Random Stuff before the Weekend

So some little posts today.

Monster Manual 3 for D&D 4
Picked this up earlier in the week.  I love it.  You can never get too many monsters or monster books.  IT's too bad we are not playing D&D4 in my adult group.  I might have to move to D&D4 in my kids group just so I can use this.

I am torn. My kids' game of D&D 3.x is going great I almost hate to change things on them.  But then there are all these nice new D&D4 books...

Pathfinder

As typical tomorrow is ENWorld Game Day at my favorite local game store, and I am going to be at home in my game room playing a marathon game of Pathfinder.  Not that I am complaining mind you! I will just have to be there in spirit.  Anytime there has been an EN World Game Day or a D&D Game Day we are gaming at my place instead.  I am fully expecting my paladin, Johan Werper the V, the great-great grandson of my first ever D&D character to reach 2nd level tomorrow.  One can always hope.

I am totally digging using Hero Lab for this as well.  Great to keep track of things and even explore "what ifs" on skills or class choices.




Tempting FATE
Bet that title hasn't been overused!  Anyway. I have a bunch of new(ish) Fate and Fudge games that are screaming at me to try out.  I regular GM is bringing over his printed out copy of Icons, I have Dresden Files and few others.  I am still not 100% sold on Fate/Fudge even if they are Indy darlings.

More Games
Look for reviews, overviews and commentary of games like Dresden Files, BASH, Icons, Cartoon Action Hour 2  and more.  Plus I have a stack of old games I want to go over.  Mostly horror.

AND....
It is my birthday this weekend!  So happy birthday to me.

This Old Dragon: Issue #116

Time to jump back into my box of Dragons and pull out a Dragon at random...no not that one, this one. Ok so sorta random. To be fair I pulled this one second and really it is a better fit this week.  If you must know, the one I originally pulled was #106.  Next time for that one. Today I am going to talk about Dragon #116.  

This issue does have significance to me. This is the first Dragon I bought after the watershed issue #114. As I mentioned before I typically bought every other Dragon back then, so this was my next one. I rather liked the cover to be honest.

To set the stage here, this issue was dated December 1986. This was my senior year in high school. My regular DM had gone off to the Air Force the year before and we had done our big "Dragon Wars" which was our "World War."  Most of my AD&D 1st Edition characters were dead or retired and I didn't know what exactly was next.  But this issue gave me ideas.

Letters covers the debates of the day. Mark D. Spivey laments that Dragon is now too much about AD&D and D&D and not other games.  Kent B. Gravelle counters with his observation of AD&D being less popular now than other games. 

Forum laments the lack of women DMs or why D&D is not as popular as Trivial Pursuit or Monopoly. I am no expert (ok but I DO have the benefit of hindsight) that both of these issues will change around the same time.

Add for the Wilderness Survival Guide. I will admit I did enjoy this book.

We get to the main feature of this issue; Maritime Adventures.

While I did use this material then, over the summer in 1987 I was back from college and my DM was back due to medical leave. We began a new campaign with new characters. The idea was to create some ocean going adventures. I rolled a few characters and we were going to something that would today call the funnel.

Margaret Foy is up first with High Seas which is a fantastic overview of nautical terms and ideas for AD&D. So good in fact it can still be used today and for many other sorts of games.  The article is long, 14 pages, and not a bit of it is wasted or fluff. 

Note: There were ads for Traveller and Star Trek RPGs. I kept thinking that I could adapt these rules to space or visa versa. 

Aquatic elves get time to shine in Children of the Deep by Todd Mossburg.  Aquatic elves would have been part of our game. This is a pretty good article really. So good in fact you tend to forget these elves still need to be around the sea. 

In an odd one out, we get an Ecology Of.. article from Anthony Gerard, Ecology of the Minotaur. I would think a Triton or other sea creature would have worked better. But this is still welcome. It is also a rare (but soon to be less rare) ecology article not from Ed Greenwood.  I rather liked this one to be honest. It gave a different insight to Minotaurs. This was on the heels of the second Dragonlance Trilogy which made Minotaurs a more playable race than AD&D core, so this return to form was nice.

Up next we get the first Dragon's Bestiary in nearly five years. This one has a dozen new AD&D monsters all with a sea or underwater theme. Lots of new monsters here, or at least new at the time. 

Ads for The Palladium Fantasy RPG and the Bestiary. Two products I wanted back in the day. I eventually got them both but never really did much with Paladium. 

"Hello? Your Majesty?" from Craig Barrett covers communication in history and fantasy. It is a well-researched article, at least as far as I tell.  Easily could use this in any game. We get coverage of the Horse Post, the Foot Post, and especially messages by sea travel. I can honestly see an interest set of adventures that involve getting critical messages from one place to another while fighting evil wizards, governments, and monsters.

My issue sadly no longer has this, but our center-fold section is a cardstock assemble-your-self 3D ship designed by Dennis Kauth titled High Seas in 3-D.

What I do have is a huge ad for Warhamer Fantasy. And by huge, I mean 8 full-color pages.

Ed Greenwood is back with Rogue Stones and Gemjumping, or how Elminster gets around. This covers a special type of stone, a Rogue Stone, and El's spell to use them as means of getting around. Not a long article, but certainly a fun one.  Something to whet the appetite for the upcoming Forgotten Realms campaign set.

In an interesting and long article, By Tooth and Claw by Gregory Detwiler gives us details on how just normal animals can be terrifying foes in any game, especially for lower level characters. While the focus is AD&D it can be adapted to all games that have animals.  

Michael DeWolfe and Galan Akin are up with the only ElfQuest RPG article I can recall. High Ones, Ancient Ones covers the origins of the Elves in the ElfQuest universe.  I mean I have always known about Elf-Quest, I am not sure I know much of what it is really about. I mean I know it was created by Wendy Pini. But that is about it. The RPG uses Chaosium's BRP I also knew that much. 

Role of Computers by Hartley and Pattie Lesser talks a bit about communication and how humans can now use computers to talk to each other via BBSes. Something that soon dominate my own experiences in a couple of years. They even talk about how one day you could read Dragon over your computer! Imagine that! They also cover the DM's aid Dragonfire II. Likely the software can be found somewhere on the internet now.  They also look at Bard's Tale a full-featured computer RPG.

TSR Previews lets us know what is upcoming for 1987. In particular, H2 Minds of Bloodstone and DA2 Temple of the Frog.

Cool ad for some D&D shirts, I should have jumped on that, I kinda wish I could get them now.

Marvel-Phile gives us six heroes I have never heard of. Crossfire, Ringleader, Bombshell, Oddball, Tenpin, and Knickknack. Remember I am a DC fan.

Ok, here is the reason I wanted this one for today.  All six incarnations of The Doctor for the FASA Doctor Who RPG by none other than Margaret Weis and Michael P. Bledsoe (the game's author) in Doctor Who? The article is copyrighted 1986 FASA. The article goes into far more detail than the game does. I imagine the article was part of the 1985 rule manuscripts and was cut for size and expanded on here.  It is useful enough that it should be added to one of the boxed sets of any serious Doctor Who RPG Gamemaster. 

Flamethrowers get special coverage in William A. Barton's Aim and Burn.  

Gamer's Guide gives us some small ads. This month we get two ads for people to draw your character, something I really wanted back then. Johan I had just been retired and Larina was only 6 months old (or 19 in game years).  I do admit I look up the addresses and names on some of these ads to see if they are still in business. 

Convention Calendar covers the con scene for the start of 1987.

We end with Snarf Quest, Dragonmirth, and Wormy.

A good issue that I would not see the value of until six months or so later. 

The Acrobatic Flea for NIGHT SHIFT

One of the first blogs I encountered was Tim Knight's Hero Press. He had a lot of the same interests I did and he writes about a lot of cool stuff.  I like to joke that Hero Press is "The Other Side" of England.

Like my Johan, he has a character that has gone with him from game to game, but in particular Villians & Vigilantes.  His character, the Acrobatic Flea, is something of a mascot of Hero Press.  He has built the Flea for many universes, much like I do for my Larina.  

So it stands to reason there is a Flea in NIGHT SHIFT.

The Acrobatic Flea for NIGHT SHIFT

Aspiring reporter Sean Edward Ridire got his dream job at Weirdly World News. Figuring out he would get the big scoop on the truth about UFOs and aliens. But a chance encounter with a vampire and helping a victim out introduced the vigilante known only as the Acrobatic Flea to the world of the supernatural. 

In the worlds of NIGHT SHIFT this Acrobatic Flea patrols the dark streets of Knight City protecting the innocents of the world from the creatures of the night. Donning a protective suit and special night vision goggles he keeps his identity secret. Using his contacts at WWN he hunts down the stories AND the monsters.  

Here he is for Night Shift. NIGHT SHIFT is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The Acrobatic Flea
3rd level Survivor (Human)
Archetype: Correspondent

Strength: 12 (0) 
Dexterity: 14 (+1) S
Constitution: 15 (+1) 
Intelligence: 13 (+1) P
Wisdom: 14 (+1)  
Charisma: 15 (+1) S

HP: 16
Alignment: Light
AC: 5 (tactical suit)
Attack: +1

Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +3/+1/0

Melee bonus: 0 Ranged bonus: +1

Saves: +4 to death saves. +2 to all others.

Survivor Abilities
Stealth skills; Climbing; Danger Sense (1-4); Sneak Attack +4, x2; Read Languages 80%

Survivor Skills

• Open Locks: 35%
• Bypass Traps: 30%
• Sleight of Hand: 40%
• Move Silently: 40%
• Hide in Shadows: 30%
• Climbing 75%
• Perception: 50%

Skills
Research, Insight, Notice (x2)

Gear
Tactical suit, night vision goggles, climbing gear.

--

This could be a lot of fun! I like this, I would love to use the Flea as an NPC one time. Hope you approve Tim!

Monstrous Mondays: Monstrous Maleficarum, Issue #0

I am starting off my 2023 Year of the Monster this week with something I have been planning for a while. 

So please allow me to announce the publication of Monstrous Maleficarum, Issue #0 Christmas Special.

From Issue #0:

My goal is to publish a regular series of monsters for the 5th Edition of the World’s First Fantasy Role Playing Game via the Open Gaming License. 

These will be monsters from my regular series “Monstrous Mondays” from my blog The Other Side.  I will be taking what I have learned from my own monster creation over the years and from my reviews on what works well.

This Issue #0 will feature some Christmas-themed monsters and replaces the fifth edition version of Krampus I published years ago. 

Each issue will cover a theme. Sometimes a closely linked set of monsters, or other times other similarities.  The themes will largely be around the myths and legends of our world and other creatures I have found or made in my readings. In particular, the readings around the myths and legends of witchcraft. Thus the “Maleficarum” part of the title.

I will also endeavor to keep each monster to one or two pages so they can easily be printed out for use in your games. Also, my personal goal is to lay out these pages so you could, in theory, print them out and use a 3-hole punch to add them to a three-ring binder like editions of old.  Collect what you want, and ignore the others.

Presently I have nearly 500 monsters ready to go. How many of them will see publication and get into your hands is unknown, but it will be an adventure for us all. 

There will be framing text for each issue brought to you via various NPCs I have used over my 40+ years of gaming experience. Some, like my witch Larina and my undead-hunting cleric Johan will be familiar to readers of my blog. Others, like Jassic here, are maybe only known by name. 

I hope you enjoy this adventure with me. 

Character Creation Challenge: Nida for Wasted Lands

 I want to get some more Forgotten Realms this month, and this has me thinking about my *other* native Forgotten Realms character, Lady Nida. But maybe before she was a "Lady."

When I did stats for Nida a while back for AD&D 2nd Ed, I wanted her to be a combination of the witches that I didn't play back then: a Witch of Hala and a Witch of Rashemen. To be a witch of Hala, though, you have to start out in a non-spell-casting class. Fine! I wanted her to start out as a rogue/thief beforehand anyway, so that works. I also knew that Nida, along with Sinéad, were going to be part of a party of characters.  Playing Sinéad, though, in Baldur's Gate 3 changed some of my ideas about her.  So now some of these ideas that don't work as well for Sinéad are going over to Nida. 

I want to focus on her Rogue/Thief/Renegade side for this build in Wasted Lands. She has some magic already, which might be the reason Sinéad joins up with her band of adventurers, and also why Sinéad has part of her hair shaved off and wears a lot of black leather; she is emulating the friend she met when she first left home.  Maybe I'll even use a "Quantum Cat" version of Johan as the party's cleric. It would be a different version of course, but maybe the same as my Baldur's Gate 3 run.  Note: I DO have a Baldur's Gate 3 version of Nida as well, but I want to try out something different for her in another run, maybe.

But for now, her job is to be a bad influence on Sinéad. 

Nida

Class: Renegade
Level: 4
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight
Background: Sorcerous (Grew up in Rashemen)

Abilities
Strength: 11 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) A
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) N
Wits: 13 (+1) 
Persona: 18 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 23
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Melee Bonus: +2 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base) +2
Spell Attack: +0
Saves: +3 vs Death effects (Renegade), +2 to Persona saves (Sorcerous background)

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Perception, Vital Strike x3, Read Languages, Stealth Skills

Stealth Skills
Open Locks: 30%
Bypass Traps: 25%
Sleight of Hand: 35%
Sneak: 30%

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: Arcane Power: Detect Thoughts
2nd Level: Luck Benefit 1d6

Sorcerous Background
Bonus Arcane Power: Precognition

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Dagger, Leather Armor, thieves tools

Wasted Lands Renegades as AD&D Thieves

Nida here is not "Lady Nida" yet, but she is a good thief. In fact, the Wasted Lands Renegade stacks up well to the AD&D thief. Now, if I were in a min/maxing mood, I could have given her Sage and used the divine touchstones to improve her thief's skills. But that didn't ring true to who I think this character is. While she grew up in Rashemen, she is not a sage. She doesn't have spells just yet, but she will stop being a thief soon and switch over to being a Sorceress or Witch.

I'll come back to both Nida and Sinéad and whatever other characters I come up with for my Forgotten Realms exploration.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Class Struggles: The Cleric

Coming back to my Class Struggles series I wanted to look into the class that really got me thinking about this series to start with.  The Cleric.

There has been a lot of talk of clerics and their value in a D&D game.  This ranges from the old school of whether or not the Cleric is an appropriate trope for a fantasy game to the new school of whether a cleric is needed in a game that also has healing from long rests.

I am firmly in the camp of Clerics are as much a part of D&D as Fighters, Wizards and Thieves.

My first character ever was Father Johan Werper, Cleric of the God of the Sun, Hunter of the Undead. He was a bit of a generic cleric to be honest, and I choose the sun god because I thought that as a quasi-medieval priest  the sun would be a major feature of all the is holy, bright and good.  Plus I had been reading a bunch of Greek Myths and I thought Apollo would make for a good god.  But the real reason I choose the cleric; Turning Undead.  That was an AWESOME power in my pre-teen mind.   So that has colored my views of the cleric ever since.
(Father Werper, now St. Werper, lives on as an official Saint in COA04: Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall.)

In real life I am an atheist, but I like the play the religious character.  So clerics, witches, druids, all fascinate me.  But clerics are where it all started.

Clerics as Occult Researchers

In nearly every other game I have ever played there have been occult researchers.  There is usually someone that is the party's muscle, the magic-guy, the sneaky guy and the smart guy.  Sometime the magic guy and smart guy are the same, sometimes though they are not.  The Cleric takes on the roll of the Smart Guy or the Occult Researcher.  The books, the ill-fitting glasses, and the wisdom to know what to do is the role of the cleric.

It is fairly well known that the idea behind clerical undead turning  came from Peter Cushing's Van Helsing characters in the various Hammer Dracula films.  Why not extend the metaphor to include the rest of Van Helsing's portfolio.  As a class that puts a high value on Wisdom then the cleric should be a font of knowledge. Sure, this can also be done by the Magic-User / Wiazard,  but the cleric's input should not be understated.  Van Helsing is described as a meta-physian or what we might call a poly-math, or man of letters.  Wizards, even with schools, don't have the same "Academic" credibility as a cleric can have.  Sure the shaman could be considered a cleric in some games, and his schooling could entirely be natural or at least un-scholastic in nature.

In D&D 3, 4 and 5 knowledge of the undead fall within the Knowledge (Religion) or just Religion category.   These characters tend to have more training in this area than other characters.  While wizards are typically the font of magical knowledge, clerics should be the source of knowledge beyond the ken of mortal man and into the realm of the gods and other forms of the supernatural.

Clerics as the Party Leader
The cleric also can serve the role as the leader. While the cleric can run the gamut of influential high priest to crazy street prophet to diabolic cult leader, players typically take on the role of the cleric of the local church, usually good.  Certainly that is what D&D wants you to do and that is fine.  This type of cleric also works as the default leader, whether he/she is or not. So if this is the hand you are dealt, then play it because clerics make great leaders. Under most circumstances they access to power, money, a hierarchy and can expect a modicum of respect from the locals.  All this adds up to an instant authority figure.  Even if they are not.
While this role was stress fairly heavy in D&D4, all other versions of the game also give it tacit, implicit and even explicit lip service.  In D&D5 the divine domains of Knowledge and War make for pretty good leader types. Their better saves in Wisdom and Charisma make them less likely to charmed or otherwise controlled magically, so this can be role-played as a stronger than average mental fortitude.  Which fits the cleric well.

Cleric as the Party Medic

The obvious role.  Clerics have healing magic in earlier editions of the game, have spontaneous healing spells in the 3.x era and can activate healing surges in 4th. The clerics of 5th edition seem to take them back more to their roots in terms of healing.  The role of the cleric cannot be overstated.  Parties without a cleric die.
During my run between 1st and 2nd Ed I created a Healer class.  It shared a number of features that my Witch class did including the ability to heal by touch as she went up in level.  Completely unneeded in 3.x of course, but in 2nd Ed it was quite a game changer.  I also made an NPC healer a pacifist.  She would never raise a weapon to any creature unless of course it was undead and then she went all Peter Cushing on them.  But running that class and character (she was the only character I ever made for that class) showed me how important the healing aspect was.  There was not just the regaining hit points, there was the player morale.  Also, since the character was an NPC it was easy not to have her fight, but the Players really did everything they could to protect her.

BTW. Her name was Celene Weper and she was the grand-daughter of Father Werper above.  Yes clerics in my world get married and have kids, since it is a life-affirming thing.
Plus keep in mind that Clerics as Healers have a long tradition even in our own world.  If ever a character decided to become a pure healing cleric and take an oath of non-violence then I would give them XP for every hitpoint cured and a share of combat XP.  I would also give them 2x the starting funds (even though they would give what they don't spend back to the church) to represent the investment their churches/hospitals have made in them.  After all, can't send a healer out into the world with shoddy armor. Reflects bad on their organization.

Clerics as Combatants?
It almost seems counter to the above, but clerics are the second best major class when it comes to fighting.  Only fighters (and their related classes) are better.  The get good saves vs. magic due to their high wisdom, or Will saves for the same reason and their saves are pretty decent to start with.   Plus they have one thing fighters don't have, the  ability to use magic.  "So what" you say, "so can Wizards and even your favorite witch."  Yes, but can they do it in field plate armor?  Clerics can.  Sure they do not get the combat spells the wizard gets, but they have a few good ones too.  Creeping Doom is a nasty little spell for Druids.  Finger of Death and reversed Heal spells can also ruin someone's day.

In games without Paladins, Clerics are the "righteous fist of (their) god".  Wizards don't smite.
Clerics can also be one of the few character types that can actually kill monsters with-out the moral hangups.  Even fighters, who get paid, and thieves, that might be working as assassins, don't get the same kind of "get out of jail free card" as do clerics operating within the doctrines of their faith and church.  Think back to the Crusades and the Inquisition, the faithful got away with murder, torture and even more horrible crimes in the name of their God and the law had little to say about it or were in collusion with them.

Clerics might then be one of the more well rounded characters in the group.

BECMI: Immortals Set Review

“I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.”

- Frodo to Sam, Return of the King

And here we are. 

June is drawing to a close and we are here in the last week of BECMI month.  Fitting too that the last week, as short as it is, is dedicated to the oddest set of rules in the set.  The Immortal rules set. We see some major changes here and in TSR as well.  So. Let's jump right in.

D&D Immortals Set (1986)

I am reviewing both my rather beat up and water damaged version of the Immortal set (I only have the books, not the box) and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG.

A couple of notes.  The set now lists Frank Mentzer as Author. No mention of Dave Arneson nor Gary Gygax here.  The year is 1986 and Gygax had been removed from TSR the previous October. Frank had been very closely allied with Gary so his time at TSR was also going to come to an end soon.  The Immortals rules and the module The Immortal Storm would be his last books for the company.  This had two rather obvious impacts on these rule books.  First, the art that had been getting more sparse with each set now hits an all-time low.  No in quality mind you! But in terms of amount. There is just not that much art in these books.  

Secondly, it also meant that the company focused more on its perceived cash cow, the AD&D line.  Gary had been talking about the AD&D 2nd Edition game, but now that project was turned over to Dave "Zeb" Cook of the B/X Expert Set rules.  Others have played the conjecture game of what might have been, so I will not go into that here.  What I will say though is it left Frank and the BECMI line alone for the Immortals set to go in some very weird directions.

If BECMI is the ultimate update of the OD&D rules, then the Immortals rules cover part of what Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes introduced.

Players' Guide to Immortals

32 pages, color covers, black & white art.

Your character, now 36th level and has pretty much done everything from dungeons to the planes hears the call to become an Immortal! Certainly, this was the goal of those quests and battles. Immortality.  But now the game, both actually and metaphorically, has changed.  Just like when you moved from Jr. High/Middle school or Grade school to High School you go from being the most powerful of mortal kind to the least powerful of the immortals.

This book covers how your character now becomes an Immortal.  There are five spheres, four of which characters can access, detailed here.  These are the same spheres that have been hinted at since the Companion set and introduced in the Masters set; Matter, Energy, Though, Time, and Entropy.  characters choose one of the first four usually corresponding to the class they had in life; Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, and Cleric respectively.

Experience points gained will alive now become PowerPoints on a 10k to 1 basis.  We get our first hints at a proto-point buy system in D&D here since PowerPoints can be spent. Now the Initiate Immortal can begin to do some Immortal things. PowerPoints are used for a lot of things, but mostly for magical or spell-like effects.  Your sphere will determine which ones you can do easily and which ones are harder.

There are a lot of interesting rule changes along the way.  AC is now Ascending for Immortals; so Immortal AC 20 is the same as mortal AC of -20.  AC 0 is the same. Ability scores can be raised. First to a max of 25 (the AD&D max of the time) but also all the way to 100!   

In a lot of ways, the PP mechanic is similar to what we see in other Point Buy systems used for superheroes.  It makes sense really.  

Though for all of its detail there is very little information on what an Immortal should do. Right now they seem, at best, super-powered mortal characters.  There is some implicit ideas, but nothing spelled out yet.

DM's Guide to Immortals

64 pages, color covers, black & white art.

The DM's book spends some time covering the planes of existence.  While a lot on specific planes is left vague, there is a lot of details on how planes are designed.  The artwork and some of the notes appear as if the author and artists were checking on what the AD&D team was doing "down the hall" there is a unique feel to the BECMI multi-verse.  A lot of emphases is given on "doing it yourself" including room for the DM to pencil in their own % for monsters occurring.

There is a bit more here about the planes, in particular the Prime plane.  We learn that the Known World doesn't just look like Earth from 150 Million Years ago, it IS Earth from then.  This explains the map a bit better. We also learn that this Earth is the predecessor to our lands.  Though, in the spirit of everything else in the book, this can be changed.  The Solar system is the same, save for a few notable differences. Mercury and Pluto are not in their orbits yet and between Mars and Jupiter where the asteroid belt is there is a planet called Damocles. Fitting named for a doomed planet but doesn't fit with the names of the Roman Olympians. Damocles will be destroyed and the two largest pieces will fly off to become Mercury and Pluto.  Imaginative to be sure!  But Mercury is only 35 million miles and Pluto is closer to 3 billion miles from the sun. The asteroid belt is roughly 300 million miles from the sun.  So Damocles is not really in the middle of that.  No big deal, this is D&D, not Astronomy.  I DO however love the idea of a doomed planet in the current or future asteroid belt. Maybe a Mi-Go outpost or something like that.   I want to talk more about the Known World/Earth a little more in just a bit. Plus there is one more bit of information I want to collect.

It would be interesting to compare and contrast the multi-planuar mechanics and rules here with the various Manual of the Planes.

This is followed by the Immortal Campaign.  Or, what do Immortals do? There are some ideas given but for the number of rules on immortal characters and planes you would expect some more to be honest. 

Our "Monsters" section is now called "Creatures" since they "cannot be adequately called monsters."  All these monsters...creatures now have expanded stat blocks to cover their immortal statuses.  

One of the first things I noticed was the inclusion of demons to the roster of D&D BECMI monsters.  I am not sure why this surprised me since these are the same demons from Eldritch Wizardry.  Well...same in name but these demons got a serious upgrade.  Let's compare.  A Succubus in AD&D is a 6+6 HD creature (average hp 33), her physical attacks are not great, but her kiss drains 2 life energy levels.  In BECMI a Whispering Demon has 15* HD and 70 hp! Oh and her AC is -6.  Orcus and Demogorgon have 39 and 40 HD with 620 and 660 hp respectively!  Yikes!  We do get some art of them. 

In addition to being able to summon other demons, Orcus and Demogorgon can summon Gargantua. 

We get more inhabitants of the nightmare dimension like the Diabolus which are...checking the description...well they basically tieflings. And they can take any human class. So all the Grognards out there complaining about "monster races" have no ground to stand on. Here are the rules from 1986. 

The Dragon Rulers are updated to Immortal stats and so are some of the elemental rulers.  There is the Megalith and it is ... WHAT???  More on that in a bit!

A few more creatures and some, ok a lot, of tables on magic.

Crisis on Infinite Urts

So there are a couple of new-to-me bombshells in the Immortal rules.  First, the world of the PCs, aka the Known World is Earth of 150 mya. Secondly, this Earth is in actuality a creature known as a Megalith ("big rock") and it is known to the Immortals as "Urt."

It's tucked away in two different places, but this is a revelation really.  The Known World as a living planet known as Urt.  Imagine what the "Mystara" line might have been about had this thought continued?  No Hollow World to be sure. Frank Mentzer pretty soon left TSR soon after this and the Immortal Storm were complete, so we never really got to see what his ultimate vision was.  We do know that Gygax considered his Oerth and later Aerth for his Dangerous Journeys to all be alternates of Earth. Aerth was a little more on the nose about it.  Frank was set to design parts of Oerth a few years back, but that project fell through.  It might have been the closest we would have seen to a fleshed-out Urt.  

At some point between 1986 and 1991 (the publication of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia), the world of Urt became Mystara.

So here at the end of all things what can I say about the Immortals rules? It is an inconsistent set of rules to be sure. There are a lot of really interesting ideas connected together with bits of fluff that may, or may not, work well.  The concepts of Immortals is a compelling one and D&D would come back to it in big ways at least two more times with Wrath of the Immortals and Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition where Immortally was the goal after 30th level. 

Still. One can be impressed with the scope of the rules and how it caps off a set of rules that began in 1983 but has roots going back to 1977 and to the dawn of D&D.  For that reason, it gets a few points more than it might have gotten on its own. 

Back in the day, I had only two characters gain immortality via a route similar to this. More like my DM read these rules and figured his own way of doing it. One would be my character Johan Werper the Cleric and bane of the Undead. 

Character Creation Challenge: Magnus Ulslime for Wasted Lands

 Heroes are often measured by the bad guys they have to face. If that is the case then Johan Werper and his line are true heroes indeed because their long time foe is a semi-immortal necromancer of the darkest dye. And you have seen him before.

Magnus Ulslime had several origin points for me that all seemed to collide at once. First there was Len Lakofka's Death Master class I saw in Best of Dragon Vol. III, a reprint of his class from Dragon #76. There was Ulslime the Chaosar (terrible name) from Module CM2 Death's Ride. And finally what I *thought* Module X6 Quagmire was about. All of these mixed in the same vat I was building classes in; my Healer, Sun-Priest, Witch, and Necromancer.  I saw my Necromancer as the moral opposite of the Healer and the Sun Priest.  Eventually, I would go to get my Profane Necromancer and Death Pact Warlocks out into the world along with my Witch.

Much like Larina is my test character for anything witchy, Magnus is my test for any sort of necromancer. Though I do not have as many versions of him as I do her.  I have featured him, though, as Necromancer for Spellcraft & Swordplay and as a Death Pact Warlock. I have also done his adopted children Runu and Urnu for both Spellcraft and Swordplay and Wasted Lands in the past. 

Magnus Ulslime

Class: Necromancer
Level: 13
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 10 (+0) 
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) 
Intelligence: 19 (+3) N
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 19 (+3) Z

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 5
Vitality: 87
Degeneracy: 33
Corruption: 7

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +7/+4/+3
Melee Bonus: +2 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +2 (base)
Magical Attack: +2
Saves: +8 to Persona saves, -2 vs Corruption

Cult Powers
Commune with Deeper Dark (1/week), Familiar (small demon), Forbidden Knowledge 38%, Mystical Senses

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from Dead x5, Summon the Dead, Vampiric Augmentation, Suggestion x2, Command, Vampiric Touch, Beguile Spirit

Arcane Powers
Detect Thoughts, Polymath (Sage Abilities: Level 1), Incubus (touchstone), Shadow Walk (touchstone)

Spells
First level: Black Flames, Night Vision, Glamour
Second level: Invoke Fear, Paralyze Poison

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: Arcane Power: Incubus (1d6)
2nd Level: Arcane Power: Shadow Walk
3rd Level: Class Level, Sorcerer 1
4th Level: Class Level, Sorcerer 2
5th Level: Class Level, Sorcerer 3
6th Level: Class Level, Sorcerer 4
7th Level: Character ceases to age

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Death

Gear
Death staff

Magnus in the Wasted Lands

These are great stats and I am amazed with how flexible and customizable this game actually is. There is just so much going on here. It is also the first time in a character write-up I was able to really capture his childhood in a Death Cult. The only thing I did not do here is capture his early adulthood as a druid. Maybe a couple of levels of Theosophist would cover that.

Magnus in NIGHT SHIFT

If the Dark Druid can make it to the modern age, then Magnus could as well. I can see a cult trying to bring him back. I see it as sort of like a cheesy 80s movie where a bunch of teens play some record backward and summons Magnus, though I think to be true to his roots AND the 80s, he would have to be called "The Death Master."  Hmm. Maybe this is the missing piece of this 80s adventure I have been wanting to do.

Magnus in Thirteen Parsecs

I honestly have no idea if he will live this long. But maybe I will come up with something. The universe is a big and really weird place.  Though I will admit the name "Magnus" came to me while watching the Doctor Who serial "Talons of Weng-Chiang."  The bad guy in this one, Magnus Greel, was from the 51st Century. He even had a familiar of sorts, Mr. Sin.  I might have to name his quasit familiar Mr. Sin.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games. Thirteen Parsecs is coming soon.

Baldur's Gate 3: Keller the Silent Monk

 I mentioned two weeks ago (already??) that I have been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with my kids via LAN and it has been FANTASTIC. We don't get much time to play D&D together anymore but this has been the next best thing. In fact it has been the best thing in it's own right.

But I am not here to talk about the gameplay.  I am here to talk about an orphan. In particular this one.

This is Keller, the Wood-elf Monk. I know nothing about her.

One night my son and I were playing in his multiplayer room, but he didn't close it (he was the host) so this random character joined us.  It was a wood elf paladin.  Well, we didn't need a paladin; I was already playing Johan. So he locked the room, and we restarted.

The player, whoever it was, was gone. But Keller remained. She tagged along as another character my son could control. We tried everything to get rid of her. Nothing worked. We shut down for the night.

The next day, Liam had told me he tried even more things, and nothing worked. So finally, he just paid the gold to have her retrain as a monk. One holy warrior to next? Ok, I am cool with that.

We still can't get rid of her. More to the point, since the program does not control her, we can't tell her to stay in the camp either. She can't even talk unless my son takes control of her (like the in the screenshot above), so we decided to roll with it.

MINOR SPOILERS for Baldur's Gate 3 follow. Well, so minor that if you play the game up till character creation, this is old news.

My son and I collect stupid hats in the game. It also looks like my eyes are closed.

Keller is a wood-elf monk. I figure she is one of the Siswa from the adventure B7 Rahasia.

She, like the playable characters and companions in the game, was taken by the Mind Flayer Nautilus ship. But unlike the characters, she was not in Baldur's Gate then. She and her kin were in their homes where Queen Rahasia ruled. The ship attacked, and the elves fought back and lost. Keller was one of the survivors taken on to the ship. She was there when it came to Baldur's Gate. (Yes. I am saying Rahasia lived. I am not going to do the Hickmans wrong like that.)

As one of the survivors, she feels guilt that she lived when so many of her brothers and sisters died. So, she has taken a vow of silence. Since she is also essentially uncontrolled (and therefore can't be romanced), she has also taken a vow of solitude. She will not break these vows until the threat of these mind flayers is gone from Faerûn. She will not become attached to anyone else who might die. 

In truth, she is kind of a badass. There have been a few situations in the last couple of sessions where her combat prowess essentially saved our asses. 

So. If you are Keller's original player. I am sorry you stumbled into our room just to be kicked. I am sorry you lost your character, too. But we will take care of her and make sure she sees the vengeance she so rightly deserves. 

Maybe she can also get a stupid hat.

That's So Raven! Raven Swordsmistress of Chaos for BECMI

Raven by Luis Royo

Back in 1987, I was a freshman in college. My then Favorite Local Game Store was also my Favorite Local Used Book Store.  They sold new books, used books as well as new and old gamebooks.  I got a copy of the first printing Deities & Demigods here along with scores of old copies of Dragon and White Dwarf.  

One book they always prominently displayed was the American versions of Raven Swordsmistress of Chaos.  

I never grabbed the book but as an 18-year-old guy, I always was attracted to the covers. I even had a character named Raven, who like the cover, was blonde and had a pet raven.  I was vaguely aware there were more books in the series, but never knew how many. 

Over the last couple of years, I have been on a quest to find and read all the Raven books by "Richard Kirk" who was, in reality, the pen name of authors Angus Wells and Robert Holdstock.  Both wrote Book 1 and then they alternated with Wells on Books 3 and 5 and Holdstock on Books 2 and 4.

Well, I succeeded in my quest and I found them all and read them.

While they are not...good...they are fun little romp in late 70s Swords and Sorcery (and Sex, but not as much as the Corgi covers hint at). Sometimes described as a mildly ribald Red Sonja or a less ribald Ghita Of Alizar. The books however perfect for game fodder. 

Others have reviewed the books and I went back and forth on whether I should do the same.  So instead I am just going to link out to some of the better reviews and retrospectives for your own reading.

I figured there are five books in the Raven saga and there are five rule sets in the BECMI series.  

Seems like a good fit.  Plus it let's me try out each set of rules with a character.

I also did this with my very first character, the Lawful Cleric Johan Werper. While I find him interesting I figure you all would like to see Raven more. Also I wanted to get a good feel for how the fighter works in all sets AND the advanced fighter paths from the Companion rules.  So let's get to it!

Raven Swordsmistress of Chaos

Raven from Heroforge

The story Raven begins with that of a runaway slave girl named Su'ann. She is rescued by a mysterious warlock-like character named Spellbinder, who recognizes that she is "the pivot on which the world turns" partially because she is also protected by giant Raven and he senses something in her.  Spellbinder and Su'ann, now calling herself "Raven," hook up with a band of outlaws and pirates.  They go from adventure to adventure but all the time Raven is training with swords, spears, and what would become her "trademark" a set of throwing stars.  It was the 70s, man.  Raven though is not training out of boredom, nor even for the higher purpose fate seems to have, but is very vague about, for her.  She wants to kill her former slave owner, the Swordsmaster Karl Ir Donwayne.  

While Raven is the cover girl and the eponymous main character, Spellbinder narrates and tells the events many years after the fact. Even the scenes where he was not present.  

The story is one that is simple, but close to many FRP gamers. Raven wants to kill Karl Ir Donwayne. How is it going to do that? Well, they need to Skull of Quez to appease this ruler to get to Donwayne. But they have to find the mysterious island first and then kill the beastmen. And there are shadowy loners, men with mysterious pasts. Raven jumps in and out of bed with Spellbinder, Gondar the Pirate captain, and even Krya M'ystral, the Queen and sister of the ruler they were trying to go see.  This is all in the first book.  There is a nice gory battle with Karl Ir Donwayne too, but he comes back in future books to bother Raven some more.

We never get a satisfactory end to Raven's story.  Book 5 just ends.  Though all the books are told from Spellbinder's point of view they could be out of order.  We do know that Raven met some sort of end between Book 5 and Spellbinder's remembering which seems to take place many years later. Maybe she became that agent of Chaos after all.

For this I am going to stat up Raven for each rule set in the BECMI rules, trying to feature what I feel are the best parts.  I am also going to try to feature what I can from what she was doing in the books.

Raven, ePic Character Generator

Sheets are from The Mad Irishman. 

Basic

Here is the Basic version of Raven.  The hardest this is always to guess at what any one character's numbers are going to be. I figure she had good strength and constitution as well as high dexterity since she favors the throwing stars.  Her charisma is very high, not because of her looks, but because she inspires a lot of loyalty from the cutthroats she usually hangs out with.

She is a fighter. No doubt. I also gave her alignment as Chaotic.  She is a force of chaos, but she is also a killer.  For this example, I thought putting her at level 3, or "Swordmistress" (no middle "s" like the books) was appropriate even for her first book.

You can see her full Basic sheet here (click for larger): 

Expert

Fighters don't get a lot in the Expert set. So for her 2nd book I just advanced her to 9th level "Lady" and gave her some magical chain mail.

You can see her full Expert sheet here (click for larger): 

Companion

Ah now here are some changes!

In the Companion rules, we have more going on.  First I wanted to have her become an Avenger or the Chaotic traveling Fighter.  She obviously has no lands to call her own and she is still going about killing things.  But the Avenger gives her some Clerical ability.

Magic is rare and dangerous in Raven's world.  But everyone seems to have some sort of supernatural sort of talent.  So for Raven, I choose spells that fit in with role as the "pivot on which the world turns" and other things like her raven companion.  So things like "detect magic" and "cause fear" made sense. She also got the 3rd level spell "striking" since that covers a lot of what could be a natural talent.

She also gets 2 attacks per round now at 18th level.

You can see her full Companion sheet here (click for larger): 

Master

Master level Raven is really Ultimate Raven.  This is the Raven that goes toe to toe with gods and spirits and comes out unscathed. 

She gets three attacks per round now and I implemented the Weapon Mastery Rules to give her mastery over the sword and her throwing stars. 

She gets more cleric spells, this time to the 10th level of ability.  Some spells are easily explained by her connection to her bird, fate, and chaos.  Others can be explained by natural ability. "Commune" for example is with her bird and the forces of Chaos only.  "Speak with Animals" can be roughly explained by her time with the animal men. Others could be when she was dealing with weird supernatural forces.

She also gets 3 attacks per round now.

You can see her full Master sheet here (click for larger): 

Immortal

This sheet is largely incomplete.  It is also the most different of the other four (printed from my DTRPG copy) and interestingly enough the only book in series that I don't have an American (Royo cover) edition of.  I do have the British Corgi version with the Chris Achilléos cover.  

I made a lot of guesses as to what sort of Immortal she would be and just cheated and made her an Initiate. I might try this again with one of my own characters that I know better. 

You can see her full Immortal sheet here (click for larger): 

All in all I rather pleased with these. I am curious to hear from anyone that has also read these books.

As far as BECMI character I am happy with it.

Links

• Stuff I Like, With a Twinge of Embarrassment - "Raven - Swordmistress of Chaos" - by Richard Kirk
• Glorious Trash, Swordsmistress Of Chaos (Raven #1)
• Karavansara, Richard Kirk’s Raven (with all the Chris Achilléos covers)
• Warrior Needs Food, DeviantArt. Raven fan art. (NSFW)
• Raven, Swordmistress of Chaos Pinterest board (Moderately NSFW)

Sword & Sorcery & Cinema / October Horror Movie Challenge: Vlad the Impaler (2018)

Found a good movie for double duty today, though it is a bit light on the Sorcery and Horror.

Vlad the Impaler aka Deliler (2018) 

This is a Turkish movie detailing the battle between the Turks and Prince Vlad of Wallachia in the 15th century.  It is pretty obvious from the start that this movie is very pro-Turkish and paints Vlad as not just evil, but the embodiment of evil.

The Deliler of the Turkish title refers to the band of elite warriors of the Sultan Mehmed sent to stop Vlad. A bit like the 15th-century SAS.  There is seven total, and they are all portrayed as bad-asses, but bad -asses in the service of the side of good. They are also kind to widows, small children, and babies. They are featured on the cover (the top three anyway, Gökkurt is the one with the wings) and Vlad on the lower right is the obvious bad guy.

Vlad is seen killing his own people, working with an alchemist to devise weaponized rats, and even having his men kill the beggars that help them collect the rats.   All the while claiming to be the Son of God.

They are not going for subtlety here. 

Despite what the American covers of the movie might have you think, this movie is about the Deliler, not so much about Vlad. Throughout the movie, the Deliler seem to have a sort of supernatural connection to each other and their Sultan.  Not to mention their near-supernatural fighting ability. 

It takes a while but we finally get to the big battle at the end.  Six Deliler against all of Vlad's army.  How do you think it will go?  Well more of the Sultan's men show up just in time. 

A lot of reviews online claim this movie is nothing more than a propaganda piece by the Turks. Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know enough about Turkish politics to be able to say for sure.  The movie is very obviously pro-Turk and anti...anti bad guy? I am not sure what it is against.  I suppose it must be like seeing an American movie with a Rambo like figure, or seven of them, fighting some Commie, or Nazi, or whomever we are mad at today.  I guess this is "Team America: World Police."

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Game content.  Well, it would not be bad to get a good feel for how you could run Barovia with a more 15th-century feel as opposed to the Hammer-Horror filter of the 15th to 19th Century.  How about this. A group of elite, obviously Good, warriors (fighters, barbarians, bards, a ranger, and paladin) whose only purpose is to destroy vampires and Strahd in particular.  Maybe something like the Order of St. Johan. 

Are there better, more historically accurate tales? Of course. But this is a place to start for some D&D background. 

October 2021
Viewed: 54
First Time Views: 41

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Tim Knight of Hero Press and Pun Isaac of Halls of the Nephilim along with myself are getting together at the Facebook Group I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters to discuss these movies.  Follow along with the hashtag #IdRatherBeWatchingMonsters.

Clerics in D&D

There has been a lot of talk of clerics and their value in a D&D game.  This ranges from the the old school of whether or not the Cleric is an appropriate trope for a fantasy game to the new school of whether a cleric is needed in a game that also has healing surges.

Here are some posts to illustrate what I mean,
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110426
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110503#74170
http://lawfulindifferent.blogspot.com/2011/04/god-i-hate-clerics.html
http://daegames.blogspot.com/2011/04/who-wants-to-play-cleric_26.html
http://theresdungeonsdownunder.blogspot.com/2011/05/making-cleric-cleric-blank-religion.html

I am firmly in the camp of Clerics are as much a part of D&D as Fighters, Wizards and Thieves.

My first character ever was Father Johan Weper, Cleric of the God of the Sun, Hunter of the Undead. He was a bit of a generic cleric to be honest, and I choose the sun god because I thought that as a quasi-medieval priest  the sun would be a major feature of all the is holy, bright and good.  Plus I had been reading a bunch of Greek Myths and I though Apollo would make for a good god.  But the real reason I choose the cleric; Turning Undead.  That was an AWESOME power in my pre-teen mind.   So that has colored my views of the cleric ever since.

In real life I am an atheist, but I like the play the religious character.  So clerics, witches, druids, all fascinate me.  But clerics are where it all started.

Clerics as Occult Researchers

In nearly every other game I have ever played there have been occult researchers.  There is usually someone that is the pary's muscle, the magic-guy, the sneaky guy and then the smart guy.  Sometime the magic guy and smart guy are the same, sometimes though they are not.  The Cleric takes on the roll of the Smart Guy or the Occult Researcher.  The books, the ill fitting glasses, and the wisdom to know what to do is the roll of the cleric.

It is fairly well known that the idea behind clerical undead turning  came from Peter Cushing's Van Helsing characters in the various Hammer Dracula films.  Why not extend the metaphor to include the rest of Van Helsing's portfolio.  As a class that puts a high value on Wisdom then the cleric should be a font of knowledge. Sure, this can also be done by the Magic-User / Wiazard,  but the cleric's input should not be understated.

In D&D 3 and 4 knowledge of the undead fall within the Knowledge (Religion) or just Religion category.   These characters tend to have more training in this area than other characters.  While wizards are typically the font of magical knowledge, clerics should be the source of knowledge beyond the ken of mortal man and into the realm of the gods.

Clerics as the Party Leader
The cleric also can serve the roll as the leader. While the cleric can run the gamut of influential high priest to crazy street prophet to diabolic cult leader, players typically take on the roll of the cleric of the local church, usually good.  Certainly that is what D&D4 wants you to do and that is fine.  This type of cleric also works as the default leader, whether he/she is or not. So if this is the hand you are dealt, then play it because clerics make great leaders. Under most circumstances they access to power, money, a hierarchy and can expect a modicum of respect from the locals.  All this adds up to instant authority figure.  Even if they are not.

Cleric as the Party Medic

The obvious role.  Clerics have healing magic in earlier editions of the game, have spontaneous healing spells in the 3.x era and can activate healing surges in 4th.  The role of the cleric cannot be overstated.  Parties with out a cleric die.
During my run between 1st and 2nd Ed I created a Healer class.  It shared a number of features that my Witch class did including the ability to heal by touch as she went up in level.  Completely unneeded in 3.x of course, but in 2nd Ed it was quite a game changer.  I also made an NPC healer a pacifist.  She would never raise a weapon to any creature, unless of course it was undead and then she went all Peter Cushing on them.  But running that class and character (she was the only character I ever made for that class) showed me how important the healing aspect was.  There was not just the regaining hit points, there was the player morale.  Also since the character was an NPC it was easy not to have her fight, but the Players really did everything they could to protect her.

BTW. Her name was Celene Weper and she was the youngest daughter of Father Werper above.  Yes clerics in my world get married and have kids, since it is a life affirming thing.
Plus keep in mind that Clerics as Healers has a long tradition even in our own world.  If ever a character decided to become a pure healing cleric and take an oath of non violence then I would give them XP for every hitpoint cured and a share of combat XP.  I would also give them 2x the starting funds (even though they would give what they don't spend back to the church) to represent the investment their churches/hospitals have made in them.  After all, can't send a healer out into the world with shoddy armor. Reflects bad on their organization.

Clerics as Combatants?
It almost seems counter to the above, but clerics are the second best major class when it comes to fighting.  Only fighters (and their related classes) are better.  The get good saves vs. magic due to their high wisdom, or Will saves for the same reason and their saves are pretty decent to start with.   Plus they have one thing fighters don't have, the  ability to use magic.  So what you say, so can Wizards and even your favorite witch.  Yes, but can they do it in field plate armor?  Clerics can.  Sure they do not get the combat spells the wizard gets, but they have a few good ones too.  Creeping Doom is a nasty little spell for Druids.  Finger of Death and reversed Heal spells can also ruin someone's day.
In games without Paladins, Clerics are the "righteous fist of (their) god".  Wizards don't smite.
Clerics can also be one of the few character types that can actually kill monsters with out the moral hnagups.  Even fighters, who get paid, and thieves, that might be working as assassins, don't get the same kind of "get out of jail free card" as do clerics operating within the doctrines of their faith and church.  Think back to the Crusades and the Inquisition, the faithful got away with murder, torture and even more horrible crimes in the name of their God and the law had little to say about it or were in collusion with them.

Clerics might then be one of the more well rounded characters in the group.