The handiwork of the gods is everywhere—in places of natural beauty, in mighty crusades, in soaring temples, and in the hearts of worshipers. Like people, gods run the gamut from benevolent to malicious, reserved to intrusive, simple to inscrutable. The gods, however, work mostly through intermediaries—their clerics. Good clerics heal, protect, and avenge. Evil clerics pillage, destroy, and sabotage. A cleric uses the power of his god to make his god’s will manifest. And if a cleric uses his god’s power to improve his own lot, that’s to be expected, too.
Ideally, a cleric’s adventures support his god’s causes, at least in a general way. A good cleric, for example, helps those in need. If, through noble acts, he can improve the reputation to his god or temple, that’s even better. An evil cleric seeks to increase his own power and that of his deity, so that others will respect and fear both.
Clerics sometimes receive orders, or at least suggestions, from their ecclesiastical superiors, directing them to undertake missions for the church. The clerics and their companions are compensated fairly for these missions, and the church may be especially generous with the casting of needed spells or divine magic items as payment. Of course, clerics are people, too, and they may have any or all the more common motivations for adventuring.
Clerics are masters of divine magic, which is especially good at healing. Even an inexperienced cleric can bring people back from the brink of death, and an experienced cleric can bring back people who have crossed over that brink. Clerics also have some combat training. They can use a small selection of weapons, and they are trained in the use of armor, since armor does not interfere with divine spells the way it does with arcane spells.
Most clerics join their churches as young adults, though some are devoted to a god’s service from a young age, and a few feel the call later in life. While some clerics are tightly bound to their churches’ activities on a daily basis, others have more freedom to conduct their lives as they please, as long as they do so in accordance with their gods’ wishes.
Clerics of a given religion are all supposed to get along, though schisms within a church are often more bitter than conflicts between religions. Clerics who share some basic ideals or goals may find common cause with each other and see themselves as part of an order or body that supersedes any given religion. Clerics of opposed goals, however, are sworn enemies. In civilized lands, open warfare between religions occurs only during civil wars and similar social upheavals, but vicious politicking between opposed churches is common.
The cleric serves as a typical group’s primary healer, diviner, and defensive specialist. He can hold his own in a fight but usually isn’t well served by charging to the front of combat. The cleric’s domain and spell selection can greatly affect his role as well.
Clerics belong to the priest class group. (See the Character Advancement page for more information about class groups.)
4d6 × 10 gp (average 140 gp). In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.
The cleric has a Medium base attack bonus, Medium Fortitude, Poor Reflex, and Medium Will saving throw bonuses. (See Table: Attack & Save Bonuses By Level, on the Classes page.)
A cleric is proficient with basic weapons and unarmed attacks, as well as any two of the following weapon groups:
(See the Weapons page for more information about weapons and weapon groups.)
A cleric with the War domain is also proficient with his deity’s chosen weapon.
A cleric is proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).
(A character who does not begin as a cleric at 1st character level does not gain these proficiencies.)
A cleric has the following special abilities.
A cleric has the ability to cast spells, which she must prepare in advance. Clerics prepare their spells by meditation, prayer, and ritual, which takes 10 minutes per spell level prepared. To prepare or cast a spell, a cleric must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level, and the spell must be of a level that the cleric is able to cast (see Table: Cleric Spells Per Day).
A cleric may prepare and cast any spell she knows, which includes all spells on the general cleric spell list (see Cleric spells, below) as well as spells from the cleric’s domain, and any other spells the cleric may have learned in the course of her adventures.
Like other spellcasters, a cleric can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her daily spell allotment is given on Table: Cleric Spells Per Day.
(See the Magic page for more information on preparing and casting spells.)
A cleric’s deity influences what magic she can perform, her values, and how others see her. A cleric chooses one domain from among those belonging to her deity.
Each domain grants a number of spells known (that is, a cleric automatically knows all spells associated with her domain as well as spells on the general cleric spell list).
A complete listing of cleric domains can be found on the Domains page.
At 2nd level, and every 6 levels thereafter, the cleric can select a domain power. See the description of each domain for a list of the domain powers it allows a cleric to select. Some domain powers have class level requirements that the cleric must meet in order to take those powers.
Domain powers and priest levels: Levels of classes within the priest class group stack for the purposes of determining which domain powers a character has access to, and the effects of those domain powers, if he selects the same domain with multiple classes. For instance, if a multiclassed cleric/druid selects the Animal domain with his druid’s nature bond class feature, and then also select the Animal domain as as his cleric domain, then his cleric and druid levels will stack with each other for the purposes of determining which Animal domain abilities he gets, and their effects.
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A cleric gain a +1 competence bonus on Knowledge? (religion) checks for every two cleric levels she has. This does not necessarily represent specific knowledge of the details of any particular religion; the skill check bonus applies to any religion, spiritual tradition, or matter of faith which the cleric has at least encountered (although not to things with which she is entirely unfamiliar). Rather, this ability represents a general understanding of religious doctrine, practices, and rituals, which have much in common across many worlds. Religious knowledge also applies to matters relating to the cleric’s domain. This ability allows the character to make untrained Knowledge? checks with any DC, not only DC 10, on applicable topics.
A cleric’s bonus language options include Celestial, Abyssal, and Infernal (the languages of celestials, demons, and devils, respectively). These choices are in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
A cleric who grossly violates the code of conduct required by her faith loses the ability to pray to that faith’s deity or deities for spells. Her cleric levels also stop counting for the purpose of turning undead. She cannot thereafter gain levels as a cleric of that faith until she atones for her deeds (see the atonement spell description). (Note that using evil magic and supernatural evil powers is usually an evil act, and using chaotic magic and supernatural chaotic powers is usually a chaotic act; performing such acts may affect the cleric’s alignment. Conversely, good or lawful magic, and supernatural powers of good and law, usually require the user to be good or lawful himself.)
Clerics in the World of Adventure campaign must select a deity or faith. Consult your DM for lists of faiths for the various worlds from which characters may hail.
The cleric’s spell list in the Worlds of Adventure campaign (not including those spells which may be researched or discovered; see the Spells page for more information) is as follows:
0th level — bleed, create water, cure/inflict minor wounds, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, light, mending, purify food and drink, resistance, stabilize, virtue.
1st level — bless/bane, cause fear, command, comprehend languages, cure/inflict light wounds, deathwatch, detect chaos/evil/good/law, detect undead, divine favor, endure elements, entropic shield, hide from undead, magic stone, obscuring mist, protection from chaos/evil/good/law, remove fear, sanctuary, summon monster I.
2nd level — align weapon, augury, bull’s strength, calm emotions, consecrate, cure/inflict moderate wounds?, darkness, death knell, delay poison, desecrate, enthrall, gentle repose, hold person, make whole, remove paralysis, lesser restoration, shatter, shield other, silence, sound burst, spiritual weapon, status, summon monster II, undetectable alignment, zone of truth.
3rd level — animate dead, bestow curse, blindness/deafness, contagion, continual flame, create food and water, cure/inflict serious wounds?, daylight, deeper darkness, dispel magic, glyph of warding, helping hand, invisibility purge, locate object, magic circle against chaos/evil/good/law, meld into stone, obscure object, prayer, protection from cold, protection from fire, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, remove disease, searing light, speak with dead, stone shape, summon monster III, water breathing, water walk, wind wall.
4th level — air walk, chaos hammer, control water, cure/inflict critical wounds?, death ward, dimensional anchor, discern lies, dismissal, divination, divine power, freedom of movement, giant vermin, holy smite, imbue with spell ability, neutralize poison, order’s wrath, lesser planar ally, poison, repel vermin, restoration, sending, spell immunity, summon monster IV, tongues, unholy blight.
5th level — atonement, break enchantment, breath of life, greater command, commune, mass cure/inflict light wounds?, dispel chaos/evil/good/law, disrupting weapon, flame strike, hallow, insect plague, mark of justice, plane shift, raise dead, righteous might, scrying, slay living, spell resistance, summon monster V, symbol of pain, symbol of sleep, true seeing, unhallow, wall of stone.
6th level — animate objects, antilife shell, banishment, blade barrier, create undead, mass cure/inflict moderate wounds?, greater dispel magic, find the path, forbiddance, geas/quest, glyph of warding, harm, heal, heroes' feast, planar ally, summon monster VI, symbol of fear, symbol of persuasion, undeath to death, wind walk, word of recall.
7th level — blasphemy, control weather, mass cure/inflict serious wounds?, destruction, dictum, ethereal jaunt, holy word, refuge, regenerate, repulsion, greater restoration, resurrection, greater scrying, summon monster VII, symbol of stunning, symbol of weakness, word of chaos.
8th level — antimagic field, cloak of chaos, creater greater undead, mass cure/inflict critical wounds?, dimension lock, discern location, earthquake, fire storm, holy aura, greater planar ally, shield of law, greater spell immunity, summon monster VIII, symbol of death, symbol of insanity, unholy aura.
9th level — astral projection, energy drain, etherealness, gate, mass heal, implosion, miracle, soul bind, storm of vengeance, summon monster IX, true resurrection.