Clerics and deities

[AllenOwen]

So the Cleric, and the Evil Cleric in DFRPG seem to be, rather generic by design. How would one go about making them specific to a deity if your setting has specific gods and goddesses?

[DaosusLeghki]

If you don't mind a bit of a Norse flavor, Doug Cole's Hand of Asgard is quite good. It gives each diety some extra powers, choices, and customizes the spell list.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by DaosusLeghki

If you don't mind a bit of a Norse flavor, Doug Cole's Hand of Asgard is quite good. It gives each diety some extra powers, choices, and customizes the spell list.

As Kromm notes above, this is more properly "Kevin Smyth's Hand of Asgard." While I provided some Nordlondr reference material, served as a sounding board, and did the production stuff, it's his name on the front of the book for a reason!

[DaosusLeghki]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

As Kromm notes above, this is more properly "Kevin Smyth's Hand of Asgard." While I provided some Nordlondr reference material, served as a sounding board, and did the production stuff, it's his name on the front of the book for a reason!

Sorry about that, my mistake. Still a great book though.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by DaosusLeghki

Sorry about that, my mistake. Still a great book though.

No worries! I was basically "Doug publishes his own stuff!" for a while, but over the last year or so I've branched out, bringing the works of five other authors to fruition under the GB banner. So credit where it's due, etc.

[Yssa]

The last PC I played was a cleric, and it was the most fun-to-create character I've ever made. I did read DF7, which helped me think about the variety of deities and religions that are possible, but character I created fit fully withing the DFRPG rules.

Beyond that, I'm going to respond to your question a little differently from others: not with resources but with an approach to character building.

I'd recommend starting with the deity/mythology/religion itself before you even look at the character build or cleric abilities. Ask yourself questions like these:

• What sort of god/gods is it?
• What is the creation myth?
• What are some tenets of the religion?
• What customs and rituals to followers practice?
• What phrases, expressions, idioms, oaths, curses, or prayers do followers use?
• What do followers see as their purpose in the world?
• How do other religions see them?
• How do lay people see them?

For my character, some answers were:

• She is a god of death.
• She was one among many Elders. When the other elder's killed her, it gave rise to the sacred rite of death and put the chaos of the Elders into the proper order of life.
• No being of flesh is sacred in life. No being of flesh lies unholy in the holy ground.
• Ease the suffering of the dying; bury the dead.
• "Praise the Holy Dead."
• To teach the living not to fear death; care for the dying; honor the dead. (Oh, and of course destroy undead creatures, as they go against the order of things.
• They are looked on with suspicion and fear by other religions and some lay people. They have been nearly wiped out by those who see them as evil. My PC was the lone survivor of a temple that was destroyed by a more "main-stream" religion.

These sorts of details dictate many ads, disads, quirks, skills, and spell choices. And even where the specific spell and skill choices are somewhat limited, having a clear understanding of the religion lets you play the character in a way that feels unique and nuanced.

(As a side note, I had to think about why a cleric who worshiped death would have a healing powers, seeing as that is the primary function of clerics in DFRPG. Finding a way to justify that within the dogma of the religion felt like the sort of thing actual religions do all the time. . .)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by AllenOwen

So the Cleric, and the Evil Cleric in DFRPG seem to be, rather generic by design. How would one go about making them specific to a deity if your setting has specific gods and goddesses?

Have you looked at Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics? If you're familiar with GURPS it contains a lot. Even if you aren't, it customizes the spell lists. It may contain some spells not in DFRPG, though.

[AllenOwen]

I was thinking of how Faerun deities would work with DFRPG. Looking at it and what I've got(and remember) for Forgotten Realms, the Druids won't need any changing; I know there's a Scout-Druid build from GURPS DF 3 so that will give rangers a little magic, for example, the Needles of Mielekki are basically rangers and druids. But what about war deities? Or evil gods? I know there's the Evil Cleric, but there are several evil gods in Faerun; how would one make them distinct? Could be my memory if faulty and there wasn't much distinction between them in AD&D 2ed either, so it might not matter..

I will check out DF 7 and see what it says; most likely it will have the answers I seek. Thanks!

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Anders

Have you looked at Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics? If you're familiar with GURPS it contains a lot. Even if you aren't, it customizes the spell lists. It may contain some spells not in DFRPG, though.

That was definitely the idea with that, and hopefully losing a few spells that aren't in the DFRPG won't cripple it. Sample/preview here, the book's Web page here.

[Kromm]

It looks like this is a blended GURPS Dungeon Fantasy / Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game discussion. While the games are compatible, they aren't the same. The latter game cuts out some troublesome spells, and tweaks the cleric's template and abilities slightly.

As has been pointed out, if you want to match clerics to gods and don't mind following the full-on GURPS path, Phil Masters's excellent GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics is the place to look.

But if, as is more appropriate for this forum, you want to stick to the DFRPG, then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Kevin Smyth's Hand of Asgard. That can easily be made generic to do for the DFRPG what Clerics does for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It works specifically within the DFRPG framework, and is as "official" as it gets, since Kevin (and Doug Cole) ran everything by me for approval.