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Author Topic: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?  (Read 1809 times)

Stephen Tannhauser

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Re: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2021, 06:52:39 PM »
It depends on what you mean by "cleric".

If you mean a person in the party who functionally provides healing, support, and information of a kind other spellcasters can't, then as long as you have a mage subtype who can do this, you'll be fine without having to name a specific class for it.

If you mean a person who is tuned into the metaphysical aspects of the campaign world, i.e. knows about the setting's Powers and can provide meaningful instructions from/information about them, then not all settings will need those in the style we know them, but I admit I am one of the people who finds human-based cultures that don't have a religion of some sort to fail my plausibility test -- they may not need to be more than NPCs for a particular game, but they should at least be around.
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Slipshot762

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Re: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?
« Reply #16 on: July 22, 2021, 04:09:30 PM »
I never liked the cleric as its own class, i've always seen it as a highly magical martial class or a highly martial magical class. Cleric as a concept comes loaded with front end world building baggage; the assumption that clerics are available that temples are everywhere and thats where everyone goes for healing magic, for example. I never liked separating divine and arcane magic into two different types; I feel there should be only one type even if it's accessed or thematically applied differently from one person or class to another.

Spinachcat

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Re: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?
« Reply #17 on: July 22, 2021, 07:13:57 PM »
I love playing divine casters (whatever the system calls them).

Tunnels & Trolls had Wizards & Warriors in 1975. There's no "need" for any divine magic, but there's also no "need" for any arcane magic either, nor a "need" for any division of types of magic.

EXCEPT...it makes your game & setting more interesting for your players.

Shasarak

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Re: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?
« Reply #18 on: July 22, 2021, 07:17:38 PM »
I like Clerics.

I could understand why someone theoretically does not like them though.
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SHARK

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Re: Need for a cleric in fantasy RPGs?
« Reply #19 on: July 22, 2021, 07:49:52 PM »
Greetings!

I like Clerics as a class, as well. Dividing Divine magic from Arcane magic is good, too. Clerics can also be modified to be shamans or whatever. They have a different feel from Wizards or Sorcerers.

And yeah, players easily grasp the concept and imagery of a Cleric-type character, whether such characters are wearing furs and come from a tribe, or whether they are wearing plate-mail and wielding a staff or an iron-flanged mace, and beseeching God for divine blessings upon the group in the face of the gibbering horde.

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SHARK
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