Topic: Combined Wizard and Cleric
Has anyone created a merged Wizard/Cleric class that they could share? I was thinking the combined Wizard/Cleric in the OSR "Crypts and Things." However it's missing Summon.
- Yuritau
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Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
You'd have to decide not to care about how Law and Chaos interact in the LotFP rules (think oil & water, or perhaps matter & anti-matter) to make a wizard/cleric cross happen.
- JimLotFP
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Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
Or just say "The Cleric Doesn't Exist," and put the Cleric spells on the M-U lists (with a bit different fluff in some cases, like changing Bless to Luck or something).
Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
Yea, that's easy!
So, sort of two ideas:
1. make the Cleric and Magic User into one class, combine the lists but take away the "flashiest" spells (like magic missile) but leave anything ritualistic, creepy, or subtle;
2. have people run the Cleric as a Witch Hunter. I don't know why but that one doesn't bother me at all.
- Yuritau
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Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
You could just as easily say that arcane magic (Magic Users and Elves) is new enough in your world/campaign that the gods are still totally pissed off about it, and therefore most clerics believe most firmly that hunting down and eradicating arcane magic is in the best interest of society (not ENTIRELY wrong, heh).
If you do that, let the MU and Cleric spell lists overlap somewhat (mostly in the form of select Cleric spells being available to MUs) so that the MUs are basically stealing power from the gods.
Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts about this. If you look at the Appendix N type fiction, you'll find lots of Magic Users, Fighters, and Theives, but rarely clerics. When you do find clerics, they're more like Magic Users who can summon things related to their god.
My guess as to why clerics exist at all is for a mechaical need - players are squishy so you need some way to fix that.
I've seen lots of other fixes that match the Appendix N fiction better - (1) 1 strong drink/day -> restores hit points; (2) body points = Con or starting HP, additional HP are your "luck/skill/stun" and restore either overnight or a chunk after a rest; (3) magic users can make vigor-restorative potions.
- fmitchell
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Re: Combined Wizard and Cleric
PencilBoy99 wrote:
I've seen lots of other fixes that match the Appendix N fiction better - (1) 1 strong drink/day -> restores hit points; (2) body points = Con or starting HP, additional HP are your "luck/skill/stun" and restore either overnight or a chunk after a rest; (3) magic users can make vigor-restorative potions.
My preferred solution is a variation on #2: 0 HP isn't the point at which you go unconscious/die, but the point at which you START getting really hurt. Earlier versions of Warhammer Fantasy did this. IIRC, in 2nd edition if your HP dipped below zero the GM added the number of points negative to a random d10 roll to determine what horrible and potentially lethal injury you took. The higher the number, the worse your injury, leading up to evisceration, decapitation, rapid exsanguination, and far more colorful causes of death (if shades of red count as different colors). Spirit of the Century's stress track works similarly, if less lethally: run out of physical stress boxes and you start taking Consequences which enemies or cruel fate (i.e. the GM) can use against you.
Magicians with healing magic aren't completely unheard of, either. Usually it's not "gain 1d8 HP" so much as "my healing arts saved your life". This solution dovetails with #2: once serious injuries are taken care of, the hero recovers within a few days of rest. Not medically realistic -- scar tissue? physical therapy? hello? -- but Conan knows nothing of secondary infections.
I've also thought that there should be more NPC alchemists, mundane healers, and mystical herbalists in a game world. Take your buddy to the Wise Woman of a nearby village and he'll be as right as rain in a couple of days. Heck, maybe that explains why more people in your pseudo-medieval fantasy world aren't keeling over from dysentery, plague, cholera, or gangrene.
Last edited by fmitchell (2013-09-15 06:03:36)
Frank Mitchell
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." -- Anatole France
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." -- Anatole France