Destruction Of The Undead

[ForceUser]

Instead of the turn undead rules in the Player’s Handbook, I use the following variant from Complete Divine with some necessary modifications. Instead of making undead run and cower, turn attempts deal positive energy damage to all undead within a 30 ft. radius burst of the cleric. The goal of this variant system is to have the cleric contribute to the destruction of the undead in a fashion that interacts well with the other characters in the party such as the fighter and the wizard. Sometimes when the undead are turned they run away and are never seen again, or they are destroyed outright. Other times when undead are turned, there are no effects at all. This variant provides a more consistent, simpler method of dealing with the turning of undead.

Turning undead is a standard action that deals 1d6 damage/cleric level to all undead within a 30-ft. radius burst of the cleric. The affected undead get a Will save (DC 10 + cleric level + Charisma modifier) for half damage.

Evil clerics (or any cleric that can swap out spells for inflict spells) instead heal undead within 30 feet for 1d6/cleric level + Charisma modifier. Paladins work just as you would expect, they turn undead as a cleric three levels lower.

House Rule: Undead with turn resistance now treat that ability as damage reduction verses turning damage, at a rate of DR 2.5 per point of turn resistance. Thus, a vampire with turn resistance 4 would essentially have DR 10/– verses turning damage. Turn resistance does not reduce the effects of the healing that evil clerics provide with their turn attempts.

When this ability is used against incorporeal creatures, you do not have to roll a 50% miss chance; turning hits them automatically.

House Rule: Under this variant system, a greater turning works like an empowered spell. After rolling turning damage, multiply the result by 1.5.

House Rule: Some turning feats work differently under this system.

Disciple of the Sun: You may spend two turn attempts in a single round to perform a greater turning.

Exalted Turning: Instead of dealing extra damage, this feat increases the save DC of turn undead by 2, or by 4 on consecrated ground. On hallowed ground the save DC is increased by 6. These increases stack with the sacred bonuses for turning undead on consecrated and hallowed ground (see the individual spell descriptions for more details).

Quicken Turning: This feat works as described on page 84 of Complete Divine, except that it now costs one turn attempt to quicken a turn undead.

Widen Turning: This feat replaces Empower Turning. When you perform a turn undead, you may spend two turn attempts to double your turn undead radius from 30 feet to 60 feet.

The effects of Disciple of the Sun, Quicken Turning, and Widen Turning stack.

 

[kolikeos]

this variant would be very bad for my old character (an evil cleric), he fought lots of bad guys with undead minions and his main weapon was to control the undead minions and turn them against their old masters.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Nicely done, very complete there Force User. All house rules presented should be so complete! The 1d6/level may seem like an awful lot for a cleric to be dealing to udnead but if you keep in mind the 30ft. radius it looks like an excellent limiting factor.

Rather than DR versus turning checks I might suggesta bonus to the save vs turning instead so it will scale better with damage and levels.

 

[JimAde]

Isn't there a feat in Complete Warrior that lets you do something very similar to this? I could be wrong, since I don't have the book here.

Also, I think the save DC might be too high. Isn't a class ability DC usually 10 + 1/2 class level + stat? As you have it, a 10th level cleric will impose a DC 24-ish will save for half damage. Meanwhile the 10th level bard's suggestion DC is only 19-ish.

Very cool, though. It's a nice alternative.

 

[ForceUser]

The save DC is appropriate considering that Will is the strong save of undead. Also, I'm assuming WotC did some playtesting before offering such a variant, so I will trust their judgement unless a glaring error presents itself during play. So far, it seems to be working well. Also, a bard's suggestion works at much longer distances than 30 feet, I'd imagine.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

In some ways, this is similar to the houserule we use for Turning and Rebuking Undead. I've never laid eyes on The Complete Divine, though.

This is from our campaign handbook. It seems to work out quite well for us.

TURNING AND REBUKING UNDEAD

Official rules for Turning and Rebuking Undead can be found in the Player’s Handbook 3.0 Pg 139-140 and Player’s Handbook 3.5 Pg 159-160.

Turning undead is now accomplished in the following manner:

A good or neutral cleric who chooses the ability to channel positive energy now has a Turning DC as part of his character’s abilities. This DC is calculated as 10 + ½ Cleric Level + CHA Bonus. Thus, a 4th Level Cleric with a CHA of 16 would have a Turning DC of 15. To Turn Undead, the creatures must make a Will Saving Throw vs. this DC. Failure results in damage equal to 2d6 + Cleric Level + CHA bonus to all undead within the standard range (60’) as defined by the rules for Turning. Any that survive still flee from the cleric or cower for 1d6 + CHA Bonus rounds. The same rule for coming closer than 10’ still applies; the undead will not attack unless someone comes within that range.

A successful Will Save results in no damage to the undead. It also grants the Undead a cumulative +2 to their Will Saves for each failed attempt in the same encounter.

Evil Clerics and Undead
Evil clerics channel negative energy to rebuke (awe) or command (control) undead rather than channeling positive energy to turn or destroy them. An evil cleric makes the equivalent of a turning check. Undead that would be turned are rebuked instead, and those that would be destroyed are commanded.

The rebuked undead suffer a penalty to attacks, saves, and damage equal to the rebuking cleric’s CHA Bonus. Rebuking is accomplished via the same method as Turning. The effect lasts 1d6 + CHA Bonus rounds

Alternately, an evil or neutral cleric may wish to command the undead. The mechanic for this is the same; if they fail their save they can be commanded by the cleric for 1d6 + CHA Bonus rounds. After which, he must make another turning attempt to keep control over them.

To Dispel Turning, the evil cleric must make a successful turning check with a DC equal to or greater than the turning check made by the good cleric.

Bolstering Undead: An evil or neutral cleric can bolster undead within range by spending one of his daily turning attempts. This gives the recipients of the bolster a bonus on Saving Throws equal to the cleric’s Charisma Bonus for 1d6 + CHA Bonus rounds

The Improved Turning Feat has been replaced with the following version:

IMPROVED TURNING [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Ability to turn or rebuke creatures.
Benefit: You gain +2 on your attempt to Turn an undead creature, and an additional 1d6 points of damage.

The Prayer Spell remains unchanged, except its benefits extend to +1 to a cleric or paladin’s Turn Undead roll and –1 to an undead’s Will Save.

 

[Hjorimir]

Nice work here ForceUser. I may indeed just snatch this for my game as well.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I like it. I think it adds some nice flavor to a campaign. I am not so sure *I* would use it due to my natural hesitation to use house rules (as it opens the door for my players to endlessly request any kind of rule they find on a message board, in the bathroom stall, etc.)

But I think this is the kind of thing that would work out really well.

 

[ForceUser]

It just occured to me that Quicken Turning is an astoundingly good feat for a paladin under this variant. With his high Charisma modifier and thus, more turn attempts, he can wade through his foes by turning and meleeing, turning and meleeing every round.

That's kind of cool. Really helps the paladin shine verse undead when stacked against a fighter.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Also, I'm assuming WotC did some playtesting before offering such a variant, so I will trust their judgement unless a glaring error presents itself during play.

Whoah, whoah, whoah, stop the stage right there. I'm pretty sure the majority of the material found in Unearthed Arcana were taken from 3rd party d20 publishers and other non-D&D d20 WotC sources without any/many changes made to them. All WotC did was package them up nice and neat and sell them. There should be quite a few variants and house rules in there that weren't exactly play-tested to the normal standards most of the other WotC material goes through (i.e. one-Dm's campaign using his house rule).

Everything in UA I take with a large grain of salt and a magnifying glass!