GURPS Powers: Divine Favor

[demonsbane]

Rejoice, my brothers! Our prayers have been answered with the release of GURPS Powers: Divine Favor!

[Mailanka]

I really liked this one, and I'm considering using it to replace clerical magic in Dungeon Fantasy. My only complaints so far is that the book focuses entirely on goody-two-shoes gods, but that's barely a quibble as the book gives me all the tools I need to make my own sets of divine powers. A slightly larger quibble is that I can't find the variation of Blessed in there that boosts your stats. I was kinda hoping to see what he did with that, or if that even needs to be covered by these (but he had other forms of Blessed, like the font, in the book).

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I really liked this one, and I'm considering using it to replace clerical magic in Dungeon Fantasy.

Mrff rff mmmrfl? *spits out the PDF briefly*

Yeah, I'm officially making it an option for players in my game - replace PI, spells, and the powers from DF with Divine Favor instead. Or mix both, but that's going to take a stinkton of points, and neither system gives bonuses to the other so I don't recommend it for starting characters.

Originally Posted by Mailanka

My only complaints so far is that the book focuses entirely on goody-two-shoes gods, but that's barely a quibble as the book gives me all the tools I need to make my own sets of divine powers. A slightly larger quibble is that I can't find the variation of Blessed in there that boosts your stats. I was kinda hoping to see what he did with that, or if that even needs to be covered by these (but he had other forms of Blessed, like the font, in the book).

As a +5 to Strength and Climbing (plus one free reroll) only until you climb back up, and complete restoration of FP, was the example for a Neutral reaction when begging for generic help while hanging off a cliff over a Pit of Doom, it seems that it would be a pretty modest miracle.

[dataweaver]

One option that I'm considering for this: because they were originally adapted from the Improvement Through Study rules, I figure that it shouldn't be hard to adapt the Meditative Magic rules from GURPS Fantasy (pp.161-162) for use as the means for a paragon to acquire Learned Prayers: the easiest way would be to say that the "energy cost" to acquire a Learned Prayer via the Meditative Magic rules is 25 times the listed point cost. Simple, straightforward, and very much in keeping with the intended feel of Divine Favor.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yeah, I'm officially making it an option for players in my game - replace PI, spells, and the powers from DF with Divine Favor instead. Or mix both, but that's going to take a stinkton of points, and neither system gives bonuses to the other so I don't recommend it for starting characters.

Learned prayers seem like they might be a bit too powerful for the point costs, given you can do them as often as you want at no cost.

[munin]

Hmm. For learned prayers such as Confidence (p. 8) which have a "recharge" time, that recharge time seems only to apply to that learned prayer and not to the entire set of alternative abilities. Is that right?

[Anders]

Probably. Point don't really matter for general prayer, except to set what level of reaction roll is needed. So limitations should be less of a hassle as well.

Anyone else tinkering with Compartmentalized mind ("Only for prayers") to allow mroe than one prayer at once?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Learned prayers seem like they might be a bit too powerful for the point costs, given you can do them as often as you want at no cost.

You can only do one Learned Prayer at a time, and while you're doing those, you can't do any other prayers at all.

This makes them Not Cheap At All.

A One Prayer Cleric, who does Protection from Evil (Enhanced) all the time, has spent not only 7 points for the Prayer, but also 35 points for the Divine Favor - instead of just 33 points for the basic True Faith Reliable Turning combo.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I really liked this one

Glad that everyone who's picked it up has enjoyed it so much! I prayed for such a response . . . :)

I'm considering using it to replace clerical magic in Dungeon Fantasy.

That's one of the explicit things I wanted it to be able to handle -- hence the "dungeon delving" flavor to a few of the miracles (e.g., Smite).

Other important genres that I had in mind include the Deadlands setting (this is perfect for Blessed characters -- and note that cursed lands resist Consecrate Ground with effective HT equal to (Fear Level * 4)) and Monster Hunters (and yes, there are guidelines in MH1 for using Divine Favor instead of <FNORD> if you'd prefer to do so). But frankly, there shouldn't be many settings (featuring at least one interventionist god) that Divine Favor can't fit into.

My only complaints so far is that the book focuses entirely on goody-two-shoes gods, but that's barely a quibble as the book gives me all the tools I need to make my own sets of divine powers.

I thought about trying to get really expansive with it, but then decided that it was important to keep it as simple and focused as possible. IMO, a true take on "Unholy Favor" could be its own supplement. (Note to writers: Hint, hint . . .)

A slightly larger quibble is that I can't find the variation of Blessed in there that boosts your stats. I was kinda hoping to see what he did with that, or if that even needs to be covered by these (but he had other forms of Blessed, like the font, in the book).

Yeah, I know that's kind of weird leaving Heroic Feats out of the loop, but hear me out on this:

I played with a few different builds of Heroic Feats and simply could not come up with two miracles (a normal + an Enhanced) that felt like the definitive ones. For example, I considered doing a 10 point (boost one attribute) and a 30 point (boost all three), then thought about doing a 30 points (+1d to all three) and a 60-point (+2d), and then several more. In the end, I decided that the "best" combination of the two would depend on the GM.

So then it occurs to me that if I leave Heroic Feats as an obvious omission, it gives the reader/GM an easy opening to build his very first custom Learned Prayer! In other words, this is an advantage for which it is simultaneously (A) very easy to build a prayer from, yet (B) something everyone will want to take a slightly different approach to. When I realized that, I decided to consciously leave it off. So, while that may or may not have been a smart move, it was at least a willing one. :)

Originally Posted by Bruno

You can only do one Learned Prayer at a time, and while you're doing those, you can't do any other prayers at all.

This makes them Not Cheap At All.

Exactly. It's important not to overlook that -- a learned prayer comes with some amazing benefits, but also one huge special drawback.

A One Prayer Cleric, who does Protection from Evil (Enhanced) all the time, has spent not only 7 points for the Prayer, but also 35 points for the Divine Favor - instead of just 33 points for the basic True Faith Reliable Turning combo.

QFT. The learned prayers are cheap, but only because you can't buy them until you've sunk a lot of points into Divine Favor. You cannot just look at the Learned Prayer Cost for each and think of that as the "real cost"! If you want to part the seas, it doesn't cost you 32 points to do so -- it costs you 202 points! Because these use the Alternative Advantage rules, this is one case where the prerequisite cost is a balancing factor.

[Kromm]

I stand among men
Speaker and servant of gods
Divine spark in hand

— Some hack

New on e23 this week is GURPS Powers: Divine Favor, by the suitably named Rev. Pee Kitty. Remember how GURPS Psionic Powers took all the complicated lessons of GURPS Powers and used them to build ready-made power frameworks for psionics? This supplement does the same for holy abilities – the sort that part seas and smite the undead. It comes with all the trimmings, including rules for praying for spontaneous miracles, numerous fully worked set-piece abilities, several new variations on the Blessed advantage, thoughts on tying divine powers to priestly rank and clerical magic, and advice on such campaign-planning issues as "one god vs. many" and "good vs. evil." Whether your goal is to empower flashy Dungeon Fantasy clerics or to give a cult priest sinister gifts in a modern-day horror campaign, Divine Favor is like a gift from the gods.