Why Is the Cleric Unfun?

[Celebrim]

That's the point. A few sorcerers might take the spell, the wizards won't. But who cares? The idea is to get the spell on the spell list so sorcerers and wizards can use arcane wands of cure light/moderate/serious wounds and other cure spells.

I have a totally different way of looking at this problem.

a) Everyone can use potions.
b) Wands of cure light wounds once used rigorously turn hit points into a 'per encounter' resource, and this isn't good for the game. The problem isn't that you need arcane wands. It's that you shouldn't have divine wands. They aren't even in flavor anyway.
c) The game is heading too much toward 'every encounter should put significant pressure on the characters'. This leads to too much random death to begin with, and forces you to have a cleric to deal with the problem. It would be better if encounters usually challenged players incrementally except in climatic encounters.
d) The Heal skill is way under used. GURPS uses a 'first aid' skill mechanic that lets you heal a portion of recently recieved wounds immediately. That put a certain amount of healing ability into almost anyone's hands without recource to magic. Note that 'without recourse to magic' is important, because it gets around the 'every one in the party has to be a spellcaster' mechanic we are trending toward in the Mearls era. D20 needs to borrow this idea from GURPS and give 'Heal' a first aid usage that restores a small amount of recently recieved damage (essentially, the heal skill as a 'per encounter' ability).

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The problem is when clerics are only played for their mechanical capabilities, which are focused on supporting other players. It's easy to forget why the clerics has these abilities - to help convert other people to their cause! Remember, clerics weren't intended to represent the mainline clergy of their religions. They're crusading missionaries, righteous champions of their god. A correctly played cleric ought to be constantly lecturing the other PCs on religion. The cleric shouldn't just cast Cure Light Wounds on someone. He should first say something like, "Do you BELIEVE in the power of Pelor? Do you BELIEVE in his might? Then your faith shall heal you!"

Actually a cleric is a 3/4 BAB class with full spell casting, two domains and usually, though not always a patron deity. And a properly played cleric will behave in a way that is consistent with the character concept, deity choice, alignment and any setting specific ideas of what a cleric is.

Any character class is boring when reduced to their mechanics. Its the roleplaying that makes them interesting, and the cleric class is rich with roleplaying possibilities. IMHO Clerics should only be able to use their spells when it furthers the cause of their deity. The DM should insist that PCs pay at least lip service to the cleric's religion in order for the cleric's miracles to benefit them. That'll completely change the tone of play, and create endless role-playing opportunities.

Cookie cutter "roleplaying" is far more boring than looking at a class for its mechanics and basic flavor then coming up with an actual character instead of a stereotype. I would walk out on a DM who tried to play my character for me in a moment, esp with something as heavy handed as your suggestions.

 

[Fishbone]

The problem isn't that clerics aren't fun to play. They can be. The problem is when you have a group that has been using the Cleric healing as a crutch to the point that its almost mandatory for every adventure. The group knows that the cleric will be pressured into healing a lot because they don't go out of their way to find non-clerical ways to heal.
Here is an example of it...
One player, lets call him Chuck, has to be sweet-talked and cajoled into playing the cleric, even though he doesn't want to be a cleric, he wants to be a wizard.
But screw it, the group "needs" a cleric. Why the group "needs" a cleric is never explained. Every time Chuck has to cast a cure spell instead of say, Evard's Black Tentacles or Stinking Cloud or whatever the resentment builds.
Does Chuck want to play the cleric next time?
HELL NO.
And it just keeps going and going and going.

 

[Celebrim]

The problem isn't that clerics aren't fun to play. They can be. The problem is when you have a group that has been using the Cleric healing as a crutch to the point that its almost mandatory for every adventure.

I think that's a valid point, and your 'Chuck' example is quite good. If you are playing with players that don't conserve thier hit points because they just assume you are going to restore them and rely on you to keep them alive despite thier bad decisions, then playing a cleric could suck. But what we are really saying is, "Players that make unreasonable demands on thier teammates suck to play with." Similarly, there are DMs out there that set up encounters so that everyone ends up taking so much damage, that the game can't advance unless the cleric burns all of his spells putting everyone back in fighting order. (And similarly, there are players that pressure the DM to do this because the game is 'boring' if this doesn't happen.) And that also would suck, but that's more a sign of bad DMing than anything else in my opinion.

 

[Doug McCrae]

They're crusading missionaries, righteous champions of their god. A correctly played cleric ought to be constantly lecturing the other PCs on religion. The cleric shouldn't just cast Cure Light Wounds on someone. He should first say something like, "Do you BELIEVE in the power of Pelor? Do you BELIEVE in his might? Then your faith shall heal you!"

Bards* and paladins make better missionaries than clerics do. There's really no requirement on a cleric that he proselytise, some religions don't. All that's required is that he follow a god or belief system and not grossly violate its code.


*Character concept: Bard played as an evangelical 'Praise the Lord!' type. May be a con artist or a genuine believer.

 

[Grog]

I'll take a stab at it:

The cleric is unfun because a great deal of the time, you don't get to decide when to use your own spells. The decision is often forced upon you by other players, the DM, or even random dice rolls.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

*Character concept: Bard played as an evangelical 'Praise the Lord!' type. May be a con artist or a genuine believer.

Done it. My Eberron character was a bard who considered herself a priest. All her bardic "music" abilities used prayers and she was into healing, though not as good at it as most of the "other" priests in the temple where she was fostered.

 

[lukelightning]

I think a party of Cleric would play very different from playing a single Cleric.

Indeed.

 

[Clavis]

*Character concept: Bard played as an evangelical 'Praise the Lord!' type. May be a con artist or a genuine believer.

I've used that idea for an NPC. In my campaign Halflings are similar to American rednecks, and their religion is a parody of "holy roller" Christianity. A few sessions ago the halfling in the party wandered into "Brother Bumbo Love's Olde Tyme Revival" tent. Brother Bumbo is actually a Bard, of course, a total swindler, and a member of the local Thieves' Guild. I had the other players playing the halfling attendees of the Revival meeting, testifying about the ways "Jerebus" had saved them from their lives of sin and cheese eating.

 

[tomBitonti]

Wait ... clerics are unfun?

Hi,

Clerics can be unfun, but they can be fun as well! Being able to heal is only half of what a cleric is about; being in position to heal when needed is important as well. And, clerics are good backup fighters, at least at low levels. Plus the role-playing opportunities are great.

It does help to tune the cleric domains to the current campaign style. This is not so much min/maxing, but making sure the domains are at all useful. Also, the complete books add a number of feats that make a cleric a lot more useful. I'm thinking in particular about the feats that provide alternate uses for turning attempts, and the feats that improve healing.

I'm thinking that eventually the cleric's role as a backup fighter will fade, as the +1BAB/Level classes take over combat. I haven't played so much above 10'th level to know how that works out, but can see that without combat options the cleric will be much less fun.