WiseKobold wrote:Just trying to make sure I am reading this right. So much space is devoted to wizardly magic that clerical magic feels a little underrepresented.
Spell acquisition:
- Clerics gain spells known as found on table 1-5.
- Clerics can learn any cleric spell: all spells are available, irregardless of their god. There are no deity specific spells of powers (yet).
- They may pick the spells they wish, do not have to roll to learn them and are not subject to mercurial magic or corruption.
- Like spells, Lay on Hands may be used as often as desired, subject to the rules of disapproval.
Personally, I would love to see a web article or fanzine give them clerics a flavor boost.
As a side note, can wizards be on terms with several patrons? Also, it doesn't seem wizards are required to have a patron at all and may not get the chance if their spell acquisition plays out the wrong way.
Keeping in mind these are all simply the opinions of an experienced gamer that likes to believe he has a mind for sussing out designer intentions, here's my responses and suggestions:
-Yes, clerics gain spells as found on table 1-5.
-"irregardless" isn't actually a word, sorry to nitpick, you meant "regardless"... and as of yet, no, there is no restriction applied by the rules nor special options available based on choice of god.
-The spells on the list of spells are numbered, that means they are ready to be rolled randomly just like wizard spells... my take on the matter has been to roll randomly, but then change the results if the flavor of the spell does not match the flavor of the chosen god (i.e. you roll and get detect magic, food of the gods, holy sanctuary, and darkness at 1st level... but you worship the sun god... so the judge drops darkness and replaces it with resist cold or heat to better fit the "you know the spells of your god" idea for a sun deity.
Clerics are not subject to mercurial magic because they are not personally seeking to manipulate the arcane forces of magic, they are simply acting as a conduit for some other being (one of immense supernatural power) working magic - the god casts the spell through the cleric based upon the cleric's ability to put the "request" to the god at the time of casting.
For similar reasons clerics don't suffer corruption from botched spells - they just have to re-earn their deity's approval.
Also, this is why Clerics don't (normally) have the option to spell burn - spellburn is a negotiation with a powerful entity on a "you scratch my back, i'll scratch yours" level... since the cleric is a supplicant of the deity, there are no negotiations, simply the word of the deity and the faith and service to that word of the cleric (or else the deity takes his toys and goes home).
-Lay on hands (and spells, and turn unholy creatures) work on the same spell check + disapproval systems.
-regarding multiple patrons: Any character can be bound to any number of patrons, as there is no clause within the Patron Bond spell (whether cast on one's self or on others) that prevents multiple bondings. It is, however, likely to be a dangerous endeavor - bonding to opposed patrons is likely to cause both to be harsher on any deal the character attempts to make or more impish about favors asked (subject only to the judge's discretion)... and in the case of a cleric, bonding with a patron that your god disapproves of is likely (in this judge's opinion) to cause immediate disapproval of severe order (i.e. roll a d20 - the result is how many d4 you now roll on the disapproval chart).
And no, no wizard is required to be bonded with a patron - technically elves aren't even required to be bonded with a patron, they just all know how one would go about making that bond... however, if you (like I) have your spellcasters declare amount of spellburn and then roll on the relevant spellburn action chart (1d24 for those unbonded, 1d4 with a specific patron's list if bonded) and then tell them how that spellburn manifests... then you have a pretty clear encouragement for any caster that can to bond to a patron just for more reasonable expectations of what they will have asked of them in order to boost their spells.