- The case of change
- What's in a class?
- A matter of principle
- All for all
- Party animals
- Astral blues
- charmed, I'm sure
- "Attack!"
- Art of creativity
- Divinations
- Elementally, my dear druid
- Guardians of nature
- Priest, heal thyself
- Necromantic needs
- A green thumb
- To serve and protect
- Summon knocking on my door
- Here comes the sun
- Weather or not
- Druids: The final frontier
- Odds & ends
The case for change One effect of the 2nd Edition game's clerical spell-sphere lists is that some spells central to the play of a cleric have become much less available. For example, the good/evil split has always been a core concept of the cleric class. In the Complete Priest's Handbook, fewer than half of the sample priesthoods even have access to the light spell, including some obviously good- aligned ones (such as Guardian, Good, Justice, Peace, and Redemption priesthoods). Likewise, some evil-aligned priesthoods should have darkness, the reverse of light (notably the Disease and Evil samples).
A second problem is that some spells, once the sole province of the druid, have become available to most clerics. This has erased a certain amount of flavor from the druid character. In particular, spells like heat metal, protection from fire, and protection from lightning, all once druid specialties, have gone into almost every cleric's grab-bag.
Third, by lumping all Protection spells into a single sphere, a priest either has all such spells, or none. This grouping of spells by function limits the DM's freedom to imbue her own special priests with different, yet equivalent, abilities.
Finally, certain oddities have crept in. For example, reflecting pool and magic font do almost exactly the same thing.
What can be done? The 2nd Edition game is far and away superior to the previous edition, not to mention much more accepted and widespread among the players. However, the following changes to the spell lists can return to the druid much of the flavor that was lost.
What's in a class? The AD&D 2nd Edition game's Player's Handbook states that a standard cleric has access to 12 spheres (All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Guardian, Healing, Necromancy, Protection, Summoning, and Sun), plus minor access to the Elemental sphere.
major access to 12 spheres out of a total of 16 is a lot, reducing this number is desirable. The 12-sphere access really looks excessive once you start spinning off specialty priests with major access from just three to six spheres. We'll keep this in mind as we work through the spell lists (eliminating the Astral sphere, and getting ready to retire Summoning to specialty-priest status).
The spheres available to the druid in 2nd Edition are All, Animal, Elemental, Healing, Plant, Weather, plus minor access to Divination. Not only does this net us a few spells druids shouldn't have, but we have lost cure disease, dispel magic, remove curse, and sunray.
Using the current sphere lists as a start- ing point, it should be possible to duplicate the balance and feel of the original druid. This article features a combined chart that puts everything together.
A matter of principle One thing to watch for in this process is the idea of the“specialty" spell. In other words, instead of placing a spell like reflecting pool into the Divination sphere simply because it is a divination, we respect the higher principle of clerical specialization.
In this case, reflecting pool is taken off the Divination list, and added to the Weather list. At one stroke, this eliminates the oddity of having two spells that do virtually the same thing at two different spell levels in the same sphere.
Furthermore, by limiting clerical access to the Elemental spheres to Earth and Water (no access to Air or Fire), we can eliminate many of the druid's specialty spells from the cleric's list.
All for all First, we must make sure that all clerics can do their jobs; that is, perform their basic dass functions of protection and support. The most obvious way to do this is to expand the All sphere.
Move detect good/evil from this list to both the Divination and Guardian lists. Replace this spell with detect magic. which all priests should have access to, be they cleric, druid, shaman, etc.
Expand the revised All sphere to include the following spells: chant, dispel magic, remove curse, g/yph of warding, tongues, commume, planeshif， quest, true seeing. Speak with monusters, astral spell, gate, Symbol
The reason for the addition of dispel magic. remove curse, tongues, commune and quest is that they are basic class functions for the cleric. Planeshift and the astral spell are added here to balance high-level mage spells and to avoid the oddity of a two-spell sphere with no possible minor access Gate and symbol match high-level mage abilities, and they are part of the balance between the classes. True seeing is also a necessary counter to the class ability of the mage to employ ivisbility and other ilusion spells. Glyph of warding is strictly a judgment call; it reasonably could be placed here, or in the Guardian or Protection spheres. I suggest putting it here, as the spell can be endlessly mutated to adapt it to nearly any leric variation that the DM desires. Speak with monsters should be on this list also. The ability to communicate where others cannot is a key class ability. Chout should be here be- cause, in 1st Edition game, this spell was one of the few alwel to the nonhuman shamans. Primitive cultures should not have as effective a selection of clerical combat spells as more advanced cultures, and chant gives them a basic spell without giving them access to the whole range of combat spells. (Also, chant is appropriate for some situations involving the more barbaric cultures, such as a trigger for the appearance of nasty DM specials, for example.)
Party animals Moving to the Animal sphere, add commune with nature from the Divination sphere. An Animal sphere deric should have access to this, while a standard cleric should not. Likewise, add detect snares & pits from the same sphere for the same reason. Add reincarnate to this list from the Necromantic sphere. This spell is the : druid's equivalent of the raise dead spell, so it should be where the druid specialty priest can get at it- and where, in turn, the druid can't get the raise dead spell.
Astral blues As stated above, we can get rid of the small Astral sphere. It is true that in the Tome of Magic book, one low-level spell was added, detect etherea/astral being. We'll make this spell a specialty divination in the Summoning sphere. The reason? This spell is esoteric enough that a general cleric probably wouldn't have it (so we don't put it in Divination). On the other hand, it is exactly the type of spell that a Summoning specialist is likely to have.
Charmed, I'm sure The revised Charm sphere contains spells that emphasize the qualities of subtlety and finesse. We've moved gquest to the All sphere, so we don't need it here.
Add sanchuary to this list. This can be a considered a mind-effecting spell in that the cleric is altering the perceptions of the subject. This is dlose enough to a charm function to be included here. Add detect chan in case some variant cleric is given access to Charm, but not Divination. Add snake charm. This spell always was available to the 1st Edition deric, and was never available to the 1st Edition druid. It makes sense that it be on a list to which clerics have access, Add sticks 10o snakes, This is a stretch, but snakes and charming are connected in the popular imagination, so we nedn't be too uncomfortable about including it here. It also provides a reasonable follow-up to the snake charm spell. Add dispel evil since this is automatically successful at breaking evil charms and enchantments. A cleric specializing in charm magic should have access to this. Delete both remove fear and couk of bravery. Fear efects are not quite the same as charm efecte, and these are better off as core spells available to war priests.
“Attack!" The revision of the Combat sphere will produce a list that emphasizes a fairly diret and unsubtle approach. The sphere needs to be beefed up, since chant is moving to the All sphere. Add comwand. This is the only clerical spell that a cleric really has a chance to cast quickly in a showdown with a mage, in spite of its short range, Add remove fear which is a direct support for friendly warriors. Add aid, another support spell that gives the warriors these derics hang out with a quick boost. Add cloak of bravery, which is like remove fear.
Add heroes feast which plays right into the theme of the heroic warrior-cleric Add word of recall This might be something of a stretch. However, being able to retreat and regroup is an important part of battle tactics, and front-line fighting. clerics are going to need this ocasionally. (Also, we are planning to convert Summoning to more of a specialty discipline, and we don't want to strip word of recall from all the standard clerics in the meantime). Delete sillelagl,. This specialty spell is appropriate only to druids (although you could make a case for its being a granted power of the WORLD OF GREYHAWK⑧ clerics of Cuthbert). The druids pick it up. in the Plant sphere, so there's no reason to keep it on this list.
Art of creativity The Creation sphere needs to be expanded, for there is little here. Add light. Remember that few specialty clerics actually get this staple spell. Putting it here allows specialty priests better access to it. Also, the creation of light is traditionally symbolic of creation. Of course, if we add light, we also must include continual light. Add magical stones. Their effect against undead suggests the presence of raw positive material energy, which is the stuff of creation. Add negative plane protection for the same reason. Add sticks to snakes. Although this might be stretching, this traditional power of the standard cleric class fits in well with a creationist theme, as this was a power commonly attributed to priests with this background in tradition and myth. Also add aid, raise dead, and restoration. Since creation gods theoretically created everything, including people, it is reasonable to assume that they can imbue others with some of their own creative force. The last addition is holy word. Its inclusion is based on the assumption that the ability to create includes the ability to preserve the essence of the creation from outside intruders. It is somehow fitting to give the powers of creation not only the first word, but the last one as well. Of course, we dump the druid specialty spells changestaff and wall of thorns. They are specific to the druid and available through the Plant sphere.
Divinations As noted in comments on the All list, detect good/evil is moved to this list. With tongues, commune, and true seeing going to the All sphere, and reflecting pool and commune with nature being specialty spells, the upper levels of the sphere of Divination look quite thin. No matter, what is left is pretty potent, and the standard cleric will keep major access, anyway. In part two of this article (see "Arcane I ore" in this issue), we shall take a closer look at upper-level divinations.
The stone tell spell should be added from the Elemental list. It is both a divination spell and has traditionally been available to clerics of sufficient level. Finally, delete the druid specialty spells detect snares & pits and locate animals or plants. These go to the Animal and Plant spheres. Move reflecting pool to the Weather sphere, and commune with nature to both the Animal and Plant spheres.
Elementally, my dear druid Standard clerics should have their minor access to this sphere limited to the Earth and Water elements. This gives them a good selection of spells, while keeping them away from the druid specialties. Standard clerics should remain limited to minor access.
If you are spltting the Elemental sphere by element, the Air elemental list is too short to be viable (even if you include dust devil). In this case, borrow from the Weather sphere, including faerie fire, call lightning, and control winds. (As an aside, an air cleric might be augmented from the wizard spell list, possibly including: feather fall, whispering wind, and gust of wind.)
The sunray spell should be on this list. Its original use was to give druids a spell to use against undead and oozes, slimes, and jellies. On a clerical list, it is lttle more than a poor man's flamestrike. In short, it is useful for a druid, for a cleric it is merely redundant.
Guardians of nature Currently, this sphere just needs development. A fair number of people haven't caught the difference between this sphere and Protection. The primary difference is that this sphere wards areas, whereas Protection spells are personal. Both suffer from the same problem, the cleric either has all spells of the type, or no spells of the type.
It has been suggested to just let this sphere be absorbed into the others. (The comment was that splitting spells between this sphere and Protection is a lot like splitting Comeliness off from Charisma; an interesting experiment, but ultimately, why bother?) I disagree with this view; the addition of the sacred sentinel and holy guardian spells from the Tome of Magic add enough to this sphere to keep it. The glyph and symbol spells go to the All sphere. Also move silence, 15' radius to the Protection sphere (for use against sound-based attacks), and move wywem watch to the Summoning sphere. Added to this sphere from the Summoning sphere are abjure and dispel evil. It makes sense that a guardian priest should be able to get rid of otherplanar or evil entities or effects. Also, the light spell should be added here. Its ability to reveal (as light) or conceal (as darkness) within the area of effect, plus the alignment slant it would introduce to this sphere strongly argue for its inclusion (and where light goes, continual light fllows, so we add that spell to this list, too), To reinforce the alignment slanting of the Guardian sphere, add proection from evil, protection from evil, 10’ rdius, and holy word to this sphere also.
One last note: In the Player's Handbook, the forbiddance spell was left off the sphere lists in the back of the book. It should be listed as a Guardian sphere spell.
Priest, heal thyself Currently, half the spells a healer needs are in the Necromantic sphere. Add the following spells to the Healing sphere: cure blindness or deafness, cure disease, dispel evil, regenerate.
Note dispel evil. With the disappearance of the exorcism spell, dispel evil has become the counter spell to a hostile creature taking over a character or object. Thus this spell needs to be on this list to let a Healer address this problem.
Necromantic needs Closely related to the Healing sphere, because it deals with life-force manipulation, the Necromantic sphere needs a few spells added: slow poison, remove paralysis, neutralize poison, dispel evil. The reason these need to be together is that evil necromancer NPCs need their re versed forms.
The speak wih dead spell should be added to the list. The only other key change here is to move reincarmate to the Animal sphere. The availability of raise dead, resurrection, and so on make reincamate here superfluous. The spell originally was the druid counter to character death, and putting it into the Animal sphere restores it to its proper niche in the game system.
Note that the previous sphere, Healing, does not have access to raise dead and similar spells. This is to allow the more primitive priests (and others, like druids) to have healing beyond minor access without allowing them the capacity to bring back dead characters on a regular basis.
A green thumb Add locate animals and plants, detect snares & pits, and commure with rhature to the Plant sphere. While some may consider these listings redundant (and I certainly recommend that, as a general rule, clerics and priests have at least minor access to the Divination sphere), this ensures that clerics with this specialty can use these spells.
To serve and protect Moving on to the Protection sphere, dispel magic needs to be moved to the All sphere. A cleric who can't dispel magic is biocked from one of his basic game functions. The most important spel to add spell here is water breathing. This is an important clerical spell and the cleric (who may not have Elemental acess) can get access to it here. Finally, all the druid specialty spells should be deleted from this list: barkskin, protection from fire, and protection from lightning. The latter two, especially, are unbalancing power adds for the general cleric; the first totally outperforms the standard clerical resist fire, and the latter gives a party too much protection against lightming-based attacks, which were specifically designed to be hard on party magic. These specific advantages of the druid were supposed to make the druid a viable alternative choice on a party level; if every cleric can use these, then why go with' the specialist druid?
Summon knocking on my door The Summoning sphere list is a lttle short. In paticular, it is impossible to have minor access to this sphere, as all the spells in it are 4th level or higher. Add to the list: dust devil, messenger, and wyver watch. Also add protection from evil and protection. from evil, 10' radius. These additions are based on the principle that a summoning specialist also would have access to the spells that would protect him from summoned creatures. The last addition is detect charm, since this allows the summoner to determine if an extraplanar creature is controlling an item or creature. Again, the druid specialty spells should be removed: animal sumoning I, II, lI; summon woland beings; and wall of thorns. Also, remember to add detect astral/ethereal beings here if you have the Tome of Magic book.
Here comes the sun Aside from noting that the Sun spell list is a lttle light (ouch!), I have no major recommendations for changes. The list can be bolstered by adding sumburst from the GREYHAWK Adventures book. A version a the spell is reproduced in the“ Arcane Lore" column that accompanies this article.
Weather or not All the Weather sphere spells are fine for druids and for weather or sea specialty priests.
Druids: The final frontier The changes noted above should return the original "feel" to the druid character. As a bonus, by moving the various special druid divination spells into the Animal and Plant lists, we eliminate the need to give the druid minor access to divinations. (I know I recommended that all priests have at least minor access to Divinations, but the druid specialty is the infamous exception that proves the rule).
Three small adjustments also should be made to the list of the druids granted powers (this includes all specialty priests of a nature deity):
- Druids receive speak with animals as a frst-level spell instead of a second-level spell.
- Druids receive cure light wounds as a second-level spell rather than a first-level spell.
- Druids receive neutralize poison as a third-level spell instead of a fourth-level spell.
The reason for the first is to alow even starting druids the ability to communicate with animals directly; a key character ability. The reason for the second is that the cure light wounds spell is so useful that in most campaigns it nearly always drives out other first-level spells. This important modification of the druids granted powers brings back into play the frst-level druid specialty spells, such as entangle and faerie fire. It also creates a very different sense of pacing for those playing druid characters.
Likewise, another key druid ability was the early access to the neutralize poison spell. In low/mid-level groups, one of the primary reasons to seek out druid characters was their abilty to save poisoned adventurers.
Odds & ends One curious question that came up was how to add new clerical spells to the game, since, theretially, every cleric knows every spell on the standard list. How, exactly, does clerical spell research work if all cerical spells are divinely given?
One solution that works is to assume that the spells are available if the cleric knows how to ask for them. Thus, the basis for clerical spell research is the cleric's discovery of how to ask a patron for the appropriate spell. The key factors in the atempt: adventuring time lost, monetary expenditures, and chance of failure are, of course, equal to those of a wizard researching a magical spell. Once a spell is discowered, it either may be made available to others of the same religion or perhaps left as a spell unique to the PC cleric. This is the DM's decision, perhaps to be transmitted in the DM's role of the PC's patron.
Clerical spheres: All, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Guardian, Healing, Necromancy, Protection; Elemental (Minor access limited to Earth/Water spells).
Druid spheres: All, Animal, Elemental, Healing, Plant, Sun, Weather.
C = Cleric sphere, D = Druid sphere, S = Specialty priest only.
