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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khaalis" data-source="post: 5847891" data-attributes="member: 2167">Turning Undead is a classic part of D&D, so it must exist in some form. However, there are a number of ways it could do so. Thus the most dominant question that comes to the fore for the designers will be:* Do all clerics have the ability to Turn Undead (regardless of their patron deity)?The answer will likely be Yes, for the Core Cleric. From what we have seen so far, it looks like the cleric will remain being the classic D&D cleric it has always been, which will include the ability to turn undead.  Considering the literary and film sources of turning undead, this makes sense, since in most sources, ANY holy object presented by someone with Faith will effect undead, whether it be a Cross, a Star of David, a Bible, a Shaman's Totem necklace, a Holy Relic, etc. In these sources is found the source for the "Cone" area of effect as well. The presenter of the holy item must present the holy object in the general direction of the undead to be effected. What people seem to want for a radius area of effect would fall more into a spell or ritual effect of Consecration.As to the topic of different deities caring differently about undead, I don't personally think this should matter for clerics by deity choice, but only by alignment. Clerics are basically holy warriors of the church, and no "good" deity likes undead. So it should be fine for all good clerics to Turn Undead.  However, WotC has also mentioned the existence of a Priest class, which many feel will be more of a 2E style Specialty Priest. If so, then this is the class that should NOT get Turn Undead as a default ability, as the class's abilities should be based more upon the deity's spheres of control.As to the mechanic Mike mentions in the article, I think it is a good mechanical solution to Turn Undead.  It is clean, simple and allows for a lot of variation and customization.* For the Player: Roll a CHA ability check, with a bonus applied by Cleric level vs. a DC.* For the DM: Check the player's result vs. the DC in the monster stat block, apply the result.To this you could add all sorts of flavorful and numeric alterations. For instance:* A cleric of a Death deity may gain a +4 bonus to all Turn Undead attempts.* A Vampire may list something like "If the cleric that succeeds a Turn Attempt against the vampire is of a deity with the Sun domain, the Vampire also suffers 1d6 fire damage per X levels of the cleric."* There could be feats that allow the cleric to specialize in Turning, increasing their turning range, bonuses to their turning roll, special effects when they turn, etc.Overall, I think Mike might be onto a decent idea for the Turning mechanic.</blockquote>

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