In the beginning:

The original cleric class debuted in the first version of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974.

There were only three classes in those days: Fighting Man (Fighter), Cleric and Magic-User (Wizard). The Thief (Rogue) came along the next year with the Greyhawk supplement.

The original cleric was good at fighting but initially could not cast spells. Instead, it gained that ability at level 2. Even then, it was limited: only a single first-level spell per day. However, the cleric could turn undead – its other signature ability – from the beginning. Good combat, support spells, and turn undead: these were the abilities that defined the cleric in the early days.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons increased the spell-casting capabilities of the cleric, not only allowing casting from level 1 but – by adding a bonus to spells prepared based on its wisdom score – significantly increasing its utility. A first-level cleric could cast three (3!) first-level spells, assuming a decent wisdom score.

The Nature of Clerical Spells

The original cleric tended towards a support role in spell casting, as opposed to the more offensive line the magic-user took. Thus, it employed low-level spells such as bless and cure light wounds to aid the party without directly damaging the opponents. While it could use inflict light wounds to hurt an opponent, that spell was only slightly more effective than striking with a mace – and used one of the rare spell slots. Far better to heal a party member later and use a weapon now.

However, to say that the cleric was devoid of offensive spells was a mistake. From spiritual hammer and hold person to the higher-level flame strike, the cleric had options. They just tended to be worse at it than the magic-user, especially with their selection of area-of-effect spells. They had nothing as incredibly destructive as a fireball!

Besides offensive spells to harm their enemies, and support spells to heal and enhance their foes, the cleric also possesses several utility spells that prove useful in dungeon exploration.

The split of these spells between the arcane (magic-user) and divine (cleric) tracks is somewhat arbitrary and partly determined by what bit of mythology the designers looked at when creating them.

Thus, the comprehend languages spell (arcane) allows the caster to read and understand other languages but not to speak them. In contrast, the tongues spell (divine) allows the caster to speak and understand spoken languages, but not to read them. The latter likely comes from the idea of speaking in tongues. Oddly, in AD&D, tongues appeared on the magic-user list before dropping off in later editions.

The Diversification of Clerics

In the beginning, Dave and Gary spake and created the cleric. And all clerics had access to the same abilities, and it was good.

And then some pesky player popped up and said, “But why are the abilities of the cleric of magic and the cleric of healing the same?”

And the game went down a rabbit hole from which it has never emerged!

It is fair to say that designing clerics that are different from one another is one of the most challenging design tasks in Dungeons & Dragons. Every edition tries something different, to varying levels of success.

Here are some of the methods employed:

• A penalty to gained XP in exchange for special abilities such as thief abilities or other class’s spells (World of Greyhawk boxed set, 1983 – AD&D)
• Splitting all spells into various spheres, with only clerics of a particular god having access to those spheres (Dragonlance Adventures, 1986, AD&D and Complete Priest 1990, AD&D 2E)
• Domains for each god with a unique ability at 1^st level, plus a domain spell slot used to prepare one of the god’s domain spells. (D&D 3E, 2000)
• Subclasses for each god with special abilities at various levels plus access to additional spells based on the deity (D&D 5E, 2014)

Of them, I felt the least successful was that used in 2E. It created clerics with incredibly different abilities, but I think class-based design wants some predictability of character abilities – and it was hard to design a class that covered the basics.

Most versions since 2000 have created a core cleric, then varied the extra abilities gained for worshipping a particular god.

The Cleric in Battle

The original cleric could wear the best sort of plate armour and use any blunt weapon. As in OD&D, all weapons did 1d6 damage, this scarcely mattered in melee, but with only the sling available as a ranged weapon, they were not quite as effective at ranged combat.

However, both fighting men and clerics could quite easily take the front line in combat, as the cleric had only slightly fewer hit points than the fighter.

Strangely, the cleric lost access to the sling in AD&D and was reduced to merely melee combat. I have never understood why that occurred.

The cleric has slowly opened up the range of weapons they can use since then, especially as it has moved away from the limited interpretation of one type of medieval priest! Clerics with bows are far more common, though the gap between the cleric and the fighter in combat effectiveness has widened.

The Cleric and Healing

The original cleric had access to cure light wounds at low levels, which restored 1d6+1 hit points (1d8 in AD&D). It also took a full turn to cast – whether that meant a combat turn (1 minute) or an exploration turn (10 minutes) is a little unclear in the text. In AD&D, it took most of a combat round to cast.

The next spell that healed damage was cure serious wounds, which was a fourth-level spell. It restored 2d6+2 hit points (2d8+1 in AD&D). That meant the cleric had to be sixth (OD&D) or seventh (AD&D) level to cast it! (And even then, they had very few slots).

Due to the problems with casting these spells in combat, healing tended to be used after a batt;e.

Throughout the editions that followed, the cleric gained greater access to healing magic. First, through more spells like cure moderate wounds, then through the ability to spontaneously cast healing even when the cleric had not already prepared it. Later, 4^th edition introduced one of the most significant upgrades: healing word, which allowed you to attack in addition to healing a comrade.

Clerics also could remove other conditions and curses that the dungeon inflicted on the characters, although some took a long time to become available. In AD&D, wights and greater undead had the ability to energy drain, that is – remove levels of experience from characters. The only ways of regaining those levels were adventuring (thus gaining it again) or through the seventh-level cleric spell restoration. That required a 16^th level cleric with an 18 Wisdom!

The game is a little bit kinder now.

My Package of Essential Cleric Spells

In Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition, there are a few spells of each level that I consider “essential” when going into a dungeon delve. I thought I would share them with you. These lists are Player’s Handbook only!

I am sure some of you will disagree!

1^st level: bless, detect magic, healing word, protection from evil and good
2^nd level: lesser restoration, prayer of healing, spiritual weapon

3^rd level: dispel magic, remove curse, revivify, speak with dead, tongues
4^th level: death ward, divination
5^th level: greater restoration, raise dead
6^th level: heal, heroes feast, true seeing
7^th level: resurrection

Meanwhile, in AD&D:

1^st level: cure light wounds, detect magic
2^nd level: find traps, hold person, silence 15′ radius, slow poison
3^rd level: cure blindness, dispel magic, remove curse, speak with dead
4^th level: curse serious wounds, neutralise poison, tongues
5^th level: cure critical wounds, flame strike, raise dead, true seeing
6^th level: blade barrier, heal
7^th level: regenerate, restoration, resurrection