no cleric? (my players stay out)

[alsih2o]

so, i am running a tuesday night online game. i have recruited players form these boards and i have been impressed by their character creation and backstories. except....

i specifically sent out a cultural history explaining that this state is run by a theocracy, AND pointed out that they would be headed into the wilds, far from home, where only bad guys roam. and none of them chose to play a cleric.

in review- theocracy, leaving hoem and healing behind, no cleric.

now, i firmly believe that it is the d.m.'s job to make the campaign fit the characters (or at least, in this scenario i am trying to handle ot that way) and am wondering if anyone has any great suggestions for dealing wiht making healing available to the brave men and women leaving for the frontier.

 

[Crothian]

I had a party last year that had no cleric or magical healing as well. So, to help I allowed the Heal skill to do some minor healing and allowed for herbic cures for many things like poison and disease. Magical healing was superior to it in all ways, but it allowed a little healing here and there and made it so they could take care of each other in some way.

 

[EricNoah]

You can have alchemical means -- i would make them less effective than cure wounds spells -- maybe they allow quicker healing via rest, or turn hp damage into subdual damage or something like that.

Also potentially expand the Heal skill to allow direct treatment of wounds (the D20 Modern rule, for example, allows the curing of d4 hp damage but only once per day per recipient).

Also you could decide to make certain kinds of attacks less lethal. Maybe cold and sonic always do subdual damage; maybe a fall of 10' is always subdual damage. Maybe attacks from blunt weapons the same size or smaller than the target deal subdual damage.

 

[Gothmog]

Well, if some of them have wilderness type skills and/or Knowledge:Herbalism, maybe you could allow for them to scavenge herb or other natural/quasi-magical remedies for wounds. I have used a system similar to this for a few years, and it works pretty well. The herbs shouldn't heal a lot at a time (maybe 1d4 or 1d6 hp), and there should be a limit to how many times per day the herb can be used before it becomes toxic, but it does add a whole new dimension to the game.

Examples:

Yarash- an herb that when applied to a wound, heals 2d6 hp overnight (8 hour rest period). Limit to 2 poultices per day.

Simarl- boiled sap that when applied to a wound, heals 1d4 hp immediately. Only usable once per wound.

Hulath- crushed fungla spores boiled in water that when applied to a wound, stop 1d4 points of bleeding in 1 minute.

I'm sure you get the idea- you can make up endless varieties of herbal remedies for wounds, curing illnesses, reducing allergies, enhancing low-light vision, etc.

 

[barsoomcore]

Here's what I did for Barsoom, a world that doesn't have any clerics:

I gave them a magic item. A marble skull that can be used as a drinking cup. A person can drink from it and gain the effects of a cure light wounds spell once per day per person. Holding it firmly up in the face of undead acts as a turn attempt by a cleric of level equal to whoever's holding it -- once per day.

It gets more powerful as time goes on. Now it enables the spells dead man's eyes, find corpse and drinking from it performs a cure critical wounds. They've had to go on a couple of quests to increase the power of the skull and it's one of their treasured items (the party, of 11th level, has... counting the skull... four magic items).

There's a whole story as to whose skull it actually is, and it's been central to a variety of plots and schemes throughout the campaign, but essentially it serves as a cleric replacement.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Good suggestions above.

Also, remind the characters to play paranoid!!!

Don't slap them with much ability damage or undead.

Perhaps humanoids on the frontier deal mostly subdual damage - hoping to get a few new slaves or something.

If the Theocracy sent them on the mission, they might have supplied them with a wand of CLW (assuming you have a rogue with Use Magic Device who can use it) or a few boxes of healing potions.

 

[LostSoul]

Treat all damage (except maybe the last few Hit Points) as subdual damage. That means they'll heal at 1 per level per hour.

In my homebrew world, the PCs only take subdual damage until they get down to their last Hit Points (that threshold is Con + Con Mod). After that, they must heal normally. If they're down below the subdual threshold, they have to heal those hit points first (so that they're back up to at least Con + Con Mod) before they can begin healing the subdual damage.

Sometimes, on a critical hit or something, I'll give them a real point of damage - that means that they aren't going to heal back their subdual points until they've taken care of that nasty cut.

I've also let the Wizard take Goodberry as a second-level spell.

All these changes have great flavour.

 

[Enkhidu]

The subdual idea is a good one, but I suggest looking at WP/VP instead. Check out the SW d20 game for some specifics.

 

[diaglo]

sounds like no one wanted to be part of the establishment. down with the man and all that...

so no druid, no bard, no ranger, or no paladin either?

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Well in my group when I am running I almost never get a Cleric in the group if I am lucky some one might play a bard. I tend to have healing poultices, and such available to the party not too many and usually expensive, I've also modified the healing rate of the game for down time to include the character con bonus. Since my games always start out low level and such it works fine for the beginning, then I just tend to keep them cash poor as they are always having to buy their healing. They don't; seem to mind
ken