Thinking About Spells per Level for Clerics

While finalizing the text of the upcoming 2nd edition of the Hungarian retro-clone Kazamaták és Kompániák, we took a look at clerics. Here's a simple table that sums up XP requirements and spells/day by edition (note that it's an incomplete table; Rules Cyclopedia, although up until level 14 matches Mentzer, grows way beyond that, and so does AD&D). I'm specifically looking at 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells to gauge power levels. For reference, among others, consider the following spells:

• 3rd level: Continual Light, Cure Disease, Locate Object, Remove Curse
• 4th level: Neutralize Poison, Protection from Evil 10' radius
• 5th level: Commune, Quest, Raise Dead

When you consider that clerics gain access to all the spells on their list (except in AD&D, where 5th spell level and up are provided directly by the cleric's deity), and the fact that the spell list grows a little bit in each edition (for instance, Mentzer adds Cure Blindness as a 3rd level spell and Dispel Magic as a 4th level spell to the cleric's repertoire), you can see the power discrepancy between the editions.

As noted on the summary sheet, a Cook/Marsh cleric gets access to 4th and 5th level spells at level 6 (i.e. 25,000 XP), whereas a magic-user in the same edition only gains 3rd level spells at level 5 (i.e. 20,000 XP). By the time the magic-user gets their first 4th level spell at level 7 (i.e. 80,000 XP), the cleric has already got access to 5th level spells (from 50,000 XP, actually).

In Mentzer (and the Rules Cyclopedia), however, the clerics' power curve is steeper. They only get their hands on 4th level spells at level 8 (i.e. 100,000 XP) and 5th level spells at level 10 (i.e. 300,000 XP), which is comparable to magic-users in this edition (level 7 and 9, i.e. 80,000 XP and 300,000 XP, respectively). Furthermore, for an extra set of 6th level spells, clerics in Mentzer can cast fewer low level spells at the highest levels (although in the Rules Cyclopedia they make up for it as they advance beyond level 14).

AD&D is somewhere between the two B/X editions, with the caveat that clerics have access to 1st levels spells from level 1. They get their 3rd level spells the quickest (at level 3, i.e. 13,001 XP). They receive 4th level spells at level 7 (i.e. 55,001 XP), which is comparable to magic-users (level 7, i.e. 60,001 XP). In fact, magic-users get access to 5th level spells sooner than clerics (135,001 XP vs. 225,001 XP).

Even though the cleric's spell per level table in Cook/Marsh hurts my sense of symmetry, it allows the proliferation of save or die effects. If you think about it, if a party of six acquires a total of 300,000 gp during their adventures (and that's without XP for killing monsters!), their cleric gets access to raise dead - for the same to happen in Mentzer, those 300,000 gold pieces must have been acquired by the cleric alone.

Excellence from the Blogosphere (July-August)

Finally, here's the latest Excellence in the Blogosphere post, this time looking at posts from July and August (with a few outliers as usual).

• Melan from Beyond Fomalhaut celebrated his third bloggaversary (not his word), and talked about the past and the future of his zine and other publications (Castle Xyntillan and Helvéczia, yay!), while also discussing the "the end of the OSR". Here are some responses (in good old-fashioned blog posts) from Anthony Huso and EOTB.
• It's hard to pick favourites posted by Konsumterra, but this short piece about monstrous snails spoke to me. It is exactly the kind of article you can easily save, print out, and add to your dungeon design folder. Also make sure you check out these d100 mission tables for fighters, thieves, clerics, and wizards.
• Speaking of simple tables, Tristan Tanner from The Bogeyman's Cave shared this simple d66 table for generating inspiring dungeon names.
• Another simple table is from Pride and Parchment by Sir Paperweight the Third concerning religious rituals.
• Rober Conley of Bat in the Attic briefly discussed the histories and problems of the RuneQuest and Traveller OGL (with a deeper look into other d100 games here).
• waywardwayfarer from The Dragon's Flagon talked about transparency from the DM's side, its benefits and how to achieve it.
• Arnold K of Goblin Punch introduces two terms when talking about adventures and situations: generic optimum and dynamism, and - using these neat terms - discusses ways to improve encounters (and thus adventures). Also check out this overhaul of encounter checks and this simple and fairly unintrusive meta currency.
• Pilgrim Procession From the Pilgrim's Temple shares a snippet of procedural hex description inspired by Lungfungus.
• Speaking of Lungfungus, he shared two dungeons (Lair of the Old Sorceror and The Ancient Winery), quickly followed by a third (Burial Temple of the Tridobatrakus).
• Courtney Campbell of Hack & Slash discusses why most published high level adventures fail, and what high level actually means in different editions of D&D.
• Wizard Lizard from Underground Adventures shares a gonzo science fantasy hack of Into the Odd and a mashup of OD&D and ODD.
• GraphitePrime talks about running a succubus as a demonic spirit that actually haunts the characters-
• Delta discusses the benefits of starting at 3rd level instead of 1st. The comment section is definitely worth checking out.
• Homebrew Homunculus shares a random table to generate random perfumes (made by Duryan the Gardener), and also discusses inversing the relationship of background and stats (i.e. the worse your stats, the better your background).
• Type 1 Ninja of Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat shares the writeup of the starting town of HELLWALKERS.
• John of The Wandering Gamist discusses his recent experiences climbing Mount Fuji and how it is modelled in OSR games.
• Scott Anderson from Treasure Hunters HQ shares an essay concerning emergent narratives.
• Martin O of Goodberry Monthly is creating a "kilodungeon". Here is the latest instalment (with links to the previous posts).
• Michael Kennedy from Sheep and Sorcery shares a pointcrawl system hack for LotFP.
• ravencrowking responds to an old discussion concerning player agency and gives advice to beginning judges (of the DCC kind).
• David B. of Psionic Blast from the Past shared his massive OD&D West Marches overland rules (with several addenda, like his campsite rules, weather/event rules, downtime rules, and setting description). There's also a slightly more detailed reaction table, a tweaked version of Vancian magic with a spell list, and advice and procedures for creating hex contents, designing traps and tricks, stocking dungeons, and creating treasure hoards.
• Inkheart from Iron & Ink further discusses their Yoon-Suin house rules, specifically downtime rules and disease/poison/death.
• Eric Diaz from Methods & Madness talks about the weight of gold in OD&D and 5E, and its implications.
• Michael Raston from The Lizard Man Diaries shares an index to his most important posts on Infinigrad and Guild Dogs.
• Justin Stewart of Dragons Gonna Drag talks about the kind of tasks/skills characters in his campaign are assumed to be competent at (because they are adventurers).
• maxcan7 from Weird & Wonderful Worlds automated all the tables from Chapter 6 of Hubris.
• Yora from Spriggan's Den talks about a very different cosmology than AD&D or Planescape.
• Joseph Manola of Against the Wicked City shares some very interesting (and authentic!) 19th century urban folklore, and another condensation of a Pathfinder AP: Mummy's Mask.
• noisms from Monsters and Manuals, as usual, talked about various interesting things, including two ways to classify monsters (the classicist-Linnaean and the romantic-Glaurungian), a list of forgotten gems upon celebrating his 1500th post, some cool dungeon entrances, and the pricing of RPG books (it's part of a longer discussion: part 1, part 2, and part 3).
• Daniel J. Hanley from The Engine of Oracles shared a bunch of fairy dragons: Ttrefolic and Urtician, Lotosic and Orchidic, Quercic and Corylic, and the Rosy Dragon.
• Allandros from Legacy of the Bieth talks about a community-based advancement system with lots of links to other cool stuff.
• If you wondered what SWORDDREAM is, there's this interview that might help.
• The official Encounter Critical webpage may appear defunct, but red_kangaroo from Library of Attnam has you covered.
• John Large from Red Dice Diaries is sharing details of Campaign Kludge piece by piece.
• Jones Smith from Was It Likely? shared his current version of the Peril System and discussed various topics (incremental modifiers, jenga towers, and to-hit rolls) from a design perspective.