Cleric (character class)

The Cleric, Priest, or Bishop is a character class in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games. The cleric is a healer, usually a priest and a holy warrior, originally modeled on or inspired by the Military Orders. Clerics are usually members of religious orders, with the original intent being to portray soldiers of sacred orders who have magical abilities granted by the gods, although this role was later taken more clearly by the paladin. Most clerics have powers to heal wounds, protect their allies and sometimes resurrect the dead, as well as summon, manipulate and banish undead.

A description of Priests and Priestesses from the Nethack guidebook: Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune with deities via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in it.[1]

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 war-hammers instead. This is based on a popular, but erroneous, interpretation of the depiction of Odo of Bayeux and accompanying text. 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 often aligned with a religious order, and who uses his martial skills to advance its holy cause.

Dungeons & Dragons

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the cleric is one of the four base character classes. Clerics are versatile figures, both capable in combat and skilled in the use of divine magic, which they employ without any restriction despite encumbrance of their armour. In earlier versions of the games they were restricted to using bludgeoning weapons, such as maces, staffs, and war-hammers. In later additions this limit was lifted depending on the symbolic weapon of their deity, although other martial (non-simple) weapons were still alien to them - requiring a costly feat in the latest edition of the game to employ them. Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative spells available to them. With divinely-granted abilities over life or death, they are also able to repel, destroy, rebuke, or control undead creatures - depending upon whether he/she is good or evil.

Video games

Clerics are a common character option across many computer RPGs, which share their heritage with the tabletop roleplaying games that originated the class. Although some games hew closely to that older archetype, there exist many variations in the conception, background and abilities of the cleric class.

In wargaming

Clerics are also seen in fantasy wargaming. In those games they are usually thought of as the archetype of strong warriors with blunt weapons. Examples are below.

References

  1. http://www.nethack.org/v343/Guidebook.html#_TOCentry_2 Nethack Guidebook, entry 2 with character classes.