i mean how would the enterprise ever get from point A to B without ... a surgeon.

diaglo "I'm a surgeon not a bloody miracle worker here, Jim" Ooi

 

[Klaus]

I always believed that the cleric class was inspired by Archbishop Turpin, from the Carolingian stories. In fact, he's the only "armored priest" I can remember (if you don't count Thulsa Doom, who is armored and is a priest of... well, himself).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Well, there are spellcasting priests in Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion books. Those seem rather D&Dish, however, so it's probably not the best example.

Read the second book of the Paksenarrion series. Read Village of Homlet. Compare.

The Auld Grump