Divine Favor

[DouglasCole]

Meet Cadmus:

Originally Posted by Brother Cadmus (280 points)

Age 28; Human; 6'1"; 200 lbs.; Solidly built, friendly looking, moves with purpose.
ST 13* [30]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 12 [20]. Damage 1d/2d; BL 34 lb; HP 13 [0]; Will 14 [10]; Per 12 [0]; FP 12 [0]. Basic Speed 6.25 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 12 (Shield)†; Dodge 10†; Parry 12 (Axe/Mace)†.


Social Background
TL: 3 [0].
CF: Inner Sea.
Languages: Taldane (Native/None); Trade Speak (Broken/None). [0]

Advantages
Combat Reflexes [15]; Divine Favor 8 [45]; Learned Prayer (Final Rest) [1]; Learned Prayer (Flesh Wounds) [4]; Learned Prayer (Lay on Hands) [8]; Learned Prayer (Spirit Weapon) [5]; Striking ST 1 [5]; Trading Character Points for Money $2,500 [5].

Perks: Shield-Wall Training; Shtick (Beings killed cannot rise as Undead); Skill Adaptation (Judo Throw defaults to Axe/Mace); Suit Familiarity (Armory/TL3); Weapon Bond (Axe/Mace) [5].

Disadvantages
Code of Honor (Pharasmic Code) [-10]; Honesty (15 or less) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Ameiko Kaijitsu) [-2]; Vow (Own no more than horse can carry) [-10].

Quirks: Does not put himself in the lead role willingly [-1]; Follows an escalation of force (knobbed club, hammer, axe) , kills grudgingly [-1]; Very competitive, but doesn't start competitions [-1]; Loves to gamble [-1]; Not evangelical; helps people meet their fate, but doesn't push or preach [-1]

Skills
Animal Handling (Equines) (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Armoury/TL3 (Body Armor) (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Armoury/TL3 (Melee Weapons) (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Axe/Mace (A) DX+4 [16]-17‡; Bow (A) DX-1 [1]-12; Carousing (E) HT [1]-12; Climbing (A) DX-1 [1]-12; First Aid/TL3 (Human) (E) IQ [1]-12; Gambling (A) IQ [2]-12; Heraldry (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Hiking (A) HT-1 [1]-11; Holy Warrior! (WC) IQ-1 [12]-11; Observation (A) Per-1 [1]-11; Polearm (A) DX+1 [4]-14; Riding (Equines) (A) DX-1 [1]-12; Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ [1]-12; Shield (Shield) (E) DX+3 [8]-16; Shortsword (A) DX [2]-13; Stealth (A) DX-1 [1]-12; Swimming (E) HT [1]-12; Wrestling (A) DX-1 [1]-12.

Techniques: Arm Lock (Wrestling) (A) [2]-14; Armed Grapple (Axe/Mace) (H) [0]-15; Armed Grapple (Polearm) (H) [0]-12; Disarming (Axe/Mace) (H) [0]-17; Judo Throw (Axe/Mace) (H) [0]-17; Sweep (Axe/Mace) (H) [0]-14; Targeted Attack (Axe/Mace Swing/Neck) (H) [3]-14; Trip (Wrestling) (H) [0]-9; Wrist Lock (Wrestling) (A) [0]-12.

Conditional +1 from 'Striking ST'.
† Includes +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'. ‡Conditional +1 from 'Weapon Bond (Axe/Mace)'.

Right now, he's an interesting mix, but he's not a very good fighter compared to the ST 14 gargoyle warrior with Weapon Master or the ST 17 faun barbarian, he's not the healer that the Mystic Theurge is (nor does he have the breadth of spells to cast), the Infernal Scout can pepper targets with 2 arrows per turn at range, and our thief is all social and sneaky and stuff. Note we're playing with an altered Disad limit, and I'm at it; only jiggle the positive points!

So poor Cadmus is a second-rate fighter, a backup healer, and doesn't have any special powers vs. the Undead (which was supposed to be his niche, but it seems to have gotten lost in the chargen shuffle).

Toning down his Learned Prayer: Lay on Hands to the above version by RPK and dropping to DivFav 6 would free up points for either more holy abilities or more smackdown.

I'm open to suggestions!

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I'm open to suggestions!

Your Speed is not an integer value. You can save 5 CP right there, for almost no loss.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Your Speed is not an integer value. You can save 5 CP right there, for almost no loss.

That would bring me over the campaign disad limit, and I've already benefited once in-game for being Speed 6.25 vs. Speed 6.

I have no issues in any case with non-integer values of speed, since it can (as above) give a vital edge in some cases.

What I'm really looking for, as I said in my post, is jiggering with the POSITIVE points. Specifically:

* I want to be as good a fighter as possible, while
* Maintaining an actual edge/niche as a kicker of Undead coccyx, and
* Having utility as a backup healer in case Brother Michel, our primary, goes down

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Meet Cadmus:
Right now, he's an interesting mix, but he's not a very good fighter compared to the ST 14 gargoyle warrior with Weapon Master or the ST 17 faun barbarian, he's not the healer that the Mystic Theurge is (nor does he have the breadth of spells to cast)

My character has Major Healing-15, Healing Slumber-16, Cure Disease-15, and Recover Energy-15. He can reliably heal a person for 16 points of damage (taking about 30-40 minutes to recover the energy) per day, plus Healing Slumber at night.

Your character can reliably heal a person for 24 points of damage, recovering the damage in 34 minutes.

How is my character a better healer?

And well my character has more spells, your character has MIRACLES. My character casts Shape Water, your character can potentially part the oceans. That's a fair breadth of supernatural ability.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

My character has Major Healing-15, Healing Slumber-16, Cure Disease-15, and Recover Energy-15. He can reliably heal a person for 16 points of damage (taking about 30-40 minutes to recover the energy) per day, plus Healing Slumber at night.

Your character can reliably heal a person for 24 points of damage, recovering the damage in 34 minutes.

How is my character a better healer?

Honestly, i guess he isn't. I figured that since I was told we needed a backup healer, and I was it, that you were better.

And well my character has more spells, your character has MIRACLES. My character casts Shape Water, your character can potentially part the oceans. That's a fair breadth of supernatural ability.

Well, the assembled multitudes made it quite plain how unreliable that was, thus I discounted it. Perhaps I need to go back and re-establish what I can do. It's been probably 4 years since I've played GURPS at all, and the last game I ran was a Firefly campaign.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Well, the assembled multitudes made it quite plain how unreliable that was, thus I discounted it. Perhaps I need to go back and re-establish what I can do. It's been probably 4 years since I've played GURPS at all, and the last game I ran was a Firefly campaign.

Petitioning for Miracles can be pretty unreliable, if you're off adventuring and have limited access to church resources - with Favor 6 you have a low chance of being heard. However, when you have the support of a Church you can accumulate enough modifiers to make sure your prayer goes through (a faithful congregation, place of high Sanctity, time enough for a long and involved prayer, etc). Also, what a successful prayer can gain for you can vary based on how well it matches the wishes of your god, and how faithful you've been recently. Even a cleric of modest Favor can achieve great effects if the need is dire.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Petitioning for Miracles can be pretty unreliable, if you're off adventuring and have limited access to church resources - with Favor 6 you have a low chance of being heard.

Yes but Learned Prayers are much more reliable. About as much as a spell.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Yes but Learned Prayers are much more reliable. About as much as a spell.

Oh, definitely. But as noted, while they are quite cheap for their potency, they also require a correspondingly large investment in Divine Favor itself. So it's nice to get use out of that advantage too, beyond just as an Unusual Background for learned prayers.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Oh, definitely. But as noted, while they are quite cheap for their potency, they also require a correspondingly large investment in Divine Favor itself. So it's nice to get use out of that advantage too, beyond just as an Unusual Background for learned prayers.

Oh I agree! When I was building my Magic as Powers system I had an issue with that and wanted the Core power to have value in its own right.
I was not knocking the Divine Favor advantage so much as pointing out why his LP would be effective. Since he was thinking they made him weaker then the primary healer.
However as he notes the Mystic does have more versatility.
A spell buy in is 1 point, few LPs are that cheap. So as with most Magic as Powers schemes you get a lot of reliability and power but not as much versatility for the same price as most of the magic systems.
For Priest types I think that works out fine though.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Also, what a successful prayer can gain for you can vary based on how well it matches the wishes of your god, and how faithful you've been recently. Even a cleric of modest Favor can achieve great effects if the need is dire.

On the petition roll, in a DF-type situation:
You can pretty reliably get +2 if you shout and have five minutes to spare, +3 if there's time for 2 hours. 2 hour setups are likely to be "Well crud, the entrance to the dungeon caved in" or "This puzzle lock door is two feet thick of steel and we're running out of ideas" or "The orks cut the bridge! Now how do we cross the Impassable Chasm of Doom!?" type situations - ones where there's a big problem, but it's not immediately stabbing anyone.
DF2 has notes about reconsecrating dungeon altars - that would kick them over to a temporary Holy Area, for another +1. It's also an Amusing nod to nethack.

In a dungeon we're unlikely to find a high holy area but stranger things have happened. Ditto finding 25+ devout servitors of Pharisma.

So just wandering around, you can probably count on +2 reliably, and possibly up to +4. In Towns you might be able to get that up to +6 (or even +7 or +8 if it's a major temple and 1000 worshipers turn out...). My advice is bet on +2 Out Of Town, and +4-5 In Town.

As noted in the Warrior Saints article, if you're petitioning in persuit of a Higher Purpose, the bonus applies here too. [1]

An idea is to talk to Nate about getting a Gadget that' gives you a level or two of Divine Favor - a holy relic that gives you better Pharisma Reception :) A particularly variant idea is to wadd up ALL your Divine Favor into a Holy Symbol, Can be Stolen, Can be Broken, Can be Replaced, Doesn't Work Immediately for the thief - nearly stereotypical AD&D cleric powers there - your stuff doesn't work without a Focus item, but you can get a new one from a temple.

This can make it a LOT cheaper, but will also mean that you'll periodically be deprived of your powers until we reach a new temple of Pharisma, which is kind of sad.

DR 3-5, -15%
Requires inconvenient time/effort to replace (temple only), -15%
SM -6 for serious bling holy symbol, -10% or SM 7 for a merely impressive 5" one, -5%
Can be stolen by stealth or trickery (not immediately useful), -10%

Potential total of -50% (-45% if it's 5" instead of 8") which would drop your points already spent on Divine Favour down to 34 from 68 (not counting downgrading your heal) - the difference could buy you more Divine Favour reliability, which also unlocks more learned prayers that can be used for general kick-butt-itude. I strongly recommend Righteous Fury (Divine Favor 7) or Guide my Hand (Divine Favor 8) from Antoni's Warrior Saint article if you want to refocus on some (general purpose) combat ability.

However with those points you could bump up to Divine Favor 10 and get Holy Fire to REALLY explode the undead...