5.5, Class by Class: Cleric

 So, we're going to be looking at another class I haven't really spent a ton of time with. I've played a Cleric more than I have a Barbarian, but it's far from my most-played class.

Clerics in D&D are odd - they're explicitly intended to be more powerful than the other classes in order to encourage people to play them, given that their role is typically to be the group's healer and most players find that role to be one that undercuts their monster-slaying fantasy.

I think we've seen experimentation in buffing the ability for Druids to heal, but Clerics-as-healer is a pretty deeply-ingrained part of the way people see the game.

I think that, very much like Wizards, a Cleric's power comes from its spell list. The actual class features are fairly sparse - you basically get Channel Divinity (which is mostly something for subclass features to latch onto) and Divine Intervention, and then Potent Spellcasting or Divine Strike.

Whereas the Artificer then gets some profoundly impactful subclass features, Clerics generally get more of a supplement to their abilities, really emphasizing the use of their spells.

I don't know that there's much here that's broken and needs fixing.

In terms of PHB subclasses, this is one of the two classes that gets a massive number of subclasses (the other being the Wizard). The subclasses for Clerics can tie into worldbuilding, as a DM will want to ensure there are logical deities to fit with each divine domain... if that's how clerics work in their world.

Indeed, I think it'd be good to explore some of the possibilities for alternative interpretations of clerics in the lore write-up in the class section - how a cleric could represent not a specific god, but a priestly order perhaps even in a monotheistic faith. Or they could be some sort of shaman in an animist or shamanic faith. I think that people tend to default to some mixture of Greco-Roman religious pantheons mixed in with medieval catholic imagery, and it would be cool to explore the Cleric from a less Eurocentric perspective.

But that's not mechanics.

Given that a lot of the Cleric's essence is tied up in its spells, the main way to shift the feel of the class - if one wanted to - is to play around with its spells. Now, of course, the other way would be to build more into the class. One of the ironies is that this "healing class" does not, inherently, have healing class abilities, in contrast to Paladins, who have Lay on Hands but are intended to be secondary healers at best (Paladins do far better as tanks and damage-dealers).

I could imagine baking in some feature that allows Clerics to heal regardless of whether they have healing spells prepared. On the other hand, that might rob them of the ability to go another route.

I'll confess, I don't have any really solid ideas for this one. I might like to see damage types broadened for Cleric spells - naturally, giving them plenty of radiant or necrotic damage is on-brand, but I think it would be cool to see more spells that deal thunder damage, which feels like the sort of awe-inspiring damage type a cleric might use. (There's probably a post to be written about how some damage-types could use better representation among spells.)

Anyway, I think that's what I've got.