CaG 2020: Cleric

And Dave said "let there be someone who can take out a vampire", and He saw that it… actually kinda worked.

    For our final week of Christmas @ Gary's, we'll be statting out the Mighty Man of God in the Middle, the original third wheel, the Grand Moff of miracle working… the Cleric!  Conceived as a way to stop a vampire PC  from derailing the First Fantasy Campaign, the cleric eventually found its niche as a sort of supportive gap-filler with some of the fighting man's might and some of the magic-user's magic.  WIth that in mind, our design goals will be to build a character who can

1.  heal and turn undead
2. be the heart of the group
3. be somewhat balanced, in case any of your comrades go down.

Without further ado, prepare for come high deus vultage!

 First Tier

    Just as Fighter Man was a warrior and Magic-User was an adept, our great holy man will be a speaker because somebody's gotta talk the MU out of fireballing everything.  That means that our pools are gonna be 8 might/9 speed/11 intellect before we spend our points, and 10/10/14 after, with 1 intellect edge.  It also means that we have the same sword hand as the MU (read: none), 2-cypher bag, and the following holy relics:

• Clothes (you can assume that includes a monk's robe or formal vestments)
• 1 light weapon (cudgel, as Saint Cuthbert intended!)
• 2 expensive items (one holy scripture that totally isn't the Bible, I swear; and healing kit)
• 2 moderately priced items (gambeson, fereter.)
• A gambeson is light armor
• A fereter is a portable reliquary (basically a box to hold religious relics in)
• 4 inexpensive items (wooden cross, 2 wooden stakes—act as light weapons that won't last long—and a wreath of garlic, just in case)

    Now for abilities.  Instead of going with the suggested magic flavor like some heathen, we're gonna use combat for Danger Sense (1 IP to roll initiative better) and Practiced in Armor (-1 armor tax) so he can kick ass for the Lord without going full paladin.  From our speaker type, Babel lets us become all things to all man, while Terrifying Presence (2+ IP, Action) lets us turn any undead, elementals, or even Karen up to level [3 + effort].  And there's no better word to describe to describe someone ready to bless first, bless last, and let God sort 'em out than… Honorable!  This descriptor gives +2 to your might pool, training in both pleasant social interaction—Cypher's third cousin twice removed of persuasion—and discerning motives/seeing through lies, AKA baloney detection.  Our focus will be, of course, Channels Divine Blessings.  This starts us off with Blessing of the Gods (even though there's only one, and He sure doesn't dress like that), which means two themed abilities of our choice: Benevolence/Righteousness/Spirit (2+ IP, action) to destroy/banish whatever level [1 + effort] or less spiritual/demonic/maybe undead creature failed to take the hint from your Terrifying Presence, and Desire/Love/Health (3 IP, Action) lets us cure light to moderate wounds by filling the pool of our choice by 1d6 as a level 2 task.  And in case you're reading this, Fighting Man, healing the same guy twice hinders the task cumulatively until we take a 10-hour recovery.  Just putting that out there.  And now our Honorable Speaker (w/ combat flavor) who Channels Divine Blessings is ready to get ignored by the rest of the party!

    Advancement Time!  4 points to intellect so we can pray early, +2 recovery to do it often, skill training to upgrade your baloney detection, and +1 intellect edge for no particular reason.

Second Tier… and Beyond!

Second Tier

    For second tier, our speaker will take two abilities—Speedy Recovery (3 IP, action), which cuts your audience's recovery time in half with that soothing Balm of Gilead, and Skill with Defense to get that training in might defense, while our focus gives us a big head with Enhanced Intellect, giving us 3 intellect points.  From here, we'll split our four pool points between might and speed so our preacher man can get to church on time without getting too winded, +1 intellect edge for more smiting efficiency, a level of effort to better fight the deadly sin of sloth, and skill training to make us specialized in pleasant social interactions so we can show those dirty Mormons who's boss!

Third Tier

    We get three abilities this time.  Practiced with All Weapons from our combat flavor allows us to use any weapon and show that our faith is greater than the lich's hit dice, Expert Cypher Use blesses us with the ability to hold three cyphers, and Mind Reading (3 IP, action) lets us pull a Santa Claus and read the surface thoughts of someone within short range, so we can see who's naughty, who's nice, and what women mean when they say that they're fine.  Of course, since we've been saying our prayers and eating our vitamins thus far, we've also been graced with Divine Radiance (4 IP, action)—a long-range, 4-damage attack that also stops demons and their ilk in their tracks as they stand in—and I quote—"unwilling awe" at our frankly shocking Deus Vultage.  But we're not done yet!  For our advancements, we'll top off our intellect pool with our four points, bringing out pool up to 25, pick up another level of effort, pick up +1 might edge so we can more easily get knee deep in the undead, and finally grab Interaction Skills (persuasion and intimidation) from first tier—You're becoming a symbol, and the last thing we need if to have our flock running into Lucifer's arms.

Fourth Tier

    Back to two abilities: Fury (3 MP, action) lets us smite our foes for +2 damage for a minute as Confounding Banter (4 IP, action) eases our next defense roll against the closest evil one with THE POWAH OF SCER-IPTCHA!^TM; And if that doesn't work, our divine blessing Overawe (5 IP, action) will literally overwhelm someone with divine glory for ten minutes… or until they break free, whichever comes first.  Dracula and his ilk also get 1 ambient damage each round from taking so much holiness to the face!  And on our second-to-last pit stop to the Promised Land, we'll take four points of might and a second point of might edge so we can walk off yesterday's fellowship dinner, Skill with Defense—Intellect to shield our mind from demonic possession and alternative points of view, and a fourth level of effort.

Fifth Tier

    The time to storm Dracula's castle is drawing near, so we're gonna need three abilities this time!  Experienced Defender puts +1 armor on top of our armor, Adroit Cypher Use means we can now hold four gifts from on high, and we'll grab the Flee (6 IP, action) ability to firmly but kindly remind all the infidels and demons who are still here that they should probably leave; the fact that they'll be leaving at top speed for at least a minute is just a bonus at this point.  Now, if you're still unsure if you're #blessed or not, Divine Intervention (2 IP w/ a 4 XP nuclear option, action) grants a minor miracle unless you use that nuclear option.  If you and the GM agree to launch the Divine ICBM of Antioch, you can't use this ability again for a week, and the Big Man's gonna do things His way, so make double secret sure you wanna do this when you put those XP on the table.  Now that we're almost there, let's grab our last round of advancements: Two points to might and speed to keep us reasonably fit, +1 might edge , 1 last level of effort (bringing it up to 5) and whatever fourth thing suits your fancy.  To keep things straightforward, though, we'll put it in our positive social interaction skill to specialize in it.

Sixth Tier

    To top off our speaker, Inspiring Success (6 IP, enabler) lets us weaponize game's recognition of game: when you succeed with effort on  a task, you can give anyone in short range an asset on their next task that involves whatever stat you just used, and Word of Command (6 IP + a Level 6 cypher, action) allows one to speak one-word command with a level of authority normally reserved for deities, wartime generals, and single mothers.  And for the sacred cherry on top, Divine Symbol (5+ IP, action) smites up to five targets within long range for [5 + (effort×2)] damage, or 1 if RNGesus caught you looking at dirty pictures last night… not that there'd be any time for that when you have a land to cleanse of evil!

Pros & Cons

    If the Fight Man is infantry and the Magic-user is artillery, then the cleric is Metal Gear!  Your might and intellect pools and edges ensure that both your body and soul can take as good as they give.  That said, the metal gear analogy extends to your abilities, and not just because your intellect pool isn't quite as deep as the magic-user's: out of the three character builds from those Little Brown Booklets, yours will have the most potential to change the landscape.  If you ever wondered why the cleric is dreaded within the Old School Renaissance scene, just play this fiction-first collaborative storytelling game and find out.  As usual, character sheets can be downloaded here.

    And with that, Christmas at Gary's is at an end.  I'd like to thank you for tolerating the ramblings of a Cypher System fanboy for this long and look forward to our beautiful partnership—especially if it results in AdSense revenue!  As we look back at 2020 and forward to 2021, realizing that the Cleric's probably gonna need bigger guns, I and the voices in my head wish you as merry a Christmas and as happy a new year as this donkey show of a decade-so-far will allow.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need a vacation before I type up a post-mortem.