Hello everyone, and welcome to another in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of: War.
The War domain is described as “You are a crusader for your god, always ready and willing to fight to defend your faith.” – To me, this is not necessarily the warmonger that most War-gods tend to be, but one who believes in making certain that the faith is respected and who is willing to fight for it if needed. The image of the Templar Knights springs to mind fairly handily, though in this case, we’re going to discount some of the less savory aspects of the Crusades and focus instead on the image that they projected, of a person of faith, and a person of the sword.
The powers granted are “Battle Rage” – which enables you to do 1/2 your level extra in melee damage for one round. It makes for a potent hit along with things like Vital Strike or a multi-classed Cleric/Barbarian.
The second power granted is “Weapon Master” that grants you the use a single combat feat, that you can change each time you use Weapon Master, with the only downside being that you still need to meet the prerequisites of the feat, but it makes you an extremely flexible combatant, as you could choose your feat based on the current situation.
Spells:
The spells you get with the War domain are as follows:
Magic Weapon
This simple 1st level spell turns your weapon into a magical item, of +1 status, meaning it gains a +1 bonus to both to hit rolls and damage rolls. More importantly though is the fact that it’ll allow you to overcome Damage Reduction that requires magical weapons, which is fairly common.
Spiritual Weapon
This spell conjures up a weapon of pure force, that takes on the shape of your deity’s favored weapon. Unlike a normal weapon, you do not need to wield it yourself, merely requiring an action to control it, whereupon it automatically flies over and attacks your target. Since it is a weapon of force, it is also capable of attacking incorporeal targets without suffering any penalties.
Magic Vestment
Simply put, this makes your armor magical, up to a maximum enhancement bonus of +5. Importantly, you can also enchant normal clothing in this way, allowing you to gain a measure of protection while maintaining a disguise or appearances.
Divine Power
In my opinion, this is probably one of the most effective buffing spells out there, even though it only affects the cleric. It gives a LUCK bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and Strength checks equal to 1 for every 3 levels the cleric possesses, i.e. a minimum of +2 at the point where the spell is gained. As it is a luck bonus it stacks with almost all magic items and other buffing spells, giving the user a huge boost of power (especially if combined with magical weapons and items that give enhancement bonuses). It also grants you an extra free attack per round, though this does not stack with other haste and speed effects.
Flame Strike
This spell does 1d6 points of damage, with a maximum of 15d6. While that’s not terribly high for a spell of this level, critically half the damage comes from divine energy, meaning that part of the damage cannot be mitigated through resistances, only through a successful saving throw.
Blade Barrier
Simply put, this creates a wall of whirling force blades, causing massive damage to anyone walking through it (up to 15d6), with only a reflex to reduce the damage by half. Finally, it also provides cover against attacks made through the blade barrier – importantly though, is that it has a duration, so people could potentially be forced to move through it multiple times.
Power Word, Blind
This is one of those spells that’s just nasty in and of itself. For creatures with low hit points (important note: this is CURRENT hit points, not maximum hit points, so you can arrange for a creature to drop low on hit points first), the effect is permanent. For others not so, but it’s still nasty. And that is due to the blinded condition itself. Unless you have some other sense, you’re blinded as per the condition. Blinded reads as follows: “it takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength– and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading, and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) against the blinded character. Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.”
Power Word, Stun
This functions mostly like Power Word Blind, in that it’s fast to cast, and has a limited type of targets. But here instead, they are stunned, meaning they are practically helpless (though they cannot be coup de grace’d). The Stunned condition reads as follows: “A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent.”
Power Word, Kill
And finally, we have power word kill. Like power word blind, it only affects creatures of a certain amount of hit points, but instead of blinding them, it instantly slays them. No discussions and no saving throw. They are dead. The only limitation is that they need to be alive. For those who can remember this is also one of those iconic abilities from Dragonlance, possessed by Lord Soth, and used when he kills Tanis Half-elven. (During Tasselhoff Burrfoot’s trip to an alternate timeline).
This time around for the deity, we’re doing something slightly different. Instead of a deity from mythos, I’m going to take a character from a video game, that embodies the War domain. So please welcome Kratos from the God of War series.
New Deity
Kratos
The Madman, The Butcher, Godslayer
Alignment CN
Worshipers Warriors, those seeking revenge, those wishing to overthrow the gods, atheists
Cleric Alignments N, CG, CN, CE
Domains: Chaos, Death, Destruction, Glory, Madness, War
Sub-domains: Blood, Hatred, Hubris, Insanity, Murder, Rage
Favored Weapon: short sword (preferably two)
Symbol: 2 black crossed swords (sometimes overlapped by a decapitated head)
Kratos is the God of War, but he was not always a god, having ascended only recently. He was a man who swore vengeance upon the gods after he was tricked into killing his family by the former God of War, whose place he has now taken.
He never intended to take that place, having wished only for revenge on that particular god, but he kept finding himself involved in the plots of other gods, continually ending up in confrontation, and he resorted to his proven tactics: slaughter EVERYTHING. Now he stalks the planes, never calling any particular place his home, seeking other gods, and only once they are all dead will he stop.
The clergy of Kratos consists mainly of those of a warlike disposition, so those with an affinity for weapons find a home easily here. Even among the clergy themselves, actual clerics are outnumbered by fighters and warriors, capable of training the lay worshippers in battle tactics.
The faith of Kratos has no friends amongst the other gods, as they too seek to destroy them, though unlike Kratos himself, they have to respect (at least somewhat) the boundaries of civilization, knowing that they cannot directly move to destroy a rival faith, but they’ll happily work to expose any unfortunate incidents and problems that other faiths have. And while they’re not popular among other faiths, they ARE popular among soldiers, men-at-arms, guards, and the like. All those who know to trust the strength of one’s arms, and the loyalty of one’s comrades.
Kim Frandsen
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