Priestly hierarchies not of clerics

[Agback]

I have seen nothing in the book that says the DM can not have these priest cast a spell once in while. So you can have Bishop William traveling through New England and once twice a month his god granting him Hallow with the god not caring if dear William can turn undead.

The other thing you haven't seen in any book is any sort of guidance about how much the NPCs can rely on these rule-zero types and how often they have to turn to real [eg. PC] clerics, nor on how much support PCs can hope for from NPCs.

RPG rules aren't just for using. They are also an important means for communicating to character-players what the game world is like, for giving the players some sort of idea of what their characters know and expect.

Suppose, for example, that routine burial ceremonies include spells that prevent the corpse from being returned as undead. Then smart players facing an undead threat will know that they should look for someone who was buried without 'benefit of clergy', or a missing person. But if they know that burial rites are not like that, then they might do well to look for signs of grave-robbery.

The rules of a fantasy game are not just resolution procedures. They are also background material, with an important role in informing the players. Therefore it is quite important for the GM to make them explicit to the players, and for setting-designers to make them explicit to customers.

What NPCs can do is an important piece of information for people trying to work out what they will do.

There are a lot of approaches to solving this problem. You owe it to your players to tell them which one (or combination) you have taken.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Blue Sky]

IMC, clerics (and paladins) very rarely are the ones at the temple, healing and preaching to the common masses, leaving that job to adepts and experts.

The reason for this is that (IMHO) a god isn't going to give a mortal the power to raise the dead, summon planar allies, and call the very elements to destroy his enemies, and then expect that mortal to sit and count how much gold the church recieved in the donation plate that week. These mortals that the gods so empower, are there to act as the gods' hands in the world of men.

IMC, the cleric of Pelor was given his turning ability so that he could go out and destroy undead. If he's not going to do anything that requires Pelor's attention (spells), then Pelor is going to give his attention to another, one who <I>is</I> going to need that power to further Pelor's aims (in this instance, ridding the world of undead). Also, I consider most clerics to be fanatics to those without such levels of faith, so a cleric of Tyr, for example, is going to be serving justice, through means of the city watch, as a bounty hunter, etc., and not just preaching it.

Of course, very few gods have large, grand temples in the traditional sense, as any organization that would build a "place for communal worship" is going to dedicate such place to whatever their god stands for (a library for Oghma (sp?), a festhall for Olidamarra, etc.). I just can't see anyone sitting through a two hour sermon on having a good, joyful time, ya' know?

~Sky

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Agback,
You might want to check out the Greenbond that Monte Cook just released, with a little flavor adjustment to shift the magical attention from nature more towards the divine that would make a perfect non-front line priest.