Cleric

Overview

  There are organized temples to Pelor, god of the sun, Yondalla, goddess of halflings, Obad-Hai, god of nature, Moradin, god of dwarves, and Garl Glittergold, god of gnomes. All of these temples have over a thousand members and a substantial priesthood. Some powerful clerics are found in apparently humble positions. Clerics of all these religions are actively involved in supporting the community and providing healing to those who need it; donations are expected based on an informal sliding scale. Nearly all clerics have another job (often farming or a craft) in addition to their holy duties.   Despite the fact that Yondalla, Moradin, and Garl Glittergold are primarily geared toward halflings, dwarves, and gnomes respectively, each god has some adherents (and a few clerics) outside of their normal race. There are human followers of all 5 principal gods, but Pelor is most popular among humans. Half-orcs usually follow Moradin or Pelor. Gruumsh, the orcish god, is commonly regarded as an adversary by all Enclave religions.   A few other gods have some scattered followers and small shrines, but lack a priesthood. Kord (the god of strength) is also popular with many Half-orcs, as well as members of the Warriors Guild; there is a shrine to Kord at The Hot Springs. A few mages follow Boccob (the god of magic) exclusively, and most other mages pay lip service; there is a shrine to Boccob at the Mages' Guild. Small shrines to a few other minor gods are scattered throughout the Enclave, some of them in disrepair and mostly forgotten.  

Game mechanics

  Use GURPS Dungeon Fantasy rules. We came up with the following rules before GURPS Dungeon Fantasy was published. However, schools listed for each god below will aid in choosing appropriate spells for your religion.   Clerics must have at least 1 level of Power Investiture (PI) and the incumbent vow (B77). Religious vows can be changed from time to time, as long as the point cost is the same (I'm tired of this vow of silence and want a vow of charity instead), but roleplay a good reason for the change. For spell selection treat PI as Magery minus 1 for guidance on spell selection. (i.e If a spell would require Magery 0, it can be selected with PI 1.)   Spells are granted directly from the patron god. The only prerequisites to worry about are a) magery restrictions as mentioned above, and b) if a prerequisite spell requires a certain level of magery, that carries over. Roleplay spell choice also; it is unlikely for young clerics to be granted powerful spells to use at will (but with proper need, the deity may allow it). Learning spells still costs character points (although deities might sometimes grant particularly pious clerics a spell temporarily for a specific purpose).   Enclave clerics can choose schools of spells according to their deity, up to 4 different schools (they need not all be chosen when the character is created). Clerics need not know spells from all 4 of their schools. Although most clerics know some Healing spells, this is not a requirement. If a cleric has 4 or fewer spells in a 'Available' school but wants to change schools, they may abandon that school, recover the character points spent on the spells, switch to a new school, and buy new spells using the same number of character points (this requires at least a month of full-time study and prayer per new spell). Once a cleric has 5 or more spells in a chosen school, it cannot usually be changed.  
  • Garl Glittergold (gnomish god)
  • Preferred: Healing, Illusion & Creation, Mind Control
  • Available: Any school except Gate, Necromantic, and Technological
  • Moradin (dwarven god)
  • Preferred: Healing, Making & Breaking, Earth
  • Available: Knowledge, Light & Darkness, Protection & Warning, or Water
  • Obad-Hai (spirit of nature; druids)
  • See GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 'Druid' profession, which has Druidic power investiture, and does not include healing spells. But if a more cleric-like druid is desired, here are the schools:
  • Preferred: Healing, Animal, Plant
  • Available: Air, Earth, Food, Knowledge, Water, or Weather
  • Pelor (sun god)
  • Preferred: Healing, Light & Darkness, Protection & Warning
  • Available: Air, Fire, Illusion & Creation, Knowledge, or Weather
  • Yondalla (halfling god)
  • Preferred: Healing, Plant
  • Available: Communication & Empathy, Earth, Food, Illusion & Creation, Knowledge, Making & Breaking, Protection & Warning, Water, or Weather
  • Gruumsh (orcish god; not available to PCs nor worshipped in the Enclave)
  • Preferred: Healing, Making & Breaking, Earth
  • Available: Healing, Earth, Fire, Necromantic, Light & Darkness
  • Healing is a preferred school for all clerics. The Knowledge school is also available to clerics of all 5 of the Enclave deities, since gods are very knowledgeable.   Clerics are not considered Mages for the purpose of determining who can use a magic items. Clerics are the only persons that can use holy items as created by their orders/deities. Clerics may further be restricted from using magic items that are inconsistent with their faith or schools of magic at the GM's discretion.
    Type
    Religious

    Comments

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    Sep 7, 2023 18:13

    This needs to be broken up into sections. We need establish a template of sections for a Class/Profession. This has been republished as a new article using WA's template along those lines. I'll see what we can shoehorn into that and what more we might need to build from scratch.

    Sep 7, 2023 18:17

    Transferred as is from the old wiki. Needs to be touched up expanded and brought to be canonical with current continuity.
      Talk:Clerics Holy magic items?   It seems to me all religions need to create them, so I've given all clerics access to Enchantment (although it's a player's-choice school except for Garl Glittergold). Maybe clerical 'powerstones' are simply their holy symbol, with same price/operation as powerstones? Or peg holy symbol power to some combination of Will and Power Investiture? Kyle (talk) 22:40, 9 October 2016 (EDT)   No. Magic items are wholly the venue of the mages. Any Holy enchantments will directly granted by the deity in question. The powerstone equivalent idea is addressed in one of the references, I'll need look it up. --GM (talk)   An alternative for holy magic items is Devotional Enchantment (Magic, p. 71). It seems rather difficult to achieve and would not be applicable to lower-level players. It does not require the Enchantment college but requires the Very Blessed advantage and a Discipline of Faith disadvantage. Kyle (talk) 06:37, 11 October 2016 (EDT)   An option for sure. I say we burn that bridge when a PC wants to go down that path. I do feel strongly about leaving the magic items to the mages in general. A cleric that really really really wants to make magic items, can pursue Magery. One of the reasons we moved to the GURPS way was to kinda leave those walled classes behind. With work the PC can be anything. I just want to be sure that we do make roles that players can pursue and not have all paths lead to the same destination. GM (talk) 10:53, 11 October 2016 (EDT)   I wish to reiterate that I want Mage only items to be Mage only. There should also be holy items that at are only usable by clerics of specific faiths. Magery and Power Investure may look similar to the lay person, but the methods and sources are wholly different. I will update the page to match this. Ric (talk) 10:04, 15 December 2016 (EST)   Suggested spells from DF 1. These are a grand start, cast them through the filter of the schools that you set up and we might have a good product!   PI 1: Armor, Aura, Body-Reading, Bravery, Cleansing, Coolness, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Final Rest, Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Light, Might, Minor Healing, Purify Air, Purify Water, Recover Energy, Sense Life, Sense Spirit, Share Vitality, Shield, Silence, Stop Bleeding, Test Food, Thunderclap, Umbrella, Vigor, Warmth, and Watchdog. PI 2: Awaken, Clean, Command, Compel Truth, Continual Light, Create Water, Glow, Great Voice, Healing Slumber, Major Healing, Peaceful Sleep, Persuasion, Purify Food, Relieve Sickness, Remove Contagion, Resist Acid, Resist Cold, Resist Disease, Resist Fire, Resist Lightning, Resist Pain, Resist Poison, Resist Pressure, Restore Hearing, Restore Memory, Restore Sight, Restore Speech, Seeker, Soilproof, Stop Spasm, Summon Spirit, Truthsayer, Turn Spirit, Turn Zombie, and Wall of Light. PI 3: Affect Spirits, Astral Vision, Breathe Water, Command Spirit, Create Food, Cure Disease, Dispel Possession, Flaming Weapon, Great Healing, Magic Resistance, Neutralize Poison, Oath, Relieve Madness, Relieve Paralysis, Repel Spirits, Restoration, See Secrets, Silver Tongue, Stone to Flesh, Stop Paralysis, Strengthen Will, Sunbolt, Sunlight, Suspended Animation, Water to Wine, and Wisdom. PI 4: Astral Block, Banish, Cleansing, Continual Sunlight, Dispel Magic, Divination, Essential Food, Gift of Letters, Gift of Tongues, Instant Neutralize Poison, Instant Restoration, Monk’s Banquet, Regeneration, Suspend Curse, and Vigil. PI 5: Bless, Curse, Earthquake, Entrap Spirit, Instant Regeneration, Pentagram, Remove Curse, Storm, and Suspend Mana. PI 6: Bind Spirit, Drain Mana, Planar Summons (Divine Servitor), Sanctuary, and Resurrection.   So the idea of the above is to impose a cost on clerics to access powerful spells since they don't need prerequisites? Seems to make sense. I also had been thinking more about preventing mages from having some 'cleric' spells, rather than the other way round, but this does seem reasonable. Kyle (talk) 22:41, 11 October 2016 (EDT)   As you mention that, it was covered too. One moment.....   Aside from Lend Energy and Recover Energy, Healing spells are the dominion of clerics. Wizards may only learn Healing spells that either belong to another college as well or are in the only prerequisite path to a spell in a different college (e.g., Zombie requires Lend Vitality, so a wizard could learn it). In the latter case, if any other path exists, the wizard must take it instead. Animal, Plant, and Weather spells are the preserve of druids. Again, wizards may only learn such magic as part of another college or when a spell from another college absolutely requires it. To keep Invisibility from completely upstaging thieves, the spell ends instantly if the subject attacks, casts a combat spell, or otherwise does anything more violent than moving around, spying, and stealing. Reduce energy cost from 5/3 to 4/2 to compensate.   Looking at the list I think we can pull some from the mages. Final Rest for sure. I'm looking at the Mind Control college as being clericy too. Maybe split that one apart some. Bravery seems a clerical gimmick not mageish. compelling truth, persuasion, Turn Zombie/Spirit, perhaps split any 'other realms' between the classes. Clerics get Affect spirits for the religious Mages for the physical? Bansish. Gift of Letters and Tongues. Bless. Just off the cuff stuff, I've not read the spells in detail. Perhaps we put this out to the players as well, and make decisions on the fly in character...take notes record them in the wiki. Ric (talk) 10:48, 12 October 2016 (EDT)   Further, those imposed costs are not without benefit. Each level of PI infers a bonus +1 to all spells known. And it inherently lifts the PI limit for PC clerics, where the Magery one will still need be written in so-to-speak. I kinda like the idea of clerical magic being inherently more powerful (it is back by god and all) than the same style of Magery. More work for the character when it is DIY rather than channeled from beyond. Ric (talk) 10:48, 12 October 2016 (EDT)

    Sep 7, 2023 18:19

    Just as we have initial starting places with Racial Template, methinks that we need to throw in Class Templates as well. They simply provide a starting point to work from.