How to Create a Cleric Character for Third Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Envision the type of cleric you want to play and come up with a general backstory. More than any other type of character, the cleric changes drastically depending on his overall concept. Confer with your Dungeon Master to see what alignments and deities are allowed for players in her campaign.

Select an alignment for your cleric, then choose a deity that is the same alignment or an alignment no more than one step away. For example, a chaotic evil cleric can choose the neutral evil Nerull as his deity, but that same cleric could not choose the chaotic good deity Correllon. The deity you choose will impact what domain spells and abilities the cleric will gain, so a cleric of Nerull will have very different powers from a cleric of Correllon.

Decide on a race for your cleric, keeping in mind any racial adjustments that will need to be made when you generate ability scores. The cleric's most import score is wisdom, as it controls what level of spell the cleric can cast and how powerful those spells are. No race gets a bonus to the wisdom score, so you may want to choose a race that has a bonus to a secondary stat important to the concept of a character. A strong cleric could be a half-orc for her strength bonus, or a quick cleric could be an elf or halfling for his bonus to the dexterity score.

Produce ability scores for your character with whatever method your Dungeon Master prefers, whether it be dice rolling or using a "point buy" system. Your highest score should probably go into Wisdom, with the rest of the scores going in descending order of what is important to your character. Put higher scores in strength and constitution for a cleric who will also be frequently fighting, or in charisma or intelligence for a cleric who will be acting as the party spokesman or troubleshooter.

Choose two domains from the list of domains available to your deity. Domains encompass different aspects of your deity's portfolio and grant a specific power and the use of an additional spell per day associated with the domain. The healing domain makes your healing spells more effective and allows the cleric to cast the spell "Cure light wounds" an additional time per day. The other domains have similar bonuses.

Weigh the different skill and feat options for the cleric and add your decisions to your character sheet. Clerics have a good range of class skills that can be helpful for role-playing or social situations. The diplomacy skill is a good choice for a cleric who will be interacting with other non-player characters on a regular basis, while the profession skill could be used to earn the party extra income.

Spend any starting gold your cleric may have to outfit him with armor, weaponry, trail rations or any extras that may be needed. Clerics do not have the same armor restrictions that wizards suffer, so equip your cleric with any armor you'd like and don't worry about it interfering with spell-casting ability.

Fill out the particulars of the cleric, such as her name, disposition and backstory. How did the cleric come to worship this particular deity and join the church? Where is the cleric's home town? How does she view members of opposing religions or other classes such as wizards? How does the cleric know the rest of the group?