If he did he would know how good they are.
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Anime Why do Clerics suck so much?
- Thread starter turkishronin
- Start date
ProphetSword
Arcane
Anyone who thinks clerics are just healers hasn’t played a cleric in the last 30 years. They can outfight the fighter with the right buffs and lay down some serious pain on their enemies (even more if those enemies are undead).
I once played a light armored cleric who was also a master archer. She could tumble into combat, bypassing enemies without getting hit, lay down healing on the tanks and then skip out of melee while nailing things with her magical bow. When not healing, she could greatly increase her allies abilities on the battlefield with buffs and lay down serious hurt on any enemy who moved toward her. Loved that character.
I once played a light armored cleric who was also a master archer. She could tumble into combat, bypassing enemies without getting hit, lay down healing on the tanks and then skip out of melee while nailing things with her magical bow. When not healing, she could greatly increase her allies abilities on the battlefield with buffs and lay down serious hurt on any enemy who moved toward her. Loved that character.
Stormcrowfleet
Aeon & Star Interactive
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2009
- Messages
- 1,062
From the perspective of original Dungeons and Dragons, what is being called a "cleric" here is faulty by many people. Cleric here is taken as "healer" from the MMO triad of "tank, healer, DPS". That's gamey, and very specific.
In pre-OD&D, the Cleric was invented in the Arneson campaign in order to correct the problem that were vampires, especially vampire player character. Therefore his main feature was Turn Undead. This created a (very confusing) triad of fighting-man, magic-user and cleric, each taking different role. Because of his love of history, Gygax gave it a more "clerical" touch with influences of old school heroes that we now would call "paladin" or holy man, such as saints, templars, but also some figthing bishop of second of half of middle ages. This stired the class in two different but complementary direction: a mace-wielding holy man from the middle age, and a Van Helsing figure from the Hammer film (horror movies).
That being said, both those influence were very specific: Arneson Van Helsing, and Gygax middle-age bayeux tapestry figthing bishop. When the game (d)evolved, the class lost this christian touch and anti-vampire/monster touch. This created a hole in its reason to exist. So instead of getting rid of it, it was repurposed.
Personally, I think that in most cases, the cleric shouldn't exist, or should be really thought of more thoroughly.
In pre-OD&D, the Cleric was invented in the Arneson campaign in order to correct the problem that were vampires, especially vampire player character. Therefore his main feature was Turn Undead. This created a (very confusing) triad of fighting-man, magic-user and cleric, each taking different role. Because of his love of history, Gygax gave it a more "clerical" touch with influences of old school heroes that we now would call "paladin" or holy man, such as saints, templars, but also some figthing bishop of second of half of middle ages. This stired the class in two different but complementary direction: a mace-wielding holy man from the middle age, and a Van Helsing figure from the Hammer film (horror movies).
That being said, both those influence were very specific: Arneson Van Helsing, and Gygax middle-age bayeux tapestry figthing bishop. When the game (d)evolved, the class lost this christian touch and anti-vampire/monster touch. This created a hole in its reason to exist. So instead of getting rid of it, it was repurposed.
Personally, I think that in most cases, the cleric shouldn't exist, or should be really thought of more thoroughly.
Agreed. I have alot of complaints with distinctions between Clerics, Paladins, Druids, and Monks (D&D). Clerics would basically be a wizard with sponsored casting and domain restrictions. Druids should be functionally identical to clerics, but with nature domains. Paladins would be a prestige class for clerics. Monks would be eliminated (along with their wushu) and their class features divided between clerics and paladins. I also don't like distinctions in spell lists. Learned casters should be able to cast anything. Innate casters pick from that same list per their bloodline, and sponsored casters per their domains.
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