Of all the AD&D® game character
classes, the cleric is generally the most badly
played. Clerics don?t seem to fit very well
into the medieval fantasy background of
most AD&D game campaigns. Fighter
characters can be modeled on Conan or
Fafhrd, magic-users on Gandalf or Merlin,
and thieves on the Grey Mouser or Bilbo
Baggins, but few great characters of legend
or fantasy literature exist from whom the
players of clerics may draw inspiration.
This makes the class particularly difficult to
play.

In many adventures a cleric is taken
along as a sort of walking medical kit and
detection device, for it is widely recognized
that in these roles a cleric adds to a party?s
chances of survival. Clerics often bestow
their blessings on party members indiscriminately,
however, with no thought to differences
in alignment or outlook. This can
lead to situations in which clerics actively
aid the causes that they are supposed to
oppose!

If merely being in the same party is
enough to guarantee a cleric?s aid, the cleric
becomes a colorless appendage instead of a
complete character in his own right. To help
prevent this, a cleric?s outlook, motives, and
goals must be firmly outlined, preferably
before any adventuring begins.

A cleric?s motivation will differ greatly
from that of any other character class. A
fighter may prepare for the establishment of
his own freehold, and a thief may look
forward to the day when she can oust the
local guildmaster, but a cleric?s one overriding
concern will be service to his deity and
(thereby) the furtherance of his faith. All
actions of the cleric will be viewed from this
standpoint, and all decisions weighed in the
balance. The cleric?s personal needs and
aspirations, and those of other party members,
will always be of secondary importance.
Even the cleric?s life may be
sacrificed, if his deity?s aims would be furthered
by such an act.

The gods are so powerful that direct
confrontation between them would result in
universal destruction. To prevent this, the
gods? battles are fought on the Prime Material
Plane by their servants, and clerics are
their deities? standard bearers in the fray.
The power of the gods is often proportional
to the number of worshipers they enjoy, so a
cleric?s most important tasks will be to
defend and nurture the faithful in areas
where his deity is worshiped, and increase
the number of worshipers whenever and
wherever possible. A cleric must also endeavor
to encourage and foster those values
and aspects of the world that his deity finds
most pleasing, to resist and crush those
aspects found distasteful, and to foil the
efforts of any beings working in the cause of
deities opposed to his own. It can be assumed
that clerics with temples and congregations
in their charge will be most
concerned with the former tasks, while the
other tasks will fall to the wandering clericadventurers,
meaning the player characters.

Crusading, zeal begins at home, and
fellow party members will be prime targets
for it. From the first, it should be made
clear that under no circumstances will the
cleric be a party to actions that go against
the interests or teachings of his deity, nor
will he stand idly by while others perform
them. Those wishing his aid must first
prove themselves worthy of it, and true
believers will be given preference over
infidels. The cleric may attempt to convert
other party members to his faith at every
opportunity, and should gladly expound on
the tenets of his beliefs to all who seek enlightenment
(as well as to those who don?t).
Unbelievers who seek his aid will be especially
prone to this treatment, and payment
or service in the deity?s interest will be
demanded in return. Those whom the cleric
considers to be totally beyond redemption
will never be aided unless the cause of the
cleric?s deity would be furthered greatly by
doing so.

Clerics will be much less tolerant of persons
whose alignments differ radically from
their own than will other characters, for
obvious reasons; this will be especially
apparent when the clerics of opposing deities
are concerned. Considerable distrust
may appear even between clerics whose
deities are well disposed toward one another,
and it would be very rare indeed for a
cleric to join a party containing the worshiper
of a deity opposed to his own.

Being a cleric is a full-time occupation.
As his deity?s emissary on the Prime Material
Plane, a cleric must exhibit behavior
that is exemplary and correct according to
his beliefs, even when not adventuring.
Unlike other adventurers, he should not be
found indulging in the delights of the bordello
or ale-house between expeditions
(unless religious observance demands it or is
unconcerned with it). Instead, he may be
seen preaching to the populace, administering
to the faithful, and attempting to bring
the area as a whole in line with his deity?s
ideals. These activities will more than likely
bring the cleric into conflict with local
priesthoods, which can spice things up for
the other player characters, too. Having a
well-played cleric in a party can often be a
mixed blessing!

It is obvious that a cleric?s behavior depends
to a great extent on the deity he
worships. By no means should all clerics be
cut from the same mold, as often occurs in
gaming. A set of beliefs and codes of behav
ior must be established for each religion in a
campaign, with some outline on how the
various gods and their followers relate to
each other.

It was hoped that the DEITIES &
DEMIGODS Cyclopedia would fulfill this
role, but in this respect the book seems
lacking. Although gods from many different
pantheons are outlined in fair detail, the
ultimate aims of the gods and the standards
of behavior expected-of their worshipers and
clerics are still left undefined. For a cleric to
have purpose in life, he must worship a
deity whose aims and aspirations are known
and whose standards can be upheld. It is up
to the DM to provide a selection of such
deities from which a player may choose the
one most suited to the character at hand.
The DDG book is an excellent source book,
though by no means exhaustive, and an
inventive DM can design his own gods from
scratch. A fair selection of gods, covering
most spheres of influence, character types
and alignment variations, can be achieved
by using 20 to 30 different deities. Other
deities above and beyond this total are
largely redundant, though the DM may
wish to include racial gods, such as the orc
deity Gruumsh, especially for monster
races.

Once deities have been chosen and their
alignments, spheres of control, and the
nature of their worshipers have been decided,
it is fairly easy to provide them with
motives, ambitions, and interrelationships.
For purposes of this article, we will use as
an example Kos, the god of dooms from the
Nehwon mythos, and outline a hypothetical
religious system for his clerics.

Kos is neutral in alignment, is worshiped
by fighters, delights in battle, and has a
highly developed sense of personal honor.
We may assume from this that he tends
more toward chaos than law, will wish to
see as many battles as he can, prizes individual
prowess and bravery over tactical
excellence, and despises cowards intensely.

Cowards, in Kos?s definition of the term,
might make up a very broad and diverse
group of beings, including all those who
weigh the odds in their favor rather than
fight directly one-on-one (such as magicusers,
backstabbing thieves, and so forth).
Those who are too ?cowardly? to fight for
themselves (such as peasants who depend on
their lords to protect them, or rich individuals
who hire others to do their fighting)
will be lumped together with fighters who
run away from anything less than insurmountable
odds.

This outlook will obviously bring Kos
into conflict with many deities ? particularly
gods advocating peaceful coexistence,
gods of thieves and magic, gods of healing,
and so forth. On the other hand, gods of
music and poetry, whose practitioners praise
the deeds of heroes, and those of metalworking,
who oversee the making of the
implements of battle, might find him well
disposed towards them. The gods of natural
phenomena like weather would be mutually
indifferent to his actions.

Kos would make an ideal god for a barbarian 
hero.  His followers would NOT allow 
themselves to shew fear under any circumstances, 
and would spend much Time improving 
their battle skills to please Kos with 
their prowess in combat.  Their highly developed 
sense of honor would NOT allow 
them to fight against a much weaker enemy, 
and they would despise those who did, 
especially those who slew foes in their sleep 
rather than giving them the chance to die 
nobly in combat.  Bravery and fighting skills 
would be highly prized even in enemies.  
Foes who fought bravely but did not die in 
battle might be made safe from having their 
throats cut afterwards, as long as the <priests> 
of Kos were around. 

The clerics would naturally follow
the above code, but would have other obligations
in addition. Their first task would
be to actively encourage wars and combat
wherever possible, for the more wars there
are, the more warriors there will be, and
thus the more potential worshipers. They
would not hesitate to defend the honor of
Kos with their blood, being even more
eager to punish insults to him than the 
pale, unless they only used their magick in 
combat to =equal= the odds in what would 
otherwise be an unequal engagement.  Only 
fighters would be reasonably be sure of receiving 
any aid, and even then only if they 
adhered to "Kosian" codes of behavior. 



The code that such clerics follow would
have a great effect on the spells they would
use, as well as determining under what
circumstances their spells would be cast.
Since they are servants of a god who delights
in battle, a good case could be made
for allowing these clerics to use certain
edged weapons, especially since Kos?s holy
symbol is a crossed sword and axe. As a
precedent, note that the clerics of the Greyhawk
deity Trithereon (DRAGON® Magazine <link>
#68) are allowed to gain the use of
broadswords and spears.

Whether this sort of weaponry privilege is
allowed in a campaign or not, the clerics of
Kos would be eager to come to grips with
their enemies to demonstrate their martial
prowess and bravery, and to prove themselves
worthy in their task of spreading Kos?s
teachings. As a result, they would be unlikely
to cast spells in battle except to even
up severely unbalanced odds.

After a look through the selection of cleric
spells available, it becomes apparent that
some spells would be unsuitable for followers
of Kos to pray for or receive. Sanctuary
would probably go unused, since it
prevents the very thing that the cleric is
trying to promote (confrontation). Protection
from evil (in effect, from enchanted
creatures) might be acceptable, since it
would be useful against ?cowardly? creatures
employing magic for offense and
defense, unless the cleric is powerful enough
to attack such beings directly. Detect evil
might be seen as an irrelevant spell, while
detect magic could warn of an opponent?s
dishonorable methods of combat (e.g., the
opponent?s girdle of giant strength). Remove
fear would be a good spell, but not its
reverse, cause fear: What could be more
heinous than to magically rob a warrior ?
even an opponent ? of his bravery?

The cleric of Kos could find himself in a
very interesting position with regard to
dispensing cures. Healing ?cowards? would
be out of the question. Wounds received in
single combat could be seen as honorable
marks of battle, and as such their recipient
might be expected to wear them with pride.
However, a warrior whose wounds put him
at a disadvantage against an uninjured
opponent might be considered a special
case. Wounds caused by magic, traps, or
some other dishonorable means would be
cured without question ? as long as the
recipient was worthy, of course.

Similar reasoning would apply where
raising or resurrecting the dead is concerned.
A warrior who died honorably in
single combat might be seen as having died
the finest death possible, and thus be
refused resurrection. One who died by
sorcery, or had been killed when fighting
many opponents, would probably stand a
much better chance of being brought back.

Service to Kos would also dictate the
kinds of adventures his clerics might join.
They might be unwilling to help dispose of
an evil magnate whose armies were rampaging
about the country, unless not doing 
so would harm their religious set-up in the 
AREA.  They might JOIN expeditions in relatively 
peaceful areas, but might also be more 
interested in provoking monsters into attacking, 
than in avoiding them. 

The worship of Kos would be popular in
barbaric regions and among barbarian
mercenaries. The rulers of more civilized
areas would want to further their ends
without damaging their incomes, however,
and ?Kosites? might only be welcome at
the courts of monarchs with expansionist
aims. Even here, their interest in prolonged
combat would often conflict with the interests
of the government (which would generally
seek a quick, decisive victory). Many
fighters would probably become worshipers,
though, and temples of Kos might even
offer inexpensive or free weapons-training
to encourage converts from among those
not having martial backgrounds.

Obviously, clerics of Kos would fit in very
well with a party of hack-and-slayers. They
would probably be a pain in the rear for a
group of more subtle adventurers. Whatever
their circumstances are, they make
interesting characters and are (in my experience)
fun to play.

This same process of creating a religious
background can be used to bring other
religions in a campaign to life. Determine
the aims of the gods, how they intend to
fulfill them, and what relationships they
have with other gods as a result. Then
decide how this will affect the behavior of
their worshipers and clerics, what spells
would be acceptable to them, and in what
situations these spells would be used. A
canon in the service of Lu Yueh, the Chinese
god of epidemics, would be unlikely to
use cure disease, for example. How are
clerics expected to further the aims of their
god, and what kinds of adventures would
they join? If your DM hasn?t done all this
detailing, then work out a religion for your
cleric character yourself and see how things
develop from there.
 

Having a detailed religious background
adds enormously to the flavor of any fantasy
campaign. Not only do clerics become more
interesting and fun to play as characters,
but encounters with NPC clerics become
more enjoyable for the DM to handle.
Conflicts between the various religions can
themselves be a rich source of individual
adventures.

If you find that your <priest> has become
colorless or that other players and characters
take him for granted, give him a code
to follow and send him out to spread the
true faith! If he is true to his ideals (even if
he doesn?t survive), he will be assured a
place in the afterlife at his deity?s side!


DECEMBER 1984