Does anyone know an "official" resource (Dragon back issue, etc) that might reference customizing Clerics by diety?
The first re-birth of Greyhawk, 2nd ed, I think, tried this, with some unique spells by diety, less turnign for other options, etc. I continue this in my campaign, trading feats, such as heavy armor proficiency (which makes no sense to me for a cleric of say, Olidammara) for expanded skills lists and points. I'm looking for a resource to compare to so I don't imbalance in favor of an already good class.
Thanks
Does anyone know an "official" resource (Dragon back issue, etc) that might reference customizing Clerics by diety? ...
Now it's written into the game -- customization is done by Domain selection for a given deity.
Among other things, WotC seems far more sensitive to issues of play balance; I think there is a reluctance to modify classes beyond what is written in the core rules.
That's a very good thing IMHO :)
Jack
PS Admittedly WotC will, in their enthusiasm to print books, occasionally forget; new prestige classes and races sometimes get a bit silly. Given a choice between more money and preserving the game's quality, guess which one wins...
I know it doesn't make sense for the cleric of Olidammara to have heavy armor proficiency, but nothing says he has to use it. Nothing stops him from slapping on leather armor and having a high Dex and operating more like a rogue. There are several PrCs to help facilitate just this thing. I, too, once thought about customizing the cleric class by deity, but it's just not worth the effort. Let the individual player work on the feat/skill/ability/equipment selection customization for his deity.
Prestige classes are the way to go to sculpt your priest by their diety. FR has pretty much a prestige class for each god. Greyhawk has quite a few in Complete Divine. What books do you have and are you looking for specialty priests of certain gods from Greyhawk?
I've got the core books, LG Gazetteer, Complete Adventurer, Heroes of Battle, and that's about it. I only run Greyhawk, the one in question is Trithereon, but I've made in house modifcations to clerics of Ehlonna and Kord as well. I get the Prestige class angle, but I still don't see why a low level cleric of some of these would have the Heavier armors, for instance and I don't agree with the "they don't have to use it" argument.
One of the Dragon Issues RE: 3 - 3.5 conversion offered variant fighter classes, and I'm thinking along the same lines.
Appreciate the responses.
I've been think about this myself.
One rather simple system would be to swap around the concept of bonus domain spells and general spells.
I'd do something like have clerics get three domains from their God - get all the benifits associated with each of these domains but instead of having them get a bonus domain spell at each spell level give them their wisdom bonus as a non domain spell and maybe a few bonus spells on top of that as non domain but make them choose all the rest of their spells from their domains.
This would personalize the clerics by diety. In terms of balancing the class the key would be to give them enough bonus spells and bonus domain powers to make up for the fact that their main spell list just got a whole lot smaller in terms of choice.
Another thing you might do is forgoe one of your two bonus domains in return for automatic skill advancement in a couple of knowledge/craft/profession skills strongly associated with that diety.
For example Artemis: rather than a domain the character is assumed to have the maximum allowable skill points in four of the following skills:
Knowledge Nature
Profession Hunter
Survival
Run
Swim
Climb
I'm doing this off the cuff but things I would associate with a goddess of the hunt.
the other thing you could do would be to create various religious orders, these orders could forgoe a domain in favor of a bonus feat at every 3rd level, forgoe turning for an additional domain, reduced hit point for greater skill points, etc. Each order would be highly focused on some specific aspect of the diety, in the case of Artemis, the hunt, the moon, archery, protection of wildernesss areas, could each have a specific order.
I actually like that and am of the opinion that religious conflicts based on competition for resources within a given church creates a tenser more realistic conflict witht greater opportunity for intrigue than pitting the followers of one diety against another.
Think about the world today - Sunni versus Shia, priests can marry or can't, the tiny things in religion can create huge conflicts.
I've got the core books, LG Gazetteer, Complete Adventurer, Heroes of Battle, and that's about it. I only run Greyhawk, the one in question is Trithereon, but I've made in house modifcations to clerics of Ehlonna and Kord as well. I get the Prestige class angle, but I still don't see why a low level cleric of some of these would have the Heavier armors, for instance and I don't agree with the "they don't have to use it" argument.
One of the Dragon Issues RE: 3 - 3.5 conversion offered variant fighter classes, and I'm thinking along the same lines.
Appreciate the responses.
There was a dragon article that had a prestige class of Trithereon it was when they were doing Living Greyhawk articles. I will have to look for it. Meanwhile I would say the holy liberator from complete divine would work it is a chaotic paladin, starting as a ranger works the best. Same spell advancement as a paladin. There is also a Dungeon article that has Bladestorm in it. If you are interested in any of these, let me know and I will look for them.