Healing Hands - A DCC Spell for Wizards

Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics and most other systems that follow in (A)DnD's footsteps have a strong cut between arcane and divine magic. For most players, especially early on, the biggest difference will be:"wizards can't heal. Clerics can". 

Arcane healing has been a stable of fantasy literature, but is still amiss in many of my favorite role playing games. While there are many good reasons to keep wizards from healing their allies, i have changed this for my DCC games. I wanted to give the wizard a way of healing his comrades and reworked the lay on hands ability from the cleric into a level 1 spell. Go have a look at

Healing Touch

The Reasoning behind this is quite simple. I am not fond of the game feel the cleric provides. Healing is too easy and i strongly dislike how most Fantasy games deal with the restoration of hit points. This version of lay on hands discourages wizards from constantly healing their allies up to max hp and the fear of loosing the spell makes it more of a helpful tool and less of a character defining core ability

I don't want to go too deep into the details of why i dislike the clerical healing ability in it's current state. It has been in so many games and there is a good reason. It's not objectively bad, just not befitting of my personal taste. Yes. There are changes to lay on hands. The alignment reliability is gone and it gets worse with every attempt. Those are all intentional designs to better fit a more scholarly approach to healing spells.

So the final question is: "who will be interested in such a spell?". Not everyone likes the cleric and the concept of divine magic. I can't recall which episode of Spellburn discussed this topic, but a suggestion was to drop the cleric class in it's entirety and treat gods as patrons. This spell makes it easier to adapt this kind of play.

I am in the process of completely reworking my current campaign setting for DCC and i want to get rid of clerics in the process and replace them with a completely new class. Both, the rework and the class will soon make their way to this blog. Roleplaying currently takes a backseat. While i run many convention games i am not playing much within my home group. 

Not fantasy wise at least. I recently started a semi-open Traveller campaign for my local gaming meet up and am in the preparation for running the dark of hot spring island. Not sure if any of those will find their way onto this blog. 

Furthermore i got back into tabletop gaming within the last half year. I just love the system and setting of infinity and starting over with it has been a blast. This blog has never been designed to be a exclusive DCC or role playing blog, so maybe some things will find their way here. But i will keep to the style of this blog and won't post any pictures of miniatures. Maybe scenarios or the rule set i work on for a upcoming campaign (that might or might not happen). If you like miniatures though, check out A butterfly's hobby tally. This blog belongs to a close friend of mine who is one of my infinity colleagues and has been roleplaying with me since more than ten years ago.

This post has kind of dissolved into banter, but don't worry. I won't post until i have something to show for it.

Hog - God of Beasts and Combat

Here comes another God of Thireila. The chaotic and destructive Hog - God of Beasts and Combat.

While most of the Gods want to carry their ideals out into the wide world of Thireila, Hogs goals are more simple. Hog wants to see the most impressive combatants, men or beast, have the most brutal fights one could think of. Those who follow him are warriors and savages, mercenaries and brutes, looking for evergrowing challenges and rewards on the fields of battle. Whether they go alone or in groups, they don't care. They pray through their actions, not with their words. And while some belief in the constant struggle and fight, most follow Hog because his powers reward those who spend all their life fighting. 

The whole deity entry can be found here.

And now for something completly different.

Yesterday some books arrived at my home. Goodman Games 4th Printing of the Dungeon Alphabet, as well as the most current edition of the Monster Alphabet completed their journey, from the printing press in america to my lovely home in germany. I had the Pdfs to toy around with for some time now but those books just screamed at me that i finally should put them to good use.

Most of the time, when designing a dungeon, i design an Adventure first. I know why my party wants to go there and what they want. i know what the locations purpose in the story is and i know what awaits them. Yesterday i drew a map without any clue what it's going to be. I just started drawing and ended up with this

But this is not just a attempt to hone my (quite lackluster) drwaing skills. No. This will turn into a fledged out Dungeon next week. I will use my Special Places Chart from Rolling Through Regions, to randomly determine what this location will be and then i'll sit down with nothing but a pen, this map and the Dungeon and Monster Alphabet to fill this one with life. And you'll get the result and a quick report on how it went. I am looking forward to this!

Travendra - Goddess of Fate and Death

Today i give you only a small update to the World of Thireila in form of another god, following up on last weeks entry for the Gods of Thireila.

There are many things uncertain in Thireila. But what remains constant is that humans won't understand everything that happens in the world and, that all humans will die someday. These are the domains of Travendra. Travendra watches over the fate of the world and teaches humans to accept what happens in their life and to them. She is neither cruel nor forgiving as she does not interfere with the world in direct ways. Nobody knows whether she only follows fate or weaves it.

The whole deity entry can be found here.

The Gods of Thireila

I am currently re-designing some of the aspects of Thireila. This article has not yet been reworked, but will soon be updated!

Today we're gonna take a closer look at the deitys of the World Thireila, which i presented last week. This post will feature specifics about the clerics of Thireila and as well as the detiled entry for one of the gods. others will follow within the next few months.

Thireila has seen many powerful creatures. Some mighty enough to claim the title god for themselves. The gods had powers far beyond imagination, not linked to the magic some weaker races wield. Those beings have shaped our world like none other, have sprouted and raised some civilizations, as well as they have brought doom to others. Some gods live in our realm, some have their own home in a distant plane, but most influence our world to this day. This Post will mostly focus on the Gods worshipped by humanity.

The Gods of the Human Race

The Gods that brought humanity into existence were among the first beings to wander this world. They spent centuries travelling and shaping the world, building friendships and rivalries among each other. The thirst for power lead the civilizations of Thireila towards magical experiments, which brought the first demonic invasion upon the world. The Gods could, after a long war, send the demons back to their home Ifrinn, but the damage was done.

The gods then proceeded to help fill the world with life again and brought forth the race of humans. As peace settled in and humans claimed the world the gods resigned from creating, as they fell enamoured with the humans and created avatars to live among them. Distracted by mortal pleasures the Hordes of Ifrinn could make their return.

The gods were overwhelmed by this army and as the full invasion began they could not stand their ground. After months of losses they struck one final plan: All Gods left combined their power to banish the demons once and for all. This Ritual lasted one day and shaped the world forever. The energies set free burnt land and cities. the living races had to pay a high bloodtoll but the attack hit the demons harder. Not many demons survived and those that did were without leadership and scattered across the land. The Plane of Demons was sealed again, but the gods were nowhere to be found.

As the world recovered from nearly beeing destroyed humans that lived by the rules and principles of the gods began to feel a power flowing through them. The gods were still alive but not among the living anymore. They became bodyless entities and the only way to impact the world they had left was to grant humans power to carry out their will. They became worshiped or feared but could no longer walk the land as they once did.

Those gods are the gods humanity worships today.

The Gods of Humanity
Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Imna - Goddess of Honor	Janu - God of Diplomacy and Secrets	Elyra - Goddess of Mysteries and Magic*
Parthia - Goddess of Justice and Nobility	Molyk - God of Creation	Hog - God of Beasts and Combat
Paturo - God of Wisdom and Age	Tirif - Goddess of Nature and Weather	Matho - God of Desperation and Hope
Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health	Tjorael - God of Hospitality and Alcohol	Olnoth - God of Pestilence and Illness
Torgej - God of Craftsmanship and Trade	Travendra - Goddess of Death and Fate	Shantu Sulfar - Goddess of Alchemy and the Moon
Vorlukay - God of the Undead	Urr - God of War	Zeyai - Goddess of the Sea

* Elyra has only few clerics and mostly acts as a patron to aspiring Magicians  

Clerics in Thireila 

The existance of the gods is not up for debate so the only question for most beeings is wheter they can identify with the ideals of a single god or a group of gods enough to worship them over all others. It is common for humans to follow the path of a god but some take it one step further and devote their entire life to a single god. Those people are called "clerics" and are able to summon the power of the gods.

Some clerics and faithful organize in churches or ordos but others find faith on their own. Not all people choose the god which they follow sometimes a god chooses a human to carry out his will. The Gods don't take the servitude of their followers lightly and reward them by helping them on their encounters and lending them powers. But a Human who abuses his powers or betrays his god might soon find out how the real wrath of his god can feel.

The importance of the churchs and gods varries on a regional basis, depending on the interest of the gods, the faith of the people there and the intents of the rulers. Some rulers even forbid the worship of specific gods. While the gods mostly lend their powers to humans some of other races have been able to follow their calling and join the ranks of the clerics.

Playing a Cleric 

 

Thireila hosts some changes to the way Clerics are played in Dungeon Crawl Classics. There are two major changes. Disapproval and Deity specific abilities. These changes all depend on the specific Godthe cleric follows. If no Entry for the god of the cleric has been released than these changes don't take place and the cleric follows the normal rules presented in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Book.

Deity Abilities

Each Deity alters the way of the core abilities in some minor or major way. Specifics are detailed in each gods entry. 

Deity Spells

Each God gives his clerics access to one or more spells only his clerics may use. These spells can be aquired once a cleric has a level high enough to learn spells of that level. Deity specific spells use a "Spells known" slot as normal spells do and a cleric does not have to learn them.

Deity Requests 

Each god entry comes with a table of six god specific deity requests. These can be used instead of the table in the core book or in addition to it. If combining both simply use a d16 and treat the results in these new tables as entries 11-16.

Disapproval

In Thireila the gods are more aware of the deeds of their faithful. So their punishment is more concrete. Every God has its own disapproval tables, which are divided into three categories. Lay on Hands, Turn Unholy and Spellcasting. Instead of rolling a Number of d4 equal to the result of the roll which caused disapproval, simply take the result and compare it to the table corresponding with the action, which caused disapproval. If the disapproval has come up as a result of a Divine Aid roll, then refert to the table best fitting to the request and deed.

Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health.

The Pure god, The savior of Mankind, the Helpful Hand. Ralwonir is all this and far more. He watches over the humans, protecting those, who follow the right path and are of pure heart. He rejects those who only thirst for power and fame, those who willingly put others at risk and those who have any malicious intent. His vision of humanity is a vision of humble, grateful, helpful and loyal beings and he will do everything to protect his faithful who are building this vision. Those who failed his Vision may have the chance of redemption, as Ralwonirs hopes for humanity are far too high to let people fall easily.

Deity Entry (click to open):
Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health