Grimdark Campaign character help

[Umbra_Ex_Sol]

Okay, so my regular core group of DnDers have given up our usual "Rule of Cool" gaming for a realistic, full ruleset 3.0-3.5 DnD Campaign.

It's set in a Grimdark setting, much like Berserk (the anime/manga). World full of demons, Heaven loses its battle on Earth and goes off to protect the rest of the planes, lose a battle to win the war. But now the world is terrible. Mages and druids have disappeared (demons eat their souls, magic is TASTY), demons hide and are legend, superstition and secrecy reign supreme. Worst of all, clerics have no holy powers to back them up. They rely solely on force of will and the faith they have in themselves. Their powers are now more like some sort of medieval Jedi.

I'm playing a priest, based off of one of my favorite characters from a book, etc etc.
Each of our player characters knows for a fact that demons exist because we are cursed by one- whereas other people believe in superstition, we know the truth. My curse is a game breaker though- I have to slay demons and grow in faith or else God sleeps forever. Basically, I have to reawaken God b doing great acts of Justice, and most importantly slaying demons. But it's a sort of timer...if I wait too long, God's eyes shut forever, the rest of the Pantheon is cut off from Earth, and holiness is gone.

Problem herein is: the only way to get the kill ona demon is to get the killing blow. It gets worse: all of my companions want that killing blow as well, to ease their own personal curses.So as of right now, the reason I'm posting this is that I need help on how to give my character s a little more oomph.

He's level 7, has a high (18) wisdom score (like a good priest, but also because of his willpower needed to fight). He has 4 unfilled feats, and no access to regular priest spells or powers. I can minor heal, and fight until I awaken my God and have great power. I also am slated for one magical item of my choice.

I need to get these killing blows- and I need to be able to survive. that's Paramount. This is no longer my groups normal kiddie DnD, dying is a very real possibility.

If you guys have ANY suggestions, i'd be very glad for the input.
All I know for now is that I'm taking the leadership feat so I can gain followers, and that I can prestige a bit (the rules can be bent a little since my spells are gone, so it's more about HD than having level 2 holy spells, etc)

[Umbra_Ex_Sol]

Bump for help?
No one has a reply? :(

[Particle_Man]

I suggest that you organize with your fellow PCs so that you can (as a group) immobilize/etc. the demon (non-lethal damage?) and then coup de gras the demon (x4 crit weapons are good for this; the -4 non-proficiency penalty to attack rolls is irrelevant with coup de gras). Since each of you has curses that require killing blows, you can take turns on the kills. If you have a party of 5, you will kill a demon every 5 demons you face.

If you are competing or the kills it will go bad for all of you, I fear.

[onemorelurker]

For me, at least, it's hard to tell you what to do for a cleric who's essentially been houseruled into unrecognizableness. So you have no spells, no domain powers, and (presumably) no Turn Undead? In this case, you'll probably have a better chance of surviving if you multiclass into some sort of martial class, since the Cleric chassis, stripped of all its features, is nothing to write home about.

[Umbra_Ex_Sol]

I'm thinking about dipping into fighter, just for the sake of extra BAB and some extra feats, but I need to stay mostly cleric because, if I achieve my goals, I become a true priest- which is even more powerful than a regular cleric, it's a sort of homebrew. Angel gaurds you, holy powers, etc. I might be able to sneak in some paladin, but not sure if it's worth it.

And I thought about taking turns with the demons- problem is, if we speak to each other about our curses, they get worse. I could try to make some in game case about needing the kills, but essentially we're going to be competing because our characters don't know that we all need kills. Basically, our curses are supposed to be hidden from each other, to create tension.

as for my powers, we get some stuff. DM mentioned turning, and my "force" powers (basically, it's like Bigsby's spells, I guess).

[onemorelurker]

And I thought about taking turns with the demons- problem is, if we speak to each other about our curses, they get worse. I could try to make some in game case about needing the kills, but essentially we're going to be competing because our characters don't know that we all need kills. Basically, our curses are supposed to be hidden from each other, to create tension.

Do your characters know that if they talk about their curses, they'll get worse? And what, exactly, counts as "talking about a curse?" Is it talking about the specifics of your personal curse? Is it mentioning that you have a curse? Is it saying that you need to get kills for a reason you can't talk about?

Because if everyone knows not to talk about curses and none of the characters are particularly selfish jerks, I think you guys could easily have a conversation that ends in agreeing to take turns with kills without ever having to trip the Talking About Your Curse Alarm.

[Umbra_Ex_Sol]

particularly selfish jerks

Crap.

Let me put it this way: the only curses I know about from ingame stuff are: one guy has a curse that, at night, a plague of hellhounds comes to drag him to hell. If he kills a demon, they don't show for a night. If he talks about it, the number of hellhounds goes up exponentially. He's the only one that can see/hear them.

Our wizard (the one who is delicious to demons the guy who- if eaten- could have us all killed by a demon mana-rampaging) has a beacon on his stomach that can tell humans he's demon marked, and can also do something else I haven't puzzled out. If He kills a demon, it turns off for a day.

We all know we're cursed, but we don't know with what. I've been puzzling it out, but I'm also playing with two-three people who tend to play for themselves, and in this campaign where we've been encouraged not to risk our lives, even for a party member, they're only going to see their goals.

As for talking about it- the lighter we step, the better. And we have to be careful because of a new house rule DM has implemented called Sins. 5 sins and you die a horribly gruesome death, no saves, nothing. These are acrued by metagaming (or acting out of character)- so it proves impossible to set anything up beforehand, or to even bring it up out of context to what my character knows.

Oh, it's also prudent to nkow that each of our characters trusts no one. We've already had multiple traitors, people we trusted...The number one rule of this campaign is TRUST NO ONE. So it's hard dealing with each other so early on.

[Particle_Man]

Play it out until the inevitable campaign death, and then run a nicer campaign with nicer people? :smallsmile:

[Kuulvheysoon]

Actually, a bit of trikery seems called for. If you're not inherently good, lie. Say something about how you need to kill demons to gather enough power to kill off one of the great demon lords, but you need a certain amount of... let's say demon hearts.

Or something similar - but make sure that it seems that solving your curse could help/solve another character's curse as well. Once another player is convinced that you have similar goals, work 'together' (make sure to actually help the guy, though), and try to solve your curse.

Is there any way to tell how close your God is to awakening? Or is it entirely up to DM fiat?

[OracleofSilence]

This is not really constructive at all, but i would simply not play a "priest" (odd though it may seem). If anything, to be honest, would try to find a way to bow out politely, 'cause that environment is going to turn very, very not fun.

Failing that, try pointing out that in this sort of setting, characters need to work together more then in any other. Construct complicated (and given the existence of a wizard (who demons seem to like eating, not that hard) plots to hunt 5+ demons per day, and split the kills between everyone. This will encourage party unity, increase survivability, and most importantly, keep everyone friendly.

[onemorelurker]

This is not really constructive at all, but i would simply not play a "priest" (odd though it may seem). If anything, to be honest, would try to find a way to bow out politely, 'cause that environment is going to turn very, very not fun.

I agree that playing a priest here seems like a bad idea from a survivability standpoint. I recognize that there are interesting roleplaying opportunities associated with your character concept, but crunch obviously matters here too, and you're playing, essentially, an Expert with a worse skill list. Ask your DM if you can play something with actual class features (a Crusader, maybe) that shifts into priest mode if the deity ever awakens. Utterly crippling yourself in the hope of being very powerful one day, with the advent of that day being dependent on your ability to function in your utterly crippled state, is a bad strategy.

[OracleofSilence]

Utterly crippling yourself in the hope of being very powerful one day, with the advent of that day being dependent on your ability to function in your utterly crippled state, is a bad strategy.

Furthermore, it will utterly destroy any tentative party balance at the point when it comes online, at least assuming that the campaign lasts that ong, which, given selfish players and unforgiving rules, it most likely will not.