One of the better aspects of roleplaying a cleric, is the relationship they have with their chosen deity. The classical image of a cleric communing with their deity is one like a priest, kneeling or chanting in prayer before their holy symbol.
But as D&D is filled to the brim with deities, and they frequently interact and otherwise meddle in the affairs with mortals, it stands to reason that a cleric can (and I feel, SHOULD) engage with their divine patron in a more direct, or interesting way.
The recent release of the Twilight Domain cleric in Unearthed Arcana, for example, has inspired me to make a cleric of Helm.
Part of my interactions with Helm would be, seeing as he is a wandering god of protection, occassionally appearing before my cleric.
To set the stage...the Twilight Domain cleric patiently watches as night begins to fall, as he does at the end of every day. Fervently, he listens...and a voice will call to him from the tide of darkness. The Twilight Cleric will venture into the darkness unafraid...and there before him, Helm will stand before him, clad in his legendary full plate, ready to impart any advice or sacred task for the cleric to uphold.
This would be infrequent, as the cleric would be self-sufficient enough to perform his duties on a daily basis, but whenever Helm would require the cleric to undertake a mission, this would be the way Helm communicates with his cleric.
Obviously, other deities might be more subtle or outrageous in their communication, depending on alignment. In "Critical Role", Jester's god The Traveler will often appear to Jester as a simple man in a green hood...but typically in secret, invisible to others, or disguised. The character Yasha, while not a cleric, has her god Kord communicate in vague visions, or great booming thunderstorms, as he is literally the Stormlord.
What about you all? What are some of the unique ways your gods have communicated with your clerics?
A Forge Cleric could receive messages in the slag or the fire itself. Possibly also being "hallucinations" when they get into the Zone while creating a new item with their 2nd level ability.
An Arcana Cleric would more likely rely on periodic rituals to communicate with their deity. A divination ritual involving candle wax, special playing cards or inkblots seem appropriate.
A Grave Cleric may have some practice similar to the Twilight Cleric you described. Possibly, their deity uses particular forms of rigor mortis to send hidden messages to their clerics.
I like tailoring the God/Cleric relationship to the character and the God, and you have fantastic examples of exactly that! When I'm DMing the Gods don't interact directly very often; part of my standard lore is they have all agreed to a cautious approach that avoids direct contact because that can quickly get out of hand and lead to a war between Gods that will destroy the world. So unless my devout player uses a specific ability/spell to get a response, or something extreme is going on, they are silent partners. When they DO interact or reply it's heavily inspired by how the character reaches out.
As a player I do a mix of my character's personality and what the DM will enjoy. My 4e human cleric was trained in the temple to Bahamut so his prayers were always very formal, by the book and measured, and the few times in the campaign that his God directly responded inspired a lot of awe and a bit of fear. In contrast my cleric in Heroes of the Vale views her relationship with her God as a partnership, more like a super powerful member of the adventuring party. Her prayers are simple and conversational, and she "talks" to her God on a regular basis like a pen pal, filling them in on what she's been up to and how she's feeling. She (and I) almost never expect a response unless she's beseeching for something important, and even then isn't surprised if she doesn't get a reply.
A Forge Cleric could receive messages in the slag or the fire itself. Possibly also being "hallucinations" when they get into the Zone while creating a new item with their 2nd level ability.
An Arcana Cleric would more likely rely on periodic rituals to communicate with their deity. A divination ritual involving candle wax, special playing cards or inkblots seem appropriate.
A Grave Cleric may have some practice similar to the Twilight Cleric you described. Possibly, their deity uses particular forms of rigor mortis to send hidden messages to their clerics.
Ah, the Grave Cleric...
I entertained the idea that the Grave Cleric goes to where dead bodies are available (not hard for a party of adventurers), and their god speaks through a corpse...it temporarily animates, speaks in a strange, otherworldly voice, and then goes back to being dead after.
Our group's DM and I kind of collaborate on how my PC and her deity share information. My PC is a pretty good little evangelist, but spends her formal prayer time in private now that she's no longer living in the temple. Mystra's favorite way to get my PC's attention is through vague dreams, which my PC understands to mean that she needs to spend time with her holy books in order to decode what her god is trying to communicate to her such as new spells and their components, item locations, inspirational passages, etc.
What I know of Helm (which is admittedly not a ton), he seems like a very straight-forward kind of dude. I feel like if Helm really needed a follower to know a thing, he would just go ahead and show up and say what he needs to say, much like the Traveler on CR. As a twilight cleric, dreams and meditations might also be an ideal way for Helm to communicate, but again, probably not in a super cryptic way. He might also pay extra attention to you if you've killed anything particularly evil recently. Maybe especially so if that thing is demonic.
Never got far enough for my DM to realise this, but my character establishes shrines to her deity at the edge of the forest nearest to the settlement she's currently at.
Those shrines allow her access to her Refuge within the Feywild an abandoned Temple dedicated to Sehanine Moonbow and home to her patron deity the Vestigal Goddess of Moonlight named Kestra.
So literally any time she wants and has a shrine available she could just enter her Refuge and have a chat with her deity whenever she wants.
We're not talking Divine Intervention, but fortunately my DM couldn't be bothered to read my character sheet nor ask any questions.
What he did was mess up the simple back story I started with that resulted in the above.
The morale of this story is read your PC character sheets and don't screw up your introductory adventures or better yet don't involve that character's back story in said adventure if it plays absolutely no part in your campaign as involving that background makes that area important!
Sorry he basically messed up and then decided to base his campaign in the setting I was running despite his original mistake being the reason she was banished from that world to his setting on an entirely different world.
I did say he never paid attention to the character sheets didn't I?!
Anyway my character can go chat with her deity any time she wants to, no divine intervention stuff just general chat and wondering what else has changed that's it.
my light cleric is kind of a hippie youth pastor type, chill and low key, and she talks to her sun-god frequently and casually. upon acquiring her powers, she felt that it was not a symbol of her belief in the god, but rather a manifestation of the god's belief in *her*.
The stereotype of being a cleric and taking a communication with your preferred GOD involves that in an specific step of your training days (from a civilian to be an acolyte/cleric ) you had to spend some years on a church / abbey or similar structure, and being teached about GODS - GODDESSES - holy rituals - symbols - etc etc. Keeping that idea on mind, the obvious character's background can be easily builded up. Then, after passing the test an adquiring the basic equipment, your character should train that communication with the preferred GOD or GODDESS at least once per day.
That's the typical stereotype of being a cleric..................
My halfling cleric is an acolyte of a minor goddess discovered (😄) by my DM. Her backstory is that she was just a simple village healer with the local wise woman, until she was singled out to become an acolyte. Then her Goddess sent her on a mission to help a woman from her past. That’s when she joined the adventuring group. At times she feels overwhelmed by this new path. She interprets things that happen as lessons or messages from the goddess. For 3xample, she was nearly killed by Owlbears, but miraculously was brought back ( good death save roll….) She took this as a message to try harder to be a good healer. She has been wavering between three domains, DM’s idea. So I’m playing that she had not had the experience yet in healing and supporting in battle. When she is satisfactory in that she will be allowed to switch more from the Life to the Light domain, which she really wants to do. She has a book of spiritual meditations, so periodically I find a gem from outside of game and adapt it as if written a long time ago, Currently she is mediating on this: "I joined your group of friends-I guess our group of friends now-as a test of faith, and it would be a disservice to that faith to turn around because it's hard. If it'd been easy, I suppose I wouldn't have needed to be called to it."Caduceus. I found this at the right time for her, she does not want to be in the Underdark facing spiders, duergar and Drow, but will try her best to honor and please her goddess.
How does the cleric talk to their deity? As a friend but humbly, they realize they are not equals but they probably mostly just talk. If you read the Bible (both testaments) and the Koran you see the prophets (clerics) calling out talking sometimes even screaming/cursing at them. In the end they (like Job) never lose faith tho and accept. The bigger question is how do they recognize when their deity is talking to them and it’s not just nature etc or some random person?
Yes, the Grave cleric is the creepiest of all the domains! My Grave cleric is a haruspex. In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. My character can see omens in entrails of creatures as well as a fallen friend or foe. He may also find insight in the pattern of how the entrails have landed on the floor or in a blood spatter pattern. He does not do it often, but when he does the group remembers how odd he truly is.
For Grave clerics, I would say that dead bodies might temporarily animate, speaking in the god's voice, before falling down dead when it is finished. Sort of like what happened to Layla in Moon Knight.
Similarly, a death cleric (or grave) could carry a skull that animates whenever they communicate with their diety.
For a knowledge or arcana cleric, I would describe it as the cleric first creates a circle of pages, scrolls, books, etc. and candles, and their papers, words, and flames fly all around them, spelling out words, or maybe even taking the form of their deity for a while.
For Tempest clerics, I would say that the wind whispers secrets in their ears, thunder and lightning command them, clouds take shapes that hold meaning, rain falls in patterns only they can see, waves and ripples in the water are like voices.
For nature clerics, something similar may occur. They may notice that plants grow in ways that seem to communicate hidden meanings, the rustle of the wind through the trees reveals much, and the tracks of animals can show their deities desires. Maybe in extreme circumstances, their god's voice will speak through animals themselves.
For war clerics, smoke, blood and fire may reveal signs. Or the clash of steel against steel could speak volumes.
For trickster clerics, it greatly depends on the god because they are so varied. Anansi might reveal signs in a spider's web, Loki might speak from a raven, and others might communciate through cards, dice, games of fortune, dreams, serpents, or by simply whispering in their ear.
Light domain clerics might wait for sunrise to see a vision of their deity in the light. Rainbows might work, and maybe setting up complicated reflections using mirrors, flame, lantern, glowing crystals, and stuff might help.
Twilight clerics might gain visions at midnight, or when the moon is full. Moonlight might carry messages, and they might receive dreams and visions.
For justice, dreams and visions work like they do for all of them. But I would probably emphasize a driving force. A power that they feel behind them, urging them to do the right thing and protect those they love. Almost make them act like Sam Vimes. They might receive a voice like his in their mind, giving them advice and power. Or they could be something they have to fight with, like Moon Knight and Khonshu or Vimes and the Summoning Dark. A creature of Justice that goes to far, and they have to control it. It might always be in the back of their mind, or in their peripheral vision, driving them to hunt down evil doers, but at terrible costs.
Forge clerics should gain visions from the flame. See signs from the steel as they work it. They communicate best in the forge.
For life or peace, I think dreams and visions might work best. Maybe they are regularly transported to a Haven, a place of safety and healing where the deity dwells. We once had a life domain cleric that had Cubby Bear as their patron. He communicated with them by transporting the entire party to his apple orchard.
In that same campaign, we had a paladin of Tebo, the football player. They never really communicated with each other, but whenever he used his divine smites he would call out, "BY THE BEARD OF TEBO!" and be granted power while receiving visions of Tebo's football games. It was hilarious.
Also in that campaign, we had a paladin of Bahamut who would recieve strange visions where Bahamut would appear in his human form and communicate with him. He would also ask for his guidance in the hope of seeing visions.
Greetings all.
One of the better aspects of roleplaying a cleric, is the relationship they have with their chosen deity. The classical image of a cleric communing with their deity is one like a priest, kneeling or chanting in prayer before their holy symbol.
But as D&D is filled to the brim with deities, and they frequently interact and otherwise meddle in the affairs with mortals, it stands to reason that a cleric can (and I feel, SHOULD) engage with their divine patron in a more direct, or interesting way.
The recent release of the Twilight Domain cleric in Unearthed Arcana, for example, has inspired me to make a cleric of Helm.
Part of my interactions with Helm would be, seeing as he is a wandering god of protection, occassionally appearing before my cleric.
To set the stage...the Twilight Domain cleric patiently watches as night begins to fall, as he does at the end of every day. Fervently, he listens...and a voice will call to him from the tide of darkness. The Twilight Cleric will venture into the darkness unafraid...and there before him, Helm will stand before him, clad in his legendary full plate, ready to impart any advice or sacred task for the cleric to uphold.
This would be infrequent, as the cleric would be self-sufficient enough to perform his duties on a daily basis, but whenever Helm would require the cleric to undertake a mission, this would be the way Helm communicates with his cleric.
Obviously, other deities might be more subtle or outrageous in their communication, depending on alignment. In "Critical Role", Jester's god The Traveler will often appear to Jester as a simple man in a green hood...but typically in secret, invisible to others, or disguised. The character Yasha, while not a cleric, has her god Kord communicate in vague visions, or great booming thunderstorms, as he is literally the Stormlord.
What about you all? What are some of the unique ways your gods have communicated with your clerics?
A Forge Cleric could receive messages in the slag or the fire itself. Possibly also being "hallucinations" when they get into the Zone while creating a new item with their 2nd level ability.
An Arcana Cleric would more likely rely on periodic rituals to communicate with their deity. A divination ritual involving candle wax, special playing cards or inkblots seem appropriate.
A Grave Cleric may have some practice similar to the Twilight Cleric you described. Possibly, their deity uses particular forms of rigor mortis to send hidden messages to their clerics.
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InsiderI like tailoring the God/Cleric relationship to the character and the God, and you have fantastic examples of exactly that! When I'm DMing the Gods don't interact directly very often; part of my standard lore is they have all agreed to a cautious approach that avoids direct contact because that can quickly get out of hand and lead to a war between Gods that will destroy the world. So unless my devout player uses a specific ability/spell to get a response, or something extreme is going on, they are silent partners. When they DO interact or reply it's heavily inspired by how the character reaches out.
As a player I do a mix of my character's personality and what the DM will enjoy. My 4e human cleric was trained in the temple to Bahamut so his prayers were always very formal, by the book and measured, and the few times in the campaign that his God directly responded inspired a lot of awe and a bit of fear. In contrast my cleric in Heroes of the Vale views her relationship with her God as a partnership, more like a super powerful member of the adventuring party. Her prayers are simple and conversational, and she "talks" to her God on a regular basis like a pen pal, filling them in on what she's been up to and how she's feeling. She (and I) almost never expect a response unless she's beseeching for something important, and even then isn't surprised if she doesn't get a reply.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
Ah, the Grave Cleric...
I entertained the idea that the Grave Cleric goes to where dead bodies are available (not hard for a party of adventurers), and their god speaks through a corpse...it temporarily animates, speaks in a strange, otherworldly voice, and then goes back to being dead after.
It's creepy.
Another answer would be "Very humbly." :D
Our group's DM and I kind of collaborate on how my PC and her deity share information. My PC is a pretty good little evangelist, but spends her formal prayer time in private now that she's no longer living in the temple. Mystra's favorite way to get my PC's attention is through vague dreams, which my PC understands to mean that she needs to spend time with her holy books in order to decode what her god is trying to communicate to her such as new spells and their components, item locations, inspirational passages, etc.
What I know of Helm (which is admittedly not a ton), he seems like a very straight-forward kind of dude. I feel like if Helm really needed a follower to know a thing, he would just go ahead and show up and say what he needs to say, much like the Traveler on CR. As a twilight cleric, dreams and meditations might also be an ideal way for Helm to communicate, but again, probably not in a super cryptic way. He might also pay extra attention to you if you've killed anything particularly evil recently. Maybe especially so if that thing is demonic.
Never got far enough for my DM to realise this, but my character establishes shrines to her deity at the edge of the forest nearest to the settlement she's currently at.
Those shrines allow her access to her Refuge within the Feywild an abandoned Temple dedicated to Sehanine Moonbow and home to her patron deity the Vestigal Goddess of Moonlight named Kestra.
So literally any time she wants and has a shrine available she could just enter her Refuge and have a chat with her deity whenever she wants.
We're not talking Divine Intervention, but fortunately my DM couldn't be bothered to read my character sheet nor ask any questions.
What he did was mess up the simple back story I started with that resulted in the above.
The morale of this story is read your PC character sheets and don't screw up your introductory adventures or better yet don't involve that character's back story in said adventure if it plays absolutely no part in your campaign as involving that background makes that area important!
Sorry he basically messed up and then decided to base his campaign in the setting I was running despite his original mistake being the reason she was banished from that world to his setting on an entirely different world.
I did say he never paid attention to the character sheets didn't I?!
Anyway my character can go chat with her deity any time she wants to, no divine intervention stuff just general chat and wondering what else has changed that's it.
my light cleric is kind of a hippie youth pastor type, chill and low key, and she talks to her sun-god frequently and casually. upon acquiring her powers, she felt that it was not a symbol of her belief in the god, but rather a manifestation of the god's belief in *her*.
The stereotype of being a cleric and taking a communication with your preferred GOD involves that in an specific step of your training days (from a civilian to be an acolyte/cleric ) you had to spend some years on a church / abbey or similar structure, and being teached about GODS - GODDESSES - holy rituals - symbols - etc etc. Keeping that idea on mind, the obvious character's background can be easily builded up. Then, after passing the test an adquiring the basic equipment, your character should train that communication with the preferred GOD or GODDESS at least once per day.
That's the typical stereotype of being a cleric..................
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
My halfling cleric is an acolyte of a minor goddess discovered (😄) by my DM. Her backstory is that she was just a simple village healer with the local wise woman, until she was singled out to become an acolyte. Then her Goddess sent her on a mission to help a woman from her past. That’s when she joined the adventuring group. At times she feels overwhelmed by this new path. She interprets things that happen as lessons or messages from the goddess. For 3xample, she was nearly killed by Owlbears, but miraculously was brought back ( good death save roll….) She took this as a message to try harder to be a good healer. She has been wavering between three domains, DM’s idea. So I’m playing that she had not had the experience yet in healing and supporting in battle. When she is satisfactory in that she will be allowed to switch more from the Life to the Light domain, which she really wants to do. She has a book of spiritual meditations, so periodically I find a gem from outside of game and adapt it as if written a long time ago, Currently she is mediating on this: "I joined your group of friends-I guess our group of friends now-as a test of faith, and it would be a disservice to that faith to turn around because it's hard. If it'd been easy, I suppose I wouldn't have needed to be called to it." Caduceus. I found this at the right time for her, she does not want to be in the Underdark facing spiders, duergar and Drow, but will try her best to honor and please her goddess.
This is my first game.
honestly acting out issues of, for instance, crises of faith.
A wide range of portrayals of people (religious or otherwise) can have great depths of richness and they all carry a potential to be roleplayed well.
How does the cleric talk to their deity? As a friend but humbly, they realize they are not equals but they probably mostly just talk. If you read the Bible (both testaments) and the Koran you see the prophets (clerics) calling out talking sometimes even screaming/cursing at them. In the end they (like Job) never lose faith tho and accept. The bigger question is how do they recognize when their deity is talking to them and it’s not just nature etc or some random person?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Yes, the Grave cleric is the creepiest of all the domains! My Grave cleric is a haruspex. In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. My character can see omens in entrails of creatures as well as a fallen friend or foe. He may also find insight in the pattern of how the entrails have landed on the floor or in a blood spatter pattern. He does not do it often, but when he does the group remembers how odd he truly is.![](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/cleric/<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/dR2d741" data-context="false" ><a href="/imgur.com/a/dR2d741"></a></blockquote>)
Discord: Tully#0286
That art is amazing.
For Grave clerics, I would say that dead bodies might temporarily animate, speaking in the god's voice, before falling down dead when it is finished. Sort of like what happened to Layla in Moon Knight.
Similarly, a death cleric (or grave) could carry a skull that animates whenever they communicate with their diety.
For a knowledge or arcana cleric, I would describe it as the cleric first creates a circle of pages, scrolls, books, etc. and candles, and their papers, words, and flames fly all around them, spelling out words, or maybe even taking the form of their deity for a while.
For Tempest clerics, I would say that the wind whispers secrets in their ears, thunder and lightning command them, clouds take shapes that hold meaning, rain falls in patterns only they can see, waves and ripples in the water are like voices.
For nature clerics, something similar may occur. They may notice that plants grow in ways that seem to communicate hidden meanings, the rustle of the wind through the trees reveals much, and the tracks of animals can show their deities desires. Maybe in extreme circumstances, their god's voice will speak through animals themselves.
For war clerics, smoke, blood and fire may reveal signs. Or the clash of steel against steel could speak volumes.
For trickster clerics, it greatly depends on the god because they are so varied. Anansi might reveal signs in a spider's web, Loki might speak from a raven, and others might communciate through cards, dice, games of fortune, dreams, serpents, or by simply whispering in their ear.
Light domain clerics might wait for sunrise to see a vision of their deity in the light. Rainbows might work, and maybe setting up complicated reflections using mirrors, flame, lantern, glowing crystals, and stuff might help.
Twilight clerics might gain visions at midnight, or when the moon is full. Moonlight might carry messages, and they might receive dreams and visions.
For justice, dreams and visions work like they do for all of them. But I would probably emphasize a driving force. A power that they feel behind them, urging them to do the right thing and protect those they love. Almost make them act like Sam Vimes. They might receive a voice like his in their mind, giving them advice and power. Or they could be something they have to fight with, like Moon Knight and Khonshu or Vimes and the Summoning Dark. A creature of Justice that goes to far, and they have to control it. It might always be in the back of their mind, or in their peripheral vision, driving them to hunt down evil doers, but at terrible costs.
Forge clerics should gain visions from the flame. See signs from the steel as they work it. They communicate best in the forge.
For life or peace, I think dreams and visions might work best. Maybe they are regularly transported to a Haven, a place of safety and healing where the deity dwells. We once had a life domain cleric that had Cubby Bear as their patron. He communicated with them by transporting the entire party to his apple orchard.
In that same campaign, we had a paladin of Tebo, the football player. They never really communicated with each other, but whenever he used his divine smites he would call out, "BY THE BEARD OF TEBO!" and be granted power while receiving visions of Tebo's football games. It was hilarious.
Also in that campaign, we had a paladin of Bahamut who would recieve strange visions where Bahamut would appear in his human form and communicate with him. He would also ask for his guidance in the hope of seeing visions.