More messing with the cleric spells

First off I hate tinkering with the spells because it makes things different from other versions of the game, which makes people confused.  Also a lot of folks probably will use the d20 SRD spells, the Microlite spells or do their own tweaks based on their campaign setting and how rugged or fantastical they want things to be.  I can't just not adjust the spells when they appear broken however, and I can take some heart in the fact that many of the published D&D versions have absolute shit spell balance - even using Vancian magic which is easier to balance than a point system.  So the next draft - here are some more spell tweaks for divine casters.

• Prayer is a sucky spell for 3rd level - it's gone.  If you want to buff people use Bless.  
• Create Food and Water totally goes against the resource management vibe I'm working on in Beacon with it's 'Points of Light' and wandering about type game.  I can get into clerics making food and water for the party but I'm bumping the spell to 3rd level and cutting it's power by 30% to make it less of a daily meal replacement plan and more a survival option.
• Magic Weapon is an OK spell with a terrible name.  It is very useful to provide groups with a magical weapon to fight some creatures.  Also I kept the greater 4th level version instead of the first level version.  That was probably a mistake.  I'm going to make this a 2nd level spell (back filling Create Food and Water), change the range to touch, and change the name to Bless/Curse Weapon.
• Paralyzing Touch and Remove Paralysis are now the same spell, both touch based*.
•  Hold Person re-added to level 2 spells.  The level 4 Hold spell now more clearly defined as Hold Creatures.  Hold is a good spell for clerics - its essentially nonviolent but good in combat.
• Changing Circle of Protection and Divine Strike to make them more predictable and adjusted for point based and multiple daily castings (same reasons I adjusted Fireballs)
• Edited Spell Resistance to make it work more like I wanted it to.
• Added 4th level spell to Control Vermin to replace Magic Weapon.  It's a compromise between druid like animal control spells and insect plague.

Control Vermin:

Range: 400 ft. + 40 ft./level.
Duration: 1 min. / level.
Description:  Caster can summon and direct the emotions or reactions of swarms of small creatures such as ants, locusts, rats, spiders, etc.  These creatures can be made to attack a target, occupy an area, or flee in terror, but cannot be made to perform complex actions such as opening doors or fetching unseen items.

• Hero's Feast is lame.  Replacing that with something else.  I thought maybe Forbiddance would be good, but then I thought it's not that common to use that one and wow 6th level spells should be awesome.  I think I should make it a good one.  Any suggestions?

I also think that the 5th level ritual I was trying to come up with was staring me in the face all along.  Commune is a wishy-washy 5th level spell.  It would make a much better multi-hour meditative type ritual.  I mean are you gonna ring up the Lords or Order while your waiting for the wench to bring your ale or are you going to retire to your tent to pray all night for guidance?  I know which one the Lords of Order would prefer!

Level 5 - Ritual of Communion

Range: N/A.
Duration: N/A.
Description: When attempting the Commune ritual, the caster enters a trance like dream state for a number of hours and consults with their deity or agents of their deity on a question or state of affairs they wish guidance on.  The greater the question, the greater the length of the meditation.  The more powerful the caster the more clear and informative the consultation, although the communion will never be simple and direct, but more symbolic in nature.  At lower levels the communion will give general impressions and feelings about the issues in question, but at higher levels the caster will have receive more definite images and impressions or even verbal answers and prophecy.  

To replace it I added Plane Shift.  Pretty much right out of the SRD except its a projection.  I feel otherwise it would be too powerful.  I don't get how this spell is level 5 but Astral Projection and Etherealness are level 9 in the SRD but I think a generic 'projection' spell is much more useful and can be applied to more settings.  Plane Shift as a soul projection spell seems about right.

I also have been tooting around with the character sheet that includes Fabrication and doing the necessary rule editing.  So that's moving closer to the fifth draft version of the PDF - I promise I'll have something out for you to play before Christmas if not the end of November.



*I like the idea of many divine spells being touch based - it's something about imbuing life energy into things I guess.