If I eliminated the cleric class....
- Thread starter Buttercup
- Start date
It used to be (in 1e and 2e) that if you lost contact with your god, you could still cast your spells of 1st and 2nd level; you only lost replacement spells of levels above that. (I think this mechanic first appeared in the Q1 module where you fight Lolth in the Demon Web).
So if your party will be low levels, you could stick with this concept. There can be a cleric in the group, but they will never be able to get any spells above 2nd level while in a world outside their god's reach. This could actually be pretty cool. They might accept this and continue taking Cleric levels anyway, using higher level spell slots for lower level spells (and maybe using metamagic feats a lot). They could switch to some other class after gaining 4 levels of cleric, thus never getting any spell slots above 2nd level. They could even try to recreate their religion on this new world, proselytizing and recruiting worshippers, in hopes of creating a large enough "critical mass" of worshippers to get their god's attention and regain their link to their god.
So if your party will be low levels, you could stick with this concept. There can be a cleric in the group, but they will never be able to get any spells above 2nd level while in a world outside their god's reach. This could actually be pretty cool. They might accept this and continue taking Cleric levels anyway, using higher level spell slots for lower level spells (and maybe using metamagic feats a lot). They could switch to some other class after gaining 4 levels of cleric, thus never getting any spell slots above 2nd level. They could even try to recreate their religion on this new world, proselytizing and recruiting worshippers, in hopes of creating a large enough "critical mass" of worshippers to get their god's attention and regain their link to their god.
Striderman
First Post
If you are still allowing bards in the game, then you can strongly stress that one of the players becomes a bard. They are arcane spellcasters that can learn cure spells and they are spontaneous casters for all their spells, like sorcerers are. They are just slower about getting the cure spells and get fewer of them. That way, you still have healing, you don't have gods to worry about (not that that would really be a problem, unless that portal you are putting them through takes them to a whole different cosmology with different gods rather than somewhere else in the same system of planes), and undead are still tougher.
Ahah!!
Well, i have some experience with this, seeing as how in my homebrew, there are no gods and no clerics.
Druids, Bards, and Paladins take their place for healing. As it turns out, it doesn't really suffer for it.
Not allowing Druids does make it worse, but not so bad. Bards cast spontaneously, so they don't have to study only healing. They just have to pick a healing spell up here and there.
Undead Turning is used by Paladins or not at all. It doesn't make the undead more powerful, but it does add a small consideration when dealing with such creatures.
I wouldn't allow the "arcane" casters healing magics. In my setting, Bardic magic isn't really arcane, so it keeps a line drawn between the spell casting classes.
Well, i have some experience with this, seeing as how in my homebrew, there are no gods and no clerics.
Druids, Bards, and Paladins take their place for healing. As it turns out, it doesn't really suffer for it.
Not allowing Druids does make it worse, but not so bad. Bards cast spontaneously, so they don't have to study only healing. They just have to pick a healing spell up here and there.
Undead Turning is used by Paladins or not at all. It doesn't make the undead more powerful, but it does add a small consideration when dealing with such creatures.
I wouldn't allow the "arcane" casters healing magics. In my setting, Bardic magic isn't really arcane, so it keeps a line drawn between the spell casting classes.
Hedgemage
First Post
In MotW there's the Faster Healing feat, which in conjunction with someone with the Heal skill will allow people to heal faster when resting or even when not resting.
Another thing you could do to speed up natural healing would be to add a person's Con modifier to the amount of HP they regain in a day. At higher levels, it doesn't affect too much, but at lower levels it helps a lot.
Also, you could also include a +3 bonus to hit points regained per day of rest if someone has the Toughness feat. This makes a relatively useless feat much more valuable if there's no clerics around.
Another thing you could do to speed up natural healing would be to add a person's Con modifier to the amount of HP they regain in a day. At higher levels, it doesn't affect too much, but at lower levels it helps a lot.
Also, you could also include a +3 bonus to hit points regained per day of rest if someone has the Toughness feat. This makes a relatively useless feat much more valuable if there's no clerics around.
Vocenoctum
First Post
Create a purely alchemical way to make cure potions, without a spellcaster being involved.
I'd assume raise dead is no longer an option though? (Except wish)
I'd assume raise dead is no longer an option though? (Except wish)
Dark Helmet
First Post
If you don't want to allow wizards the ability to cast cure wounds spells, let them create a spell that temporarily bestows a troll's regeneration ability on a person. The limitation on this is the spell has to be cast on the person before he's injured in combat, so he runs the risk of not suffering enough damage to make the spell worthwhile.
Buttercup
Princess of Florin
Vocenoctum said:
I like the idea of just using alchemical potions. Someone else suggested that the ingredients be common plants. This sounds like just what I need.
As for raise dead, I'm not so fond of it anyway. I think dead should be a permanent condition. It makes the stakes for heedlessness as high as they should be.
Deadguy
First Post
Get Rid of Gods while You're At It!
I'll float one approach that I have adopted for my own Shattered World campaign. I too got rid of clerics (and druids), not because of any planar considerations, but because I was very tired of campiagns where characters bounced around as pawns of the Gods. Instead there are Theurges who wield many (though not identical) powers of the Cleric and Druid classes. But the basis of power for Theurges is their passionate belief in various ideologies, the Principles, for example Power or Degeneration or Questing. The advantage is that there are no divine beings to adjudge the 'worth' of the organisations that spring up around these Principles, so no being can adjudge what they are supposed to do. That way the politics and actions of the organisations is a function of human will, pride or any other drive!
Though they do similar things, Theurges don't share an identical feel to Clerics. They are far more impassioned than most Clerics are ever portrayed, and they relate much more closely with the interests of their fellow men than it seems the 'gods-squadders' do.
Just a different way of looking at things if you want to remove the role of the Gods...
I'll float one approach that I have adopted for my own Shattered World campaign. I too got rid of clerics (and druids), not because of any planar considerations, but because I was very tired of campiagns where characters bounced around as pawns of the Gods. Instead there are Theurges who wield many (though not identical) powers of the Cleric and Druid classes. But the basis of power for Theurges is their passionate belief in various ideologies, the Principles, for example Power or Degeneration or Questing. The advantage is that there are no divine beings to adjudge the 'worth' of the organisations that spring up around these Principles, so no being can adjudge what they are supposed to do. That way the politics and actions of the organisations is a function of human will, pride or any other drive!
Though they do similar things, Theurges don't share an identical feel to Clerics. They are far more impassioned than most Clerics are ever portrayed, and they relate much more closely with the interests of their fellow men than it seems the 'gods-squadders' do.
Just a different way of looking at things if you want to remove the role of the Gods...
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