Hack & Slash's S&S Manifesto (Part III)

Part I and II, motivated by this post on Hack & Slash.

With our Warriors (and maybe even Rogues) properly “energized” and our Arcane caster duly ostracized, it is time to deal with the true black sheep of Sword & Sorcery RPGs: Clerics or divine spellcasters in general.  That is, if you want to use divine spellcasters in the first place, because many believe that they just don’t work with S&S. If you think so, then maybe this post may be of help (here and here). Otherwise, in the spirit of -C’s manifesto, I’ve some ideas for our devout casters.

Pulp S&S Religion!

You’re playing a follower of Otherworldly Entities, Ancient Powers, Primordial Ones. You’re a heathen, a pagan, an unorthodox priest, a true initiated, a mystic. Within this proposal, most “priests” and their respective “official” religions in the campaign setting should be controlled by lay members and hollow rituals. You however do the real stuff. You commune with the cosmos’ true rulers and they’re hard, vain and demanding (even the good ones, actually especially the good ones). True Powers are strange, terrifying and too unpractical to be followed by the normal peasants, merchants or princes. Most people prefer “tamed” religions (i.e. false ones).

You are then an initiated, a “shaman” deep in the rituals, mysteries and trances used to align oneself with an Otherworldly Power and his inhuman servants. This doesn’t mean necessarily Cthulhu-stuff. Far from it. Go read the Old Testament. Even angels (the epitome of Law and Good) can be scary and alien. You don’t even want me to get started on the Chaos side of things.

You’re not a Medieval Cleric, you’re a Priest of Mitra (or Set)

As I said, Gods are all about power, vanity, ritual and unfathomable ends. What your Cleric or Paladin thinks/believes in his conscience doesn’t matter, what matters is how he behaves and does things. Forget Monotheism’s (or Buddhist’s etc.) “inner” morality and picture a Roman/Greek/Ancient World mindset on your priesthoods. Ritual is more important than conscience. Yes, that means you can play a Paladin that is a complete bastard, but good luck on trying to cheat your Patron and poor soul if He/She/It finds out.

Clerics, Paladins and other divine-granted spellcasters MUST wear their sacred vestments, use holy symbols in a proper manner and employ weapons/paraphernalia/symbols/colors dedicated to their Patrons. There is no such thing as a “disguised” Cleric or one casting spells in “civilian” clothes or without his “symbols of office”. Appearances – it must be stressed – matters, intentions do not. And forget that idea that “true faith conquers all”. Balderash! However, that doesn’t mean that anyone can be a divine spellcaster: the “tools” (vestments, symbols etc.) are just a part of it; knowledge and initiation are required.

Rituals and taboos are then of utmost importance. They must be either weird or demanding on the priest. If your Patron’s symbol is something as simple as a sword and his sacred color is red, you better respect swords and red things. Expect dire curses if you so much as break a common sword (even from enemy’s sword) or kill a red creature (red dragons will give you a real headaches… and I hope your Gamemaster’s hobgoblins aren’t red skinned).

Gods don’t reward success, they punish (merciless) failure

Be an ass when roleplaying a Cleric’s Patron. Send dreams with annoying demands and fanatical quests. Do it regularly. Do not think logical or reasonably. Think by symbols and associations, not ends. Forget logic.

If the Cleric (Paladin, Druid whatever) screw things up, don’t remove his class features at once – remove a few key spells (whose absence will hurt him most), curse him, make greater demands, send an outsider to torment him, take away his magic item etc.

Furthermore, routinely choose some of the divine spellcaster’s spells for him (roughly 30% or even 50% if the PC isn’t acting properly in the Patron’s interests). After all, they’re divine-granted. The mortals don’t get to choose. The Patron may also have different ideas/agendas – He/She/It may prefer more righteous might unleashed and not all those pitiful healing or teleport spells that his mortal servant seem to care so much.

You’re your Patron’s avatar (almost), not just a mortal man

Use the old magic rule of sympathy. Your divine spellcaster is, in some aspects, the earthly reflection of his Otherworldly Patron.

For example: if you’re a servant of a god of war and wolves, then you’re naturally (even if unconsciously) attracted to zones of war and violence; you also probably love red meat and enjoys wilderness (besides hating acting alone). If you’re a paragon servant you may even get the occasional help of your Patron’s minions (wolves in this case). Following this idea to its opposite, tranquility and peace annoys you and you may even be incapable of healing (and most certainly of recovering your 1^st and 2^nd level spells, see below) inside temples of peace or serenity.

Corruption

Because divine spellcasters are the rare, the few mortals initiated and capable of communing with the Otherworldly, that means that they’re the perfect targets of corruption. Think about it: why spend time and power corrupting a normal peasant when you can get a full priest, the genuine article, ready to unleash curses and (un)holly power on the world.

This means that divine spellcasters are the first choice of every Power in the arena when it comes to enlisting new servants, seducing power-hungry mortals or just corrupting that holier-than-thou cleric of Mitra.

But changing sides doesn’t come for free. Things like medusas, ghouls, vampires and other stuff came from clerics/paladins that betrayed their powers (oh, and they were the lucky ones… Patrons don’t usually give cool powers to these traitors).

There is no such thing as a free spell

Let’s recover (sort of) that old Gygaxian rule:

1^st and 2^nd level spells are the basic mysteries. You can prepare them with trances, mystic secrets and holy paraphernalia (and that includes holy books/inscriptions, Clerics need this thing too).

3^rd and 4^th level spells also require communing with your Patron’s servants. This usually can be done with special herbs, drugs and trances… if done inside a hallowed (unhallowed) temple. And only there. Temples become a very important point of political control for true priests. If “temple-less”, you can try to summon one of your Patron’s servants (see below).

5^th-6^th level spells require that you somehow summon and deal directly with your Patron’s servants. Each time. You have to summon a Deva if you want that raise dead, pal. No pain, no gain. That’s easier inside a temple or holy place (dedicated to your religion of course), although a “properly aligned place” (like a battlefield for a war deity) will suffice. Otherwise you the risk of offending the outsider.

7^th+ level spells are the real deal, the true hard stuff. You need to call the Boss. Either through a special – unique – holy place or through relics (that’s divine artifacts; and yes, that’s the Ring of Set-level of artifact we’re talking about… good luck).

As you can see, this last requirement means that probably most high-ups on clerical hierarchies are constantly at each other’s throat, always hunting for and protecting powerful relics. And that’s exactly the favor I’m striving for.

These are just some basic suggestions to make things harder for divine spellcasters (actually, the word here is “interesting”). The idea is the same employed with arcanists – to give liberty and more flexibility to Warriors and Rogues, and to make the life of spellcasters weird, bizarre or just plain cursed. If your players want to play with Primordial Fire, let them play, but make sure they pay the Price.

Hack & Slash's S&S Manifesto (Part II)

Here's part I.

I’ll use -C’s List as reference – but I’ll not follow its original order. The idea is to make the life of arcane casters difficult (if not miserable); after all, they’re little more than bastard cosmic cheaters.

Strictly enforce time and money constraints associated with spellcasting!

This is something that I already do in my games (in my last Pathfinder game the party’s magus deeply regretted not buying the Eschew Materials feat).

I also have the habit of removing money costs and changing them for particular quests and puzzles when dealing with acquiring spell components and crafting items. This is something I learned from AD&D 2^nd magic item creation system that I dearly love and also employ on Pathfinder.

Force wizards to roll to successfully cast spells!

Spell failure, and 10,000 interesting consequences thereof!

These steps are something that I’m still not sure on how to do (actually I’m not sure if I really want to do it). Although I really loved the spell failure tables given on –C’s post, I think I’ll limit their effects to strange magical environments (see below), at least in Pathfinder.

I already have enough d20 variants (Thieves World and Black Company) and other RPGs (Warhammer 2^nd) which plenty of fun and mayhem for spells. However, in older D&D editions I’m tempted to use them, particularly given the fact that OD&D is very friendly to house rules (including variant spellcasting systems, like Brendan’s spell retention rule or a power-accumulating system of my own).

Allow wizards to learn only one spell a level!

This is another step that would require a major overhaul of Pathfinder’s mechanics and philosophy. However, if you want to go “Full Vancian”, here’s a suggestion).

Another idea would be to change spells in general. Make each dweomer open-ended and versatile, powerful yet dangerous to use (almost a bundle of basic effects). Then you would have fewer spells, albeit with more uses. Like having a general “fire spell” or a “shield spell” (almost like in Black Company’s True Sorcery system). That’s something to ponder.

Metal burrrrns the magic-user! It burrns him!

After reading Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, I’m starting to really dig this. It’s flavorful and easy to implement. For Pathfinder I would establish that merely carrying a small iron item (like a dagger) would give a 50% chance of spell failure. Anything bigger or that touches naked skin (like iron manacles) completely negates spellcasting. The same is true for steel and ferrous substances in general. Personally, I’d exclude mithral (for our spellcasting elves) and perhaps adamantine (or maybe steal something from Anderson and allow more exception with weird elements, like magnesium or tungsten).

Magic dead zones, ley lines, and w-w-w-wild SURGES!!!

I’m a great fan of local environments and particulars changing the way spellcasting works. This is something I believe works best if handled by the Gamemaster on each adventure. I also think that each adventure should have some particularity regarding spellcasting. For example, a wizard’s tower located on a volcano could have wild fire magic energies floating around with the risk of every fire spell coming alive as an elemental (that could be controlled if the caster knows which focus to use or which enemy grimoire to steal).

Finally, everybody really hates you, because although magic is awesome, you keep kidnapping townspeople to fuel your dark magics!

Check some of the Otherwordly Traits below. I hope they can address this particular aspect. Also note that I’m establishing arcane magic as something that goes against the Gods (I always hated “gods of magic”, so I’m not missing Mystra, Nethys, Ioun etc.).

Give wizards mutations for using spells!

I prefer to let random “free” mutations to Chaos worshippers and really inhuman casters or (NPCs), though I see nothing wrong in punishing reckless PCs (or variant classes like Warlocks). One aspect of The Black Company that I enjoy is the idea that casters need a True Name to “anchor” them to reality and humanity – otherwise the sole act of studying and casting spells change them each time to something otherworldly.

I’d implement this by giving arcane spellcaster an “Otherworldly Trait” for each new spell level attained.

1^st level – 1D6: (1) You can’t enter temples on your own and holy symbols burn you if touched for 1 points of non-lethal damage (and divine spellcasters feel odd when within 30 feet of you); (2)  animals are scared or instantly attack you (and you can’t buy Handle Animal); (3) you have a spooky aura and initial reactions to you are Unfriendly (and you can’t buy Diplomacy or Bluff); (4) naked contact with iron burns and mark your skin for 1d4 damage and you can’t be healed, remove the Fatigued or Exhausted conditions, or recover hit points while in contact with it; (5) you spoil food, blight plants, kill small animals, leave young/frail people sick and stop natural healing if sleeping at 100 feet of other living mortal beings (besides probably causing nightmares to all around); (6) fey/outsiders/undeads feel your presence at 100 feet and find your flesh (and soul) just irresistible (treat their reaction as instantly Hostile).

2^nd level – 1D4: (1) pick another 1^st level trait; (2) hearing your True Name spoken removes your spellcasting ability for 24 hours; (3) you need to sacrifice a certain number of HDs to prepare/recover each spell level, 1+ HD opens 1^st level spells, 2+HD open 2^nd level spells (or 1^st level), 3+HD open 3^rd level spells (or 1^st or 2^nd) etc. (this HD must come from any creature except constructs, fey, outsider or undeads; animal HD work at ¼ potency); (4) your reflection is demonic/monstrous and shatters mundane mirrors (pools and magic mirrors leave your instantly Exhausted and, after that, deal 1d3 points of Wisdom damage per round; if the Gamemaster is feeling kind he can give you a Reflex save to avoid seeing your reflection);

3^rd level – 1D4: (1) pick one 2^nd level trait or two 1^st level traits; (2) you have one strange aspect (cloven feet, forked tongue, one cat eye, a beastly hand) and is treated for all rules purposes as a fey or outsider of the worst possible Alignment combination for a particular game effect (and anything that would banish you instead deals 1d6 points of damage for each caster level YOU have); (3) your iron allergy now extends to silver, mithral, adamantine and all metals (use the 1^st level Otherworldly Trait as reference); (4) spellcasting now requires blood, 1 point of damage per spell level, either from you or a dying creature you touch (the target can’t be a construct, fey, outsider or undead).

4^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 3^rd level trait; (2) you have an arcane rune branded in your body that can’t be removed by illusion or shapechange and you’re immune to beneficial divine spells; (3) you’re vulnerable to fire/cold/electricity damage (roll one), your skin and visage gains an otherworldly appearance and you can’t cast spells that deals this type of damage (if the GM is nice, you can change your fireballs to coldballs and so forth); (4) each night during sleeping you have a 25% of becoming a monstrous being that can only be stopped by sunrise (good luck in the Underdark) or by slaying a number of HD equal to your caster level (treat your character mechanically as a lycanthrope of appropriate CR).

5^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 4^th level trait; (2) your appearance now matches a half-fiendish or appropriate monstrous creature (no mechanical change) and sunlight does 1d4 points of damage per round to you; (3) you require exotic food to sustain yourself (human blood or tears, rare lotus or spell component, magic potions, pages from grimoire etc) or to sleep (roll); (4) after casting a spell, you have 10% chance per spell level of becoming an enraged chaos beast in the next 1d6 rounds (the transformation last for approximately an hour).

6^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 5^th level trait; (2) once every week you lose all your spellcasting and magic item use abilities for 24 hours (roll randomly and don’t let the player know the day; you can still employ the Use Magic Device skill); (3) being touched or attacked by iron/steel now deals 1 point of Constitution damage and removes your spellcasting ability for 1d4 rounds; (4) roll randomly on one type of creatures [aberration, animals and magical beasts, construct, dragon, fey, humanoid (pick a major race), giants (all), ooze, outsider (pick a major type, like devils), plant, undead or vermin]; your SR or any type of magical protection don’t work against them; they also gain a +4 bonus on saves against your spells and remove your spellcasting ability for 1d4 rounds if they manage to touch/wound you.

7^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 6^th level trait; (2) you must guard your soul on a phylactery (like a lich), but without any benefits; anyone holding the phylactery is immune to your magic an attacks and can give you order like dominate person (Will save against each command); ah, and you can’t be raised if the phylactery is destroyed – never!; (3) you’re afflicted with all penalties (and the appearance)  of venerable old age (no benefits) and your Speed is permanently reduced by half; (4) you must constantly use a move action, each round, to keep your form stable, otherwise you acquire a monstrous form and suffer a 25% spell failure with spellcasting and finesse/delicate actions (when you sleep you can’t help yourself).

8^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 7^th level trait; (2) you can’t employ magic or lie against someone holding a lock of your hair or a drop of your blood (however, if they force you to answer 3 questions truthfully you can attack them); (3) you can’t spellcast when under direct sunlight or inside a hallowed (unhallowed) temple; (4) your aura intermixes permanently with your most powerful magic item, if removed from your person you lose 1d6 points of Strength per round until fully paralyzed (while in this state you can hibernate for years or centuries).

9^th level – 1D4: (1) pick another 8^th level trait; (2) your magic unravels existence, blighting the local region, killing weaker creatures (3 or less HD) and inflicting 1d20 damage on a random ally whiting 100 feet; (3) after each encounters roll a d%, if the result is equal or less than the accumulated number of spell slots spent, an outsider/fey/undead (CR = your caster level, minus 1d10, plus 1d6) comes after you in the next hour (the % is reset only if you abdicate of spellcasting for a week or after an otherworldly beast comes after you); (4) your eldritch knowledge can’t be contained in grimoire anymore; you must find another spellcaster and kill him, transforming his skull on a special phylactery for his soul and also as a reservoir of spell knowledge (each costs as much as a lich phylactery); you need one skull for each spell level, except 9^th level, where you need one skull for each spell; you have 101 days to create these skulls and they must be guarded inside an enchanted tower or else the spellcasters ghost will come after your; you can only prepare/recover spells from these skulls from now on. Good luck. [Oh, and the spellcasting victims must have enough power to cast the spells that will be kept in their skulls.]

I prefer this approach because it doesn’t instantly change all arcanists into proto chaos beast (just some unlucky ones) and it fits with “lesser” casters, like Assassins and Bards. Anyway, they will probably make the life of arcanists interesting.

Ok, that was fun. Now, a final step: Divine spellcasters!

Hack & Slash's S&S Manifesto (Part I)

-C, at Hack & Slash, posted an instigating post about how the traditional Sword & Sorcery hero archetypes are twisted by D&D and traditional Fantasy RPGs in general. Usually, in fiction, warriors and rogues are charismatic/awesome characters, while wizards and sorcerers are despicable, heretics and inhuman beings. On most D&D settings however wizards are the pinnacle of wisdom and enlightenment, while warriors and rogues are just clichés with the serial numbers filled.

-C then proposes a series of basic ideas and house rules to make fighters awesome and wizards loathsome. Check it out.

So Tzimiscedracul, how would you (try to) address these premises in Pathfinder?

Well, I’m glad you asked it.

I’ll address them in two steps. First: Warriors! (The easiest part for me)

There are literally dozens of “remakes” or house-ruled Fighters out there, pick the one that you think better address the class’s problems at your table. If I really wanted to boost the awesomeness of my warriors I would merge my “Barbarian-less” Fighter with my “Complex” Fighter.

If you like Iron Heroes another option would be to use the Token system and Feats from that game as Fighter-only Combat Feats in Pathfinder. I already used this house rule once for D&D 3.5 and the players loved it.

D&D Next’s Expertise Dice are also another great resource-based mechanic that could be used in Pathfinder. Forget all those maneuvers – too restricting (and boring). I’d use Expertise Dice as a pool of floating dice to be used on a roundly basis. Maybe you could start with 1d6 to be freely added to one attack roll, AC, one save or one damage roll (though I believe that if used on damage these dice should have some progression).

Ok, if all that seem too complex, here’s a simple “solution”: grant Fighters Hero Points, and only Fighters. Fate is at their side (so is awesomeness). I think that Hero Points are one of Pathfinder’s greatest rules, particularly for customizing your game (that’s an idea for another post). Hero Points are also a very easy way to balance them against spellcasters. In fact, if you like of the idea, grant Hero Points as an exclusive mechanics to all non-spellcaster classes (I recommend 1 Hero Point per level, with extra Hero Points granted for defeating enemies or accomplishing quests).

The next (and hardest) step: Wizards!

Weird Arcana - Blood Remembers (New Spell)

Yeah, I know. The days pass and no post show up. I’m sorry. I’m with a ton of mad projects in mind (and posts originated from other blogs’ great material), but they all require time (of which I have little) and organization (idem). Until them, here’s a little necromantic toy. No, I didn’t playtested it.

Blood Remembers

Necromancy [emotion, fear, mind-affecting]
Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 1, Witch 1
Components: V, Special (see below)
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal

Target: One creature at line of sight that attacked you recently
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial, Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

This dweomer was created to instill some respect on those that dare to wound an arcanist. After suffering any damage capable of shedding blood, the spellcaster can summon this spell. The necromancer’s blood animates from its wound and strikes the offending target, like a viper, cutting him with the sharpness of an edged weapon.

The target suffers the same amount of damage that he provoked on the necromancer (to a maximum of 5 points of damage per caster level). This damage is considered magical and slashing for the purposes of damage reduction. A successful Fortitude save reduces the damage to half. The target must also succeeds at a Will save or becomes shaken for the 1d6 rounds.

Blood remembers must be cast as the arcanist’s first action after being attacked. The provoking attack must have caused some damage in first place for the spell to work. Bloodless caster can’t use this dweomer.

If the provoking attack inflicted the bleed condition, the spellcaster can add the bleeding damage to the dweomer’s total damage (even over the maximum informed above).

If the provoking attack left the spellcaster disabled, then the target isn’t allowed a Fortitude save and suffers full damage (SR still applies). Note that casting blood remembers in this way will left the spellcaster dying and probably unconscious.

Vishkanya necromancers are great admirers of blood remembers.