As this isn't really a mechanic rule, but rather a class rule for flavour and based on the notion that a man of the cloth should not spill blood, I still hold to this restriction in my games. Then there is also other information, such as in the WotI, that describes those followers whose Immortals do allow some of these weapons.
So, what do you do in your games, or what would you do if you're not currently running a 3E game?
As this isn't really a mechanic rule, but rather a class rule for flavour and based on the notion that a man of the cloth should not spill blood, I still hold to this restriction in my games. Then there is also other information, such as in the WotI, that describes those followers whose Immortals do allow some of these weapons.
So, what do you do in your games, or what would you do if you're not currently running a 3E game?
Actually it is a purely mechanic rule, not a flavour rule, it doesn't even make sense to explain it with flavour, although that was tried in earlier editions.
The really early issues of Dragon Magazine did tell why clerics had this restriction: To balance them with the fighter class.
Because at early levels the differences between clerics and fighters weren't that big, the clerics got restricted to the 1d6 weapon, while the fighter could use the 1d8 weapon.
Using flavour to explain this is a bad way, because: How many hundreds of gods does D&D have?
While it may make sense with some of them, the majority of gods have no reason to place such a restriction upon their clerics, many gods even have the best reason to get their clerics to use as many weapons as they can.
And it wasn't really 3e that broke the old restrictions, almost all priest kits in 2e could use more weapons that the standard priests.
Now on Mystara (or any fantasy world), it is a completely different thing since they use fictionalized Immortals or deities, so I easily agree that it is for balance purposes. The way I've always looked at it is that the creators of the rules used a bit of historical ideology to function as a restriction for balancing purposes.
If you do some research on the subject you should be able to find this for yourself. I think one of my books may have this in it so if I find it I'll post a quote and reference. It is one of those things that when I first read about it (probably about 15 years ago when still a newbie to DnD) I thought it was so cool!
The CoK is pretty similar to the Roman Catholic Church, at least in terms of architecture, clothes, rituals etc IMC anyway, so it is cool that there actually was a connection between that and using blunt weapons. Thanks for sharing that little tid-bit Hugin!
Håvard
I'm sure there's better info out there somewhere, but I didn't want anybody thinking I was making it up (or on something) :D
I actually found the site interesting due to it's description of the symbolic mace in Canadian Parliament and what it represents. Of course, it put a few good RP ideas in my head as well!
The cleric-adventurer is not a meek priest; he is a warrior who has spells and magical powers to aid him as he destroys the enemies of his god. Like Archbishop Turpin, he can use his powers to bless and support his comrades, and he is an able fighter in his own right, second only to a professional warrior in skill.[...]
Clericadventurers are trained warriors; they fight better than trained men-at-arms, are comfortable with armor, and are bold enough to enter places no cynical mercenary would dare come near. They are warrior-priests, and it should show in their outlook. This warlike outlook is evident in a properly motivated cleric player character. Why does a cleric-adventurer go on adventures? Certainly not just to play medic; he could do that where it’s safe — people get hurt everywhere. Not just for greed; if he concentrated solely on personal ambition, he’d soon be bereft of spells. His motives are basically aggressive: he wants to destroy his god’s enemies, wrest away their wealth, and accumulate personal experience in a rapid but risky manner; and all for his god’s benefit. This is a cleric worthy of Turpin’s approval. After all, how meek can you expect a person who fights terrible monsters to be? Just descending into a dungeon is ah act of uncommon boldness. The cleric-adventurer isn’t, and really can’t be, a meek healer. His purpose demands that he be a bold killer, a champion of his god.[...]
The portrayal of the cleric-adventurer as a crusader for his god makes him sound suspiciously like an AD&D paladin. Granted; but if players had used clerics as something other than combat medics, perhaps the need for the paladin subclass would have never surfaced. Roland was a traditional paladin,
and he had no magic powers. Turpin was most accurately a cleric-adventurer,[...]
Clerics and swords
Turpin of Rheims, finding himself o’erset,
With four sharp lance-heads stuck fast within his breast,
Quickly leaps up, brave lord, and stands erect.
He looks on Roland and runs to him and says
Only one word: “I am not beaten yet!
True man never failed while life was in him left!”
He draws Almace, his steel-bright brand keen-edged;
A thousand strokes he strikes into the press.
Soon Charles shall see he spared no foe he met,
For all about him he’ll find four hundred men,
Some wounded, some clean through the body cleft,
And some of them made shorter by a head.
— The Song of Roland, Laisse 155
According to the D&D game rules, clerics are only allowed touse blunt weapons because they are forbidden to shed blood. This practice was followed during part of the Middle Ages, but not throughout; the poet certainly did not think of Turpin as a heretic. Most clerics aren’t Christian, anyway. Why deny a follower of Odin the traditional spear, or a priestess of Artemis the bow?
Clerics were perhaps limited to blunt weapons because the class was created with medieval Catholicism in mind, and to reduce the cleric’s effectiveness in melee; in the Greyhawk supplement, the best one-handed weapon a cleric can use is a mace, which does 1-6 points of damage on man-sized opponents, but fighters can use a sword for 1-8 points. The difference in damage helped separate their fighting ability at low levels — at higher levels, the cleric is on a less effective combat table than the fighter, and the weapons limitation then seems redundant. In the ADVANCED D&D⁚ books, the blunt-weapon rule is retained, even though in AD&D a mace is about as good as a longsword, and no form of Christianity is mentioned in the DEITIES & DEMIGODS⁚ Cyclopedia.
The rule should be thrown out.
At the very least, a cleric should be able to use the weapon sacred to his god. Is it also not more proper to have clerics use weapons traditional to their culture? Turpin did very well throwing pagans out of the saddle with his lance. Why should he have all the fun? Game balance probably won’t suffer if clerics are allowed to use all weapons. Although they’d fight as well as fighters at low levels, this is not enough to cause everyone to give up on fighters — clerics are bound to their gods, which causes them all sorts of trouble; fighters can do what they please, as long as they aren’t caught. That should be enough to encourage players toward fighters without extra enticements.
If you want to weaken clerics anyway, try one of two easy solutions; either have clerics hit at -1, or make six points the maximum damage from their weapons, so a sword that normally does 1-8 points of damage still does only six if the roll is a seven or eight. Either method should tone down the clerics just enough to make the fighters insufferably smug.
A cleric's weapon of choice is determined by the weapon(s) that cleric's deity uses in combat. Nothing could be more natural than for a cleric to emulate his or her god (the cleric's ultimate role model) in combat. Also, it is the divine favor of the cleric's god which grants him the superior combat ability with his weapon of choice, no matter what weapon that might be. Gary Gygax himself has set several precedents for this, by easing the restrictions against clerics using edged or pointed weapons in his series of articles on the gods of Greyhawk (DRAGON® Magazine issues 67-71). Two examples of this change in attitude are the clerics of Trithereon and Nerull. The 4th-level clerics of Trithereon may wield spears, and those of 8th level may use broad swords; the clerics of Nerull are allowed to use a sickle in combat at 1st level and the hook-fauchard at 5th level.