Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 11:54:04 -0500 
From: "Joseph E. Beck" <jb8n+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Walking Bandages
	<1it2d1INNsgv@life.ai.mit.edu>


adair@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jonathan Edward Adair) writes:
> In article <1993Jan5.150515.25071@cs.cornell.edu> wgarrett@cs.cornell.edu (Wil\
> liam 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.
Hmmm...we had a cleric who tried such tactics before.  Then the next
time we got ambushed we explained the cost of our not abandoning him
was that he would heal us.  Eventually he got the idea that he was
part of a team, and trying to gain leverage over everyone else just
wouldn't work.

> 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.  
This would have caused a fight between the 3 clerics and everyone else
in our group.  Does the mage get payment for casting a sleep spell
that sways the fight?  How about the fighter who holds point against
overwhelming odds that give the spellcasters time to work?  What would
you do if the fighter demanded payment up front to hold back a
charging minotour?


> 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.
Seems fitting to me.  Of course, I would have simply charged
'protection fees' to the priests who neglected combat 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 seems very artificial.  Flame strikes taking out people are
free, but cure light wounds cost money.  Hmm...  I don't see where you
got the idea that priests should be able to charge for their services.
Face it, almost every class has something they could easily charge
money for.  If you want your group figuring out exactly what each
person's service is work, and have payments of gold for services
before, during (if I were a fighter I'd want payment in advance before
I made a charge to save someone) and after combat; this seems like a
good method.

The idea of making everyone be a follower of the god seems flawed as
well.  Unless you only have 1 god of healing people will be doing a
lot of quick converting.  IMO a deity would be more concerned about
whether the person being healed tends to act in the interest of the
deity's sphere.  A god of the woodlands doesn't care if the person
donates 10% to 20% of his money, but healing spells would fail if this
person was a lumberjack.

> This still left the priest with most of his spell casting being
> various cures, but at least it wasn't without reason.
If the point is to not have the priest being a healing battery, you've
admitted this method fails.  If the method is for the priest to be
payed for his effort then this works.  But where is it written that a
priest should be payed for his services?  Isn't cooperation within the
group a good enough reason?

	joe


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