Cleric Training Packages

Cleric Training Packages Table

#	Training Package	Races	Backgrounds	Alignment
1	Canon	human	all	lawful
2	Cultist	all	all	chaotic
3	Druid	all	all	neutral
4	Templar	human	all	lawful

Canon

Piero di Cosimo, Anthony the Great 

Items: clerical vestment (10 g); healing poultice (100 g); holy water (25 g); silver cross (25 g)

Skills: divinity; scholarship; scribe

Powers: bonus spell points (4 per level)

Weaknesses: reduced attack bonus (+1 per 3 levels); reduced hit dice (1d4)

Races: human

Backgrounds: all

Alignment: lawful

Description: A canon (short for ‘canon regular’) is a clergyman in an organized church of lawful alignment. Examples of canons include priests, monks, and friars. Canons are trained as community leaders, scholars, healers, and exorcists; they are not trained to fight.

Bonus Spell Points: A canon receives 4 spell points per level, instead of 3 per level.

Reduced Attack Bonus: A canon has a lower attack bonus than other clerics of his level: +1 per 3 levels, instead of +1 per 2 levels.

Reduced Hit Dice: A canon uses 1d4 instead of 1d6 for his hit dice.

Cultist

From Compendium Maleficarum, 1608

Items: dark cloak (10 g); flask of poison (100 g); ritual dagger (unholy item; 25 g)

Skills: hide in shadows; move silently; occult lore

Powers: blood sacrifice

Weaknesses: none

Races: all

Backgrounds: all

Alignment: chaotic

Description: A cultist is a follower of a demon lord, chaos god, or other being of chaotic alignment. Cultists must generally operate in secret, since worship of chaotic beings is forbidden in human lands.

Blood Sacrifice: A cultist gains additional magical power by performing a blood sacrifice. A blood sacrifice may be performed once per month. The ritual takes one hour to perform, and culminates in the sacrifice of one or more persons. The sacrifice requires a ritual dagger, which costs 25 groats and one week to prepare, but which may be reused indefinitely. The sacrificial ritual also involves the burning of rare incense (50 g), and other materials costing 1d6 x 10 groats.

After the sacrifice has been performed, the cultist gains the ability to cast a number of spell points equal to the total hit dice of the person or persons sacrificed. The maximum number of spell points which a cultist can gain is equal to his experience level. The spell points may be “held” up to one month until cast.

Druid

William Stukeley, A British Druid

Items: fine robe (10 g); gnarled staff (1 g); golden torc (50 g); mistletoe (holy item; 1 g)

Skills: herb lore; occult lore; outdoor survival

Powers: saving throw bonus; one with nature; immune to charm; shape change (3 times per day)

Weaknesses: none

Races: all

Backgrounds: all

Alignment: neutral

Description: A druid is a pagan priest who worships one or more of the elemental or faerie lords. Druids spend a decade or more memorizing a large body of traditional lore, including astrology, grammar, history, laws, mythology, rhetoric, rituals, and spells. Druids are highly respected by members of their society, and they act as counselors, judges, and negotiators.

Saving Throw Bonus: A druid receives a +2 bonus on saving throws vs. any attack form associated with the material elements—earth, air, water, or fire.

One with Nature: At 2nd level and above, a druid is able to identify without error plants, animals, minerals, and pure water, and is able to pass unimpeded through dense foliage or other natural terrain.

Immune to Charm: At 5th level and above, a druid is immune to all charm spells or powers used by Seelie or Unseelie faeries.

Shape Change: At 5th level and above, a druid can change his shape into that of an animal. The druid can change shape up to three times per day in total—specifically, up to once per day in these three categories: bird, mammal, and reptile. When a druid changes shape, he also heals 1d6 x 10% of lost hit points (if any).

Templar

Knights Templar

Items: chainmail (100 g); holy water (25 g); long sword (20 g); silver cross (holy item; 25 g)

Skills: divinity; riding; scholarship

Powers: armor proficiency (all); weapon proficiency (all)

Weaknesses: restricted magic weapon use

Races: human

Backgrounds: all

Alignment: lawful

Description: A Templar is a member of a militant religious order dedicated to defending his church and spreading the faith, through violent conquest if need be. Members of Templar orders are trained for war, but are fully ordained clergymen, who take sacred vows, such as poverty, chastity, and obedience. Templars often dwell in borderlands or other areas troubled by monsters, witches, cultists, or heretics.

Members of Templar orders are divided into knights and sergeants. Knights are of noble birth, and occupy most of the leadership positions in a Templar order, while sergeants are of common birth, and always rank beneath sergeants.

Templar orders also include some canons, who serve as preachers, confessors, and administrators, but who do not themselves take part in battle (except under duress).

Most Templars live together in commanderies, which are similar to abbeys, but which are more heavily fortified. Commanderies are found both in towns and in the country. Occasionally, a lone Templar or small group of Templars are stationed in a location which lacks a commandery. There are also itinerant Templars who patrol remote regions and borderlands.

Restricted Magic Weapon Use: While a Templar has proficiency with all weapons, he is unable to use most magic weapons. A Templar may only make use of a magic weapon if it was originally enchanted (sanctified) by a cleric of lawful alignment. 

Designer's Notes

I took the idea for Training Packages from Kevin Crawford's excellent Stars Without Number. They are essentially bundles or packages of bonus items, bonus skills, and powers and weaknesses, which provide differentiation to characters of the same adventuring class.

The canon training package represents medieval Christian canons regular, and can be used for most kinds of clergymen from "lawful" religions (including, perhaps, rabbis, Sufi sheikhs and other Muslim holy men, Hindu Brahmans, and Buddhist monks).

The cultist is based on traditional beliefs about witches and demon-worshipers. The Original D&D "Evil High Priest" (EHP) would be a cultist of 9th level.

The druid training package is based on the Original D&D druid, although the ITD druid's items, skills, and description are influenced by traditional accounts of ancient Celtic druids. The chief difference is that, unlike the Original D&D druid, the ITD druid does not have its own spell list, but rather uses the exact same spell list as the cleric. 

This might seem like a radical change, but there are two very good reasons for it: (1) In older editions of D&D, the spell-casting sub-classes often got shafted when it came to their spell lists (see also: the illusionist vs. the magic-user). The D&D druid has fewer healing spells than the cleric, for example, and not much else to compensate for this significant loss. (2) The cleric spell list actually represents the reputed abilities of druids about as well as it represents the reputed abilities of Christian clergymen and other priests or holy men. The D&D druid spell list is not based on traditional accounts of druids, but rather on modern fantasy accounts of druids. 

The Templar most closely approximates the standard D&D cleric, with the notable exception that a Templar is proficient with all kinds of weapons (not just "bludgeoning" weapons). The rule prohibiting Templars from using most magical weapons is intended to help preserve the fighter's niche, but is also inspired by the wording of the Original D&D rule governing cleric use of weapons, which on one reading only forbids clerics from using magical edged weapons: "they have the use of magic armor and all non-edged magic weapons" (Men & Magic, p. 7).

Values for items are listed in silver groats (g). A groat is the standard unit of currency in Into the Dark. One groat equals 4 pence, and 1 penny equals 4 farthings. The groat substitutes for the 'gold piece', the penny for the 'silver piece', and the farthing for the 'copper piece'.

The skill rules (such as they are) will be covered in a later post. Basically, a skill roll is an ability roll modified by the character's experience level. This is similar to the proficiency bonus in D&D 5e, except that the bonus for having a skill is exactly equal to the character's level. Characters in Into the Dark are not intended to advance much beyond 9th level, so there is a de facto cap of around +10 or so for skill bonuses (otherwise, the bonuses would not scale well with ability rolls for characters of very high level).

Clerics

Anthony the Great (Armenian icon, 16th century)

Prime Requisite:           wisdom

Hit Dice:                      1d6 per level

Attack Bonus:              +1 per 2 levels

Spell Points:                 3 per level

Armor Proficiency:      none

Weapon Proficiency:   club, dagger, mace, staff

Powers:                        cast cleric spells; spirit ward

Cleric Experience Level Table

XP Level	HD	AB	SP	Max. Spell Level
1	1d6	0	3	1
2	2d6	+1	6	1
3	3d6	+1	9	2
4	4d6	+2	12	2
5	5d6	+2	15	3
6	6d6	+3	18	3
7	7d6	+3	21	4
8	8d6	+4	24	4
9	9d6	+4	27	5

Cleric Description

A cleric is a devoted follower of a god or spirit. Some clerics are hermits or wanderers, but most are leaders of religious communities.

The type of divine being served by a cleric depends on his alignment. Lawful clerics are monotheists who worship God, the saints, or angels. Neutral clerics are pagans who worship one or more elemental or faerie lords. Chaotic clerics are cultists who worship demon lords or chaos gods.

In addition to a general religious affiliation, every cleric has a particular divine patron of his player’s choosing.

Cleric Powers

Cast Cleric Spells

A cleric can learn to cast any spell from the cleric spell list. The maximum level of spell a cleric can learn is equal to his experience level divided by two (rounded up). A cleric is required to learn spells individually, either by reading a book or scroll, or by being taught by another cleric who already knows the spell.

In order to learn a new spell, a cleric must spend one week in prayer and study per level of the spell, and he must make a successful wisdom roll at the end of the time spent. Failure means that the cleric must spend one more week in prayer and study before being allowed to make another wisdom roll.

A cleric receives 3 spell points per experience level. A cleric’s maximum spell point score is modified by his wisdom bonus.

Spirit Ward

A cleric can attempt to ward off designated spirits within a 12” radius.

To determine the success of an attempted spirit ward, consult the following table, and cross-index the cleric’s experience level with the spirit’s monster level.

Spirit Ward Table

	Cleric Level
Spirit Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	7	W	W	D	D	D	D	D	D
2	9	7	W	W	D	D	D	D	D
3	11	9	7	W	W	D	D	D	D
4	-	11	9	7	W	W	D	D	D
5	-	-	11	9	7	W	W	D	D
6	-	-	-	11	9	7	W	W	D
7	-	-	-	-	11	9	7	W	W
8	-	-	-	-	-	11	9	7	W
9	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	9	7

A number indicates the minimum result on a 2d6 roll which the cleric needs to successfully ward off the spirits. This Spirit Ward roll is modified by the cleric’s wisdom bonus. If spirits of more than one monster level are designated by the cleric as targets, the same roll is used to determine the success of the ward against the various types of spirits.

A result of “W” indicates that the spirit is automatically warded.

A result of “D” indicates that the spirit is automatically dispelled to its world of origin.

Up to 2d6 spirits are affected by a single spirit ward. If multiple types of spirits are designated by the cleric, spirits with lower monster levels are counted as affected before spirits with higher monster levels.

A warded spirit is unable to attack, cast spells, or use powers which directly affect the cleric or his designated allies within the area of effect. A warded spirit is not forced to flee. A spirit ward lasts up to 2d6 turns.

A dispelled spirit is unable to return to the cleric’s world unless it is magically summoned by another character or creature.

Designer's Notes

The D&D cleric has always been something of an odd duck, as Delta has discussed in his numerous and trenchant critiques of the class. For Into the Dark, I have changed the cleric class to be a better fit with medieval Christian clergymen, and with legends and folklore about priests and holy men.

1. Clerics are not assumed to have training in combat. They are proficient in simple weapons, and have no armor proficiency. They have the same attack bonus as magic-users.

2. To represent cleric characters who do have military training, a player can use the Templar training package (to be discussed in a future post). Templars are proficient in all weapons and armor (like the medieval crusading orders), and are not restricted to bludgeoning weapons (which reflects neither history nor legend).

3. Cleric spellcasting has been changed to more closely match that of magic-users. Clerics must learn spells individually, either from texts or from other clerics.

Cleric spells can be conceived as religious rituals, such as the kind found in liturgical manuals or manuals of exorcism. Not all religious rituals are intended to perform supernatural effects, but many are, such as blessings, exorcisms, and some purification rituals.

Conceiving cleric spells as rituals does ignore another kind of supernatural powers traditionally associated with priests, which is the ability to perform miracles. Miracles are not always (and not usually) associated with the performance of particular rituals; in general, they seem more spontaneous, and do not typically follow a predetermined script.

However, for game purposes, it seems fine to group miracle working together with the subset of cleric rituals that produce magical effects, and to call both of these "cleric spells," even though this does elide an important distinction, and involves a nonstandard use of the word 'spell'.

4. The Turn Undead ability has been changed to Spirit Ward. Most traditional religions do in fact regard priests as having the power to control spirits. For example, in Buddhism, certain texts from the Pali Canon (such as the Atanatiya Sutta) are traditionally recited by monks to provide protection from spirits. The Turn Undead ability is too narrow to reflect this belief, since it only grants clerics power over spirits of the dead, but the ability is easily expanded to cover other kinds of spirits.

In addition to expanding the ability to cover all spirits, Spirit Ward has been restricted so that it does not force spirits to flee, but rather prevents them from harming or otherwise affecting the cleric and his associates. This seems to match the legends and traditional beliefs, and also apparently resembles the original interpretation of the Turn Undead rule itself. 

Class Statistics

Designer's Notes

This blog post is a fitting occasion to express some general thoughts about Into the Dark (my house rules for old-school D&D). 

On the one hand, the OSR community needs another set of house rules with roughly the same urgency that the People's Republic of China needs another vacant housing project. There are already a glut of rulesets out there with nary a smidgen of difference or uniqueness to justify their sad, pathetic, lonely existence. (Ahem.)

On the other hand, since I returned to gaming about 5 or so years ago, I have been diligently searching for an old school game which fits the needs of my campaigns, but have not yet found one that I can use out of the box for either Twilight Empire (Gothic fantasy) or Britannia (Dark Ages Britain). To a certain extent this is inevitable; even DM's who use published rulesets, such as OD&D or B/X D&D (my personal favorites), end up tweaking things here and there to fit their particular preferences and campaign settings.

Why even use D&D if it doesn't fit the campaigns out-of-the-box? Like many in the OSR community, I appreciate the familiarity, ease-in-play, and flexibility of old-school D&D. I also appreciate being able to drop any number of well-written old-school D&D modules, adventure locations, monsters, spells, magic items, and so forth into my own campaign. So these are reasons for sticking with some flavor of old-school D&D. 

The main thing I want to add or change is to "tilt" D&D towards more accurately reflecting the society, culture, religion, magic, and legends of historical societies. Straight D&D does lend itself to historical fantasy gaming--consider, for example, the excellent Historical Reference series of books for AD&D 2nd edition, including Vikings, Celts, and Charlemagne's Paladins, among others. But, in general, the various editions of D&D don't do a very good job of representing the traditional cultures and societies whose beliefs and practices inspired much of the source material for D&D. 

Some examples: 

1. Player characters in D&D are generally differentiated by adventuring class and fantasy race, but not so much by family, social class (noble, serf, yeoman, burger), or society (town, country, nomad, hunter-gatherer).

2. Depictions of fantasy races, especially dwarves and halflings, are based more on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien than on traditional beliefs about fairies. 

3. D&D's Vancian/fire-and-forget magic system does not have much of a precedent in traditional stories of magic and miracles.

4. The cleric class does not accurately reflect medieval Christian clergymen, either canons regular or the military orders, much less non-Christian priests.

5. Interaction with spirits (summoning, binding, warding, banishing, exorcising, etc.) plays less of a role in D&D magic than in traditional stories about magic. 

This is not a criticism of D&D, because representing traditional cultures and societies was never what the game was trying to do. It does mean that D&D could use some tweaking before being used with a historical fantasy campaign setting.

An example of an old school D&D product which exemplifies the kind of tweaking I am talking about is the Oriental Adventures rulebook and series of modules for AD&D. The game is still recognizably D&D, but the added rules for family, honor, birth rank, and nonweapon proficiencies help infuse the culture and society of feudal Japan into the game's characters and adventures. There are plenty of problems with Oriental Adventures, of course--for example, the classes have been made too powerful in comparison with those from the AD&D Player's Handbook, and many of the new rules are overly fiddly and complex--but Oriental Adventures still effectively illustrates how to tilt D&D in the direction of historical fantasy, while still retaining the hallmarks of the game.

What follows is the first in a series of posts about classes in Into the Dark. The main changes I have made are (1) the introduction of spell points, (2) changes to the cleric class, and (3) the addition of class-based training packages. I will say a little bit about the reasons for each of these three changes.

Spell Points: While  not explicitly present in traditional stories about magic, but a spell points system seems to better capture the feel of such stories than a Vancian system. Traditional stories do not generally feature wizards who memorize or prepare a spell in anticipation of actually casting it later; in general, for spells which require lengthy preparation, the preparation is itself part of the ritual used to cast the spell. Also, spell points might with some justification be glossed as 'prana' (South and Central Asia) or 'qi' (East Asia)--or at least the fit here seems to be closer than that between Vancian magic and traditional European ritual magic.

In general, spells from traditional stories seem to fall into two kinds: (1) spells which can be recited and cast extemporaneously in a handful of seconds or minutes, mainly by reciting words, sometimes by using gestures (such as Tantric mudras); (2) spells which require lengthy rituals to perform, but which go into effect immediately at the end of the ritual. Into the Dark will include both kinds of spells: the former have a casting time of 1 round, the latter of 1 hour or more.

Clerics: Clerics in Into the Dark are not presumed to have military training, unless they have the Templar training package. As such, they have limited weapon and armor proficiency.

Training Packages: Training packages further differentiate character's role and abilities, without adding a lot of decision points or lengthy lists of powers (as with 3rd, 4th, and 5th edition D&D). Like backgrounds, training packages create several pieces of additional information about a character from a single decision point. Into the Dark's backgrounds and training packages are inspired by the background packages and training packages of the excellent Stars without Number.

This post only includes the Class Summary table and a brief description of the main class statistics. Future posts will have rules for the four classes and their training packages.

Class Statistics

Class Summary Table

Class	PR	HD	AB	SP	AP	WP
Cleric (C)	W	1d6 per level	+1 per 2 levels	3 per level	none	club, dagger, mace, staff
Fighter (F)	S	1d8 per level	+1 per 1 level	0	all	all
Magic-User (M)	I	1d4 per level	+1 per 3 levels	3 per level	none	dagger, staff
Thief (T)	D	1d6 per level	+1 per 2 levels	0	quilted	all

Prime Requisite (PR)

A character must have a score of 9 or higher in his class’s prime requisite.

Hit Dice (HD)

A character gains one hit die per experience level. A character receives the maximum hit points for the first hit die. Each additional hit die is rolled once, at the beginning of each experience level, and added to the previously rolled hit dice to determine the character’s maximum hit points. Each hit die roll is modified by a character’s constitution bonus. A negative constitution bonus cannot reduce a hit die roll below 1.

Attack Bonus (AB)

A character’s attack bonus is added to both melee and ranged attack rolls.

Spell Points (SP)

Members of spell-casting classes gain a fixed amount of spell points per experience level.

A character’s maximum spell points score is equal to spell points per level times experience level. A character’s current spell points score begins at the maximum spell points score, and is then reduced as the character pays the spell point cost to cast spells. Casting a spell costs one spell point per level of the spell.

A character is unable to cast further spells when his current spell points score is reduced to 0. A character’s current spell points score may not be reduced below 0.

A character regains one-half of his maximum spell points score after 4 hours of sleep.

Armor Proficiency (AP)

A character’s class determines which kids of armor he is proficient with. If a character wears non-proficient armor, he suffers a -2 penalty to rolls involving physical actions (including attack rolls, constitution rolls, dexterity rolls, and strength rolls, but not including damage rolls).

A cleric or magic-user who wears non-proficient armor is unable to cast spells. Multi-classed clerics or magic-users are able to cast spells if using proficient armor.

Weapon Proficiency (WP)

A character receives a -2 penalty on attack rolls when attacking with a non-proficient weapon.