Community

So I just ran a party through the Caves of Chaos, one of who was a Cleric character I made for a newbie. Because the party has a Fighter already, there was no need for anything like a warbringer or anything of the like in the party, so I made her a Lifegiver cleric. It turned out that being a Cleric was the strongest choice anyone could make, with Lance of Faith dealing 2d6 + WIS damage on a hit, as well as throwing Cure Minor Wounds around every turn. 

I propose first and most simply that Lance of Faith deal only 1d6 Damage, considering it is a cantrip and can be cast willy-nilly. 

Cure Minor Counds I have a more radical suggestion for. First, it should require an entire action, rather than casually saving someone from the brink of death at level 1. Instead of healing 1 HP, it might benefit from restoring 1d4 plus nothing (just a flat roll) hit points, and it cannot be cast on someone unless they have 3 or fewer HP. 

And one minor adjustment I would advise, rather than a heal spell being "Heal from Zero", an unconscious creature requires a Heal check in addition to reviving them.

Revive Check DC = 10 + (unconscious character's level) - (Unconscious characters CON modifier). The idea here being that the tougher a character the easier they are to bring back up. At the same time as they get more powerful, they become a more difficult entity to revive. Only if the DC is met will they be healed from zero. If they fail the Revive Check their negative HP can only be healed up to 0 HP, remaining unconscious. 

I understand the desire to make Clerics more inticing to play, letting them be Wizard-Clerics, Fighter-Clerics or Lazer-Clerics, I do. However, to give you an idea, the Lifegiver Cleric in the party I ran had an AC on par with our tank and was dealing more damage than him per-hit with Lance of Faith. I've loved the playtest materials we've had access to so far, but I'd have to say this version of the Cleric is a slap in the face of the Balance WotC is attempting to make with Next.

Thoughts? Am I being ridiculous?

Well on the note of modifiers on spell damage, this was taken from the How to Play document in the newest test package (page 16)

"Damage Rolls
Each weapon and spell notes the damage it deals, such as 1d8 or 2d6. Roll the dice, add any modifiers, and apply the damage to your target.[...] "

That says to me that a Wizard's intelligence modifier is additional damage for his ability to cast Burning Hands so well, just as a Fighter's damage is boosted with a swing of his greatsword by how burly he is.

On the note of "Heal from Zero" Revive Checks (which I mentioned above) is that it offers more use with the Heal skill which as it stands is almost useless for anyone with it when you have a Cleric to bring everyone back up to at least 1 HP.  

My big complaint is that there are so many heavily armored variants of the Cleric that make them better than fighters in most situations. Essentially a demi-god. I think this is more of an issue with how people see Clerics as a weak choice of class. This alternative of making all of these Cleric options into Wizards, Rogues or Fighters that heal isn't the answer though. It makes everyone else around the table think "Well she's doing what I'm doing but with the added bonus of keeping all of us alive. Why wouldn't I just play a Warbringer? Or a Trickster?"
 

Jan 2, 2013 -- 12:11PM, Redvers wrote:

That says to me that a Wizard's intelligence modifier is additional damage for his ability to cast Burning Hands so well, just as a Fighter's damage is boosted with a swing of his greatsword by how burly he is.

The wording isn't the most clear, but it's definitely designed that way.  Some spells have you add a modifier.  Most don't.  It wouldn't make sense for some spells to specify if all of them gain the modifier.

The problem is that there's a reliance on Heal from Zero by a lot of people who have only recently gotten into the hobby (I've only been playing D&D for a year and a half, so I count myself among those people). One of the reasons I suggest a Heal check along with the Cure [BLANK] Wounds is so that there's more of a struggle than just casually willing someone back to consciousness, but as long as that Heal check is met there is some difficulty rather than a gaurantee for a Cleric.

Or conversely, the spell could activate and the unconscious person needs to attempt a "Wake Up" roll, or else only be at 0 HP. 

Jan 3, 2013 -- 5:27PM, Redvers wrote:

Also, it's extremely unclear how many Spells a first level Cleric is supposed to have, and how many they're supposed to gain per level.
If it says that explicitly anywhere in the playtest documents, I haven't been able to find it. 

1. Spell slots, (chart on pg2 of Classes Packet 4) This tells you what you can cast a day. Level 1 can cast 2 1st level spells.

2. Prepared Spells, (2nd paragraph under Level 1: Spellcasting) you can prepare a number of spells equal to your level +1 (i.e. you will eventually prepare less spells then you have slots for, but you can cast spells you have prepared multiple times.)

3. Clerics can prepare any spell available to a cleric that they can cast (unlike a wizard who has a spell book with specific spells), a cleric can choose to prepare any spell that is in the cleric list that he has spell slots avaiable for. 

Make sense?