The Power of Prayer

[Ahnehnois]

Take the following character: a human fighter of moderate but not spectacular level (let's say he's level 6 or so). He's good at fighting but also a very pious man. He worships the local NG deity (let's say Pelor or some close equivalent; the most common NG deity who includes healing among other things in his sphere of influence), and frequently roleplays his prayers to said deity. He buys potions only from this deity's temples, and leaves a little extra gold as a tithe. He frequently helps other worshippers in need. He spreads the faith. He never asks for anything in return.

However, he only ever takes levels of fighter, and has no spells or supernatural abilities of any sort. A few ranks in Knowledge (Religion) or whatever the system calls it, perhaps, but he's not a cleric, not by a long shot. His Wisdom is low enough that he couldn't cast spells even if he wanted to learn. He has no interest in being anything other than a fighter.

Now, he's fighting a pitched battle, and his character's wife, a fellow PC and likewise a faithful follower of the same deity, is felled by an orc, being dropped unconscious and helpless and down to within a point or two of dying. She might stabilize, but she'll probably die soon without help. With no healer in sight, the fighter finishes off the orcs and rushes to his fallen wife. Not knowing whether she's alive or dead and possessing no healing skill or magic items to speak of, the fighter prays for his wife's survival, begging his NG deity to heal her and keep her alive.

What happens next?

Pick whatever option you like the best.

It is possible that edition-specific rules or campaign or setting issues could affect your answer; feel free to elaborate.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The way I run deities is that they may not exist. Divine magic works, but so does arcane magic and nobody aside from a wizard knows how that works either. Once you introduce proof, then there can be no faith, and religion just becomes science and politics.

I would roll the stabilization check behind the screen. She will probably stabilize. She probably would have stabilized, even if I'd rolled openly. The fighter can go ahead and assume that the prayer was answered, whether or not it was the case.

 

[Argyle King]

What is the portfolio of the NG deity?

 

[Arduin's]

In my game increasing H.P. as you level up also represents, to some degree, divine favor. A PC, whether they know it or not, falls under some divine attention depending on level, alignment and the like. So, there is no separate fiddling.

 

[DMZ2112]

What happens next?

This is not a general D&D question; there are too many edition-specific variables. I think it depends somewhat heavily on what domains or spheres this particular NG god represents, and extremely heavily on what having less than 0 HP means by the RAW and in your campaign. But if we're just supposed to make crap up I'd say that fudging a stabilization check is a small enough reward for a conscientious roleplayer.

The way I run deities is that they may not exist. Divine magic works, but so does arcane magic and nobody aside from a wizard knows how that works either.

Wait, you don't feel the need for clerics to understand how divine magic works because wizards understand how arcane magic works? Care to have another stab at that little logical jewel?

 

[Li Shenron]

What happens next?

Pick whatever option you like the best.

"Something else": I (the DM) roll some dice to determine what

 

[Ahnehnois]

What is the portfolio of the NG deity?

Say he's the most generic one. Pelor if you swing that way. Probably his portfolio will include healing.

This is not a general D&D question; there are too many edition-specific variables. I think it depends somewhat heavily on what domains or spheres this particular NG god represents,

That is not an edition-specific variable per se, it's actually setting-specific. Since you're the second person who's asked this question I failed to anticipate, pretend that it's Pelor or his close equivalent. Since everyone uses different gods I didn't want to say, but maybe this will be clearer.

and extremely heavily on what having less than 0 HP means by the RAW and in your campaign.

Don't worry about the number. Just pretend the fallen character is 1 hp away from dying and is losing hit points.

I tried to cover everything in this question but I'll go back and amend it with these details I didn't specify.

But if we're just supposed to make crap up I'd say that fudging a stabilization check is a small enough reward for a conscientious roleplayer.

That's the thing. You determine whether you want to make something up or not; that's the question. I'm pretty sure the RAW answer for any version of D&D is going to be the first one*. I am not aware of any D&D rules that allow a character who has no divine magical abilities on his character sheet to ask for help from his deity and receive it. So you, in this scenario, are deciding whether you want to stick with the rules or not.

*Apparently I was mistaken about that with regards to 1e; see below.

 

[TerraDave]

I actually have a prayer mechanic in the current campaign, in part to encourage the players to familiarize themselves with the pantheon. Once a level, you can pray for a reroll.

This has been interesting, with one case I remember well were a save of 1 (or close to it) became a 20. Divine intervention followed.

For this case, if the characters are high enough level, roll (maybe behind the screen) and if the roll is high enough (or fudged that way) have the diety or its agent make a brief appearance. Don't hold back, its a fantasy game.

 

[Ahnehnois]

The way I run deities is that they may not exist. Divine magic works, but so does arcane magic and nobody aside from a wizard knows how that works either. Once you introduce proof, then there can be no faith, and religion just becomes science and politics.

I would roll the stabilization check behind the screen. She will probably stabilize. She probably would have stabilized, even if I'd rolled openly. The fighter can go ahead and assume that the prayer was answered, whether or not it was the case.

Sounds like an Eberron-style approach. Unlike the standard in D&D, you want to play the ambiguity of faith and worship, so you're going with the "DM cheating" approach to create the same uncertainty for the players (because they don't know what's happening mechanically) that the characters are experiencing (because they don't know whether the prayer is being heard or answered).

I like it.

"Something else": I (the DM) roll some dice to determine what

Another good answer along the same lines.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Wait, you don't feel the need for clerics to understand how divine magic works because wizards understand how arcane magic works? Care to have another stab at that little logical jewel?

Divine magic doesn't require that you know how it works in order to use it. It either works because people believe in it, or because there is an actual deity out there who is granting your requests. It's not science. Nothing can be proven, and for the most part, nobody cares. Analyzing it would require sacrificing your faith, at which point it wouldn't work anymore.

Arcane magic is different. You have to know what you're doing, because you're controlling it all yourself. Wizards know exactly how it works, which is why they can invent new spells.

As far as anyone else is concerned, the cleric and the wizard both know what they're doing, and that's good enough for them. You might occasionally get a commoner/noble/peasant with knowledge of religion/arcana, and they would know this much, and they would also know that they can't work magic themselves unless they spend some significant time learning all of the details, as represented through class levels or feats or what-have-you.