When a cleric is casting..

[MichaelH]

The core rules do not require a divine caster to speak his deity's name as part of the verbal component of casting a spell. It does require the divine caster to handle or manipulate in some way his holy symbol when the spell requires a Divine Focus as a material component.

So to answer your questions. No the cleric does not always need to handle his holy symbol to cast a spell, only when the spell requires a DF. And no the cleric never needs to speak his deity's name in order to cast a spell, not by the core rules.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

And rememebr, people. Clerics need not worship one deity. Clerics may worship an entire pantheon and thus pray for spells of healing to Pelor (or world-apropriate god), spells of smiting from Heironeous (or appriate god) and spells of ability boosting from Kord (or appropriate god). And, don't forget that clerics don't even have to worship a god. [Although that is a technicality in the rules, IMHO it never really made sense to me. Clerics that don't worship a god are really just druids with a confused spell list. But thats between me and the official rules].

So, if you have a cleric who worships a pantheon (which in reality is much more likely than devotion to a single god) ... do they have to carry all the holy symbols? Or just their ultra-patron god's symbol? Or the cleric who worships no deity but worships Honor instead ... does he cast in the name of honor and pray to honor?

Just curious, really. These questions are probably why the rules are pretty silent and they leave it up to DMs to houserule. And I think that's the right option. So my answer is - if you are the DM and your above posted reaction was how you handled it, good job!

 

[Jhulae]

And rememebr, people. Clerics need not worship one deity. Clerics may worship an entire pantheon and thus pray for spells of healing to Pelor (or world-apropriate god), spells of smiting from Heironeous (or appriate god) and spells of ability boosting from Kord (or appropriate god). And, don't forget that clerics don't even have to worship a god. [Although that is a technicality in the rules, IMHO it never really made sense to me. Clerics that don't worship a god are really just druids with a confused spell list. But thats between me and the official rules].

So, if you have a cleric who worships a pantheon (which in reality is much more likely than devotion to a single god) ... do they have to carry all the holy symbols? Or just their ultra-patron god's symbol? Or the cleric who worships no deity but worships Honor instead ... does he cast in the name of honor and pray to honor?

Just curious, really. These questions are probably why the rules are pretty silent and they leave it up to DMs to houserule. And I think that's the right option. So my answer is - if you are the DM and your above posted reaction was how you handled it, good job!

Well, your statements apply to some games, but not all games. In an FR game, a cleric has to choose *one* deity, not a pantheon, nor can they worship multiple deities. So, that's campaign specific.

Also note, that there's probably some 'spellcasting' language that divine casters use, whether it could be celestial, infernal, or something completely different. Wizard spells are implied to be in Draconic, but a Wizard or Sorcerer doesn't have to have Draconic as a language to cast spells. There's no requirement for a caster to use his deity's name in any spell. Of course, in some game worlds (like FR) where there are certain spells that 'come' from certain deities, that deity's name may indeed be in the verbal component (but, even then, it's not mentioned or required).