Interesting and ironic to see that In ‘Faiths of Golarion’, one of the last PF1 products, that some love has been directed towards a cleric archetype – the Divine Paragon.
When this archetype came out, it largely struck me as “MEH!” because in many cases the domain powers it traded out were being replaced largely by boons that were underpowered and/or coming into effect too late to be level appropriate. Too many of the deities had limp boons so it wasn’t worth it as an archetype.
In this book, the Divine Paragon (and clerics as a whole to a lesser degree) gets a bit of indirect love because the boons and bonus spells gained by worshipping many of the deities mentioned are actually pretty good – thus making the archetype worthwhile.
The book for me really starts to grasp the whole point of a cleric worshipping a deity… clerics of different deities really should be quite fundamentally different from each other not only in terms of roleplay but also in terms of the available class mechanic. Too many times in PF1, clerics of different deities don’t play out differently in actual gameplay.
Here’s a few examples AON link:
1) Chaldira
Solid domains, a good set of Sentinel boons and a couple of useful low level bonus spells for clerics in general (Mage Hand, Expeditious Retreat).
2) Grandmother Spider
Solid domains, great Exalted boons (including more spells) and a selection of useful low level spells - Silent Image, Ventriloquism, Spider Climb, Web
3) Hei Feng
Solid domains, OK boons (would probably require Diverse Obedience to optimise). However getting Gust of Wind, Lightning Bolt and Hydraulic Push as bonus spells would also mean that any cleric could benefit from worship.
4) Kazutal
Solid domains, great Exalted boons and Beast Shape I-III as bonus spells
5) Nivi Rhombodazzle
Solid domains, great Exalted boons and the breaking of one of the sacred PF1 laws……”A cleric shall not gain access to Greater Invisibility!”
6) Shizuru
Solid domains and a nice set of bonus spells – Tail Strike, Colour Spray (again breaking one of the PF1 laws!), Scorching Ray, Unbearable Brightness, Prismatic Spray. The boons aren’t overall worth it which makes more suitable for general cleric worship rather than the Divine Paragon path.
7) Tsukiyo
Solid domains (Madness for a LG deity yes please!), great Evangelist boons (selective AOE Vision of Madness…. Errrrrm Oh yes!) and a few moderately useful bonus spells.
Kind of bizarre that one of the last books and one dealing with some of the minor/lesser known deities ends up providing some half decent options for a cleric archetype……something that in itself has been IMO sorely lacking in the lifespan of PF1!
