Moldvay Badic has a play example where the Fighter discussed killing a hobgoblin prisoner who is bound. The Cleric reacted with horror and states that her diety will not allow healing for someone who commits such an evil act. This is how the cleric needs to be played. As a referee, I'd offer extra XP to the cleric player for good roleplaying.
I would argue that the restriction to blunt weapons wasn't really about historical lore - that part was just rationalization. It was really about game balance. Back in the dawn of D&D the only magical weapons were swords. Not being allowed to use edged weapons meant that clerics effectively couldn't use magical weapons. This reduced their combat effectiveness compared to fighters, balancing their spell casting and turn undead abilities. Even when magical maces started to appear they were usually much less common than swords.
Beginning w/AD&D back in the 70s, we played clerics like heavily armored medics. The alignment issue was brought up whenever necessary and typically resolved by healing spells not working on miscreants. Rules allowed any alignment and since most of our group was NG to CG in normal life, that tended to be the characters' alignment as well. The emphasis was always on roleplaying anyway, with the DM making most decisions on the fly. We also experimented without clerics, making medical skills a non-weapon speciality. Basic knowledge in herbs, healing potions, etc. Was only available to fighters and rogues since they would need the skills most. Idea came from Gencon if I remember correctly.
Just started playing a cleric in an oDnd caverns of thracia campaign, seems really fun so far! It will be interesting to see how much of a restriction no bladed weapons will be in practice
Moldvay Badic has a play example where the Fighter discussed killing a hobgoblin prisoner who is bound. The Cleric reacted with horror and states that her diety will not allow healing for someone who commits such an evil act.
This is how the cleric needs to be played. As a referee, I'd offer extra XP to the cleric player for good roleplaying.
I would argue that the restriction to blunt weapons wasn't really about historical lore - that part was just rationalization. It was really about game balance. Back in the dawn of D&D the only magical weapons were swords. Not being allowed to use edged weapons meant that clerics effectively couldn't use magical weapons. This reduced their combat effectiveness compared to fighters, balancing their spell casting and turn undead abilities. Even when magical maces started to appear they were usually much less common than swords.
Interesting insight
I ended up making special swords allowable for Cleric use-Holy Avengers and what not.
Nice work. Doing one of these for every class would be a great resource to feed new players of said class.
This video has already been quite popular so I think one for each of the other classes will be a good idea.
Beginning w/AD&D back in the 70s, we played clerics like heavily armored medics. The alignment issue was brought up whenever necessary and typically resolved by healing spells not working on miscreants. Rules allowed any alignment and since most of our group was NG to CG in normal life, that tended to be the characters' alignment as well. The emphasis was always on roleplaying anyway, with the DM making most decisions on the fly. We also experimented without clerics, making medical skills a non-weapon speciality. Basic knowledge in herbs, healing potions, etc. Was only available to fighters and rogues since they would need the skills most. Idea came from Gencon if I remember correctly.
Just started playing a cleric in an oDnd caverns of thracia campaign, seems really fun so far! It will be interesting to see how much of a restriction no bladed weapons will be in practice
Really good analysis! Thanks for sharing! Glad I found your channel. 🙂
Great video. Are you planning to do a video for each OSR class?
Any duels between clerics are pointless!