Alternate builds for Turn Undead?

[Lucius]

Well... has anyone forcefully presented a holy symbol at you?

 

I found it to be annoying, but not damaging.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Forcefully presenting a palindromedary

[NuSoardGraphite]

I just use base Presence, plus situational bonuses just like with PRE attacks. I do support a Talent that provides a bonus to Turn Undead dice, but it maxes out at +3D6.

 

A priest with a PRE of 15 and a Strong Faith talent (+2d6) would look something like this:

 

5d6 to turn undead.

 

Using holy symbol +1d6

 

On holy ground aligned with deity +2d6

 

Holy day +1d6 to +3d6 (depending on the sanctity of the day)

 

Daytime +1d6

 

Unholy ground -2d6

 

Undead under necromantic control -1d6

 

Night time -1d6

4

Unholy day -1d6 to -3d6

 

Thus if the preist were using their holy symbol and on holy ground conecrated to the priests deity, they gain a bonus of +3d6. However the undead are being controlled by an entity -1d6 and the dark moon of Charon is full, making it an unholy day for another -1d6 for a total of +1d6 after bonuses and penalties are calculated. So the priest with 15 PRE and a Talent giving +2d6 bonus under the above circumstances rolls 6d6 to turn the hoard of undead shamblijg toward his party of adventurers...

 

Not too crazy, but holds some flavor.

[Steve]

If undead are going to be a feature of a campaign, an index card of modifiers would be helpful to speed things up for figuring out what the cleric needs to roll.

[NuSoardGraphite]

You could also give undead Vulnerabilities and Susceptibilities to Holy Pre attacks. That would go a long way toward facilitating a Turn undead system that somewhat resembles the D&D mold without resorting to dozens of dice in your pool. Those Undead which are supposed to be easy to Turn could have a X2 vulnerability to being Turned. That way even an initiate priest who can only muster 4d6 dice can turn away a shambling zombie or two. Those Undead who are known to be resistant to Turning such as Revnants, Liches and master Vampires, will lack such a Vulnerability and some extreme cases, may even posess Presence Defense or Damage Reduction against such an assault. Thus, even the most experienced and pious of clergymen would be hard pressed to send the master vampire packing with a mere wave of their holy symbol.

 

If you want Turn Undead to possibly destroy undead creatures, add a susceptibility to them. So each time a successful Turn happens, they take the listed damage. Or alternately, just count the Presence dice as if it were a Normal attack doing Body and Stun (if appropriate) to the target in addition to the effects of the Presence Attack.