The Cleric - The Tactical Simulation Ruleset Way

Cleric

• Required Attributes:  None
• Alignment Requirement: Only at 5th level of higher (See Alignment) 
• Initial Armor Proficiency: Any
• Allowed Weapons: club, flail, hammer, mace, oil, staff
• Melee Attack Bonus: 1/2 Level
• Ranged Attack Bonus: 1/3 Level
• Thrown Attack Bonus: 1/3 Level
• Defenses: Normal
• Saving Throws: +3 vs Death Magic
• Initial Hit Point Roll: D8
• Initial Combat Proficiencies:  2
• Class Skills:    Religion, First aid, and choice of Education or Diplomacy
• Hit Points Gained: Levels 2-10: d8
• Levels 11+: 2
• Combat Proficiencies Gained: Levels 4,8,12,16,20
• Attacks: 1
• Class Abilities: Turn Undead, Create Scrolls, Resistance to Negative Energy, Rituals, Spell Casting, Stronghold Creation: Temple

Turn Undead: Three times per day, a cleric can attempt to Turn Undead.  They may also sacrifice an unused spell to make an additional attempt.  See Chapter XX: Combat for details on Turning Undead.

Create Scrolls: Upon reaching 4th level, the Cleric can create scrolls.  The process requires proficiency in the spell to be scribes, 100 gp pieces of materials (quills, vellum or parchment, or handcraft inks) per level of spell, as well as a full day for each level of spell.

Resistance to Negative Energy: Clerics get +3 to saving throws versus Death Magic and other negative energy attacks due to their link with the higher and lower planes.

  

Rituals: Clerics can learn and perform Rituals, as described in Chapter XX: Magic.

Spell Casting: Clerics are trained in the casting magic spells, the methods and restrictions of which are described in Chapter XX: Magic. Clerics gain bonus spells for wisdom scores.

Stronghold Creation: Temple:  At 9th level or higher, a cleric may establish a fortified religious structure, containing temple, church, or monastery, on land donated by a potentate allied with the cleric’s religious order.  At least 2500 square feet must be devoted to furthering the order’s aims.  While the land clearing and fortification must be funded as normal, religious aid and donations will compensate for the costs of the religious facilities.  Provided he keeps the surrounding area cleared, in order and peace, the cleric will receive 5 silver from each inhabitant per month as tithe from the fief’s tribute.

Dwarvish Fungal Ale

Item: Dwarvish Fungal Ale

This special dwarvish brew is both invigorating and intoxicating. The fungal additives that add a special taste can restore vigor to the drinker but also increase the effects of the alcohol in the beverage. A single serving will restore 0-3 HP (d4-1). Depending on the drinker's physiology, multiple services can induce drunkenness to the point of delirium:

Dwarves: Two servings in 8 hours, drunkenness. Three servings in 24 hours, incapicitation.

Elves: Two servings in 24 hours, drunkenness. Three servings in 12 hours, incapicitation.

Other races: Two servings in 12 hours, drunkenness. Three servings in 24 hours, incapicitation.

Combat Order and Initiative

Here's the current version of my initiative rules, largely inspired by AD&D and discussions thereof.

Combat Order and Initiative

1. Determine Distance, if unknown, between the parties.
2. Each side declares actions.
3. Determine Initiative for the round by rolling a d6 for each side.
4. Actions begin:
1. Movement (charges, closing, attempts to flee) begins
2. Attempts to Parley
3. Winners: Missiles, Magical Devices, and Casting Time 1 Spells Discharge
4. Losers: Missiles, Magical Devices and Casting Time 1 Spells Discharge
5. Charges and closing actions complete – resolve charge attacks in the order of longest weapon
6. Fighters with multiple attacks resolve their initial melee and hard combat attacks.
7. Winners: Melee and hand attacks occurs
8. Losers: Melee and hand attacks occurs
9. Grapples and unarmed combat occurs.
10. Remaining missile and melee attacks (for those with multiple attacks) occur.
5. Morale is checked.
6. Return to Step #2.

Bless - Revised

Being an excerpt from Supplement U: Investigations in Uod, and suitable for add fine adventure games.

Bless (Invocation)

Level: 1

Range: 6"

Duration: 6 turns

Area of Effect: 5" radius

Components: V, S, M (vial of holy water)

Casting Time: 1 round

Saving Throw: None

Explanation/Description: Upon invoking the blessing, all within the target radius are bless, gaining a +1 morale checks. In addition, the casters chooses one of three forms at the time of casting:

1. Blessing of Benificance - grants a +4 to all saving throws for the duration of the spell

2. Blessing of Wrath - grants +2 to hit and damage to all hand-to-hand attacks for the duration of the spell

3. Blessing of Fortitude - grants a +2 to armor class and defences for the duration of the spell

Old School Fantasy

D&D Quote of the Day

When "Lord" means "somebody who has been granted a fief of land by a noble and has knights in vassalage under him," a 9th level fighting-man looks DRASTICALLY different.

-- Old Geezer

Why AD&D is Cooler.

Druids had to fight each other to advance. That's why.

More content soon.

Rescuing a Rob Conley Comment from Obscurity

Posted on Grognardia by Rob Conley:

The Chainmail tables are meant to capture the penetration difference. The assumption was if the blow manages to penetrate it is going to kill the individual. Consider each blow in chainmail to do 1 pt of damage and normal men have 1 hp.

OD&D changes this so that damage is now a 1d6 and normal men start off with 1d6 hit points. This is to represent the variability of people and the vagaries of combat.

(Waxing Gygas me thinks)

Then in Greyhawk come the realization that some weapons are better able to hurt people if they hit. The force behind the two-handed sword is way more than a one-hander. The different types of trauma, (slash, stab, blunt) are just arbitrarily factored in.

Later on as RPGs grew more complex some start making the distinction. (GURPS, Rolemaster, Harnmaster, etc).

Separate but parallel is the need to fold in all the non-armor modifiers particularly for monsters. In the beginning AC was a straight forward representation of armor types but became divorced from the under lying armor system to become a scale measuring how are things are to hit. D20 take this to it's logical conclusions' giving armor a modifier

This whole disconnect is why in AD&D the weapon vs AC says to look at what the guy is wearing not his numerical AC.

If you want to use modifiers versus AC and not violate IP what you should do is return the chainmail roots and just list the modifiers for each weapons and include any notes for particular monsters.

You can derive the values from the chainmail table. For example (note I don't have chainmail in front of me so I making stuff up)

Longsword

+3 vs no armor

+2 vs leather

+1 vs chain

+0 vs plate

-2 vs Dragons

+1 vs Chimeras

+1 vs Trolls

+2 vs Purple Worms

You can get as complex or simple as you want as well as avoiding IP problems.

Motivations from OSRIC

A fundamental, driving assumption of OSRIC-compatible games is that the player characters are, at least partially, motivated by a desire (or need) for wealth. This need not necessarily be for reasons of greed; a cleric or paladin character, for example, could be driven to acquire money to donate to the poor, or to enable his or her superiors to construct a new church.

This has been expressed elsewhere (and by myself), but never as concisely!

Melee - Are we doing it wrong?

Years of video, miniature, and roleplaying games have propogated the idea that 'melee' is virtually any form of combat not using ranged/missile weapons or spells. Perhaps a better term than "hand to hand" or "close combat" is needed, but 'melee' is not it. Not to pick on 3rd and 4th edition D&D, but the carefully plotted movements on a grid only exacerbate the issue. The goals: give players choices, making decisions interesting and tactical, and encourage character teamwork. Nothing wrong there. The result: 5 foot squares, fixed targets, and relatively static positions.

Sorry for getting all wikipedia on y'all, but the term melee means "when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual." Why is the dictionary quoting important? Because it's historical accurate (for simulation fans) and it's what Gygax and company were thinking of (for you Grognards), and it's fun.

Look at a couple of cool (choreographed) movie fights:

Princesss Bride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC6dgtBU6Gs

Errol Flynn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10fR31jC1w

Even when it's not planned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry47zyrYGt8

Sure, duels are your typically melee, but it gives you a taste of the fluctaution of position and movement. People are moving, switching positions. Someone moves five feet, the other follow. Fixed formation fights can occur (Greek phalanxes, shield-walls, and Roman infantry techniques). They have their place and deserve their own rules. Perhaps trained fighters could use them in a dungeon corridor, but the positioning should be the exception, not the default assumption.

The idea is that melees are a mess and disorganized. The AD&D rules reflect that. Firing missile into Melee. Closing vs Charging. Spell casting during melee.

How do we reflect that?

Mosh Pits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQW8eb1P3dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOHY1YxX5iA

There is a zone of melee and zones (areas) outside it. Closing and Charging (per AD&D) get you into the zone. Fleeing and falling back get you out. Smart spell casters stay out alltogether. Large areas may have more than one melee zone. Firing missile weapons? Take your chances on shooting into the melee, or try to target some outside of the zone.