Clerics, Spheres, Domains, and Spell Tags

Clerics, Spheres, Domains, and Spell Tags

It seems that clerics live rent free in my mind. Back in the day when I was playing D&D 3.5, I was discontent with how clerics worked there. The choice of the patron deity had only very minor mechanical effect - you simply chose two domains from the short list of that deity's domains, gained two usually very minor abilities and a handful of spells added to your already enormous spell list. Thus, a cleric of Corellon Larethian was almost identical to a cleric of Moradin. In GURPS, I made clerics similar to wizards, but limited only to the "domains" provided by the patron god. However, I've been reading some AD&D books lately, and they made me rethink my approach.

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 1

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 1

As I'm preparing for a fantasy game, I have been thinking about differences between arcane and divine spellcasters. To differentiate them, I decided that the arcane spellcasters will use the standard college-based system, while the divine spellcasters use ritual magic with colleges replaced with domains. Clerics get access to domains depending on their patron deities. Some of the spells within the domains have been moved to make them harder or easier to cast (for example, I wanted to make deadly spells from GURPS Magic - Death Spells more difficult to cast).

Here are the domains of Air, Animal, Artifice, Chaos, Charm, Community, Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Enchantment, Evil, Fire, Fungus, Glory, Good, Healing, Knowledge, Law, Liberation, Luck, Madness, and Magic.