I picked up my copy of the PHB last night and so far have really been enjoying it! I'm doing a home-brew campaign and I created the pantheon myself, so I really wanted to dig into the cleric section and get a look at the different domains... and I was disappointed! Seven domains seems far too light for a broad pantheon; do you think that the DMG might introduce more? Do you have any suggestions for modifying existing Domains for a wider range of options? I was thinking that a Domain of Death could just be reversed effects of the Life Domain, or a God of Vengeance could be based off of some Warlock powers.
D&D 5E Cleric Domains in PHB
- Thread starter kerouac
- Start date
Interesting. How reliable is your source?
Should other domains be expected? Any other tidbits from the DMG, whether reliable or spurious?As for me, I'm not sure how I feel about the domains yet, but I haven't looked closely enough. Domains as subclasses does seem like a pretty elegant solution to unifying the "God-granted powers/spells" mechanics that just kind of explode all over the place with the many gods in the multiverse. So I'm hoping the implementation ends up working out well. Certainly it's extensible. I think ... I forget this name, the blogger at Evil Hat was expressing disappointment at not seeing a "Travel" domain. So hopefully we'll see more in the future.
Interesting. How reliable is your source?
As for me, I'm not sure how I feel about the domains yet, but I haven't looked closely enough. Domains as subclasses does seem like a pretty elegant solution to unifying the "God-granted powers/spells" mechanics that just kind of explode all over the place with the many gods in the multiverse. So I'm hoping the implementation ends up working out well. Certainly it's extensible. I think ... I forget this name, the blogger at Evil Hat was expressing disappointment at not seeing a "Travel" domain. So hopefully we'll see more in the future.
One of my Gods is a travel deity (which a Sea God would also have some dominion over) so that's definitely one I'd like to see.
Based off the PHB it seems they're more or less just offering build options for the standard Cleric to heal and maybe do a little bit of damage, rather than a more immersive role-playing experience by taking on a more specialized domain. I'm sure they'll sell us a source book to address that eventually...
Jester David
Hero
Seven domains is pretty light, but compared to many of the other classes the cleric (seven subclasses) and the wizard (eight subclasses) have a tonne of options. I wouldn't want to add many more domains.
the Jester
Legend
I want a lot more domains so that I can super-customize my homebrew pantheon. I've worked up an Adventure and a Perversion domain for two gods in my campaign, and I know I need a bunch more, including Thought and Time. I am also giving a great deal of consideration to introducing alignment-based domains of Balance, Chaos, Evil, Good and Law; those are fundamental forces in my campaign, and always have been... I'm hoping the DMG has a few options for making alignment mechanically relevant, but if not, I'll probably reintroduce them in the domain context only.
VERY interesting. I've already written out overall portfolios for my Pantheon and while some of the PHB domains align with that, others don't. I like the idea of each deity having at least two domains for a PC to choose from, so that every cleric in the campaign world isn't cookie-cutter.
doctorhook
Legend
Pretty damn reliable. You can read it for yourself in the pantheon appendix of the 5E Player's Handbook, where it says something to the effect that, "Many of the evil deities here have Death listed as their domain. The Death domain can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide." (Note that this is from memory and definitely not a word-for-word quote.)Interesting. How reliable is your source?
Fair point. Honestly I'd like more domain variants. For example, I think it's a little odd that most of the spells from the Light domain do fire damage, which may not be totally appropriate for some Sun deities; I plan to create a "Sun" variant which uses more radiant damage spells or replaces fire damage with radiant damage for certain spells. Similarly, I think it's strange that the Knowledge domain grants mind-influencing powers, so I'm considering different options for alternative abilities (using 3E/3.5E's domains for ideas).
If you want to ask why I want this in my game, it's because I don't want clerics of fairly disparate deities (Lolth and Tymora) to have identical abilities when they don't seem like they ought to.
Sir Brennen
Legend
I understand the reasoning for you wanting to make this change, but it might also be a bit of a balance issue. There's probably fewer creatures with resistance or immunity to Radiant damage than fire, so it might be a bit of a power boost. Though I wonder about the Tempest Domain... lot of powers in it with Thunder (sonic) damage? Or is it more Lightning? (I don't have the PHB yet). Thunder (or Sonic) has always been a better choice in previous editions for the same reason.
But more on topic, I'd definitely like to see some more domains available to help differentiate both a variety of gods and the clerics that serve them. In addition to those mentioned that are somewhat alignment based, I'd also like to see the domains for the elements (Air, Earth, Fire and Water) brought back, as well as Travel and Magic.
Not sure what shape splat books are going to take this edition, but things like this (basically, more sub-classes) seems to be pretty low hanging fruit as far as effort to create and customers willing to buy.
