Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 88 - Class Series-Holy Moley The Cleric and Druid

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

Clerics and Druids are more diverse than most people realize.  Playing them as Healy McHealface and Joe Ent-Lover may come second nature (ba-dum-tss) but they can be played a lot of different ways to satisfy a lot of different players.  In this week's episode we look at the fun and choices of playing these two classes.

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Druids are very adaptable. Not only can they be built to do all the things I listed earlier, but they can change roles day by day, even encounter by encounter. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 88 of the Taking20 Podcast. We're continuing the class series this week, Holy Moly, playing a cleric and a druid. This week's sponsor, trees.

Most are hard to hold on to, but not the palm. It fits right in your hand. We have a coffee, ko-fi-taking20podcast. If you like this little podcast, please consider donating. Every dollar that's given goes towards keeping the podcast alive, and it does cost quite a bit to put all this together, so I would greatly appreciate any help that you could give. Let's start with the cleric, various gods representatives in the world. I love Pathfinder First Edition's introduction to the class in the core rulebook. Clerics find a greater purpose serving powers greater than

themselves. They preach and provide for the spiritual needs of the people, but more than that, they are emissaries of the divine who work the will of their deities through strength of arms and the magic of their gods. So imagine your local preacher who's not afraid to protect others with a mace, warhammer, or scythe, and can heal with a touch. In short, they seek to make the world better by preaching the message of their god and increase the number of people who are worshiping that god. Sometimes that message is best sent showing how their god affects them and others, whether positively through healing and protection, or inspiring fear as they wilt crops, absorb life energy, and make others tremble at the mention of their god's name.

The vast majority of clerics in adventuring parties are healers, though. Most of this episode will be focusing on the good and neutral-aligned clerics who can heal others, but evil clerics have some great uses in campaigns, animating the undead, draining enemies with vampiric touch, inflict wound spells, etc. dead, draining enemies with vampiric touch, inflict wound spells, etc. Clerics make fun antagonists and big bads, but that's not where we're focusing this episode. When it comes to party roles, most clerics are healers. Duh. They're the best healing class in the game. This is what most people think of when they think cleric. I need healing. Healing, please. I need healing. Medic! Need healing. Yeah, I know. You need healing. Healing, please. I need healing. Medic! Need healing. Yeah, I know. You

need healing. Give me a minute. But Clerics can also be a tank. Now, I can hear what you're saying. Wait, wait. The Cleric? A tank? They're not a fighter. Are you insane? Possibly. But hear me out here. There are domain and feat choices that you can make that will raise a Cleric's armor class to make her tougher to hit. Tanks are all about survivability, whether that's through massive amounts of hit points like barbarians and fighters have, or occupying a baddie on the battlefield long enough for others to kill it. Clerics will never have that massive hit point pool, but they can keep creatures occupied so that your damage dealers can whittle it down and hopefully kill it.

I've played clerics that were hard as heck to hit, and they can really fill that party role. Clerics also are great buffers. They are arguably the best buffers in the game, rivaled only by bards. Clerics have a number of buffing spells available to them, like Bless, Aid, Weapon of Awe, Blessing of Fervor, enhance ability spells like Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace. You can keep your friends alive and make them better at their jobs. But clerics also make great debuffers. Bane, which is the opposite of Bless.

You can make opponents blind. You can cast Silence and make opposing spellcasters useless. You have Dispel Magic at your fingertips. So really, you can ruin enemies' days as a debuffer cleric. Clerics are also good at battlefield control, manipulating combatants with things like charm spells. They can also change the battlefield layout with wall spells, control water, blade barrier, and so forth.

The last party role clerics can occupy is the damage dealer. Clerics can be blaster casters, dropping flame strike, firestorm, call lightning, thunder wave, ice storm, even fireball and cone of cold depending on the game system and the build that you've made. When most people play clerics, too often they think that that means they won't be able to do a lot of damage on the battlefield. But that kind of thinking is a clerical error. You see, it's funny because... Never mind. Clerics may not have as many damaging spells as arcane casters do, but they have a decent repertoire of damaging spells.

But what about being a traditional combat damage dealer? Believe it or not, clerics can play that role as well. One of my favorite Pathfinder characters I ever played was a permanently enlarged Dwarven cleric that wielded a weapon called a Dorne Dergar. Normally, this was a 16-pound solid metal ball on a chain. Enlarged, though, it was a 128-pound metal ball on a chain. I had reach so I could attack foes 20 feet away. Grab vital strike feet and a few more feats and he could absolutely wreck face behind the tank.

A couple of years ago, I played a 5th edition Tempest Domain Cleric who wielded a polearm. At 6th level, if someone hit me with a melee attack while adjacent, I could use her Wrath of the Storm and Thunderous Strike abilities to knock them back 10 feet, give them an attack of opportunity when they came back for more. She was a surprisingly effective combatant, and I kind of stumbled into that combination by accident. Clerics will never be able to dish out combat damage like a Barbarian could mid-rage, or a Ranger with a bow, or a fighter with a two-handed weapon. But I'll be damned if they're not fun to play that way. Sorry, Lord.

So, what can be interesting about your character to make them uniquely yours? Why does your cleric cleric? Why do they do what they do? Are they a healer? Yeah, this is a traditional and easy reason for being a cleric. They want to help others by alleviating suffering and saving lives. They could be based out of a single rectory, convent, or chapel, or they could travel the world helping others where they're needed. They're almost like a walking Hippocratic oath at that point. But that's not the only hook you could have. You could play your cleric as a fanatic, a proselytizer who wants to spread the word of their god to the ends of the world.

They could be a battle cleric, converting enemies to your god one weapon swing at a time. If they don't convert, well, they're dead, and that proves your god is right. Right? Right? They could also be a crusader, recovering artifacts and holy relics from the ends of the earth, proselytizing the word of your god as you go. Finally, clerics could also be a shaman, a cleric from a wandering tribe or a monstrous race who can commune with spirits and use that to cast healing abilities. Now, if you wanted to pick a background that kind of follows some of these tropes, you could always be an acolyte, which is the classic.

to pick a background that kind of follows some of these tropes. You could always be an acolyte, which is the classic. You were a traditional member of the faith when your divine powers manifested into something more suited to adventuring. But you could also be a former criminal. Is there any better story than that of the redeemed soul? They felt the amazing grace that saved the wretch like them, and now they want others to feel the light of forgiveness like they do. They could have been a street urchin, raised on the streets, scrambled for every meal, may have turned to crime, but a representative of the church took care of them, fed them, protected them, and it led them towards a similar life. But what if you were just a charismatic speaker,

a preacher who can sway hearts and move minds with the power of words? Or maybe your cleric was a battlefield healer. They were a medic in the army, and they found their faith rewarded with the ability to save others. But you can always go against tropes. One character idea I've had in my head for a while is a cleric who is dumb. No, I mean really, really dumb. He wanted to be able to cast spells spells but wasn't born with the ability, doesn't have a patron, and isn't smart enough to learn spells from a book.

Some god or goddess takes pity and leads him towards worshipping them. Now the character is convinced he's blessed by the gods, can't die, and maybe thinks the magic is in his blood. Another fun background could be the person who gained power because of a conversion when they thought they were going to die. Literally standing with a noose around their neck and they make all kinds of promises. Great God, I know I'm standing on the gallows, but if you could get me out of this, I'll do anything. I'll help the dying. I'll spread your word. I'll even give up drinking. All right, my child, you are saved. Go and spread my blessings to the ends of the world. Uh-oh, I guess I'm a cleric now. Or maybe your cleric became a cleric

because they discovered an artifact to a forgotten or hardly worshipped god, whether good or evil. My favorite example of this is Goldmoon from the Dragonlance series. Everyone thought the gods had turned their back on the entire world, and there hadn't been clerics for hundreds of years, until Goldmoon finds the Staff of Healing and leads the return of divine magic to Kryn. On the evil side, it could be something like the Hand of Vecna. Since interacting with it, Vecna speaks to them, and the character seeks to do Vecna's bidding. Or maybe it's a cleric who loves nature, which is kind of like a druid, but we're about to talk about them. But clerics can also revere nature through the worship of a specific god, not worship of nature itself. So who should play clerics?

I recommend clerics for players who love the thought of having a god on speed dial. The god treats the player as if they were special, granting spells and abilities to keep the party alive, or make non-believers feel the pain of their lack of faith. Now let's get system specific. The 5th edition Cleric, you need a decent Wisdom and Constitution so you can cast spells and stay alive. If you go down, chances are the rest of the party will too, so stay alive. Good race choices for min-maxing include humans, gith, arakokra, thank you James by the way for the pronunciation email after I stumbled over it in

the last class series episode, firbolg, lizardfolk, warforge, dwarves, hell, they make great clerics. Clerics have to select domains based on the divine creature they worship. There aren't really a lot of bad choices here. Knowledge is probably the weakest, but if you're playing a mystery campaign where you're having to research or solve problems or skills are paramount to success, it is a good choice in that case. Life is a great choice for healers. War or Forge is great for tanky battle clerics.

Nature is good all around. Buffing can give allies resistances to damage and has some great debuffing capabilities. Charming animals and plants and additional damage via Divine Strike. Arcana, Light, Tempest are great for blasters. Arcana and Light are good at lower levels, but Tempest really comes to its own about level 6 like I talked about earlier. Skill-wise, pump up your medicine and religion skills. As I mentioned earlier, clerics do have to pick the deity they're going to worship, and this is really where you flavor your cleric. Deity selection tells you what your possible domains to pick from for the additional spells per day. Are you a worshiper of a deity with life domain that can easily cure diseases and

restore hit points, or does your character worship a god with a deity with life domain that can easily cure diseases and restore hit points? Or does your character worship a god with the Tempest domain that can call lightning and control the weather? Lots of good role-playing opportunities, regardless of the domain you pick, though. It gives you something to focus on to worship your chosen deity. The sun, healing others, raising the dead, whatever it happens to be. Doing things that line up with your deity's domains can be treated as acts of worship. The Pathfinder Cleric, much like 5th edition, you need a high wisdom and a good constitution to help keep you alive. For Pathfinder 2e, you'll probably want to bump up your

charisma as well to increase the number of max level spells. The choice of deity and Pathfinder gives you one thing that you don't get in 5th edition, and that is a favored weapon. Some Pathfinder gives you one thing that you don't get in 5th edition, and that is a favored weapon. Some Pathfinder deities have weapons that clerics otherwise couldn't gain proficiency in without a one-level dip into another class like Fighter or Burning a Feet to do it. Worshippers of Iomide get the Longsword, Torag clerics get Warhammers, Sekhmet gets the Battleaxe. These weapons make a cleric much more effective in combat.

2nd edition clerics also have to choose a doctrine. As of this recording, there are only two choices. Cadillacs. These weapons make a Cleric much more effective in combat. Second Edition Clerics also have to choose a Doctrine. As of this recording, there are only two choices. It's an important selection because it dramatically affects how you'll play your Cleric throughout their life. Cloistered Clerics have higher spell DCs, but Warpriests gain higher proficiencies in weapons, armors, and shields. In Pathfinder, humans and dwarves make excellent clerics. Can Rasu make great clerics? So do Galoma, Fetchlings, Gripley, Leshies, and Lizardfolk all make good clerics as well. A cleric can serve different roles within the party, come from a myriad of backgrounds, and have a ton of different reasons why they adventure in the first place. Playing clerics as nothing more than a mindless heel bot that spouts religious texts and keeps everyone alive would be... I've already done the clerical error joke.

Let's leave the world of the cleric and let's move on to the moley world of the druid. I love the 5th edition description here. Druids are an embodiment of nature's resilience, cunning, and fury. They claim no mastery over nature. Instead, they see themselves as extensions of nature's indomitable will. Within a party, druids can fill nearly any role you want to. I knew academically that druids can serve multiple roles, but it's been driven home in one of my groups. I've played nearly every class throughout my RPG career, but until about a year ago, I'd never played a druid. I thought they were just not my cup of tea, but I'm having so much fun playing her.

She is so versatile. Sometimes she hangs back and casts area of effect spells to take out swaths of baddies. Other times she heals her damaged teammates. Pretty commonly, she takes the form of a dinosaur and stomps through the battlefield, wrecking face! commonly, she takes the form of a dinosaur and stomps through the battlefield, wrecking face, tearing their limbs off, or calling her an old crone. Right, yeah, you unnatural bastards. I'm gonna turn you into fertilizer for my rose gear. Excuse me. Druids can really embrace the survival of the fittest belief of nature. It's not the strongest that survive, but organisms that are best adjusted to their environment that are the most successful in surviving. Druids are very adaptable. Not only can they be built to do all the things I listed earlier, but they can change roles day by day,

even encounter by encounter. Druids will not wear armor made of metal though, so no breastplate wearing druids unless it's made of wood. Depending on your game system, metal armor could actually be an anathema, meaning the druid would lose her powers if she puts it on. Druids universally need a high wisdom score. Constitution is good for hit points, and you might need dexterity or strength if you're going to wild-shape melee build, but wisdom is going to be your number one go-to. Let's talk role-playing hooks. How did your character become a druid? Well, maybe they were born into it. Perhaps one or both of your parents were druids and you were born into being a druid, whether because the power flows in your veins or because they taught you the rituals. Maybe you were created or converted to become a druid. I mean, druids could be spontaneously

created by nature itself in your world. Or maybe when the time is right and a druid is needed, one is created or someone is converted to become a druid. Perhaps you studied. Maybe your character loved plants, studied them, spoke to them, learned from them, until they realized that they could understand the animals and plants around them. Perhaps, however, they became a druid through deific influence. Maybe it's a bleed over from the Feywild or influenced by a divine being of some sort. Maybe your druid just draws the power from nature that's always there. Any of us could become druids if we so chose, but only a select few learn how to draw from the well of power that nature always has present.

So when it comes to tropes, if I could channel my now-passed-away father for a moment, druids sound like a bunch of granola-munching, patchouli-smelling hippies. Some think druids are the hooded men and women that sacrifice virgins at Stonehenge. Some think of druids as vegetarians who live out into the woods and talk to trees. Some think of druids as reclusive sources of wisdom who can take the shape of birds and trees and wild creatures of the earth. And some think druids represent the dispassionate view of nature trying to keep balance in all things. They can be any of those things, but they don't have to be. Druids revere nature and want to preserve it, but nature can mean a lot of different things, but they don't have to be. Druids revere nature and want to preserve it, but nature can mean a lot of different things. Nature's the sun and

the rain that nurtures life, but it's also the lightning strike that causes a forest fire. Nature's the bright sun of an early spring day, but also the earthquake and the resulting tsunami. Nature is the alligator feasting on the animals drinking at the stream, but it's also the mama bear who protects her young. Druids can be played as life-giving representatives of the new spring and crops in the fields, healing friends and alleviating suffering. But they can also be the fireball-slinging paragons

of destructive aspects of nature as well. As far as backgrounds go, you could be the hermit that lives in the woods that everybody thinks is weird, but you could also be a bounty hunter, somebody who uses the woods to their advantage to track their quarry. You could be an animal or plant whisperer

keeping creatures alive that otherwise would pass away. You could also be a nomad wandering place to place, a tracker, a sage. I would recommend druids for players who want to have that connection with nature, who enjoy the thought of being nature's representative in the greater world. So let's talk specifics to 5th edition. When it comes to races, are a Kokra, Furbolg, Water Genasi, Githzerai, Dwarves, Wood Half-Elves, Tortles, Humans, Halflings, Warforged, Hell.

Nearly every race be good Druids. I'm dying to play a Pallid Elf Druid at some point in a Wildemount campaign. They're all great min-max choices. Druids can optionally play a subclass based on their Druid circle. Circle of Spores is good if you want to play a blaster-type Druid. Circle of Stars for a mixture of healing and damage spells. I have a soft spot, though, for a Circle of Wildfire, but it does hinge on being able to do fire damage to your opponents, so if you find a lot of creatures that are resistant to fire, you won't be very useful. Hell, it's hard to go wrong

here. Circle of Land, the Shepherd, the Moon, they're all fun choices. Jumping over to Pathfinder, pump up your wisdom, max out your perception and knowledge nature skills. First edition races, Humans, Sahagin, Azimar, Tiefling, Half-Orc, Half-Elf, all good choices here. In second edition, Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, Halflings, all good choices. First edition druids can select from the cleric domains of Air, animal, earth, fire, plant, water, or weather. Makes sense, they all sound druidic to me. Second edition, you select a druidic order. Animal and wild are your best min-max choices, but the others could be fun as well. I was amazed by how flexible druids could be.

Are they a pain in the rump every morning to pick spells? Absolutely. Are the wild shape and familiar rules complicated as hell to learn? Yeah, kind of. But I'd recommend druid characters for players who don't mind a little complexity for the tremendous flexibility they give. Clerics and druids represent gods and godlike powers of nature in your world. They are powerful spellcasters, surprisingly flexible and fun characters to play. You don't have to play one as a healing robot and the other as a nature in love and hugs and spring and wee!

Play a cleric that worships a god of the undead, raising fallen enemies to fight for you. Play a druid that embraces the death and rebirth aspect of nature, especially the death part. Give them a try. I bet you'll have fun doing it. Thank you so much for listening.

Tune in next week when we'll have another episode in the Monster Series, this time all about those crazy goblins. Before I go, I do want to thank our sponsor, Trees. They've got 99 problems, but a birch ain't one. This has been episode 88, the Class Series. Holy moly, playing Clerics and Druids, my name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game.

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