Cleric's remove curse

[Pentaxius]

Something that I've been itching to ask, but always managed to refrain myself. I won't focus here on the RP of remove curse or in which context in it used, but rather on mundane, mechanical concerns.

It seems odd, for me, that clerics of low-medium level (5-7) can easily make use of remove curse repeatedly while compensating the XP cost in a few hours at most, while clerics of higher level (9+) require incredible, week long compensation to repay for the cost incurred. In all logic, shouldn't it be the opposite ? As cleric who wields lesser favor from his deity should expand more - and not less - effort in his attempt to purge the curse ?

In my experience, purging from heavily withered to lightly afflicted takes an average of 1500 XP at level 9, which arguably is well more than an average week's worth of DM events / Scripted content playing 20-30hours +. While at lower levels, it take merely a ''well run'' or two to be able to pull it off.

The issue becomes dramatic, as a higher level cleric usually (is expected) to have a large group of followers to attend to, and it is mandatory (and a big part of the fun) that he oversees the spiritual well-being (and bodily - not so fun) well-being of his converts. The worst case scenario happens when the flock withers faster than the cleric can purge. In this case, you're left with de-leveling - or what should be righteous spell-failure.

The more powerful, in terms of level and deity favor, the more cleric should ''sacrifice'' himself / devote substantial effort for the sake of the well-being of his flock. Of course, I wholeheartedly agree - I would just merely point out that there are much more interesting ways of achieving this, for instance by overseeing rituals and other RP events, rather than taking the weekly XP syringe from a capillary to the heart.

Of course, you can make it a ceremony of withering cleansing - gather all your converts, and make something cool out of it with DM supervision ! Clearly, if it has a lot of swag - the cost would surely be lower on top of being awesome. But, DM attention is a scarce resource.

This isn't a huge issue, and as always, you might not want fix something that isn't broken. Just voicing my humble opinion.

[Trevor White]

Right now it is quite trivial to sit on L5 or 7 casting Remove Curse for 300gp a hit, making massive profits for little RP, risk, or effort and recharging your XP off easy quests. Remove Curse is currently a pretty fantastic exchange rate of XP to cash compared to potion brewing as it doesn't require a feat or cauldron. Although such services are useful, I feel they are too profitable  I agree that it hurts the game when high level PCs are less able to generate RP by dealing with Withering.

It's something that I feel would be fixable by making it an XP loss on the Target, with a "Do you submit to this spell" dialogue when it is cast. This would also prevent PCs making such fat piles of cash out of selling Withering removal. If the caster doesn't lose XP, then it's easy to offer it cheap or free for goodwill/charity. As opposed to a few PCs taking all the XP loss, it would be spread out across the PCs who choose to risk the bigger exposures to Withering. I think that it adds to the game when you're forced to choose between your own power level or Withering reduction, as opposed to another PC being the XP sink for the faction. I think this is the best solution as it stops the issue of "OC, nobody's playing a PC with Remove Curse cheaply, I have no money, I am now screwed in a boring manner"

As an alternative suggestion, could it be 150 XP(or less) to cast Remove Curse, but it have an Area of Effect when cast by a PC, like for Magic Circle vs Evil? That way it becomes hugely more efficient to Remove Curse a bunch of people, and brings in RP effects of getting a lot of people in on the casting. Also, if Caster Level had a much greater effect on how much it cured. So a L5 should put out a decent Remove Curse on one PC, but a L9 PC should get a huge AOE and remove a ton of Withering. It takes them much longer to earn that 150XP so it should be worth more.

I am keen for anything that makes arbitrarily selling people shots of Remove Curse a less effective option than using it in support of religious or factional goals. Spamming Remove Curse already uses up all your L3 slots in one go, and you can't do mass healing sermons or anything unless you have ridiculous numbers of slots.

EDIT: Bear in mind that Wizards, Sorcs and Bards get Remove Curse too, and I am constantly surprised that every single wizard doesn't learn that shit at L7 :P. It's not just clerics who have an agenda that can be advanced with Remove Curse, and it's not just Clerics who should get bonuses if anything changes. Especially as a Bard or Sorc taking it is making a sacrifice in spell options as well as XP.

[Deception]

With the mist receding around Mistlocke's environs and blight retchers being introduced more thoroughly, withering grows at an annoyingly higher rate, and is imo nothing more than an xp/gold sink that's constantly gnawing at you. I'm all for reducing the penalty when it comes to withering-reductory aspects of the game, especially clerics. I'd like to see a substantial decrease in the xp loss of a cleric when he goes past L7, along with additional reductions based on the clerics success when it comes to converts/prayers and when the subject in question is of equal faith.

[Howlando]

Nice suggestions, Trevor White. I agree that this system could use some refinement.

[HalflingPower]

I always considered the withering to just be a minor inconvenience, until it took me out one day.

I believe scaling the exp cost of withering reduction to lower amounts the higher you level is a great idea, because all it is fostering in a level 9 who needs to cast it on himself and others is that 'I need to quest more'

Lowering the experience cost for these people is a good way to alleviate the grind.

It is also certainly useful for bards/wizards/sorcerers as well

I don't agree with the area of effect reduction as the standard remove curse spell- BUT

I think it would make an amazing 4th circle custom cleric spell, something in the range of circle of healing (and maybe healing some HP as well for flavor/combat usage?)

Maybe there could be a 5th circle cleric spell that blocks some of the withering points being taken as well - with the advent of what I would call, blight retcher spam that has been occuring on many non scripted adventures.

(I lost my character to 8 blight retchers dropped on a transition so maybe that last part is a shameless suggestion)

To sum up: I believe the current single target remove curse is good enough in potency but could use a shifting scale in exp removal for the caster (10 less per level over 5?) and that a 4th circle area of effect withering reduction spell for clerics (and druids?) only would be fantastic, at a higher experience penalty of course.