Continuing on the old school character class theme (with a particular emphasis on the Moldvay era of D&D B/X and the likes of OSE) is the Cleric. There is a common perception of clerics just being played as ersatz fighters with some healing skills – but this needn’t and shouldn’t be the case. Even the 1981 D&D Basic book by Moldvay has a classic example of how a cleric’s ‘religion’ and choice of deity can be be reflected in game play (pg.B28 “Sister Rebecca, a Lawful cleric, is shocked by Morgan’s suggestion. She tells Morgan that a Lawful person keeps her word, and that she promised the hobgoblins that they would be spared. Her god would never allow her to heal someone who killed helpless prisoners…“).

Back in the day (and I’m talking the early to mid 1980’s here) there probably was a tendency to play clerics as just B-grade fighter surrogates with some special abilities (i.e. healing) at least some of the time, despite the above example and other indicators of how they should be played. We certainly did play the religion and deity aspect to a degree, but there will have been plenty of times this did (unfortunately) take a bit of a back seat. Clerics are an understated class in old school D&D in my opinion but also one that can easily lack flavour or character if players don’t appreciate the potential, and fall into the B-grade fighter with healing trap. The turning undead skill is very powerful, especially in Basic D&D (versus AD&D), and provides the third aspect to the Cleric class – it should not be underrated how useful this is, especially at lower levels (unless a DM is running a world purged of undead of some sort).

Here are Daniel from Bandit Keep’s thoughts on playing Clerics on old school Moldvay B/X D&D and similar (so equally applicable to AD&D 1e, Holmes, Mentzer BECMI & Rules Cyclopedia editions). I found them interesting and very much aligned to how I have always seen the way the cleric class is best played:

There is also an interesting discussion around the origins of the Cleric class, and more interestingly, the Cleric Spell List in OD&D/Holmes Basic/Moldvay B/X D&D. The latter drawing from a blend of hammer horror films and Christian biblical stories. Read more at OSR: Clerics and Sunday School Miracles on the Coins and Scrolls blog.

There is also more on this theme in A Bald Cleric And Two Bears: The Origin Of The Cleric Class In Dungeon And Dragons at Nerds on Earth. And the related articles (both linked to in the above article):

• Thomas Aquinas: A Look At A Real Life Cleric For Dungeons And Dragons.
• Meet Saint Cuthbert, The Patron Saint Of D&D According To Gary Gygax.

Wisdom (and the Cleric)

I found a very interesting commentary on the Cleric’s prime requisite, Discerning & Conceptualizing Wisdom in D&D, at the Rambling Cleric’s blog. Well worth a read, but to quote that post in brief:

Therefore, characters with high wisdom scores are better able to discern situations and/or judge rightly. Another way to put this would be to state that wisdom is the ability “to see” (i.e., “to know”) a situation in a way that leads to proper discernment and judgement… All of this helps better explain why, from an early stage in D&D’s history, a high wisdom score provided better odds for a character attempting to fend off magical attacks such as charms, phantasmal forces, fears, and so forth.

Rambling Cleric

More on Old School D&D Classes

• Old School D&D Magic-User
• Old School D&D Thief
• Old School D&D Elf