Turning Undead is Counter-Productive

[Tequila Sunrise]

If I were a cleric, I'd never turn undead. If I am a dutiful good cleric and wish to scour these abominations from the face of the earth, I'd just smash them to bits. Here's why:

1. Unless I have twice as many levels as the undead I'm turning (haha, yeah right!), I can't actually destroy them. Oh wait, if I'm the Sun domain I can destroy them 1/day (great! now what about all those other undead?).
2. So other than these two situations, I can only a) make the undead cower while my companions take cheap shots (real fun for me, and real dramatic for them...not) or b) I can watch them run away. But wait, I can't let them run away; that's like saying "Oh I don't feel like dealing with this problem right now, I'll leave it for someone else." Seeing as how very few of my fellow humanoids can stand up to an undead, this situation only provides said undead with weaker victims elsewhere. Or maybe I'll just end up running into said undead again later...gee I'm such a pious and wise soldier of the Light.

Discuss. (I'm not looking for alternatives, I know and love the turning variant from Complete Divine.)

 

[ephemeron]

The undead are a lot easier to smash when they're not trying to fight back.

 

[shilsen]

If I were a cleric, I'd never turn undead. If I am a dutiful good cleric and wish to scour these abominations from the face of the earth, I'd just smash them to bits.

...

2. So other than these two situations, I can only a) make the undead cower while my companions take cheap shots (real fun for me, and real dramatic for them...not)

If you're a "dutiful good cleric and wish to scour these abominations from the face of the earth," why would you be concerned about silly things like whether it's "real fun" for you or if it's "real dramatic" for your companions to defeat cowering undead? You should be focusing on destroying the undead as quickly and effectively as possible. If that involves turning, then you turn. If it involves not turning, then you don't. Simple.

 

[Particle_Man]

Plus if there are a lot of them, and you can turn some of them, allowing your party to deal with the remainder and then heal up, this allows your party to deal with the other part later.

Divide and Conquer.

(The down side is that your buffs durations might run out, so you have to be tactical)

 

[2WS-Steve]

Along the lines of what PM said -- fighting 4 ogres at once is a lot tougher than fighting 4 ogres one at a time.

For undead, if you're facing 4 ghouls and one necromancer, by turning the ghouls you can level your whole firepower against the spellcaster, dispatch him in the first few rounds, then take on the ghouls without having to worry about rays of enfeeblement raining down on your fighters.

 

[Psion]

After being trounced by contagious zombies in Maiden Voyage, I certainly see the advantage of turning. If you can turn half of a pack of dangeous undead, you can make the difference between you dying and being able to manage them.

 

[Aus_Snow]

If I were a cleric, I'd never turn undead. If I am a dutiful good cleric and wish to scour these abominations from the face of the earth, I'd just smash them to bits. (. . .)

I agree completely. I also use the Complete Divine variant, and Divine Feats.

There isn't anything else I have to add, really. Standard turning (for Good Clerics, and Paladins) seems the wrong way of approaching things to me, too.

 

[phindar]

Any time you have a chance to control your opponent's movement, its a good thing. Low-level undead, the kind that blow up when you turn them, are usually walking barriers anyway. Higher level undead, particularly the ones with the Level and Con Drain, you kinda want to fight one at a time.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

You might consider using the varient turning does damage rules from Complete Divine...

 

[Nikroecyst]

I despise clerics for thier willingness to submitt to an authority figure who would only protect his flock by granting a cruddy turning ability and a handfull of lame spells. Don't even get me started on the cleric's granted domain powers . . . .

Despite this I am currently playing a Gnome Cleric in Ptolus. I guess I figured if I was going to hate them soo much I at least better be sure of why. Rebuke has a more attractive draw for me, but soo few gods offer rebuke to "Heros". Or rather too few DMs allow Neutral Necromancer PCs.

In light of my post, you probly know where I stand on the issue of "Turning Undead".