Monday, August 24, 2015

Clerical Sects: An Example

     In reality, no god in our world has ever been a cut and dry figure. Even the most peaceful ways of thought have lead to blood conflicts in that god's name. In this way, clerics and priest of the same god have been able to take different sides of multiple issues, allowing for a deep conflict within the faith on some very fundamental levels.

     In order to reflect this I've stripped the alignments from the deities in my campaign and given them rough spheres of power. Usually, each gawd will have two: one that represents the good things about the gawd, and one that represents its wrath, allowing the gawd to use a carrot-and-stick method with its followers and heretics.
     For example: the healing badger, Mortitagus, primarily the gawd of healing and nature. His spheres include anything to do with those two things, including plagues, which he sends when he feels his Houses of Healing are not being frequented enough. This has lead to a more radical faction within his faith that jumps people in the streets, beats them to an inch of their life, and then takes them to get healed by their priest. Their thought is that beating up a few people in the street is worth not having a terrible plague ripe through the land so therefore it's an act of mercy.

    This conflicts somewhat with the Hackmaster system, which uses the Kingdoms of Kalamar pantheon on its basis for clerics. There is an easy fix to this.
    Each different cleric represents a way to worship your gawd of choice. The best way to show this is an example I feel.

    The Andalish gawdess the Morrigan has three major spheres: Sovereignty, Death, and Honorable Warfare.

    A player wanting to focus on the Morrigan's power over Sovereigns may choose the Courts of Justice, changing (with the permission of myself) his ornate god armor in constantly buying new crow-feather cloaks or ceremonial swords.
   Additionally, a different player may also want to focus on sovereignty, but not having a cleric of noble birth, he decides that instead, he'll focus on being a councilor to a ruler. He needs to be as wise as possible and to have a variety of skills that will benefit his king, so he picks the Order of Thought.

   Both players worship the same gawdess and are part of the same faith, both even revere the same power, but both approach their faith differently. One is LG and the other is LN.

   While some churches may make more sense and are easier to fit to a particular gawd and gawdess but it's only limited by your imagination on the matter and what you can make sense of theologically.
   You can also, with permission make minor changes to the church to make it fit better fluff-wise. Like having a cleric of Mortitagus using the Church of Everlasting Hope use a mace instead of staff as his preferred weapon, but only allowing him to casting his heal spells by bludgeoning his victims patients.

   Continuing on with the example:
   Another player wants to focus on the Morrigan's death aspect. She picks a cleric from the Congregation of the Dead, which is NE in alignment. She see's the gawdess role as a necessary one and that dead should be a glorify part of life. She could do that but she could also pick the Cathedral of Light, which is LG, and still focus on the Death aspect.

   Now remember that alignment is a meta-game concept. Even if she were to go NE, that would mean that she couldn't travel with a paladin of the Morrigan, or be shunned from society. Remember, at the end of the day, she still is a representative of her gawdess and deserves respect. Of course, she may have some theological disagreements with a Crow that uses the Cathedral of Light but that wouldn't always mean that they'd come to blows over it.
   That also wouldn't mean that they wouldn't come to blows (after all, the Catholics and Protestants burned each other at the stake). It would simply be on a case by case basis.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Changes to Weapons: THE MASTER LIST

Because it's just easier to have all the changes to weapons in one place, I'm creating a master list of the modifications to the Hackmaster weapon list:

Hand Axe/Throwing Axe
      Hand axes and throwing axes are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Battle Axe
      This is a two handed weapon but doesn't suffer the penalty to speed or the bonus damage. It can be paired with a buckler but attacking Aggressively negates the shield bonus.

Knife/Throwing Knife
      Knives and throwing knives are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Flails
      You roll a d20p-4 when defending against a flail, even if you're using a shield. Regular flails now also come in an additional variety:
      Peasant flail: +2 to reach, it requires two hands giving it a +3 to damage and +2 to speed.
   
Military Pick/Warhammer
      The Military pick and the warhammer are the same weapon, it just comes down to what side of the head you are using. Any Specializations or Talents apply to both. It takes 2 seconds to switch sides.

Scourge
       The scourge is particularly effective at triggering ToP saves. Any damage done with the scourge counts as double when considering whether it triggers a ToP, however, if it only triggers one because of this fact, the defender tries to get under his full Con score, instead of the standard half.
       This ability to negated by armor.

Two-Handed Sword
       Arguably the worst weapon, the two handed sword now has one thing in it's favor.
       The two handed sword now has a jab attack with a speed 12 and damage of a d12.

Warhammer/Military Pick
      The Military pick and the warhammer are the same weapon, it just comes down to what side of the head you are using. Any Specializations or Talents apply to both. It takes 2 seconds to switch sides.

Throwing Axe/Hand Axe
      Hand axes and throwing axes are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Throwing Knife/Knife
      Knives and throwing knives are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Glaive
      Glaives have 1 less damage die and get a +1 to their speed.