A Simple Halloween

[Solomoriah]

I officially approve of "A Basic Fantasy Halloween" if you want to use that name. It's just too funny.

Oh... it needs to be the "Grand Pumpkin" to avoid copyright conflict with the Shultz estate.

[Kheten]

I officially approve of "A Basic Fantasy Halloween" if you want to use that name. It's just too funny.
Oh... it needs to be the "Grand Pumpkin" to avoid copyright conflict with the Shultz estate.

Looks like I might have to switch the title now!

I originally had used Great in the name, but as you said, it might be a legal issue so I dropped it. SO I went with Grand for a good while, but thought that it was so similar to the other name I switched days before posting it. It is a shame really cause either name is better then what I have now.

[shadowmane]

Why not use the "Children of the Corn" motiff? Before it was a movie, it was a short story by Stephen King. Perhaps you can use a clone of "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" here. Some malevolent force that gives the clerics of the village their power and lords over the villagers.

In Children of the Corn, you were killed on your 19th birthday. Perhaps you could do something with that as well.

Alternatively (or in addition), you could add the idea of the Headless Horseman from the Ravenloft setting. Perhaps he is the main thrall of the demon in control of the village.

There's lots of places to go with this one. You could call the deity Lord of the Pumpkins. Or Lord of the Gourds, since a Pumpkin is a kind of a squash, which itself is a kind of a gourd.

Then again, maybe we could expand this and make it a group project, with everyone submitting a halloween themed adventure to go into it.

[Kheten]

So I've been thinking on how to handle the special spells that these clerics receive. I kinda like Dimirag's idea but instead of converting a prepared spell for a special spell, I want it a bit simpler.

How about clerics receive one special spell per spell level that they always treat as being prepared in addition to their other spells, and when the cleric casts the special spell it uses up a daily spell slot as normal. For example, a 2nd-level cleric would have one spell they choose and one special spell. When they can cast either spell it uses up their only spell slot for the day, even if they still have one spell prepared. If a cleric wants to cast their special spell more then once per day, they have to prepare it again.

This way it would give the cleric access to their special spells, but their daily spells are still equal with other clerics. What do you all think?

[seandon4]

Just wanted to say, nice supplement so far.

[SmootRK]

So I've been thinking on how to handle the special spells that these clerics receive. I kinda like Dimirag's idea but instead of converting a prepared spell for a special spell, I want it a bit simpler.

How about clerics receive one special spell per spell level that they always treat as being prepared in addition to their other spells, and when the cleric casts the special spell it uses up a daily spell slot as normal. For example, a 2nd-level cleric would have one spell they choose and one special spell. When they can cast either spell it uses up their only spell slot for the day, even if they still have one spell prepared. If a cleric wants to cast their special spell more then once per day, they have to prepare it again.

This way it would give the cleric access to their special spells, but their daily spells are still equal with other clerics. What do you all think?

Having a particular spell (or spells) at each spell level that they can spontaneously choose is a good method in my mind. Their power level isn't altered greatly this way with loads of bonus spell effects. I think it would be simpler to keep track of in play to simply say "The following spells may be spontaneously chosen by using another spell of the same level (or optionally, a higher level spell may be burned to cast a lower level spontaneous spell)." They never need to actually prepare/memorize those spells, just always available so long as a spell slot is there.

In addition, I see no issue with having a few spells unique to a particular faith... much like druids having alternate spells from clerics, just on smaller scale. I could see this sort of cleric having a small bonus to Turning ability, with perhaps a big boost during the holiday season of the Grand Pumpkin (personally I would expand beyond a single night of spooks). I have never particularly liked the standard Turning effect (topic discussed a few times elsewhere), but if playing close to 'core rules only' these guys seem like they should be better at it.

[Dimirag]

That's pretty much how I intend to do it, but letting the cleric to convert any prepared spell, I´m also leaning towards using the 5ed spell list method and to fuse the cleric and mu list and then let each class choose spells based on school/deity and class itself.

[Kheten]

I have updated the two files, but to save you all the trouble of re-downloading it and trying to see what's different, I'll save you the trouble and list the following changes here are the following changes I've made. This list of changes will also be put in the original post.

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r0.1 Changes (Oct. 25, 2014)
Changed -- Minor spelling and formatting changes.
Changed -- The cleric's armor proficiency is now limited to leather armor and shields.
Changed -- The cleric's weapon proficiencies to the following: club/cudgel/walking stick, mace, maul, pitchfork (treat as a spear), quarterstaff, sycthe (treat as a pole arm), sickle (treat as a dagger), sling, and warhammer.
Added -- Patron spells. A patron spell is a special spell that the cleric can cast by swapping out a prepared spell of equal level.
Added -- Living Pumpkin Spell List. An optional set of spells for those wishing for a unique spell list instead of using Patron Spells.
Added -- Warding Candle. A new magic item that provides light and protection similar to the protection against evil spell against a single type of monster.

I've also been thinking on a spell list for clerics of the Living Pumpkin and an alternate Turn the Undead ability.

Alternate Turn Ability. In light of thinking these clerics as also being monster hunters, I was thinking of changing their turn undead ability into something monster related. In this context, "monster" are those creatures thought of when Halloween comes around; werewolves, skeletons, zombies, ghosts, hags, vampires, etc.
At first I was thinking of a charming them instead of destroying them, but this might be overpowered. Or maybe a ward against monsters, where the monster cannot get within 20' of the cleric for 2d4 turns or until the cleric attacks or acts in an aggressive manner towards the monster.

Unique spell list. As suggested, I've gone through and made a spell list unique for these clerics. Not sure about the selection myself, it seems off to me.
However, I chose the spells with the following criteria in mind: 1) the standard cleric healing abilities. 2) spells to emulate the spooky-ness of Halloween. 3) spells to emulate monsters and their abilities. 4) spells to defend against evil. 5) spells relating to the harvest.
As of this posting the spell list is noted as an optional rule and I have made a note about not using both the spell list and the patron spells together.
Here is the spell list that for the clerics. Spells marked with an asterisk are reversible, those marked with a P are patron spells.

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1st-level Spells
1.	Cure light wounds*
2.	Detect evil*
3.	Light*
4.	Protection from evil*
5.	Purify food and water
6.	Remove fear* P
7.	Resist cold
8.	Ventriloquism

2nd-level Spells
1.	Bless* P
2.	Continual light*
3.	Detect invisible
4.	Hold person
5.	Phantasmal force
6.	Resist fire
7.	Spiritual hammer
8.	Web

3rd-level Spells
1.	Create living pumpkin*
2.	Cure blindness
3.	Cure diease*
4.	Growth of animals
5.	Growth of plants*
6.	Remove curse*
7.	Speak with dead P
8.	Striking

4th-level Spells
1.	Confusion
2.	Create water
3.	Cure serious wounds*
4.	Dispel magic
5.	Insect plague
6.	Neutralize poison*
7.	Protection from evil 10' radius P
8.	Speak with plants

5th-level Spells
1.	Commune
2.	Create food P
3.	Dispel evil
4.	Feeblemind
5.	Hold monster
6.	Polymorph self
7.	Quest*
8.	Raise dead*

6th-level Spells
1.	Animate objects
2.	Find the path
3.	Heal*
4.	Polymorph other
5.	True seeing
6.	Regenerate
7.	Restoration
8.	Speak with monsters P

[Kheten]

Its getting to be Halloween time, so I thought I'd add a bit to my Simple Halloween supplement.

This time around I've added a new religion, the Grey Lady's Disciples (a generic death goddess) with two cleric orders/sub-classes, the Grave keepers (an unarmed cleric sub-class) and Hunter of the dead (a more fighter-like cleric sub-class), several "new" spells (SRD spells), and a few magic items.

See the original post for more info.

[chiisu81]

Really nice supplement, glad to see additional work and polish put into it! Would it be ok if I added your new monsters to the New Monsters 2015 thread/doc?