Today is Summer Solstice, a holiday for druids and beachcombers alike, the longest and (usually) hottest day of the year.
Which sounds, to me, like the perfect time to release a cleric of Winter!
Winter clerics are icy warriors and mystics that hail from the coldest parts of the world, using the chilling power of their gods to serve mankind, or to slay those weaker than themselves.
What's cool about the Winter cleric? Let's take a cold, hard look:
FEATURES:
- Ice spells, ice spells, so many ice spells.
- Play as either a melee or spell-casting cleric, with your choice of 1st and 8th level features.
- Many different ways to freeze and slow your enemies, from using your Channel Divinity to rebuking creatures with Rime.
- Conjure a powerful Blizzard! Dòng zhù, bùxǔ zǒu!
CONCERNS:
- Blizzard is probably my biggest concern right now, it's hard to tell if it's too strong, or too weak.
- Not sure about the cold resist on Winter Acolyte, but it pairs well with the "no penalties from cold environments" which should be offered early on.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- Splitting a cleric domain into two paths (melee/caster) like this is interesting and makes thematic sense for this domain, and I'm curious to see what you all will think.
This is really awesome it makes me want to play a Norse style cleric
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is one of my favorites yet, easily!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you're enjoying domains! I have one to suggest, if you're taking requests: how about a cleric of dead or forgotten gods? I have a build for a cleric that uses the Knowledge Domain for this, and he uses echoes of the forgotten gods' power to pick up skills and expertise as needed, per the PHB domain. It fits pretty well, but I'm curious what your take would be.
ReplyDelete>forgotten gods
DeleteYour suggestion, Knowledge, already seems like an extremely good fit for this.
If I did it myself, though, it'd probably look like a generalist caster cleric. I'd basically do ~4 choices per feature, a different choice for each type of god or source of power you discover. It'd play like cleric Pokemon, where you're trying to catch the abilities and lore of the gods time forgot.
Actually, I kind of like this concept as a Prestige class. It'd give it a lot more elbow room to work with.
I can't tell if I like this concept enough to try and balance ~4 abilities per feature, or not, though. I'm in the middle of a couple other projects at the moment, so I'll keep the idea in my head for maybe later.
It occurs to me that the idea of pulling power from the rituals and psychic residue of lost gods would also be a great option for a bard. He's an archaeologist and adventurer/scholar who gathers up the old tales and the old songs, briefly breathing life into the forgotten spirits. Again, a standard bard might cover that just fine, but it would be fun to tinker with. Lots of different ways to get to the same place.
Delete>bard
DeleteA College of Archaeology would be a fantastic concept.
Whips and stylish hats are, of course, mandatory.
this is pretty much exactly what i had in mind when i suggested this, good job! however if i would make one change, i'd replace gaseous form with enlarge/reduce to give it a more frost giant like feel and rename blizzard to Fimbulwinter, and winter acolyte to child of frost.
ReplyDeletenow for my suggestion! how about a mind sorcerer thats mind and thoughts have expanded into the material realm, causing their grief from pain to cause a mental toll on their attackers, and to transform into their monstrous Mindramp a horrid manifestation of their dire id thats mere thoughts causes the ground to shake and their enemies to be lifted off the ground, but they need to be careful or else their mad ravings may be a danger to their allies as well as their foes, usually with a bunch of wisdom saves!
Delete>Norse-ing it up
DeleteMy intention was to go Norse-mild with this one, such that you can *very* easily make a Norse cleric, but also so that the clerics you make with this option aren't exclusively Norse in nature. I feel like direct shout-outs to Norse-ness (aside from name-dropping three Norse deities) would limit the overall possibilities this provides.
But yes, if you're making a cleric of Laufey, you should absolutely get Enlarge/Reduce rather than Gaseous Form. I openly encourage people to tweak and modify my homebrew to achieve whatever concept they'd like to play. =D
>Mind Sorcerer
Man, I *really* like that concept. I'm not going to do it right away, though, because the Psion/Mystic is looming large on the horizon and I want to see how Wizards does that before I craft something straying into that territory.
I try and future-proof my stuff as much as possible, to avoid having to fix everything later. Even if that means putting off something I'd want to do (*cough* monster races) so that it doesn't conflict with imminent official material.
I mean, you could just replace all uses of the word mind with soul i guess, and you already made a madness domain cleric!
DeleteThis is true.
DeleteI feel like Madness focuses on inflicting a specific condition, similar to how Winter is oddly fixated on finding different ways to freeze dudes.
"Mind" would naturally include a broader general scope, from madness to charms to Jedi mind tricks to memory holes. It's a much broader theme, and I'd like to see how a class dedicated to this theme would accomplish it, before I design a subclass that attempts to do the same.