• 09 Dec, 2025 *

A quick one about character classes

I am working on that dungeon I was talking about in the last post. In the meantime, I have thought about this particular issue so much that I wanted to put it to "the table" of random internet nerds. Clerics and paladins coexisting in the same classlist bother me. This is why I feel that way and what I (sometimes) do to fix it.

Reli-gish

I have a soft spot for my religious adventurers in RPGs. I used to have an even softer spot for them, but now I am a firm believer that, if a class is to be offered in my dork-ass old-school elfgame, it should justify its own existence. I don’t think clerics and paladins (as they appear in Old School Essentials and most other RPGs) do enough to justify their separation.

For an example of two holy classes coexisting and being done right, I often cast my eyes to Dolmenwood (could you have guessed?) and its friar and cleric classes. The cleric is the cleric as it has appeared in most RPGs with a tiny bit of Dolmenwood stank thrown on it. The friar, meanwhile, is a completely new class which focuses more on spellcasting and being a mendicant !Catholic priest. The warrior (one might say paladin-esque)/priest roles are distinct enough that them being in the same rulebook makes sense.

Clerics and paladins, at least as they appear in OSE, are too close for me to want to include them both. They are armored holy warriors who turn the undead and cast spells. The difference is mostly in how beefy they are implied to be. I usually opt for just the cleric. That said, I have been thinking about tweaks to make to include them both. Those changes are:

• Removing paladin spellcasting

• Removing the cleric’s ability to turn undead

• Improving the paladin’s ability to turn undead (and making it available from 1st level)

• Improving the cleric’s ability to cast spells (and making it available from 1st level)

• Let clerics detect holy and demonic magic automatically with a turn of effort from 2nd level

• Make all weapons paladins wield magical (for purposes of damage reductions/immunities) from 2nd level

• I have thought about making this ability lock to one type of weapon dependent on the deity the paladin worships (or, if we are setting agnostic, sword only cuz swords are cool)

I feel like this list of changes is sufficiently distinct. This makes the cleric more of a holy dork and the paladin a holy warrior. It also reduces the amount of spellcasters, which in my opinion (which I respect) is a good thing.

I’m always open to hearing other opinions though. Do I have paladins all wrong? Am I just insufficiently appreciative of the AD&D style of play? Could I better distinguish the paladins and clerics? Am I a dumb idiot who needs to know it? Whatever you think, I’d love to hear it, shoot me an email at: hello@queuedawg.cc.

Up next

I want to tell you all about the way I specifically play old-school elfgames. So, whenever I am bored enough to post again, I will be writing about my houserules and a bit about my style of refereeing the game. After that, it might be my first Mothership campaign diary. Dungeon area will either be right before or right after the campaign diary if I had to guess.

#class #osr #ttrpg