Monday, January 21, 2019

The Cleric

So sometimes I rework stuff because I can't leave well enough alone. This Cleric rework is much more focused on preaching and doing what your religion says than the half-healer half-paladins of modern D&D.

The Cleric
(a GLOG class)
Related image
You're on a mission from God.

Cleric A: Divine Portfolio

Cleric B: Evangelist, Mission from God

Cleric C: Splinter Sect

Cleric D: High Priest, +3 Sect Heresies

Divine Portfolio: Clerics have a set of 1-3 Domains, each with four Commands. For each Command of a domain you directly obey when invoking one of its miracle, it gets +1 die, up to your level. You may add extra dice to a miracle, for each die added this way, roll a die on the Disfavor table, starting with a d6 and stepping the die up each time. If you obeyed no commands and only invoked a miracle using extra dice, roll on the Disfavor table an additional time. You begin with 3 Miracles from your chosen domain.

Disfavor Table
1. Your deity puts before you a test of faith, which you must overcome alone.
2. Poor intentions beget poor outcomes. Roll with disadvantage for the rest of the session.
3. You lose your connection to your divine powers for 24 hours.
4. Misused divine energy sears your eyes. Go blind for a week.
5. You must do penance. Take a vow of poverty, silence, or fasting, and follow it for a month.
6. You lose something of personal value to you.
7. You are wounded through what seems like random chance. Roll a d12 on the Wound Table.
8. You are marked for your sins. Gain a spellscar.
9. You are excommunicated. Those of your faith will ignore you. Those who hunt traitors and exiles will hunt you, and find you, and your judgment shall be swift and merciless.
10+. You are stripped of your divine powers forever.

Evangelist: When you go into town, your sermons draw audiences of (level)d6 believers (and potentially some unbelievers as well). After your sermons, you can hire on a number of believers equal to your level as hirelings. There is a level-in-6 chance of one of them having class levels. All believers, hired or not, will be kind to you and do small domain-appropriate favors for you that do not put themselves in jeopardy.

Mission From God: Pick a command. When you obey it when invoking a miracle, gain an extra die.

Splinter Sect: Start your own sect! Pick three of the following Heresies. You can pick the same Heresy multiple times.
1. Unbounded Dominion: Choose an additional domain.
2. Deeper Mysteries: Learn a miracle.
3. Upon Closer Reading...: Invert a command. That command is also inverted for all of your believers.
4. Syncretism: Combine two miracles that you know from different domains into a new miracle. This miracle scales with commands from both domains.
5. Divine Provenance: Pick another command for Mission From God.
6. Blessed Indoctrination: When you hire a believer with class levels, those class levels are in Cleric of your domain, with miracles of your choice.

High Priest: To many, your believers could be called cultists. In your sermons, you can make pronouncements that will be followed by your believers to the best of their ability. So long as the pronouncement falls in line with your domains' commands, they will follow unless it puts them directly in jeopardy, and your hireling believers become fanatics who will follow your commands to the death.

Equipment
Cleric A: Holy symbol, holy texts, vestments
Cleric B: Assorted incense and ritual salts, sanctified melee weapon of choice

Domain List
Domains 9-14
Domains 15-20 and full list

1. Authority
Commands:
1. Punish sinners and criminals
2. Convert nonbelievers
3. Spread the rule of law
4. Defend those who obey the law

Miracles:
1. Smite
Range: 100'; Target: 1 creature or object; Duration: instant
Deal [sum] damage to the target. If the target is a creature, and [dice] is greater than 1, you may force the target to fall prostrate. They must save on their turn to stand up.

2. Summon Minor Angel of Judgment
Range: N/A; Target: N/A; Duration: [dice] hours
Summon a minor angel of law adjacent to you. It has [dice] HD, can fly, and projects a [dice]*10' radius field that enforces the law. It follows your commands to the letter, so long as they are consistent with the law. It can and will resolve disputes perfectly in accordance with the law within its field.

3. Empower
Range: touch; Target: 1 creature or self; Duration: [sum] rolls
Target gets +[dice] to their next [sum] of one of the following: attack rolls, saves, STR/DEX/CON ability tests INT/WIS/CHA ability tests. If the target violates the law, this spell ends immediately.

2. Battle
Commands
1. Openly confront your enemies
2. Crush the opposition
3. Fight your own battles
4. Die in battle

Miracles
1. Enrage
Range: 50'; Target: [dice] creatures; Duration: [sum] minutes
Targets become enraged and must save to restrain themselves from resorting to violence to solve even the most trivial of problems. You may also give them +1 to attack and damage rolls as a barbarian's rage.

2. Summon Blessed Armory
Range: touch; Target: N/A; Duration: [sum] minutes
Summon [dice] blessed weapons of your choice. They count as magical and silvered, and the wounds they leave cannot be healed except by magical means.

3. Untouchability
Range: touch; Target: [dice] creatures; Duration: [sum] rounds
Anyone attempting to attack a target must save vs. divine intervention. If they succeed, they don't need to make those saves anymore.

3. Blood
Commands
1. Shed 1+ HP of your own blood.
2. Shed 1+ HP of someone else's blood.
3. Sacrifice an animal with at least 1 HD.
4. Drink 1+ HP of someone else's blood that has been shed previously.

Miracles
1. Blood Servant
Range: self or touch; Target: 1 creature with blood; Duration: [dice] hours
Create a fluid servant made out of blood, with 1HD for each HD sacrificed (minimum 1 HP for 1 HD). It follows your complex commands, squeeze through very small gaps, and can force creatures it attacks to save vs. suffocation.

2. Exsanguinate
Range: 50'; Target: 1 creature with blood; Duration: instant
Deals [sum] damage to the target. You control the exsanguinated blood for [dice] turns. It works as a Mage Hand made out of blood.

3. Hemomancy
Range: Touch; Target: 1 creature's blood; Duration: instant
You learn information about the creature you drink the blood of. 1 die gives you their name, appearance, mental state, and any ailments they suffer from. 2 dice lets you track them by scent. 3 dice gives you their actions for the past 24 hours and lets you experience one memory in that time from their perspective. 4 dice extends that to the past week and 3 memories.

4. Creation
Commands
1. Bring beautiful things into being/prevent them from being destroyed
2. Empower others to create
3. Discover the wonders of god's creation
4. Show others the beauties of creation

Miracles
1. Mend
Range: touch; Target: broken object or wounded creature; Duration: instant
Repair broken mundane item or heal wound of [sum] or less.

2. Transmute
Range: touch; Target: [sum] inches^3 of material; Duration: instant
Targeted material becomes another material of your choice. 1 die; must be same category of item (metal, food, tool) and all further restrictions. 2 dice; must be same consistency of matter (powdery, sludgy, solid) and all further restrictions. 3 dice; must be same state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, etc.). 4+ dice; no restrictions.

3. Duplicate
Range: touch; Target: item; Duration: [sum] hours
You create a perfect mundane duplicate of the target. If [dice] is 3 or greater, the duplicate also copies one magical property of the target. Duplicate fades away at end of duration.

5. Knowledge
Commands
1. Learn about the world, especially its secrets
2. Distribute knowledge to the masses
3. Speak truth to those who spread falsehoods
4. Recover lost and hidden things and bring them back for all to see

Miracles
1. Identify
Range: touch; Target: item, creature, or effect; Duration: instant
You learn [dice] magical effects that the target has. If [dice] is 2 or greater, you also learn what created it. If [dice] is 3 or greater, you also learn about the target's history. If [dice] is 4 or greater, you learn about how to replicate its effects.

2. Mind Meld
Range: touch; Target: creature; Duration: instant
You have a telepathic connection with the target, can read its surface thoughts, and can have a 2-way telepathic conversation. If [dice] is 2 or greater, you can also read its recent memories. If [dice] is 3 or greater, you can also read its secrets. If [dice] is 4 or greater, you can also wipe its mind.

3. Dowse
Range: N/A; Target: item or creature; Duration: [sum] hours
You learn the direction to an item or creature that you can name or describe; your sense of this follows the target as it moves.

6. Purity
Commands
1. Aid the downtrodden
2. Preserve the proper order of the world
3. Resist and destroy the undead, abominations that they are
4. Ensure that purity begets purity, that the pure do not do impure things

Miracles
1. Cure Disease
Range: touch; Target: living creature; Duration: instant
Target gets to save vs. [dice] diseases afflicting them. If they fail, can't try to cure it again until the disease progresses.

2. Turn Undead
Range: 50'; Target: [sum] HD of undead creatures; Duration: instant
Targets must save vs. fear, if they fail they flee. If [dice] is 3 or greater, they also take [sum] damage even if they pass their save.

3. Heal
Range: touch; Target: living creature; Duration: instant
Target rolls [dice] HD and regains that many hit points. This expends [dice] of their short rests for the day.

7. Trickery
Commands
1. Execute the final stages of your plans
2. Lie
3. Act in secret
4. Subvert authority

Miracles
1. Break Chains
Range: self; Target: physical restraints; Duration: instant
Anything physically restraining you no longer does so. Handcuffs unlock, chains snap, cell doors open, guards' grips loosen involuntarily. If you are imprisoned, you can teleport [sum]*10 feet away to a location where you are free.

2. Chaos
Range: [dice]*50'; Target: [sum] items; Duration: [sum] minutes
In a [dice]*50' radius, you can cause small items to fall, flames to flicker and die, doors and windows to open and close, armor to rattle, and other impressive and distracting theatrical effects.

3. Illusion
Range: 50'; Target: [dice]*5' radius;
You create an illusion (basically a perfect hologram) of whatever object or creature you want. It can
move as long however you dictate, but it cannot make any sound (or smell, touch, etc). Remember that illusions can only add, not subtract. (They can cover up a hole, but not create the illusion of a hole).

8. Wilds
Commands
1. Oppose the spread of civilization
2. Prey upon those below you on the food chain
3. Destroy unnatural abominations like the undead
4. Spread life into dead places like cities

Miracles
1. Call Fauna
Range: N/A; Targets: N/A; Duration: [sum]*10 minutes
[sum] [dice]HD local creatures flock to you. If [dice] is greater than 2, they will follow simple instructions that are in line with your Commands.

2. Grow Flora
Range: [dice]*50'; Targets: [sum] plants; Duration: instant
Targeted plant life grows to [dice]+1 times its size. If [dice] is greater than 2, you can roughly control the shape that it grows in, and have it grab items and creatures (they save vs. grapple).

3. Shatter
Range: 100'; Targets: mortalmade item, construct, or undead; Duration: instant
Deal [sum] damage to target in an explosion of shrapnel that shreds other nearby unnatural items and creatures, dealing [sum/2] damage. This effect chains up to [dice] times.

4 comments:

  1. There are some great ideas here ! Love how the spell dice are tied to either acting in according to your commandments, or to mooch power from your faith anyway and risk the consequences.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can we get an example of what counts as acting according to commandments? So, can a Trickery Cleric just lie about a random thing to no one in particular and get a die? Would a lie told in the recent past or future do?

    Of course, rules like these can't be explicit, but I'll really appreciate some guidelines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Consider the commands like material components - you don't build up a reserve of dice that you then spend, instead, all the commands are checked when you invoke the miracle and it increases in power based on how many commands you're using the miracle to follow. A god of Trickery will provide only one die of Illusion to a cleric using it to lie to a peasant, but will provide two dice to a cleric using an illusion to lie to the king, and three if that lie completes a long-term plan.

      Delete
    2. That makes sense. And I guess whether a random falsehood counts as a lie would indeed be down to the ruling whether anyone cares. We can work with that! Thanks for the explanation :]

      Delete

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