Apostle of Peace
d12
6+CON
Alignment:
Good: When you stand between the oppressed and the oppressor.
Good: When you allow yourself to be taken to spare others violence.
Race:
Halfling: When you sing to a crowd of how your god has provided for them name one thing and if the crowd can provide it they will.
Elf: When you tell a crowd of the miraculous deeds of your god has done in their land name some artifact of your god or theirs and they will tell you either what it does or where it may be found.
Bonds:
_______ honors their god and can be trusted.
_______ has shown mercy to their enemies and deserves respect.
_______ has given of their time and money to the less fortunate and should be honored.
I will help ______ find the peace they deserve.
Starting Moves:
Vow of Nonviolence: If, at the end of the session, you have dealt no damage to another living being you may gain an experience point.
Vow of Peace: If, at the end of the session, none of your allies have dealt damage to another living being they gain an experience point.
Vow of Poverty: When you give your share of any gains the party has made to a church of a good god gain 3 Adventuring Gear.
Pacifying Words: When you want to disarm a charged situation, start speaking or singing and roll+CHA. On a hit, no NPCs present can commit violence while they can see you or hear your voice. On a 10+, furthermore, if any of your fellow players’ characters leave the situation peacefully, they mark experience. On a miss, your words of peace are so insulting that you become the clear target of all hostility.
2-5 Moves
Lovely Feet: when you share the word of your god with another player’s character, roll+CHA. On a 10+, hold 3 over them. On a 7–9, hold 2 over them. Whenever you like, you can spend your hold, 1 for 1, to have them mark experience. On a miss, they hold 1 over you, on the same terms.
Divine Protection: When you wear no armor or shield you get 2 armor.
Giving Thanks: When you bow you knees in thankfulness after you survive a dangerous situation, you and all who join you are healed of half of your Hit Point total up to that total.
Put to Rest: When you speak words of faith and prayer in the presence of the undead roll+CHA. On a 10+ the undead are destroyed. On a 7-0 the undead flee. On a miss the undead attack you to the exclusion of all others.
Pilgrim: When you ask for shelter from pious folk they will always find a dry bed and some food for you.
Words of Mercy: Once an enemy has been hurt you may Parley with them with their safety as your leverage.
6-10 Moves
Faith is my Shield: (replaces Divine Protection) When you wear no armor or shield you get 4 armor.
Prayer Service: (Requires Giving Thanks and Lovely Feet) Those who join you in your nightly prayers to your god need not spend a ration during the Make Camp move you gain 2 hold on them as if you had rolled a 7-9 on your Lovely Feet move.
My Word is my Bond: (requires Words of Mercy) You may use Words of Mercy before the enemy is hurt.
Taker of Vows: Anyone may come to you to take a Vow. They gain the benefit of the Vow move that they agree to if you agree to bind them by that Vow. Any character with one Vow considers Pacifying Words as a class move. Any character with two Vows consider your 2-5 moves as class moves. Any characters with three Vows consider your 6-10 moves as class moves.
Grace Under Fire: when you take damage in a fight, roll+HP Lost. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 2. On a miss, hold 1, but take -1 forward. During the battle you can spend your hold 1 for 1 to:
• Name an npc within your reach. You disable or disarm them (DM’s choice) without harming them.
• Name a character within your reach. You redirect their attack to another character within your reach, or else to nowhere — into the ground or a wall or the sky.
• Name a character on the scene, but outside your reach. You cross the distance between you before they have time to adjust or react.
• Ignore all harm to yourself from an incoming attack.
• Take the damage meant for someone near you.
In the World: when you take your bearings in a landscape or a settlement, ask 1:
• Where could I hide here?
• If I had to make a stand here, where would be best?
• Who here is the most pious?
• How could I gain access to this place’s or these people’s secrets?
• How could I gain the undivided attention of all present?
• How could I best become accepted as a part of this place or these people?
• What or who is the source of the most pain here?
Whenever acting on the answer requires a roll, take +1.
Censure Fiends: (requires Put to Rest) When you speak words of faith and prayer in the presence of the demonic roll+CHA. On a 10+ the demon is banished from this realm. On a 7-9 the demon flees. On a miss the demon attacks you to the exclusion of all others.
full class, wow.
Never trust a man who gives you a d12 for damage then tells you not use it.
It hurts to see that d12 sitting there doesn’t it?
Actual notes:
I think the first alignment is actually Lawful.
Needs another bond, maybe “I will show __ that peace is better than war,” or “I will help ____ find the peace they deserve.”
The hit results of Turn Undead are plural but the miss result is singular. Also get a new name. Rest in Peace or something.
Faith is my Shield is unbalanced vs. Divine Armor, it should be 3 armor. Or I might suggest these moves be “when you wear no armor and carry no weapon you get 3/4 armor” (depending on if you took the advanced move, which I could even see as going up to 5 armor with the no weapon restriction).
I might ditch the ignore an attack option for grace under fire, but that’s a first reaction, dunno for sure.
Also, I dare you to up the base damage to a d20.
+Johnstone Metzger
The oppressor is often a lawful organization making standing against it chaotic.
I like that second bond.
I will work on the wording for that.
Faith is my Shield requires Divine Protection so they are not meant to be balanced against each other. Can you explain the problem better than “not balanced”?
The ignore an attack option is a bit of a left over but I still feel like it allows you to pass through a battle like a bad ass without actually hurting anyone.
Don’t tempt me! I already feel like I went too far and yet not far enough. I don’t think I want to introduce a new die with this class but it is a temptation.
/sub
I feel like the label of “oppressor” is one that delegitimizes an authority and implicitly labels it as both “unlawful” and disruptive of good social order. I probably have an idiosyncratic perspective on legal structures, though, so one man’s opinion and all that.
Your two moves here are the same as the cleric moves but th second one is just better, no different otherwise. So if I am multiclassing to get that awesome armour there is no reason whatsoever why I should take the cleric moves. Sort of like you would always take Merciless before Smite or Scent of Blood, although in that case you have the fighter getting both a slightly better bonus just for being the fighter but also being able to stack two for a slight penalty (the restrictions on Scent of Blood). Although the differences between those moves are fictional and not strictly numeric. When they are, you have two choices and one is objectively better in all ways, which makes it a false choice (what I mean by “unbalanced”). False choice itself is generally bad game design (unless your target audience is 3.x consumers I guess).
I dare you to at least play it once with the d20. You know you want to!
I hear you about lawful but there is a reason for all the “Lawful Ass” jokes.
I get you now! I might require a Vow for that move.
I may do that just to see what happens.
You know I should probably have reread the DW definitions of the alignments before recommending anything! (And the last thing we need is another discussion of D&D ethics, but…) The weird thing (for me) is that if I choose that alignment because I want to beat up the oppressors more than I want to save the oppressed I still get put in the good category, instead of the evil category which is where I would normally put people whose primary motivation is to do evil unto others, even for good ends. Although that’s not the RAW, so besides the point I guess. The book says Chaotic is all about change and freedom, though, which might actually fit the bill best (just going by the DW definitions anyway). Except this class lives by vows ie rules ie laws.. Anyway…
Require a vow… that makes me think you could write out a list of more vows than you have up there, and you pick 1 or 2 to start, but as you get more powers you tie each one (or just some of them) to a vow. You break that vow, you lose the power for a while–until next session or until you repent or something. Or maybe each vow has a tithe condition to get back any powers associated with it. That way you get more and more incentive to practice nonviolence as you level up.
I didn’t bother checking the book’s definition myself :/ I just went with my gut. Chaos may actually work. They are not bound to an organization only a god so their vows are personal.
I think I need to state clearer the only way to gain access to the Apostle’s moves is to have an Apostle that lets you. They are, in a very real sense, the antithesis of Dungeon World. They want the struggle to end so that the building can start. I am noodling some ideas for other classes that actually do the work of building but this is the start.
Is that enough incentive do you think? The Apostle has three vows and a bunch of moves so there’s plenty of incentive not to use that d12, but if I’m the Fighter I could take some vows from the Apostle in order to get moves and then ignore the vows, even if it’s 3 xp per session, because my ability to solve things with violence actually got better. Use Pacifying Words, then attack, fight using Grace Under Fire, then heal after by Giving Thanks. All by sacrificing 3 bonus xp. An extreme case maybe, but seems doable.
3 XP per session is enough to almost double the player’s speed of advancement. For the players at my table that would be enough of an excuse. Because, at some point you are going to blow a roll and the shit is going to hit the fan and more XP means more ways to deal when it does.
Add in Lovely Feet and you have more than enough XP floating around to almost guarantee one player leveling up per session if not more.
Hm, yeah, good points. I like the caveat that you can’t take any of these without the vows, even through multiclassing, too. This is making me think about stuff…