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Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)

2017-08-02T11:03:57Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

'''Sorcerers''' are a core playable class in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] since Third Edition. Prior to Fourth, they are really just simpler versions of their [[Wizard]] brothers, able to cast spells on the fly without morning preparation or a spellbook. The drawback is that they can only know a few distinct spells per spell level. In essence, they are "easier to play" wizards for people who have short attention spans and/or don't want to muck around with strategy.

[[File:Dragon_Disciple.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Dragon Disciple. A sub-class of sorcerers that avoid being squishy... <s>or very good</s>. Nah, they are now legit.]]
Critics claim there are several additional problems with the class:
* Fewer [[feats]] than the wizard.
* No class [[skills]] except Bluff use Charisma, the sorcerer's casting stat.
* Inferior [[Prestige classes]] compared to the wizard (think ''Tome and Blood'').
* Cannot obtain as much benefit from spell scrolls and spellbooks as a wizard can.

Advocates argue that:
* Some of the prestige classes are pretty good (exalted arcanist, archmage) if you have the right [[splatbook]] (''Book of Exalted Deeds'', ''Heroes of Horror'', ''Draconomicon'').
* Sorcerers got a mild buff in 3.5, allowing them to vary some spells between levels to make up for their limited spell selection.
* Not having to prepare their spells ''does'' offer some advantages (casting ''flight'' or ''invisibility'' on the whole party off-the-cuff without prior preparation).

In addition, the self-contained nature of the sorcerer is useful to counteract a [[That Guy|difficult]] [[Dungeon Master|DM]]:
* A sorcerer doesn't depend on an external, potentially destructible object to prepare his spells (i.e. the wizard's spellbook).
* A wizard may not obtain or be able to afford the spells he wants to add to his book, while a sorcerer is granted his new spells at each level-up.
* If the DM disallows the sorceror certain spells up front, the player can leave the session before it starts and avoid the idiocy to come; the wizard player is clueless about what he won't be allowed to obtain until it is too late.
* The sorcerer's arguments against the nullification of a spell by DM fiat are stronger when considering the smaller arsenal of the sorcerer.
* If a sorcerer uses spells like ''charm person'' that are enhanced by his Charisma, he has a strong argument against DM fiat nullification in that his skills are feeble, so Charisma and spells are all he has to work with.
* Should a DM nullify a certain spell by fiat, the sorcerer can swap it out once he gains the next even-numbered level, thus tailoring his active spell list to the spells most favorably handled by his DM. The wizard gets what he gets.
* Unlike most casters, a sorceror needs neither 8 hours of rest nor 1 hour of spell preparation to recover his spells.
* DMs who opt for a severe method of character creation often prevent casters from getting the bonus spells afforded by a high caster stat; in this situation, the sorcerer's extra spells cast per day becomes highly valuable.

== Schools of Thought ==

Sorcerers are really just single-minded versions of their [[Wizard]] brothers, able to cast spells spontaneously (e.g. without preparation in the morning).

Players of sorcerers (not to be mistaken with [[Saucerer]]s) often enjoy the [[Dragonborn|dragon blood]] fluff, and use it in some vague attempt at [[roleplaying]], but we all know that deep down inside they're just playing a sorcerer because they want to throw more fireballs per day than the [[wizard]]. But then again, with the right specialization and [[Prestige classes|PrCs]], a wizard can have more spells per day than the sorcerer, rendering him useless. This is especially true when you realize that the wizard gets things like bonus feats, further pushing his power well past anything the sorcerer can accomplish without a prestige class.

It's a well-known fact that [[Skip Williams]], one of the developers of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition, absolutely ''despised'' the sorcerer class and is famous for saying in a now-notorious thread on the [[Wizards of the Coast]] forums that sorcerers weren't worthy of being called spellcasting classes. The findings of most of the balance team for 3.5 regarding the sorcerer were steadfastly ignored by WotC, which is why the sorcerer doesn't get bonus feats, skills that actually use his main stat (except for Bluff), or the full benefits of metamagic; you know, all the things wizards get and take for granted. About the only buff they got in 3.5 is that they can now vary some spells up between levels to make up for how limited their spell selection is. All of this is painfully obvious if one cracks open a copy of the ''Tome and Blood,'' which is widely-regarded as being for wizards what the current-edition [[Matt Ward|Space Marine Codex was for Ultramarines]]. All of the sorcerer-specific classes in the book were horrifically underpowered, whereas a number of wizard builds offered via ''T&B'' were incredibly, gob-smackingly powerful.

Sorcerers are, to put it simply, underpowered compared to wizards: they make sacrifices in the number of spells they can know at any one time in order to be able to cast two more spells of every level per day than [[wizard]]s, who can still very easily surpass a sorcerer's spells per day with the right builds. If your group is a hack-and-slash, combat-centric group, you're probably going to want to roll a sorcerer. If your group [[/tg/ gets shit done|actually does anything]] besides kick in doors and behead goblinoids/innocent [[dorf|dwarves]]/the [[Tarrasque]] (haha, beheading the [[Tarrasque]], it'd just grow a new head before you could blink), then consider the [[wizard]]'s immense versatility an advantage.

On the other hand, a sorcerer represents the chaotic side of magic, free to face the encounter with all that he knows, ever ready to adapt and prevail. Wizards represent the methodical, logical, and lawful mechanics of magic. So long as they have planned accordingly the night before and morning of, they can face any situation as it comes. But any one unpredictable thing comes along and the sorcerer gets to loot the wizard's corpse. Of course, the sorcerer also has to plan ahead because he prepares his spells once and doesn't get to change them until he gets to the next level, so you can't afford to have shitty spells.

...Which isn't to say it's all bad news. The sorcerer qualifies for a number of [[Prestige classes|prestige classes]] that dramatically improve the power of the class. Exalted arcanist (from ''Book of Exalted Deeds'') gives the class access to a few clerical spells and gives the class a surprising bit of versatility; fiend-blooded (from ''Heroes of Horror'') seems outwardly similar to the dragon disciple class from ''Tome and Blood'' in that you trade levels for what's functionally a template, but unlike the dragon disciple, offers full spell progression, access to spells you can't normally get, familiar boosts, and the ability to load up a spell to be even more destructive a few times a day - just for example; the ''Draconomicon'' also has a bunch of useful sorcerer buffs, including sorcerer-specific feats and [[Prestige classes|PrCs]]. Additionally, the sorcerer can also easily latch onto (and take advantage of) a number of wizard-exclusive prestige classes; seeing what this class can do with archmage is nothing short of hilarious.

But as far as a base class goes? No reason to bother. Prestige out of this class ASAP; all you have to lose is familiar progression. You'll likely find the result far more effective than a sorcerer by its lonesome.

==Pathfinder==

[[Pathfinder]] gave every class a unified system of feat progression, removing one problem with the wizard comparison right there; it also offers traits to let them make the charisma-based skills they should ''always have fucking had in-class'' into class skills, and indirectly helps them out by making prestige classes much rarer and more corner-case. It also added a series of "bloodline powers" to let the player customize them a little and to make them a little less like weaker versions of wizards; it does a good job of that, though they still lack some of the wizard's raw versatility. Those bloodlines show what monster in your ancestry is the source of your powers, making it the class equivalent of half-elf or half-orc or whatever. It's possible to be descended from an undead or an aberration; best not to think about how, though at least ''some'' undead [[vampire|are generally considered quite attractive]] and a number of them derive from exposure to mutating magical forces rather than good ol' fashioned breeding. Either way, said bloodlines dramatically increase the power of the sorcerers: each bloodline gives you a list of bonus feats, bonus spells, and "bloodline powers" which range from mediocre (1d6 blast) to getting even moar bonus spells, +6 str, [[What|having all of your internal organs shifted so that you are immune to critical hits and cannot be backstabbed]], and casting metamagic without increased casting time.

Core bloodlines are pretty standard, being classic themes as Abyssal/Infernal/Celestial/Dragonkin/Fey/etc, with the aberration and undead being kind of oddballs, the destined being hilarious, and the arcane pretty boring but obviously the most powerful, as it is clearly the most viable option in the entire game for metamagic users. Yes, now [[Powergamer|munchkins]] can be sorcerers too. Then Paizo started printing all of its "Ultimate X" stuff and things kept going weird(er), with sorcerers descending from nearly everything that can sport a reproductive system, including (but not limited to) Cthulhu-like abominations and plant monsters. Still, sorcerers are really an interesting, entertaining choice and can be tailored and customized to be whatever the fuck you may desire, with great opportunities for roleplaying. Even the lack of spells is less severe - you get one free spell among your bloodline ones every odd level beyond the first, and a good chunk of races has a favored class bonus that nets you 1 bonus spell each level, even if it has to be one level lower than your highest spell's level.

If you don't mind being a special snowflake, check out the "build your own spells" Words of Power system from "Ultimate Magic." The sky's falling in on our heads, 'cause someone in a 3.X game actually put in an alternate casting system that favors sorcerers over their [[wizard|spoiled rotten cousins]]. Think on how some of the elemental bloodlines boost power for ''any'' spell with the right elemental subtype. Think how easy it is to slip a level zero ''cold snap'' or ''spark'' keyword into a larger spell. Engage trollface, because you just made the best "blaster" mage in 3.X history.

Also in Pathfinder, sorcerers make arguably better mystic theurges than wizards because they can choose to multiclass in [[Oracle]]. The oracle is a divine equivalent of the sorcerer that uses charisma as his casting stat, thus avoiding being [[MAD]], or can take the empyreal bloodline and swap their casting stat with Wisdom, making it a perfect multiclass option for druids or clerics that want to go theurge. Obviously, this advantage becomes moot when you notice that Pathfinder theurges suck pretty bad, and one of their (few) features only works for prepared spellcasters. Oops!

== Meanwhile, in 5th Edition... ==

In 5th Edition, sorcerers finally become a useful and viable class, because someone finally realized that sorcerers should get something unique: metamagic, torn from the [[wizard|screaming hands of the most pampered brats of last edition]]. They now have exclusive access to metamagics, of which they can eventually get four, and can alter ''any'' of their spells on the fly using a resource pool called Sorcery Points (which is basically a stupider name for a mana system). They get more as they level up, and can also use them to regain spells. These mechanics are important, because with the reworks to prepared spellcasting, the complaint that sorcerers prepare their spells once and can't easily swap them out is more true than ever.

Sorcerers get to choose their bloodline power at first level: [[Dragon]]s or something vague and chaotic. The dragon bloodline gives them natural armor (which doesn't stack with actual armor, naturally) and one more hit point per level. Eventually they get dragon wings, resistance to, and affinity for, their chosen dragon's element, and the ability to use SP to activate an aura that either scares people or inspires them, depending on which the sorcerer wants it to do.

The second bloodline option is that the sorcerer has "Wild Magic." This means that whenever they cast a spell, the DM can ask them to roll a D20, and on a 1, random magical effects happen. However, given their probable frequency, they are now less devastating (none that instantly kill you, the worst it gets is turning you into a plant for one round or casting ''grease'' on your location, though we can't forget the chance to drop a fireball on yourself). In fact, many are helpful, and later the wild mage actually uses this to their advantage (whenever they have a surge, they can roll twice on the chart). Oh, and they have a D6 hit die now, like in [[Pathfinder]]. I guess WotC got sick of spellcasters whining about not having enough HP to do anything.

Finally, their class skills include lots of Charisma-based choices, like in 4e, which is just one more sweet, sweet improvement.

Their four major weaknesses (and they are all, admittedly, doozies) are thus:
* That the heavily-reworked magic system took a lot of the punch out of their spontaneous casting, and made the wizard's tremendous versatility even more of an advantage, since now every caster has access to all memorized spells of a given level whenever they cast for a slot.
* That they are the ''only'' full-caster in the game ''without'' access to ritual casting, further preventing them from being good "utility" people.
* That they gain access to about as many spells as the goddamn ''quarter casters'', and, unlike the [[paladin]] and [[ranger]], neither of whom is at the pinnacle of this edition's tier list, they don't have ''any'' unique spells, with their list being, essentially, a gimped-as-fuck version of the wizard's.
* That they don't gain ''any'' short rest benefits until their fucking ''capstone'', meaning that for most of his career the sorcerer is going to lag behind the wizard in terms of spells per day ''as well as'' spells known. And the only way to avoid that involves eating into the same resource pool that feeds metamagic.

The metamagic still helps make them unique, and ''definitively'' gives them access to a number of things the wizard simply ''cannot'' do, but they really could stand to have access to greater access to more total spells and/or some sort of short-rest recovery mechanic if you're the sort that likes to homebrew fixes. Perhaps in the form of a set of additional "bloodline" spells attached to each archetype choice? Fuck's sake, [[Mike Mearls|Mike]], even ''[[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Paizo]]'' figured that one out, and they couldn't even be bothered to fix their skill list! I know you thought about it because it's attached to ''both'' the "playtest" bloodlines!

Of all the classes, they've benefited the most from the Unearthed Arcana rule suggestions/updates, which've given them a bevy of new options.

Via an Unearthed Arcana on designing new variant classes, the 5e sorcerer ate the [[Favored Soul]], making a class that actually works. Taking the Favored Soul option instead of Draconic Bloodline or Wild Origin means your sorcerer gets to pick options from one of the [[Cleric]] domains for themselves and adds those domain spells to their list as bonus spells. They get much better combat stuff (automatically proficient with light and medium armor, shields, simple weapons, and gain an Extra Attack at level 6), but they still have d6 hit dice, so it's not always the best idea to go wading into melee. They gain the ability to sprout wings for flying and healing whenever they cast a Domain spell. Take the Life Domain and your Sorcerer can toss around healing and buffing spells like nobody's business (and with metamagic, to boot. Twinned Cure Wounds? Don't mind if I do), or take the War domain to put your newfound ass-kicking skills to the best use.

The Waterborne Adventures Unearthed Arcana added a Storm bloodline, focusing on lightning, swooping around with wind powers, and controlling the weather to make navigating a ship a breeze (No pun intended). At high levels, they can fly and spend an action to let the party swoop around, too. In short, a pretty great "pure caster" bloodline that doesn't go for making you tough like a dragon or have a significant lol-random component like the wild one. This eventually got made official with the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but with one key nerf: the extra "stormy" spells that they got for free and which didn't count against their allotment of spells? Gone now. Who the fuck knows why.

Meanwhile, taking a leaf out of the Dread [[Necromancer]]'s book, the Underdark Characters UA adds the Shadow bloodline, which gives no new spells, but does get a bunch of "umbramancer" class features, like burning sorcery points for Darkness, summoning a "Hound of Ill Omen" (ghostly dire wolf), teleporting between shadows and assuming a shadow form. It comes with a list of weird undead-themed optional quirks, like slow bleeding or a tendency to stare without blinking.

A recent Unearthed Arcana added a number of new origins.

First, a reworked Favored Soul, where your ancestors fucked an angel or whatever. This version doesn't get free Cleric spells but is instead allowed to learn Cleric spells. They also get a boost to hit points, the ability to add 2d4 to a failed attack or saving throw, doubled proficiency on Charisma checks, immunity to poison and disease, and regaining half your health once per long rest. This might make a decent survival Sorceror.

Second, the Phoenix Soul, where you're somehow descended from magic flame. This lets you start fires, deal fire damage to anything that hits you, add your charisma bonus to fire damage you deal, ignore killing blows and deal fire damage when someone lands one, spend spell slots to heal themselves, and eventually fly, gain resistance to all damage, and deal even more damage when someone lands a killing blow. It's a bit of blastiness, mixed with some survivability.

Third, there's Sea Sorcery. Guess your mom got freaky with a water-elemental or something. This lets you breathe underwater and swim real good, curse people to trigger special effects when you hit them with a lightning/cold/forced movement spell, resist fire damage, reduce physical damage you take by your charisma modifier, turn into water, and eventually, resist physical damage, ignore critical hits, and, best of all, exist without food/drink/sleep (why does D&D keep trying to sell us this shitty, shitty feature as a goddamned capstone? It's not like most DMs use the fucking food rules!) It's kind of a mixed bag of features, without a real mechanical theme. Maybe a control sorcerer?

Finally, we have Stone Sorcery. Weirdly, this is a tank sorcerer and plays like a [[Battlemind]]. This nets you proficiency with shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. You also can learn spells off a list that focuses on melee combat and tanking (you get a bunch of different smites), get a boost to your HP and an AC of 13 + Con. You can grant allies a reduction to physical damage equal to (2 + Sorcerer Level) / 4. When an ally with this reduction gets hit, you can teleport next to them and make a melee attack with bonus damage. At first, you can only give this reduction to one ally, but eventually, you can throw it on 3. Finally, you get a nice little bonus to your spell damage. It's the clear winner of the UA. It's hard to say why Wizards decided to remake the Battlemind as a sorcerer, but they did a pretty good job of it. It's also one of the better ways to make a gish in 5e.

There's also an alternate Fire Sorcerer, the Pyromancer, in the [[Magic the Gathering|Plane Shift: Kaladesh]] article. This one, unlike the Phoenix Soul, is all about the burninating of shit in your way. Its first feature means all fire spells you cast technically become area spells, as any enemies within 10 feet of you take some fire damage when you cast a fire spell. Then it grants you both Fire Resistance and the ability to negate Fire Resistance in others when you're flinging flames everywhere. It can retaliate against melee attacks by inflicting fire damage on them if they successfully hit the Pyromancer, and finally, they upgrade Fire Resistance to Fire Immunity and can no sling flames so hot that Fire Immune targets only count as being Fire Resistant, in addition to burning normally Fire Resistant foes for full damage.

{{D&D3-Classes}}
{{D&D4-Classes}}
{{D&D5-Classes}}
{{Pathfinder-Classes}}

Open Game License

2017-07-21T19:15:54Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

= Open Gaming License =
Introduced by [[Wizards of the Coast]] with [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition]], it was a riff off of the GNU Public License that made open source software so ubiquitous. The idea is that you can make [[splatbook]]s and derivative works without paying hefty royalty cheques, so long as you don't pass yourself off as "official" support material, and you let other people make stuff derived from your stuff. In January 2015, Wizards released the [http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/SRD-OGL_V1.1.pdf Systems Reference Document] for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] under the OGL v. 1.0a.

Giving things away for free, even if it means you get truckloads of new content you didn't have to hire writers for, and it gives your product most of the market share, is still scary to execs and suits, so Wizards of the Coast "improved" the Open Gaming License in 2008 to the "Game System License," which allowed developers to use D&D trademarks like beholders, but forces them to stamp their products with WotC and D&D logos, and WotC can change the rules at any time without notice, and if they decide to sue someone the target agrees to pay the legal fees up-front. Understandably, authors said "fuck that noise" and stuck with the OGL.

When you use the OGL, the stuff that you don't want copied and passed around has to be explicitly stated. (definition 1e, and item 7 below "Product Identity").

== The actual text ==
{| border="1"
|-
|''''OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a''''
The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc ("Wizards"). All Rights Reserved.

1. Definitions:
* (a)"Contributors" means the copyright and/or trademark owners who have contributed Open Game Content;
* (b)"Derivative Material" means copyrighted material including derivative works and translations (including into other computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing work may be recast, transformed or adapted;
* (c) "Distribute" means to reproduce, license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distribute;
* (d) "Open Game Content" means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity.
* (e) "Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content;
* (f) "Trademark" means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor
* (g) "Use", "Used" or "Using" means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game Content.
* (h) "You" or "Your" means the licensee in terms of this agreement.

2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License.

3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License.

4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.

5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.

6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.

7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity.

8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content.

9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.

10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You Distribute.

11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have written permission from the Contributor to do so.

12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.

13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.

14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
* Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
* System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
* ''(your game here) © year, your real name, company you were working for''
|-
|}

== Parts of D&D that are not Open Game Content ==
* The brand names "Dungeons & Dragons," "D&D," "d20 System," nor "Wizards of the Coast," Duh. That means you can't say "compatible with Dungeons & Dragons" nor "uses the d20 System," you have to use some bullshit like "compatible with popular fantasy role-playing wink wink nudge nudge."

<blockquote>''The following items are designated Product Identity, as defined in Section 1(e) of the Open Game License Version 1.0a, and are subject to the conditions set forth in Section 7 of the OGL, and are not Open Content: [[Dungeons & Dragons]], [[D&D]], [[Player's Handbook]], [[Dungeon Master]], [[Monster Manual]], [[d20 System]], [[Wizards of the Coast]], [[d20]] (when used as a trademark), [[Forgotten Realms]], Faerûn, proper names (including those used in the names of spells or items), places, Red Wizard of Thay, the City of Union, Heroic Domains of Ysgard, Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, Windswept Depths of Pandemonium, Infinite Layers of the Abyss, Tarterian Depths of Carceri, Gray Waste of Hades, Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, Nine Hells of Baator, Infernal Battlefield of Acheron, Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia, Twin Paradises of Bytopia, Blessed Fields of Elysium, Wilderness of the Beastlands, Olympian Glades of Arborea, Concordant Domain of the Outlands, [[Sigil]], [[Lady of Pain]], [[Book of Exalted Deeds]], [[Book of Vile Darkness]], [[beholder]], [[gauth]], [[carrion crawler]], [[tanar'ri]], [[baatezu]], [[displacer beast]], [[githyanki]], [[githzerai]], [[mind flayer]], [[illithid]], [[umber hulk]], [[yuan-ti]].''
: -Revised (v.3.5) System Reference Document, Wizards of the Coast</blockquote>

Yes, they seem to have trademarked "Every-Changing [[Chaos]] of Limbo."

== Works that use the OGL ==
This is not a complete list.
* [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition]]
* [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]]
*"[[Spycraft]] 2.0"
*"[[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game]]" by Paizo Publishing
*"[[FATE System|FATE]]" aka [[FUDGE|Fudge 3.0]], "[[Spirit of the Century]]", by Evil Hat Productions
*"[[Diaspora]]" by VSCA Publishing
* [[Microlite20]]
* [[Prime Directive d20]]", "Prime Directive PD20 Modern" by Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.
* The [[Book of Erotic Fantasy]]
*"Neiyar: Land of Heaven and the Abyss", "Koboldnomicon" by Bards and Sages
*"[[NeoExodus: A House Divided]]" by Louis Porter Jr. Design
* "OGL Ancients", "OGL CyberNet: [[Cyberpunk]] Roleplaying", "OGL Horror", "OGL Manga", "OGL Steampunk", "OGL Wild West", all by Mongoose Publishing
*"Ave Molech" by Morbidgames.
*"Nuisances" by Skirmisher Publishing LLC
*"True20 Adventure Roleplaying Game", "Mutants & Masterminds" by Green Ronin Publishing
*The Black Company' Campaign Setting by Green Ronin Publishing
*[[Exodus]]" by Glutton Creeper Games
*"[[Empyrean|d20 Empyrean]] by Broken Dreams Games
*[[World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game]] by [[White Wolf|Sword & Sorcery studios]]

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]

Nymphology

2017-07-21T19:12:22Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

{{Promotions}}
{{Cleanup}}

Despite being a semi-perverse ERPG d20 sourcebook that should never be played by anyone, it is pretty funny.

== New Spells ==
[[Image:Girl.jpg|thumb|right|400px]]
'''Baykdoyre’s Ultimate Lubrication''' - Makes ogre/halfling crossbreeding a reality.

'''Alter Breasts''' - Anything from A to double D, on any gender.

'''Change Orientation''' - A spell feared by macho barbarians and fighters alike.

'''Clothes to chocolate, cream, or oil''' - For some reason the Farmers' Union hates people using this spell.

'''Dirk's Impressive Tool''' - Illusion that makes his secondary weapon seem "enormous" and "beautiful". Can encourage people to tell their friends about it. Requires a sausage for use.

'''Hypnotic Rump''' - "Renders the caster's buttocks fascinating beyond belief".

'''Locate Clitoris''' - Nothing funny, potentinally useful.

'''Morning Wood''' - Save it for when it comes in handy, or maybe just for when it comes in hand.

'''Onestrum’s Personal Fluidic Enhancer''' - "Spooge production that would make a titan proud".

'''Night Visitor''' - Target gets a visit in the night. They won't get any benefits from sleeping. Requires a feather and a piece of cheese, for some reason.

'''Prismatic Chastity Belt''' - Any would-be assailant of the nether planes suffers fire, acid, lightning, poison damage, is turned to stone and teleported to another plane.

'''Protection from Mingers''' - Makes it impossible for ugly people to come near you.

'''Vinegar Stokes''' - Gives the target the sensation of being stuck edging right before orgasm, they can defend but not move or cast spells. A good way to escape.

'''Summon Sex Partner''' - Force the summoned creature to service you. There's a warning about meeting said creature outside of the spell.

'''Power Word: Orgasm''' - No save. Stuns the creature somewhere between 1d6 to 3d6 depending on Constitution. A good, non-lethal (if a bit messy) way to escape from battle.

== Modified Skills ==
'''Alchemy''': Orcish fly, Lubricant jelly, delouser and hot flush.

'''Concentration''': Added rules for casting spells while doing it, and holding off orgasm via Concentration. Fighting naked Amazons is now the bane of wizard concentration checks.

'''Perform''': Can give bonuses to oral and pole dancing.

== New Prestige Classes ==
'''Agony Mage''': A mage that is good at guessing what you like, and has the power to give it to you. They also have a funny feat called "blameless". This makes the guards search for other suspects even if you are caught performing the crime.

'''Mystic Pimp''': A summoner of adult-rated partners. Street wise has a feat that tells him your orientation and fetishes and can gain permanent summons.

'''Seducer''': A person that can seduce anyone that is physically capable or not dead.

'''Peeping Scryer''': He peeps. That's it. He also has a feat called "Never forget an Arse" that lets him identify his peeping victims. Requires level 21st whorcery.

== New Items ==
'''Pop-up Pork-Sword''': A club with a catch on the handle. Hitting it makes a 12-inch section spring out that wobbles back and forth. Acts as a +1 weapon but anything that is touched by the sword is affected by Power Word: Orgasm.

'''Cock Rings''': Includes Rings of Quantity, Girth, and Penetration. Not intended for digital use.

'''Bag of Fondling''': Put something inside the bag and the bag will massage it.

'''Carved Monkey of Spanking''': A statue that comes to life. Spanking it renders the user immune to sex effects for 24 hours.

'''Magic Chastity Belt''': A variety of shapes and sizes, from basic arcane locks to casting Burning Hands and summoning a guardian.

'''Dan's Instant Whorehouse''': A small cube that becomes a 40ft square, 10-foot high wooden whorehouse with an ogre bouncer and 2-8 hosts/hostesses of the owner's preference. It's described that people are damaged if caught in the expanding house, adding to its practical uses.

'''Jockstrap of Impressive Lunchbox''': A jockstrap that probes the mind of nearby females, forming the size that is most appealing to them. Remove when in proximity to pixies and other small creatures.

'''Sexy Sheets''': The users appear sexier. They are also self-cleaning.

== New creatures ==
'''Colossal Gay Al''': A giant allosaur, brightly colored, has a good singing voice and drinks enormous cocktails.

'''Creamy Ooze''': An ooze made out of exactly what you'd imagine.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Game Books]]

Firearm

2017-07-10T13:20:40Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

[[image:Teppo.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Some Tanegashima matchlocks]]
About twelve hundred years ago in [[China]], some people figured out that certain chemicals mixed together (such as potassium nitrate, carbon, and sulphur) exploded when brought to spark, which became known as "black powder." After some experimentation, they discovered that a tube sealed off at one end could be used to focus said explosion to propel an object at high speeds. After a few centuries of refinement, they managed to take that mechanical principle and apply it as a weapon of warfare which changed the game: the arquebus. Comparatively cheap, easy to make, easy to learn to use, and capable of penetrating all but the heaviest armor, this marked a transition away from close quarters to ranged warfare.

In modern times, firearms are the staple weapons of any nation. Speculative fiction showcases weapons that doesn't even fire solid projectiles, like [[lasgun|lasers]].

From an engineering standpoint, firearms had a big difference from previous weapons in that they don't require the user's muscle power to work. Swords, maces, and axes are swung, spears are thrust, and bowstrings need to be drawn. Even a crossbow works by storing muscle power in the bow's tension until it's released. The energy required to accelerate a firearm's projectile comes from explosive propellants; all the user needs to do is to hold the weapon, aim and set off said explosive charge. The significance of this is illustrated in the American Proverb "God made man, Sam Colt (the inventor of the first practical revolver) made them equal": that having a reliable repeating gun means that your simple brute physical strength does not mean as much in a fight as it would in a bare knuckle brawl or a swordfight (either defensively or offensively).

The firearm's bigger bro is the [[Cannon]] and its cousin is the [[Rocket]].

==A Brief History of Firearms==
[[image:Firelance.jpg‎|thumb|150px|left|The Firelance, the Chinese invention that started this all]]
'''1000s to 1200s:''' The Chinese realize they can make barbarians shit their pants by shooting hollowed arrows packed with powder and bamboo tubes filled with powder and pebbles at them. Bamboo gradually gives way to cast iron and bronze.

'''1300s:''' Various gunpowder weapons begin to proliferate westward along the Silk Road, aided by the [[Mongols]]. Crude versions of hand cannons, grenades, rockets, and flamethrowers all see use. Despite considerable psychological effect and good armor penetration, most of these weapons are only marginally more likely to kill the target than the user and had a range of only twenty or so meters. As such, their use is not widespread. For the most part, these weapons were used by skirmishers. The fact that they were mostly used by low class soldiers meant that the smiths making them were generally not the most skilled artisans which did little to improve quality even given the limitations of the day. Even so, the designs and methods of manufacture were gradually refined and improved by various early gunsmiths through trial and error.

'''1400s''': Hand cannons see continued and expanded use. Bit by bit from the crude handgonnes of previous centuries, the first "true" firearms evolve with the gradual development of the matchlock, taking on the basic shape of lock, stock, trigger, and barrel (which is where we get the saying from). By clamping a lighted wick into a flashpan via a trigger, the shooter is able to aim ''and'' fire at the same time, making him markedly less likely to blow his own jimmies off. Despite advances, the matchlock was unwieldy, unreliable, and generally inferior to a good bowman. The issue of course is that only England (in Europe) HAD good bowmen; bowmen were the scum of the army everywhere else. This didn't stop some inventive commanders from seeing their potential, particularly with poorly trained conscript soldiers. [[Weeaboo|Some forces]] made a go of it by carrying two or three guns at a time and just throwing the spent ones away like a really shitty Matrix movie. Note: while we use a "weeaboo" hyperlink up there, it's worth remembering that troops like cuirassiers and even pirates did the same thing, they just did not exist by the 1400's, having more then one gun was the only way to have any real rate of fire before breechloaders existed.

'''1500s:''' Guns continue to evolve with the invention of spring-loaded firing mechanisms. The wheel-lock spins a steel plate against sulfide rocks to produce sparks (think cigarette lighters), which ignites powder a flash pan. This was revolutionary, allowing soldiers to prime their weapon in a matter of seconds instead of fucking around with a lit wick, and allowed calvary to use guns for the first time while on horseback, giving rise to the cuirassiers. It also means that for the first time, guns weren't completely fucked in the rain, just mostly fucked. They also cost a lot to make and were still not completely reliable, so most people stuck with matchlocks. Powder formulas had improved considerably, including the development of the more powerful, stable, and moisture-resistant corned powder made by wetting raw gunpowder, forming it into cakes, crushing them, and sieving them for size. Japan was particularly notable in the history of firearms for their heavy transition from blades to guns after discovering the novelty of matchlock guns, more so that any country during that time. In fact, by the end of the 1500s, they had more trained arquebusiers in their armies and produced more matchlocks than any other country to date during that period.

[[image:FlintlockMechanism.jpg‎|thumb|200px|right|The flintlock mechanism. Now you did not need to light some string and put it into a serpentine before firing]]
'''1600s''' The wheellock is refined into the simpler and more reliable flintlock, though it would take some time to supersede the matchlock. Muzzle loading is simplified with the creation of paper cartridges, essentially the pre-measured cake mix of murder. Some German dudes came up with the idea of cutting spirals into the barrel, which they called "rifling," to spin-stabilize the bullet so that they wouldn't have to walk up right next to their targets to hit them, but this required a barrel tighter than a nun's cunt, a hammer to ram the ball in, and grooved bullets made for the gun so it could fit the rifling of the gun like the cap to a soda bottle. To put all that into perspective: well-trained musketeers could fire three to four shots a minute, while a rifleman could only manage one shot every minute.

'''1700s''': The French invent the bayonet, allowing their troops to be [[choppa|choppy]] while they were [[dakka|shooty]]. This is the point where gun infantry tactics become the dominant (though still not only) form of fighting when guns go from one a few common infantry weapons to the primary weapon used by most infantry. Formations of musketeers go from big square blocks to lines two or three ranks thick to put enough bullets in the enemy's ranks as quickly as possible.
[[image:Chassepot.jpg‎|thumb|200px|left|The mechanism of a French Chassepot, an early bolt action rifle, as well as its paper cartridge]]

'''1800s''': Pretty much everything that makes up a modern firearm is invented here. Some fool came up with an explosive that would go off if you slam a hammer into it, which led to the first explosive primers. This basically involves putting explosives in ur explosives to explode your explosives. Cartridges that contain a primer, propellant, and slug, similar to modern-day bullets, are developed. By this time, wars were largely fought using firearms rather than melee weapons, though also by this time firearms were also melee weapons. in the early 1800s the bayonet charge was still an both accepted and useful tactic.

By the late 1800 inventors had finally gotten the technology to contain the force of the gunpowder explosion with a tight seal and do so cheaply. Experiments that had been done earlier like the Puckle gun (1718), Ferguson rifle (1776), and even the bizarre 1780 Girandoni Air Rifle, [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Steampunk which was an air gun with a 20 round magazine], all failed to create breech loading rifles cheaply. See, despite that it was well known that that slotting in bullets from the rear and using a mechanism to load it into the chamber is much simpler than spending about half a minute to ram it down a long barrel, the technology was just not there as without cheap steel (cheap is important for hand guns you are going to mass-produce), getting iron to contain the explosion without deforming and leaking gas, thus weakening the shot, was a nightmare. The Industrial Revolution, among other things, gave birth to the concept of "breach-loading" and later "magazines" and simpler mechanized feeding systems like tubes, slides, cylinders, and bolt-actions. The likes of pump-action shotguns, bolt-action rifles, and lever-action rifles, and revolver and semi-automatic pistols, are developed and/or developed upon, giving a glimpse on how weapons in the future would function. Near the end of the decade, some French guys worked out that they could both improve firepower and keep their guns considerably cleaner by replacing black powder with nitrocellulose, the first of many "smokeless powders."

Just as important as the new designs that came about during this period were the new methods of production. People like Eli Whitney worked out devices such as milling machines, which allowed for the quick production of finely tuned parts which were so close in size that you could take one bit off one gun, stick it on another from the same line, and it would work just as fine. Breech loading and repeating firearms had existed for centuries beforehand, but were not cost effective to mass produce until the Industrial Revolution.
[[image:Lee-Enfield Rifle.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A British Lee-Enfield Bolt Action Repeating rifle]]
This is also the time where the first "automatic" guns are being invented and put into production. The word "automatic" is in quotes because these early machine guns were not self-reciprocating; they did not load and fire themselves and were instead manually powered. The most famous (and successful) of these weapons is the Gatling gun, which saw limited action in the American Civil War, but became much more widely used the world over in subsequent wars. But while it was the most famous, the Gatling was not the only manual machine gun developed; dozens of different types were produced during the US Civil War alone on both sides, but because these guns tended to be mounted on cannon carriages, they were treated like cannons, not the close support weapon machines guns are, so it took some time for them to hit their stride.

'''1900-early 1930s''': The heyday of guns because of the advent of WW1. The idea of bolt-action rifles are popularized, along with semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons. Bolt-action rifles meant that riflemen no longer had to be confined to shooting one round at a time before needing to reload as they could now load individual clips that contained 5-10 rounds a piece. Machine guns are now becoming more and more popular in the battlefields, drastically changing the way infantry would maneuver the battlefield as a single MG emplacement can effectively cripple platoons with the right positioning. Submachine guns, the first automatic infantry weapon, are developed by the German Empire and issued to their stormtroopers, giving the rest of the world an idea of the wonders of a lightweight fully-automatic weapon that could easily be used by infantrymen, which was previously restricted to crew-served heavy machine guns.

On the subject of the machine guns, if there was ever a weapon that represented this part of history it would be the heavy machine gun. to go back to an early quote "God made man, Sam Colt made them equal and John Browning (designer of a large number of machine guns including the m2 .50 cal or 12.7mm) made them civilized. We talked about the hand powered machine guns above, and while good when used correctly, these weapons have their issues. In order to use most of them, you had to be standing up to turn the crank and sustained fire was tiring, but the hand cranked guns had one major advantage: the most successful of the hand-cranked guns, like the Gatling or Gardner, had multiple barrels meaning you can fire them with little or no need to stop to let the barrels cool down. At the dawn of the 20th century, this is what the early machine guns had to be compared to when European generals went window shopping. The solution was water-cooling, which allowed machine guns to fire for countless hours with little or no failures, but at the cost of weight rendering them truly static, though highly effective, weapons. If you could point to two developments that caused the First World War's trench warfare, you can point to water-cooled machine guns and barbed wire.

'''late 1930s-1940s''': At the start of World War II, all of the powers involved, France, England, Germany, and Russia, were armed with bolt action weapons. Over the course of the war, automatic and semi-automatic rifles started to become more common; however, only the Americans completely phased out bolt-action rifles for standard infantry by the time of the war. Submachine guns are now becoming more popular with various armies around the world, making it the staple lightweight automatic weapon for infantry troops, totally redefining urban combat due to the weapon's great effectiveness in close combat. Nazi Germany invents the ''Sturmgewehr 44'', the first widely produced assault rifle (the Fedorov Avtomat was the first to be put into service, introduced in 1915, but production was limited due to costs). This weapon would later become the template for modern assault rifles used by the world over.
[[image:QBZ-95.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A QBZ-95 Assault Rifle, the current service rifle of the People's Republic of China, note bullpup configuration (the magazine feeds behind the trigger), thus saving space]]
'''1950s-1990s''': After World War II, the US Army performed a study and determined that it took 20,000 bullets to confirm one enemy casualty; most of those rounds would miss or be spent suppressing an enemy. With numbers like that, people now realized the power of a fully-automatic rifle since they allow you to fire more and more rounds and increase your chance of hitting as compared to a bolt action rifle. As such, assault rifles become more and more common with armed forces of the world and are extensively developed upon, largely, if not completely, phasing out the old bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles used back in WW2. Iconic assault rifles such as the AK-47, M14, and M16A1 are created and show the world the power of an automatic rifle through the the numerous wars going on during the 1960s-70s, such as the Communist wars in Korea and Vietnam, along with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, to name a few.

'''2000s''': With the invention of more advanced materials such as plastics and carbon fiber, along with numerous technological advancements of the modern world, firearms become more deadly than they were ever before. Fine-tuning how every aspect of how a firearm would work has allowed numerous countries to develop better and efficient ways on how to kill on a scale unseen since the Europeans developed the musket.

Many countries around the world are now looking for new ways to phase-out combustion-based firearms as a whole, and are looking for ways to make what were once sci-fi-only weapons, such as [[lasgun|laser]], [[plasma]], and [[gauss]] guns, a reality. While met with some degree of success, nobody (as far as we know, anyway) has found a way yet for these weapons to be man-portable that a single soldier could carry these into combat or be affordable to an extent that it would be more feasible to make these instead of the traditional slugthrowers. There is also the problem that if you get a projectile going fast enough, it will just over-penetrate and go through a target, doing little actual damage as compared to our modern bullets that hit, create a temporary cavity the size of a dinner plate, then tumble going through the target sideways. So even if such projects were successful, there is a strong point to be made that, as least as far as infantry weapons are concerned, chemical slug throwers will remain both cost effective and lethal enough that such projects are dead ends.

==Types of firearms==
Having been around for well over 1500 years there have been many types of firearms over the course of time. Humans are, if anything, very inventive when it comes to coming up with new and interesting ways to kill each other. A rough list are:

===Ye Olde Gonnes===
*Handgonne: A catch-all term for a primitive guns gun without a lock that need their powder charges. Majority of these guns were handcannons, as in literal man-portable artillery pieces that had a 50/50 chance of either working or malfunctioning, the worst of which would be the gun exploding in the shooter's face.

* Arquebus - A basic matchlock Firearm. A note of clarification: 'Arquebus' and 'musket' are both used to describe firearms from this time and they are often used interchangeably. But if you want to be really technical in this period an Arquebus is a regular two handed matchlock firearm while a musket is a larger heavier gun firing a larger projectile, sometimes up to an inch in diameter. Latter (about 1700 onward) musket would refer to any muzzleloading long barreled handheld firearm used for mainly shooting solid shots. This is not too much of a big deal and is nothing to get mad about, but it is worth noting.

*Musket - Today, the musket is a catch-all term for all early smoothbore, shoulder-fired, muzzle-loaded firearms. Technically this isn't the case, the musket was an improved Arquebus, one of the earliest muzzle-loaded guns. However because of romanticism and literature; people who aren't acquainted with firearms will commonly refer to any muzzle-loaded long weapon as a musket (about the same reason why most people today refer to any automatic weapon as a machine gun). Muskets were inaccurate as people have yet to put serious research into firearm ballistics, generated a lot of smoke due to primitive gunpowder mixtures, and were temperamental to environmental conditions (rain will pretty much render a musket into an wet stick of wood), but still enjoyed a lot of popularity due to their lethality and ease of use compared to other man-portable ranged weapons at the time. The earliest versions used matchlocks, which fired by poking a slow-burning fuse into the firing chamber. Because these fuses were unreliable, they were eventually replaced with flintlocks, which ignited by generating sparks in the firing chamber. Muskets were quickly phased out once rifles became a feasible thing, who did what a musket could, but better.

*Multi-barreled gun - In the olden days, people wanted shootier guns but things like magazines and self-loading weapons were still an alien idea during its time. So as an alternative people took a breach/muzzle-loaded firearm, slapped one or more barrels onto it, and reworked the trigger so they can fire more shots before needing to reload. This resulted is some particularly wacky times for guns. To this day, the only multi-barrel weapon still commonly used (disregarding military rifles with underslung grenade launchers, door breaching shotguns, or rotating barrel Gatling-style guns) is the double-barreled hunting shotgun.

===Modern Firearms===
*Handgun - Also called "pistols", handguns are small-sized firearms that can be comfortably fired in one hand (hence the name). Handguns are mainly used for close defense and as a sidearm, making them akin to daggers. Modern pistol calibers are commonly between 9 and 11mm, although popular magnum rounds like the .357 magnum and .50AE are also common for handguns (albeit they tend to be large and heavy).
:*Machine pistol - A machine pistol is a handgun that can fire on full auto. While they're commonly thrown into that category; machine pistols are not submachine guns due to their size and use. They are not as popular as they used to be seeing how Personal Defense Weapons are filling the niche they once did with more firepower.
:*Derringer - A tiny pocket pistol. These things have been around since the 19th century. Often used as concealed or personal defense weapons, these things could fit into the palm of your hand and were single-shot, though could have two barrels. Not all derringers use weak rounds, either; at least one modern design manages to pack four .357 magnum rounds.

*Revolver - A revolving gun is any weapon that uses a revolving cylinder to load new rounds after every shot. While its commonly now relegated to pistols (a revolver typically meant a revolver pistol these days) the style is still used for some shotguns (like the Armsel Striker) and grenade launchers (like the MM1-Hawk). Revolvers are still in use for a few reasons: they're simple and cheap to make, can easily be used by left and right-handed shooters (since spent casings aren't automatically ejected like in the case of modern firearms) and is still pretty robust compared to today's modern weapons as fewer mechanisms means fewer points of failure. Downside is that they have very limited ammunition space (because the gun was made around the cylinder you can't expand it like how you can with detachable magazines, so you either had a gun with 5-8 rounds or a bulky gun with a 12-round cylinder) and reload time (revolvers in all generations were a pain in the ass to reload. If you had an old revolver with a loading gate; you had to eject each round by hand, ''then'' load new rounds. If you had a newer one; you had to empty the cylinder, load the rounds, then cock the hammer. This is in contrast to modern guns where you just had to eject the magazine, load a new one, and charge the weapon). "Snubnose" revolvers refer to revolvers with shortened barrels in an attempt to make them more compact. Thanks to the American old west era and subsequent movies about it; revolver-styled handguns have achieved a kind of rustic yet sleek appeal to them. Revolvers come in generally the same calibers as handguns, from the modest .22 Long Rifle used for practicing and target shooting to the behemoth .500 S&W Magnum which can put down a bear.

*Submachine gun - A submachine gun (abbreviated to SMG) is a fully automatic weapon that fires pistol cartridges instead of the larger rifle cartridges. One of the first true fully automatic infantry weapons outside of the machine gun; the weapon fulfills a similar role of the carbine in that its a weapon made for infiltrators and assault units as its compact size and power makes it a close-range powerhouse. They also make good stealth weapons, as its easier to suppress the noise of a pistol cartridge than a rifle cartridge (as most pistol rounds are subsonic).

:*Personal Defense Weapon - A PDW is a bit of a mix of a carbine and an SMG, firing specialized cartridges with rifle-like characteristics (usually in the 4-5mm range, shorter than a rifle cartridge but longer than a pistol cartridge) at the cost of additional weight. Its original role is as its name implies; a personal defense weapon for nonfrontline infantry, like artillery spotters, scouts, vehicle crews etc. Back in the day PDWs weren't necessarily automatic; a pistol with a longer barrel and mounted stock could be classified as a PDW (This was done with the German C96 and Luger P07). These days PDWs are commonly lumped into the same category as SMGs, as they now fulfill similar roles.

*[[Shotgun]] - Shotguns are smoothbore weapons (as in the barrel is not rifled) designed to fire either shot (multiple steel or lead pellets) or slugs (a single, heavy projectile), although modern times have included other types of ammunition. The ability to fire multiple types of ammunition without modification is one of the main advantages to using a shotgun; converting an anti-infantry weapon into a door-breaching tool, a mini-flamethrower, or a non-lethal weapon with but a switch of the munitions. The vast majority of shotguns are pump-action or breech-loading, though military shotguns can come in semi-automatic or fully-automatic configurations. For more information see the [[shotgun]] page.

*Rifle - Rifles were originally shoulder-fired weapons that had their barrels "rifled" to increase precision, which was an act by putting spiral grooves into the barrel in order to have the bullet spin before leaving the barrel. However, because most modern firearms now use rifling to improve ballistics; a shoulder-fired long weapon, designed for accurate fire is usually classed as a rifle.
:*Assault Rifle - Assault rifles are a term given to any rifle that can be fired on full-auto and shoot intermediate-caliber rounds, typically in the 5mm range (or a shortened 7mm round if you're from the Eastern bloc). This is usually the standard weapon of a non-specialized front-line infantryman.
:*Battle Rifle - Basically a bigger assault rifle; battle rifles are bigger automatic rifles designed to fire high-caliber rounds, typically in the 7mm range. These were the mainstay for armies in the 1950s, but the US eventually found out that giving infantry rifles with smaller rounds is better since its lighter and can allow infantry to be more accurately engage enemies better due to lower recoil (albeit at the cost of power), so battle rifles were replaced by assault rifles for front-line use and battle rifles were relegated to specialists like marksmen or support gunners (who's job permits for a slower-firing but more powerful weapon).
:*Carbine - A carbine is a compact rifle, primarily designed to be used in close quarters. In most cases, carbines are based from a parent assault/battle rifle, and are scaled down by using lighter/smaller parts and shortening the barrel (such as in the case of the American M16 and M4) or is its own weapon (like the Korean K1A). These are typically given to units who need to engage the enemy at close range and need a rifle for the job, like commandos, assault teams, or other specialist units, or given to units who are not expected to fight on the front but need a compact but decent weapon to defend themselves if the need arises, like pilots or vehicle crews. Carbine may also refer to pistol-caliber semi-automatic weapons that are longer than a pistol, but this is typically only used in the civilian market.
:*Micro Assault Rifle - Even smaller than carbines; these are ultracompact rifles designed when someone needs a highly portable but powerful weapon. A MAR is basically a PDW that shoots actual rifle rounds. Much like carbines; a MAR can either be based on a parent rifle and scaled down or made as its own weapon.
:*Sniper Rifle - A sniper rifle is a special precision rifle, specifically designed to engage targets at extreme range with lethal efficiency. Many sniper rifles use standard 7mm rounds, but high-performance rifles will use magnum (extra-power) rounds or 12mm rounds for extra range and stopping power. The vast majority are bolt-action for simplicity and power (much more reliable and because all the gasses are diverted into the barrel, rather than some being diverted to work the action; the gun can launch the bullet farther and faster), but there are also a decent number of semi-automatic ones. Sniper rifles are given to special marksmen called "snipers", who engage the enemy from very long distances, usually well away from the scrap.
:*Designated Marksman Rifle - A sort of compromise between battle rifles and sniper rifles, DMRs are precision weapons meant to be used by frontline infantry to accurately engage distant targets that regular infantry weapons cannot. Due to its role; it's more accurate than a rifleman's gun, but not nearly as effective as an actual sniper's gun (DMRs are usually only effective within 1 kilometer, while SRs are typically effective beyond 1 kilometer). Generally speaking, DMRs never use high-performance rounds that snipers may use, as it would be excessive for their role.
:*Recoiless - Not a conventional gun in most senses; a recoilless gun (models with rifling are called "Recoiless rifles" though people often miss this distinction) is as the title suggest, a rifled weapon without (or at least reduced) recoil. It does this by basically being a cannon with the back taken off. When loaded the cartridge sits in an open back tube, there is no breach. When fired, the explosion propels the shell out the tube, but an equal amount of gas comes out the other side canceling out the recoil. This means that total muzzle velocity is lower than a cannon with a breech on it, but they make up for it by shooting bigger shells, and with HEAT shells (thanks to the nature of the Munroe effect) the wider the diameter of the shell the more effective it is, meaning even a large slow moving projectile can do a great amount of damage to tanks.
:*Everything else - All of the above rifles are military-grade and thus are generally not available to the public. Any other type of rifle will typically be called a "sporting rifle" or "hunting rifle", etc and are either bolt-action or semi-automatic.

*Machine Gun - Colloquially a machine gun is a large automatic weapon (though even assault rifles are technically machine guns as well-LMG show this fuzzy border well), typically fed from a magazine or a belt and meant to either be portable or fired from an emplacement like a bipod or tripod. The main difference between MGs and the rest of the automatic weapon family is that an MG is a gun meant to be fired continuously as a support weapon; meaning that the machine gunner stays back to continually shoot at the enemy to keep them down (and occasionally kill those stupid enough to not get the message), while the rest of the squad advances. Machine guns are typically heavy, not only because of the volume of ammo they carry; but their parts are made of heavier materials so that the gun can withstand the punishing amounts of bullets it puts downrange (firing hundreds of rounds without pause can cause guns to overheat and malfunction, even catch fire or explode in the worst of scenarios.)
:*Light Machine Gun - an LMG is a man-portable MG that fires the same intermediate rounds as assault rifles. They are intended to be almost as portable as a rifle (as in, they can be shouldered, but get better performance with a bipod) and allow machine gunners to provide suppressing fire at the squad level. Some LMGs are magazine-fed rifles with heavier barrels and modified bolts (such as the RPK), or else scaled-down MMGs (such as the M249 SAW).
:*Medium Machine Gun - an MMG is a man-portable MG that fires the same full-power rounds as battle rifles. These tend to push the limit of what's practical for a man-portable weapon, and when deployed are usually fired from a stationary position either on a bipod or tripod due to the recoil they generate. These weapons are more multi-role and tend to be deployed at the company level or as a vehicle weapon.
:*Heavy Machine Gun - HMGs fire large caliber rounds (like the famous .50 cal). Unlike the other two; HMGs are exclusively meant to be fired from emplacements like a tripod due to their large size and weight, which makes them impossible for an infantryman to fire on the move, unlike the light and medium machine guns. HMGs are powerful enough to penetrate light armor, making them a formidable weapon.
:*Rotary Machine Gun - Originally known as the "Gatling gun", man's first known attempt to have enough [[dakka]]; a rotary machine gun is an automatic weapon that uses revolving barrels that interchange every time the gun fires off a round. The kicker to this is that it allows the gun to shoot with little threat of the barrels wearing out as they interchange between shots; giving them a small window to cool off before firing again. The end result is a gun capable of firing over 3,000 rounds per minute without fail, or in a smaller scope; 50 rounds per second. Modern rotary guns are electrically powered to allow them to reach such insane speeds, and are given ammo drums that contain thousands of rounds to be able to sustain that amount of bullets being fired; so they're confined to static emplacements and vehicles (unlike what the media constantly portrays; these things are not even close to being man-portable without assistance from powered armor.) These types of guns are used almost exclusively on aircraft or anti-aircraft emplacements, as they're the only non-missile weapon that can reliably hit fast-moving aircraft. But a rotary gun that fires 30mm rounds is powerful enough to tear tanks in two, as well (metaphorically, they only have to penetrate top armor and rate of fire helps). Unlike what the movies would tell you a rotary machine gun does not need a long spinup time to get to full speed: when the trigger is pulled the gun starts to spin and fire immediately.
:*Chain gun - A chain gun is a machine gun that is fed using an electric motor. Instead of relying on the gasses from the bullet to work the action to cycle a new round; a machine automatically ejects and loads a new round in after firing a shot. Chain guns have the benefit of never jamming due to feeding failures, as even if the round is not discharged; the machine pops it out and loads a new one regardless. However, it is also not man-portable as it requires an electric motor to function, so it is only found on fixed emplacements or vehicles.

===Actions===
"Action" refers to how ammunition is loaded into the weapon.

*Single-shot: The first and oldest of all; a single-shot weapon is when users manually load rounds into the chamber. This can be anything from loading a new round, cocking the weapon every shot, or pumping the action.
**Muzzle-loaded: The earliest form of how weapons were loaded. This meant you had to load a new round directly into the muzzle, which is where the bullets come out. In its earliest form; muzzle-loaded guns were complicated to arm; you had to fuck around with a wad, powder, and slug. In the heat of battle, you had to ram these down the barrel of your gun in the correct order, light the wick, then aim before the gun goes off. And you had to do all this while standing in the open within firing range of your enemy.
**Breach-loaded; An upgrade over muzzle-loading and developed shortly after cartridges were invented; breach loaders are where the bottom of the barrel can be unhinged so that you can load a new round into it. It is still a popular setup for multi-barreled shotguns. Certain revolvers are breach-loaded as well, but given the size and design of the revolver, this gives them a notable weak point at the top of the weapon where the parts connect together.
**Bolt-action: This type of action is where you pull the charging handle of a weapon, every time you shoot so that the mechanism would chamber a new round. These were pretty popular in WW1 and continues to be used today for precision rifles.
**Lever-action: The cool kid of the single-action club; lever-action weapons are those where you have to use a lever to chamber a new round, which was usually mounted near the trigger. This type was made popular by Winchester during the frontier age of the Wild West and even more by Arnold Schwarzenegger when he used a lever-action shotgun during Terminator 2.
**Pump-action: A pump action is where you had to pull the "pump" of the weapon to cycle a new round. This is the most common action used by shotguns. A few rifles used this setup as well, and there is one instance of a bunch of madmen creating a pump-action 3+1 (three in the tube, one in the chamber) 40mm grenade launcher.

*Semi-automatic: A semi-automatic weapon is any weapon that can fire after every trigger pull, with the user only needing to work the action after reloading a completely empty gun. Unlike single-shot weapons, it uses gasses expelled by the cartridge or recoil to power a mechanism that automatically chambers a new round after each shot. Most handguns and many rifles are semi-automatic.

*Burst-Fire: A setting sometimes included on automatic weapons, each trigger pull fires three (or sometimes two) rounds in rapid succession. This is used as a way to allow automatic capability without wasting bullets, as keeping the trigger held too long on anything other than a mounted weapon tends to cause it to lose accuracy very quickly.

*Fully-automatic: A fully-automatic weapon is any weapon that can fire automatically, so long as the trigger is depressed, rather than pulled each time like how semi-autos work. Automatic weapons tend to be banned for civilian use and are only available to military.

===Ammo Storage and Feeding===
This refers to how ammunition is given to the weapon. Also the topic of a /k/ommando's greatest sources of rage; the clip vs magazine misconception. This section will give a short explanation for both.

*Pepperbox - used mostly in the days of the muzzle loader a pepper box has multiple barrels loaded and ready to be fired. The Empire's Outriders are armed with these weapons if you want a visual of what they looked like.
*Superposed load - the disadvantage to using a multi-barreled firearm is that it adds a lot of weight to the firearm. One alternative was to simply stack multiple bullets and charges into the same barrel, and then have the firearm set them off sequentially. The early version of this mechanism was prone to failures, as the bullets were not self-contained and a poor gas seal could result in multiple charges going off, exploding the barrel. However, this setup was revived with the invention of caseless bullets and electronic triggers used most prominently in Metal Storm weapons. If combined with multiple barrels, a metal storm weapon can have a bewildering rate of fire. So far the technology is mostly used in multi-shot grenade launchers.
*Clip - A clip is a device, used for bundling bullets together for immediate use. Guns cannot use clips by themselves, they have to be loaded into a magazine first to be used by a gun. The most common version were "stripper clips": each clip held about five bullets, and to load the rifle you placed the clip on top of the magazine, then squeezed the bullets off the clip into the magazine. Another type, en bloc, was used by the M1 Garand and held eight bullets in a 2x4 configuration. The entire clip was put in the magazine, with the clip being ejected after being emptied. The last kind is the moon (or half-moon) clip, used specifically for revolvers, which holds bullets in a circular formation for loading the chamber up in one go.
*Magazine - The magazine is part of the weapon that houses and feeds actual ammo into the weapon. In the olden days, many guns had magazines that were built into the weapon itself and were fed using clips of ammo that were loaded after the gun ran out of ammo. Built-in magazines, however, severely limited the potential ammunition capacity of guns as they cannot be expanded without significantly making the gun larger and was a pain in the ass to reload (such as in the case of revolvers). To counter this; people designed guns whose magazines were detachable from the gun itself. This allowed people to easily expand the ammo cap of a gun by just making the magazine bigger and made it easier to reload ammunition (after all if you're reloading a gun with 30 rounds; its much faster to just load an entire mag than cramming 30 rounds worth of clips down it). High-capacity magazines tend to take on weird shapes rather than the standard flat box; the most common variant is the drum magazine, but there are also double drums, caskets, and helicals.
*Belts - The belt is what it is; a long belt filled with bullets, which can either take the form of a cloth belt or linked by metallic chains. Belts are the common loading method of most machine guns, who typically have ammunition capacities well beyond 100 rounds.
*Bullpup - A bullpup is any weapon where its action is located in the behind the trigger, instead of in front. Bullpups have the advantage of being more compact, compared to the traditional setup, as most of the gun's mechanism is located in the stock area. but has the disadvantage of not being ambidextrous (being that the shell ejection port is directly beside the shooter's face, left-handed shooters are forced to shoot from the right to not get their faces burned off) unless specifically designed to be so. This is usually resolved by cutting out ejection ports on both sides and swapping parts over, or else ejecting bullets downward or forward.

==Relations here==
Most fantasy writers tend to exclude firearms. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as:
*Most fantasy comes from [[Tolkien]], who, being a naturalist who largely despised industrialization, did not put guns in Middle-earth, although gunpowder does exist, used by the wizards (Gandalf's Fireworks and Saruman's Fires of Orthanc) and by the orcs.
*Most fantasy (whether copy-catting Tolkien or not) is based on medieval Europe. Depending on your definition of "medieval," Europe did ''technically'' have firearms towards the very end (crude and unreliable ones, but firearms nonetheless), but most authors base their fantasy on earlier medieval Europe.
*As in real life, firearms mean that vulgar, dirty, peasant conscripts can take down the author's Mary Sue noblemen [[knight]]s that trained ''so'' hard in the arts of swordsmanship and melee combat, though if the writer had any historical knowledge they would know that armor can be made "Proof" against bullets, which is partly what spurred the development of full-body plate mail, to begin with.
All that being said, most fantasy authors are much more open to cannons, which became viable on the battlefield long before smaller firearms anyway.

Generally speaking, if a world has both the "stock" fantasy races and guns, there will a strict hierarchy of who uses them, from most to least likely:
*[[Dwarves]]: They almost always have the best, most plentiful guns. If only one race gets firearms, it's likely going to be them.
*[[Gnomes]]: As tinkerers, they're frequently on a different tech level from everyone else, including firearms.
*[[Human]]s: Unlike the other races, which are usually an all-or-nothing deal, different human nations have different likelihoods of having guns. Italian and East Asian analogues, as well as the "industrious" or "scientific" nations, are much more likely to have them. Your barbarians, guys keen on knights and chivalry, and the more conservative less so.
*[[Orc]]s: Orcs would probably love guns if they could actually build some. However, they're usually either incapable of building things or have a hard time organizing themselves to the point that large-scale firearm and powder production is possible. Even so, they could still obtain them them by other means such as fighting as mercenaries for guns and stealing them off the corpses of the fallen and similar. They are higher on the list if they are more like Tolkienian orcs, which can be fairly well organized and "delight in explosions" enough to manufacture their own gunpowder, if only for simple bombs.
*[[Elves]]: Being arrogant pricks, they see guns as crude, inaccurate, foul-smelling contraptions that are no substitute for a bow. However, they'll still use them when necessary, even if they don't like it. That said, elves also had a good reason to not use them, namely most firearms in a fantasy settling are arquebus-type single-shot smoothbore weapons, which are outranged by longbows. Longbows are even decent against most kinds of armor ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt ask the French]). The main advantage of firearms, even early ones, is ease of use and armor penetration though armor could be made that could stop an early handgun. The main problem with longbows is that it takes years to learn, which is not a problem for long-lived elves. Between a smoothbore handgun and a longbow, the bow is simply a better choice to an elf.
*Wood Elves and other Fey/Nature types: They'd rather die than use a firearm, even if the rest of the world has moved onto biplanes, bolt-action rifles, shell-firing cannons, and tanks. If this happens, this means they either have powerful magic (so the actual weapons used are unimportant), they are ''really really'' good shots with a bow, or they're about to die out.

For how this conservative attitude tends to apply to tech in general for fantasy settings, see [[Medieval Stasis]].

Of course, sci-fi writers almost exclusively use firearms, seeing as how it's THE FUUUUUUTTTTTUUUUURRRREEEE. The exceptions are [[Warhammer 40,000]] and ''[[Dune]]'': although guns are the main combat implement in 40K, close combat is still alive and well, and most armies have at least one elite, close-combat unit wielding weapons that are distinctly not firearms; in ''Dune'', guns are pretty much dead as a weapon of war, as personal-scale force fields stop fast-moving matter (like bullets) from crossing them, but slower matter (like swung knives) can pass through, and if a lasgun blast touches the field, at least one end of the equation comes out "BOOM!!!". Most sci-fi universes do have close combat weapons on the scale we see in modern warfare, though, like in Mass Effect, where, as the Reaper forces (who are basically [[Necron]]s and [[Tyranids]] combined) invade the galaxy, people begin developing their Omnitools to snap-produce a white-hot blade of hard metal above the wearer's hand... And then there's the Krogan, who are too bloodthirsty and too large to properly take cover, so they headbutt things instead of using guns.

== Rules ==

Most fantasy RPGs deal with firearms the way they deal with lots of things that threaten their [[Medieval Stasis]]: terror, suspicion, and shitty rules. If you have the option of using a firearm in most games, it probably has one shot that's weaker than a bow, then takes an entire encounter to reload, and is illegal everywhere in-setting in case you didn't get the hint.

[[D&D#Basic_Dungeons_&_Dragons|BECMI]] Dungeons & Dragons doesn't have rules for firearms, but there were one or two adventure modules that incorporated a crash-landed spaceship, with weapons the players could loot. They were treated as magic wands and staves. A few issues of Dragon magazine offered rules for early cannons and hand cannons.

[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] mentions guns in a tucked-away subsection on importing TSR's Cowboys & Indians game Boot Hill to AD&D (DMG, pg113). Revolver pistols and Gatling guns would do as much damage as a longsword; shotguns as much damage as a two-handed claymore, a (thrown) stick of dynamite does 4x the damage of a short sword. The rules insist "...when gunpowder is brought into the fantasy world it becomes inert junk, ergo, no clever alchemist can duplicate it." To reinforce this concept, the ''Manual of the Planes'' included rules for factors of prime material planes, one of which determined if complex (read: setting destroying) chemical compositions like blackpowder would even work in said plane. If you have any knowledge of chemistry, you may cry now. Notably, [[Greyhawk]] had a [[Murlynd|god of firearms]], and his paladins were basically Wild West sheriffs.

[[Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons#AD.26D_2nd_Edition|Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition]] included the arquebus in the Players Handbook, where they were depicted as slow, powerful and expensive (500 Gp!). They were also potentially dangerous to the user as the result of a bad roll. It was painfully stressed that the inclusion of firearms in the campaign was the call of the DM. Firearms were a bit more common in the [[Spelljammer]] setting. Moving away from the classic fantasy background, there was the historical campaign sourcebook ''A Mighty Fortress'' that introduced rules for firearms of the 16th and 17th centuries and the ''Masque of the Red Death'' setting for [[Ravenloft]] pushed everything into a gothic horror version of the 1890's.

[[Dungeons_&_Dragons_3rd_Edition|D&D third edition]] has a section on advanced technology (DMG, pp162-164) for Renaissance-era, 20th century, and futuristic weapons. The weapons are more powerful than what can be found among ranged weapons in the Player's Handbook, but also heavier and more expensive. You're better off with magic crossbows.

[[Pathfinder]] seems to do early firearms right: they have shorter range than bows without magical items, take longer to reload, have a chance to break or explode on a misfire, and use up more expensive ammunition, but they hit harder, have a ''terrifying'' 4x crit modifier, and ''use touch AC'' in the first range increment, effectively ignoring armor when fired close up. Probably the only things restricting their use so heavily are the stiff feat tax needed to make use of them and the fact that there's really only one major gun factory in the land, the Gunworks of the small nation of Alkenstar, and they keep most of their guns to themselves. A specialized class, the [[gunslinger]], is centered around the use of firearms.

[[Dragonmech]] has guns, sort of kinda, as well. Only instead of using gunpowder, they use steam to propel the bullet like an airsoft gun. they can only be fired once every other round as the pressure needs to build up. There Treated a bit like crossbows that do more damage and can shoot a little further.

[[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] includes a section on firearms in the ''Dungeon Master's Guide''. They hark back to 2nd edition in terms of stats, fitting the general tone of the game, but aren't quite as punishing for a player to learn to use and make. And with the increased emphasis on houseruling and homebrewing, modding the Crossbow Expert feat to work for them seems a simple leap of logic. The "race builder" guide in the back even suggests changing around the dwarf weapon proficiencies to include them! Furthermore, if you want to get your [[Expedition to the Barrier Peaks]] on, it includes some futuristic guns as well, like lasers and disintegrators.

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Cleric

2017-07-10T12:36:13Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

[[File:Aleena-the_cleric.jpg|356px|thumb|right|Aleena the cleric in depressingly tasteful chainmail]]

In [[D&D]], the cleric is a healer, spellcaster, and sometimes melee fighter. It is a fantasy reimagining of the holy orders of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller of medieval times.

== First Edition ==

In 1st edition AD&D, the cleric could wear heavy armor and use a shield. He was forbidden to use weapons that were not blunt, with the only missile weapons being the very feeble sling or the bizarre staff-sling. The cleric wore a holy symbol, which he could use to turn away or destroy undead creatures. He could cast spells to mend wounds and cure ailments. He also had spells to protect and buff up the party, some spells to afflict opponents, and some utility spells. The cleric didn't get a lot of ranged attack spells, the exception being the very overpowered Flamestrike. Many of the 1st edition cleric spells were patterned after legendary religious miracles. His excellent armor, good saving throws, and fair hit points made the cleric a decent front-line battle healer. In spite of, or rather because of this, most players didn't want to play a cleric, because most of the time he was the only means of healing, and so he became nothing but a walking first aid kit.

== Secound Edition ==

In 2nd edition AD&D, "hybrid" healer classes became more interesting to play. The druid class became more powerful. Several granted powers were added, including the ability to shapeshift into animals. With ranged and powerful attack spells like Fire Seeds, Call Lightning, and The Creeping Doom, the druid could be more exciting to play than the cleric. If you wanted to focus on the undead-battling aspect of the cleric, you could also play a paladin, who had obtained a few upgrades and whose healing was absolutely feeble. 2nd edition also released optional rules for "Priests of Special Mythoi", which allowed you to handpick your spells and new, otherwise unattainable buffs, right from the Players Handbook. By using the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide for creating a new character class, a player could create a lean but tough priest of a special mythos that advanced in level at a decent pace. In contrast, the cleric only received a buff common to all priests, extra "bonus" spells per day for having a high Wisdom score. Many players chose to play one of those other classes, where their combat clout or attack spells let them be somebody, instead of suffering the insult of being thought of as a reusable healing potion owned by everyone else in the party.

== Third Edition ==

In 3rd edition, a druid can turn into a giant overpowered bear that shoots giant bears out of its eyes while farting lightning and mauling things with its own pet grizzly bear, also overpowered. A cleric can blow all the non-fullcaster members of the party away by self-buffing his stats (to the point where a single hit from his mace will hit with the fury of an angry god's fist) while shooting meta-magicked unresistible fire out of his eyes. They are [[awesome]]. Most of the 3rd edition spells were in the 2nd edition spellbook, but there were limitations that made the cleric more of a curiosity than a decent party contributor. But in 3rd edition, if you don't have a cleric or druid in your group, your group tends to die. See: [[CoDzilla]].

== [[Pathfinder]] ==

[[Pathfinder]] reigned them in some, and they're now mostly on-par with the other casters if a little more melee-capable than the average [[wizard]]. They still get domain powers, but ''turn undead'' is now ''channel energy'', which basically lets them heal living creatures and hurt undead in a big radius with positive energy, or vice-versa with negative energy, making them superior healers to almost every other class at every stage of the game. They can also learn to channel those channels into other buffs and benefits too or burn them for single-target damage. They are still awesome.

== Fourth Edition ==

The 4th edition designers, driven mad by the pant-shitting idiocy of the common gaming group, threw up their hands and gave every class pathetic healing. This took some of the healing pressure off the cleric. They intended for clerics to fill a "leader" role. You can create a Strength-based "battle" build character, who deals radiant melee damage. Or, you can create a back-row "devoted" healer build, who can buff and make ranged radiant attacks. They are also able to attack with the at-will power Lance of Faith, creating the [[Laser Cleric]].

It was pretty [[skub]].

== Fifth Edition ==

In 5th edition, they realized that clerics were primarily divine spellcasters the way wizards were primarily arcane spellcasters and decided to throw the clerics some firepower at lower levels, even adding a domain called the Light domain that turns the cleric into a laser-beam-firing machine of death and radiant damage. They also used a nerf bat to break the kneecaps of all the buff spells, making them much less OP (and therefore less aggravating) than they were in 3.5. The end result is clerics that can do whatever they want, thanks to Domains actually doing something now, from healing-focused to investigation-focused to I-wish-I-was-a-druid focused. Oh, and they can use a "channel divinity" class feature with their domain to do cool things now.

{{D&D3-Classes}}
{{D&D4-Classes}}
{{D&D5-Classes}}
{{Pathfinder-Classes}}

Cleric

2017-07-10T12:33:16Z

2601:843:C201:F840:599A:7A9B:25C:D72B:

[[File:Aleena-the_cleric.jpg|356px|thumb|right|Aleena the cleric in depressingly tasteful chainmail]]

In [[D&D]], the cleric is a healer, spellcaster, and sometimes melee fighter. It is a fantasy reimagining of the holy orders of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller of medieval times.

In 1st edition AD&D, the cleric could wear heavy armor and use a shield. He was forbidden to use weapons that were not blunt, with the only missile weapons being the very feeble sling or the bizarre staff-sling. The cleric wore a holy symbol, which he could use to turn away or destroy undead creatures. He could cast spells to mend wounds and cure ailments. He also had spells to protect and buff up the party, some spells to afflict opponents, and some utility spells. The cleric didn't get a lot of ranged attack spells, the exception being the very overpowered Flamestrike. Many of the 1st edition cleric spells were patterned after legendary religious miracles. His excellent armor, good saving throws, and fair hit points made the cleric a decent front-line battle healer. In spite of, or rather because of this, most players didn't want to play a cleric, because most of the time he was the only means of healing, and so he became nothing but a walking first aid kit.

In 2nd edition AD&D, "hybrid" healer classes became more interesting to play. The druid class became more powerful. Several granted powers were added, including the ability to shapeshift into animals. With ranged and powerful attack spells like Fire Seeds, Call Lightning, and The Creeping Doom, the druid could be more exciting to play than the cleric. If you wanted to focus on the undead-battling aspect of the cleric, you could also play a paladin, who had obtained a few upgrades and whose healing was absolutely feeble. 2nd edition also released optional rules for "Priests of Special Mythoi", which allowed you to handpick your spells and new, otherwise unattainable buffs, right from the Players Handbook. By using the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide for creating a new character class, a player could create a lean but tough priest of a special mythos that advanced in level at a decent pace. In contrast, the cleric only received a buff common to all priests, extra "bonus" spells per day for having a high Wisdom score. Many players chose to play one of those other classes, where their combat clout or attack spells let them be somebody, instead of suffering the insult of being thought of as a reusable healing potion owned by everyone else in the party.

In 3rd edition, a druid can turn into a giant overpowered bear that shoots giant bears out of its eyes while farting lightning and mauling things with its own pet grizzly bear, also overpowered. A cleric can blow all the non-fullcaster members of the party away by self-buffing his stats (to the point where a single hit from his mace will hit with the fury of an angry god's fist) while shooting meta-magicked unresistible fire out of his eyes. They are [[awesome]]. Most of the 3rd edition spells were in the 2nd edition spellbook, but there were limitations that made the cleric more of a curiosity than a decent party contributor. But in 3rd edition, if you don't have a cleric or druid in your group, your group tends to die. See: [[CoDzilla]].

[[Pathfinder]] reigned them in some, and they're now mostly on-par with the other casters if a little more melee-capable than the average [[wizard]]. They still get domain powers, but ''turn undead'' is now ''channel energy'', which basically lets them heal living creatures and hurt undead in a big radius with positive energy, or vice-versa with negative energy, making them superior healers to almost every other class at every stage of the game. They can also learn to channel those channels into other buffs and benefits too or burn them for single-target damage. They are still awesome.

The 4th edition designers, driven mad by the pant-shitting idiocy of the common gaming group, threw up their hands and gave every class pathetic healing. This took some of the healing pressure off the cleric. They intended for clerics to fill a "leader" role. You can create a Strength-based "battle" build character, who deals radiant melee damage. Or, you can create a back-row "devoted" healer build, who can buff and make ranged radiant attacks. They are also able to attack with the at-will power Lance of Faith, creating the [[Laser Cleric]].

It was pretty [[skub]].

In 5th edition, they realized that clerics were primarily divine spellcasters the way wizards were primarily arcane spellcasters and decided to throw the clerics some firepower at lower levels, even adding a domain called the Light domain that turns the cleric into a laser-beam-firing machine of death and radiant damage. They also used a nerf bat to break the kneecaps of all the buff spells, making them much less OP (and therefore less aggravating) than they were in 3.5. The end result is clerics that can do whatever they want, thanks to Domains actually doing something now, from healing-focused to investigation-focused to I-wish-I-was-a-druid focused. Oh, and they can use a "channel divinity" class feature with their domain to do cool things now.

{{D&D3-Classes}}
{{D&D4-Classes}}
{{D&D5-Classes}}
{{Pathfinder-Classes}}