No Clerics

So in expectation of an upcoming play test of Roguish, I have decided to make clerics in the game NPC's and not a playable class. Here are a few reasons for this:

1) I really dislike the over abundance and focus in RPG's on deities & demigods. I realize I may be alone in this but as a function of the game world it simply never interested nor entered into our game play. Creating weird pantheons or cults as a foil to the characters was fun but worrying about when the cleric is going to find time to sacrifice goats to Thor? Not so much...

2) Clerics as NPC's serve as excellent foils or hirelings for the referee to use to progress, start, or create plot twists in a story.

3) I never liked the cleric as spell caster. Any boon or miracle granted by a god I believe would have more to do with the faithfulness of the clerics service then simply, you are level 2 now you cure wounds twice daily sort of thing.

4) Clerics are traditionally more often stationary than wandering. Not strictly true in all cases of course, but more often than not, it is true. Why does a the priestess of Isis want to battle the Hill Giant in the caves of doom? Yeah I am not sure either. But the players hiring a priestess of Isis to transalte for them in a foreign land provides all sorts of interesting plot twists for a clever referee to use.

5) Lastly, I think breaking up traditional cleric type spells and abilities into different classes makes for more interesting options for players long term. So a healer as a separate class makes sense, as does a witch hunter with the secrets of vanquishing evil and turning the undead.

The good news as with any game, if you want to create a cleric class when playing Roguish, feel free!