Homebrew, Classes & Clerics

Dolemwood and other clones have a less combat, more magic cleric type class and the familiar versions. Oriental Adventures had a less combative priest and a warrior priest, which was great. I like idea that regular clerics are templars or a millitary but im not sure if every priest in the world would look like that. When I typed up my classes last time cleric kept going over because i wanted the trad cleric but to make specialist cult ones so two classes will help me divide these ideas.

So a templar type fighting guy and a more non combat more magic priest. After working on how this change would fit in with all my other classes i was hit by thought do i have to mirror this with my Druid class too. So im back to drawing board. Mostly working on my homebrew for next year and my 2 games have enough content done for the year at this stage. Im mostly writing stuff for my homebrew now which is more revising than new stuff. This work is slow and too boring to post.

5th Ed
I doubt we will get a new legends & lore book. They do need a subclass for each divine sphere/domain. Hearing rumours d&d6 will be out in a few years and to go back to ad&d in style(?). I still say they need a basic more RPG-oriented version and a tactical battle advanced one that might interlock. They need mass combat and domains built in more too like BECMI had. Im only using 3x 2024 books and theros book currently. I may dump some 5th ed books - i got lots recently for cheap, half price or less. Some surprised me. I think ravenloft and Beyond Witchlight would be fine with a simpler system like Cairn. These stories are not about constant combat or war. I do like you can choose a more combat or magic cleric in the current 2024 version. It solves lots of issues for me and is pretty elegant vs what I am doing. 

2nd Ed
Just looking over 2nd ed Legends & Lore book and most specific priests are uneven and clumsy. Rune Quest has the best religion mechanics, really and easier to record different types without. I remember trying to detail religion in 2nd ed and it was lots of work to make one religion and so i went to play RQ for 20 years.  D&D5 has same issue why most domains/spheres remain not detailed when it should be a core book ASAP. I really liked the 2nd ed brown class books - they kept me playing d&d a few years longer.

 
My Homebrew Origins
My games has always had lots of influence from 1985 BX & 1st ed (1.5?). Especially the oriental adventures and Dungeoneers Survival Guide. There are also ideas folded back in from 2nd & 3rd ed. My Third ed play was mostly playing the PC Atari game of Temple of Elemental Evil, which i play yearly. I had played BRP and TSR marvel for 20 years and did not keep up with D&D till about 2012 when i wrote a bx clone while sick.

I like some modern ideas and takes on old ideas like Dolmen Wood. The game hit me that the DnD Templar knight crusader is a bit over the top for other religions or all priests. Monks as a kind of cloistered cleric doesnt fit most people's idea of a western monastic life but it might work as a feature in some games. OA for AD&D had two cleric classes, one a blood shunning priest with more interaction with spirits, dreams and greater curses but not really armoured or anti undead. Dolmen Wood has cleric like the old BX one that has armour and sheild and is the next best combatant in the game to a fighter type. Old d&d they dont start with any spells at first level but can turn undead as many times as they want (as long as not on same ones already failed to turn in the same encounter).

Many argue more BX style games dont need a paladin and that clerics sort of were a religious warrior already. In my game anyone can lean into cultic oaths and become more alignment extreme so you could sort of make a basic fighter a sort of paladin if you wanted to or a wizard or anyone. The existence of the paladin maybe pushes cleric into a less melee more magic role.

OA also had a more combative war priest class with fighter type HP and slower spell progression. Dolmenwood has a distinct cleric and a friar class and the latter is more humble and has improved herbal treatments and starts with spells straight away. so they are nicwe and distincty. I like the idea their are different orders of priests and maybe other weird things could come out of this. Conceptually Id not thought of enough solid classes to add to my own game. Theives have become jacked over various editions from d4 hp and used skills instead of spells and were both pissweak. Nowadays, thieves are backstabbing constantly and often up front. Old thieves went ahead, which seems bad if your a human without night vision vs every species that has. I'm all for thieves, more like the Grey Mouser but less tanky than people who do frontline war. As thieves had low hp but went up level twice as fast, killing old xp systems harmed them. I prefer 5th ed where every class has same xp cost but id rather xp die as a mechanic.

There was a cloistered cleric in Dragon magazine to be the ecclesiastic, bureaucratic & scribal priests which I thought was a good idea. It was also a NPC class and i speculate made to be as dull as possible. Priests as scholar experts and investigators is a well-established trope.

My Next Homebrew Update
Ive been running my game with 8 classes and 8 species for 12 years and have played with mutant and robot class. No species levels capped. Anyone can change class a few times but it often will cost you the awesome powers of better spells. In my current two houses have done this. Changing your species is possible; perhaps a wish or some weirdness will help. I had a player get made into an orc for his wife, despite the ages of orcs in books at the time.

So I kinda wanna a new priest and a separate templar class, which makes me think what about druids, which are built similarly.

While writing this, I have revised and rewritten a dozen different class lists.

Id wanted a shaman class before and hoped it would use my mentalist spells and could be an exorcist or medium in a more Victorian setting. As it turned out i can use it to build something lilke the dnd warlock also but simpler. Will be dropping that soon.

Some ideas
Templar - keep as my cleric but wind back spell progression a bit - will be the modern fighting priesthood of a duelistic religion and will focus on reversible spell possibilities a bit.  Evil templars are subversive heretics who will command undead. Neutral Templars are more into halting or banishing undead than destroying them and maybe they fight extremes of good and evil as centrist jerks fighting for a status quo.

Priest - for soft eclesiastic, more magic priests with more spells and bonus non-divine spells for the weirder, older pantheons of the ancients and non-templar lands. 

Holy power might end up a list of choices where the priest can swap out what they turn and some other choices or priests will have other specific sphere-type powers. Possibly non-adventurous rituals like sanctification or protection from evil.

If I extend this logic to a fighty druid and a ceremonial druid, holy power might include animal form, but other hunting power (one target being selected +4 to track and +2 to hit and damage) and non-adventurous powers like fertility rites and charging standing stones. Animal friendship?

Spells known and progression will be changed, too. 

I do like people making bonus spells for wizards and cleric types normally not available or they can swap known spells for at the time of casting. I might add some identify and detect magic abilities to wizard but make them time-consuming.

Spells can suggest wildly different religions, maybe better than custom holy powers.

Ive not needed a paladin under my scheme