Jonathan Tweet On His Variant Cleric

[TerraDave]

It was a 3ed cleric, but he house ruled it to make it more like 4ed...instead of more complicated per day spells, he got this other stuff instead....the per encounter sheild is clasic "what is wrong with 3ed and how 4thed fixed it".

And yes, it is probably an intentional subtext (JoT is pretty crafty).

Take his skill post here:

http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=38402&pagemode=2&blogid=2076

He is saying how it is better to have more skills in play. In 4th ed, it is easier to make use of skills untrained, thanks to everyone getting a level based bonus (and skills are broader and probably a little more user friendly).

I have put the text of both posts below for the many people that gleemax does not like.

When the party concluded the first major story arc, defeated the Ogre King, and hit 11th level, the DM said that we should all take our 11th level in some special class, not just our same old base class. Rather than taking a level in a new class, I negotiated with the DM just to customize my character’s new powers. I’m playing a cleric, and I took the opportunity to stop gaining new spell levels. I already had more spells than I care to prep, and higher-level spells just get bigger and swingier.

The deal is basically this:

For spells up to 5th level, I progress normally. I get more of them, and my caster level goes up. I never get spells above 5th. To replace these spells, I get a new, custom ability at each level. I negotiate each ability with the DM, using the spells I’m giving up as a touchstone for setting power level.

At 11th level, I got “wreck touch,” the ability to deal big damage with a touch attack 3 times per day. Not very exciting, but it fits the character, and it’s better than having to get my head around 6th level spells. Given how much damage the party deals, especially now that the barbarian is a frenzied berserker, this ability is something of a loss. Maybe I’ll renegotiate it.

At 12th level, I picked up a swift-action ability. The problem with the “wreck touch” is that I’m too busy healing allies to use it. So the 12th-level ability takes effect when I heal a party member. For lots of levels, I’ve had a special magic shield with the blinding ability, but, again, I hardly use it. It takes a standard action to activate, and the DC is low. So for the 12th level ability, I have the ability to use the shield’s blinding power at a higher DC, as a swift action. It’s nice to make the shield part of the character concept. All my spells are per-day, so I arranged for this ability to be once per encounter. I’ve thought for a good long time that per-encounter abilities are in general better than per-day abilities, especially if they’re situational (and you don’t just use the same ability on the first round of every encounter). The psionic abilities that you pay for by expending your psionic focus were an early implementation of the per-encounter philosophy.

Coinciding with hitting 11th level, my cleric has given up relying on his previous deity and now channels the heroic power of our party. Weird, I know. It makes some sort of sense considering this cleric’s personal spiritual history and the setting’s unique background

Another rule that a DM of mine picked up from his DM is that characters get 3 extra skill points per level. The reasoning is simple: skillful PCs are a DM’s friend. DMs want PCs figuring things out, climbing to weird places, picking up important clues, and generally mixing it up with more than swords and spells. This change can’t help but shift the power balance slightly in favor of classes that normally don’t have lots of skills. That’s too bad, as the low-skill wizard and cleric are pretty powerful already, and the rogue could use some help. But maybe the rule provides enough benefits to outweigh the shift in power balance. I’m not complaining.

 

[TerraDave]

He just updated it

Once per encounter, the first time I'm attacked and damaged, if the attacker is adjacent to me, I deal it double my level in damage (Will half, DC 14+1/2 level).

This is my cleric's (newly reconfigured) 11th-level ability (replacing 6th level spells slots normally gained at 11th). It's better than the old "wreck touch" because it's per-encounter and immediate. It's not a lot of damage, but it's "free."

Here:

http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=39756&pagemode=2&blogid=2076