Cleric

Description

Clerics are intermediaries between the mortal world and the distant planes of the gods. As varied as the gods they serve, clerics strive to embody the handiwork of their deities. As they are no ordinary priest, clerics are imbued with divine magics diverse in healing.
As a cleric, you will bring succor to the wounded or smite your enemies with the divine magic bestowed upon you by the god that you worship.

Indrid's Information

Stat Priority

Primary: Max Health
Secondary: Vitality
Tertiary: Authority
Perks:

• Infantry Training
• Spellcasting
• Aura Mastery
• Armor Specialization

Roleplay Redux Information

Stats:

• +2 Wisdom
• +1 Constitution

A Closer Look at Clerics

Arms and eyes upraised toward the sun and a prayer on his lips, an elf begins to glow with an inner light that spills out to heal his battle-worn companions.

Chanting a song of glory, a dwarf swings his axe in wide swaths to cut through the ranks of orcs arrayed against him, shouting praise to the gods with every foe’s fall.

Calling down a curse upon the forces of undeath, a human lifts her holy symbol as light pours from it to drive back the zombies crowding in on her companions.
Clerics are intermediaries between the mortal world and the distant planes of the gods. As varied as the gods they serve, clerics strive to embody the handiwork of their deities. No ordinary priest, a cleric is imbued with divine magic.

Healers and Warriors

Divine magic, as the name suggests, is the power of the gods, flowing from them into the world. Clerics are conduits for that power, manifesting it as miraculous effects. The gods don’t grant this power to everyone who seeks it, but only to those chosen to fulfill a high calling.
Harnessing divine magic doesn’t rely on study or training. A cleric might learn formulaic prayers and ancient rites, but the ability to cast cleric spells relies on devotion and an intuitive sense of a deity’s wishes.
Clerics combine the helpful magic of healing and inspiring their allies with spells that harm and hinder foes. They can provoke awe and dread, lay curses of plague or poison, and even call down flames from heaven to consume their enemies. For those evildoers who will benefit most from a mace to the head, clerics depend on their combat training to let them wade into melee with the power of the gods on their side.

Divine Agents

Not every acolyte or officiant at a temple or shrine is a cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their gods’ will through prayer and sacrifice, not by magic and strength of arms. In some cities, priesthood amounts to a political office, viewed as a stepping stone to higher positions of authority and involving no communion with a god at all. True clerics are rare in most hierarchies.
When a cleric takes up an adventuring life, it is usually because his or her god demands it. Pursuing the goals of the gods often involves braving dangers beyond the walls of civilization, smiting evil or seeking holy relics in ancient tombs. Many clerics are also expected to protect their deities’ worshipers, which can mean fighting rampaging orcs, negotiating peace between warring nations, or sealing a portal that would allow a demon prince to enter the world.
Most adventuring clerics maintain some connection to established temples and orders of their faiths. A temple might ask for a cleric’s aid, or a high priest might be in a position to demand it.

Culture

Religion was deeply important to the majority of people on Toril, who felt that the gods were a very real and active presence in their lives, something that was not very far from the truth. For this reason, serving the gods was something that most people did as just a regular part of their lives. Clerics were elite agents of gods, empowered beyond the capabilities of regular priests and sworn to follow and obey the tenets of their religion in ways that the average mortal couldn't. Some clerics served primordials or even fiends, offering foul sacrifices in exchange for a portion of the fiend's might, but the majority remained servants of the truly divine. Clerics had to be close to the alignment of their patron, usually within one step of the deity's alignment or less.
Gods were as varying as people and, as a result, so were their divine agents, such as clerics, who might be good or evil, lawful or chaotic, dependent on who they worshiped and why. Good clerics healed and protected, helping those in need while evil clerics terrorized and destroyed, increasing the power of their deity and themselves. Generally, non-evil clerics were more common, since good or neutral deities tended to attract more worshipers than evil ones did. However, some evil gods were popular in their own right, with a large legion of followers and clerics willing to do their bidding. Similarly, though many clerics belonged to orderly and structured churches, chaotic gods had clerical servants as well.
Relatively few priests became wandering clerics, leaving for adventure only if they felt compelled to do so for their god, perhaps out of a desire to spread their deity's works or by order of their superiors and the church hierarchy. A few clerics took on the adventuring lifestyle for more mundane reasons. Regardless of motivation, clerics were highly valued companions, serving as healers and occasional leaders to their compatriots. Additionally, clerics may have been specialized in ways, based on the deity they worship, that put them on agreeable terms with other adventurers. The most active clerics were typically humans or dwarves, though half-elven, elven, and dragonborn clerics were also relatively common.
Nearly all clerics were ordained members of a religious organization of some kind, though a few operated more independently and even those who were bound to a hierarchy did not necessarily answer to a direct superior. Most clerics made their career choice relatively early in life, though some were compelled to service unwillingly by their god. Churches were often, but not always, tied to a specific god, though few gods presided over more than one church at once, some of which warred with one another over differing interpretations of their god's (or pantheon's) dogma.

Abilities

Clerics commonly used light or medium armor, shields, simple weapons, and divine magic as their chief tools while adventuring. Many clerics were also skilled in the use of heavy armor. Clerics augmented these spells, also known as "prayers," through holy symbols of their deity that they wore or carried with them. Clerics were also experts in casting rituals, enhanced spells that require an incredible amount of time and preparation to use but which often had dramatic effects. Others might instead have chosen to be trained in preparing alchemical recipes.
Clerics could also learn to directly access the channel the divinity of their deity through their body. This power manifested itself in several ways, the most common of which was the ability to turn undead, repelling or even destroying the undead. A few clerics learned instead to control the undead, particularly those of an evil nature. Some clerics may have learned to channel divinity based on their domain or the nature of the deity they worshiped.
Sufficiently experienced clerics could even invoke their deity's intervention directly, without using Channel Divinity. If successfully petitioned, the deity's aid could come in one of several forms, from a spell to something more unusual. Such calls for aid, however, were difficult to make and the gods were disinclined to respond much more often than once a ten-day.
Some clerics were powerful healers thanks to special training and the blessings of their gods, both of which increased the potency of the curative prayers available to them. Many clerics were capable of casting the healing word prayer, while more experienced clerics were often capable of much more. Some clerics were also trained in transforming other prayers into powers of healing or, if the cleric worshiped a non-good god, into spells of necrotic power.
Some clerics had additional abilities less common among their compatriots. Several clerics learned, in addition to the gentle repose ritual known to many of them, the ritual of Simbul's conversion, which allowed a cleric to convert their prayers into healing energy. A fewer number of clerics, generally evil in alignment, learned instead to convert this stored energy into negative energy for the purpose of harming enemies.

Domain Specialization available in Roleplay Redux

In addition to the abilities common to all clerics, clerics also could access a number of powers through aspects of their god's portfolio known as divine domains. At the beginning of their career, a cleric chose one - or occasionally two - of the domains associated with their patron deity, giving them access to a number of unique prayers and abilities. These domains allowed clerics to prepare domain prayers each day from a list particular to that domain, in addition to their more general prayers.
Each domain also had a number of other benefits associated with it. For example, the Tempest domain allowed its clerics to return an enemy attack with thunderous or electrical power. Similarly, the Life domain made clerics more adept at casting healing prayers.

Life Domain

The Life domain focuses on the vibrant positive energy – one of the fundamental forces of the universe – that sustains all life. The gods of life promote vitality and health through healing the sick and wounded, caring for those in need, and driving away the forces of death and undeath. Almost any non-evil deity can claim influence over this domain, particularly agricultural deities (such as Chauntea, Arawai, and Demeter), sun gods (such as Lathander, Pelor, and Re-Horakhty), gods of healing or endurance (such as Ilmater, Mishakal, Apollo, and Diancecht), and gods of home and community (such as Hestia, Hathor, and Boldrci).

Light Domain

Gods of light – including Helm, Lathander, Pholtus, Branchala, the Silver Flame, Belenus, Apollo, and Re-Horakhty – promote the ideals of rebirth and renewal, truth, vigilance, and beauty, often using the symbol of the sun. Some of these gods are portrayed as the sun itself or as a charioteer who guides the sun across the sky. Others are tireless sentinels whose eyes pierce every shadow and see through every deception. Some are deities of beauty and artistry, who teach that art is a vehicle for the soul's improvement. Clerics of a god of light are enlightened souls infused with radiance and the power of their gods' discerning vision, charged with chasing away lies and burning away darkness.

Tempest Domain

Gods whose portfolios include the Tempest domain – including Talos, Umberlee, Kord, Zeboim, the Devourer, Zeus, and Thor – govern storms, sea, and, sky. They include gods of lightning and thunder, gods of earthquakes, some fire gods, and certain gods of violence, physical strength, and courage. In some pantheons, a god of this domain rules over other deities and is known for swift justice delivered by thunderbolts. In the pantheons of seafaring people, gods of this domain are ocean deities and the patrons of sailors. Tempest gods send their clerics to inspire fear in the common folk, either to keep those folk on the path of righteousness or to encourage them to offer sacrifices of propitiation to ward off divine wrath.

Trickery Domain

Gods of trickery – such as Tymora, Beshaba, Olidammara, the Traveler, Garl Glittergold, and Loki – are mischief-makers and instigators who stand as a constant challenge to the accepted order among both gods and mortals. They're patrons of thieves, scoundrels, gamblers, rebels, and liberators. Their clerics are a disruptive force in the world, puncturing pride, mocking tyrants, stealing from the rich, freeing captives, and flouting hollow traditions. They prefer subterfuge, pranks, deception, and theft rather than direct confrontation.

War Domain

War has many manifestations. It can make heroes of ordinary people. It can be desperate and horrific, with acts of cruelty and cowardice eclipsing instances of excellence and courage. In either case, the gods of war watch over warriors and reward them for their great deeds. The clerics of such gods excel in battle, inspiring others to fight the good fight or offering acts of violence as prayers. Gods of war include champions of honor and chivalry (such as Torm, Heironeous, and Kiri-Jolith) as well as gods of destruction and pillage (such as Erythnul, the Fury, Gruumsh, and Ares) and gods of conquest and domination (such as Bane, Hextor, and Maglubiyet). Other war gods (such as Tempus, Nike, and Nuada) take a more neutral stance, promoting war in all its manifestations and supporting warriors in any circumstance.

Forge Domain

The gods of the forge are patrons of artisans who work with metal, from a humble blacksmith who keeps a village in horseshoes and plow blades to the mighty elf artisan whose diamond-tipped arrows of mithral have felled demon lords. The gods of the forge teach that, with patience and hard work, even the most intractable metal can be transformed from a lump of ore to a beautifully wrought object. Clerics of these deities search for objects lost to the forces of darkness, liberate mines overrun by orcs, and uncover rare and wondrous materials necessary to create potent magic items. Followers of these gods take great pride in their work, and they are willing to craft and use heavy armor and powerful weapons to protect them. Deities of this domain include Gond, Reorx, Onatar, Moradin, Hephaestus, and Goibhniu.

Grave Domain

Gods of the grave watch over the line between life and death. To these deities, death and the afterlife are a foundational part of the multiverse’s workings. To resist death, or to desecrate the dead’s rest, is an abomination. Deities of the grave include Kelemvor, Wee Jas, the ancestral spirits of the Undying Court, Hades, Anubis, and Osiris. These deities teach their followers to respect the dead and pay them due homage. Followers of these deities seek to put restless spirits to rest, destroy the undead wherever they find them, and ease the suffering of dying creatures. Their magic also allows them to stave off a creature’s death, though they refuse to use such magic to extend a creature’s lifespan beyond its mortal limits.

Clerics

A depiction of a cleric healer

CLERIC