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In a generally good-aligned community, do you allow your players to get free healing services from the church?
If so, do you find this reduces the challenge of say, clearing a dungeon of Shadows when they can just pop out and get restored (aside from paying material costs of course).
What about channelling to heal wounds?
Or if you do charge your players for these kinds of spellcasting services, how do the clerics justify it if they follow a good-aligned God?
Or if you do charge your players for these kinds of spellcasting services, how do the clerics justify it if they follow a good-aligned God?
Priests need to eat too.
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Well that's definitely true. But depending on their level they could just Create Food and Water. And in my experience it's usually around level 5 when the party is poisoned, diseased ability damaged and so on that they look for outside help (when there isn't a real healer in the group).
I tend to not think about this stuff too much because when you do you wonder how anyone in a community could be sick or starving and it just cracks the illusion a little. But this situation came up for me recently and there was some huffing and puffing when I said I would apply standard casting charges because the group was just planning on going from church to church in Magnimar until they had all their ability damage healed.
I could see the party talking a low level cleric into getting rid of all their ailments for free depending on the circumstances, including the demand on that particular day in that particular area. The party is presumably fighting the good fight for good and such plus spells are a renewable resource. Really I would see it like charging for aid is at the discretion of the particular member of the church you encounter with most being of the mindset that adventurers are obscenely wealthy by most normal people standards so they get to "donate" to the church if they want some of that sweet healing magic. I'd imagine most good clerics would waive the fee for the destitute mother bringing in her dying child.
If the PCs will be going places, they might want to think about who they want to owe piles of favors to when they make it big, just saying.
I tend to allow it for the free stuff like channel energy. I think any small town will be happy enough with even a 1st level cleric that they'd be the town's main emergency room and thus would merit meals at the least.
No. Not unless the PC shares the same faith as the priest. Or if the PCs do work for the priest. Anything along those lines.
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PCs are suppised to be stars of the show and not having to rely on NPCs. If your PCs have been relying in NPCs, they should be spanked for being lazy dudes. That being said, if the PCs have been pushed to their limits, the town can provide some free limited healing/restoration services. But PCs should not be dependent on the town to provide those services, afterall, what did the town hire adventurers for?
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You can charge them the price of a scroll and a donation. Since not many NPC clerics reach 5+ to be able to remove X status effect.
Just explain it is the church's copy and thier heroism and pocketbook make it available to them.
No one would spend 300+gp on a filthy commoner with a disease but the PCs are special.
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You can charge them the price of a scroll and a donation. Since not many NPC clerics reach 5+ to be able to remove X status effect.
Just explain it is the church's copy and thier heroism and pocketbook make it available to them.
No one would spend 300+gp on a filthy commoner with a disease but the PCs are special.
Agreed, or play up the bring me your sick and lame angle.
There should be office hours when the clergy tends to the sick. The pcs should be in line with the commoners to give the impression that the full complement of the clergy magic must be spread out amongst the faithful rather than waiting for an adventurer to come along.
Donations are required, and it will be more if they aren't active parishoners of that faith in that town.
Since churches are the emergency room my vote means:
Triage diseases using heal skills in the morning. Admission for long term care during the day. Casting magic (non-emergent) only happens at night before rest.
The clergy needs to retain spell slots to spontaneously heal for those emergent cases, otherwise there will be riots when the clergy can't heal little Susie who fell down a well because they burned their divine magic healing a bunch of out of towners for a few gold.
I just charge by the spell level, for any casting. Just because you are good doesn't mean your have to be a paladin all the time. Unless the PCs are working for the church there is no reason for them to get a free lunch.
If so they would never pay for food and drinks simply bc they are 'heroes'. Sure why not give give them all the gear they want, they are the good guys after all.
Nope. You gotta pay to play, other wise why am I dropping gold in encounters?
I'm with Grey Mage on this one. Even Good-aligned clerics will surely tend to either their faithful flock or at least local people they know before a bunch of beat-up murderhobos. If the PCs have helped either them or the community it might be a different story.
It may well be that waiting their turn after the local peasants involved in farming accidents can get them some free HP healing. If they don't want to wait or need lesser restorations, remove disease etc then payment in cash, goods or services is entirely reasonable. And this is from a Good-aligned clergy - neutrals or evil are definitely going to charge outsiders.
Question, has anyone's party gone to the tavern to get healing from Bards?
Agreed, or play up the bring me your sick and lame angle.
There should be office hours when the clergy tends to the sick. The pcs should be in line with the commoners to give the impression that the full complement of the clergy magic must be spread out amongst the faithful rather than waiting for an adventurer to come along.
Donations are required, and it will be more if they aren't active parishoners of that faith in that town.
Since churches are the emergency room my vote means:
Triage diseases using heal skills in the morning. Admission for long term care during the day. Casting magic (non-emergent) only happens at night before rest.
The clergy needs to retain spell slots to spontaneously heal for those emergent cases, otherwise there will be riots when the clergy can't heal little Susie who fell down a well because they burned their divine magic healing a bunch of out of towners for a few gold.
That is super well thought out. I'm going to be incorporating this into my worlds.
That is super well thought out. I'm going to be incorporating this into my worlds.Agreed, or play up the bring me your sick and lame angle.
There should be office hours when the clergy tends to the sick. The pcs should be in line with the commoners to give the impression that the full complement of the clergy magic must be spread out amongst the faithful rather than waiting for an adventurer to come along.
Donations are required, and it will be more if they aren't active parishoners of that faith in that town.
Since churches are the emergency room my vote means:
Triage diseases using heal skills in the morning. Admission for long term care during the day. Casting magic (non-emergent) only happens at night before rest.
The clergy needs to retain spell slots to spontaneously heal for those emergent cases, otherwise there will be riots when the clergy can't heal little Susie who fell down a well because they burned their divine magic healing a bunch of out of towners for a few gold.
Agreed. I can also see the clerics leaving several of their spell slots open during the day so they can adjust to what they need that day. Sure, they can convert Remove Sickness into a cure light wounds spell, but they can't convert it into Remove Poison.
My general theory would be that most clergy expect donations in exchange for healing -- proportioned to people's ability to pay, local status, and so on. And it will vary somewhat depending on the deity in question.
So one of Erastil's clerics might freely heal wounds taken in defense of the community. "You tracked down and killed the bugbears that were murdering people? Great! Let me fix up the festering wounds from their dung-smeared darts!" but if someone got poisoned doing something stupid to impress people, it would be more "Oh, go lie down on the cot back here, and reflect on why poking giant wasp nests is a bad idea while you recover over the next week."
One of Abadar's might ask if your health insurance premiums are up to date... and offer you a sign-up plan.
A priestess of (say) Pharasma might heal wounds, and provide advance buff spells, for someone going up against undead, but refuse at all to deal with someone who had a necromancer in their party, or was using skeletons to haul loot around.
Generally any clerics are likely to put the needs of their local congregation first, and maybe not have any spells left over without something to tip the balance. ("A donation of gold so we can buy grain for the starving families over the winter...")
In general, it shouldn't be too hard to provide lower-level healing for people back in a peaceful town. (If nothing else, join the crowd for end-of-the-day channel energy to wipe away any cuts and bruises during the day -- of course, maybe you'd be expected to donate to the church according to your means, in thanks and gratitude. Not quite so crude as payment, but someone has to pay the masons for the church building and maintenance fund.) Getting higher-level spells in a hurry, that's not so easy.
(Most clerics would pitch in during an emergency, I think, unless they're severely anti-social. If the dragon is breathing fire down on the rooftops, everyone will be doing what they can. But unless the PCs have made specific efforts to be friends with the local priests, or are otherwise notable to them, they might have already used up much of their available spells during the emergency.)
Also note that, unless healing is specifically needed right now, a lot of memorized clerical spells will be non-healing stuff. "I would love to remove your blindness, but everything I can do has gone into creating food and water for orphans today -- come back tomorrow."