# Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures: Cleric

2025-01-01

This is a continuing series of 'Staying Alive' posts. The the first
two were about Magic-Users [0] and Fighters [1]. They are mostly
geared towards OD&D, B/X and clones, and have tips for both players
and referees.

## A Good Defense

Clerics are slightly worse than fighters in melee at low levels
(same attack matrix at level 1, but slightly lower HP on average),
but the availability of plate armor and shield gives them good
defensive capabilities, so they can be useful as part of a
front-rank shield wall that protects the weaker players. Fighters
with spears can be in the second rank.

## Missile Weapons

Keep at hand holy water and oil, both are good alternatives to
direct melee with undead if that one turn attempt fails. Even if oil
cannot be used as a thrown grenade in your games, it can offer a
pool of fire that can deter direct attack, or at least slow down a
pursuit. My own preference is to allow thrown oil, but not as a
Molotov-style fire bomb - the oil must be lit separately, by a
thrown torch or similar.

I also allow clerics to use slings in my campaigns (despite them not
being in the OD&D rules at all), so they can be somewhat useful from
afar when the fighters are pulling out their bows. Sling bullets are
blunt weapons, after all. They don't get two shots per round with the
sling as fighters do with bows in standard OD&D or White Box, but it's
another missile option should your referee allow it.

## Make Allies

Most PC clerics are Lawful in alignment or at least act in a good
way in games without alignment (Chaotic or evil PCs in general are a
problem in a game meant to be about PC cooperation). This is up to
the referee of course, but you can play on this "goodness" and try
to make friends of local churches or temples with donations and
quests. They will sometimes pay you back with potions or scrolls, or
even free healing services for your other party members. I also
sometimes have the local temple offer up low-level Clerics to tag
along on adventures.

One of the boons I have had high-level priests offer my Cleric
players in my games is a one-time blessing of a standard weapon,
which has the effect of a stored _bless_ spell, and can be triggered
once only at the start of a combat.

## Creative Use of Spells

_Cure light wounds_ (CLW) is typically taken as a Cleric's first
spell. Understandable, but I love it when players use non-standard
spells creatively. If you can befriend the local temple (see above),
and procure healing potions, consider _light_ instead. Most refs
allow it to be cast in an opponent's eyes, and it is also useful to
counter the _darkness_ spell. _Detect Evil_ can be useful to
ferret-out evil NPCs that may try to join the party with bad
intentions. The reverse of Purify Food & Water could poison enough
food or water to sicken a dozen bandits and take the fight out of
them. And even if you find yourself needing a healing spell and did
not learn it that day, you can try to find a safe place to hunker
down overnight and gain access to CLW the next morning.

[0]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/phlog/staying-alive-old-school-adventures-magic-user.md
[1]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/phlog/staying-alive-old-school-adventures-fighter.md