The Jules Cleric

At the risk of stating the obvious, the B/X cleric is a little underpowered compared to their modern equivalent. Or should I say that the modern cleric is overpowered compared to their B/X ancestor?

I've blogged before about how the Cleric's niche has been removed by increments, to the point where there's now nothing particularly unique to the class. But this doesn't necessarily diminish the appeal of taking the cloth; the fact that the cleric has no particular specialism in the modern game means that they end up being pretty darn good at everything, arguably embodying the role of kickass warrior-spellcaster much better than either the Paladin or the Arcane Knight, and all without much in the way of religious requirements or limitations.

But 'twas not always thus. It seems almost absurd now, but the B/X Cleric started play with no spells. This means that they, in fact, couldn't make use of their trademark healing abilities until several successful dungeon-crawling sessions in - quite a requirement in a game renowned for being deadly to first level characters. Hence there is now a trend of giving Clerics in classic rulesets their spell at first level, or starting them at level two, so they can actually occupy the distinct mechanical niche I bang on about in that old post.

But I think this actually glosses over a rather nice piece of design. Again, apologies if this was already painfully obvious to people, but there's an in-game reason the Cleric has no spells at first level: They haven't yet attracted the attention of their god. The Cleric's spells are actually miracles, granted directly by their god - their spellbook is like a bible, containing prayers and litanies, rather than spells per se. At first level, the Cleric is just an armoured priest, carrying around a holy book, with no magical or miraculous powers associated with them.

"I cast Protection From Bullets"

I call this the Jules Cleric, because it puts me in mind of Samuel L. Jackson's character in Pulp Fiction (right): He spends a lot of time rattling off religious texts by rote, but is completely thrown for a loop when he's part of (we presume) an actual miracle. (Guess he must have gone up to second level without realising.)

The "spells" the Cleric actually gets at second level confirm this theory in my mind. All of them seem to be things you could dismiss as a coincidence, a turn of good fortune, or sometimes a trick of the light. In the case of Resist Cold and Remove Fear, they could be explained (by sceptical PCs) as the cleric intoning a prayer that psychologically boosts an ally's resolve by tapping into their faith. Even Cure Light Wounds, given the ambiguity of what Hitpoints actually represent, can be more of a "blink and you'll miss it" type of thing: "Man, I really thought that orc mauled you more badly than that. Oh well, guess not." Of course, we know that the Cleric is actually channelling divine power, but at this stage it's more that their god is tipping the scales in their favour, rather than overt divine intervention - subtle, everyday miracles, rather than obvious smiting. That comes later, when they start to become more, shall we say, messianic. Early on, the Cleric has their god's interest, but they still have a long way to go to secure their full investment.

The idea of taking away clerical powers for bad behaviour actually makes more sense, and seems more fair, in light of this. After all, what does the Cleric spend their first few levels doing? Answer: Trying to get into their god's good books (pun unintended, but welcomed) by taking the good fight to the dark reaches of the dungeon, where Chaotic creatures dwell, and driving back those forces of evil. And, of course, procuring treasure in their god's name. And you have to do really quite a lot of this to be worthy of a little divine favour - B/X really makes you earn your miracles, however slight they are at first. So by the time you get your first hint that your god is actually watching, interested in your struggles, you've spent a fairly long time doing the crusade-y legwork for them. You've proven yourself an enemy of (presumably) evil. So the granting of miracles at second level and beyond is set up as more of a quid pro quo than it is in rulesets where you get them at character creation; it's set up to look a lot more like your god investing in you as a righteous instrument for getting stuff done, not just something you have an intrinsic right to.

This might be going against what I posted before about the cleric in classic rulesets having a particular mechanical niche, but I think it can be fun to lean into this angle. It really drives home the fact that your Cleric has earned favour in the eyes of their god when they start as nothing more than a fighter with a streak of zealotry, and move up the ranks to Pontifex of their own theocratic city-state, performing miracles on a daily basis. In a world in which magic is an accepted (if little understood) fact by ordinary people, restricting Clerical powers until the Cleric proves themselves could actually reintroduce some wonder into the act of performing a literal miracle. I think that by taking shortcuts like giving spells at first level, we actually make the "Cleric as heal-bot" trope into a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, by treating them as just adding to the party's stock of spells, i.e.: as a utility. If we instead played RAW, we might increase our appreciation of the Cleric as divinely gifted fighter. Struggle creates reward, and context creates wonder - and I'm all for wonder.