Help with Ease of gameplay

[Tim Hubick]

Currently I am a DM, and currently we have 3 players playing 1 char each. we have a small city and its hard to find people to play a forth char. so i took up the job of playing a char as well too. naturally the players didnt want to play a cleric so i took up that role.

I know sometimes its kinda frowned upon a DM to play a char as well. but its kind of a desperate circumstance. Anyways, regardless of the situation, its kinda hard to play a cleric with all the spells i have access to.

My Q is, since i have a huge paper trail for my char. is there something i can use to group up all my info for my cleric onto a software/digital program on pc? I would love to use something that'll make it easy to look up spells, abilities, skill checks and so on.

any help is MUCH appreciated!

thank you all!

 

[MoonSong]

Sorry on the gathering info part, I cannot help you too much in that regard. But I have a suggestion for you, how about using a Healer instead of cleric (Healer can be found on Miniatures Handbook)? Healers are infamous for being undepowered, but they are very simple to use. Another option could be a Favored Soul, which would only have a few spells known and cast like a sorcerer. Both beat the cleric in ease of play, the first one because prepares from a very small list of spells, and the later because only brings few spells to the list and all you have to track is the number of spells cast. Since you don't want to take too much of the spotlight both could work fine. (Another option could be the bard for many of the same reasons)

 

[Celebrim]

Currently I am a DM, and currently we have 3 players playing 1 char each. we have a small city and its hard to find people to play a forth char. so i took up the job of playing a char as well too. naturally the players didnt want to play a cleric so i took up that role.

I know sometimes its kinda frowned upon a DM to play a char as well. but its kind of a desperate circumstance. Anyways, regardless of the situation, its kinda hard to play a cleric with all the spells i have access to.

Unless you are playing a published module, it's generally not necessary to have 4 characters in party. Small parties are fun.

It might well ease your gameplay to give up the DM PC. This will let you spend more time on each player's individual interests, and solves some problems of separating what you know. Having NPC's solve problems is never the best idea.

As a matter of simplicity of gameplay and balance, it's better IMO if clerics have a restricted spell list, similar to sorcerers. The open spell list for clerics made some sense (though not a lot) when the only spells available were those in the Player's Handbook. As that list expanded, automatically knowing every spell became problematic for a lot of reasons. As an NPC, there is no reason to insist that the cleric knows every spell anyway. Alternately, I support prior suggestions to play a different class.

As far as keeping track of PC's, there are a number of good Excel spreadsheets out there that are available for free. I've been using mine for so long I don't remember where I got it.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

KaiiLurker has a couple of good suggestions. Here are a couple more, if you want to make things really simple:

1. Add the cure spells to all spell lists at whatever levels you think appropriate. The players won't be healing much during combat, but it means that the wizard or whoever can heal everyone afterward with the ol' Wand of CLW. (And contrary to popular belief, this will not make arcane casters ZOMG OP!!! Er, well, no more than they already are, anyway.)

2. Play a cleric, healer, favored soul, or whatever who can only heal. That way literally all you have to track is spell slots. Hey, rules are for players right?

 

[Tim Hubick]

Thanx for the heads up, but the cleric is well into the campaign and seeing that we're doing the "Age of Worms" Campaign, it does have undead in it and my cleric is very helpful for the party

 

[jasper]

Give the basic character sheet to players and let the group play the DMPC. With you having over rider power. I did this my group, and generally they would tailor the spell list with what they thought they needed. And after one or two over rides they knew I would not allow them to kill off the DMPC.

 

[the Jester]

Give the basic character sheet to players and let the group play the DMPC. With you having over rider power. I did this my group, and generally they would tailor the spell list with what they thought they needed.

I absolutely agree here!

And after one or two over rides they knew I would not allow them to kill off the DMPC.

...and absolutely disagree here.

If they kill off the cleric, ehh, they'll be fine without one. Just adjust your game to suit. I really don't believe in giving anyone, pc or npc, plot immunity. Then again, that's a matter of playstyle, so YMMV, and Jasper certainly isn't doing it wrong; he's just doing it different than I do.

 

[Celebrim]

Thanx for the heads up, but the cleric is well into the campaign and seeing that we're doing the "Age of Worms" Campaign, it does have undead in it and my cleric is very helpful for the party

Yes, this does tie your hands considerably. Age of Worms has basically nothing for rogues to do, and all but requires a cleric.

Rebalancing Age of Worms for a party of 3 is sadly probably more trouble than it is worth, because many of the fights are with large solo bosses.

So yeah, you are screwed. That said, make them run the cleric. So long as they don't send the cleric out as a sacrificial lamb, you don't need to intervene.

 

[Tim Hubick]

hahahaha alright. i'll see what i can do! thank you all for the very quick input! cheers

 

[delericho]

Currently I am a DM, and currently we have 3 players playing 1 char each. we have a small city and its hard to find people to play a forth char. so i took up the job of playing a char as well too. naturally the players didnt want to play a cleric so i took up that role.

I know sometimes its kinda frowned upon a DM to play a char as well. but its kind of a desperate circumstance. Anyways, regardless of the situation, its kinda hard to play a cleric with all the spells i have access to.

My big recommendation is to ignore any question of playing the Cleric 'well'. Bear in mind that if the players wanted a Cleric PC operating at full effectiveness, one of them could (and should) have selected the class. So, they need a body to fill that healer slot, but not much more than that.

So, I would recommend picking a standard load-out of spells for the Cleric - stick to PHB spells only, stick to 'easy' buff spells, and don't be afraid to prepare cure spells (yes, an optimised Good PC Cleric would never prepare those, because they'd spontaneously cast them, but you're not running that character, so...)

In combat, stay at the back unless Turn Undead is called for. Cast the occasional spell, but otherwise don't get involved. Basically, have the Cleric fade into the background unless specifically called upon.