That Lanky Bugger
2007-02-08, 10:41 AM
I made a couple tweaks to Druids and Clerics which has, I've found, toned them down considerably in combat and allowed the melee types to do their melee thing. It even keeps the crunchy flavor of CoDzilla alive and instead just tones it down a wee bit. Clerics are still armored spellcasters flinging spells and Druids are still shape-shifting spellcasters with a bit of hippy in them.
For the first one, I'm posting the Cleric variant.
Cleric
Hit Die: d8
Cleric
{table]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|
1|+0|+0|+0|+2|
2|+1|+0|+0|+3|
3|+2|+1|+1|+3|
4|+3|+1|+1|+4|
5|+3|+1|+1|+4|Divine Fortitude +1
6|+4|+2|+2|+5|
7|+5|+2|+2|+5|
8|+6|+2|+2|+6|
9|+6|+3|+3|+6|
10|+7|+3|+3|+7|
11|+8|+3|+3|+7|Divine Fortitude +2
12|+9|+4|+4|+8|
13|+9|+4|+4|+8|
14|+10|+4|+4|+9|
15|+11|+5|+5|+9|
16|+12|+5|+5|+10|
17|+12|+5|+5|+10|Divine Fortitude +3
18|+13|+6|+6|+11|
19|+14|+6|+6|+11|
20|+15|+6|+6|+12|[/table]
Class Features
Weapon and Armor proficiency: Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, Light and Medium armor, and with shields (except Tower shields).
A cleric who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat and becomes proficient with Heavy armor. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category.
Spells: The Cleric casts spells as normal.
Divine Fortitude: Beginning at Level 5, the Cleric gains a +1 bonus to their Fortitude Save due to the faith of their convictions. At Level 11 this increases to a +2 bonus and at Level 17 this increases to a +3.
Spell Changes
Divine Favor
Level: Cleric 1, Paladin 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Touch
Target: 1 Creature
Duration: 3 rounds/level to a maximum of 10 rounds
Calling upon the strength and wisdom of your deity, the target gains a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for every three caster levels you have (at least +1, maximum +3). The bonus doesn’t apply to spell damage. To recieve the benefit from this spell, the target creature must be within one step of your deity's alignment.
Divine Power
Level: Cleric 4, War 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. You gain a +5 enhancement bonus to your attack rolls, a +6 enhancement bonus to strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level.
Righteous Might
Level: Cleric 5, War 5
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
This spell causes you to grow, doubling your height and multiplying your weight by 8. This increase changes your size category to the next larger one, and you gain a +4 size bonus to Strength and a +2 size bonus to Constitution. You gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your natural armor. You gain damage reduction 2/evil (if you normally channel positive energy) or damage reduction 2/good (if you normally channel negative energy). At 12th level this damage reduction becomes 4/evil or 4/good, and at 15th level it becomes 6/evil or 6/good (the maximum). Your size modifier for AC and attacks changes as appropriate to your new size category. This spell doesn’t change your speed. Determine space and reach as appropriate to your new size. If this spell is combined with Divine Power, the rapture of channeling so much of your God's power is such that you are unable to cast spells until one spell's duration ends.
Summary of Changes: The Cleric is still strong and good in a melee fight, but he no longer outshines the party's straight melee combatants. If he's forced to step up and be a front line fighter he does possess the capability to do so, but now there's a clear deliniation of who belongs where and the Cleric no longer suffers the identity crisis of being a front-line fighter and a primary spellcaster.
The lack of Heavy Armor means that if the Cleric wants to get the absolute best armor money can buy, he now has to burn a feat to use it, a feat he could probably better use to bolster his spellcasting or undead turning. Similarily, the Cleric no longer has a Good Fortitude save. If I were using variant rules I might have implemented the one which allows for three tiers of Save Progression, but I'm not so I didn't.
The big change is, of course, to the "Big Three" Cleric spells: Divine Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Might.
○ Divine Favor I liked enough to allow it to stay, but decided it'd be more useful if the Cleric had the option of blessing other party members his diety might approve of. It's technically more powerful than Bless, but lacks the area of effect and can't be used on everyone. A Chaotic Good character couldn't recieve the Divine Favor of a Lawful Good diety, for example.
○ Divine Power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/divinePower.htm) needed a change quite badly. the degree to which it outshone the Wizard's thematically similar spell Transformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/transformation.htm) was a little too much. Essentially it lost a bit on the Ability Score enhancement, but added HP and the ability to still cast spells on top of a class that's already combat oriented to begin with. Oh, and it was two levels lower so that the Cleric could begin to use it four levels before the Wizard. Thematically, it's similar to it's base idea but doesn't allow the Cleric to outshine the melee-types with a single spell.
○ Righteous Might (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/righteousMight.htm) didn't necessarily need to be toned down by itself, but when combined with the original Divine Power it was a little too broken. I just reduced the DR a bit and gave Clerics the choice of using both personal buffs or being able to cast spells in combat, an idea I gleefully swiped from the arcane Transformation spell.
Next up is the Druid variant, which is a bit more of a radical departure than the Cleric variant I've got here. Feedback is appreciated, guys. I've gotten a good response from the group I've run this variant with, including the guy who usually runs Clerics.
Edit: I've added in Divine Fortitude (leaving the Cleric's effective Fortitude at +9 instead of +6) and granted Heavy Armor proficiency to the War domain. Makes sense that the most war-like Clerics would get the training in the heaviest armor.
For the first one, I'm posting the Cleric variant.
Cleric
Hit Die: d8
Cleric
{table]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|
1|+0|+0|+0|+2|
2|+1|+0|+0|+3|
3|+2|+1|+1|+3|
4|+3|+1|+1|+4|
5|+3|+1|+1|+4|Divine Fortitude +1
6|+4|+2|+2|+5|
7|+5|+2|+2|+5|
8|+6|+2|+2|+6|
9|+6|+3|+3|+6|
10|+7|+3|+3|+7|
11|+8|+3|+3|+7|Divine Fortitude +2
12|+9|+4|+4|+8|
13|+9|+4|+4|+8|
14|+10|+4|+4|+9|
15|+11|+5|+5|+9|
16|+12|+5|+5|+10|
17|+12|+5|+5|+10|Divine Fortitude +3
18|+13|+6|+6|+11|
19|+14|+6|+6|+11|
20|+15|+6|+6|+12|[/table]
Class Features
Weapon and Armor proficiency: Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, Light and Medium armor, and with shields (except Tower shields).
A cleric who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat and becomes proficient with Heavy armor. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category.
Spells: The Cleric casts spells as normal.
Divine Fortitude: Beginning at Level 5, the Cleric gains a +1 bonus to their Fortitude Save due to the faith of their convictions. At Level 11 this increases to a +2 bonus and at Level 17 this increases to a +3.
Spell Changes
Divine Favor
Level: Cleric 1, Paladin 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Touch
Target: 1 Creature
Duration: 3 rounds/level to a maximum of 10 rounds
Calling upon the strength and wisdom of your deity, the target gains a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for every three caster levels you have (at least +1, maximum +3). The bonus doesn’t apply to spell damage. To recieve the benefit from this spell, the target creature must be within one step of your deity's alignment.
Divine Power
Level: Cleric 4, War 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. You gain a +5 enhancement bonus to your attack rolls, a +6 enhancement bonus to strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level.
Righteous Might
Level: Cleric 5, War 5
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
This spell causes you to grow, doubling your height and multiplying your weight by 8. This increase changes your size category to the next larger one, and you gain a +4 size bonus to Strength and a +2 size bonus to Constitution. You gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your natural armor. You gain damage reduction 2/evil (if you normally channel positive energy) or damage reduction 2/good (if you normally channel negative energy). At 12th level this damage reduction becomes 4/evil or 4/good, and at 15th level it becomes 6/evil or 6/good (the maximum). Your size modifier for AC and attacks changes as appropriate to your new size category. This spell doesn’t change your speed. Determine space and reach as appropriate to your new size. If this spell is combined with Divine Power, the rapture of channeling so much of your God's power is such that you are unable to cast spells until one spell's duration ends.
Summary of Changes: The Cleric is still strong and good in a melee fight, but he no longer outshines the party's straight melee combatants. If he's forced to step up and be a front line fighter he does possess the capability to do so, but now there's a clear deliniation of who belongs where and the Cleric no longer suffers the identity crisis of being a front-line fighter and a primary spellcaster.
The lack of Heavy Armor means that if the Cleric wants to get the absolute best armor money can buy, he now has to burn a feat to use it, a feat he could probably better use to bolster his spellcasting or undead turning. Similarily, the Cleric no longer has a Good Fortitude save. If I were using variant rules I might have implemented the one which allows for three tiers of Save Progression, but I'm not so I didn't.
The big change is, of course, to the "Big Three" Cleric spells: Divine Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Might.
○ Divine Favor I liked enough to allow it to stay, but decided it'd be more useful if the Cleric had the option of blessing other party members his diety might approve of. It's technically more powerful than Bless, but lacks the area of effect and can't be used on everyone. A Chaotic Good character couldn't recieve the Divine Favor of a Lawful Good diety, for example.
○ Divine Power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/divinePower.htm) needed a change quite badly. the degree to which it outshone the Wizard's thematically similar spell Transformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/transformation.htm) was a little too much. Essentially it lost a bit on the Ability Score enhancement, but added HP and the ability to still cast spells on top of a class that's already combat oriented to begin with. Oh, and it was two levels lower so that the Cleric could begin to use it four levels before the Wizard. Thematically, it's similar to it's base idea but doesn't allow the Cleric to outshine the melee-types with a single spell.
○ Righteous Might (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/righteousMight.htm) didn't necessarily need to be toned down by itself, but when combined with the original Divine Power it was a little too broken. I just reduced the DR a bit and gave Clerics the choice of using both personal buffs or being able to cast spells in combat, an idea I gleefully swiped from the arcane Transformation spell.
Next up is the Druid variant, which is a bit more of a radical departure than the Cleric variant I've got here. Feedback is appreciated, guys. I've gotten a good response from the group I've run this variant with, including the guy who usually runs Clerics.
Edit: I've added in Divine Fortitude (leaving the Cleric's effective Fortitude at +9 instead of +6) and granted Heavy Armor proficiency to the War domain. Makes sense that the most war-like Clerics would get the training in the heaviest armor.