Friday, April 29, 2016

Divine Domain: Technology [ROUGH DRAFT]



Domains are the most fascinating thing about clerics in 5e. It's simple, intuitive, and makes perfect sense that a cleric of a trickster god like Loki would feel fundamentally different than a cleric of a storm god like Thor, but still have some common ground, as the two of them serve the same basic social purpose.

Likewise, a Madness cleric feels fundamentally different from a Civilization cleric, and both are diverged significantly in feeling from a Technology cleric.

Like their (as-yet, not canon) artificer brethren, a cleric of Technology builds and constructs, but channels their inspiration and the core of their power from a great and powerful god of science and industry. Gods like Vulcan, Gond, Onatar, and Erathis style themselves gods of Technology, and clerics who serve them push the frontiers of knowledge and scientific inspiration with their transforming clockwork creations and technomagical know-how.

What sort of things can a Technology cleric do? Let's find out:

FEATURES:

  • A Clockwork Minion who can transform through uses of a class feature.
  • Use your Channel Divinity to always draw the perfect tool (or trap) at the perfect time.
  • Build as a caster or crossbow-user, allowing you to fluff your cleric as you please.
  • Clone yourself! It's good for you. 
CONCERNS:
  • Transforming your clockwork assistant is kind of a strange feature, and I wonder if it is balanced right. It was originally designed as a Channel Divinity, but I moved it to once per long rest to be safe.
  • Divine Toolbox, on the other hand, is limited by uses Channel Divinity. Is being able to whip out 2+ traps, ball-bearings, or caltrops for an hour each short rest reasonable, you think?
  • I kept the spell list as technomagically focused as I could. Does the flavor hold up?
  • I did the math, I did the monster math, but it turns out I'm not the greatest at monster math. Could someone check the Clockwork Assistant math and tell me if it's alright?
  • Instead of cantrips vs weapons, I tried to split Scientific Accuracy on ranged vs melee. Does it feel about right?
WHAT I LEARNED:
  • I really, really, really need to learn more about monster math. I don't think I've done creature math since the Dead King pact back in the day. 

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