Religion is for Everyone

06 Aug, 2026

Given how provocative a title I've chosen for this post, it seems fair to immediately disclaim that, as the subdomain suggests, this post regards tabletop roleplaying games. Specifically, my own game, Warlords & Wizards.

This is mainly in regard to the unanswered question in my post about the "What is the deal with my cleric's religion?" question. In it, I describe the lack of clerics in the game and fail to elaborate. An alternate, more descriptive, title for this post is therefore "Why there are no Clerics in Warlords & Wizards," but that just doesn't catch the eye as nicely.

Before addressing the aforementioned question, you will have to indulge a brief history lesson. I believe that no intelligent game design decision, rules revision, or house rule can be made without first understanding the intent of the rule you intend to remove or change. Of course, too much history would detract from this article's core purpose, and so I will provide a summary, and link to several other articles as instructional material for the reader.

The Origin of Clerics

The Cleric is one of the original three character classes present in Dungeons & Dragons (1974), nowadays called OD&D or 0e. It is uniquely not found in the pulp fantasy inspirations of D&D, and no clerics are counted among the Cugels, Fafhrds, Gray Mousers, and Conans. Dave Arneson is said to have created a "Bishop" character for his Blackmoor campaign, which having grown out of Braunstein meant that there was only "The Bishop," not "clerics" as we think of "character classes" today. The character was created in response to the unplayed vampire character Sir Fang (what we would today call an NPC, but the character had previously been played), who was wreaking havoc amassing a vampire army. As best I understand it, the Bishop was assigned to Mike Carr—he disclaims having created the character himself. See Further Reading for details.

The original class is, in essence, a hybrid fighting-man/magic-user, without the severe punishment of electing to actually hybridize the two as an elf character can. The drawbacks compared to the other two are as follows:

Clerics may not use edged weapons (thus not gaining the benefit of magic swords),
Clerics get no spells at first level,
Clerics have their own spell list, which is considerably narrower in scope,
Clerics of 7th-level and above must be either Lawful or Chaotic, and may neither choose neutrality nor switch alignment,
and Clerics may cast a maximum of 5th-level spells.

One clear boon for clerics is their ingrained ability to present a holy symbol to rebuke the dead, a feature clearly inspired by Van Helsing and the "vampire hunter" archetype—the term "undead" itself was popularized by Bram Stoker's Dracula. Another is the rabid devotion of their recruits when attempting to build a stronghold:

When Clerics reach the top level (Patriarch) they may opt to build their own stronghold, and when doing so receive help from "above". Thus, if they spend 100,000 Gold Pieces in castle construction, they may build a fortress of double that cost. Finally, "faithful" men will come to such a castle, being fanatically loyal, and they will serve at no cost. There will be from 10-60 heavy cavalry, 10-60 horsed crossbowmen ("Turcopole"-type), and 30-180 heavy foot.

...

Clerics with castles of their own will have control of a territory similar to the "Barony" of fighters, and they will receive "tithes" equal to 20 Gold Pieces/Inhabitant/year.

Clerics' ability to exact generous tithe, and inspire men to work, fight, and die for nothing indicate the supreme dominance of religious institutions in the implied game world of original D&D—something that is carried through even to D&D 5e. This, in my view, is at odds with the implied, and later confirmed, smorgasbord of gods worshipped in D&D. Not to mention that nearly every distinguishing feature of the cleric is imported from one specific real-world religious tradition. See Further Reading for more details on this.

The Decision for Removal

The cleric was removed from Warlords & Wizards between the 1st and 7th of July, 2025—so much is verifiable from the strict archives of past versions of the game, which was known at the time as the Final Arbiter Tabletop System (F.A.T.S.).

The reason for this was simple. I have played a cleric many, many times across several Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and came to wish that the cleric and its divine spellcasting were more differentiable from the magic-user (or wizard, or sorcerer) and its arcane spellcasting. Functionally, the only difference in the editions of D&D I was playing surrounded spell lists and memorization, or the need for a spellbook.

So, I came up with a more engaging rule for divine spellcasting inspired by the Goblin Laws of Gaming by Arnold K of Goblinpunch. These revised divine spellcasting rules centered around "prayer dice" which a cleric could expend at-will to do miracles of varying power, depending on how many dice are committed. What resulted was a wondrous, fluid spellcasting system that didn't rely on spell memorization, or even further, as I soon found, "spells" in the traditional sense at all.

Playtesting over months uncovered that the fun-factor of this system blew the memorization-based magic-bullets D&D system (which we call Vancian, despite it resembling the magic of Dying Earth only slightly) straight out of the water. Thus, all other spellcasting was summarily switched over under the term "magic dice." And then I had the same problem—divine and arcane spellcasting were interchangeable. So, with a heavy heart, the cleric, being the strange and lovable child of Hammer horror, the Crusades, the fighting-man, and the magic-user, was annihilated in favor of the more archetypal magician.

Player Interaction with Religion

The removal of the cleric raised one glaring question: if divine magic is out, and the cleric with it, how is the player meant to express their character's devotion to a deity, or to a religious institution? I managed to come up with an answer to this quandary in the same July 1st–7th period in which I nuked the cleric—Devotions.

Devotions, inspired by the oaths, bonds, etc. of other TTRPG systems, are in essence mechanical limitations willingly self-imposed at character creation for some benefit. Of these, three types are given: Religions, Oaths, and Pacts. When a character is created, they may choose up to one Religion and up to either one Oath or one Pact, which are limited to fighters and magicians respectively. To maintain setting-neutrality, the Players' Rules only provide six examples of Religions, which I have listed below (note that Body, Mind, and Ego are ability scores in W&W, and that the game uses the silver standard):

Religion	Description
Asceticism	May not retain more than 100 sp of currency. All other coinage must be given away or abandoned upon return from adventure, after XP is tallied, and treasure may not be spent on your behalf. The ascetic’s current Mind or Ego may never be reduced below 2 by external forces. Internal forces, such as spellcasting, reduce scores as normal.
Primalism	May not wield or wear metal weapons or armor. Rations are never needed in wilderness and cannot be surprised in wilderness.
Suffering	May never regain ability through healing, only increase abilities through Training. Gain +1 Body when increasing in experience level.
Truth	May never willingly lie. May make a contested Ego roll to determine if a character is lying. This process is magical and obvious to onlookers.
Veneration	Must perform funeral rites for sentient dead. Reroll results of 1 when attacking undead, keeping the new result. Can never be turned into an undead creature.
Zealotry	May not use magical items made by creatures of other alignments. Weapons are considered magical and deal one additional damage when attacking creatures of other alignments.

The intention of the system should be clear from the above snippet. In a world where gods walk the earth, and where your character may literally meet one—or, more broadly, where religious beliefs can be provably true—it does not make sense to limit mechanical religion to the cleric. In Warlords & Wizards, religion is for everyone.

The receipt of miracles or other divine intervention is directly tied to religious devotion—the prayers of wishy-washy agnostic, atheist, or antitheist characters will never be acknowledged positively by a deity. Any character may devote themself to a religion, and reap its benefits, so long as the restriction is met. If it is not, the rules state plainly:

If the requirements of a character’s religion are violated, they must regain their deities’ favor through intense prayer and, perhaps, tithe.

All this I found to be more representative of the world I wanted my game to facilitate. Justin Alexander states in his post "Reactions to OD&D: The Influence of Little Rules" that rules subtly influence the way that players approach the game, and I agree (I am a "system does matter" sort of person). I will take this philosophy a step further and say that some game systems will influence the way that the referee architects the game world. For instance, a DM of D&D 5e would be hard-pressed to run an anthropocentric campaign, or one where magic is rare or shunned, or one with strict laws or etiquette governing martial combat, given the plethora of character options provided to prospective players.

It comes down to this: the cleric relies on institutional Christian religion in order to make sense in the game world. I had no desire to import this into my game, and instead provide options for every character to engage with religion in a diegetic manner.

Please feel free to reach out to contact [at] zbikow.ski and let me know what you think.

Current Status of Warlords & Wizards

Version 0.1 of Volume I of Warlords & Wizards, the Players' Rules, is undergoing final internal revision prior to public release for playtesting and review. The release post will be linked here once it is live.