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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 1704367" data-attributes="member: 2067">A god certainly doesn't wish people to become dependant on one man, ne? He's serving the community, but nothing says he needs to spiritually drain himself nightly just to serve the community...it's a "feed a man a fish/teach a man to fish" kind of scenario. Yes, I could heal you right now. But then you wouldn't learn your lesson ("do not play with Alchemist's fire!"), or you wouldn't learn how to heal yourself ("I may not be around forever"), or you would come to me every time you needed it, when others may deserve it more. It takes effort to get spells...these aren't free gifts from the gods, these are the reward for a pious supplication. On his "day off", he simply doesn't spend the effort to prepare his spells. Most priests perform mass only once a week, after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> There's a fair chance that the leaders of the community are Evil. If they are, and they have enough friends, you're in a situation where a god of wickedness could rule your daily activities, and you supplicate out of fear, not out of hope. If you DON'T, you die. If you DO, you live. Even if they're not evil, every village has it's witches, it's outcasts, it's wierd mad scientists...if you've only got a cleric or three, it's not hard to imagine that those three serve a god that most of the populous is terrified of.  True, most people will at some point...those two spells are for emergencies like that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But I'd say it's probably much more efficient and exhausting to heal the militia than it is to bother usually with the commoners...which is why a lot of commoners, at some point, join the militia and gain some XP. It's got a health plan, after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> When your neighbors are getting attacked twice a day, your healing spells will probably go for them, not for the clumbsy farmer who walked off the cliff following his flock of lemmings.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  So magic can help against emergencies, but 'survival of the fittest' still applies; but some extremes of chance are reduced. And clerics are people, too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Most nights, at dusk, you either heal those who are near death from the nearest goblin attack, or you preside over their funeral and cast bless on the corpse (no need for goblins AND undead...). You create holy water. You perform a ritual to grant your brother luck (guidance, bless, aid, etc.). You maybe write a scroll if you have enough gold (that's why you're charging for the spell for most folks in the first place, after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />). You don't bother touching the wierd stranger on the corner who stinks of alcohol....at least, most of the time. You instead set up a charity for them, while helping your Sunday Night poker game with a guidance.  Clerics are people, too...there are so many things you could do with those powers, many of them still in your god's interest (if I'm richer after poker, I can make more scrolls!; If my brother has luck in the harvest, the town will be better fed!), without having to have everyone go frolick with lepers before bedtime. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Though I'm sure frolicking with lepers happens before bedtime, too...but on special holidays, or when he's feeling very generous, or when his god's been being reticent about that healing magic recently....I don't imagine in most towns ever really having the problem with "Well, I've got this cure light I haven't used yet today..." Especially not with two attacks each day from monsters, and only two 1d8+2's to go around.</blockquote>

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