First of all, I'm rather new to these forums, so if this has been asked and answered, I apologize; I swear I did try to use the search, but came up rather empty handed.
For Adventurer's League (of which I'm not quite yet a part of, but should attend my first session in 2 weeks!) are Cleric's restricted to a matching domain / deity? In that, if I want the Light domain, I require a god who can provide?
I ask not because I didn't read the rules behind constructing the cleric for AL, of which I think I do get, it's just that I noticed in my first skim of the DMG, that there are other options; philosphies and other non-deity type clerics. However, given that AL is set in Faerun, I'm somewhat worried that the answer is an emphatic "yes, the deity and domain must match".
My concern is that the character I envision would work best as Light, I think, but I don't think any of the Light deities match too well. I plan him to be a sort of military chaplain, he'd be working with the city guard or an army unit as their healer but also as a sort of "conscience".
Yes, I know a War Cleric might work better in this case, but I didn't see him as the front-line battle-priest, but the support cleric, not afraid to get his hands dirty. Life gets closer to that (If I wanted a god like, say, Bahamut) but still has a focus on melee with that level 8 abilty.
Confirming that rule would be great, any advice regarding my dilemna would also be appreciated.
As a side-note, I'm joining Expeditions, and I do like a strongly built character. While I tend to leave him room to grow within the game, this Padre idea sort of ran away from me.
Please, be gentle - it's my first time!
Yes, the diety must provide the domain; or you can pick life domain, all clerics in AL can access life domain. So for Light domain, that means Helm (a very good choice for the background you describe), Lathander, Milil, Sune, or Corellon.
Greg Marks
Associate Resource Manager
That's for the prompty reply , Greg.
I've been considering Helm, quite a bit, actually. I guess that leads to a follow on question; perhaps this is just very out-dated, but do clerics need to be within one-step (alignment) of their Deity? Helm being LN, would then need me to be LG, if I wanted to play good (which I do) but I felt this guy was more NG... not a show-stopper, by any means, but it's another (of many) minor details.
Are there any of the older books which talk the gods in more detail? I inheirted a stack of 3.5 books from an old friend of mine, but I haven't had a chance to go through them all; time to crack the Faerun Campaign setting, and see what it says. I'd like to know my god a bit better, before I set myself to worshiping him.
No. Clerics can have any alignment (with the exception of evil alignments; LE is restricted but NE and CE are banned). You can even have an alignment diametrically opposed to your deity. For example, a CG character might worship the LE Bane.
If you have it - Faiths and Pantheons goes into considerable detail on the Faerun deities. For nonhuman deities, the Manual of the Planes, Deities and Demigods and Planar Handbook are your best 3.5 resources. 4E changed the cosmologies significantly, with 5e going back to (mostly) 3.5 era cosmologies.
The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and very recent Elminster's Forgotten Realms both have a section on the various deities.
tangent:
It would be a cool thing if AL could provide an additional Domain (via a cert?) per Season. Tyranny / Bane would be the straight-line-direct choice for Mulmaster, I suppose. Future seasons could be more inventive, looking at deities whose total portfolio is not well-described by the current options.
Renalis wrote:
Thanks a lot to everyone, for the advice, rules clarification, guidence and homework readings. I have settled on Helm, and while I've got a little more homework to get a better feel for him, I think this will really work for a concept.
I hope that someday, more of (any of?) the DMG stuff will be included, as I am a big fan of options 
Also if you are looking for WHAT a Cleric of Helm looks like there are some awesome (if old pictures) in Faiths and Avatars (the 2e version of Faiths and Pantheons from 3e. Most faiths of Faerfun get a Cleric in their Ceremonial garb (with corresponding colors) and they all likely quite good. Some of the Holy Symbols have changed yes, but generally colors of faith do not.
You might also want to look at Ilmater, whose devotees often act as Medics on the field and Chaplains on the field. Ilmater is the God most associated with relieving the suffering of others (whether that be physical mental or spiritual). (of course Ilmater does not provide Light domain)
Also , Faiths and Avatars is available from dndclassics.com, Faiths and Pantheons (at the time of writing this) is not.
Sounds like you've got an interesting idea there -- hope my LE paladin of Helm might run into you at GenCon!
As for getting more source background on your deity choice, the Third Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Sourcebook has a large amount of detail about the major deities of the Faerunian pantheon, though you can ignore the statements in that book regarding worshipper alignment -- back in 3E, worshippers needed to be within one 'alignment step' of their patron deity, but there is no such rule in 5E (as noted by others). If you've got any book in your stack of inherited loot, you'll have that one (though as noted by BRJN, Faiths and Pantheons is also an excellent source).
--
Pauper
Pauper wrote:
THe works of Eric L Boyd in regards to Mythology and Deific information in FR are second to none. I thoroughly recmmend Faiths and Avatars/Demihuman Deities and Faiths and Pantheons.