Cleric (character class)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about role-playing games. For other uses, see Cleric.
The cleric is a character class in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games. The cleric is a priest, a healer, and a holy warrior. Clerics are members of religious orders, with the original intent being to portray soldiers of sacred orders who have magical abilities granted by the gods. Most clerics have powers to heal wounds, protect their allies and sometimes resurrect the dead. Clerics sometimes have powers to banish or create the undead.
A common feature of clerics across many games is that they may not equip pointed weapons such as swords or daggers, and must use blunt weapons such as maces or warhammers instead. This is based on a biblical injunction against shedding blood, though it is a matter of debate whether real-life warrior priests actually held to this rule. They are also often limited in what types of armor they can wear, though usually not as restricted as mages.
Related to the cleric is the paladin, who is typically a Lawful Good warrior aligned with a religious order, and who uses his martial skills to advance its holy cause.
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[edit] Dungeons & Dragons
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the cleric is one of the base character classes. Clerics are versatile figures, both capable in combat and skilled in the use of divine magic. Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative magics available to them. With divinely-granted abilities over life or death, they are also able to repel or control undead creatures.
[edit] World of Warcraft
In the fantasy MMORPG World of Warcraft, the role traditionally held by the cleric class is split between the Paladin and Priest, with Paladin representing the melee-oriented cleric and Priest representing the spellcasting-oriented cleric.
[edit] MapleStory
In MapleStory, Magicians can choose their second job as the Cleric. Clerics are regarded as essential members to parties, for their skill, "Bless", but much more importantly, their ability to heal. When a Cleric uses "heal", it replenishes party members' HP (hit points) to a very high degree, usually all the way, unless the heal is at a weak level, the party member's HP is extremely low, etc. In the 3rd job, they become nothing less than completely essential to the Zakum Party Quest, as they allow for potion replenishment through "Mystic Door", they can increase the EXP gained with "Holy Symbol", cancel out curses and aliments with "Dispel", all of this whilst combatting Zakum (or its arms) with "Holy Dragon", and most importantly, Healing.
[edit] Other Games
- In EverQuest, Cleric is one of the available character classes, and is usually considered an essential member of a group or raid, thanks to the Cleric's unsurpassed healing abilities.
- In EverQuest II, "Cleric" is a term that refers to both Inquisitors and Templars, which are evil and good (respectively) variants on the traditional Clerical roles.
- In Lineage II, human mages may choose Cleric at their first class change.
