Divine Classes & Old Perks

[Mort]

Hello,

There is a big update coming up for divine classes. On creation, or level-up, they will receive a Holy Symbol as well as a prayerbook holding the dogma of their faith. The Holy Symbol is a representation of your faith, an undroppable but equippable necklace. While worn, they have the possibility to provide many bonuses to the class such as enhancing the DC / caster level of your spells, extra spellslots, and other bonuses appropriate to your deity.

Paladins will receive a similar holy symbol that improves with their level as well as through an unknown algorithm.

Your holy symbol also comes with a "Unique Power" that you can use on other PCs to request "Prayers" or "Convert" them to your faith without the aid of a DM. Prayers still need to be roleplayed, but they will be counted toward an internal algorithm. Conversions need to be willing and NOT forced (the target may "resist") -- they are relatively more serious and to reflect this importance a character can only be converted twice through his entire career, so do not convert willy nilly to every priest you encounter. Clerics and paladins cannot be converted without DM assistance.

Through these features, and DM witnessed actions, your holy symbol will grow in power, enhancing the role of the cleric as a leader and a preacher and the need for these activities to be fulfilled to be a successful cleric. The prayerbook is just to give more information on your chosen faith IG and make it seem more real; it serves no function and can be safely discarded.

Finally, it is possible to change the name of your Holy Symbol, and Deity (for collecting prayers or conversion) for flavour purpose or trickery (cyricist, sharran, etc.).

You can do so with a DM if an application is approved for it, or if you have Skill Focus: Bluff using the following commands:

"/c SetDeity x"

"/c SetSymbol y"

To change your Deity Descriptor to x, and symbol description (when you turn undead) to y. For example, this allows Robert Baratheon the Maskarran to appear as a Cleric of Waukeen if he goes "/c SetDeity Waukeen" & "/c SetSymbol A Gold Coin". This will not actually change your deity, only the way your faith is presented to other players in the prayer/convert dialogue.

On Perks,
Traditional, non-class, perks have not transitioned well to EFU:M, and have now been removed from the gameworld until something more appropriate comes along. That said, perks that were interesting, such as those that replace Turn Undead, will probably transition to some further specialization for divine classes such as Paladin and Clerics.

On future development,
The Holy Symbol will also gain more options in the future; but first, a more concrete use for Consecration to make Blessed Water, Incense, etc. And to Consecrate/Desecrate grounds, both in exchange for an XP/Gold/Ingredient cost.

[Talir]

I believe we have the amulets bug free now but there's a few remarks. If you are playing a cleric right now, let me know on IRC when you're in-game so I can make a few adjustments. If you've converted people, you need to prove it and I'll adjust the variables needed.

Prayers alone are not going to give you any lasting advantages. Bear that in mind before any bug reports. Leveling up once should fix what's wrong right now.

The more subterfuge clerics to have made use of SetDeity and SetSymbol, you'll need to reset these.