From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Deus Imperator)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Selling Clerical Services
Keywords: Dosh for healing
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:09:36 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

In article <1732@grivel.une.edu.au> nsecomb@metz.une.edu.au ( Nige.) writes:
>
>   In a party of adventurers, a party where the individuals share
>a working relationship rather than being friends, should the cleric be
>entitled to payment for his (sorry, their) healing services? or should they 
>just give the benefits of their divine faith to the heathens in the party
>who's contributions take the form of muscle and swordsmanship, arcane 
>abilities, or rogue attributes. If the Cleric does get paid, then should the 
>warrior also get paid for each physical threat to the party they eliminate, or
>each spell the mage casts etc, or should the cleric once paid for services
>rendered just not be entitled to the rewards or booty from a successful
>adventure. 
>   The main reason why these questions are posed is because I'd like some
>ideas on how you can develop are cleric character's personality, especially
>of non NG and LG allignments, without it turning into the "generic cleric"
>character where the cleric just gives healing no questions asked or payment
>demands made.
>
WEEEELLLL...
	A long time ago, I was playing in a campaign, where we had trotted up
from lowly first level, and were all around 15th.  I was a fighter, as 
vanilla as possible, except that I was MUCH more pious than our paladin.
At the time I liked the twist.  I tithed 25% of my cash, always helped the 
needy, and never asked my god for anything.  The paladin, on the contrary,
killed indiscriminately, found a good accountant (I kid you not), and
was always begging his god to pull his fat out of the fire.  So the DM 
one day put us up against a whole lotta demons, and the paladin, who had
a holy sword +2 (rather wimpy) screwed up, and poof!  the sword vanished.
One demon left, but it was a pit fiend, and we were all hosed, thanks
to the paladin.  Everyone withered under his attacks, and because I had 
a hellacious amount of hp, I was the last standing.  With 4 hp remaining,
I screwed up my courage, and quietly asked Ol' Cuthbert if he could help me
out.  It was the intention of the DM to have us captured and eventually 
escape hell, so he said nothing happened.  Then everyone complained.  
Everytine the paladin needed assistance, the DM always at least rolled the
Deitical Intervention (1st Edition) dice.  Since I was so pious, I should
deserve the same, they said.  "Fine," the DM said, lost in the potential
plot value of a run in hell, "1%."  He rolled.  01.  Everyone cheered.
The DM got mad.  "Fine!" he called out.  "You're all raised and fully healed."
"Fine!  A Solar descends, and destroys the pitfiend! Fine!  You're all
teleported back home!"  An evil smile crossed his lips.  "Fine...you" pointing
at me, "are a first level cleric."  Everyone groaned.  I gulped. 
	The game changed soon after that.  Even though I was a cleric with
100+ hit points, everyone was protecting me, and treating me like a child.
Whenever they were hurt, they would run for healing, and then desert me.
And it was taking FOREVER under my DM's system to get to higher levels.
Then I struck upon an idea.
	I asked him:  "Mages get xp's for money spent on research, right?
And fighters get xp's for killing new, different monsters, right?  And
thieves get xp's for the stuff they steal, right?  All this is tied into
bettering themselves.  Could I," I asked, "Get the xp value for stuff
that I tithed, within reason?  Doing so would make my life harder, and
thus make me more pious, no?"
	The DM agreed.  It made sense.  He had never bothered working on
the XP system for a cleric, because no one ever played one.  So I went into
business.  I sold my spells.
	What else was I going to do?  I already was evangelizing my 
god, and no one took me seriously, and I was already being ignored.  Why
not make them realize just how important my deity was?
	At first, they were pissed, but then they grew to respect the 
cleric I had become.  Not fueled by greed, just the realization that perhaps
there was something more important in their lives than gp's and magic items,
namely themselves.
	And when I reached 16th level, and the paladin found the object
of his quest, a Holy sword +6, he didn't quibble, when the sword chose me
Perfect roleplaying.

-- 
Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Everything But Love tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
"Oh God, does this mean we have to fight?"
			-Selina Kyle, _Batman_ 
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd