Clerics specialize in two areas of magical expertise called domains. These domains are selected when first becoming a cleric and cannot be changed. Domains grant added spells and sometimes a free feat or special ability. NWN2 does not enforce choosing domains from the domain list of the character's deity.
Domain spells
A cleric gets one bonus domain spell slot at each level they receive a domain spell. When a cleric prepares a spell in a domain spell slot, it should come from one of their two domains (but NWN2 does not enforce this).
Domain List
A cleric chooses two domains at their first class level, ideally representing the deity they have chosen to follow. Each domain adds to the cleric's spell list at least 2 domain spells, as well as possibly gaining a granted power. The cleric gets the granted powers of both the domains selected.
- * indicates domain added with Mask of the Betrayer expansion.
Notes
- Because NWN2's OC is set in the Forgotten Realms, the game follows the campaign-specific rules that ALL divine spellcasters must choose a deity in order to cast spells. This means there are no clerics who are just devoted to particular ideas and dogmas, although this is definitely possible in custom content.
- Domain spells cannot be scribed unless they are part of the regular cleric spell-list.
DnD 3.5 Comparison
- Domains grant one spell per spell level, but due to an already enhanced spell list for Clerics and the difficulty of implementing some PnP spells in NWN2, this is reduced to 2-5 spells per domain.
- Domain choice is restricted by deity choice in PnP DnD which should be possible in custom content using the DomainID columns in the nwn2_deities.2da. Unfortunately these columns seemingly have no effect in game.[1]
- Additionally, too many domains from PnP DnD are missing in NWN2, which means that some deities (Callarduran Smoothhands, Finder Wyvernspur, and Flandal Steelskin) don't even have the required minimum of two different domains if you were to only select domains that the above deites actually provide. For example, clerics of Callarduran Smoothhands can choose the domains Cavern, Craft, Earth, and Gnome in PnP DnD, but only the Earth domain also exists in NWN2.
- The evil, good, chaos and law alignment domains are only available if the cleric's alignment matches that domain. NWN2 does not enforce this rule, and there is unfortunately no way to add it easily in custom content. This means a good cleric of Lathander could easily choose Evil and Destruction as their domains with no penalties.
- Domain spells are considered to be cleric spells in all aspects and can be scribed by one.