Adding Clerical Rank

[Not]

Nothing bad happens if I make rank available to my clerics at the usual price, right? I just feel bad because there's no equivalent to Born War Leader for them.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Not

Nothing bad happens if I make rank available to my clerics at the usual price, right?

All that happens is that cleric builds become more expensive, and that therefore you get weaker clerics for the same budget.

[corwyn]

Well, Born War Leader is a talent giving a bonus to 5 or so skills. What does Clerical Rank in your game that is worth the points?

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Not

Nothing bad happens if I make rank available to my clerics at the usual price, right? I just feel bad because there's no equivalent to Born War Leader for them.

Do you have Dungeon Fantasy 23: Twists? It offers a very simple treatment of rank - with Clerical Rank noted as an example - that has a number of monetary and social benefits. It's written for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, but looks like a good fit for DFRPG. (And if that's not enough, Dungeon Fantasy 17: Guilds has the same treatment of Rank, plus much more detail.)

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Not

Nothing bad happens if I make rank available to my clerics at the usual price, right? I just feel bad because there's no equivalent to Born War Leader for them.

As pointed out Born War Leader is just a name for a Talent, Rank is a thing of its own and doesn't do what Talent does.

So make a Talent for your Priests that have an appropriate set of skills for them.

Touched by the God(s) Costs 5cp: pick 6 or less skills that the talent will affect.

Now your priests have not only a Talent possible, but people who take a moment will also figure out what you think Priests should do in your world.

[Kromm]

It comes down to "What does this Rank give clerics?"

If it's a purely social trait, you need to run your campaign in "social mode" some of the time for it to have value. As others have said, Dungeon Fantasy 17: Guilds and Dungeon Fantasy 23: Twists are the go-to volumes for this, and should be portable enough to the DFRPG if you have rolls against "social" skills in town, and make things like buying, selling, training, and hiring more than incidental. If none of that fits your vision . . . well, forget about it.

However, it can have other effects that are only nominally "social." It'd be fair to say that each level grants +1 to reactions at all times, including with monsters, who sense your god working through you and back off. Maybe toss in +1 per level to tasks such as exorcisms and curse-lifting, too. Of course, this forces you to include monsters that might back off, haunts and maledictions to purify, and possessed victims to save. That's a more nuanced sort of dungeon crawl, and not to all tastes.

And if you really want a Talent, I'd ditch all that and look at Close to Heaven, Close to Hell, Close to the Earth, and Spirit-Talker in Dungeon Fantasy 11: Power-Ups.

[Not]

Thanks, all.

[Anders]

In old-school RPGs, spellcasting power was directly tied to your rank as a priest. More powerful priests were higher in the hierarchy. So I'd just make it a special effect of Power Investment.

Of course, this takes away the possibility of meeting a holy man with exceptional powers living in the wilderness off of locusts and honey.

[Not]

Originally Posted by Anders

In old-school RPGs, spellcasting power was directly tied to your rank as a priest. More powerful priests were higher in the hierarchy. So I'd just make it a special effect of Power Investment.

Of course, this takes away the possibility of meeting a holy man with exceptional powers living in the wilderness off of locusts and honey.

Such a saint might have his own following of devotes, which would be equivalent to Gurps rank (unwashed rabble).

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Not

Such a saint might have his own following of devotes, which would be equivalent to Gurps rank (unwashed rabble).

GURPS Social Engineering has rules for that. I think it would be something like 2 or 3 per level, due to having no official authority (not being exclusive?), having poor or no resources, and perhaps something that I'm forgetting about. Those saints-in-the-wilderness who only have respect rather than de facto authority would just have Courtesy Clerical Rank, though.

If the 'rabble' got organized enough, they might become a monastery or (with larger numbers and more settlements) a full monastic order, because that's basically how those tended to develop. If they're officially recognized, they may get full Clerical Rank in the faith that they're part of.