Kereea
2020-04-02, 05:59 AM
So my group has been planning an all-cleric campaign for a while, and we all wanted to have at least two character options to make sure that a) our domains step on each others' toes a little as possible and b) fun NPCs for the DM to use that can be backup PCs if needed.
My initial character was a half-bugbear Grave Cleric, believe I've talked about half bugbears on here before. But Grave can step on both Life and Death's toes, so I went back to the list. I had a concept in mind for a chaotic cleric, but to my surprise while Law and Order have the Cleric of Order, there was no such luck for a Cleric of Chaos.
Obviously this needed fixing. I'll admit, I did said fixing from the angle of creating my character, which in some ways made it easier. I used the Cleric of Order as a base, since a Cleric of Chaos would likely have similar, but more chaotic abilities. And...it turned out I had very little I needed to change. At all. Like, just names of things in many chases and it worked PERFECTLY for the concept.
Bonus Proficiencies: For these, I took away the heavy armor proficiency and changed it to martial weapons (which in our game includes homebrew exotic weapons--the character uses a Scythe which functions as a slightly less damaging glaive--1d8 instead of 1d10--in exchange for the option of doing bludgeoning instead with the not-sharp end of the head). I think keeping Intimidation or Persuasion as Bonus Skills works okay, tho perhaps Deception might be a better choice than Intimidation.
Nudge of Chaos: It's literally just Voice of Authority with a different name. I felt aiding/inducing an ally to attack works pretty well for a chaos cleric. Full description: Starting at 1st level, you can invoke the power of law to drive an ally to attack. If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see. If the spell targets more than one ally, you choose the ally who can make the attack.
Channel Divinity: Chaotic Presence: I did tweak this one a bit from Order's Demand...in that instead of an Intimidating Presence it's a Beguiling Presence. Other than that, charming people kind of worked for the character since charming an opponent into throwing away their weapon worked well, as does the ability to charm groups for a round. Full text: Starting at 2nd level, as an action, you present your holy symbol, and each creature of your choice that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you until the end of your next turn or until the charmed creature takes any damage. You can also cause any of the charmed creatures to drop what they are holding when they fail the saving throw.
Embodiment of Chaos: Tweaked from Embodiment of Law...in that you use it for chaotic ends instead of lawful ones b/c compelling others to act against their will feels more chaotic than lawful to me, honestly. Full text of original ability which I thus far have just renamed: At 6th level, you become remarkably adept at channeling magical energy to compel others. If you cast a spell of the enchantment school using a spell slot of 1st level or higher, you can change the spell's casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting, provided the spell's casting time is normally 1 action. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Divine Strike: Again, literally changed nothing b/c the character concept dealing psychic damage worked. Full text from Cleric of Order: At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 psychic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8. This one I one I think could possibly be tweaked by changing the damage based on DM agreement and character concept--like a Cleric of Loki might deal Frost damage or such. But Psychic worked perfectly for my character concept so I kept it.
Chaos' Wrath: ...it's Order's Wrath renamed. Again, this was WEIRDLY easy to just...rename and go. Starting at 17th level, enemies you designate for destruction wilt under the combined efforts of you and your allies. If you deal your Divine Strike damage to a creature on your turn, you can curse that creature until the start of your next turn. The next time one of your allies hits the cursed creature with an attack, the target also takes 2d8 psychic damage, and the curse ends. You can curse a creature in this way only once per turn.
As for spells, for those I will explain the character concept: it's a modified version of Helen Vaugn from the Great God Pan. So she's a cleric of Pan, but in the more Eldritch bent of Pan (thus not going Nature domain). DM and I discussed spells a bit and this was the list I got, more to fit the concept:
Lv 1: Dissonant Whispers, Ensnaring Strike
Lv 3: Enemies Abound, Hypnotic Pattern
Lv 5: Dominate Person, Wrath of Nature
Lv 7: Mass Suggestion, Crown of Stars
Lv 9: Weird, Psychic Scream
Overall, other than Ensnaring Strike and Wrath of Nature, all of them could probably be used by ANY Chaos Cleric just fine. The overall concept of the Chaos Cleric is, similar to the Order Cleric, a Controller, but unlike the Order Cleric more focus on Offense than Defense.
Overall, I was super-surprised how well a simple reskin of most Cleric of Order abilities could fit a Cleric of Chaos. I had been thinking I was going to have to be so careful to not end up with something too weak or too OP and then...it just fell into place. Probably the one I'm least into is Chaos' Wrath, but even then I still feel it works really well.
What do you guys think? Are there abilities you think could be modded more and better, or is it okay to stick closer to an established class when homebrewing? What sort of cleric would you make for a cleric of chaos, and what would you tweak for them, personally? And do you think Cleric of Order is weirdly easily reskinned to Chaos? Let me know!
My initial character was a half-bugbear Grave Cleric, believe I've talked about half bugbears on here before. But Grave can step on both Life and Death's toes, so I went back to the list. I had a concept in mind for a chaotic cleric, but to my surprise while Law and Order have the Cleric of Order, there was no such luck for a Cleric of Chaos.
Obviously this needed fixing. I'll admit, I did said fixing from the angle of creating my character, which in some ways made it easier. I used the Cleric of Order as a base, since a Cleric of Chaos would likely have similar, but more chaotic abilities. And...it turned out I had very little I needed to change. At all. Like, just names of things in many chases and it worked PERFECTLY for the concept.
Bonus Proficiencies: For these, I took away the heavy armor proficiency and changed it to martial weapons (which in our game includes homebrew exotic weapons--the character uses a Scythe which functions as a slightly less damaging glaive--1d8 instead of 1d10--in exchange for the option of doing bludgeoning instead with the not-sharp end of the head). I think keeping Intimidation or Persuasion as Bonus Skills works okay, tho perhaps Deception might be a better choice than Intimidation.
Nudge of Chaos: It's literally just Voice of Authority with a different name. I felt aiding/inducing an ally to attack works pretty well for a chaos cleric. Full description: Starting at 1st level, you can invoke the power of law to drive an ally to attack. If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see. If the spell targets more than one ally, you choose the ally who can make the attack.
Channel Divinity: Chaotic Presence: I did tweak this one a bit from Order's Demand...in that instead of an Intimidating Presence it's a Beguiling Presence. Other than that, charming people kind of worked for the character since charming an opponent into throwing away their weapon worked well, as does the ability to charm groups for a round. Full text: Starting at 2nd level, as an action, you present your holy symbol, and each creature of your choice that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you until the end of your next turn or until the charmed creature takes any damage. You can also cause any of the charmed creatures to drop what they are holding when they fail the saving throw.
Embodiment of Chaos: Tweaked from Embodiment of Law...in that you use it for chaotic ends instead of lawful ones b/c compelling others to act against their will feels more chaotic than lawful to me, honestly. Full text of original ability which I thus far have just renamed: At 6th level, you become remarkably adept at channeling magical energy to compel others. If you cast a spell of the enchantment school using a spell slot of 1st level or higher, you can change the spell's casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting, provided the spell's casting time is normally 1 action. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Divine Strike: Again, literally changed nothing b/c the character concept dealing psychic damage worked. Full text from Cleric of Order: At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 psychic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8. This one I one I think could possibly be tweaked by changing the damage based on DM agreement and character concept--like a Cleric of Loki might deal Frost damage or such. But Psychic worked perfectly for my character concept so I kept it.
Chaos' Wrath: ...it's Order's Wrath renamed. Again, this was WEIRDLY easy to just...rename and go. Starting at 17th level, enemies you designate for destruction wilt under the combined efforts of you and your allies. If you deal your Divine Strike damage to a creature on your turn, you can curse that creature until the start of your next turn. The next time one of your allies hits the cursed creature with an attack, the target also takes 2d8 psychic damage, and the curse ends. You can curse a creature in this way only once per turn.
As for spells, for those I will explain the character concept: it's a modified version of Helen Vaugn from the Great God Pan. So she's a cleric of Pan, but in the more Eldritch bent of Pan (thus not going Nature domain). DM and I discussed spells a bit and this was the list I got, more to fit the concept:
Lv 1: Dissonant Whispers, Ensnaring Strike
Lv 3: Enemies Abound, Hypnotic Pattern
Lv 5: Dominate Person, Wrath of Nature
Lv 7: Mass Suggestion, Crown of Stars
Lv 9: Weird, Psychic Scream
Overall, other than Ensnaring Strike and Wrath of Nature, all of them could probably be used by ANY Chaos Cleric just fine. The overall concept of the Chaos Cleric is, similar to the Order Cleric, a Controller, but unlike the Order Cleric more focus on Offense than Defense.
Overall, I was super-surprised how well a simple reskin of most Cleric of Order abilities could fit a Cleric of Chaos. I had been thinking I was going to have to be so careful to not end up with something too weak or too OP and then...it just fell into place. Probably the one I'm least into is Chaos' Wrath, but even then I still feel it works really well.
What do you guys think? Are there abilities you think could be modded more and better, or is it okay to stick closer to an established class when homebrewing? What sort of cleric would you make for a cleric of chaos, and what would you tweak for them, personally? And do you think Cleric of Order is weirdly easily reskinned to Chaos? Let me know!