Just What are the Cleric Domains?

[The Shadow]

We have now been officially told that the cleric of Moradin has one domain, and the cleric of Pelor has two. What are they?

The Moradin cleric has the following spells: Crusader's Strike, Divine Favor, Healing Word, Command, Battle Psalm, and Hold Person. That seems to hang together fairly well, call it the War domain, perhaps.

The Pelor cleric is a little more puzzling. He has: Cure Light Wounds, Spiritual Hammer, Searing Light, Shield of Faith, Sunburst, and Silence.

Searing Light and Sunburst certainly go together, they're reminiscent of the Sun domain. (Definitely appropriate for Pelor.) Spiritual Hammer and Shield of Faith also seem related, perhaps, though I'm not sure what to call it.

Silence just doesn't seem to fit in. And CLW doesn't lie down all that well either, though it's so iconic for clerics that it probably fits in a lot of places.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Are the minor spells from domains as well? Death Ward is a little surprising for the Moradin cleric. Radiant Lance fits in perfectly with Sun, but the Pelor cleric's other minor is Detect Magic, which I'm not sure how to understand.

 

[jadrax]

Picking out of the common 3.5 domains, Healing?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Maybe there are universal spells and domanin spells. Or you have access to different spheres.

 

[Li Shenron]

I seriously doubt that ALL spells known come from domains, unless there is also a possibility to not pick a domain. It really doesn't make any sense to shoehorn a cleric character so much that you can only pick the whole spells menu and be stuck with it until 20th level!

---

The following is certainly NOT how 5e domains will work, but it's just something that could have been one option:

In Rokugan setting for 3.0, the only PC spellcasting class is the Shugenja, which conceptually is a mix between a cleric, a druid, and a wizard. They have to pick a "school", which is not like a typical D&D wizard shool like "abjuration" but it is truly one place (or network of places) where they study magic. This school is defined (among other things) by a list of spells (1 per spell level) which all their students learn, some of which are uniquely available to that school alone, but then every other spell the shugenja learns can come from the generic shugenja spells list.

This is also combined with the fact that the school dictates their favorite element (fire, water, earth, air) and their forbidden element, and each shugenja is additionally bound to picking at least half her known spells from the favorite element.

You end up with a pretty nice differentiation between shugenjas of different schools, and at the same time strong similarities between sjugenja of the same school (think that there are different schools favoring the same element BUT having totally different own spells list), because each shugenja knows:

- one spell per level from her school (fixed, no choice)
- at least half her spells at each level from her favourite element (you can choose which, but limited to such element)
- the other half of her spells can be whatever she likes, but not spells unique to other schools

I think this would work quite well for Clerics too, if you replace school with religion (i.e. your deity) or domain, and element with domain or some sort of more general specialization (e.g. healing, undead, protection, war).

 

[jadrax]

Actually, I think cutting clerics down to a very tight spell list based on domains may well be a very good way to reign them back a bit from the powerhouses they were in 3.5.

 

[Campbell]

Actually, I think cutting clerics down to a very tight spell list based on domains may well be a very good way to reign them back a bit from the powerhouses they were in 3.5.

This is a good point. As long as D&D Clerics are going to occupy such a large conceptual space it might even be necessary to stop them from becoming a jack of all trades, master of whatever they damn well feel like.

 

[steeldragons]

So that bit I read somewhere around here in this goulash, about "Domain Clerics" (like "Specialist Mages") being an "Advanced Theme" that comes into play at 6th level has been chucked?

Or we don't know?

While I very much like the flavor of Domain clerics...and see them as possible (either optional modularly or as a houserule) and I agree that reigning in the clerics spell lists (given their weapons and armor and other specialty skills) makes for a LOT of sense, I was rather enjoying the idea that you are a "cleric" until you reached the certain echelons of your temple/church/religion to "specialize" in your deity's domains. That was good/different flavor to me.

Now, naturally, it would fall to the players to make choices that made sense for their deity at any level (assuming a common/generic clerical spelllist). The cleric of the god of night is not going to use "Radiant Lance". Though, if they wanted to take it, I would just re-fluff it to be a bolt of pitch black energy twinkling with stars...doing perhaps Divine [Radiant?] and cold damage instead of light and heat. I'll do it anyway, but a note in the DMG or PHB about that sort of thing being "allowed" or "encouraged" wouldn't be a bad note.

But I'm getting a bit off track here. Point is, do we know if Domains are in from day one or they come later [6th...or any other level]?
--SD

 

[jadrax]

But I'm getting a bit off track here. Point is, do we know if Domains are in from day one or they come later [6th...or any other level]?

'What you see in the first round of playtest materials is our stab at representing the classic, heavily armored cleric from the game's earliest days with one domain and a more spell-based cleric with another domain.'

So each of the pre-gen clerics has one domain already from my reading.

 

[Teataine]

Where did we hear that the Pelor cleric has two? I'm fairly certain they have one domain each.

 

[The Shadow]

'What you see in the first round of playtest materials is our stab at representing the classic, heavily armored cleric from the game's earliest days with one domain and a more spell-based cleric with another domain.'

So each of the pre-gen clerics has one domain already from my reading.

Hmm, you may be right. That reading does seem plausible.