NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OneRedRook" data-source="post: 8751264" data-attributes="member: 35028">For this sort of stuff, where a character tries something they don't have the right mechanical build for (wrong class, missing feat, etc), my preference is to put at least part of the cost into the action economy rather than denying it outright. This isn't absolute - I'm not saying I'll let the barbarian cast Time Stop - but I lean towards letting them try something rather than not.In this case, taking 2 rounds before the prayer can take effect feels like denial-by-bureaucracy, so it's one action for the prayer, after which the petitioner suffers the restrained condition until the end of their next turn (flavour how you will - mental anguish, struck by divine providence, etc; I'm open to horse-trading on the condition, but it has to last at least one more turn).Ultimately this feels like it involves spending hit dice. I kind of want to let the petitioner stake as many hit dice as they want, but I should probably limit this per new 5e-style to a number of HD equal to their proficiency bonus.Healing a hurt - The petitioner spends their HD and rolls a Religion check DC 18. On success, the target can spend as many of their own HD as the petitioner spent (but no more than they have currently) and rolls them to regain hit points up to their maximum. On a failure, the target spends no HD, and the petitioner suffers 1 level of exhaustion.Staving off death - The petitioner spends their HD and rolls a Religion check DC23. Success is as above. On a failure, no hit points can be regained and the petitioner loses access to those HD until they next level up. I know technically 'dying' starts when a character hits 0 HP, but realistically I'm not invoking this until there's at least one failed death save on the table.If the petitioner wants to offer a sacrifice as part of their prayer (wealth, or maybe a minor quest), that would translate to a bonus on the Religion roll. They're only on the hook if they succeed, though. All that said, "I'll promise you anything!" doesn't count, the gods want (juicy!) details.The DCs will actually depend on the CR/Level of the target (in part representing the importance of that character to godly plans, fate, etc), but the ones above will hold for the most common levels 5e is played at.It's possible that either the petitioner or the target (or both!) don't have enough hit dice to spend, in which case I'd offer the possibility that whoever was 'short' would be under some sort of holy ban until they had completed a yet-to-be-determined quest. If they accept, then we roll as above, if they don't then they can't.Lastly, I know I'm essentially 'double-dipping' on hit dice spend above. I'm not sure how I feel about that; I might remove that requirement from the petitioner. In part, I'm trying to consider not just the fighter's case, but a cleric who's run out of spell slots, or a wizard who still has most of their HD, etc.Edit: Having thought about this some more, it's clear I over-thought this. Most of the hit dice stuff is too much, it should just be: success means "target spends one HD for hit points" and failure means "petitioner spends one HD without effect" in each case</blockquote>

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