Miracles In A Campaign

MIRACLES IN A CAMPAIGN by Thomas Weigel <[email protected]> This is a supplementary idea on how to handle spells in any given campaign to make them perhaps a bit more interesting. I'm not sure that it would work for all games, but it has been fun in a game I recently began to run, so I decided to pass it on to the great Net in the Sky. The basic idea is: 1) to enforce the 'reality' of priest spells 2) to give players more of the feeling of a priest in terms of 'spells' that the priest uses. 3) to give the Game Master a bit more control over the world. There are a few parts to this idea, and most of them are not central to the main gist (that is, throw it out if you like the basics, but not the frills ;). ----The main idea is that of the spells themselves. In the game I am running, I use the extenisve AD&D spell lists as a base to work from, not the actuality. For example, here is the spell list I gave a 1st level Druid: The Touch of Silvanus - when casting begins, animal must be within 10' of the druid, who is praying to Silvanus. Once this has begun, the animal will either Save vs. Spells or will stand still while the druid approaches and touches the animal. Thereafter, the animal can essentially be considered a 'pet' and comrade to the druid. It takes nearly an hour for this bond to be established, however. The Sight of Math - this ritual allows the druid to percieve the inherent magic in the world around her. After chanting to Math, and rubbing a small amount of animal fat over her eyes, the druid will be able to see magic items as glowing for 12 minutes thereafter, up to 30' away. Silvanus' Warning - when the druid touches a sprig of personally harvested mistletoe (age of the sprig does not matter), and chants the proper ritual prayer to Silvanus, all natural traps up to 30 feet away in a straight line will be known to the druid (natural = deadfalls, snares, or anything which affects the natural world, such as a metal spear bound into a tree). This may be repeated, at a new location, up to 4 times per level of the druid (so the druid can essentially clear a path up to 120' per level). Silvanus' Trap - when the druid gestures at the area desired with a oak wand covered in the juices of crushed holly twigs, a 4" diameter area (up to 8" away from the druid) will suddenly come alive, the plants entangling anything which is within the confines of the circle. Those creatures which make a save vs. Spells may move at half speed for the duration. The plants will continue to move in this violent manner for 10 minutes, holding all victims fast. At the end of this period, the plants will slowly unbind and return to their normal positions. Etc. All of these spells are from the Druid's list of spells, and are currently typed out for the druid in a party (I typed these because making a hand-written sheet of

ALL of the clerical spells is annoying at best - clerics and druids have access to ALL the spells of each level they can cast, remember? Ewww). When the druid wishes to do one of these, he 'casts' the spell, doing whatever necessary, and the spell occurs. Of course, the limits on number of spells castable a day are not helpful in this, but then, they don't help mages either. I simply declared, by fiat, that a druid may ask only so much of the dieties in a single day. Ask for more than that allotment, and you get the spell.. and a price. A HEAVY price. Such as recieving no spells on the following day. Or being forced to give all of your material possessions away and making penance naked in the forest. And so on. ----The second major part of the idea is that of not giving priests everything. With every cleric of Mishkal having the same spells, there is very little individuality, and very little feeling of an Order - more a feeling of a group of clones. In the catholic church (which the Gygax priest comes from), there were, indeed, certain 'miracles' which were common to all priests (such as the transformation of the bread into the flesh of Jesus Christ, or the manufacture of holy water). But there were also individuals who were 'blessed' with miracles beyond that. Almost all saints were rumored to heal with a touch, so Cure Light Wounds should be left as is, but perhaps there is a young friar just making his way through the church, very devout and holy, who can speak with animals (Speak with Animals) or perhaps a priest of the Templars who can summon a hammer of god to smite his foes with (Spiritual Hammer). Perhaps a Nun of the St. Mary's school is able to call the light of god to her, to light the paths for the faithful (Light). In all, these should be miracles individual to the particular priests, not available to all. With the druids, for example, I might give a gift from each god to a particular druid character. The end result of this: the player has the feeling of truly being a priest, not a collection of spells that could be replaced by anyone of her order, and the Game Master does not have to make a list of every single little spell in the manner that I wrote them above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Anyway, I have little else that I know of to say.. send me comments :) Thom(as) [email protected] This text may be distributed at will as long as no commercial benefit is derived from it. Personal use is encouraged. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This document has been edited for legibility purposes by OLIK / Ole A. Ringdal [email protected] / http://home.sol.no/olear --------------------------------------------------------------------------------