I’ve always had a beef with the design of the cleric in D&D, and 5e is no different. The domain-as-subclass design is highly flawed in my view, because it leads to a version of the cleric class that is far too thematically constrained (just as it always has been). There are at four easy-to-see examples of this:
a.) The non-martial, robed spellcaster priest archetype, which is common in fantasy and approximated from real history, has never been part of the D&D design, and there's no reason whatsoever why the cleric class shouldn't be broad enough to properly accommodate it.
b.) having all the subclass features tied to a Domain choice makes it so domains are complex and difficult/time-consuming to design and balance, which I don't think is ideal - if they were simpler we could have a much bigger selection of them, covering all the different interesting portfolios out there.
c.) the design leads to a lot of arbitrary "pushing". Why, for example, is a cleric of life automatically martially-oriented while a cleric of light is automatically magic-oriented? Wouldn't that depend more on the personality of the specific deity or the nature of the cleric's calling in how they serve that deity than it would on the domain itself?
d.) it leaves no room to cover more unique or interesting concepts through the subclass system the way that literally every other class does. Wizard traditions, in comparison, are conceptually much, much broader.
So, I’ve created a homebrew version of the cleric to (uniquely) have a layered subclass option, which I think is the only thing that makes sense for clerics. At 1st level, you choose both a calling and a domain. The combination of these two is what determines your subclass, and therefore what class features you acquire as you level. Right now, the domain still grants more features than the calling, but I ideally think it should be the opposite - it just entails a bigger rewrite than I wanted to do for phase 1.
Base Cleric HD: D6 HP per level: 1d6 or 3/4 Armor: None Weapons: Club, Sling, Quarterstaff Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma Skills: Choose two from Knowledge, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, Composure
1st level – Select Calling (in addition to Divine Domain) – Crusader or Prophet. Your subclass name combines the two choices. I.e. Tempest Crusader or Prophet of Life (other callings, such as Exorcist or Celebrant, might be created later)
Crusaders are more common in older, larger, and more well-organized religions. They are martially trained holy warriors employing divine magic to support themselves and their allies on the battlefield in service to their god or faith. They also specialize in exorcism of undead. They are essentially identical to the official PHB Cleric.
Crusader features - -HP + 2, +1 for every additional level. +1 to any HD rolled to recover HP. -Gain light/med armor and shield proficiencies, and simple weapon proficiency. -At 2nd level, gain Channel Divinity – Turn Undead -At 8th level, gain Divine Strike (domain choice may affect damage type) -Domain bonus proficiencies are for weapons/armor, skills/tools, or languages
Prophets are often called as emissaries and revelears for nascent gods and newer, smaller faiths, so they are typically more common in areas that are less politically stable or where religion is less well-established. They sometimes appear in the servant ranks of more organized faiths, where they are usually either shunned or quickly move into a respected leadership position. They tend to eschew physical combat and are instead highly accomplished orators and miracle workers. They feature an expanded spell list, although these extra spells do count against their prepared limit (unlike domain bonus spells). Channel Divinity: Turn/Destroy Undead is replaced with Channel Divinity: Revelation, and their level 8 domain feature is always Doomspeak instead of Divine Strike.
Prophet features -Gain the cantrip Message (in addition to any provided by normal domain choice). -Gain Prophet’s Rebuke - At 2nd level, gain Channel Divinity: Revelation -At 8th level, gain Doomspeak - Domain bonus proficiencies are for weapons/armor, skills/tools, or languages
Gain the following bonus spells as you level (added to cleric list; not automatically prepared)
Prophet’s Rebuke – You add your Charisma modifier to your AC when not wearing any armor.
Channel Divinity: Revelation – You can swap one prepared spell out for another of the same level, and regain a spell slot for the level of the swapped spell. Improves at the same rate as Turn Undead, capping out at a maximum spell level of 6th.
Miracle – A divine version of the spell Wish. For now, it is functionally the same spell, but I may come up with some distinguishing features after playtesting a bit. Doomspeak – A once/long rest uber-fear that stuns and then frightens all foes in line of sight.
Removed feature:
Potent Spellcasting - I hate this feature. It manages to be both extremely boring and overpowered, and I like the idea of Prophets being more utilitarian rather than damage-focused, so this has been replaced with Doomspeak. The original functionality has been rolled into the War Priest feature in the War domain, where it is limited and where I think it makes a lot more thematic sense. This helps make the War Domain a lot more flexible and a viable option for Prophets.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Do you think there is room for the Prophet as a subclass in the current cleric class or does it require a complete revision of the class to work?
Well, do you think the game can support a subclass that says, "You don't get the armor proficiencies the base class says you get"?
I do not like taking away things given to the base class, however I'm particularly reticent to introduce classes into the system. Do you think the Prophet needs to not be proficient in medium armor?
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Do you think there is room for the Prophet as a subclass in the current cleric class or does it require a complete revision of the class to work?
Well, do you think the game can support a subclass that says, "You don't get the armor proficiencies the base class says you get"?
I do not like taking away things given to the base class, however I'm particularly reticent to introduce classes into the system. Do you think the Prophet needs to not be proficient in medium armor?
Hmm . . . I suppose you could do what they did to encourage unarmored barbarians.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
This is way too much rework just to accommodate unarmored clerics, which is something you can already do by just not putting on armor. The double subclass approach is too complex and some combinations don't make sense; I can't imagine a War or Forge cleric that foregoes weapons and armor. I also don't like that Prophets get an AC boost. I don't see why they should have special provisions to accommodate their lack of armor. If they don't have martial training, they can just hang in the back with the wizard.
Mechanics aside, I think you're conflating priests with clerics. As the PH explains, clerics are rare:
Not every acolyte or officiant at a temple or shrine is a cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their gods’ will through prayer and sacrifice, not by magic and strength of arms. In some cities, priesthood amounts to a political office, viewed as a stepping stone to higher positions of authority and involving no communion with a god at all. True clerics are rare in most hierarchies.
The lore you're assuming with the prophet and crusader concepts, where there's large organizations of clerics, really doesn't mesh well with the Player's Handbook version, and makes too many assumptions that should be up to the DM or setting.
That's not to say you couldn't use this in your own setting; I just don't think this works as a replacement for the official cleric.
I just remembered something from the very back of the DMG.
You can also change armor and weapon proficiencies to reflect certain aspects of your world. For example, you could decide that the clerics of a particular deity belong to an order that forbids the accumulation of material goods, other than magic items useful for their divine mission. Such clerics carry a staff, but they are forbidden from wearing armor or using weapons other than that staff. To reflect this, you could remove the armor and weapon proficiencies for clerics of this faith, making them proficient with the quarterstaff and nothing else. You could give them a benefit to make up for the loss of proficiencies—something like the monk’s Unarmored Defense class feature, but presented as a divine blessing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
This is way too much rework just to accommodate unarmored clerics, which is something you can already do by just not putting on armor. The double subclass approach is too complex and some combinations don't make sense; I can't imagine a War or Forge cleric that foregoes weapons and armor. I also don't like that Prophets get an AC boost. I don't see why they should have special provisions to accommodate their lack of armor. If they don't have martial training, they can just hang in the back with the wizard.
Mechanics aside, I think you're conflating priests with clerics. As the PH explains, clerics are rare:
Not every acolyte or officiant at a temple or shrine is a cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their gods’ will through prayer and sacrifice, not by magic and strength of arms. In some cities, priesthood amounts to a political office, viewed as a stepping stone to higher positions of authority and involving no communion with a god at all. True clerics are rare in most hierarchies.
The lore you're assuming with the prophet and crusader concepts, where there's large organizations of clerics, really doesn't mesh well with the Player's Handbook version, and makes too many assumptions that should be up to the DM or setting.
That's not to say you couldn't use this in your own setting; I just don't think this works as a replacement for the official cleric.
I fail to see how it "doesn't work", and it's not that much of a rework either. The crusader is literally the official cleric. It works perfectly well from my perspective. Is the suggestion that a person can't wield divine magic unless they are also martially trained? Because, if so, that's clearly stupid.
What I clearly want here, and what the official cleric class (along with all of its subclasses) fails to provide, is a version of the cleric that is non-martial and compensates for this with a stronger spell and feature list, making them feel in play more like a wizard. I'm not sure why everyone is nitpicking my concept instead of just critiquing the mechanics, which was clearly what I was looking for.
I just remembered something from the very back of the DMG.
You can also change armor and weapon proficiencies to reflect certain aspects of your world. For example, you could decide that the clerics of a particular deity belong to an order that forbids the accumulation of material goods, other than magic items useful for their divine mission. Such clerics carry a staff, but they are forbidden from wearing armor or using weapons other than that staff. To reflect this, you could remove the armor and weapon proficiencies for clerics of this faith, making them proficient with the quarterstaff and nothing else. You could give them a benefit to make up for the loss of proficiencies—something like the monk’s Unarmored Defense class feature, but presented as a divine blessing.
Yeah, I remember this blurb, but it simply isn't adequate for what I'm trying to accomplish. Just swapping their armor proficiencies out for unarmored defense doesn't suddenly make them feel or play like a divine wizard. They lack the spell versatility and the ability to recover spell slots, for starters.
I don't think reducing the base abilities of a class through a subclass is the way to go. You'd be better off just making a new Divine caster class. What you appear to be trying to make was called an invoker in 4e, you might want to take a look at that for inspiration
I don't think reducing the base abilities of a class through a subclass is the way to go. You'd be better off just making a new Divine caster class. What you appear to be trying to make was called an invoker in 4e, you might want to take a look at that for inspiration
I agree, which is why that isn't what I'm doing. I'm writing a homebrew version of the class that is the way I would have designed the cleric to begin with, then providing different abilities through expanded subclass options.
Einlanzer, your use of the term "divine wizard" gives me, pause.
There is a subclass for this, it is not exactly what you are looking for but as previously mentioned, I do not like introducing new classes. If this does not float your boat, I suggest watching Unearthed Arcana in the upcoming months, I have a gut feeling they're revisiting the Theurgist.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Einlanzer, your use of the term "divine wizard" gives me, pause.
There is a subclass for this, it is not exactly what you are looking for but as previously mentioned, I do not like introducing new classes. If this does not float your boat, I suggest watching Unearthed Arcana in the upcoming months, I have a gut feeling they're revisiting the Theurgist.
Yeah, I'm always keeping an eye out for official content, but the subclasses they add for other classes to simulate this (when it should have just been integrated into the design of the cleric) don't really pull off what I'm trying to do, which is actually very simple - to have a robed, non-martial, d6 HD priest that uses the same domain system the cleric does. There are really only two ways to do that - redesign the cleric so that it can hold both martial and non-martial concepts simultaneously (which is what WoTC should have done all along), or add a new class that is mostly redundant with the official cleric but changes out a few things.
I chose the former because I feel it's the correct approach, even though I don't necessarily have a problem with adding new classes if they are thematically and mechanically unique and interesting enough.
Okay, I have created a full homebrew pdf of this. I'd post it, but to be honest I'm not sure if it breaks any rules since a lot of the content is from the official cleric in the PHB.
I'm pretty happy with it and I think it'll work well. I've updated the original post to include a handful of relatively minor changes.
I've revised a handful of the domains to match the calling choice better - specifically the War domain, since the official version pushes the cleric really hard into a melee role, which I don't think is thematically necessary at all (are war wizards melee fighters?). So, War is now more flexible and it is indeed feasible to play a Prophet of War who is not a melee combatant. For example, potent spellcasting has been folded into the War Priest feature, where I think it makes way more sense than in its original role (which has been deprecated in favor of a more support oriented ability for Prophets), and Divine Favor has been updated so that it provides the 1d4 bonus to both weapon attacks and single-fire spells. I will tackle the Forge domain next, since it's the only other really troublesome one.
I honestly think this is how the cleric should have been designed from the beginning. See my intro paragraph above if you want to know why.
If anyone happens to know whether or not it's safe for me to post it, please let me know.
This might just be me, but I don't really understand how you want this to be set up mechanics wise.
I do agree that base clerics need a bit of work cause a lot is left ambiguous (especially the Divine Intervention feature). While I can see the argument that clerics focus around their subclasses to be unique, so do the Wizards and yet I find more interesting ideas in the base wizard rules than I do the clerics (and I always end up the defacto healer in every game I play so its sort of a disturbing fact for me) However, I don't really see how adding the Callings on top of the Domains, that act as class features but really should be subclass ones is where this idea is sort of iffy for me.
With a base class idea, you want it to be a framework for the player and the big distinguishing ideas come into play when they chose a subclass. Adding another layer to this gets confusing for some as they have to juggle class abilities and spell-casting at the same time so adding more choices can lead to choice overload which then causes them to lose interest in what they are playing.
Also, I posted a rework of the Mystic class from the UA within this forum list and I haven't been called out for it, so you should be ok. I would place it into a forum instead of an outside link just in case they have a policy against it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1
I fail to see how it "doesn't work", and it's not that much of a rework either.
How is it "not that much rework" when you added an entire second version of the class (the Prophet) and got rid of Potent Spellcasting for no reason other than you don't like it? That's way more complicated than the simplest possible change that would've given you what you wanted: provide an alternative class feature that clerics can take instead of one of the existing ones to improve their survivability while unarmored.
Funnily enough the topic of complexity came up just one day after I posted that, in the D&D Beyond interview about the new UA subclasses.
The 4 traditional classes (Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard) were deliberately kept simple so that they can have both simple and complex options; more complex mechanics like the Warlock's triple-choices (subclass, pact boon, invocations) were reserved for the other 8 classes. But this design forces every cleric to make two major choices similar to a Warlock.
That's where I'm coming from when I say this doesn't work well as a replacement cleric. A separate class sidesteps those problems by not forcing cleric players to make additional choices (and lose Potent Spellcasting) to accommodate a niche concept that isn't iconic to the class.
I've also thought about archetypes for the clerics, It bothers me, that they get a lot upfront, while other classes have to reach 3rd level to get archetypes and special powers.
Maybe it's only an acolyte till it gets to 3rd level, and then it chooses its calling, maybe you do the domain only gets them the domain spell list, that is tied to their diety, or maybe even further, domains gets half the spells, and the Calling the other half. And then you could play more with special abilities for each "vocation", I kept thinking of the Inquisitor and the Oracle (from another RPG), that are also very good as archetypes for the cleric but does not fit well in the domains.
I love homebrew options, and think that yours is a great starting idea.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I’ve always had a beef with the design of the cleric in D&D, and 5e is no different. The domain-as-subclass design is highly flawed in my view, because it leads to a version of the cleric class that is far too thematically constrained (just as it always has been). There are at four easy-to-see examples of this:
a.) The non-martial, robed spellcaster priest archetype, which is common in fantasy and approximated from real history, has never been part of the D&D design, and there's no reason whatsoever why the cleric class shouldn't be broad enough to properly accommodate it.
b.) having all the subclass features tied to a Domain choice makes it so domains are complex and difficult/time-consuming to design and balance, which I don't think is ideal - if they were simpler we could have a much bigger selection of them, covering all the different interesting portfolios out there.
c.) the design leads to a lot of arbitrary "pushing". Why, for example, is a cleric of life automatically martially-oriented while a cleric of light is automatically magic-oriented? Wouldn't that depend more on the personality of the specific deity or the nature of the cleric's calling in how they serve that deity than it would on the domain itself?
d.) it leaves no room to cover more unique or interesting concepts through the subclass system the way that literally every other class does. Wizard traditions, in comparison, are conceptually much, much broader.
So, I’ve created a homebrew version of the cleric to (uniquely) have a layered subclass option, which I think is the only thing that makes sense for clerics. At 1st level, you choose both a calling and a domain. The combination of these two is what determines your subclass, and therefore what class features you acquire as you level. Right now, the domain still grants more features than the calling, but I ideally think it should be the opposite - it just entails a bigger rewrite than I wanted to do for phase 1.
Base Cleric
HD: D6
HP per level: 1d6 or 3/4
Armor: None
Weapons: Club, Sling, Quarterstaff
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Knowledge, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, Composure
1st level – Select Calling (in addition to Divine Domain) – Crusader or Prophet. Your subclass name combines the two choices. I.e. Tempest Crusader or Prophet of Life (other callings, such as Exorcist or Celebrant, might be created later)
Crusaders are more common in older, larger, and more well-organized religions. They are martially trained holy warriors employing divine magic to support themselves and their allies on the battlefield in service to their god or faith. They also specialize in exorcism of undead. They are essentially identical to the official PHB Cleric.
Crusader features -
-HP + 2, +1 for every additional level. +1 to any HD rolled to recover HP.
-Gain light/med armor and shield proficiencies, and simple weapon proficiency.
-At 2nd level, gain Channel Divinity – Turn Undead
-At 8th level, gain Divine Strike (domain choice may affect damage type)
-Domain bonus proficiencies are for weapons/armor, skills/tools, or languages
Prophets are often called as emissaries and revelears for nascent gods and newer, smaller faiths, so they are typically more common in areas that are less politically stable or where religion is less well-established. They sometimes appear in the servant ranks of more organized faiths, where they are usually either shunned or quickly move into a respected leadership position. They tend to eschew physical combat and are instead highly accomplished orators and miracle workers. They feature an expanded spell list, although these extra spells do count against their prepared limit (unlike domain bonus spells). Channel Divinity: Turn/Destroy Undead is replaced with Channel Divinity: Revelation, and their level 8 domain feature is always Doomspeak instead of Divine Strike.
Prophet features
-Gain the cantrip Message (in addition to any provided by normal domain choice).
-Gain Prophet’s Rebuke
- At 2nd level, gain Channel Divinity: Revelation
-At 8th level, gain Doomspeak
- Domain bonus proficiencies are for weapons/armor, skills/tools, or languages
Gain the following bonus spells as you level (added to cleric list; not automatically prepared)
1st – Shield, Unseen Servant
3rd – Suggestion, Levitate
5th– Fear, Sleet Storm
7th – Blight, Compulsion
9th– Creation, Dominate Person
11th – Move Earth, Mass Suggestion
13th – Project Image, Sequester
15th– Dominate Monster, Telepathy
17th– Miracle, Foresight
New Features & Spells
Prophet’s Rebuke – You add your Charisma modifier to your AC when not wearing any armor.
Channel Divinity: Revelation – You can swap one prepared spell out for another of the same level, and regain a spell slot for the level of the swapped spell. Improves at the same rate as Turn Undead, capping out at a maximum spell level of 6th.
Miracle – A divine version of the spell Wish. For now, it is functionally the same spell, but I may come up with some distinguishing features after playtesting a bit.
Doomspeak – A once/long rest uber-fear that stuns and then frightens all foes in line of sight.
Removed feature:
Potent Spellcasting - I hate this feature. It manages to be both extremely boring and overpowered, and I like the idea of Prophets being more utilitarian rather than damage-focused, so this has been replaced with Doomspeak. The original functionality has been rolled into the War Priest feature in the War domain, where it is limited and where I think it makes a lot more thematic sense. This helps make the War Domain a lot more flexible and a viable option for Prophets.
Do you think there is room for the Prophet as a subclass in the current cleric class or does it require a complete revision of the class to work?
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
This is way too much rework just to accommodate unarmored clerics, which is something you can already do by just not putting on armor. The double subclass approach is too complex and some combinations don't make sense; I can't imagine a War or Forge cleric that foregoes weapons and armor. I also don't like that Prophets get an AC boost. I don't see why they should have special provisions to accommodate their lack of armor. If they don't have martial training, they can just hang in the back with the wizard.
Mechanics aside, I think you're conflating priests with clerics. As the PH explains, clerics are rare:
The lore you're assuming with the prophet and crusader concepts, where there's large organizations of clerics, really doesn't mesh well with the Player's Handbook version, and makes too many assumptions that should be up to the DM or setting.
That's not to say you couldn't use this in your own setting; I just don't think this works as a replacement for the official cleric.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
I just remembered something from the very back of the DMG.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I don't think reducing the base abilities of a class through a subclass is the way to go. You'd be better off just making a new Divine caster class. What you appear to be trying to make was called an invoker in 4e, you might want to take a look at that for inspiration
Einlanzer, your use of the term "divine wizard" gives me, pause.
There is a subclass for this, it is not exactly what you are looking for but as previously mentioned, I do not like introducing new classes. If this does not float your boat, I suggest watching Unearthed Arcana in the upcoming months, I have a gut feeling they're revisiting the Theurgist.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
I chose the former because I feel it's the correct approach, even though I don't necessarily have a problem with adding new classes if they are thematically and mechanically unique and interesting enough.
Okay, I have created a full homebrew pdf of this. I'd post it, but to be honest I'm not sure if it breaks any rules since a lot of the content is from the official cleric in the PHB.
I'm pretty happy with it and I think it'll work well. I've updated the original post to include a handful of relatively minor changes.
I've revised a handful of the domains to match the calling choice better - specifically the War domain, since the official version pushes the cleric really hard into a melee role, which I don't think is thematically necessary at all (are war wizards melee fighters?). So, War is now more flexible and it is indeed feasible to play a Prophet of War who is not a melee combatant. For example, potent spellcasting has been folded into the War Priest feature, where I think it makes way more sense than in its original role (which has been deprecated in favor of a more support oriented ability for Prophets), and Divine Favor has been updated so that it provides the 1d4 bonus to both weapon attacks and single-fire spells. I will tackle the Forge domain next, since it's the only other really troublesome one.
I honestly think this is how the cleric should have been designed from the beginning. See my intro paragraph above if you want to know why.
If anyone happens to know whether or not it's safe for me to post it, please let me know.
This might just be me, but I don't really understand how you want this to be set up mechanics wise.
I do agree that base clerics need a bit of work cause a lot is left ambiguous (especially the Divine Intervention feature). While I can see the argument that clerics focus around their subclasses to be unique, so do the Wizards and yet I find more interesting ideas in the base wizard rules than I do the clerics (and I always end up the defacto healer in every game I play so its sort of a disturbing fact for me) However, I don't really see how adding the Callings on top of the Domains, that act as class features but really should be subclass ones is where this idea is sort of iffy for me.
With a base class idea, you want it to be a framework for the player and the big distinguishing ideas come into play when they chose a subclass. Adding another layer to this gets confusing for some as they have to juggle class abilities and spell-casting at the same time so adding more choices can lead to choice overload which then causes them to lose interest in what they are playing.
Also, I posted a rework of the Mystic class from the UA within this forum list and I haven't been called out for it, so you should be ok. I would place it into a forum instead of an outside link just in case they have a policy against it.
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1
The Forum Infestation (TM)
I've also thought about archetypes for the clerics, It bothers me, that they get a lot upfront, while other classes have to reach 3rd level to get archetypes and special powers.
Maybe it's only an acolyte till it gets to 3rd level, and then it chooses its calling, maybe you do the domain only gets them the domain spell list, that is tied to their diety, or maybe even further, domains gets half the spells, and the Calling the other half. And then you could play more with special abilities for each "vocation", I kept thinking of the Inquisitor and the Oracle (from another RPG), that are also very good as archetypes for the cleric but does not fit well in the domains.
I love homebrew options, and think that yours is a great starting idea.