Rules Sketch: Granted Powers

If you’re walking in on the middle of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeons series, there’s an index here.

The challenge with granted powers is that I don’t want them to just be free spells. Let’s look at the granted powers in the “design a faith” section of the Complete Priest’s Handbook. Some are intended to replace Turn Undead as a major power, and some are useful but mainly flavourful minor powers. Everyone should get one of each, but two minor powers might replace the major if it suits your deity.

Major powers are in the text are: An automatic success on a specific saving throw each day (charm, paralysis, energy drain); Inspire fear (4th) twice per day; Suggestion (3rd) three times per day; Water breathing twice per day; Call lightning once per day; Shapechange three times per day, healing 10-60% health each time, taking clothing and one item in each hand but nothing else; Soothing words (dispel fear, rage, strong emotion, just against animals); Turn undead; Inspire rage providing a bonus to threatened damage and attack, but cannot flee; and must fight until no enemies stand; Infravision or ultravision.

There’s a lot of complexity around gating powerful spell-like abilities that I’ve breezed over, that needs to be simplified to scale similarly to Turn Undead and Shapechange. Advanced Fantasy Dungeons. Turn Undead is: Roll d20 minus level.Once per encounter. Target is 10 minus HD. Kills on a crit undead less than HD (or, 1/20 chance of cause 6 HP damage at 2nd level, increasing by 6HP per level).

Which means that major granted powers should have a strong and weak effect, the strong effect occurring on critical and affecting only those lower than your level, the weak effect occur all that “fail their save”. Let’s try major granted powers again, all on the model of Turn Undead. Once per encounter, dramatically call upon the power of your deity to:

• Call lightning. On a success, they are paralysed for a round. On a critical, threaten 1d6 damage per level. On a battle, they attempt to turn your lightning back against you.
• Call lightning. On a success, they are paralysed for a round. On a critical, threaten 1d6 damage per level. On a battle, they attempt to turn your lightning back against you.
• Inspire fear. Not effective against undead, and no additional effect on a critical.
• Suggest a reasonable action. On a success, they undertake your action for a time up to your level un hours. On a critical, they continue until the task is done. On a battle, they suggest to you.
• Inspire Rage. On a success, they rage until the battle is done with 1 bonus to threat and attack. On a critical, the bonus is equal to your level.
• Soothing Words, against a specific group. On a success, strong emotions are soothed and reactions are now neutral. On a critical, magically affected emotions are soothed.

This leaves us with a shapechanger category of powers. These are considered equivalent to Turn Undead but are self-facing. Shapechange looks like this in the text: At 7th level, Shapechange into any animal, Three times per day, Healing 10-60% health each time, Take only clothing and one item in each hand. One preselected non-combat shape (a bird) is considered 3rd level in the Complete Priests Handbook, which helps.

So perhaps our model is: Shapechange, once per sunrise. At first level, choose a single animal incapable of threatening damage. At fifth level, change into any animal. At ninth level and every four levels thereafter, change shape an additional time per sunrise. Take only clothing and one item in each hand. No. Too complex. Let’s frame the other inwards-facing powers around this better version:

• Shapechange, once per sunrise, taking only your clothing and one item in each hand. Choose a single animal incapable of threatening damage. At eighth level, choose two of: change into any animal, change three times per sunrise, or heal d6 times your level whenever you change.
• Waterbreathing, once per sunrise, affecting only yourself, for one turn. At eighth level, choose two: yourself and one other person, three times per sunrise, effect a bubble ten feet in diameter, for one hour.
• Infravision, once per sunrise, affecting only yourself, for one round. At eighth level, choose two: simultaneous normal vision and infravision, for one turn, or yourself and one other person.
• Walk on water, once per sunrise, affecting yourself only, for one turn. At eighth level, choose two: for one hour, yourself and one other, three times in a sunrise.
• Automatically succeed on a specific saving throw, once per sunrise. At eighth level, choose two: Succeed on a fortune check against target 10 every time but at all times, three times per sunrise, aura ten feet in diameter centred on you. Examples include charm effects, paralysis, energy drain, ranged weapons.

Minor powers are usually at will, with the exception of laying on of hands or harm. A bunch of flavourful minor powers that should totally be here aren’t here, things like make flowers bloom and booming voice, so let’s add them in.

• Identify a category of persons, places, or things in melee range. (Beast, script, monster, spell)
• Detect a category of persons, places, or things in melee range (graves, cheating, matching or opposing ethos, secret, depth underwater, treasure, passage of time)
• Analyse a category of persons, places, or things in melee range for additional information (plants, fields, quality of goods)
• Immunity to something minor (spoiled food, intoxication, feeling cold)
• Defy obstacle (ice isn’t slippery, climb doesn’t slow, underbrush can be ignored, pass through fire)
• Speak a specific unusual language (birds, wolves, brownies)
• Lay on hands or lay on harm once per day as per paladin
• Cause a specific small sensory or physical effect (booming voice, a candle flame, glowing eyes, cold snap, a flower blooms, birds sing)
• Weapon mastery (bows, hammers)

Yipes, that was a big one. The key here is that they’re specific to your deity. So, like heritage, you create your god, and you pick your powers and your ethos from the list, and you’re sorted.

This has been a part of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon Series! Let me know your thoughts on granted powers for priests!

Idle Cartulary

13th June 2022