Hi there,
I find almost no documentation on this elsewhere so I thought I’d see if anyone here would know before I go off into the woods alone - how would one go about adding a brand new cleric domain to a module?
Specifically, as some of you have gathered I have a Ravenloft-flavoured module so I want to add the Mists domain for Ezran clerics. How would I go about adding it?
-May
I believe (and please take everything I say with a grain of salt, I’m still learning and mostly a complete novice at this) it depends on what you need the domain to do. Ie.
Will the domain be granting any sort of passives or special abilities (ie War cleric domain powers)?
Will it be adding any spells at specific levels? (These are easier)
For a lot of this, if the spells already exist, most of your editing will be happening in the tlk files and the 2da files.
For anything new, you then get into feats and spells 2da
For example, if you want to add the Shield of Ezra to the Mist Domain as a feat that they get (Akin to War Domain Powers) you would add that to feats 2da (and spells probably), script out what you want it to do (ie if they do different things based on alignment/sect[harder to check], then refer to it accordingly.
If you need to do sects, I feel like it would almost be easier to have four different domains one for each sect. But there’s probably a less clunky way for it.
For any other passives, I’m honestly not sure. (ie clerics with the Mist domains get some bonuses in traversing the Mists akin to Vistani abilities but I think this is an easier thing to check for on the area than adding to the domain)
I think those are either added or hard coded into Cleric and probably need to be checked in some other way (onenter? on level?) ie: If character has this domain, grant this passive.
I believe this is how they would work. I’m probably wrong.
Will the domain be granting any sort of passives or special abilities (ie War cleric domain powers)?
Will it be adding any spells at specific levels? (These are easier)
The Mists domain adds the Shield of Ezra active ability and the following bonus spell list:
The Shield is really the important thing to me, its not just a part of the Domain thing, its also a part of their lore - manifesting the shield is said to be the sign of Ezra’s sanction/blessing of the cleric in question.
The mistwalking abilities you’re thinking of belong to the Anchorite of the Mists prestiege class, in Van Richten’s Arsenal vol1, I believe, not part of Mists.
Its probably best to make the shield a spell that has a script that reacts differently to different alignments; this should be possible, but I have not made custom spells so maybe not.
I guess I’d break it down into four things:
1] Adding a new domain to the domains list
2] Adding the Active Ability of the Shield
3] Determining how to make the shield respond to alignment
4] Adding the domain spell list
I am more than happy to bodge through trying it myself, but I was hoping maybe there might be some insight my searches missed.
Oh hell thanks, I mistook Anchorite as just a fancy way of referring to a cleric in 2e Ravenloft, not its own PRC/Specialty Priest …that would …make my life easier unless I want to do some fun stuff with…well anyway.
Having spells or abilities react to specific alignments should be possible, we have a few spells that already take alignment into play and I’ve seen scripts that change the way Turn Undead work with regard to alignment.
Did you plan on adding all of those spells as custom scripts? If so, then the only extra work you have to do on top of the normal work (Scripting, then fixing spells .2da and tlk) is to add a reference to them at the appropriate level in the domains 2da. Obviously you’ll want to do a lot of testing.
You can test it now with existing spells if you really wanted to. Create a new domain and just give them random spells they don’t have at the level(s) you want , then level up a cleric and see if they appear.
Once you confirm that works , the work really becomes scripting the spells that don’t exist.
What I reccomend also doing is familiarizing yourself with:
Or the version(s) in your module currently and just absorb what each of the lines and fields are really calling for. once you get a good feeling of how that works you can begin implementing your own.
A good portion of class edits for PWs is tweaks to various 2das to get the classes balanced how you want (It would be how you add Bard Weapon Proficiency, change who gains access to what and a ton of other stuff esp with the new one(s) in EE which I haven’t fully looked at yet).
Once you figure which parts of the 2das need scripts to work, then you work your way out
At least that’s how I did it when I started toying around with the PW idea years ago; actually successful people may have a different approach that’s well…successful 
Another option is to literally just rip open the 2das of PWs or modules you’ve played on and look to see how they do things. Harder these days with the downloads being automatic, but I think there are ways to reverse engineer that, and I have old version(s) of a majority of old PWs (existing and dead) sitting on my hard drive…somehow…I don’t even know how that I look at when I just want to absorb how something may be done.
Yeah, I’ll probably have to play with it. I think I’ll start with making the Shield a normal cleric spell and get it going that way, then move it into the domain when I’m happy with it. Some fiddling but it should be doable I think.
Also, an aside, on the Anchorite of the Mists PrC note, a teaser 
(Doesn’t seem to have liked the apostrophes in the tlk for some reason)
