The Cleric is a free-willed priest, tending the needs of the local people with his particular talents. On Athas, clerics draw their magical energy directly from one of the four elemental planes: earth, air, fire, or water; not from any manner of deity. A cleric may be either a freeman or a slave.
Unlike the clerics of most other worlds, who serve deities, the Clerics of Athas instead must serve the elemental/paramental powers. Commonly referred to as Elemental Priests.
Outside the city states, away from the bureaucracy of the sorcerer-kings and their templars, the most common type of priest is the cleric.
All clerics worship one of the four elemental planes: earth, air, fire, or water. They call upon magical energies directly from those planes, specializing in one element's magical applications on the primer material plane. Every cleric must choose one elemental plane as his focus of worship. This choice will dictate what spells he can call upon and what types of weapons he will prefer to use. A cleric has major access to the sphere of his element of worship. He also has minor access to the Sphere of the Cosmos.
Backgrounds and motivations for clerics may be vastly different. The Shaman Witch Doctors of the halflings, the mullahs of the trader caravans, and the healers among the slave tribes are all very different, but they are all clerics.
Clerics concentrate their efforts on magical and spiritual pursuits, and usually leave combat to others. However, Athas is a violent world, and practically dictates that they train in combat, as well. Clerics are not restricted with regard to the armor they may wear, but commonly limit themselves to weapons that are somehow related to their particular elemental plane of worship.
Abilities[]
2nd edition[]
Ability Requirements: Wisdom 9. A Cleric who has a Wisdom 16 or more gains a 10 percent bonus to the experience points he earns.
Races Allowed: All clerics are average fighters, but can wear armor and bear weapons, unlike wizards.
Clerics have power over undead, just as described in the Player's Handbook. In Dark Sun, undead are classified as either controlled or free-willed, but the cleric's ability to turn or dispel them is the same.
Athasian clerics never gain followers simply as a reward for advancing levels, nor do they ever gain official approval to establish a stronghold. However, any of these things may come about as a result of good roleplaying.
Clerics do gain certain powers with regard to their elemental planes of worship as they advance in level.
A Cleric can ingnore the presence of the element he worships when he reaches 5th level. The duration of this power is a number of rounds equal to his level, and it can only be performed once per day. Thus, a cleric of water may move through water freely and one of earth may pass through stone walls as if they were not there. Force exerted on the cleric by the element may also be ignored. A great wind wil lnot affect a cleric of the air, flames will not burn a cleric of the flames. This protection extends to everything that the cleric is carrying on him at the time.
A cleric can gate material directly from his elemental plane when he reaches 7th level. The amount of material he may gate is one cubic foot per level above 6th. The material is a pure specimen from the plane in question, Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. The exact nature of the material will be raw and basic; stone (not metal) from the plane of earth, air, flame, and liquid water from the respective planes.
Air so gated comes in the form of a terrific wind, capable of knocking down all huge or smaller creatures; it last one round.
The shape of the gated material may be dictated by the cleric (a stone wall one inch thick, a sheet of flame surround the altar, etc), but it cannot be gated more than 50 feet from the cleric. Material may be gated only once per day.
Though not a granted power, a cleric can conjure elementals from his elemental plane when he reaches 9th level, since Conjure Elemental is a 5th level spell in Dark Sun. The 6th level spell Conjure Fire Elemental and the 7th level spell Conjure Earth Elemental have been removed from the Dark Sun clerical spell lists.
In all cases where the rules here don't contradict them, the rules about clerics in the Player's Handbook should be used.
Spells
The spells a clerics throw are often destruction and healing. Also because of their class traits, clerics can turn undead monsters.
The spells available to a cleric depend upon his elemental plane of worship. To reflect this, the spheres of clerical spells have been altered. There are only five spheres: the Spheres of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Sphere of the Cosmos (a general sphere). A cleric gains access to all spells within his chosen elemental sphere and to all spells in the Sphere of the Cosmos.
The spells themselves are received directly from the elemental sphere (even the Cosmos spells). A cleric need not restrict his activities to supporting his element on Athas, but direct opposition may cause spells to be withheld, at the DM's option.
Weapons Restrictions
- Elemental Plane of Earth: usually the best armed since they can use stone and metal in their weapons. Wood is also acceptable to them since it originally grew from the ground. They may use any weapon listed in the Players Handbook.
- Elemental Plane of Air: Since the air does not lend itself easily to being an offensive weapon, clerics of the air rely instead on weapons that are guided by air. They may use any sort of bow, blowgun, or slinging, regardless of construction. Spears al also acceptable, used in either a melee or missile role.
- Elemental Plane of Fire: Clerics who worship this plane rely on flaming weapons. Favored weapons include flaming arrows, burning oil, and magical weapons enchanted to somehow burn or scald. In extreme circunstances, heating metal weapons to cause searing damage is another acceptable practice among the clerics of the flames. Because it was once fused under great pressure and heat, all obsidian weapons are also acceptable.
- Elemental Plane of Water: Those who worship this plane recognize water as the bringer of life to the wastelands, the originator of all that grows. Therefore, clerics of the water may use any weapon that is of organic origin, usually wood or bone. They may use bows, clubs, maces, maces, javelins, quarterstaffs, spears, and warhammers.
Clerics are not strictly forbidden from using weapons that do not conform listed before. However, clerics will not gain their share of group experience awards for creatures defeated using weapons outside this scheme.
Sources[]
- Dark Sun Boxed Set. 2nd Edition. TSR Inc.