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That sounds fair to me. You might also give a bonus to Saves vs. Fear. That's such a narrow bonus (I mean, how often does that come up?) that I'd just make it a gimme.

Heh, that's a fair point. The same thought occurred to me while I was typing the reply, so I deleted and re-wrote it several times trying to figure out whether or not to make the critique.

But in the end I decided the question was - "How do you handle the cleric in your games?". (Emphasis mine) So I answered.

The real world doesn't have clerics that can cast Cure Light Wounds on command though, and there's no undead to turn (that I've ever seen)s, so the analogy is of limited value. I totally get where you're coming from, but in "the real world", to the extent people can "do" things it's because they understand and can manipulate universal physical laws. Like thermodynamics and gravity.

No, but to the extent he DOES reveal metaphysical truths, they should promote fun and good play. Not depress people and make them want to turn in their dice and go play Xbox. That's self-defeating.

Unless your players are truly nihilists, and would believe that playing D&D is just as pointless as anything else they can do, so why not, eh? But I don't play with nihilists, so YMMV.

This doesn't make any sense though, unless you presume that no one in the game world has cast those spells before. Because presumably someone in the Church hierarchy has cast Commune at some time in the past and wrote about their experience. It's in the holy book somewhere. Chapter 3, I think.

I have the same issue with the Speak With Dead spell. If the afterlife is really a lifeless void without pain or pleasure, then presumably this would be common knowledge. It's a 3rd level spell, hardly High Magic. It would only take one guy who could cast the spell a few times (as often as necessary to demonstrate) to show people "This is how it is."

And in the Eberron "belief is power" system, that guy could even be an Anarchist Priest of the God of "Do Whatever The Fuck You Feel Like", so there wouldn't be any religious law preventing him from telling everyone just how depressing the afterlife is. And people would adjust their moral codes accordingly.

The reason we have a thousand religions on Earth is because you never get any definitive answers, just prophets who say stuff but cannot be confirmed. Spells like Commune or Speak With Dead need to either confirm the existence of each God's existence, or be non-committal either way. Because the truth will out, if truth be revealed.

Actually, it's crazier than that. Because in a world where belief alone really is all that's necessary, you could have 9 Churches that "explained" why the suns stopped in the sky, one that claimed that the sun hadn't stopped, but in fact that the day turned to night (really. You hallucinated the whole sun-stopping thing. Just like everyone else), and one that believed the sun is a giant rutabaga.

And as long as they really believed it, they'd get spells.