Clerics. Everyone's got their own version of the class and this one is mine. I've seen a bunch that use a d8 for casting, some using d6, and some using words. These are all fine, but they don't seem entirely correct to me. Chewing on the thought, I think it may be because being a cleric (or related modern nonsense) is to give up of yourself in the service of others, but the casting rules for the various versions are all caster centric. Maybe I'm off the mark, but at least a conviction based caster came out of it.
Strangely it arose from the same line of research that led to the AI as angels idea. Also a Summoner class I haven't fully nailed down. But nevermind that.
Cleric
Starting Skills: 1) Religion, 2) Herbalism, 3) Brewing
Starting Equipment: Holy Symbol, Holy Vestments, Holy Scripture
A. Tenets of Faith, Divine Casting
B. Ceremonies
C. Divine Guidance
D. Seek Audience
Tenets of Faith
Replace your Convictions with the tenets of your God. You work for them now. Also, you may have as many Conviction points as you have Cleric templates. These'll be used for your Divine Casting.
Break the Tenets, lose your casting and extended Conviction pool. These can probably be restored through a quest. These things always are.
Divine Casting
As an ex-preacher, let me state plainly: Prayer is just second hand spells and religious ceremonies are just rebranded magic rituals. I ain't being edgy, that's just how it is. With that in mind you get a bit of spell casting ability through prayers to your god. However, you yourself are not casting the spells, but rather the god is casting them for you. Trouble is gods ain't like you or me, they're basically bound to their shtick. Where we can know a little about First Aid and Auto Mechanicing, a god of Healing ain't gonna know the first thing about an engine and a god of cars won't know how to repair that weird meat chassis of yours.
What this means mechanically is that a god will have a Purview (which will be defined) and a Domain (which will be vaguely implied). Prayers casted in the Purview are automatically 6's. Prayers casted in a Domain are automatically 4's. Prayers not in either of this are automatically 1's. Luckily, you're immune to miscast.
Prayers in the Purview are ones the god "definitely does" where as Domain prayers are the "yeah, sort of, I guess" type. A god of the Forest would definitely "Speak with Animal" or "Find Water" as those are definitely forest related things. A god of the Forest might, probably "Heal" because a forest is a place of growth, but also if your hurt and fall in the forest, it will consume you. Forests don't give a shit. What a god of the Forest won't do is produce a "Fireball" as fire is a forest destroyer.
Any god with multiple accreditations (ex, god of love and thunder) has multiple Purviews, as each template in Godhood gets you a Purview
While you, yourself, don't have any Magic Die to put towards said prayers, you essentially buy them at 1 Conviction point/MD. They immediately become the relevant above result. So in the above example 1 Conviction point buys you the same result as rolling a 6 on the MD would for Speak with Animal, a 4 for Heal, or a puny 1 damage fireball of fizzled flames.
Ceremonies
Stolen straight from Arnold K. Because they are cool.
Each one takes 2 hours.
- Union – People are bonded. If your partner would take physical damage while you are beside them, you can choose to take half of it. If one dies, the others loses 500XP.
- Funeral – The dead are honored. Everyone gains XP equal to 50% of the deceased's total XP. (So if a PC with 3000 XP died, each of the three surviving PCs will get +500 XP at the end of the session.) This transfer only works from player characters, to player characters.
- Sermon – You can implant a suggestion in all Neutral and Friendly attendees. Make a single roll for each (roughly) homogenous group/demographic. You still need to get people to sit through a 2 hour sermon, and most people are not well-disposed towards religions other than their own.
Divine Guidance
Wizards have to call their familiars and make a contract that will ultimately bring their down fall. Clerics, though, are preapproved and get assigned a companion that will actually try to help them in the form of a lesser angel. Careful through, while familiars vaguely look like animals, angels just outright look like weird shit. Does not count against follower limit.
Seek Audience
Usually, whenever a cleric and their god have a palaver, it was the god who done the initiating. However, with this power, by getting the GM a beer, the cleric and present PCs, are granted an audience with the god in question. Whether they'll be pleased to see you is another story. Usable once per adventure and lasts for as long as the beer lasts, or until you anger the god.
Example
(directly stolen from Branson Reese, because I needed a quick example and I refuse to learn what a "Pelor" is)
Purview: Vacation
Tenets
- “It’s 5 o'clock everywhere.”
- “We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”
- “There is no rule number three.”
- “Changes in latitude, changes in attitude.”
- “Hell, could be my fault.”
The Tenets take place of your Conviction, so when you get in trouble for following "Hell, could be my fault" you gain a point of Conviction. Which can then be used to power prayers.
Purview prayers would be along the lines of Comprehend Languages (for understanding locals), Endure Elements (in case you forget the sunscreen), Unseen Bellhop, and Summon Alcohol. Domains would be along the lines of Summon Mount (gotta get there some how), Heal (for the bad sunburn), and Cure Poison (for the bad tummy). Prayers outside of these would be any of the fairly aggressive sort: Fireball, Magic Missile, Acid, etc. When in doubt, talk with your GM.
Eventually, Danny will send a weird ass, biblically correct flamingo with far too many eyes and wings to assist you in your day to day adventuring and vacationing. Get on good enough graces with him, and that "drop by anytime to use the pool" becomes more than just a pleasantry (once you get the GM a beer, of course).
