The Quintessential Cleric

Being a cleric lover, I found this book to be better then the last.There is great focus on the duties of the cleric to his faith. Churches, congregations, conversions... their loyalty and actions to their God and people. It goes into depth of the vows a character should take, and the pennence of breaking such vows. Their place as a leader in the party and the community becomes stronger, more pronounced, and more important. It introduces the power of singing to a cleric, with domain hymns that can be offensive as well as defensive.( they seem to have omitted the sun domain, though ) They placed a fair limit on the use of such hymns, and applied it to turning. They have personal as well as congregational hymns, the more powerful requiring a congregation of people. It adds more possibility to clerics in campaigns that lack alot of undead, or makes an even trade for those that do.The feats in this book are wonderful. They touch the cleric as a leader, a spellcaster, undead destroyer, and self-sufficient person. Makes creating the cleric as a backup fighter seem a waste of such a "wise" character.The new spells are diverse, there is probably one or two you would adopt depending on your character, alignment, god, and campaign.This book brings new light to the class, and shows and helps a cleric to be more then the healer, but a critical leader of the party and their community.If you are a cleric person, this book is another must-have.

I found this book to be interesting, but not as excellent as the first two books in the series. The "concepts" are not as spectacular as in the first 2, but the prestige classes are nice. It gives methods for tinkering with Domain Spell alternative, but none that are that great of a replacement.I do like the idea of telling which sacrifices are most appropiate for various gods depending on their domains granted. I also liked the idea of making sacrifices be worth something to do, although the boons granted as such seem quite weak.If you like clerics, buy this book. If you can take or leave clerics, just consider this one if you have the spare change.