Clerics suck in D&D.
No, not because the class is weak (it’s mighty fine, let me tell you), but because the religion and worshipping is completely unrepresented in the class mechanics and completely unrelated and unnecessary to casting spells. It’s like giving thieves extra money but no pick-pocket and lock-picking skills.
It sucks, really. And, please, clerics apologists, don’t try to make me change my mind. I got rid of the cleric class in AFG already: all spells are available to all casters (well, if they can learn them).
So, yes, clerics are gone from AFG land, but not the clergy, the faithful, the fanatics and the cultist. AFG has plenty of these: the first “real” cleric in the Western League campaign was a worshipper of Cthulhu. Cthulhu the Harbinger of Life. Yes, you read that correctly, it’s described in the excerpt linked below.
I wanted religion to be meaningful: worshipping brings benefits, and simply picking a class with meh spells and limited weapon selection is not enough. AFG structures religions so that blessings are awarded based on specific criteria:
- Worship, such as sacrifices and praying, will bring some limited benefit.
- Charisma (grace given from the gods) is reserved to those few that are chosen.
- Henosis, getting one with one’s god, makes one similar to a god (and thus powerful) through sympathy of action.
In addition blessings can be gained by making offers at various altars and statues around the world: feeding golden demon statues confers small blessings too.
Faith is all-powerful. Clicky clicky and read the excerpt from the religion chapter of AFG from the latest draft.
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