An All Category for my clerics

[Mr. R]

So my clerics get spells based on their domains ranked from 1 to 5.  Right now I have one power per level per domain, but I am prepared to allow more spells as long as they meet the domain criteria (no Call Lightning if you have the Heal domain for example.)  BUT....

 

Some low level abilities almost seem to be universal

 

So I come to you people for ideas.  Help me flesh out the ALL domain.  This is what I have so far

 

 

All

Level 0(1-15 pts)

Healing BODY 1d6+1 (13 Active Points); 4 Charges (-1), 

 

Magic:  Detect A Single Thing 12- (Unusual Group), Discriminatory, Analyze (13 Active Points); 

 

Protection:  Force Field (5 PD/5 ED) (10 Active Points); 

 

 Alarm:  Hearing Group Images Increased Size (2" radius; +¼), +/-1 to PER Rolls, 4 Continuing Charges lasting 6 Hours each (+0), Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Turn or more to reset, Trigger can expire (it has a time limit); +¼) (12 Active Points); 

 

Level 1(16-30 pts)

 

Level 2(31-45 pts)

Spirit Weapon:  Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6, Variable Targets (+¼), Uncontrolled (+½), Continuous (+1) (41 Active Points);

 

Level 3(46-60 pts)

 

Level 4(61-75 pts)

 

Level 5(76-90 pts)

 

 

 

Feel free to add what you think is appropriate.  I'll add or reject as I see fit!

 

[Alcamtar]

I suspect this is a very subjective question. For example I don't consider any of the powers you chose (healing, alarm, weapon) to be particularly generic. Healing seems a bad fit for evil gods; alarm strikes me as a utility wizard type spell; weapon only fits war gods. YMMV obviously.

 

I would tend to go for subtle powers that related specifically and generically to the notion of "channeling a spirit": augury, commune, bestow/remove curse. protection from spirits, plane shift.

 

Things like bless/curse, dispel seem pretty generic but would be "aspected" by your religion. For example a cleric of a "disease god" and a cleric of a "health god" can both bless, but only bless people their God likes and the blessing should take a form that their god likes; they can both dispel, but can only dispel things their god doesn't like.

 

Similarly things like succor or healing probably make sense for most clerics at some point; the god needs to keep their servant going. But the god of sacrificial mercy wants you to use your healing on others; while the goddess of suffering doesn't like to heal at all and only does it in extreme circumstances and probably earns the cleric and recipient a "demerit" for being so weak and unworthy. Maybe the healing of the goddess of suffering is always accompanied by excruciating pain or disfiguring scars. But its not a domain power because you really shouldn't be using it at!

 

Overall I think the notion of domain powers is not really great for clerics, I think its overly restrictive and reductive, and probably only makes sense for the weakest of minor deities. I mean any deity that is worthy of the title "god" could provide EVERY spell in the book whether clerical or magical regardless of domain. Whether they do or not depends on their goals, the story, etc. A cleric should always be vastly more powerful than a wizard because they draw from a more powerful, more universal source; the downside is having to submit and not being able to call upon that power at will. You only get to do what you're told, if you want to be in control, you choose the path of wizardry which is less power but greater autonomy.

[DShomshak]

For an example of divine domains that *isn't* D&D, there's the Scion game from White Wolf. The gods of myth are often (though not always) portrayed as having distinctive areas of interest and influence, so I won't say that giving their priests distinctive areas of influence is an automatic D&D-ism. "D&D does it that way" is a lousy reason to design features for a Fantasy Hero game, but it isn't an automatic reason to reject a design choice, either.

 

If you also want a set of universal magical powers that are available to all channelers of divine power, these should be based on the fundamental priestly role of representing the god or gods to a community of worshipers, and the worshipers to the god. There... No, I don't see healing as universally clerical. Curing disease, maybe, if you've decided that disease is caused by evil spirits the cleric casts out of curses that the cleric lifts. But curing wounds? It's useful for anyone, but that doesn't make it suitable for every god.

 

If you feel you *must* give all clerics healing, define SFX to fit it within a domain. Like, the Artisan God's priest intones "From clay were you made; now to clay return, that the Great Maker's hand may repair you!" And the wounded area briefly becomes clay, which flows back together before reverting to flesh.

 

You've got a better case for Spiritual Weapon, as a basic low-power "Manifest Wrath of God" with which to smite enemies of the community. But again, it whould be skinned to fit the god's themes.

 

I find Detect Magic dubious as written, since I tend to think of magic as a fairly broad category. If there's enough variation to make Discriminatory meaningful (let alone Analyze), that should be at least a 5-point category.

 

To make it more clerical, I would adjust it to Detect Souls, or Detect Spiritual Forces, whatever those might be in your setting. This enables clerics to detect whether a creature has a soul; if it is being affected by a god or spirit (incidentally revealing whether a person is a cleric); or if an object is a holy/unholy relic and, if so, to which god it is consecrated. But if there are forms of non-divine magic, there's no intrinsc reason that all clerics should be able to detect them. (Or if there is, that's something you've defined about magic in your setting, as well as about clerics.)

 

More later.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Mr. R]

2 hours ago, DShomshak said:

For an example of divine domains that *isn't* D&D, there's the Scion game from White Wolf. The gods of myth are often (though not always) portrayed as having distinctive areas of interest and influence, so I won't say that giving their priests distinctive areas of influence is an automatic D&D-ism. "D&D does it that way" is a lousy reason to design features for a Fantasy Hero game, but it isn't an automatic reason to reject a design choice, either.

 

If you also want a set of universal magical powers that are available to all channelers of divine power, these should be based on the fundamental priestly role of representing the god or gods to a community of worshipers, and the worshipers to the god. There... No, I don't see healing as universally clerical. Curing disease, maybe, if you've decided that disease is caused by evil spirits the cleric casts out of curses that the cleric lifts. But curing wounds? It's useful for anyone, but that doesn't make it suitable for every god.

 

If you feel you *must* give all clerics healing, define SFX to fit it within a domain. Like, the Artisan God's priest intones "From clay were you made; now to clay return, that the Great Maker's hand may repair you!" And the wounded area briefly becomes clay, which flows back together before reverting to flesh.

 

You've got a better case for Spiritual Weapon, as a basic low-power "Manifest Wrath of God" with which to smite enemies of the community. But again, it whould be skinned to fit the god's themes.

 

I find Detect Magic dubious as written, since I tend to think of magic as a fairly broad category. If there's enough variation to make Discriminatory meaningful (let alone Analyze), that should be at least a 5-point category.

 

To make it more clerical, I would adjust it to Detect Souls, or Detect Spiritual Forces, whatever those might be in your setting. This enables clerics to detect whether a creature has a soul; if it is being affected by a god or spirit (incidentally revealing whether a person is a cleric); or if an object is a holy/unholy relic and, if so, to which god it is consecrated. But if there are forms of non-divine magic, there's no intrinsc reason that all clerics should be able to detect them. (Or if there is, that's something you've defined about magic in your setting, as well as about clerics.)

 

More later.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

 

OK  This is good!  Thank you!

[DShomshak]

I see you might be changing clerics completely, but I'll still post a few remaining thoughts on clerics as interlocutors between mortals and the divine.

 

First, expanding on the notion of a Detect Soul or Detect Spiritual Forces power: This is an important feature throughout Lois McMaster Bujo;ld's "World of the Five Gods" stories, and I recommend that series for the examples it provides. For instance, all saints -- people who channel the power of the gods into the mortal world, though they do *not* cast spells as gamers think of them -- all perceive the immanent divinity of other sains as a glow in the god's characteristic color, while the brightness of the glow indicates the power of the miracle that the saint hosts. A petty saint of the Mother, whose miracle is simply that she's a very good midwife, has a clow like a candle seen through green glass. A saint of the Bastard, hosting a miracle that preserves a king's life against a curse, shines white like a torch. And he describes another character as lit up like a burning city. The aforementioned curse, OTOH, is perceived as a black mist clinging to the people it affects. Ghosts begin their existence as images of the people they were, but gradually fade into featureless white blobs. Demons and other spiritual entites are likewise perceived in characteristic ways. However, although mortals interpret these perceptions as sight, closing your eyes won't block the perception.

 

Demons, and the Great Beasts possessed by shamans, are lesser spiritual entities but grant similar perceptions. Though when a sorcerer's indwelling demon perceives divine forces, its usual response is to curl in on itself and hide within the sorcerer's soul, denying its powers and perceptions to the sorcerer until it dares to come out again.

 

There are further details, but I hope you get the idea. In these stories, spiritual perception isn't just a convenient power for characters to call upon. It grants them access to a whole other aspect of reality to which most mortals are blind.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Through its many iterations, D&D has become quite good at being what it is. Its treatment of clerics and druids, however, is tightly limited to what they can do as adventurers. They have few spells (or other abilities) for the express purpose of representing gods to mortals and mortals to gods, or dealing with lesser spirits. Since I am me, I wrote up spells for such purposes to use in my campaign.

 

One I called Aureole, and I eventually gave it to all clerics as a bonus cantrip. It simply lets a cleric flash an aura that other people can perceive, which identifies the cleric as the chosen servant of a god. Each god has its own unique aura, making it a nearly infallible identifier. (No other magic can genuinely duplicate an aureole, but sufficiently powerful illusions can make people think they saw the real thing.)

 

For FH this could just be Images with No Range and Fixed Effect. The basic Sense Group would be Sight, but with something more the spiritual aspect by which other people know they are seeing a divine manifestation. It's a Special Sense that has been implicit in Hero, at least in 4th and 5th edition, but not specifically named. See, characters who are targeted by Mental Powers know they were targeted by Mental Powers (at least after the fact), and know more or less who did it. (I assume this is still the case with 6e; not sure about CC.)  It's like a limited form of Mental Awareness, so I guess this is as good a name as any: Aureole gives this implicit sense the Transmit quality, so other people perceive the Image mentally as well as visually. It's kind of a stretch for the rules, but keeps the spell" in the 0-15 Active Points range for the most basic clerical spells. (Area Effect Mental Illusions might superficially seem more "legal," and a person with sufficiently high EGO might not perceive the aureole which seems backwards.)

 

Dean Shomshak