Dragon Warriors

The last of the 3 new professions and I think this is a nice addition. The priest is not overpowered (maybe perhaps a little weak) but has some abilities that will aid a group of adventurers.

Starting stats are fair enough for a scholarly type

Skill/Abilities
Generally speaking I think they all work, are in character for this profession and are pretty well balanced as a whole.

Breadth/Depth of knowledge. I like the way this links to the new style of secondary skills it just all fits together really well and I look forward to seeing what other secondary skills people come up with.

I would have also looked at a couple of extra abilities for the priest. Perhaps an added bonus when using a crucifix (holy symbol) to turn a vampire. I’d also look at how a priest can use holy water/oil against demons and undead. This may have been covered in another book so if it has please let me know where as I’d like to include it.

So what do others think?

I have a question for the creators of the Priest profession (which I agree is a good addition, BTW). Is a pries of the True Faith stronger than a priest of any other religion?

Cheers,

-Kyle

Not in my games, I think Ben and Shaun did the bulk of the Priest work.

But in my games priests, rabbis, imams etc. can all be Priests to equal effect.

_________________
co-author Fury of the Deep
co-author Friends or Foes
co-author Dragon Warriors Players Guide
co-author Cold Fury
co-author Cadaver Draconis
co-author Ordo Draconis 1 and 2.

To put it another way, does it matter which deities a priest worships?

I'm thinking specifically of the non-mundane abilities of the Priest, which I'd say are:

Exorcism
Remove Curse
Remove Madness

I assume a priest must worship a "good" god (whatever that means), but it doesn't seem to matter which one. Do others agree?

Cheers,

-Kyle

I'd think that only priests of the "one true god" regardless of faith fit the bill here. So no pagan priests?

To be honest I was hoping for more details on the religions of Legend in the players guide. It did add more on the true faith church, but I was hoping for more details on all the main religions. It would have helped give some depth to role-play, especially for priest characters.

Weak in combat, yes, but not weak in a narrative role. The 'scholar' role in a party is usually played by the sorcerer, and tends to just be a conduit for the GM to feed information to the party. The priest has some control over his areas of knowledge and the contribution he can make to a party, at least. I would allow sorcerers to start with Ancient Script and Depth of Knowledge abilities to represent their own scholarly studies. As a general point, the introduction of any new profession that steps on the toes of a previous profession (Hunter/Barbarian, Priest/Sorcerer, Knave/Assassin), the material should attend to options for the original professions. One of my bugbears with the new professions is how their new abilities tend to deprive the original professions of the things they were doing anyway. For example, I'd always generally let a sorcerer make an Intelligence check to read an ancient language, but doing so now deprives the Priest of something that makes him special.

Curiously, the Friar profession had exactly that - an extra +1d6 to repel vampires with a crucifix. If I were to implement Priests, they'd probably get a combination of Priest and Friar abilities.

My own take on it is that any character with faith (so probably not a sorcerer...) should be able to repel a vampire with a crucifix (not a cross, of course, despite what Hollywood (and the DW Bestiary) might want us to believe ) and I would have liked to have seen faith explored more (as a template to apply to any character - not just priests). The benefits and obligations of following the True Faith (with maybe a follow-up supplement on the other religions of Legend). For example, belonging to the True Faith might provide +1-3 Magical Defence, but require tithes, attendance at religious services, pledging to a patron saint, following a code of conduct, and so on.


There are lots of anecdotes throughout the books about various religions, histories, practices, gods, etc., which just pulling together in one reference would be worth doing, I think, and then this single source could be fleshed out with missing details. Maybe that's already on SKG's list? If not, I'll add it to mine... .

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Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

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If I recall correctly there was no intention to limit the Priest profession to any particular religion. Perhaps when taken together with the Church chapter in the Players Guide it might seem so, but I do not think that was the intention.

_________________
Show me the mythic legends, mighty heroes and mysterious faerie creatures!

Yes, it's more a matter that the only parts of the world, we've really had described in detail so far are the areas dominated by the True Faith and Ta'ashim - both of which are monotheistic religions (this is pretty explicit with regards to the True Faith, but seems likely true of Ta'ashim as well - not just because of parallels with out own world, but because of the description we have of it on p.164 of Dragon Warriors, and Thuland/Mercania and other similar places whose Priests are described as being Elementalists.

There may well be other cultures in Legend for whom the Priest profession would be appropriate, even if the religion isn't linked to the True Faith/Ta'ashim paradigm - we just haven't really seen them yet.

(In my own games, there is a third party to that paradigm - the 'Old Faith', as it is called in the lands of the True Faith which is seen as ancestral to the True Faith, and which still has its adherents- it's an analogue to Judaism, as the True Faith is an analogue to Christianity, and Ta'ashim to Islam).

_________________
Life and Death Are Only a Dice Roll Away!

Shaun Hately
co-author A Weak Pleasure
co-author Friends or Foes
co-author Dragon Warriors Players Guide

I like that idea. In my own games I had a similar religion called Shem, but I like Old Faith better, as it avoids bringing the cliches and trappings of Judaism to the religion. I had a Jewish player in my games at one stage and I inadvertently offended her with my portrayal of a Shem holy man NPC. In retrospect my characterisation was a little too on the nose and "fiddler on the roof" and as a gentile I should have been more sensitive and abstracted the idea a little more. Live and learn.

Cheers,

-Kyle