Unorthodox Clerics

[TheLe]

Question: Do you love d20 and do you love Clerics?
Question: Do you want a cleric that gives you a little extra something?

Maybe we have what your looking for in our new product: UNORTHODOX CLERICS! This 25 page pdf contains 5 New Clerics for you to use in any d20 fantasy world. Each Cleric comes with a detailed background, new abilities, and some new progression charts that will make you say “yowza yowza yowza”.

Written by Robert J. Hahn (and a hot cover by Tom Miskey), this book details the following five new Clerics:

-The Chosen: Warrior priests dedicated to the works of their god.
-The Cultist: They are liars, cheaters, and fanatics. (Maybe we should have called them "politicians")
-The Elementalist: They walk a delicate balance between the four elements, maintaining a precious balance that could consume them if they loose control.
-The Inquisitor: NO ONE EXPECTS THE INQUISITOR
-The Priest: They walk the path of enlightenment, but is able to fight undead better than their standard cleric counterpart.

This zip file contains a fully illustrated Landscape PDF for easy online reading, Portrait PDF for low-ink printing (your ink cartridge will be happy), and our standard Rich-Text-Format version so that you can cut/copy/paste to your hearts content!

Still not sure? Check out the Demo!

 

[Crothian]

Unorthodox Cleric

Unorthodox Clerics is another book in the unorthodox series by The Le Games. These books are class books that offer five different version of the core class. The books are very similar in that they only have the five classes, no new spells, prestige classes, etc. It does have a single new feat. The art is all very similar from the covers to the interior pieces. The layout is also very similar to each other.

Unorthodox Clerics is a PDF. It arrives in a zip file that is less then a meg and a half. Inside is a small read me file and three versions of the book. One version is in rich text format the other are in pdf format. The variety of the files of the books is a nice way to allow the customer to use the book as they need. The art is rather bland and not that great, and the layout is okay. The book is well book marked and it is good to see that.

The first class is the Chosen. It is a combat priest who is going to be really good with chosen weapon, but is limited to just that weapon. However, getting the best base attack bonus with just that weapon and eventually gaining weapon focus, specialization, and the greater version of those feats with that weapon is really good. They do have spells though a little weaker then a true cleric but they still get up to ninth level spells. They can still turn or rebuke undead which sort of fits this class as well as it fits all clerics.

The Cultist is the next class and they must worship a chaotic or evil god. While the class appears evil and gains powers like Unholy Dagger, it can be taken by a neutral good character who worships a chaotic good god. I really think they should have limited the alignments of the gods a little more as this allows to great a freedom for how the class reads.

The Elementals is next and it is a general elements class. They start with two of the 4 elemental domains and eventually gain all of them. Their abilities like resistance and aspects of the elements can come from any of the four. They do have spells similar to a cleric except they can cast two domains spells for each level instead of just one.

Next is the Inquisitor. The first thing that worries me is they have away to make an opponent automatically fail a save. While they can only do it so many times per day, that can still equal automatic death with the high level spells an Inquisitor has access to. They have access to all cleric spells. An Inquisitor can be of any alignment and have an ability that specifically uses torture. Some people can easily have problems with lawful good Inquisitors needing to torture to use an ability.

Lastly is the Priest. It is a less combat version of the cleric. They have worst saves, worse base attack bonus, lower hit die, and more skill points. They also can cast two domains spells for each spell level and eventually get a third domain. They can turn undead and smite undead, and ability that seems a little off for a class that is not combat oriented. I do like that they can cast domain spells spontaneously instead of healing or inflict spells.

Overall I felt this was a weak collection of classes. Most of them felt a little to narrow and would be served better as prestige classes. The writing is a bit bland and the classes need to really be different from the cleric core class.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Whoa. Making anyone fail a save sounds much too powerful to me. Maybe a penalty?

 

[GameWyrd]

There's a strong call to action for The Le's Unorthodox Clerics. For US$2.00 you can download 33 pages of alternative Cleric based classes. That's the sort of money you could find hiding in the back of the sofa.

If you're indeed of variant Cleric classes there's not much to consider here. Is there some catch? Is this a school boy product? Nope and no. The questions are more like; are these classes balanced, are these classes unorthodox (I'm especially keen on seeing classes which push the boat out and so pounce on any suggestion that that's what I should be getting), are they easy to fit into your game and would you want to fit them into your game?

The first question is a red herring. The controversy will never settle but my two pence states that there's no such thing as game balance outside the microcosm of your gaming group, in one particular campaign at one particular time. If the Priest class here seems too magical for your game and too magical in comparison to the usual cleric class then it could be ideal for a high magic campaign world were clerics easily have access to extra magic.

There's a hit and miss scattering when it comes to pushing the boat out. The Inquisitor, for example, is pretty much the stereotypical smite the unbelievers which I suspect many Clerics are role-played as but with perhaps a stronger focus on the surprise and detection. In fact the Inquisitor is filled to hilt with those so very annoying Detect spells. Stick an Inquisitor in your group and you'll loose heaps of mystery and who dunnit.

The Chosen is the first of the classes that the reader finds. Here we find the archetypical warrior-priest combo. The Chosen does not preach at all or even parlay much. Instead they show the glory of their god through their actions.

Cultists are evil. We take the simple approach here that a cult is a group of fanatics in service to an evil or chaotic god. The D&D alignment system is black and white enough to incorporate that without even missing a step. The class itself is a mix of cleric and rogue. The cultist can wield an unholy dagger and strike from the shadows. The Aspect of the Deity class special can be taken twice and each time can grant a +1 to either Strength, Dex, Con or Charisma or even award an ability like fly. There's a cost of -1 Wisdom though. One to watch.

The best class - in terms of it being my favourite - in the PDF is the Elementalist. This is an unorthodox cleric as it does not follow a god. The Elementalist pays homage to the elements and the balance of them. To begin with the Elementalist is as balanced as a first level character can be - and has two domains from the elemental list. Later on a third and then a fourth domain is added. There seems to be a slight bias towards Earth when you inspect the Honor The Elements special insofar as you have two Earth abilities and only one for Fire, Water and Air.

The last class in the book is the Priest. These are those religious and spell casting men and women who don't feel the need to pick up a mace. They're the mainstay of the religion. They're also quite magical - can lose any prepared, non-domain spell to cast any other domain spell. They pick up a third domain at level ten. They're particular good against the undead (there's no such joy for evil Priests). The Expanded Turning feat is tucked in the end here.

Just when I was getting to enjoy The Le's game flare for bikini girl art we go and loose it here. Well, the cover is as sexy as ever and the internal art is supplied by Mongoose's Character Portraits: Fantasy Heroes. Mongoose is known for a bikini girl flare of their own but we don't really see that here. I quite approve though. Products like Character Portraits and VShane's Arcane Publishers are just what the new 3rd party d20 publishers need. There's no excuse to skimp on the art (and it can be very expensive) now.

Over all, Unorthodox Clerics is pretty good. The five classes (so that's about 6 pages each) are likely to provide something for most high fantasy d20 games. It's worth paying $2 for just one of them.

* This Unorthodox Clerics review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Ace]

Unorthodox Clerics
Disclaimer: I was given a review copy of the PDF

This Le games product is a solidly useful PDF. It offers one feat and 5 new Core classes. I love good core classes and this product delivers.

Appearance:
Unorthodox Clerics comes in a 1.44 megabyte zip file, just the size of an old floppy disk if you have one around.
In addition to the main 25 page PDF, the product includes an .rtf version for easy content extraction and an onscreen version.
The full cover Tom Miskey cover on the onscreen version is stunning although it doesn't exactly fit the book in my eye. I think the lady looks a little like a Shukenja and not like any of the five classes in the book.
Still this is a minor quibble and I do like the piece. Gorgeous without being cheesecake.

Now I do have a fairly serious problem in the printable version. The Chosen class (more on this later) has a screwed up progression chart. Not a good thing

Beyond that gaffe the PDF is cleanly laid out, easy to read, and well bookmarked.



Content:
This PDF has 5core classes, The Chosen, The Cultist, The Elementalist, The Inquisitor the Priest, and a bonus feat

The feat is at the end of the book and essentially allow a new category (such as Vermin or Aberrations) to be turned in addition to undead.
It a little strong but it does fit the flavor of many games -- even the turn Vermin has a folkloric feel

Now for the classes

The Chosen substitutes some spell casting capability, a delayed second domain (at 8th level) and the use of other weapons for a few combat abilities
The class gains a Fighters BAB with the chosen weapon, hyper specialization in the deities chosen weapon (both regular and greater focus and specialization over time) and an automatic bless weapon.
Its not a bad trade off, if a little strong and might be a great class for someone who wants Paladin like combat abilities and 9th level spells without breaking game balance. All in all a fair class

The next class the Cultist is a my favorite and a truly excellent class, equally suitable for Cuthulu guys or demon worshippers depending on the campaign.
They have expanded skills, Sneak Attack, a neat dagger as holy symbol trick and a few cult like abilities. In exchange they drop turning, reduce spell progression (like several classes here they have a wonky custom chart) and lose a HD size.
I like this class -- a lot, alone it is worth the $2, easy


The Elementalist is Dark Sunnish element priest that serves all the elements.
They gain an extra domain spell of each level per day, some minor elemental gifted abilities and access to all 4 elemental domains. In exchange they have a wizards BAB and no turning undead.
The class is a shade tougher than a specialty mage but it should be balanced enough for use , if only because the cleric elemental spells aren't as strong as the sorcerer and wizard ones.
I do have a minor grump about the elemental gifts though, they are a bit dull and a bit limited and could use some sprucing up and rebalancing


The Inquisitor is an unusual variant and if you can get past the obvious Mel Brooks references a neat variant of the cleric
Instead of turning the class gains a paladin like detect, some well though out torture abilities (shudder) that can force a person to answer questions truthfully with intimidate rolls, skill focus on intimidate and the very powerful ability to admonish blasphemers.
This ability can force a can act as metamagic feats and at higher levels make a target auto fail a save or auto penetrate SR--
As I said – very potent
These extra goodies are paid for with a d4 (!!) hit die and a wizards BAB and weapons proficiencies
It does require some careful handling by the DM though. This class is basically Evil
With its torture theme and high possibility of PC vaporizing with certain spells and the admonish (especially the destruction domain) I advise -- handle with care.


The last class -- the Priest is basically a spell specialist cleric. The class loses the good fortitude save and drops to a d6 hit die, a wizards BAB and wizards weapons
In exchange for the class gains domain spontaneity with all the domains, 3 bonus meta magic feats an extra domain spell per each level of spell, at 10th level a third domain, and an aura that does 1/2 the damage an undead inflicts back to it -- Ouch
These are fair trade offs and I think many spell happy players would be tempted by this class


Even with the printable version gaffe I like this product. It well priced at $2 and is a good addition to many types of campaigns.

 

[TheLe]

What is a "compensated review?" I don't recall ever paying anyone to review my books.

~Le