From: 3ob2@qlink.queensu.ca (Billy The Kid)
Subject: CLERICS (USING MAGIC)

PROPOSAL FOR CLERICS:

The Gods:

Clerics get their powers from the Gods. Based on the cleric's
devotion to the religion, Gods will grant various clerics various
amounts of power. Each god classifies all the Magic Colleges as
being in the Gods Major Arcane, Minor Arcane or revoked (not
available). Certain spells can be added or removed from Arcanes
if not appropriate.

Clerics:

Clerics buy Holy Power at 1 point per level.
Each Major Arcane cost [1+3(#Major Arcanes)-3(#revoked Arcanes)]
Holy Power Levels. Each Minor Arcane Cost [1+2(#Minor Arcanes)]
Power Levels.

Each day a cleric must spend at least Holy Power Level minutes in
prayer to his/her god to obtain the powers the next day. A cleric
who spends only a part of this time in prayer gets only that
amount of Holy Power Levels the next day. A cleric can go a
longer period without prayer but during that time he/she will
have no clerical powers. If the period is streched too long (GM
discression) the god/godess will start reducing the clerics
Arcane levels.

Clerics automatically have all the prayers (spells) in each
Arcane at a level equal to the Arcane Level for M1 spells, at
Arcane Level-5 for M2 spells and Arcane level-10 for M3 spells.
All Arcanes start as 1 point in a M/VH skill-5 and can be raised
as normal skill but only with clerical experience (see below).
Individual prayers can be increased as per M/H (or M/VH) but
based on the Arcane Level and not IQ-4. Individual prayers can be
raised with any experience (clerical or not). Neither Arcane
Levels nor Individual Prayers may be increased during character
creation (thus only earned character points can be applied to
increasing Arcane Levels or Individual Spells).
 
Prayers are cast similar to spell but there is no penalty for
failure (and beginning clerics *will* failing *a lot*). Instead
of loosing fatigue a cleric looses Holy Power (regained during
prayer ONCE per day). High level DOES reduce cost and time to
cast (as per magery). Time to cast and Duration is normal.
Repeated attempts cost one fatigue (accumulative, thus 2 fatigue
for a second retry, 3 for a third) in addition to the Holy Power.
Critical pass always succeeds regardless of skill (ie. if skill
is less than 3, it still succeeds) but only 3 is a critical
success (regardless of skill).

Any "number of castings" limitations on Major Arcanes (like -3 on
repetitive Major Heal casting, or One-Try on many high Healing
spells) are ignored.


Minor Arcanes take twice as much Holy Power and twice as long to
cast. Minor Arcanes can not be Miracled.

Any Arcane that is neither Major or Minor but is also not Revoked
can be learned by study, but will not be given to the clerics by
the god. In such cases the prayers are all learned individually
and start at 0 (ie. No Arcane), thus they tend to be very
expensive for the cleric.

Clerics can option to Miracle any prayer (cast without rolling)
but this will drain the cleric of all Holy Power and leave him
with one fatigue. The fatigue can be regained normally but no
accelerations will work (such as Recover Strength). The Holy
Power will not regenerate for 1 day + Cost of Prayer (in hours).

Clerical Experience:

Holy Power Level can only be raised by Clerical Experience
points. These are similar to normal Character Points gained on an
adventure but are given for experience/roleplaying related to the
religion. Since Clerical Experience is actually Character Points,
Clerical Experience can be used for anything else on the
character but not vice versa (ie. normal Character Points can not
be used for Clerical advanatges). Usually Clerical Experience is
given for high hours of worship, sacrifices (if applicable),
spreading of the religion, obtaining serious followers and so on.

Example:

GODESS MISHKAL

Major Arcane: Healing, Light (Light Spells Only), Food, Plant
Minor Arcane: Body Control, Comm & Empathy, Air, Water, Fire,
              Land, Gate, Knowledge, Meta, Mind, Move,
              Prot & Warn
Revoked:      Necromantic

Thus Major Arcanes cost 1+3(4)-3(1) = 10 Holy Power Levels.
     Minor Arcanes cost 1+2(12)     = 25 Holy Power Levels.

HELGA THE HEALER (Cleric of Mishkal)

Helga has an IQ of 16 and has bought 45 Holy Power Levels.
She decides to get 2 Major Arcanes and 1 Minor Arcane. Her
choices are "Healing", "Food" and "Prot & Warning". Her Arcanes
default to M/VH-5 thus she has a base of (IQ-3)-5 = 8. Her chance
with the Lend Strength prayer is 8, with Regeneration is 2
(because it is at a -5 for Magery2) and with Youth its -3 (-10
for Magery3).

She attempts to cast a 4 point Major Healing. She rolls an 11.
She fails. She now has only 41 Holy Power Levels. She decides to
try again. She looses 1 fatigue for retrying and rolls a 15. Now
she is down to 36 Holy Power Levels. Deciding to give it one more
try she loosed 2 fatigue (2nd retry) and rolls a 6. Bingo! Heal
is cast! She is now down to 32 Holy Power Levels.

She prepares for bed and starts her prayers. After 24 minutes she
is interrupted by a fight, since she still has not slept (ie. it
is not a new day) she has 32 Holy Power Levels. After the fight
she forgets to finish her prayers and goes to sleep, the next day
she only has 24 Holy Power Levels (equal to the number of minutes
she spent in prayer the previous day/night).

While on adventure one of her companions dies. She wishes to cast
Resurrection but her skill with the prayer is -2 (since it is a
M3 spell). She decides to pray for a Miracle Resurrection.
Instantly her 24 Holy Power Levels vanish and she is left with 1
fatigue. Her Holy Power Levels will not return for 1 day + 300
hours (the cost of Resurrection) or 13.5 days. Ouch!

The GM sees this as good religious roleplaying and gives Helga 3
clerical experience points. She decides to bring up her Healing
Arcane and the individual prayer Major Healing. She puts 1 point
into the Arcane, giving her a (IQ-2)-5 = 9 (on M1, 4 on M2 and -1
on M3). She puts 2 points into Major Healing (which is a M/VH
spell). The M/VH chart shows that 1 point is "IQ-3" but we
substitute "IQ-4" with "Healing Arcane" thus her Major Healing is
at Healing Arcane+1 = 10.

Some Notes:

Since clerics can not create characters with improved Arcane
Levels or Improved Individual Prayers, even clerics with
exceptional IQ will have very low skill in his/her prayers. This
is intentional! It means that beginning clerics won't be able to
cast M2 or M3 prayers and will have difficulty casting M1
prayers. As their devotion and good roleplaying increases their
Arcane Level will rise...and many prayers with it!

Any prayer can be re-attempeted in the same turn any number of
times. For example, a cleric has the prayer of Blink at 6. He is
attacked and fails to "Blink". He may "try again" in the same
turn (before the blow actually hits). He can NOT try some other
spell. This rule makes many prayers protection spells useful even
at low levels...but remember the fatigue cost of retrying!

Unless a cleric is so fanatic that he can't keep his/her god out
of every comment he/she makes, a cleric can NOT take FANATICISM
to his god or religion. This is automatically assumed when you
purchase the HOLY POWER LEVELS. Clerics that are not fanatic to
the god and religion are granted less power by the gods and thus
purchase each HOLY POWER LEVEL for 5 points (instead of 1). 

Obviously all spell prerequisites are ignored.

Comparison:

                    Mages                    Clerics

Cost of Class: Magery (10-35)           Holy Power Levels (1/LV)

Energy Source: Fatigue                  Holy Power Levels

# of Spell:    Bought as Skills         All Arcane Prayers
               (Bought)                 (Free)

Spell Skill:   Bought as Skill          By Arcane Level
               (Usually High)           (Usually Low)

Regain Spells: By Resting               By Prayer
               (Unlimited / Day)        (Once / Day)

Selection:     Any Spell                Limited (Revoked Arcanes)