Saturday, March 24, 2012

Specialty Clerics: Ehlonna

In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting and in the default pantheon of deities for the third edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Ehlonna is the goddess of Forests, Woodlands, Flora, Fauna, and Fertility. Ehlonna is known to theelves as "Ehlenestra." Her holy symbol is a rampant unicorn or a unicorn's horn.
- Wikipedia
New Prime Requisite: CHA (or, alternatively, meet Ranger requirements)
Alignment: NG
XP Penalty: 10%
Level 2: Track as Ranger
Level 2: Animal Friendship
Level 6: Locate Plants
*Name Level: Select Cleric or Ranger followers

Description of Benefits:
  • Track as Ranger: Clerics of Ehlonna may follow tracks as if they were rangers.
  • Animal Friendship: Clerics of Ehlonna gain use of the animal friendship spell. Originally, this spell was not granted until level 5. As the spell scales nicely with level to start with, however, I figured -- why not give the benefit at level 2, right off the bat?
  • Locate Plants: Clerics of Ehlonna gain use of the Locate Plants spell.
  • Name Level Followers: Clerics may select either standard clerical followers or may opt to use the ranger follower chart.

I consider animal friendship to be more of a class feature than a spell as it is so potent (-5%). Tracking is a weaker class function (-2.5%), as is the Locate Plants spell (-2.5%). The followers option is a slight bonus as choice is good, but it is a swap, not a new feature. A -10% penalty would be appropriate. If the character voluntarily takes on a vow of solitude or a vow of poverty (applying appropriate Ranger restrictions regarding companions or wealth) I would reduce the penalty to 5%.

This gives us a total of 10% in costs, -2.5% for the blanket offset for a total of 7.5%. However, because few of the abilities are really directly combat related, I will reduce it to a 5% XP penalty.

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