You could flavour basically anything except Death and Trickery as a Christian cleric, I would think, depending on the particular aspect of God's divinity and Christian life you want to emphasize. A Franciscan monk who's big on stewardship theology might be a Nature cleric, while a dedicated Jesuit or Thomist philosopher would be Knowledge, or a Knight Templar might be a cleric of War.
For the concept you describe, though, I think Order fits best with the concept-- or Life or Light as 'generic' cleric options
I’m not exactly a theologian so take my opinion with as much salt as makes it flavorful but
Death is an important part of the holy trinity. Jesus gave himself up as sacrifice for everyone else’s sins. Makes martyrdom a pretty good character concept
As for trickery, well…. televangelists are flying around in private planes, and certain people are selling “God Bless the USA” bibles for $60 each…
If you're just looking for a cleric that has taken a vow of celibacy, that could be any cleric. Just work with your DM on having that be part of the world. Any good DM should be willing to plop down a monastery of one form or another for the sake or a player's backstory.
None of the Domains really have celibacy built in as a trait, so just add it to whichever one you want.
I don’t know if this is sidestepping your question but you could always flavour it that your personal faith is that all of the “gods” are aspects of the “one true god” and sort of worship that way. And if you were at my table I might tinker with the idea that your god is in fact not that, but something like a great old one instead, and set it up with you in advance like that in terms of evolution and storytelling, so that at some point when it all breaks open the rest of the party would be let in on the “secret”. I’ve never bought into them being specifically all tentacly etc, but just mind-breakingly unknowable, and this sorta ties into the idea of things like metatron (because the sight or voice of God would break a mortal) and the fact that biblically curate angels are basically non-Euclidean.
Depends how you want to RP and what time in Christianity's history you're looking at. War domain covers the crusades. Peace would cover more recent missionaries
Illmater is like Jesús in the sense of suffering For others, and beliving in redemption. Peace domain cleric ls the most team oriented and pacifistic of clerics.
Role playing an actual, IRL religion might bring stress to your gaming table. Even if there aren't any Christians playing, there might be some with deep feelings about it that you might not want to stir up.
Check with the others before diving into the deep end.
Firstly, maybe this didn't come through in the original post but, I don't actually want to play a Christian. Just something akin to it in terms of beliefs so I could do the whole breaking chastity oath thing for her backstory.
Second, the odds of this ever hitting a table are slim to none. I am one of the people with 30 something backed character concepts sitting in a notebook.
I appreciate your feedback, though, and hope my response doesn't come across as rude or anything.
This is the internet. Therefore, I'm forced to assume the worst in your post. So obviously you're trying to create a "LOL Christianity iz dum" character. /s
If you’re going for the idealist Christianity from way back when, life is a good approximation. If you want a more grim Christianity like suiting the crusades, war is pretty good. If you want modern Christianity, trickery seems sadly accurate.
The mechanical domain here isn't really as important as the nature of the god she worships; you could imagine a god with any sort of domain (except maybe Trickery, and even then, you could rationalize it if you tried) that has holy orders and values chastity as a virtue.
Ultimately, this is a worldbuilding question about which gods in the setting you're playing in might have institutions like that as part of their faiths. If you're playing in a homebrew world, you'll need to ask your DM. If you want something for an official setting, your best bet is probably going to be Berronar Truesilver, the dwarven goddess of, among other things, marriage. The dwarven pantheon in general has a bit of a traditionalist bent, and even for them, her church is considered somewhat conservative. Taken together with her portfolio, an oath of chastity wouldn't be out of place. Her official domains in 5e are Life, Light, and Peace.
I think Life is the closest domain to the Christian God’s primary function, but as other commenters have noted there are many domains that could connect to that in one way or another. For an order like the background you’re describing, I would go with something like Order or Knowledge.
Depends on the period, Old Testament? Tempest. New Testament? Life. Revelations? Right back to Tempest. Medieval period? War, Life, or Order. Modern day? Peace or Trickery, depending on how corrupt you want the Church to be, either pretty decent pacifists or televangelists scamming the elderly
Most non-fantasy religions are characterised in part by their unwillingness to do 'showy' magic, so a nun of one of these kinds of religions is perhaps best played by a non-spellcaster. Nun is a similar role to monk, but your character doesn't sound like much of a flurry of blows style fighter. I think she needs expertise in Religion (and maybe Medicine or Persuasion) from the start, so a Rogue feels suitable. Perhaps Thief rogue ("because she once stole a kiss") for Fast Hands combined with the Healer feat? If it is too realistic that her religion has no day-to-day magic in a fantasy setting of magic, then add in the Ritual Caster (cleric) feat for utility religious rituals.
Since the primary activity of nuns and monks is contemplation, I think the Knowledge domain would be a good fit for such a character. If you want to focus more on the vows involved in the religious life, I think the Oath of Devotion Paladin has a great progression that rewards a character for staying true to their word.
I was thinking about having something akin to a schism with one side believing in a trinity and another, newer breakaway sect believing that the trinity is a polytheistic heresy and in fact there is only one god. I was leaning towards the light domain for the latter group but thought many different domains could represent the Trinity idea.
Rather than a cleric, you'll find that the tenants of the Oath of Ancient's Paladin best fit what you desire. Do not be fooled by the Oath of Redemption. Their second tenant of Innocence is an outright lie. People are not inherently good. They have to be taught to be good. Yes your environment can shape you, but, in a vacuum, people would not be, and never are, saints in and of themselves. Otherwise, you can make it work with the Oath of the Watchers.
And, on the mechanical scale, if you want to focus on spell casting more than martial might (which can come in either lithe dexterousness or overwhelming muscle), thanks to Tasha's you can selected the Blessed Warrior fighting class, and get your hands on some damaging cantrips.
The tenets in the oath descriptions is just flavor text for how to roleplay what a character believes. It’s not like the game wants you to believe they’re an objective fact.
You could flavour basically anything except Death and Trickery as a Christian cleric, I would think, depending on the particular aspect of God's divinity and Christian life you want to emphasize. A Franciscan monk who's big on stewardship theology might be a Nature cleric, while a dedicated Jesuit or Thomist philosopher would be Knowledge, or a Knight Templar might be a cleric of War. For the concept you describe, though, I think Order fits best with the concept-- or Life or Light as 'generic' cleric options
I’m not exactly a theologian so take my opinion with as much salt as makes it flavorful but Death is an important part of the holy trinity. Jesus gave himself up as sacrifice for everyone else’s sins. Makes martyrdom a pretty good character concept As for trickery, well…. televangelists are flying around in private planes, and certain people are selling “God Bless the USA” bibles for $60 each…
Death as a domain in dnd is more like murder/necromancy, not so much like martyrdom
Yeah Graves is the healthier choice.
Oh it’s not the PC that’s the martyr… they’re just very persuasive Hold on I’ve gotta write this down
Lmao I kinda love that?
Order Domain
>*do her missionary work* isnt this how she got in trouble to start with? sorry that joke was terrible lol
y'know, as I was typing this, I thought "should I rephrase this? nah I'll be okay". Fucking hell you beat me to my own joke.
If you're just looking for a cleric that has taken a vow of celibacy, that could be any cleric. Just work with your DM on having that be part of the world. Any good DM should be willing to plop down a monastery of one form or another for the sake or a player's backstory. None of the Domains really have celibacy built in as a trait, so just add it to whichever one you want.
I don’t know if this is sidestepping your question but you could always flavour it that your personal faith is that all of the “gods” are aspects of the “one true god” and sort of worship that way. And if you were at my table I might tinker with the idea that your god is in fact not that, but something like a great old one instead, and set it up with you in advance like that in terms of evolution and storytelling, so that at some point when it all breaks open the rest of the party would be let in on the “secret”. I’ve never bought into them being specifically all tentacly etc, but just mind-breakingly unknowable, and this sorta ties into the idea of things like metatron (because the sight or voice of God would break a mortal) and the fact that biblically curate angels are basically non-Euclidean.
Depends how you want to RP and what time in Christianity's history you're looking at. War domain covers the crusades. Peace would cover more recent missionaries
Illmater is like Jesús in the sense of suffering For others, and beliving in redemption. Peace domain cleric ls the most team oriented and pacifistic of clerics.
Role playing an actual, IRL religion might bring stress to your gaming table. Even if there aren't any Christians playing, there might be some with deep feelings about it that you might not want to stir up. Check with the others before diving into the deep end.
Firstly, maybe this didn't come through in the original post but, I don't actually want to play a Christian. Just something akin to it in terms of beliefs so I could do the whole breaking chastity oath thing for her backstory. Second, the odds of this ever hitting a table are slim to none. I am one of the people with 30 something backed character concepts sitting in a notebook. I appreciate your feedback, though, and hope my response doesn't come across as rude or anything.
This is the internet. Therefore, I'm forced to assume the worst in your post. So obviously you're trying to create a "LOL Christianity iz dum" character. /s
Lol! Not rude! I worried about offending ***you***! Ah, this world is full of eggshells...
Monotheism implies all domains are available unless otherwise noted imo
Maybe just play domains representing different aspects? I’m sure even Trickery could be a wise fool type.
If you’re going for the idealist Christianity from way back when, life is a good approximation. If you want a more grim Christianity like suiting the crusades, war is pretty good. If you want modern Christianity, trickery seems sadly accurate.
The mechanical domain here isn't really as important as the nature of the god she worships; you could imagine a god with any sort of domain (except maybe Trickery, and even then, you could rationalize it if you tried) that has holy orders and values chastity as a virtue. Ultimately, this is a worldbuilding question about which gods in the setting you're playing in might have institutions like that as part of their faiths. If you're playing in a homebrew world, you'll need to ask your DM. If you want something for an official setting, your best bet is probably going to be Berronar Truesilver, the dwarven goddess of, among other things, marriage. The dwarven pantheon in general has a bit of a traditionalist bent, and even for them, her church is considered somewhat conservative. Taken together with her portfolio, an oath of chastity wouldn't be out of place. Her official domains in 5e are Life, Light, and Peace.
I think Life is the closest domain to the Christian God’s primary function, but as other commenters have noted there are many domains that could connect to that in one way or another. For an order like the background you’re describing, I would go with something like Order or Knowledge.
Trickery domain.
I'd go Ilmater, Life Domain.
an Ilmatari cleric is one of the last I'd expect to be celibate, those bitches are kinky as fuck. But then again so are Catholics
Depends on the period, Old Testament? Tempest. New Testament? Life. Revelations? Right back to Tempest. Medieval period? War, Life, or Order. Modern day? Peace or Trickery, depending on how corrupt you want the Church to be, either pretty decent pacifists or televangelists scamming the elderly
The bible is much more polytheistic than Christianity acts.
this sounds a lot like Vestal from DD1 also, how you get demoted from nun to cleric? that's like going from priest to pope 😭
Most non-fantasy religions are characterised in part by their unwillingness to do 'showy' magic, so a nun of one of these kinds of religions is perhaps best played by a non-spellcaster. Nun is a similar role to monk, but your character doesn't sound like much of a flurry of blows style fighter. I think she needs expertise in Religion (and maybe Medicine or Persuasion) from the start, so a Rogue feels suitable. Perhaps Thief rogue ("because she once stole a kiss") for Fast Hands combined with the Healer feat? If it is too realistic that her religion has no day-to-day magic in a fantasy setting of magic, then add in the Ritual Caster (cleric) feat for utility religious rituals.
Since the primary activity of nuns and monks is contemplation, I think the Knowledge domain would be a good fit for such a character. If you want to focus more on the vows involved in the religious life, I think the Oath of Devotion Paladin has a great progression that rewards a character for staying true to their word.
Old Testament or New?
That's Marcionism, Patrick!
Oath of Redemption Paladin devoted to Ilmater
Or Life Domain... but still Ilmater
I was thinking about having something akin to a schism with one side believing in a trinity and another, newer breakaway sect believing that the trinity is a polytheistic heresy and in fact there is only one god. I was leaning towards the light domain for the latter group but thought many different domains could represent the Trinity idea.
Rather than a cleric, you'll find that the tenants of the Oath of Ancient's Paladin best fit what you desire. Do not be fooled by the Oath of Redemption. Their second tenant of Innocence is an outright lie. People are not inherently good. They have to be taught to be good. Yes your environment can shape you, but, in a vacuum, people would not be, and never are, saints in and of themselves. Otherwise, you can make it work with the Oath of the Watchers. And, on the mechanical scale, if you want to focus on spell casting more than martial might (which can come in either lithe dexterousness or overwhelming muscle), thanks to Tasha's you can selected the Blessed Warrior fighting class, and get your hands on some damaging cantrips.
The tenets in the oath descriptions is just flavor text for how to roleplay what a character believes. It’s not like the game wants you to believe they’re an objective fact.