Bulldrek v3.0

I'm playing in a new D&D 3.5e campaign run by our very own Bishop - who I hope doesn't mind me mentioning it here - and I'm hoping you all will look over my character and tell me what you think: Morganstern.

He's a second-level Human Cleric [I can't remember the last time I played a human, and it's possible I've never played a Cleric] a Neutral Good [also weird for me] cleric of Pelor [whose name I had to look up; not a good sign for me]. What do you think? Suggestions? What sort of spells do you think would make sense for me to take?

I plan on him being fairly martial to start, but to slowly move toward spellcasting as he gains power and favor with his god. He's a bit of a moose - strong arm, slow brain - but he's wise and genuinely likes to help not-evil people, and I think he's got a lot of room to grow...or be corrupted, depending on how Bishop directs the game.

Thoughts?

What's the rest of the party like? Your character seems pretty standard issue Neutral Good Cleric.

I believe it's a Dwarven fighter who specializes in the Urgosh, and an Elven Ranger taking the bow path. For a campaign heavy in undead and evil, we should be a pretty cool party!

Yeah that will be a good mix for that.

Morganstern - a Neutral-Good cleric of the God of War and Healing - is really coming into his own now. Whereas he started as a sort of failed priest - too action-thirsty to really make a good member of the temple, and thus sort of sent out in exasperation as a Cleric-Errant - he's become more than a strong arm, and started taking up the mantle of both priest and leader. He's using more and more divine spells, rather than just bludgeoning everything in sight with his morningstar.

In our most recent, and by far largest, battle, we'd managed to convince 200 or so dwarven smiths to come to the aid of 200 or so town guardsman to defend a small town being raided by a band of nearly a thousand orcs. At the last moment, it was revealed that most of the orc horde was in fact comprised of undead concealed by a glamour! Taking the fore of the dwarven forces outside the wall, Morganstern, with his dwarven companion Veit at his side, led a phalanx of dwarves through the undead line - his mighty morningstar, glowing as the sun, held high, banishing undead as he strode confidently through the mass of hundreds of zombies and skeletons, followed by a strong column of dwarven smiths-turned-warriors - to confront the undead's master and the orc horde he had previously held in thrall.

As the evil cleric fled to parts unknown, the dwarves, humans, and newly-freed orcs joined forces temporarily to rout the remaining undead, crushing them against the town's wooden palisade. With his new arch-nemesis revealed, the orcs marginally in his debt, the dwarves grateful for a rousing fight, and the humans freed for a time from the menace of the orcs, Morganstern finds himself...well, we'll see, when the next game starts!

I've just made sixth level, which is an ideal time to take Leadership, and recruit from the local temple a cleric who, like myself, likes a good fight more than a good prayer. One of the other characters [a ranger] is also taking a cohort, but whereas he's eligible to take a fifth-level ranger or something, he's instead going to end up taking a 0-level 8-year-old boy who he rescued from a burning farm. Still doesn't have his animal companion, either. Poor ranger.

I'm writing up a dream sequence for him. He's getting a wolf. And I believe Veit took leadership, as well. You guys are going to have your own army in a matter of a couple levels!!

And I still don't believe that worked.

So we'll have a party of 3, plus 3 cohorts? Damn! Of course, with Veit's charisma, it might take a couple levels before he can attract a cohort at all...

I think I get followers in a level or two, so yeah, a little army we'll have! Followers are such puss-bitches that they're almost liabilities, but at least we won't need to gather our own firewood anymore.

Combat should get exciting. I better get me some spindles.

Plus Thaimor's Animal companion.

As it turned out, Veit [the dwarven fighter] didn't take Leadership, but Thamior [the elven ranger] and I [Morganstern, the human cleric] did, so now we have:

Eric A young boy Thamior rescued from a burning house, in training to be a Ranger
Shadow A giant wolf Eric and Thamior rescued from a pack of wolven aberrations
Tomas A cleric of the God of War and Healing, ill-disposed to a life of prayer

We're setting up a nice subplot with the church of the God of War and Healing: my character initially left the priesthood and became a wandering Cleric Errant because he felt the priesthood did too much praying and not enough acting; now that he's made a reputation as a warrior-priest, and gained a warrior-priest Cohort, we're set up for a political conflict within the church. Will there be a splinter sect, or will the church change its ways, or will the two groups find a way to mend differences and create a new order in the church, with priests in temples and warriors out in the world? Very cool.

I miss this.

I miss this.

We all miss what we can't have.