Dragon Issue #342

This month's issue of Dragon includes a number of articles to power up your cleric, including the following.

CORE BELIEFS: OLIDAMMARA
by Sean K Reynolds

The bard of the gods plays his song for you. Dance with his faithful, partake in his intrigues, and learn the piety of spending all your gold in celebration.

To give you a taste of Olidammara, here is an example of one of his holidays and a myth told by his faithful.

Feast of the Doubling Dare: This holiday takes place shortly after the start of the new year to celebrate past successes and plan for even greater deeds. The holiday is named for an annual contest held by the faithful where they challenge each other to increasingly dangerous, wild, or adventurous tasks. In the contest, one person announces a task (such as "seduce a paladin of Palor" or "steal a hundred gold from Hextor's temple") and anyone who thinks she can do better calls out her own task until someone announces a task that nobody thinks they can beat. If the challenger completes her task, she gains the title of "Hero of the D-oubling Dare" for the next year and many social privileges among those of the faith. The contest encourages members of this religion to move about and see more of the world, and not coincidentally brings a bit of friendly chaos into the lives of those who could use it the most.

Olidammara and the Great Talisman: Once when Olidammara was wandering the planes with his friend Fharlanghn they were attacked by a mysterious fiend only known as the Nameless Demon, a demon so secretive he had managed to conceal his true name from everything in the multiverse. While Fharlanghn suggested the two of them quickly depart, not seeing the point in a long, drawn-out fight with a demon, the Laughing Rogue held up a hand to stay him, then drew the kanteel of the oldest and played a song so beautiful and moving that it brought the blackhearted demon to tears. Unbeknownst to the Nameless Demon, the god had used the song as a pretext for d-ivining a vision of the demon's entire past, and Olidammara then knew the demon's name. Armed with this knowledge, the god coerced the demon to give up its talisman in exchange for Olidammara's oath to never reveal the creature's name. The faithful use this story to teach that a way exists to overcome every challenge if you only have the wisdom and tools to find it.

POWER OF DOMAIN
by Jake Manley

Tired of the ability to turn or destroy water creatures? Learn to make fire burn hotter and lash out at your foes with these new domain powers.

INITIATE FEATS
by John E. Ling, Jr.

Only the truly loyal of a deity's flock are granted the honor of these feats. Clerics of Obad-Hai have the opportunity to grab this feat. All spells marked with an * are included in the article.

Initiate of Obad-Hai
Your strong faith in Obad-Hai grants you special powers.

Prerequisites: Ability to cast 3rd-level divine spells; patron deity Obad-Hai.

Benefits: You can "lose" a prepared spell to spontaneously cast any summon nature's ally spell of the same level or lower, just as a druid, in addition to cure spells.

In addition, you may add the following spells to one of your divine spell lists.

Level		Spells
1st		Summer Breezes*: Cools you in uncomfortable environments.
2nd		Spontaneous Combustion*: Target touched catches fire.
3rd		Quicksand*: Creates an area of quicksand.
5th		Waves of Destruction*: Seawater crashes down upon your targets.

RAISE THE DEAD
by Rodney Thompson

New ways to make the miracle of resurrection more than just an ordinary stop at the local temple.

Due to licensing restrictions, the PDF Download edition of this issue does not include Order of the Stick.