Thursday, April 18, 2019

Tentative Cleric Variation List for DFD

So, in a putative DFD Clerics, what kind of things would you need?

Fighting Cleric - essentially, a bridge between the spellcasting of the Cleric and the fighting of the Holy Warrior. Not quite so dedicated to fighting a single type of creature - save that for Holy Warriors and a spellcasting-oriented Holy Warrior - but still more dedicated to combat. You'd want to give them access to more of the advantages that really cause the have/have not split of DF - Extra Attack, possibly Weapon Master (I'd lean to no, but still, it's possible), Combat Reflexes, Enhanced Block, Enhanced Dodge, and Enhanced Parry.

You'd still want significant spellcasting, or you're just a Holy Warrior.

Holy Caster - a cleric that even further de-emphasizes physical combat. Lower ST, DX and HT unchanged, and higher IQ, with extra points available for spells and holy abilities.

Holy Might Cleric - not every cleric needs a lot of spells. This variant would reduce the points in spells and increase those in Holy Might. A minimum investment in Holy Might skills - probably 20 points - would go a long way to making them distinctive.

A lens wouldn't be out of place, either:

Hammer of God - add Higher Purpose and foe-specific skills to a cleric lens, allowing for anti-undead, anti-demon, and anti-evil cleric focused clerics.

I think this might be a hard sell, given DF7. But still, there is a lot that DF7 did not cover that the DFD series did. Lessons learned and all of that - it's why DFD: Swashbucklers covers more ground than DFD: Barbarians. Sean leaned from what I did well and what in retrospect I could have included but did not. So it's possible a DFD: Clerics could work. If Pyramid was still around, it would be a fun article.

2 comments:

  1. I think as soon as Weapon Master becomes a consideration the book would need to become DFD: Clerics & Holy Warriors with the whole continuum from Holy Caster to Evil-resistant Knight.

    Divine Favor as a Holy Might alternative would also be ported from Pyramid. (My favorite munchkin plan is a Beautified-Ogre-Elder-Spawn-Initiate. No skill but tanks like biphase carbide, can slip through SM 0 gaps, has bottomless healing with Flesh Wounds and the Share Vitality spell, and Sermonize works on townsfolk. This is the super synergistic Ogre.)

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    1. What did you play, the Half card that lets you be multiple races?

      I think you're right about WM - and even then, I'd want to restrict it somehow. Once Holy Warrior is "knight + holy powers" it's really kind of undercutting the knight. However a full-spectrum book covering those two related templates would probably be the way to go. But again, DF7 limits the need somewhat.

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