What are some of the better/worse Cleric Domains?

[Scarlet Tropix]

Hello again forum.

Yeah, question is pretty self evident. There are a heck of a lot of Domains to fritter around with, and since I'm in the mood for some Deity/Cleric crafting, I'd like the Forum's collective wisdom on what Domains are recognized as winners and losers. I much appreciate the advice.

Thanks in advance.

[unre9istered]

I really like the Celerity domain from CDiv. The domain power is +10 to your base speed while wearing light armor. It also has haste on the domain list. In fact I think Wind Walk is the only cleric spell on the domain list.

[Emmerask]

Best three srd domains:

luck domain (reroll one roll / day)
And Spellturning is a nice spell to have :smallsmile:

Travel domain (freedom of movement for 1rd / cleric level)
longstrider +10ft movement 1hr / level
teleport
fly
astral projection

Trickery (a bunch of skills become class skills)
time stop :smallbiggrin:

[dextercorvia]

I'm a big fan of travel. Freedom ability for rounds per day. I had a character save a party member using Fly, the day after he leveled to fifth.

[Cyclocone]

On top of my head, good ones include: Spell, Time, Deathbound, Travel, Pride, Planning, Destiny, Inquisition, Luck, Trickery.

[Optimystik]

Domain Lists (http://home.comcast.net/~ftm3/JHtB/domains.html)

There's some missing even from there, but there's a pretty decent chunk. Peruse away!

[Eldariel]

Sovereign Speaker Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3927.0) does a great job weeding the great and the not-so-great domains out.

[Darcand]

My favorite three are pathfinder domain powers. I like the travel domain, for it's +10 landspeed, and for slight cheese there are the war and destruction domains because they both can give you +1/2 your level in bonus damge to attack 3+wis times per day.

[Revlid]

The Ooze domain is clearly the superior.

[Pluto]

Eladriel's link has a good summary of what's good and what's not.

My favorites are Shadow (ECS), Transformation (ECS), Spider (SpC) and Air.

Shadow and Transformation are very stylish, very versatile and very powerful.

Spider and Air are pretty mediocre as far as power is concerned, but wall-walking, ungodly fast spider mounts and Control wind/weather abilities win many style points, IMO.

[Togo]

Generally speaking domains either grant good spells (by which we generally mean spells that aren't normally on the cleric list) or good domain abilities.

The generally acknowledged champs from our campaign were Celerity, Travel, Luck, Glory, Competition and Nobility, but that may reflect the kinds of chacter we played as much as anything. You can take almost any character concept and try and stat it up as a cleric, and then find the domain to suit. I'd recommend the weather-themed domains, but obviously it suits only a certain kind of cleric.

If you're going for a generic or traditional cleric, Good actually works out as one the best all rounders. It's probably worth considering, when choosing domains, which two you're going to go for, and seeing what domain spells you end up with. The two best domains may not be a good combination for eachother if they both offer a really great spell at the same level. Better to get one really good domain and one mediocre one and end up with a choice of domain spells that doesn't contain any duff levels.

[comicshorse]

Travel, how else can you adventure in the uncivilized lands and then Teleport hiome each night to your mansion and partner. The only civilized way to adventure

[Person_Man]

My favorites:

Celerity: 10 movement in light armor, Expeditious Retreat, Blur, Haste, Time Stop.
Domination: Spell Focus Enchantment, Suggestion, Dominate Person.
Dream: Immune to Fear, Sleep, Deep Slumber.
Illusion: +1 CL for Illusion spells, Mirror Image, Displacement, Mislead.
Renewal: Gain 1d8+Cha hit points if you drop below 0, Charm Person.
Shadow: Blind Fight feat, Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Evocation.
Slime: Grease, Poison (3rd level), Black Tentacles, Rock to Mud.
Summoner: +2 Caster Level to Summon spells.
Time: Improved Initiative, True Strike, Haste, Permanancy, Contingency, Time Stop.
Trickery: Bluff/Disguise/Hide, Disguise Self, Invisibility, Mislead, Time Stop.
Travel: PHB, Free Movement, Longstrider, D Door, Fly.
Trasformation: +1 CL to Trasmutation Spells, Enlarge, Alter Self, Polumorph.
Truth: +1 CL on Divination spells, unnamed bonus to Sense Motive equal to Cleric level, Detect Thoughts (1st level), See Invisibility,

[Prime32]

Travel, how else can you adventure in the uncivilized lands and then Teleport hiome each night to your mansion and partner. The only civilized way to adventureAlso you can trade the domain power for the Travel Devotion (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Travel_Devotion) feat, which is awesome, especially if you don't have many levels of cleric.

[Sydonai]

Planning and Time, Chronopsis is the logical choice.

[Critical]

Personally, I like Travel and Trickery combo on the Cloistered Cleric. :smallsmile:

[Kobold-Bard]

The link says it already but stay away from the alignment domains, they suck hard.

My personal favourite is the Necessary Force Domain, seriously useful.

[Ravens_Wing]

My brother is constantly playing a undead killing cleric. His favorites are Sun and Glory. He also enjoys Pestilence.

[Ernir]

I like Time so much...

[Amphetryon]

I like Travel and Planning.

[Starscream]

I'm a fan of Luck, Travel and Ooze.

[Runestar]

I am generally not a very big fan of domains which add class skills, since a cleric already has so few skill points, and those invariably go towards concentration and knowledge: religion.

[Private-Prinny]

The Big 5 Domains for me are Celerity, Luck, Time, Travel, and Trickery.

[Ishcumbeebeeda]

My personal favourite is the Necessary Force Domain, seriously useful.

Could I get a source on this? I googled it, but the only result (with "Necessary Force Domain") was this thread. Thanks:smallsmile:

EDIT: Oh, and to add some actual substance/relevance to my post, I'm a fan of the Death domain. It's only once/day, but Death Touch can be pretty fun. Especially at high levels.

[The Cat Goddess]

My brother is constantly playing a undead killing cleric. His favorites are Sun and Glory. He also enjoys Pestilence.

Undeath Domain helps here too.

[AslanCross]

My favorites, in no particular order:

-Magic
-Travel
-Force
-Trickery
-Destruction
-War

[Set]

The Ooze domain is clearly the superior.

If you're playing in a game world with Living Spells? Yes, indeed! Command those Living Spells, forever!

Warforged, in a game world with Maug, or even just Warforged with class levels, also has fun potential. Getting the Air / Earth / Fire / Water effective levels up to the point where you can have meaningful Dragons rebuked may be more trouble than it's worth, although Air and Earth Elementals (and Thoqqua) make for interesting pets, thanks to abilities like Flyby Attack and Glide.

[Brendan]

okay... so I just read these (http://home.comcast.net/~ftm3/JHtB/domains.html) lists, and I'm confused. is the retribution domain a way to replicate the 1d2 crusader without race and feat constrains, and just one class level required? you deal max damage for an attack. and that attack goes on forever, but with any weapon. is this right? I bet that simplification the page isn't the same as the book, but if it is, one required domain and a level of cleric would be all it takes (plus the crusader levels).

to put it more simply, if it says:

Granted Power (Su): Once per day, if you have been harmed by someone in combat, you can make a strike of vengeance with a melee or ranged weapon against that foe on your next action. If this strike hits, you deal maximum damage
does that mean that the white raven maneuver would let it do infinite damage?
it looks like it means for all dice associated with damage on an attack.

if so, it would make the ruby knight windicator all the more win.

edit: I just checked, and that is an exact quote from the book with no paraphrasing. does this work and has it ever been suggested?

[Keld Denar]

Also you can trade the domain power for the Travel Devotion (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Travel_Devotion) feat, which is awesome, especially if you don't have many levels of cleric.

When you trade out for a Devotion feat, you trade out the WHOLE domain for the feat, not just the granted power. That means if you get Travel Devotion, you lose out on the ability to cast Fly or Dim Door or Teleport, etc.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Pride or Destiny for their abilities. Destiny is just like Luck, except its not personal only. Sometimes helping a team mate is more effective. Pride gives you an auto-reroll once every time you roll a 1 on a save. Given that 1s always fail, this makes it pretty tough to die if you pump your save bonuses.

Also, Darkness is nice simply for 1 spell. Darkbolt. This spell is amazing, and only occures on the Darkness domain list. Its seriously pretty awesome, especially if you only release 1 bolt at a time. It'll pretty much keep one foe locked out of the battle for CL rounds, while dealing some damage to them.

[Shalist]

Its worth mentioning...

SUBSTITUTE DOMAIN
Level: Cleric 2
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 day/level (D)
The power of your deity courses through you, replacing what you once knew with different ideas and abilities. Upon casting substitute domain, you can swap one of your current domains for another that your deity offers.
You gain the granted power of the new domain, as well as access to any of its spells that you can cast—though you must still prepare the spells normally. While substitute domain is in effect, you lose the granted powers and spells of the domain to which you have given up access.

Also, as there are a handful of domains that grant spells at a lower level than usual (level 8 foresight with 'Time,' level 7 antipathy with 'Mental,' etc), and some that give you gobs of spells you wouldn't otherwise get (force => wall of force, force cage, etc), you might consider some Domain Icons...



Prerequisite: Each domain icon is attuned to a specific god, as well as a specific domain of that god. If you do not worship that god, you cannot use the item.
Effect: Three times per day, the icon allows you to substitue a domain spell of equal or lower level for the spell you are actually casting. For instance, if you have a domain icon attuned to the F ire domain, you could cast any 2nd-level divine spell, and substitue either 'burning hands' or 'produce flame.' These spells function in all ways as though you had cast them.
Weight: 1 lb.
Price: 10,000 gold

I'm thinking that a little UMD and a few of these could make for a rather happy cleric.

[Curmudgeon]

does that mean that the white raven maneuver would let it do infinite damage?
Which White Raven maneuver are you talking about? The granted power works only once a day, and I don't know of a manuever that repeats damage infinitely.

edit: I just checked, and that is an exact quote from the book with no paraphrasing.
Glad my typing skills are up to snuff. :smallsmile:

[Brendan]

oops. I meant devoted heart. sorry. Order forged from chaos is the stance(?) and it lets you reroll and add all rolls that deal max damage.

[Curmudgeon]

oops. I meant devoted heart. sorry. Order forged from chaos is the stance(?) and it lets you reroll and add all rolls that deal max damage.
I replied in the separate thread you started. The stance only applies when you roll damage, and the granted power gives you the maximum damage once per day without rolling, so this doesn't do anything.

[Brendan]

right. didn't notice that. thanks!

[Akal Saris]

I like Time so much...

Agreed. That domain is broken.

[Kobold-Bard]

Could I get a source on this? I googled it, but the only result (with "Necessary Force Domain") was this thread. Thanks:smallsmile:

EDIT: Oh, and to add some actual substance/relevance to my post, I'm a fan of the Death domain. It's only once/day, but Death Touch can be pretty fun. Especially at high levels.

It's from the Munchkin Player's Handbook. It's actually called the Munchkin Domain, but it suggests renaming it so that you can sneak it past your DM :smallbiggrin:

Granted Power: +1 to every roll you make, whenever it benefits you. Because Munchkins like to keep things simple.

1. Fireball (BOOM!)
2. Lightning Bolt (Zark!)
3. Flame Strike (Eat firey death infidel!)
4. Power Word: Kill (DIE!)
5. Finger of Death (I SAID DIE!!)
6. Limited Wish (It's Limited, so it's balanced)
7. Wish (And it's big brother)
8. Miracle (Just in case)
9. Magic Missile (Crud, knew we forgot one)

[SilverStar]

I like Spell, Knowledge (Knowledge Devotion....), Time, Celerity, Magic (just because), and Balance...