Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Presents The Cleric's Order Domain

1) I'm glad those archetype designs appear on UA, most of them are wildly exotic and the concept behind them is real interesting.
2) This domain is probably one of the first cleric domain to actually interests me. I love the cleric class chassis, but most of the domain dont inspire me much (maybe the knowledge domain, but since I play with a bunch of murderhobbos, the features are useless). Order Domain may be the one that convinces me to play one.

 

[Wrathamon]

Order vs Trickery

it's not Law vs Chaos

 

[Rossbert]

I understand the desire for Chaos, but the idea of an organized church of chaos seems strange to me. Much like old variant chaotic paladin's with a code they had to follow.

I feel like a 'cleric' of Chaos is actually more like a warlock or sorcerer who channels Chaotic energy more than an actual cleric.

The fundamental essence of entropy and disorder is really hard to codify, by its very nature.

 

[Evhelm]

I was really psyched about an "order" domain, but this feels more like a "control" domain, to me.

 

[Sands999]

Just want to say THANK YOU for posting this article here. I have several web pages load when I start up my web browsers, but on the WOTC D&D site, it loads the front page, which currently does not show this latest UA article. I didn't notice it there until I clicked on the articles page.

Anyhow, thanks again!

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It may be best to think of law as less a domain and more of an umbrella of domains: order for imposing order on the disorderly, forge for imposing order on raw materials, knowledge for finding some kind of hidden cosmic laws, etc.

The umbrella of chaos could include trickery (good for fooling the stalwart eyes of the law), the wild and wooly tempest domain, and nature as representing nature (chaos) vs. civilization (law).

 

[Mistwell]

This needs to be banned until such time as the Chaos domain is also available...

It's inherently chaotic, because it offers an order domain without a chaos domain. I mean, it got to your orderliness desire, right?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I wish we had 2E style Cleric domains in 5E, with Clerics getting access (or not getting access) to different Cleric spells based on the domain they chose. It made Clerics of different gods a lot different from each other besides the weapon they chose to wield.

 

[Unwise]

I love this new domain personally. I really wanted an order/civilization/state-religion domain for my campaign. The fact that it seems to be about control is perfect for me. Something tied to the "divine right of kings" works very well with many games and concepts.

One thing that seems very underappreciated so far is that the bonus to enchantment spells really helps bring home the theme of authority over others. Without that, the cleric would be entirely incentivised to spend all of their spells on buffs and heals to the exclusion of control. At the moment, they might throw a few buffs around but have a valid option to not spam heals etc to double down on the reaction attack. Now they can use their command/hold and get a healing word back, meaning that they don't miss out on that sweet reaction attack goodness. I think the effects that it will have on playstyle are great. I for one would be ignoring most spells that affect enemies if not for that feature.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Something I find funny because of how the theme and existing mechanics interact is that a really good use of your Voice of Authority free attack is to give it to a Rogue. They will get their Sneak Attack damage since it's a different turn.

Player A : Hey, I'm a lawful knight, why does your god keep blessing that shifty nerf-herder of a thief instead of me?"
@lowkey13 : You're a gnome paladin with a rapier. Even my god doesn't like you.
DM : *snicker*

Or, you could see it as "these blessings come with a cost," and rogues are frequently loathe to pay for things. Would be curious too if the wording stays the same where the ally has the choice to attack the target, granted to them by the cleric ("that ally can use their reaction to make one weapon attack") vs. being compelled to attack the target ("that ally must​ use their reaction to make one weapon attack").

I think it'd be more thematic, but less party friendly for the action to be a compulsion rather than an option, and would lead into an interesting dynamic between the rogue (or others) and the order cleric as there would be a trade-off for the party members of being able to do more than they could otherwise, at the cost of not having a choice in the matter. Probably not worth the potential for trollery though.

 

[chunkosauruswrex]

The one thing I would change is to make the extra damage psychic instead of force--get a better "imposing order" vibe.

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