Coloring D&D Subclasses - Day 3: Cleric (Player's Handbook 2024)
Hello again! I come back to you for our next installment in this series. Turns out, bards are harder to pinpoint than barbarians. First, much of you think of bards as a core being izzet rather than gruul. For me, I think artists are izzet for sure, but bards are more than that: they are storytellers, keepers of tradition... and that feels more green than blue to me. Anyways, I've done my best to choose a color combo for each subclass but, for some of them, I had to change my approach a little, let's see:
- College of Dance, I think, had a lot of influence coming from the Prismari college in Strixhaven. And even then, there was a tie between gruul and izzet. Now, if temur or simic were to be mentioned, I would have gone for the three color combo and called it a day. But they weren't. So I looked at the subclass description and it seems moving in harmony with the cosmos is its main thing. Taking that into account, I erred on the side of gruul.
- College of Glamour was funny as hell because everyone had a different opinion. So I decided to look for the reasoning behind those. Now, a lot of people said green is the most associated with fae in MtG, but that's not true. Dimir (and mostly, blue) is the core color combo for faeries in this game. Now, as a lot of you used the fey and the aspect of emotion as arguments, I've decided to go grixis (emotions = red, fey = dimir) for this one.
- College of Lore, fortunately, is when things start being easier for me. There was a four way tie between azorius, izzet, boros, and jeskai. So jeskai it is.
- College of Valor was also easy. Boros was the most chosen combo, with jeskai and naya just behind. So I cut out the excess in blue and green and left it with white and red (also, if you think about it, there's an argument to be made about Lorehold being more of a college of valor than a college of lore, despite its name).
Now let's keep going with the Cleric, described in the Player's Handbook as people who draw power from the realms of the gods and harness it to work miracles. Blessed by a deity, a pantheon, or another immortal entity, they can reach out to the divine magic of the Outer Planes—where gods dwell—and channel it to bolster people and battle foes.
This class is colored as White in the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set.
The four subclasses that can be found in the Player's Handbook are:
- Life Domain "Soothe the Hurts of the World". The Life Domain focuses on the positive energy that helps sustain all life in the multiverse. Clerics who tap into this domain are masters of healing, using that life force to cure many hurts. Existence itself relies on the positive energy associated with this domain, so a cleric of almost any religious tradition might choose it. 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.
- Light Domain "Bring Light to Banish Darkness". The Light Domain emphasizes the divine power to bring about blazing fire and revelation. Clerics who wield this power are enlightened souls infused with radiance and the power of their deities' discerning vision, charged with chasing away lies and burning away darkness. The Light Domain is associated with gods of truth, vigilance, beauty, insight, and renewal. Some of these gods are identified with the sun or as charioteers who guide the sun across the sky. Others are sentinels who pierce deception. Some are deities of beauty and artistry who teach that art is a vehicle for the soul's improvement.
- Trickery Domain "Make Mischief and Challenge Authority". The Trickery Domain offers magic of deception, illusion, and stealth. Clerics who wield this magic are a disruptive force in the world, puncturing pride, mocking tyrants, freeing captives, and flouting hollow traditions. They prefer subterfuge and pranks to direct confrontation. Gods of trickery are mischief-makers and instigators who stand as a constant challenge to the accepted order among both gods and mortals. They embody the forces of change and social upheaval, and they're patrons of thieves, scoundrels, gamblers, rebels, and liberators. Religious orders that operate in secret, especially those that seek to undermine oppressive governments or hierarchies, also draw on the power of the Trickery Domain.
- War Domain "Inspire Valor and Smite Foes". War has many manifestations. It can make heroes of ordinary people. It can be desperate and horrific, with acts of cruelty and cowardice eclipsing instances of excellence and courage. Clerics who tap into the magic of the War Domain excel in battle, inspiring others to fight the good fight or offering acts of violence as prayers. Gods of the War Domain watch over warriors and reward them for their great deeds. They include champions of honor and chivalry as well as gods of destruction and pillage. Other war gods take a more neutral stance, promoting war in all its manifestations and supporting warriors in any circumstance.
Rules, once again, are pretty simple, I'll give you the description of each class and subclass as they appear in the most recent rules and we'll discuss their coloring. At the end of the day, I'll look for the most agreed color combination for each class and move to the next class. See you tomorrow!
