Adding Flavor: Cleric Deities vs. Domains

In 5e, clerics that make it to 3rd level and beyond select a subclass that is a Domain. The domains represent types of clerics more so than deities and their characteristics as well as the qualities of their faith and followers. Domains can be shared between clerics of different deities. For example, the Life domain may be a path followed by many different clerics who worship many different gods and goddesses. The description of Life Domain itself says: “Existence itself relies on the positive energy associated with this domain, so a Cleric of almost any religious tradition might choose it.“

It goes on to say that “This domain is particularly associated with agricultural deities, gods of healing or endurance, and gods of home and community. Religious orders of healing also seek the magic of this domain.”

So, how can you give your character flavor through other character traits to represent the specific deity that they follow?

Many different character traits can be used to tune your character’s abilities to show their worship of a specific deity. Their Background, Origin Feats, and Proficiency and spell selection can help you give your character the qualities and abilities that showcase their deity’s associations.

While clergy can be recruited from any background, and Acolyte or Hermit are easy and sensible choices, others may help you gain the abilities and show a path that would fit with your deity. A priest of a forge or craftsman deity could come from an Artisan background, a deity of nature could be followed by a Farmer or Guide, a deity of war would certainly appeal to Guards and Soldiers, priests of knowledge and mysteries deities could have been Sages and Scribes.

If you use the custom Background option and select your own Origin Feat: Healer would , Lucky makes perfect sense for a deity of fate and luck, Magic Initiate: Wizard for a deity of magic and Magic Initiate: Druid for a deity of nature, Musician for adeity of the arts and music, Savage Attacker or Tough for a deity of war.

Selecting Proficiencies from your Species, Background, and Class go a long way in showing what you would have been exposed to and learned as a priest of your deity. A priest of a god of magic would likely gain knowledge of Arcana. A deity of the hunt would encourage Nature and Survival among their clergy.

Jorgmur Bestbeard: War Priest of Eosta

Jorgmur is a cleric of the War Domain, but he is a priest of Eosta: the Taluman (and dwarven) goddess of the element of earth and the land of Taluma’s planet called Eost. The War Domain represents how he represents Eosta among his dwarven people: supporting the warriors and championing honor among them; but it does not have much that would attribute his service to his deity of earth. We will look at ways that he will show this in the rest of his character.

Jorgmur’s Background

Jorgmur is an alpine dwarf, which in and of itself gives him qualities of earth: Eosta is one of the dwarves’ patron deities in Taluma after all. As a dwarf he gets Dwarven Resilience, Dwarven Toughness, and most importantly Stonecunning all of which help tie him to Eosta’s element of earth.

Jorgmur is a dwarf priest, a member of a Lodge of runeforgers in Gaithewaite city. He is steeped in the traditions of the alpine dwarf and his clan and works to preserve the dwarven way while living among humans in the city.

Though he is a runeforger and we could select that Background for him, he had more of a spiritual focus, so for his Background I select Sage. This gives him the Proficiencies: Arcana and History. He also gets the tool proficiency: Calligrapher’s Supplies. His Granted Feat is Magic Initiate: Wizard which gives him two cantrips and a 1st level spell from the Wizard list, though he can use Wisdom as the spellcasting modifier. This is where we are able to give him some earth-related magic he wouldn’t otherwise get from the Cleric class and War Domain. To represent his worship of Eosta I select: Mold Earth, Blade Ward, and Earth Tremor. Finally, for his Ability Scores I select the +2/+1 option and could select +2 to Wisdom and +1 to Constitution.

Ability Scores

Using our recommended Array of 16/14/13/12/10/8 I assign his abilities as:
STR 14, DEX 10, CON 13 (12+1), INT 12, WIS 18 (16+2), CHA 8

Battle Priest

Jorgmur is a cleric, and will follow the path of the War Domain.
At 1st Level he gets two Proficiencies and I select: Religion and Persuasion. For his Divine Order, since he is a cleric of war, I select Protector which gives him Heavy Armor training and Martial Weapons proficiency. He will wear the best heavy armor he can get is hands on, and use a pike for its reach and high damage.
Finally, he gets his Cleric spells: three cantrips and 4 prepared 1st level spells. For cantrips I select Resistance, Sacred Flame and Spare the Dying. As a cleric he can change his prepared spells after each Long rest but he typically will prepare: Bless, Detect Evil and Good, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word. As he levels up for 1st level spells he would also look at Shield of Faith.

Summary

Though he is pursuing the path of a War Domain cleric (at 3rd level), and his cleric offensive spells are radiant damage, he still has plenty of character traits that point to his worship of Eosta, goddess of earth. Especially by gaining the wizard spells Mold Earth and Earth Tremor he is able to call forth his connection to her mastery of the element of earth and Blade Ward and Resistance help show the toughness of the element he can embody as well.

Other standard Cleric spells to look at to show his connection to earth could include: Mending, Enhance Ability (Strength or Wisdom), and Find Traps.