D&D 4E Poll: Turning Undead in 4E...how should it work?

How would you like to see Turning Undead work in 4E?


  • Poll closed .

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I'd rather 4e clerics didn't cast spells at all---but rather had a suite of divine supernatural abilities tied to talent trees.

Turning or damaging undead would be one of those talent trees.
 

Wormwood said:
I'd rather 4e clerics didn't cast spells at all---but rather had a suite of divine supernatural abilities tied to talent trees.

Turning or damaging undead would be one of those talent trees.
Understood...but when that ability is used (whether it be from a class feature, a feat, or a talent tree), how would you like it to work?

I am a fan of the "positive energy burst" option in Complete Divine. It needed to have a lot more work done on it (like what to do when evil clerics use it, or the Greater Turning attempts, and so on), but it tested out okay at my table. I'd like to see it again in 4E.
 

To me, turning undead has always been a contest between cleric level and undead HD (even if the 1e-2e version was table based, it was still a progression of cleric level vs. undead HD).

A simpler formula that doesn't require a table lookup would be nice (you can still turn the 3e version into a formula, but it's kind of hokey).
 

CleverNickName said:
Understood...but when that ability is used (whether it be from a class feature, a feat, or a talent tree), how would you like it to work?

Divine damage that scales with cleric level seems simplest. Perhaps a damaging aura which surrounds the cleric.

Anything is better than the current 'turning check', which is an unwieldy kludge grafted to the 3e system.
 

Wormwood said:
I'd rather 4e clerics didn't cast spells at all---but rather had a suite of divine supernatural abilities tied to talent trees.

Turning or damaging undead would be one of those talent trees.
Oh, man, I wish. Spell-casting priests always seemed like a really weird thing to me. I'd really love to see a completely different mechanic used for Clerical miracle-working.

However, if they're gonna cast spells (and they almost definitely will), Turn Undead ought to be just another spell. Never saw any reason why Clerics have two completely separate pools of exhaustible "per day" powers.

As for what mechanics it uses, I think something that slows, weakens, and/or damages the undead is a lot more tactically interesting and flavor-appropriate than something that makes them run away.
 

I went for sacred burst, but I also want extra effects that can be saved against (like causing fear or draining ability scores of undead, etc.)
 

First off, "Turning" should just be an option the cleric can choose when using their Divine Power or whatever you want to call it. Basically, instead of using Turning attempts to use all of those [Divine] Feats, they should just get a Divine Power ability used X times per day/encounter or whatever and use that ability to fuel things like Turn Undead.

Turn Undead itself should be some kind of ability tree or be divided into different abilities. Some clerics should have command over undead, others outsiders, others fey, etc. These powers should come in a variety as defined by the tree. So, the cleric can take a debuff option (where the debuff is more powerful depending on their roll) with varying effects so that it isn't all or nothing. So on the low end, maybe the undead are dazed for one round or suffer -1 to hit or something, then on the high end destroyed.

That way it isn't all or nothing, and you can have alternate trees that deal damage or that buff allies (say - to get through undead DR) or do a myriad of other things.

If 4e hadn't been announced, this is what I was going to do in my next campaign.
 



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