Before Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy fiction was full of bold warriors, mysterious magician, and devious thief protagonists, but after DnD, the cleric ed this trio of traditional fantasy heroes, a holy magician who heals the wounds of allies and smites the wicked in hundreds of modern fantasy novels and role-playing games. Wizards of the Coast recently revealed a new One D&D playtest document with an updated set of rules for the cleric character class. Updated spells and magic powers aside, DnD developers have changed the cleric's core features in a way that makes it easier for players to portray characters outside the archetypes of a holy warrior or so-called heal bot.
The original cleric of DnD history, like many classic Dungeons & Dragons classes, was improvised into existence during game sessions of early DnD and drew inspiration from several sources. The healing and smiting spells of the cleric were inspired by the miracles of prophets recounted in Abrahamic religious scripture, while their Turn Undead ability was taken from horror movies where vampires are repelled by a brandished holy symbol. These signature abilities once made it tricky to roleplay cleric PCs who aren't saints or another shade of religious zealot, but the new One D&D playtest document gives players more tools for bringing unique cleric concepts to life.
One D&D Clerics Have A New Holy Order Feature
The Domain subclasses of clerics in DnD 5e already gave players a lot of flexibility in shaping the characterization and party utility of their cleric PC. Life Domain and Grave Domain cleric are specced towards healing other adventurers, Storm and Light Domain clerics can focus more on dealing elemental damage, and so on. The new Holy Order feature of One D&D clerics, unlocked at level two, may be less aesthetically impressive than Domain subclasses. On closer examination, though, this unassuming class feature drastically increases the ability of players to give their clerics a distinct play-style, even in low-level campaigns.
Mechanic-wise, the Holy Order feature revealed in the One D&D playtest lets players choose one out of three roles for their cleric characters. By choosing the Protector role, players can give a cleric proficiency with Martial Weapons and Heavy Armor, making their PC much more resilient in frontline combat (this role is thematically aligned with historic orders of militant priests such as the Knights Templar or Knights Hospitaler). Choosing the Thaumaturge role gives clerics an extra cantrip spell and lets them regain one use of their Channel Divinity ability during short rests (this role invokes clerics as holy spellcasters a-la Final Fantasy's White Mage classes).
The most novel upgrade option of this One D&D class change may be the new Scholar role. By picking this role, cleric player characters gain proficiency in two academic skills of their choice (specifically, Arcana, History, Nature, Persuasion, and Religion) and can add their Wisdom modifier to any rolls made using these chosen skills. Aside from giving clerics more utility in non-combat roleplaying scenes, this new Holy Order role seems to be a good choice for Dungeons & Dragons players who want to roleplay knowledgeable, educated clerics, an opportunity that invokes historic, real-world clergy who copied manuscripts in scriptoriums, and would retrieve ancient religious text from distant lands.
One D&D Clerics Have Better Channel Divinity Abilities
Before the introduction of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, the most infamous non-spell ability of DnD clerics was the very potent but highly situational Turn Undead. A cleric holds their holy symbol aloft and makes a pious proclamation of some kind, and undead creatures who fail to resist the effect are forced to run away as far as they can (or perhaps perish depending on the gap between their level and the cleric's). It's a very useful power if a cleric and their adventuring party happen to encounter hordes of shambling corpses or skeletons in a dungeon, but essentially useless in any other circumstance or combat scenario.
After the third edition of rules changes to DnD, developers at Wizards of the Coast started reworking the cleric's Turn Undead ability to be a lot more versatile. DnD 5e changed the ability's name to Channel Divinity and gave each cleric build two ways to use it. Every cleric, regardless of spell class, can expend a use of Channel Divinity to manifest the classic Turn Undead effect. Alternatively, they can use expend a use of Channel Divinity to manifest specific magical effect described in their cleric Domain subclass. Tempest Domain clerics can use Channel Divinity to max out their lightning/thunder damage, Forge Domain clerics can use their Channel Divinity to become magical blacksmiths, etc.
One D&D's take on the Channel Divinity feature (shared between DnD clerics and the similar paladins) retains the "Turn Undead + unique Domain power" structure of DnD 5e, but does give roleplayers one extra tool in their Channel Divinity toolbox. The Divine Spark ability, an application of Channel Divinity available to any cleric at level one, lets players roll a handful eight-sided dice (the quantity equal to the cleric's Proficiency Bonus) then use the dice total to either heal an ally or deal radiant damage to an enemy. Combined with changed rules on how often it can be used per long rest, this new rule makes Channel Divinity a feature One D&D clerics can activate in almost any dungeon-crawling scenario.
One D&D's Capstone Divine Intervention Cleric Feature Is More Accessible
Each Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition character class will be updated and revised for the final release of One D&D, particularly in regard to their most powerful end-game features. According to the One D&D Expert Classes document for Rogues, Rangers, and Bards, all the class features unlocked at level 20 in DnD 5e will now be unlocked at level 18 in One D&D, the better to make room for Epic Boons as an end-game reward. The One D&D cleric's new level 18 reward is the Greater Divine Intervention Feature, an optimized version of a similar 5e cleric feature that lets players automatically succeed at attempts to call on their god for aid.
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