Spells and Domain for a Cleric of Aphrodite

[rmnimoc]

I'm working on making a NPC clerics for an ancient Greek (Trojan War era) campaign I'm working on but I hit a bit of a snag with Aphrodite's. The rest of the ones the players can work alongside or against were pretty easy, Zeus does Tempest things, Athena does War things, Hera does Madness things, and so on. But Aphrodite was another major player, particularly in the Trojan War (what, with basically starting the whole thing and all), so I can't not have her and her clerics around. I just don't really know what to have them do. Aphrodite was a goddess of pleasure, love, beauty, and procreation and all in all was basically a modern day shipper with way too much power on her hands. In the spirit of that I want her cleric's primary role in the campaign to be either helping (like she did Jason) or harming the party with the power of shipping. I'm currently leaning towards the Trickery Domain, mostly for Charm Person, Polymorph, Dominate Person and Modify Memory.

I don't have a lot of experience with clerics that do most of their work outside combat in that sort of way, so I figured I'd see what anyone else here has for ideas, especially for what spells a character like this would usually have prepared.

[ImproperJustice]

Trickery seems pretty close.

I remember an old episode of Xena Warrior Princess when she meets Aphrodite and calls her out for being a jerk when she is supposed to be a love goddess.

She responds by pointing out there is all manner of love including jealous love and unrequited love, and sometimes she has to be really ugly.

[Naanomi]

With a little refluffing, Order Domain works... both buffing/motivating allies and mind control there

[Unoriginal]

I would go with Trickery, myself.

[Max_Killjoy]

If you'd going to stick to published domains, you might need to shoehorn Trickery.

At least it thematically fits a lot of her methodology, even if not reflecting her actual "area of interest" or the details of her methods.

[GreyBlack]

Aphrodite likely has the domains of Light and Trickery. Light because these gods tend to, "promote the ideals of rebirth and renewal, truth, vigilance, and beauty", which seems WAY up Aphrodite's alley. Trickery because she is, "a disruptive force in the world, puncturing pride, mocking tyrants, stealing from the rich, freeing captives, and flouting hollow traditions."

Maybe even Nature, as Aphrodite could be seen as a fertility goddess, although this is a bit of a stretch. Tempest might be more appropriate because of Aphrodite being born from the sea. Aphrodite was born after Chronos was castrated, and...

"The genitals, cut off with adamant
And thrown from land into the stormy sea,
Were carried for a long time on the waves.
White foam surrounded the immortal flesh,
And in it grew a girl. At first [she] touched
On holy Cythera, from there [she] came
To Cyprus, circled by the waves. And there
The goddess came forth, lovely, much revered,
And grass grew up beneath her delicate feet.
Her name is Aphrodite among men
And gods, because she grew up in the foam. . . .
Hesiod
Theogony 185-195

So any of those domains could be appropriate for a cleric of Aphrodite.

[Chronos]

Ahem, that was Kronos, with a kappa, not a chi. Completely different entity.

And according to the PHB, her domain is Light. Which, yeah, doesn't really fit very well, but it's about as close as any, among the published domains.

The trickery part, meanwhile, was all Eris.

[GreyBlack]

Ahem, that was Kronos, with a kappa, not a chi. Completely different entity.

And according to the PHB, her domain is Light. Which, yeah, doesn't really fit very well, but it's about as close as any, among the published domains.

The trickery part, meanwhile, was all Eris.

Translation I was working from spelled with a "Ch" instead of a "K." Apologies.

[Shepsquared]

Mike Mearls did make this Beauty domain (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/1015752965213204480?lang=en) for his home game, but it isn't super balanced. You'd probably have to do some tinkering.

[Naanomi]

Order Domain (from guildmaster’s guide to Ravnica) gives proficiency in Persuasion, gives extra oomph when buffing allies, charms people, and deals psychic damage... if you ignore the default fluff it works very well for Love gods that are less ‘tricksy’

[Max_Killjoy]

Aphrodite likely has the domains of Light and Trickery. Light because these gods tend to, "promote the ideals of rebirth and renewal, truth, vigilance, and beauty", which seems WAY up Aphrodite's alley. Trickery because she is, "a disruptive force in the world, puncturing pride, mocking tyrants, stealing from the rich, freeing captives, and flouting hollow traditions."

Maybe even Nature, as Aphrodite could be seen as a fertility goddess, although this is a bit of a stretch. Tempest might be more appropriate because of Aphrodite being born from the sea. Aphrodite was born after Chronos was castrated, and...

"The genitals, cut off with adamant
And thrown from land into the stormy sea,
Were carried for a long time on the waves.
White foam surrounded the immortal flesh,
And in it grew a girl. At first [she] touched
On holy Cythera, from there [she] came
To Cyprus, circled by the waves. And there
The goddess came forth, lovely, much revered,
And grass grew up beneath her delicate feet.
Her name is Aphrodite among men
And gods, because she grew up in the foam. . . .
Hesiod
Theogony 185-195

So any of those domains could be appropriate for a cleric of Aphrodite.

Ahem, that was Kronos, with a kappa, not a chi. Completely different entity.

And according to the PHB, her domain is Light. Which, yeah, doesn't really fit very well, but it's about as close as any, among the published domains.

The trickery part, meanwhile, was all Eris.


Wasn't it Chronos who did the deed, and Uranus who suffered it?

(Purely from a "as told in what was written down" standpoint.)

[rmnimoc]

Mike Mearls did make this Beauty domain (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/1015752965213204480?lang=en) for his home game, but it isn't super balanced. You'd probably have to do some tinkering.

That is 100% the kind of thing I was hoping to find when I posted this. Thank you.

To the people who mentioned Order, I hadn't known about that one either and it works pretty well too. Thanks.

Anyone got some ideas for the kind of spells this kind of cleric would probably have prepared on a day to day basis?

[TyGuy]

Um... These are NPCs. Choose whatever you want from whatever you want. You don't HAVE to build NPCs using PC restrictions. Make your Aphrodite clerics a hybrid between trickery clerics and glamour bards. Completely make stuff up yourself if you like, they're NPCs and if you make them too strong you can always pull punches if need be.