Struggling with my cleric to properly use and explore the bless/curse move.
I’ve seen one or two examples that rely on the god in question being vindictive or wrathful and having domains such as Fire or Pain.
however my player is adamant she follow the good-natured child-god of Flowers, Growth, and Kindness.
One answer is that because of this array of beliefs she shouldn’t really be getting into fights and such, but it seems unfair to deny her gameplay because she wants to be a kind cleric.
I have one or two ideas but I’m interested to hear other people’s anecdotes of interesting curses and blessings drawn from not-obvious domains
May you be cursed with the love of your enemies… Not sure how that would play out, but could be very funny. “I’m sorry I’m killing you, I love you so much!”
I think the cleric of a good-natured child-god might not want to curse anyone, so you can just ignore that move and focus on the bless part.
As Judge, you might consider presenting opportunities tailored to her deity’s domains — the peasants’ crops are failing, someone contracts a wasting disease, the party’s rations spoil, etc. If you’re rolling random stuff, the prompts to keep in the back of your head are the opposite of the deity’s domains — bones (opposite of flowers, I guess?), death, malevolence. If the occasional threat takes on an aspect in direct contradiction to her deity, she will hopefully see the opportunity to act.
She can bless a dangerous foe with the awareness that the child-god loves them and they don’t need to fight anymore; she can bless the undead so that their spirits may finally pass to the world beyond, allowing their animated bones to collapse; she can bless the poisoned spring to run with pure water once again.
Also, what’s her tenet? Since she gets XP for fulfilling it, you might be able to rephrase it to make her more proactive, or take it into consideration when developing challenges for the party.
Hi Alasdair Lawrence.
In our games, I replaced “BLESS/CURSE” with “INVOKE”
It works like this:
When you invoke the name of your Deity to empower, protect, hinder or afflict someone or something, explain how this represents the will of your deity and roll+WIS.
+ Hold 3 (10+ aka “HIT”)
= Hold 1 (7–9 aka “SPLIT”)
Choose one from the list below and spend your hold 1-for-1 to manifest the will of your god:
o Grant +1 forward (Hold=Number of creatures affected).
o Grant +1 armor, load, favor, mettle, cunning, spell power, etc. to anyone/anything you touch. (Hold=Duration).
o Grant +1 to the damage inflicted by any weapon you touch (Hold=Duration).
o Heal HP or ability damage in any creature you can touch (Hold=Points healed). NOTE: We do NOT give the cleric a healing move at 1st level anymore; just this minor effect.)
o Harm: Deal touch damage to creatures. (Hold=Points inflicted).
o Inflict a condition. (Hold=Duration).
o Other blessings/curses with approval by the GM.
ADVANCED NOTES:
Once the effect of an invocation takes place, any unspent hold is immediately lost.
A cleric may maintain one ongoing Invocation effect per two levels of experience.
A cleric who attempts to touch an unwilling subject must Make a Saving Throw or roll Fight to do so. Failing the touch counts as spending one Hold, but unspent hold. Some beings that cannot be touched physically may still be affected spiritually. The cleric is not protected from harm caused by touching fire, acid, etc.
The ability to heal/harm is limited based on the alignment of the cleric’s deity:
– Good: Heal self and all creatures, harm none
– Evil Cleric: Harm all creatures, heal only self
– Neutral Cleric: Heal Self, Heal/Harm others in equal measure.
– Lawful: Heal self and all except chaotic, Harm chaotic
– Chaotic: Heal self and all except lawful, Harm Lawful.
PERTINENT ADVANCED MOVES:
Many of our new cleric advanced moves now extend “Invoke”. Here’s a sampling:
HANDS OF POWER I: When you heal/harm, heal 1d8 + WIS points instead. On a SPLIT (7-9), you must spend 1 Favor, burn 1 constitution, or transfer the wounds to yourself.
HANDS OF POWER II: When you heal/harm, heal 2d6 + WIS points instead. On a SPLIT, you must spend 1 Favor, burn 1 constitution, or transfer the wounds to yourself. Requires Hands of Power I.
DIVINE REACH: You no longer need to make a saving throw or score a hit to touch unwilling subjects.
GOD’S WRATH: You may harm creatures of all alignments.
GOD’S GRACE: You may heal creatures of all alignments.
FAVORED TOUCH: When you roll a HIT (10+) to Invoke, you may spend 1 Favor after the roll to increase your hold from 3 to 5.
WILL OF GOD: When you use Invoke to grant +1 forward, you may spend up to 3 hold to grant up to +3 forward to one recipient (including yourself).