Behold the super secret design doc. This is a document of my thoughts and notes as I design the system/site. Though technically more for my reference, I decided to make it a hidden public page as a love letter to easter eggs on websites. It will be lacking in style as it is not strictly meant for you.
5/27/2026 - Cleric feels too much like wizard at the moment. Arnold K has a blog post "Toward a Better Cleric" that has interesting ideas. What follows are practical takeaways.
The Current (5/27/2026) version of the Cleric is thus
Skill: Religion and (1d4): 1=Literature 2=History 3=Medicine 4=Roll on Profession Table
Equipment: Holy Symbol, Holy Weapon, Chain Armor
Similar to the Wizard, Clerics power their spells by rolling not d6 Magic Dice but d8 Faith Dice (FD.) Each time you cast a spell you roll as many FD from your pool as you'd like. Any FD that rolled 1-4 contribute to the spell and are returned to your pool. Any FD that rolled 5-7 contribute to the spell but the die is then spent. Spent dice are recovered after an hour is spent in nothing but prayer (Lunch does not count.) A roll of 8 does not contribute to the spell and forces a roll on the Disapproval table.
The gods are watching. They see the way you use and abuse their gifts. They've given you magical prowess and they watch you squander it. They watch this. And they seethe. Anytime a roll of 8 is made while casting a spell, you will roll on the Disapproval table below. In addition, any time you do something to displease your diety or go against the church, you gain Disapproval. Each point of disapproval is an automatic 8 in your spell pool. Disapproval is gained by aiding the heretic, going against divine tenants or holy doctrine, losing followers, or losing holy relics. Disapproval can be removed (and approval can be gained) through penance, slaying or converting heretics/the unholy, recruiting followers, finding holy relics, taking a vow, or other acts that appease the gods. Particularly holy acts may even temporarily grant you d6s instead of d8s as your FD.
Your spells are chosen for you by the GM each day. These may or may not be a portent of things to come. (i.e. a Protection of Fire spell may mean a dragon might be nearby.) You can negotiate to choose some or all of your spells with a sacrifice and an hour long ritual.
You can identiy magic items by bringing them to a church and completing an hour long ritual.
When you go into town you can give a sermon, attracting Level in 6 followers. Of these followers there is a Level in 6 chance they will have class levels. These followers do not make morale or loyalty checks but will still only follow orders that do not directly put their lives in danger. They will also not follow orders that go against the faith. The sermon takes two hours and may not be looked upon kindly in towns not following your religion.
The Cleric can perform any of the following ceremonies.
| Union (2 hour ritual) | Two people are bonded. If one partner were to take physical damage whie next to their partner, their partner can choose to take half the damage instead. If one of the partners die, the other loses 500XP. |
| Funeral (2 hour ritual) | The dead are honored. If a funeral is performed for a PC, 50% of the deceased's XP is divided amongst the rest of the PCs in the party. |
| Consecrate (12 hour ritual) | An intense ritual that leaves a 20' radius of hallowed ground. Undead (or other creatures unholy to the Cleric's faith) cannot enter or be raised in the Hallowed area. |
| Bless (24+ hour ritual) | You impart an item with holy energy. Exact effect will be negotiated with the GM but examples include creating a +1 holy weapon, a flask of holy water, giving a specific protection to a piece of armor, etc. The more intense the effect the more intense the ritual but even minor effects will result in at least one level of exhaustion. |
Your authority is second only to that of the divine. Your FD are now d12s and are only expended on a roll of 10-11. You gain disapproval on a roll of 12. You carry insane influence within the church and your followers will obey you to the death as long as the command does not go against their faith.
5/28/2026 The Cleric was reworked completely to fit within the Faith Point model. The level of Divine Knowledge was dropped and potions were added as I think the trek from the Dungeon/Wilderness back to town presents enough of a cost. Plus there's no level limit for normal identify. Proselytize was reworked to avoid double dipping to FP refills (performing a sermon and recruiting new followers). Ceremony was dropped a Level. No real methodology to that one just felt better. We'll find out if that's a problem. Renamed to prayer leader for flavor reasons. I like the idea of tying Devotion to Faith but couldn't think of a roll under stat to utilize FP. So I figured I'd just copy the Fighter's Attack Stat's homework. Devotion is really just Attack fudged a little to account for the FP penalty. Waffled a lot on the distribution of FP. I liked the idea of Clerics being able to have more "spell slots" than the wizard but the "spells" they can cast are much more nebulous and more likely to outright fail. I settled on an "occasional big drop" distribution so that Wizard felt like they worked each level and got more spells as a result of their studies whereas Clerics must prove themselves and are rewarded for devotion. High Priest was obviously created for the MD-style Cleric and I wanted to keep the idea of becoming a Martin-Luther-style Heretic and causing schisms. I ditched the idea of disapproval because upon reflection the label of Heretic and Apostate are not given by the divine they're given by institutions. I instead decided to seed relics and artifacts into the world that the PCs could find that directly contradict institutional doctrine. Let them choose what to do with it. Do you burn a divine relic (which would probably penalize devotion or FP) or do you risk excommunication?
5/29/26-6/1/26 List of professions was added. I did my best to give each profession items that were not TOO useful on the surface. I wanted to follow the OSR principle of providing "solutions without problems." Anything with an obvious use (helms, oil, scrolls) is limited in scope or quantity, at least that's the intent. Professions were lifted from a combination of Skerples' Glog, Old School Essentials, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Added the weapons and armor section. Tweaked Skerples/Arnold K's design on ranged weapons so the ranges made sense to me and that crossbows used bolts. I don't care that they are the same mechanically, crossbows use bolts. They are different things. They are not interchangable. I will die on this hill.
6/2/2026 Clarified how helmets work in armor. The professions list grants helmets when it seemed appropriate but I don't have a piecemeal armor system nor do I want one. I didn't like just doing a +1 bonus, I felt like that was easily forgettable and I didn't want it to be another shield. I wanted it to be something that I can say "The stalagmite falls on your head" and the player goes "Wait! I have a helmet!" I also figured that if the profession lists different types of helmets (leather vs plate) they may as well do different things. Ended up settling on there being a helmet for each armor type and reducing incoming damage to the head. I haven't seen this implemented anywhere else so. We'll find out if there was a reason for that.