Adventures: Ideally, a cleric's adventures support his god's causes, at least in a general way. A good cleric, for example, helps those in need. If, through noble acts, he can bring a good reputation to his god or temple, that's even better. An evil cleric seeks to increase the power of himself and his deity, so that others will respect and fear him.

Clerics sometimes receive orders, or at least suggestions, from their ecclesiastical superiors, directing them to undertake missions for the church. They and their companions are compensated fairly for these missions, and the church may be especially generous with casting of spells or divine magic items as payment.

Of course, clerics are people, too, and they may have all the more common motivations for adventuring.

Characteristics: Clerics are masters of divine magic. Divine magic is especially good at healing. Even an inexperienced cleric can bring people back from the brink of death, and an experienced cleric can even bring back people who have crossed over that brink.

As channelers of divine energy, clerics can turn away or even destroy undead creatures. An evil cleric, on the other hand, can bring undead under his control.

Clerics have some combat training. They can use simple weapons, and they are trained in the use of armor, since armor does not interfere with divine spells as it does with arcane spells.

Alignment: Like the gods they serve, clerics can be of any alignment. Because people more readily worship good deities than neutral or evil deities, good clerics are more numerous than evil ones. Clerics also tend toward law instead of chaos, since lawful religions tend to be more structured and better able to recruit and train clerics.

Typically, a cleric is the same alignment as his deity, though some clerics are "one step" away from their respective deities. For example, most clerics of Heironeous, god of valor (who is lawful good) are lawful good themselves, but some are lawful neutral or neutral good. Additionally, a cleric may not be neutral unless his deity is neutral. Exceptions are the clerics of St. Cuthbert (a lawful neutral deity), who may only be lawful good or lawful neutral.

Religion: Every common deity has clerics devoted to him or her, so clerics can be of any religion. The most common deity worshiped by human clerics in civilized lands is Pelor, god of the sun. Among nonhuman races, clerics most commonly worship the chief god of their respective racial pantheon.

Some clerics devote themselves not to a god but to a cause or a source of divine power. These clerics wield magic the way clerics devoted to individual gods do, but they are not associated with a religious institution or a particular practice of worship. A cleric devoted to Good and Law, for example, may be on friendly terms with the clerics of lawful and good deities and may extol the virtues of a good and lawful life, but he is not a functionary in a church hierarchy.

Background: Most clerics are officially ordained members of religious organizations, commonly called churches. Each has sworn to uphold the ideals of his or her church. Most clerics join their churches as young adults, though some feel themselves devoted to a god's service from a young age and a few feel "the call" later in life. While some clerics are tightly bound to their churches' activities on a daily basis, others have more free rein to conduct their lives, as long as they do so in accordance with their gods' wishes.

Clerics of a given religion are all supposed to get along, though schisms within a religion are often more bitter than conflicts between religions. Clerics who share some basic ideals, such as goodness or lawfulness, may find common cause with each other and see themselves as part of an order or body that supersedes any given religion. Clerics of opposed goals, however, are sworn enemies. In civilized lands, open warfare between religions occurs only during civil wars and similar social upheavals, but vicious politicking between opposed churches is common.

Races: Clerics include members of all the common races, since the need for religion and divine magic is universal. The clerics of most races, however, are too focused on their religious duties to undertake an adventurer's life. Crusading, adventuring clerics most often come from the human and dwarf races.

Among the savage humanoids, clerics are less common. The exception is troglodytes, who take well to divine magic and are often led by priests, who make a practice of sacrificing and devouring captives.

Other Classes: In an adventuring party, the cleric is everybody's friend and often the glue that holds the party together. As the one who can channel divine energy, a cleric is a capable healer, and adventurers of every class appreciate being put back together after they've taken some hard knocks. Clerics sometimes clash with druids, since druids represent an older, more primal relationship between the mortal and the divine. Mostly, though, the religion of a cleric determines how he gets along with others. A cleric of Olidammara, god of thieves, gets along fine with rogues and ne'er-do-wells, for example, while a cleric of Heironeous, god of valor, rankles at such company.

GAME RULE INFORMATION

Clerics have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Wisdom determines how powerful a spell a cleric can cast, how many spells the cleric can cast per day, and how hard those spells are to resist. To cast a spell, a cleric must have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level. A cleric gets bonus spells based on Wisdom. The Difficulty Class of a saving throw against a cleric's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the cleric's Wisdom modifier. A high Constitution improves a cleric's hit points, and a high Charisma improves his ability to turn undead.

Alignment: Varies by deity. A cleric's alignment must be within one step of his deity's, and it may not be neutral unless the deity's alignment is neutral.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The cleric's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int, exclusive skill), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Domains and Class Skills: A cleric who chooses Animal or Plant as one of his domains also has Knowledge (nature) (Int) as a class skill. A cleric who chooses Knowledge as one of his domains also has all Knowledge (Int) skills as class skills. A cleric who chooses Travel as one of his domains also has Wilderness Lore as a class skill. A cleric who chooses Trickery as one of his domains also has Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), and Hide (Dex) as class skills.

Armor and Weapon Proficiency: Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons. Clerics are proficient with all types of armor (light, medium, and heavy) and with shields. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble. Also, Swim checks suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armor and equipment carried. Some deities have favored weapons, and clerics consider it a point of pride to wield them

Spells: A cleric may prepare and cast any spell on the cleric spell list provided he can cast spells of that level. (Alignment restrictions mean that casting some spells may have unpleasant consequences.) The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a cleric's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the cleric's Wisdom modifier.

Clerics do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them through their own strength of faith or as divine inspiration. Each cleric must choose a time at which he must spend an hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain his daily allotment of spells (typically, this hour is at dawn or noon for good clerics and at dusk or midnight for evil ones). Time spent resting has no effect on whether a cleric can prepare spells.

In addition to his standard spells, a cleric gets one domain spell of each spell level, starting at 1st. When a cleric prepares a domain spell, it must come from one of his two domains (see below for details).

Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: Choose a deity for your cleric. The cleric's deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him.

When you have chosen a deity and an alignment for your cleric, choose two from among the deity's domains (Spheres) for your cleric's domains. While the clerics of a particular religion are united in their reverence for their deity, each religion encompasses different aspects. You can only select an alignment domain (such as Good) for your cleric if his alignment matches that domain.

If your cleric is not devoted to a particular deity, you still select two domains to represent his spiritual inclinations and abilities (but the restriction on alignment domains still applies).

Each domain gives your cleric access to a domain spell at each spell level, from 1st on up, as well as a granted power. Your cleric gets the granted powers of all the domains selected. With access to two domain spells at a given spell level, a cleric prepares one or the other each day. If a domain spell is not on the Cleric Spells list, a cleric can only prepare it in his domain slot.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A cleric can't cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or to his deity's. For example, a good cleric or a neutral cleric of a good deity cannot cast evil spells. Spells associated with the domains of Chaos, Evil, Good, and Law are identified as such on the "Level" line of the spell description.

Turn or Rebuke Undead: A good cleric (or a neutral cleric who worships a good deity) has the supernatural ability to turn undead, such as skeletons, zombies, ghosts, and vampires, forcing these unholy abominations to recoil from the channeled power of the god the cleric worships. Evil clerics (and neutral clerics who worship evil deities) can rebuke such creatures. Neutral clerics of neutral deities can do one or the other (player's choice), depending on whether the cleric is more proficient at wielding positive or negative energy. Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed. Exceptions: All lawful neutral clerics of Wee Jas rebuke undead rather than turning them. All clerics of St. Cuthbert and all non-evil clerics of Obad-Hai turn undead rather than rebuking them.

A cleric may attempt to turn or rebuke undead a number of times per day equal to three plus his Charisma modifier.

Ex-Clerics

A cleric who grossly violates the code of conduct expected by his god (generally acting in ways opposed to the god's alignment or purposes) loses all spells and class features and cannot gain levels as a cleric of that god until he atones (see the atonement spell).

Base	Attack	Fort	Ref	Will
Level	Bonus	Save	Save	Save
1	+0	+2	+0	+2
2	+1	+3	+0	+3
3	+2	+3	+1	+3
4	+3	+4	+1	+4
5	+3	+4	+1	+4
6	+4	+5	+2	+5
7	+5	+5	+2	+5
8	+6/+1	+6	+2	+6
9	+6/+1	+6	+3	+6
10	+7/+2	+7	+3	+7
11	+8/+3	+7	+3	+7
12	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8
13	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8
14	+10/+5	+9	+4	+9
15	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+9
16	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10
17	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10
18	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11
19	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11
20	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12

Mana: Mana is the "life force" of magic. Each spell takes a specific amount to complete its invocation. For a Cleric, Mana is determined by his Wisdom modifier and level of his experience. Use the table below to find your character's base score, then add your character's level multiplied by their appropriate ability modifier [base + (ability modifier X level)].

For example: Eldana is a 5th level Cleric with a Wisdom of 16. Her Wisdom modifier would be +3. Using the table below shows her base Mana at 25. 25 + (3x5) = 40. Eldana would have a Mana level of 40.

Spell Level refers to the level of spells that your character will be able to call upon.

Cleric level	Starting Mana	Spell Level
1	4	1
2	6	1
3	8	2
4	16	2
5	25	3
6	35	3
7	50	4
8	65	4
9	80	5
10	100	5
11	125	6
12	155	6
13	185	7
14	225	7
15	265	8
16	310	8
17	355	9
18	400	9

Clerics will gain 50 mana points plus their appropriate ability modifier per level there-after.