Bruiser cleric variant

[geoffrey]

Gary Gygax wrote on p. 101 of his Necropolis module for his Dangerous Journeys: Mythus FRPG: 'Priests and Priestesses have no extraordinary ability to affect the Netherrealms creatures and beings, spirits, Unliving, Undead, and Unalive in this game system. There will be no mumbled prayer followed by a "Vaporize!" or "Shoo!" removing dangers such as these foes in this tomb! Naturally, clerical personas wield many instruments which are amongst the Susceptibilities of these sorts of creatures and beings, but there are no givens ("gimmes") here. Be sure to keep this in mind--and to gently remind players of this too, if they are veterans of game systems which make this sort of fell minions of Evil light-weights to be brushed aside with the wave of a sacred object.'

With that in mind, here is a simple idea to implement: Allow clerics to be either standard clerics or a tougher, not-afraid-to-get-my-hands-dirty kind of cleric:

1. They cannot turn undead. At all.

2. When in melee against undead, they get their level number of attacks per round. For example, a 7th-level cleric would get 7 melee attacks per round against undead. (And 1st-level clerics would get 2 melee attacks, increasing to 3 melee attacks at 3rd level.)

"No, I can't turn that wight, but since I'm a Patriarch, I get 8 attacks per round against it. Stand back. I think I can take it out in one round."

So instead of frightening undead away, the bruiser cleric wades in and kicks some ass. ;D

[vito]

Just like my favorite cleric, Hell Boy.
I like it.

[zeraser]

Would it be too unbalancing to give both abilities to all clerics, on the assumption that most would end up using only one or the other?

[Ynas Midgard]

This is a kick-ass alternative to the Cleric's turning ability (although I like the way it can be interpreted differently and have many kind of classes build on this single sub-system). I think I will offer this option to my players.