Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 03-10-07, 12:28 PM	I previously posted this on the Classes and Prestige Classes board, but I think it was misplaced. This is mostly a repost. Since the cleric role is essential to parties, but many people don't really find any of the established gods or religions appealing, and many people are wary of allowing godless clerics to just pick any two domains they want for fear of powergaming, clearer rules for clerics who don't follow established religions would be helpful in some circumstances. The objective of this post is to give some rules and fluff to such clerics. Any thoughts on this? I think that these rules would allow clerics who don't fit into any established religion while still avoiding possible abuses involved in "just pick any two domains" clerics. Background Planar Mediumship is a field of magic that involves channeling and interacting with the planes, inner and outer. As a result, planar mediums are very effective when it comes to dealing with alignment, planar travel, summoning, and channeling planar power. In terms of the magic they wield, a planar medium is identical to a cleric. However, their magic is not based on faith, but on practice, experience, and academic study, much like the magic of a wizard. In general, a planar medium is, as far as the rules are concerned, a cleric, with planar mediumship as their "religion" as far as the rules are concerned. However, in background, a planar medium is more likely to have learned at a magical academy than a temple, and planar mediumship is generally regarded as a discipline rather than a faith. A planar medium is not necessarily irreligious, any more than a rogue or fighter is. However, also like a rogue or fighter, their abilities are not dependent on their faith. The traditional divine focus of a planar medium is two concentric rings, with the outer ring symbolizing the outer planes and the inner ring symbolizing the inner planes. However, not all planar mediums have the same focus, and some might have a different focus. Rules: Domains -A planar medium selects domains from the folllowing list: air, chaos, death, earth, evil, fire, good, healing, law, and water. Each domain corresponds to an inner or outer plane (healing corresponds to the positive energy plane, and death to the negative energy plane). -A planar medium with an alignment domain must have that alignment. -A planar medium may not have two "opposing" domains, such as air and earth, death and healing, or fire and water. -If a planar medium shifts alignments and has an alignment domain for which he is no longer eligible, he loses that domain immediately and gains a new domain after one month, having learned to wield the magic of a new plane. -A planar medium may also change domains in this fashion voluntarily, giving up a domain for a month before acquiring a new one Turning, Rebuking, and Spontaneous Spellcasting -Ordinarily, a good planar medium spontaneously cures wounds and turns undead, an evil planar medium spontaneously inflicts wounds and rebukes undead, and neutral planar mediums chooses. -However, an evil planar medium with the healing domain has a sufficiently strong connection to the positive energy plane that he can choose to spontaneously cure wounds and turn undead instead of spontaneously inflicting wounds and rebuking undead, and a good planar medium with the death domain has a sufficiently strong connection to the negative energy plane that she can choose to spontaneously inflict wounds and rebuke undead instead of curing wounds and turning undead. -A neutral planar medium with the healing domain must cure and turn, and a neutral planar medium with the death domain must inflict and rebuke. -A planar medium who wishes to change whether he cures/turns or inflicts/rebukes, or one who has lost the ability to do so due to an alignment shift, may switch to the new type of energy channeled after one month of neither being able to spontaneously cure nor inflict nor being able to turn or rebuke undead. Alignment -A planar medium may be of any alignment -A planar medium may cast spells with any alignment descriptor, although, depending on the game, these actions may "drag" the planar medium toward the alignment of the descriptor. Planar Knowledge Dependency -Because their magic is dependent on intimate knowledge of the planes, to cast spells of a given level, a planar medium must have knowledge (the planes) equal to 2 + (2 x spell level). For example, to cast first level spells, a planar medium must have 4 ranks in knowledge (the planes), while to cast 6th level spells the planar medium must have 14 ranks in knowledge (the planes).
JulesCARV 03-16-07, 02:25 PM	Also, I suppose a planar medium could switch to being a normal cleric of a deity, religion, concept, or ideal, and vice versa (although most typical clerics are likely to find that their planar knowledge isn't sufficient to channel the planes very effectively). Switching from being a planar medium to being a more traditional cleric would require being of true faith, being accepted by the deity, etc: the usual requirements for switching deities. Switching from being a traditional cleric to being a planar medium would mean going a month without domains, turning, rebuking, or spontaneous cure/inflict spellcasting, but still being able to cast normal cleric spells -- so long as knowledge (the planes) is sufficient.