Limiting Clerical Spell Lists based on Divine Domain?

[jjordan]

Has anyone tried limiting/modifying spell lists for clerics on the basis of what deity they serve? How did it work with gameplay? With roleplay? How was it received at the table?

[KorvinStarmast]

Has anyone tried limiting/modifying spell lists for clerics on the basis of what deity they serve?
How did it work with gameplay?
With roleplay?
How was it received at the table?
We discussed that in a campaign that went dormant about three years ago. The DM only had 1 cleric player, and they two of them were working on a tailored class list for the domain. (Tempest) It dropped some spells form the Cleric list, and added some from the Elemental Evil Players Companion.

It seemed to me to be a lot of fiddling with what was already a good class.

And then RL killed the game.

At this point, my take on clerics is: don't mess with them. They are pretty well put together and need no adjustment (besides the Trickery Divine Damage at level 8 should be psychic, not poison)

[MrStabby]

I have thought about it but never quite satisfactorily resolved it.

One feature was to extend domain spells to higher levels to keep domains from merging together.

Adding more domain spells is good, but some seem to have more spells that are a natural fit than others. One feature of the cleric I think is important to preserve is the ability to customise spell lists day by day and to preserve diversity of things a cleric can do.

Take a tempest cleric, you can have a decent selection of blasting spells, spells like fog cloud, sleet storm to impact the terrain. Maybe some controlis spells like maelstrom. If you enforce the theme then you can lose staples lime spirit guardians, bless, banishment...

[Mith]

As a general concept, I like the idea, but I would probably do something different than the current iteration, and probably too fiddly.

Stealing from previous editions, I would say that instead of one domain, clerics get multiple domains. If I were doing a major overhaul, I would say that clerics get half proficencies rounded down. The idea being that most gods have distinct portfolios that allows for this mix and match of spells. However you would need more spells to do this effectively with, though with elemental domains, this might be possible.

I like the idea, but I don't know if it would be deemed worthwhile in the Vancian Spell System format.

If instead you had a augmentation system (start with a basic ability and spend resources to shape what it does), then I could see multiple domains working to give you more options. Perhaps each domain gives you certain base abilities (cantrips, essentially), along with channel divinity abilities for x/short rest.

It would be more free styled spell casting, and not D&D style spell slots, but it may be less of a headache than balsncing all the domain options.

[jjordan]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. While simplicity (the guiding principle of 5e) and class balancing clearly support the use of a single core with added spells by domain, it's always bothered me that clerics of Loviatar have the same basic spells as a cleric of Waukeen, for example. And why does a god of commerce have anything to do with healing? I mean, I can probably come up with a reason that doesn't involve preserving class balance across disparate tables, but it feels... well, generic.

[Yunru]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. While simplicity (the guiding principle of 5e) and class balancing clearly support the use of a single core with added spells by domain, it's always bothered me that clerics of Loviatar have the same basic spells as a cleric of Waukeen, for example. And why does a god of commerce have anything to do with healing? I mean, I can probably come up with a reason that doesn't involve preserving class balance across disparate tables, but it feels... well, generic.
Do healers not get paid for their trade?
If anything, commerce should be the easiest to justify :P

[Composer99]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. While simplicity (the guiding principle of 5e) and class balancing clearly support the use of a single core with added spells by domain, it's always bothered me that clerics of Loviatar have the same basic spells as a cleric of Waukeen, for example. And why does a god of commerce have anything to do with healing? I mean, I can probably come up with a reason that doesn't involve preserving class balance across disparate tables, but it feels... well, generic.


Do healers not get paid for their trade?
If anything, commerce should be the easiest to justify :P

And healing your victim in between torture sessions means you wait for less time before you can inflict sweet, sweet pain upon them again, and they're more likely to survive so you can just keep doing it!

Also, you could come up with reasoning much like in the OOTS-verse for discrete access to other deities' "domain" magic, in the form of the generic cleric spell list, as a result of whatever agreement the deities have (or have had enforced by Ao, in the case of the Realms) to not tear the world up in their disagreements.