Gods and Domains

One of the character rebuilds that was requested recently was a change to the Domain selected by the Cleric character - the player posited that the character might have had a crisis of faith due to recent in-game events, and consequently emerged rather angrier (and changed from a Cleric of Life to one of Tempest). I was quite happy with this, especially given the in-game reasoning, but there was just one problem... his patron deity had Life as a Domain but not Tempest.

My conclusion was not only that I would allow the change, but also that I'm minded to think that it would be better if deities generally did not have specified Domains, or if they must have them then they should be considered suggestions only. Any Cleric of any deity should probably be able to choose any Domain they can justify. (Of course, some combinations are really tricky to justify - a Cleric of the god of darkness who chooses the Light Domain?)

Not only does this grant a bit more flexibility, and especially in the case of character rebuilds like the above, but it also has a key advantage in future-proofing the setting - it's likely that one day there will be a sixth edition, and it's entirely possible that that sixth edition will change Clerics again (after all, every edition since 1st has felt the need...). If a setting has a long list of gods with a Domain assigned to each, that's a long list that will need changed over to match the new paradigm. If instead the setting has a list of gods but without assigned Domains, there's nothing to convert.

(It's also worth noting that Clerics are more or less unique amongst the classes in that their powers are tied to specific setting information, in the form of the gods. Paladins have Vows, but these are not associated with anything in particular, while Warlock Pacts are likewise with broad and somewhat-undefined entities in the game. Only Clerics have to identify a specific, named source for their powers, and that source needs to then match up with the Domain they want. With the curious effect that a player will probably choose the Domain first and deity second, rather than picking a deity that would be interesting to follow and proceeding from there. But I digress...)