Cleric Spells

[Captain_K]

So every cleric of every god has the same spell list with no variation...

Granting access to some but not others, dipping into druid, mage or illusionist spells to add uniqueness.

I would love a custom spell list for each deity...

in the days of Priest 2.0 I did just that... access to spheres varied with each priest class...

Unique spells to the god, to give his or her priests or priestesses special spells.. all good in my book.

What are your thoughts? If I have a PC willing to help or create new spells I've done that in the past...

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Traveller]

The current printing of "Of Gods & Monsters" has unique spells for each pantheon and, I believe, each deity. So it is possible to vary up the spell lists with some unique spells. Doing so with spells of your own creation is perfectly feasible. Go for it.

[serleran]

There is a longstanding tradition to differentiate clerics by their spell access and divine powers... certainly with "priests of a specific mythos" or "specialty priests" and then codified again in d20 era D&D with domains. Certainly someone has posted conversions of these. I am sure I have seen them.

The druid was the first class to do this, and also having a different rate of progression.

I have not done so myself but I have limited the number of deities to 9 so it would not be as difficult.

So, anyway, sure... if it makes things more interesting for you and your game, do it.

[DMSamuel]

I change the available spells by deity in my homebrew world. It's been a while since I refreshed that - I should probably look at it again.

[Retrogamer_Meph]

I am going to be doing specialty priests for my Greyhawk campagin. I will post some info once I get them hashed out a little.

[Lurker]

I'll admit I'm an oddity, but, for my home brew I look at clerics as the general Devine practitioners. As such they don't pray only to 1 god or goddess, but they pray to the gods and goddesses of their society that line up fairly close with their alignment and fill the need of the people the cleric ... .

A cleric of a Greek rural area would pray to Pan for blessing to those going into the woods, Airtimes for those hunting, Demeter for the planting season, & Hesta for the new house being finished. Similarly a cleric of a Celt area would pray to the goods and goddesses of their pantheon as needed . etc.

With that, the cleric, regardless of their pantheon, has all the same general spells.

However, a priest of a given specific god or goddess will have different / limited / additional spells than that of a normal cleric .

Now, don't as for a breakdown of these spell lists by god/goddess, because it has been YEARS since I ran anything in my home brew setting and I'm not sure I even have a pen and paper list of the spell lists left from back then.

[Captain_K]

Great input, particularly got a smile to the polytheist point of view... we've been living in a monotheist so long folks always say.. many gods to choose from, pick one... way back when they would have thought you crazy... you may, due to your job or primary efforts have a patron, but you must recognize them all, each in their own sphere of influence. love the whole pantheon approach... keeps me sharp on more than one God...

Great input, thanks!

[DMSamuel]

My setting is polytheistic, and I see the cleric of a particular deity as calling upon that deity to grant them their divine powers. They don't ignore the other deities, but they have a special affinity for their divine patron. They are also well versed in ALL of the deities in terms of what they represent, what aspects of the world each deity has influence over, what official ceremonies for those deities entail, and what sorts of people become zealots or cultists for each deity. Yes, in my setting every deity has a cult LOL.

But as PC, since you devote most of your divine energy to gaining influence with/from one patron, you particularly focus on that deity, so you get a spell list associated with that deity's areas/spheres of influence. AND since you are learned in the ways of religion, you can tell what deity another cleric reveres if they cast a certain spell, even if they are disguised.

[Captain_K]

Very cool level of detail.

[Fizz]

As you say, AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook had spheres, and i have found that it adapts well to C&C. I really liked the concept, but i do admit the actual organization of the spells was a bit wonky. Some spheres were properly focused on common aspects (say, weather, combat, animals), but others were essentially clones of wizard spell schools (like necromantic, or protection which was effectively abjuration). And it led to some weird situations, like clerics being able to use both resurrection and reincarnate, while druids did not have either.

Still, it might give you a good starting point and provide some organization.

-Fizz

[Captain_K]

Thanks for the input, if anyone has a listing by spheres or school, I would love to have it... I will make an attempt at it too.

[Grandpa]

Thanks for the input, if anyone has a listing by spheres or school, I would love to have it... I will make an attempt at it too.

From AD&D 2nd Ed Priest's Handbook (a great reference doc): (from the DMG, pages 33, 34) "priest spells are divided into categories
called spheres of influence. Each spell belongs to one of 16 categories. Those categories
include:
All, Animal, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental, Guardian,
Healing, Necromantic, Plant, Protection, Summoning, Sun, and Weather.
Priests can't cast spells from all spheres of influence. Any specific priesthood can have
major access to one or several spheres, and thus eventually learn to cast spells of any
level from that sphere, and can have minor access to one or several other spheres, and
learn to cast spells from only 1st through 3rd level in that sphere.
When designing a new priesthood, the DM decides which spheres of influence the
priesthood has.
All priesthoods should have major access to the All sphere. Beyond that, the DM
should choose a number of spheres, and the access to each, based on the attributes of the
god being served, and on how combat-efficient the priest is already."

[Fizz]

I think my ideal organization is a cross between 2nd ed spheres and 3E domains. 2nd ed spheres constituted the priest's available spells, but the groupings were not well-defined. While in 3E, the domains were well-defined and specific, but only contaied a single spell at each level, and were more of a tweak of the cleric and did not largely alter what the cleric could cast (a cleric of a war god still had pretty much the same spell list as a cleric of thievery).

I think what is needed are the domains of 3E, with the full set of spells in each domain provided by 2nd ed (generally 2-3 at each level). I've not done much formal work on it, but usually i just figure it out as i need it.

-Fizz