Dungeon Master Assistance

Thinking of playing a Cleric? Here is an excellent article regarding the pros and cons of playing a Cleric:  Clerics with Class  By Skip Williams.

Here is the information for playing an iconic Cleric character. Start with my post on Iconic Characters, then add this specific information.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: Diplomacy (Cha) Heal (Wis) and Knowledge (Religion)

Deity: A cleric devotes his life to serving one particular deity. The deity for your cleric depends on his race as indicated on the following table.

Alignment: Your cleric’s alignment should be the same as his Deity’s alignment.

Spells: A cleric casts spells drawn from the cleric spell list. However, he can’t cast spells that contain the “Evil” descriptor.

Domain Spells: When you select a Deity, you also select two of that Deity’s Domains. For each of the two domains you are granted one special power. Also, for each of the two domains, you get one domain spell for each spell level.

If you chose choose Strength and Healing as your domains, your domain powers and spells are listed here:

Strength Domain

Granted  Power: You can perform a feat of strength as a supernatural ability. You gain an enhancement bonus to Strength equal to your cleric level. Activating the power is a free action, the power lasts 1 round, and it is usable once per day.

Healing Domain

Granted Power: You cast healing spells at +1 caster level.

Cleric Spells Explained

As a Cleric, to cast a spell you have to prepare it. The Cleric must choose 1 hour of the day, in which he will have to pray, in order to have his God grant him the spells. For Clerics of Pelor, this will normally be at sunrise. Unlike wizards, it doesn’t matter if he has slept or not. This is when he chooses which spells he can cast that day.

To cast a spell, the cleric needs a Wisdom of 10+the spells level. (Not the casters level, the spells level) which means that, for example, if he had a Wisdom of 16 he could cast no higher than 6th level spells.

The saving throw difficulty class (DC) of his spells is 10 + the level of the spell + the Cleric’s Wis modifier. For example, if a 5th level Cleric with a Wisdom score of 16 throws a Hold Person spell. That is a 2nd level spell and his Wis modifier is (based on his Wisdom score of 16) is +3. So the DC for that spell will be 10+2+3 for a total of 15. The creature that he cast that spell on will have to make a will save of 15 or higher to resist the spell.

Clerics, know every spell on the Cleric spell list, of the maximum level of spells they can cast.

A Cleric has 2 kinds of spells. The spells he gets from his class, and his Domain spells. For example, a level 5 Cleric gets 5 spells of 0 level, 3+1 spells of first level, 2+1 of second ,1+1 of third (1 is the normal spells, and +1 the domain). He also may get more spells according to his Wisdom, refer to Table 1–1: Ability Modifiers And Bonus Spells. For example, if he had 16 Wisdom he would get 1 additional 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spell.

To prepare your spells:

1) Choose your 0 level spells.

2) Choose your 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. level spells depending on your cleric’s level. If you have a high Wis. Score select any additional spells you are allowed. For example, if your Wis is 16, you can select 1 additional 1st, 2nd and  3rd level spell.

3) Choose your domain spells (1 for each spell level). You have 2 domain spells to choose from for each level, but you can only choose one.

Note: there is no need to choose any non-domain healing spells. That’s because you can transform any non-domain spell into a healing spell of the same level. This is called Spontaneous Casting.

Special abilities:

The following are the special abilities available to clerics. The abilities are listed under the level that they are acquired.