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Igwilly’s Blog: Cleric as Warrior-Priest

Hello, people!
I would like to start a blog here, but I’m not seeing an option for forum members, so I’ll make it a series of posts made for the forums (if there’s a way to publish blogs here, please let me know and I’ll start to use it).

This post is about a very special class, which I would like to comment about the background and the tradition behind it. I’m talking about the Cleric.

My wish here may already be realized, but I think it’s something I need to say, anyway.

There’s something that has become a common theme around all these alignment/paladin/whatever discussions; a theme that needs to be rightfully addressed in the new game. A common request of players and DMs is the existence of a “Holy Warrior”. Basically, a specially blessed warrior dedicated to his/her church. Someone to protect the faithful, fight the holy wars, be a bastion of faith.
This is actually a common trope: The Warrior Monk.

I’m talking about the western type, obviously. As this is something cool and has demand, there is definitely a need to be addressed.
However, we actually already have a Warrior Monk for our fictional religions: The Cleric!
Nowadays, perhaps due to video-game influence and metamagic effects, people many think of the Cleric as a pure spellcaster, but at its conception, it was pretty much a Warrior-Priest. Take a look at this quote, from AD&D 2e’s Player’s Handbook (pg 48, 2013 version):

The cleric class is similar to certain religious orders of knighthood of the Middle Ages: the Teutonic Knights, the Knights Templar, and Hospitalers. These orders combined military and religious training with a code of protection and service. Members were trained as knights and devoted themselves to the service of the church. These orders were frequently found on the outer edges of the Christian world, either on the fringe of the wilderness or in war-torn lands. Archbishop Turpin (of The Song of Roland) is an example of such a cleric. Similar orders can also be found in other lands, such as the sohei of Japan.

So basically, the class simply isn’t a video-game priest, wearing robes and slinging spells at the backline. Looking at its stats, and pretending class-and-math balance in 2e works (this is another discussion), Priests (and therefore, also Clerics) have a very good THAC0 – that is, BAB. The group was the second best at this, behind the Warrior Group (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger) and above the Rogue group (Thief, Bard) and of course Wizards. They also had proficiency in all armors. They were limited to blunt weapons, which deal less damage but actually have a very good damage type to armor (weapon type vs armor table). Of course, their main weapon were their spells. However, that were mostly healing and support stuff (barring the weird reverse healing spells), so the result was a capable Combat Medic: heals and fights. The picture also looked like a religious knight, with heavy armor, a shield, a mace and white mantle.

Or that was the intention, anyway. Looking at other old-school editions, anyone can see the same pattern.
The class, being a legitimate Warrior Monk as well a blatant reference to Christianity, could have a better name. However, if you look closely to the 3 first classes of the entire game, one can see why the name was chosen: there was the Fighting-Man, the Magic-User and the Cleric. Apparently, D&D’s creators wanted very generic names for their classes, so this class was named Cleric.
Now, I will not ask for the elimination of caster laser-focused Clerics – I remember the 4e guys calling this build a “Laser Cleric”. They are very popular and should remain as an option. I also understand that the playtest document is finished and any changes would be for the final core rulebook or splatbooks. However, I believe the Warrior-Priest Cleric should be an option to Clerics of every faith, not just War deities or similar stuff. I actually believe this is very possible in the new edition: remember, how the math works will change, and characters are very customizable with class feats, and we have 3 actions per round, and so on. I can easily imagine this option being available through feats or similar customization mechanics. You can even add some Charisma-based abilities, if we don’t have them yet.
I think this is the perfect solution for the “Holy Warrior” problem. This way, we don’t need to change or destroy other classes, we don’t make any significant changes to the Cleric other than allowing something the old Cleric could already do, the entire theme remains the same and every deity has immediate access to very capable Holy Warriors. It’s a win-or-win situation. Therefore, I invite the designers and players to think about this setup and consider it for a while. It can be just what we need.
So, what are we doing in the back row? Ahead of the battlefield! The gods favor us today and that’s all we need!

Note: I may enjoy old-school (or medium-school) systems, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in Pathfinder 2, nor that I want PF2 to be exactly like an OSR game or 2e-clone. It’s a serious suggestion that could improve the game a lot ^^

Okay, I need to say something here for the designers (I’m not sure this is the best way, but…). No, this is not related to Paladins, for God’s Sake, let’s stop that discussion and think outside the forums. I think this is something most people would agree here.
I’ve seen a lot from Bestiary 1 to 5, although I still haven’t seen it all (not my books), and I must say I was quite impressed by the monsters in there. Not about stats, and not so much about art, but there are So Many cool monsters there! In mix of RPG-classics, D&D-classics, myth-based creatures, folklore creatures, cryptids, there is a staggering variety of really interesting monsters to use at the game. For example, I liked Pathfinder’s version of most outsiders more than D&D’s version, and many “joke monsters” took a level in badass, something wise to do.
What I want to see in 2e? More. More extensive lore about the creatures present there, more cool creatures, convert most cool creatures, and a better way to categorize monsters; I don’t like the 3.X way at all. In the end, whatever you were doing for those books, keep doing it, it works ^^

To the forum's users: which monsters are your favorite, or otherwise want to see them in 2e?