The Cleric - Comm 344

          The Cleric (also called a Healer or a White Mage) is my personal favorite class as it is the class that I can most identify with.  Making sure the rest of the party is well healed, protected, and ready to dish out the damage while staying a safe distance away from the enemy makes up this role.  A cleric is often introduced early in most fighting games, as the role is somewhat essential in combat for their defensive uses.  The cleric has also been the role of most female love interests of the main character, which also explains why it is common to see this class introduced early.  Fortunately we have seen a break in this stereotype more often as of late.
           The Cleric's focus is almost never to actually deal damage, so we often see these magicians with some sort of staff, rod, or other divine casting implement.  This could be an orb or a book in some cases.  Variations on this include Jessica, a white mage from the game Lunar Legend, who uses hammers and claws to attack enemies for considerable damage.  In fact, she is the third strongest character in the game and by far the heaviest hitter out of the other mages.  Even other healers that use maces as weapons don't generally deal a tremendous amount of damage because their role does not call for damage dealing.  Other weapons range anywhere from flutes (used by a little girl named Eiko in Final Fantasy 9) and Rackets (Princess Garnet and Eiko from Final Fantasy 9).  The flutes resemble a generic "blessed" weapon that is magic based and not used for attacking, while the rackets (resembling a concave tennis racket) attacks using gusts of energy from long range.  Long range weapons are ideal for a cleric since it allows them to stay safe and leave the close range battling to those with better armor ratings.

Jessica, the cleric from Lunar Legend, sporting a white
robe common amongst healers.  She gives off a
very "holy appearance with the hood as well

          In battle a healer really shines as one of the most invaluable members.  In addition to basic healing, what really creates diversity amongst various healers is their buffing abilities.  In standard RPG's, we see this personified as casting barrier spells that either halve magic or physical damage to a single target (or multiple targets at higher levels).  Other buffs include spells that gradually restore a little health each turn, or removing harmful status effects from an ally.  Clerics can even remove positive status effects from enemies by dispelling them, a strategy that becomes more useful as the game progresses.  Unique abilities seen from healers have a very broad range of effects.  In Dungeons & Dragons the cleric can create a zone of consecrated land that restores health to allies in the zone, while damaging enemies occupying the same zone.  These tricky spells are how a cleric can deal consistent damage and still do their part as a healer.  In Final Fantasy 9 there is an ability called - you guessed it - "healer" which causes all physical attacks made by the user to heal instead of deal damage.  Use this in conjunction with one of those magic Rackets and you have a long range healer that can restore health without even using magic points.  Simply have the user attack his or her allies from afar and keep them healthy with no cost.  Obviously because the attack stat of the white mage is usually pretty low the amount of healing done will not be as significant, but it is still free.
          Although most of the time this role is taken over by gentle females, seeing some variations on this role is not impossible.  Besides the fiery Jessica, in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue the cleric is a man named Ronfar and he also breaks out of the passive healer role.  He is an ex-priest that was excommunicated from the church for defending a loved one.  Ever since his excommunication he has since been seen drinking at local pubs, gambling with dice, and being a self-titled womanizer.  In battle, he uses a mace as well as dice to support the party.  Some of his abilities even utilize the dice in a "coin flip" style manner (even rolls give you one result while odd rolls give a different one).  He, like most clerics, wears robes and other cloth-like armors that provide little defense but usually boost magic power.
          So there you have it, a class that was at one point in time dominated by the same exact type of character for so many years is finally seeing some color.