Opinion: Clerical Magic

I’ve long looked at Clerics as the “red-haired step-child” of D&D classes.  The number of times I’ve actually played a Cleric can be counted on one hand after a horrible accident with a band saw.  I think this comes down to two fundamental idiosyncrasies with the class.  Namely:

• Clerics cannot use piercing or slashing weapons.
• Cleric spellcasting is too derivative of the Magic-user’s spellcasting.

The prohibition against piercing or slashing weapons is understandable; while I think that Clerics should only be able to use weapons typical of their deity or faith, freely allowing them use of any and all weapons would largely obsolete the Fighting-man.

I guess that my issue with Clerical magic is that Clerics shouldn’t really be using magic a la Magic-users.  Granted they have a different selection of spells, but other than that there are no real differences between Clerical magic and Magic-user magic.  And that ain’t right; Clerics should not be doing “magic”, they should not be “casting spells”.  Clerics should be invoking and channeling the power of their deity, faith, and beliefs.

According to Clerical magic as written, every morning Clerics must pray or meditate to their diety or faith to get their spells.  Not only is this mechanically no different than Magic-users re-memorizing forgotten spells, it’s also – in my opinion - completely nonsensical.

"Dear Geoff the god of biscuits; it is I, your humble servant Eddie, humbly requesting that you allow your servant to heal light wounds once this day and to protect your followers from evil once this day.  As well.  Because I’m a Cleric and that’s what I do.  Yeah?"

Yes, Eddie is a 3rd level Cleric, heh.

It seems to me that Clerical miracles should be dynamic, based on invoking the power of your diety through your faith on a more… “as needed” basis.  I’m considering doing away with the whole “pray for spells” idiom, allowing a Cleric’s player to choose what miracle the Cleric invokes as it is being invoked.  So, for instance, Eddie the 3rd level Cleric could invoke 2 1st level miracles each day, chosen by the player as the miracle is invoked based on what’s going on in the game.  If the Cleric has been true to his faith, the miracle will be delivered as per the rules as written.  Something like...

DM: *rolls damage* Oooh, Bill the Fighting-man took an arrow to his chest.  He falls to the ground and is gurgling blood.  

Eddie’s player: Eddie can still invoke 1 more 1st level miracle today!  I run over to Bill and invoke a… *checks spell list* Cure Light Wounds!  “In the name of Geoff, the god of biscuits, BE HEALED!” 

DM: Ok, let’s see… *rolls dice for the CLW*… Geoff, the god of biscuits, hears your plea and the arrow pops out of Bill’s chest!  The wound is still open, but it looks more like a small scratch than a puncture.  He climbs back to his feet, ready to fight once again.

Swords & Wizardry: the Necromancer

On the Beyond the Black Gate blog, the author put forth a PDF of several variants to the Fighting-man class for Swords & Wizardry.  I was quite impressed with what he had done, and immediately set to work on creating variants for the Magic-user class following his examples.  The first I came up with was the Necromancer, which is presented below.

Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress.  I posted this on the Swords & Wizardry forums, but I did not receive much feedback.  Oh well, heh.  I have a similar variant in mind for the Demonologist; look for it to grace these “pages” soon.

Necromancer
The Necromancer is a Magic-user who focuses his arcane powers upon death and the dead. Necromancy is a taxing and challenging path to tread, and is not undertaken lightly. Necromancy is generally studied only by humans; while Elves are able to tread the path of the dead, there are no recorded instances of an Elvish Necromancer.

Prerequisites: Con 13+, non Lawful or Good alignment (if alignment is used.)

Banish Undead: Necromancers can banish undead as if they were a cleric of half their level (ignore fractions). “D” results are treated as if the Necromancer were Chaotic or Evil regardless of his or her actual alignment.

Servitor Zombie: Using a special ritual known only to necromancers (and unique to each necromancer), a necromancer can create a number of servitor zombies whose total hit dice do not exceed the necromancers level.  So a 2nd level necromancer could have one 2 HD servitor zombies, two 1 HD servitor zombies, four 1/2 HD servitor zombies or any combination thereof so long as his servitor zombie’s total HD did not exceed 2.

Spell Casting: Necromancers cast spells as per regular Magic-users, but because so much of the Necromancer’s studying is devoted to death and the dead, Necromancers use the Cleric tables to determine how many spells they can cast per day.

Designation of Open Game Content: all text in this post under and including the heading "Necromancer" is designated Open Game Content as outlined in section 1(d) of the Open Game License.

Opinion: Magic Missile Etymology

From Swords & Wizardry Core Rules:

There are two versions of the magic missile spell, and your Referee will specify which version (one or both) is available in his campaign: in the first version, the magic user must roll to hit the target with a +1 bonus to the roll. The missile inflicts 1d6+1 points of damage. In the second version of the spell, the missile hits automatically, doing 1d4+1 points of damage.

I read the above quote after talking to one of the players in a S&W PbP I'm running; he wanted to know how much damage the spell did and I couldn’t remember if it was 1d6+1 or 1d4+1.  I was surprised to see the two versions listed therein; S&W is based on original D&D but I couldn’t remember there being two different versions of the spell.  Especially in OD&D itself.

I had to investigate this.

I made a post to the S&W forums and, with the information gleaned from the replies, I was on my way.  I pulled out my OD&D PDFs, my Holmes, Mentzer, and Moldvay Basic Sets, my Rules Compendium, my 1E PHB, my 2E PHB, and a copy of the d20 SRD.  Here’s what I discovered:

• OD&D Supplement 1 (Greyhawk) says that MMs do 2-7 points of damage, with two additional missiles every 5 levels.  No comment is made about rolling to-hit or not.
• Holmes Basic D&D says that MMs do 2-7 points of damage, with higher level casters firing more than one missile.  A to-hit roll must be made as if it were fired from a long bow.
• Moldvay Basic D&D says that MMs do 2-7 (1d6+1) points of damage, with two additional missiles every 5 levels.  They automatically hit any visible target.
• Mentzer Basic D&D echoes Moldvay Basic D&D.
• The D&D Rules Cyclopedia echoes Moldvay Basic D&D.
• The AD&D 1E PHB says that MMs do 2-5 (1d4+1) points of damage, with one additional missile every 2 levels.  They unerringly strike their target.
• The AD&D 2E PHB echoes the 1E PHB.
• The d20 SRD echoes the 1E PHB.

So it appears that there are two different “standardizing moments” in the Magic Missile spell’s history: Moldvay Basic and AD&D first edition.  Prior to Moldvay the spell might have been consistent but it’s too vague in OD&D to be sure.  Given the Holmes clarification, I’d like to think that Mr. Gygax intended for a to-hit roll to be made in OD&D.

My answer to my player?  He could cast either version of the spell as chosen at time of casting, an answer taken straight from the S&W forums.