Should an exalted sorcerer be allowed to heal?
- Thread starter ForceUser
- Start date
Onaicul
First Post
I think there's a feat in Complete Divine that might solve your problem. It allows an arcane caster with the same alignment as his deity to cast spells from one of that deity's domains. You just need a wisdom score like a cleric to do it, so it can be a little difficult, but it should be fine for low level cures. This wouldn't work of course if Healing was not one of the sorcerer's domains.
BroccoliRage
First Post
ForceUser said:And thanks for sharing it! That's the point of the thread, after all.
As I said, I think my real bugaboo is that I'm getting tired of watching PCs die in this group. It's hard to run a consistent campaign when the cast of characters is constantly changing.*
*English geek--look at that alliteration!
if that availibility fits your style of play, then by all means! some player groups need coaching, others need a freebie thrown to them occasionally. after all, if hordes of PC's are dying, then the players will become too discouraged to play, lol. ive been dming for 12 years, and its almost like running a cult.
just remember youll want there to be a REAson for this non clergyman to be able to weild the powers of god.alliteration ambiguously accentuates an artist....
ForceUser
Explorer
Yeah--I dunno. In the past I have loathed the idea of having an NPC healer tag along with the party. I think I'll probably just suck it up, watch a few more PCs die, then hope someone rolls a healer. It's interesting to me that people who are non-religious or anti-religious in real life seem to avoid playing religious characters in D&D. Personally, I think that characters of faith make for great roleplaying when played well. As DM, I expect divine spellcasters to be exemplars of faith and spirituality, and I think that as a result in this particular group, players have avoided that role. I suppose there's an argument to be made for being flexible in this regard, but since I run three campaigns in the same homebrew world, I enjoy being consistent in my approach across all three campaigns--the world is how it is, and that's easier for me when planning adventures. The players in the other two games don't have the same aversion to religion, and role-playing in both campaigns is enriched as a result.Jubilee said:What about bringing in an NPC healer? Might be an easier fix than fiddling with the rules..
/ali
Kelleris
Explorer
My inclination would be to institute a "radiation accident."
Hmm... How about this, assuming the whole party is pretty goodish:
The party, en route to some other destination, begins having weird, disorienting (Wisdom damaging) dreams of someone reaching out to them for help - the get glimpses of strange overgrown ruins and sense a peaceful presence somewhere. But as the dream goes on they start to notice lurking shadows at the edge of their vision, a steadily building threat that shatters the peace of the ruins but proves impossible to face. The dream always ends with the menacing shadows eventually blotting out their entire field of vision, and they wake up screaming with a final uncertain glimpse of whatever monster(s) you want to use for this little side quest.
So, slowly losing wisdom (and really wishing they had a cleric) the party eventually gets completely lost, preferably helped along by mysterious fogs, disappearing trails, and half-glimpsed figures standing at a distance. Emerging from the last sinister, sky-blotting fog bank, they see before them the mysterious overgrown ruins of their dream - and they have no idea where they are. Motivated to explore, they head in.
You can either stick a short dungeon in here or present one powerful stalker-type monster (that would be my preference). In any case, the party eventually discovers a badly wounded celestial (or whatever) of some powerful sort at the heart of the mysterious building, who has come here to die and whose weakness has brought a lurking evil that the characters have already faced, and maybe defeated. The psychic struggle between the celestial, who seeks only to return to his god in peace, and the lurking monster, too cowardly to attack head-on but constantly lurking and scenting for weakness, has caused the mysterious dreams, and the PCs have arrived just in time to witness the celestial's passing. (Why the PCs? Maybe a deity chose them as a champion for his loyal servant's final hours, or they just happened to be in the right place at the right time - it'll give you something to develop later if desired.) Having noted their courage, the celestial bequeathes them with a fraction of his power as he returns to the bosom of his god, and there you go.
Give the sorcerer a connection to positive energy that allows him to select healing spells (and maybe just gives him a low-level one), and give everyone else some commensurate benefit (which should be interesting, but not hugely powerful) in place of their normal loot for the adventure.
That way you have a nice irreplicable way to do what you want to do that doesn't steal anyone else's thunder (since the sorcerer is getting this ability in place of a small amount of treasure).
Hmm... How about this, assuming the whole party is pretty goodish:
The party, en route to some other destination, begins having weird, disorienting (Wisdom damaging) dreams of someone reaching out to them for help - the get glimpses of strange overgrown ruins and sense a peaceful presence somewhere. But as the dream goes on they start to notice lurking shadows at the edge of their vision, a steadily building threat that shatters the peace of the ruins but proves impossible to face. The dream always ends with the menacing shadows eventually blotting out their entire field of vision, and they wake up screaming with a final uncertain glimpse of whatever monster(s) you want to use for this little side quest.
So, slowly losing wisdom (and really wishing they had a cleric) the party eventually gets completely lost, preferably helped along by mysterious fogs, disappearing trails, and half-glimpsed figures standing at a distance. Emerging from the last sinister, sky-blotting fog bank, they see before them the mysterious overgrown ruins of their dream - and they have no idea where they are. Motivated to explore, they head in.
You can either stick a short dungeon in here or present one powerful stalker-type monster (that would be my preference). In any case, the party eventually discovers a badly wounded celestial (or whatever) of some powerful sort at the heart of the mysterious building, who has come here to die and whose weakness has brought a lurking evil that the characters have already faced, and maybe defeated. The psychic struggle between the celestial, who seeks only to return to his god in peace, and the lurking monster, too cowardly to attack head-on but constantly lurking and scenting for weakness, has caused the mysterious dreams, and the PCs have arrived just in time to witness the celestial's passing. (Why the PCs? Maybe a deity chose them as a champion for his loyal servant's final hours, or they just happened to be in the right place at the right time - it'll give you something to develop later if desired.) Having noted their courage, the celestial bequeathes them with a fraction of his power as he returns to the bosom of his god, and there you go.
Give the sorcerer a connection to positive energy that allows him to select healing spells (and maybe just gives him a low-level one), and give everyone else some commensurate benefit (which should be interesting, but not hugely powerful) in place of their normal loot for the adventure.
That way you have a nice irreplicable way to do what you want to do that doesn't steal anyone else's thunder (since the sorcerer is getting this ability in place of a small amount of treasure).
Haffrung Helleyes
First Post
sorcerers and healing
I'm one of the players in the group in question. And my PC (a goblin rogue) just got turned to stone by a cockatrice ;-)
I will point out a couple of reasons that I would be reticent to play a cleric in ForceUser's game:
1) all clerics in his game have to have Grace... ie, they're effectively held to the standards of a Paladin, from what I can tell.
1) He has very strong ideas about the nature of Grace, and what's involved in being good, and I don't agree with all of them. I would expect conflict with the DM because of this, and I don't want this.
3) I prefer to play the antihero, rather than the hero. For me, it's more interesting to play Han Solo , who has to think about whether he'll do the right thing, than Luke Skywalker, for whom it comes naturally.
4) As ForceUser noted, I'm an Atheist. My D&D worldview tends to think of Gods as really big spirits, or people who achieved great power, rather than idealized, perfect beings who don't make mistakes. I view gods more in the Greek/Hindu vein (IE, you worship them for favor and power) rather than in the Judeo-Christian vein (you worship them out of devotion). Some of this is influenced by real life conversations; I travel a lot, and I spent an afternoon outside the Kali temple in Kathmandu once asking the worshippers why they worshipped Kali. "For Power", was the general response. In a polytheistic society, where the gods are not uniform in their opinion or will, I would expect this to be normal.
There are a couple of good healer possibilities for someone like me in a game like this. One is the Spirit Shaman, and the other is the Archivist. We already had a spirit shaman, who got killed. I'd consider playing an Archivist, but ForceUser doesn't have Heroes of Horror, and only wants us playing classes from books that he owns.
I would point out one thing -- all of us are having tons of fun. ForceUser is a great DM, and I don't think any of us mind terribly that we are 'levelling in reverse'.
Ken
I'm one of the players in the group in question. And my PC (a goblin rogue) just got turned to stone by a cockatrice ;-)
I will point out a couple of reasons that I would be reticent to play a cleric in ForceUser's game:
1) all clerics in his game have to have Grace... ie, they're effectively held to the standards of a Paladin, from what I can tell.
1) He has very strong ideas about the nature of Grace, and what's involved in being good, and I don't agree with all of them. I would expect conflict with the DM because of this, and I don't want this.
3) I prefer to play the antihero, rather than the hero. For me, it's more interesting to play Han Solo , who has to think about whether he'll do the right thing, than Luke Skywalker, for whom it comes naturally.
4) As ForceUser noted, I'm an Atheist. My D&D worldview tends to think of Gods as really big spirits, or people who achieved great power, rather than idealized, perfect beings who don't make mistakes. I view gods more in the Greek/Hindu vein (IE, you worship them for favor and power) rather than in the Judeo-Christian vein (you worship them out of devotion). Some of this is influenced by real life conversations; I travel a lot, and I spent an afternoon outside the Kali temple in Kathmandu once asking the worshippers why they worshipped Kali. "For Power", was the general response. In a polytheistic society, where the gods are not uniform in their opinion or will, I would expect this to be normal.
There are a couple of good healer possibilities for someone like me in a game like this. One is the Spirit Shaman, and the other is the Archivist. We already had a spirit shaman, who got killed. I'd consider playing an Archivist, but ForceUser doesn't have Heroes of Horror, and only wants us playing classes from books that he owns.
I would point out one thing -- all of us are having tons of fun. ForceUser is a great DM, and I don't think any of us mind terribly that we are 'levelling in reverse'.
Ken
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