Priest Blessings

[Veknironth]

Well, I never noticed this before, but it seems strange. On p65 of the main book, top left paragraph about Priest Blessings, it states the following:

"To try to bless a crowd of people or numerous items diminishes the effectiveness of the
prayer (no bonuses). Only a priest who is 8th level or higher can bless
two people or two items per level of experience without loss of potency."

So, does that mean that from levels 1-7 a priest can only bless one person or item at a time, and then at level 8 they can suddenly do 16 at a time?

-Vek
"Typo, missing text?"

[kiralon]

yes, but it really is less of an issue, because it mostly means a high level priest can make holy water at a faster rate.
Blessing of the person gives you a bonus to save against something that doesn't exist ingame that i have ever noticed (disease) and in my games the players do not come up against possession much at all, because it is not a common power and as DM taking control of a players character isn't something I like to do, so the blessing of the person isn't real useful.
Blessing of the house id assume the priest does from the inside so hard to do to multiples at once anyway
Blessing of food is just too hard. Is it the warehouse full of food, the individual apple? Just a wagon full?
and that leaves the blessing of water.

[The Dark Elf]

Ive not checked the book but you quoted sentence reads as though it's only talking about doing so without loss of potency.

[Soldier of Od]

So, does that mean that from levels 1-7 a priest can only bless one person or item at a time, and then at level 8 they can suddenly do 16 at a time?

Just took a look at the book. Yes, it looks like that is the case. Seems a bit weird, but there it is.

[Nevermore]

I don't mean to derail this thread, but I was looking over the OCC after reading this post, and wow. I had never actually looked at it before. Am I right in thinking that it allows you (quote unquote) to cast (also quote unquote) spells regardless of normal limitations, since it's just you asking your deity to do so?

[Veknironth]

Well, I am not sure what you mean by that. But I do wonder about the prayer of intervention. If you're successful and you can cast any spell that your god knows, what is your time limit for doing so? So, if your god allows you to cast Crimson Wall of Lictalon, then do you have 1 minute, one hour, a whole day, the rest of your life? I assume it's rather immediate because the god wouldn't intervene for non-exigent circumstances. But how exigent?

-Vek
"Also, I know this is pedantic but it's "quote", then the quoted text, followed by "unquote" to end the quoting. "quote/unquote" would look like ""quoted text."

[Kraynic]

I'm not sure if there is an official statement anywhere about this, but this is how I handle the spell option of prayer of intervention:
1. The exact spell desired has to be specified in the prayer, and can't be changed afterwards.
2. The spell requested may be used any time that day, since it is a once per day ability.
Well, it is a once per day ability in 1E. I seem to be overlooking the place in the 2E book (page 65ish) where it states how frequently you can use this particular prayer (or else it doesn't specify).

[kiralon]

I play it that when the intervention prayer finishes, the spell goes off.
If you need time then you get the scroll except it's not of the same level of power, and you have to be higher level to do.
This ability is way to powerful for most dm's to like even slightly if players have particular gods.

[Soldier of Od]

I agree, the spell goes off immediately at completion of the prayer. I assume that is how all of the prayers work - I wouldn't expect you can recite a prayer of strength and then bank the bonuses for you to "activate" later whenever you need to as long as it is the same day. So prayer of intervention would work the same way.

[Kraynic]

It may be simply my point of view on it.

I don't see requiring a priest to stop in the middle of combat for at least one melee in to attempt a prayer to be all that appealing. Since another use of that same prayer (in 1E anyway) is to be granted the knowledge to teach a wizard a new spell, and that use of intervention is something that is at least hinted as being an hours long process. I also see this as a potential follow up to a prayer of communion (that may or may not include some simple divination). In that way, Prayer of Intervention is a way to plan ahead for some event or situation that is known (or strongly suspected) to be approaching.

I have no problem with it in my games, even in this form. It is potentially very powerful, and is (in my opinion at least) most powerful at low level. But at a 9% chance of success per level, it is also at its most unreliable at low levels. If someone wants to gamble on it and gets a lucky roll, that is fine by me.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Well, I never noticed this before, but it seems strange. On p65 of the main book, top left paragraph about Priest Blessings, it states the following:

"To try to bless a crowd of people or numerous items diminishes the effectiveness of the
prayer (no bonuses). Only a priest who is 8th level or higher can bless
two people or two items per level of experience without loss of potency."

So, does that mean that from levels 1-7 a priest can only bless one person or item at a time, and then at level 8 they can suddenly do 16 at a time?

-Vek
"Typo, missing text?"

Raw....yep...from 1 to 16.

It might mean.... starting at L8 2 and +2 per level gained.

[Soldier of Od]

It may be simply my point of view on it.

I don't see requiring a priest to stop in the middle of combat for at least one melee in to attempt a prayer to be all that appealing. Since another use of that same prayer (in 1E anyway) is to be granted the knowledge to teach a wizard a new spell, and that use of intervention is something that is at least hinted as being an hours long process. I also see this as a potential follow up to a prayer of communion (that may or may not include some simple divination). In that way, Prayer of Intervention is a way to plan ahead for some event or situation that is known (or strongly suspected) to be approaching.

I have no problem with it in my games, even in this form. It is potentially very powerful, and is (in my opinion at least) most powerful at low level. But at a 9% chance of success per level, it is also at its most unreliable at low levels. If someone wants to gamble on it and gets a lucky roll, that is fine by me.

I guess spending a melee during combat to recite the prayer might seem unappealing to some, but conversely (and especially given the potential power of this ability), having the priest try to call forth the only spell that could possibly save the day while their allies spend a melee round desperately protecting their comrade from harm sounds like a very appealing scenario to me!
Wizards and other mages need to spend an entire melee or more to cast high level spells anyway. The priest isn't "stopping" in the middle of combat - they're doing something! Something potentially very significant.
And this is only relevant if you are trying to recite the prayer during a combat situation.

I don't know about the teaching a spell thing - that is not in 2nd edition. The success rate is also much higher.