2025 has been my "OD&D" year with me dedicating a lot of time into studying this edition, its various sources, and running a detailed campaign based upon it (my Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign). One topic that seems to get a good amount of attention is focused on classes, usually revolving around the thief but also the cleric. The cleric gets a lot of "hate" from many OD&D players. Much like the thief, the cleric often gets removed from games entirely. The reasons for this vary from "it's not needed" to "this type of class isn't present in any source materials" and so forth. I personally really like the cleric and see their purpose, but not in the "support class/heal bot" trope that they've been relegated to. I see them as the crusaders of their faith. They're not there to proselytize per se, but rather to defend their faith and strike out against the forces opposed to it. Some may consider this the turf of the paladin, but I see the paladin more as the true embodiment of a "holy warrior" on a quest of some sort and not one that is as community focused as the warrior-priest cleric. I've tinkered with many versions of the cleric in the last 12 months and wanted to present these options as something others could use, whether directly or just as a thought experiment.
My first entry point is of course to go with the RAW cleric from the original 3 booklets. So we're looking at no spells at level one, no edged weapons, turning undead, and a few benefits at higher levels for creating a stronghold. Interestingly enough, in Volume I: Men & Magic all characters employing spells are assumed to be using a spell book...even a cleric. In Supplement I: Greyhawk it is further explained that clerics know all spells of a given level, since the spells are divinely given and thus wisdom has no impact on their spell casting ability (unlike intelligence for magic-users). This is the point at which the two main spell casting classes begin to drift the furthest apart and ultimately lead us down the path where we are today in D&D.
I've always found the "clerics know all and have access to all spells" part a bit off-putting, but simply moved on from my irritation in 35+ years of playing D&D. This was then the first point of experimentation that I have tinkered with on various occasions. I used the original text that clerics also needed spell books and then applied wisdom to clerics in the same way Greyhawk updated the use of intelligence for magic-users. Wisdom would thus dictate the % chance to know/understand a divine spell (interpret the scripture as it were), as well as give the minimum and maximum number of spells available per level. Finally, it also sets a maximum spell level. Given that clerics have smaller spell lists and a max level of 7, a wisdom of 15 would give the cleric their max spell casting power (vs 18 for magic-users). I also randomly determine the starting known spells for both classes based on their "minimum spells per level" employing the % chance to know a spell per spell at level 1 (a fairly common practice in OD&D and AD&D). This method worked well as it provided interesting choices for players and added value to the wisdom ability. However...I still wasn't quite satisfied and continued to tinker a bit.
One reason why the clerics of OD&D (and B/X & BECMI for that matter) get looked down upon by many players is the lack of a spell use at level 1. AD&D changed this aspect of the cleric. I believe this is mainly down to poor marketing on the side of the cleric and the wrong word being used. Spell, for me at least, implies sorcerous magic with intricate formulae and intense study. This interpretation is also found in many of the AD&D Appendix N inspirational source materials for D&D. Since cleric spells are divinely given, I believe that the word "spells" is incorrect and replaced it in my games with the word "powers" and immediately reshaped the discussion. Why? Well turning undead is available at level 1 to clerics. It's a divinely given power, no less impressive than spell casting. Now clerics have divine powers at every level, even level 1 in OD&D. I know this is just semantics, but it immediately changes the perspective of cleric players.
Me being me, I didn't stop with this change in verbiage. Scrapping the wisdom variant I highlighted above, I went down the path of detailing powers. I simply took the cleric spell list and categorized each spell as a power and attached it to a specific deity. Not all deities grant all powers. One deity might grant the curing power, whereas another grants light and yet another inflicts wounds. This resulted in the choice of deity mattering a great deal. So at level 4, a cleric has access to using their level 1 powers twice and their level 2 powers once per day. In practice this of course meant a shrinking of available spells to cast for the cleric. However, I felt it fit thematically well with the universal level 1 power of manipulating the undead (some deities allow you to control them vs turning them). I also opened up the AD&D spell lists as researchable powers for clerics. By dedicating time and resources to study, the clerics can study ancient mythological texts to discover and unlock new powers of their deity. Alternatively, I have used these added spells as powers granted by the cleric's deity for particular acts of devotion or divine quests. I know this approach massively deviates from RAW OD&D and probably makes some purists cringe, but it truly enhanced my OD&D campaigns. In general, since many players and referees do not utilize spell research, adding the AD&D spells helps alleviate the need (and stress) to come up with new spells.
These were the two main methods I used to add more depth to the cleric in my OD&D games in terms of spell casting, with the "powers" option now being my preferred version of the cleric.
The final aspect of clerics that I tinkered with was weapon choice. Being forced into non-edged weapons has always bored me and so I tied weapon choice to mythological cult. The dominant Argaxian cult of Illurios (and its associated Order of the Enduring Dawn) got the default OD&D cleric choices of any armor, shields, helmets, and only blunt weapons. Those dedicated to the cult of Ranur (war) have access to any armor and the the use of bladed melee weapons, but no shields, helmets, or missile weapons. The reason: Ranur judges his champions in every battle and to use a shield or helmet or not engage in hand-to-hand combat shows a lack of faith in his judgement of your worthiness. Another example is the cult of Shenut (sky, storms, and water). Her followers do not wear metal armor (doesn't go well with lightning) nor do they wear helmets as they are an unnatural barrier between a chosen and their goddess of the sky.
By altering the weapon choices and tying them to the chosen mythological cult, players are presented with meaningful choices and the setting matters (I'm certainly not unique in this approach).
Adding these varying elements to the OD&D cleric has given this much maligned class added depth. It has not only made for a more interesting cleric and presented players with important choices to make, it has also tied the setting and its mythology more tangibly into my campaigns. Whether a cleric is dedicated to the cult of Illurios, Ohrenn, Ranur, Setubis, Shenut, Dahruak, or the ever present Orcus matters a great deal.
I hope this dive into the OD&D cleric has given you some new options for your own campaigns (or at least been a fun thought experiment). If you want to follow along on my journey of creating the Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign for Swords & Wizardry (or any OSR game), you can subscribe to my Substack for free HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment