The Bounty Hunter for Dolmenwood

 Self promo update!

I have just released my first custom class for Dolmenwood RPG, check it out on drive thru rpg!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/542433/the-bounty-hunter

Old School Essentials Divine Spell Lists

 Previously I looked at how arcane spell lists work in OSE before creating my Shadowmancer class so now I am considering new cleric spell lists it is time to do the same thing for divine casters.

When it comes to divine casters there is only the Cleric and Druid in official material for OSE and they both have shorter spell lists so while less work, less data to compare. Each class gets access to a total of 30 spells over 5 levels and they share 5 spells although there is some further overlap with spells like neutralize poison vs slow poison. Some what interesting to note is that the druid gets to dispel magic while the cleric does not.

The druid has slightly more defensive spells, otherwise the spell types are broadly similar between classes. 

Which spells should all clerics have access too?

 If as in my last post we are assuming clerics of different gods will have different spell lists to reflect their patron's domain then what if any spells are common to all clerics?

We can assume there are three categories of spells on the default cleric spells list then, spells shared by all clerics, spells which may be shared and spells which are likely not shared. For the moment I am only interested in the first category.

1st level	cure light wounds*
	detect evil
	detect magic
	light*
	protection from Evil
	purify food and water
	remove fear*
	resist cold

At first level you can make a definite case for detect magic to be shared, it is the most utilitarian of spells, cure light wounds seems like an obvious one as well although that may be partly a tendency for players to have an ingrained feeling that clerics should be heal bots. I suppose I could see the case for putting the fear of your god into someone and there by removing it too, this is not exactly how the spell is written even if it could be imagined that way. Detect evil and protection from evil feel like they could be shared spells although they may be not fit with some domains or gods, does the god of death really care about evil or do they have bigger concerns beyond mortal morality? The remaining spells all seem to be of the type that is not necessarily shared.

2nd level	bless*
	find traps
	hold person
	know alignment
	resist fire
	silence 15' radius
	snake charm
	speak with animals

I can see a really solid argument that none of these spells should be shared between all cleric types. Know alignment is the only one that seems to me it could be an always shared spell however again, some domains may be above mortal morality.

3rd level	continual light*
	cure disease*
	growth of animal
	locate object
	remove curse*
	striking

Considering level three I think that to curse or remove a curse would be something all faiths could do and I am leaning towards curse disease being on the list too but could be convinced otherwise. Healing the faithful be that wounds or disease seems like a common trait to most domains, again death being an obvious one where I could see an argument that a tenant of the faith that it is forbidden to interfere with the coming of the inevitable or some such.

4th level	create water
	cure serious wounds*
	neutralise poison
	protection from evil 10' radius
	speak with plants
	sticks to snakes

At level 4 I think we are really only faced with arguments for cure serious wounds and possible protection from evil 10' radius.

5th level	commune
	create food
	dispel evil
	insect plague
	quest*
	raise dead*

Finally we hit the big ones. All clerics should be able to commune with their god or compel a quest in my opinion, those both just seems like pillars of being a cleric regardless of who the boss is. A case can be made for dispel evil depending on where you fall on the whole issue of the spells in those evil targeting grouping. 

 To raise the dead is a thorny one, it could be a common spell, certainly popular with players once they attain it however of course the spectre of the death domain hovers where they spell would certainly be heretical. A cleric being able to strike their god's enemy dead in a single spell with finger of death certainly feels thematic, we must remember though that it is already limited to only being able to be used if drastic situations as written.

Ultimately I suppose this all comes down to what is the common fantasy of being a cleric.

On Clerics, Domains and Flavour.

 One thing I do not like about the simplification of OSE or b/x is the setting implications of the default cleric. They are just a bit too obviously coded towards a type of religion and biblical miracles. Flavour and specificity are the key to an engaging world in which to game, the default cleric just lacks that. Gavin Normal has done a great job with converting the cleric to Dolmenwood but that is a world with one church to rule them all, at least in the part of the setting we see, both in our own history and many fantasy settings there is plenty of polytheism which is not really served this way. 

In the past I have noodled around at alternate OSE or b/x clerics and paladins for different types of gods without going so far as to dip into doing full spell lists for them. Now I am thinking about going all the way which leads to wondering about how far to go with what makes up a god's domain or portfolio.

Your world has a pantheon, maybe several, you want your gods, their clerics and paladins to be distinct. What makes a domain? How many domain types is too many to pick from? Do you want a nature god, should there be animal and plant gods, are those distinct from nature as a domain? Does the tempest domain covering both sea and storm really work? What do you do when your gods have mixed domains?

I personally think that the more granular you get the more flavourful the world you are gaming in gets.  In the past on this blog I have had clerics of winter, a paladin of harvest and a cleric of festivals for example. You can look at the past attempts D&D has taken at putting real world pantheons into D&D to make them playable settings. The fifth edition DMG takes the Norse god Uller, god of hunting and winter and makes them a CN nature god which is just naff in my opinion. Is alignment really the only distinct mechanical feature that Uller has compared to Skadi, god of earth and mountains, in the same pantheon?

 If there is a god of winter I want clerics of winter, not some half hearted "that is elements of nature so you go under the nature clerics". My own homebrew world has large swathes of the world where people worship saints rather than gods, these saints can be even more specific such as a saint of bees so would a cleric of the saint of bees be just another nature cleric, a cleric of animals or something else entirely? How helpful is that as an approach? 

When it comes to spell lists you can be a bit mix and match, that is easy enough to comprehend assuming you have spell lists to start from. In my own setting Saint Ulger the Winter Wolf is both a saint of winter and war so you can rule a cleric of Saint Ulger picks spells from either the winter or war cleric spells list but what do we do about class features? My own Cleric of Winter and Cleric of War can be found on the blog, how would I mash them up for a cleric of Saint Ulger? 

 I suppose one solution would be to have different churches or temples that emphasise different aspects of a god or saint, the church of Saint Ulger the Hardy focuses on the aspects of winter in the saint's portfolio while the church of Saint Ulger the Victorious focuses on the aspects of war in the saint's portfolio and you have some potential for drama there. 

 

Of course it is the OSR, sort it out yourself is a good first rule but I would like some tools or elements to pick from rather than have to start over from first principles each time. So I am really trying to come up with a decent starting list of domains to work from.

Some comparison for domain lists from later editions of D&D.

Third edition

Air, Animal, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire, Good, Healing, Knowledge, Law, Luck, Magic, Plant, Protection, Strength, Sun, Travel, Trickery, War, Water

Fifth Edition

Arcana, Death, Forge, Grave, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Order, Peace, Tempest, Trickery, Twilight War

Neither list is entirely what I am looking for but they provide a good starting point. I definitely want the likes of winter or festivals in there, they are flavourful by being reflective of culture and provide interesting gameable options. 

All of which is to say this entire blog post is a distraction from me actually working on that list. Something to chew on if nothing actually formulated.

Blackthorn & Ramil

Two magic items to brighten up your day

 Blackthorn

A two handed +1 sword. The first time each day that blackthorn is used to kill a human or demi-human cause fear on all creatures in a 30' radius and the sword becomes a +3 for the next hour.

Ramil

A simple wooden staff bleached white by the sun, has the word "Ramil" carved into the side of it, up to three times a day when the command word is spoken a 30 foot cone of sand blasts forth from the tip of the staff.

Fungi of the Urwald Forest previewed!

 A couple of weeks ago RedMageGM was kind enough to give a short preview of my system neutral book of mushrooms that you can get on DriveThruRPG, make sure to check out the video!

Check out the video here at this time stamp.

The Garden of Reeds

 A six foot tall brick wall surrounds a compound containing an overgrown garden of reeds and an abandoned building made of thatched roof that has collapsed in on the mud walls.

During the day there is a 2-in-6 chance per hour of an elderly inhabitant of the city visiting the compound. 

 Elderly inhabitants of the city can explain that in days gone by the compound was used by the druids of the marsh for their representative in the city however the druids have not been present in the city in at least two decades. Under the guidance of the marsh druids people could be laid to rest in the reed gardens and offerings given to the spirits of the surrounding marshes.

There is a 1-in-6 chance a city inhabitant that still visits the garden knows the hex which has historically been the centre of power for the marsh druids.

Any attempt to pilfer objects that were laid as offerings into the reed beds will awaken the revengeful spirits of druids who were laid to rest in the garden.