From: adair@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jonathan Edward Adair)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Walking Bandages
Date: 12 Jan 93 00:12:17 GMT
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
NNTP-Posting-Host: hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu

In article <1993Jan5.150515.25071@cs.cornell.edu> wgarrett@cs.cornell.edu (William F. Garrett) writes:
>In article <1ib3lbINNba9@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> pkralik@ecst.csuchico.edu (Wintermute) writes:
>>
>> I often play Clerics, and it seems that every time I do, I wind up in the 
>> position of being viewed as the party's walking first aid kit.
>
>Just about everyone has seen this problem -- the party gets scuffed up,
>so they yell "Medic!" and run to the nearest cleric for help.  As a PC
>cleric, there are several things you can do to avoid being cast in this
>role.  As a DM and game designer, there are even more options.  Here
>are a few suggestions:
...
>will not repeatedly assist non-believers, so PC's may have to convert
>to their cleric's religion if they want healing.
>

This is a method I used as a player.  It really aggravated the other
players.  I just kept insisting that the unfaithful should not be
rewarded.  They bitched and moaned as they bled, but they eventually
had to ingratiate themselves to my priest and his deity.  They soon 
turned to the overly-powerful herbal healing available in that 
campaign rather than put up with my priest.  Shrug.

Another time with the same basic group of players, there were three
clerics including myself.  We got together and decided we were sick
of being walking first aid stations, at least without proper reward.
We formed a "Priest's Union" and refused to cast even a Cure Light
without seeing some payment up front.  My less scrupulous comrades
soon were emptying purses of our own unconcious party members.  I 
just farmed out my services in exchange for half of each wounded
person's share of treasure.  This too eventually resulted in 
failure when the rest of the party actually stayed healed up for
a few days and turned on us priests, who had neglected to carry
any of the less-profitable offensive spells.

As a DM (with an admittedly better group of players), I've used
various methods, from providing faiths without access to the 
healing sphere to refusing to grant more healing spells when the
previous ones were used on non-followers of that deity.  One
of the most effective I've found is just hinting to the party
that the priest's deity might not be pleased if they just accept
his healing without any compensation.  A little prodding to the
priest's player in private, and the party tended to cough up
10-20% of their treasure to the priest's temple in thanks. 
This still left the priest with most of his spell casting being
various cures, but at least it wasn't without reason.

--
Jonathan E. Adair  -  Programmer at Large                          /\
adair@gnu.ai.mit.edu             <-  Best choice                  /<>\
adair@eggo.csee.usf.edu          <-  Almost as good              /    \
adair@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu       <-  Works for now              /______\
adair@psycho.fidonet.org         <-  Read yearly             The Illuminati
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd