5.18.2012

Funky Charts I: Cleric and Paladin Special Abilities

Sorting through some old character sheets and other game junk, I stumbled across some charts that were entrusted to me by Paul when I started to DM my own D&D games back in '97. I remember being wowed by the fact that practically anything could happen in-game when I saw my friends roll on these charts. Paul was always keen in our earliest games to have everyone roll a heirloom item from the magic item charts. If you rolled 100 on your first percentile roll, then you went to the Special Ability chart for your class. Sadly, the dice never fell in my favor (hence me saying "watched my friends roll on these charts.)

Here, I'm reproducing the first of the charts, and I will post the other four in short order (most likely after the weekend.)


Though this has no bearing on the post, it does solidify something for me that I had suspected, but didn't quite remember correctly: I only recently realized that our first games were run out of Rules Compendium, before we made the shift to 2nd Edition. Like I said, just an odd train of thought...now, ON TO THE CHART!

Clerics & Paladins Special Ability Chart
01-02 Mountain Man, +2 to Str or Dex; Climbing 45%
03 Good Horseman, buy and ride 20% less and further; camels hate you
04-05 Sickly, -2 off Str, Dex, Con, and Cha; can't be Hasted
06-07 Natural Linguist, +5 languages' proficient read & write
08-09 All cure spells cure at max; +2 vs. all undead attacks
10 +2 Wis, +1 Str, -1 vs. breath weapons
11-12 +3 vs. cursed scrolls, -3 vs. elementals
13-14 Golem competent, +4 Con, -3 vs. all non-Clerical magic
15-16 +5 Str, -5 Dex
17-18 +3 with all non-edged weapons; -3 vs. trolls
19-20 Good with animalsm, 25% become friends; -2 vs. cold
21-25 Night vision, sight 50% better; hearing 50% worse
26-30 Animals hate you and can sense it 65% of the time
31-32 Chronic insomnia, -5 Cha; +5 vs. sleep spells
33-34 Dragon friend, can speak to your alignment of dragon
35-36 Flesh tastes bad, 65% spit out or not bite again
37-38 Clerical magic incompetent, -2 to all heal spells
39-40 Healing competent, +2 on all heals
41-45 +2 vs all stonings, -2 vs. poison
46-50 Natural locksmith, 50% open lock
51-55 Desert Bron, +3 to Con; ability to find water 50% in desert
56-60 Natural Ability to sense evil (75%) and possession (75%)
61-65 Ability to smell poison (90%) but -3 vs. stoning
66-70 Dodge well, +2 Dex; +1 vs. missile attacks
71-75 -3 vs. all undead attacks; +2 vs. fire
76-80 Ability to memorize one extra spell per level
81-82 +3 with staffs, but -2 vs. all others
83-84 Dispel and negation spell competent, -1 vs. all missiles
85-86 +2 vs. fear and confusion, but -2 off Int
87-88 +2 vs. clerical spells but -2 vs. all dragon spells
89-90 Keen sense of smell (65% chance of identify)
91 +4 Wis; +4 vs. all undead attacks; must give 35% to church
92 You are blessed by your god. +2 on all saves and attacks
93 Turn undead as if you were 4 levels higher
94 Double amount of spells per level
95 Commune with your god once per day
96 Can call upon a Solar once in your life time for any good cause
97 Constant Protection from Evil
98 Can summon creatures of your alignment once per day
99 You have angel wings and can fly
100 You were sired by a god. +3 to all stats and saves. +1 weapon or better. Not affected by time. Touch causes d6 damage to opposing alignment.

Some of this stuff is insanely powerful, other abilities are just "meh." Some of these results don't seem to tell you much about your ability, but were generally kept up to the DM's discretion. Also, 04-05 would suck so bad.

Next: Rangers & Warriors!

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