My Favorite Job: The Holy Man

I love playing Clerics; Paladins; anything with a bent towards the higher calling. For me it’s always added depth to characters. It gives them a more rounded depth that I can’t find in other archetypes. My rogues tend to be motivated by greed; fighters the lust for battle; wizards the collection of more power. Any Godsent archetype can be motivated to do any of these things; the only difference is they do it on behalf of someone else.

The Motivations

While I’m sure it’s different for every player I have a hard time not crafting selfish, greedy, characters. I think it’s come from my years of playing Rogues. If I don’t have a shit eating grin on my face with one hand in the party treasure and the other on the dagger hidden up my sleeve I’m just not playing the right kind of rogue. So I’ve run the opposite end of the spectrum, basing them off of Paladin’s I’ve enjoyed reading about. The key for me is to not play them overly rabid but strong simple people who believe strongly in their faith and act accordingly.

Personal Struggle

The fascination of holy men, for me is around the personal struggle with their faith. Even the strongest members of the faith have their doubts, and all of them are challenged by it. The strongest warrior is always worried about the man who will defeat him in battle; a cleric is worried about how they will fall from their faith. Even if these worries are deep rooted and something that would likely never come out into the open, everyone has a deep worry. Clerics just can have theirs openly challenged and battled, roleplaying out this deep struggle has led to some rewarding character developments.

Depth of Material

Almost any setting that has gods in them has lengths of the book describing them. Take the much touted Iron Kingdoms (a personal favorite) they have an entire chapters describing the faith and the ramifications of believing. Not just crunch either, they weave flavor text and story into the reasons, prompting character prospects and GM hooks. For me there is no other section of an RPG book that could be more interesting and more telling about the world then this section. Cultures rituals can be more telling than any history or any oral stories. Consider the act of Christian communion the small act of eating bread and wine can speak volumes about a person’s beliefs as well as indicate more about the faith the person believes in. Understanding how the gods interact with the people of the world can give you a truer insight into the author’s mind that is writing the setting.

Why is the Cleirc/Holy Man/Paladin/Chosen One your favorite class to play? What is the story of your characters calling?