Hulks and Horrors doesn't have clerics, though Scientists can learn healing programs for their multi-tool.

Quote from: Old One Eye;633350Offhand, I can only recall 3 clerics in all of the campaigns I've played or DMed over the past 20-something years, and the gnome died after a fairly short career.  Not sure what you are looking for in experiences, different party compositions approach things differently.  A party of a 2 thieves, an assassin, and a monk will not be doing the same things as a party of 2 fighters, a cleric, and a wizard.

The question extends to how you handled healing though.
If you have no clerics but you can pick up potions or wands of healign or if every PC has a periapt of wound closure then removing clerics is really trivial.

The question really is if you remove all magical healing how does the game survive and what are the options.

Quote from: jibbajibba;633412The question extends to how you handled healing though.
If you have no clerics but you can pick up potions or wands of healign or if every PC has a periapt of wound closure then removing clerics is really trivial.

The question really is if you remove all magical healing how does the game survive and what are the options.

Well, the party has virtually no healing resources at low levels if they don't have a cleric.  They just deal with it; the game has rules for natural healing.

Your party consists of 3 thieves and a magic user.  Your goal is to stop Baron Von Evil from terrorizing the populace.  You have X resources available, but none happens to be magical healing.  What do you want to do?  

Honestly, I don't understand what the question is really asking.  D&D stays the same game without magical healing.  You play your character.

Quote from: Old One Eye;633430Well, the party has virtually no healing resources at low levels if they don't have a cleric.  They just deal with it; the game has rules for natural healing.

Your party consists of 3 thieves and a magic user.  Your goal is to stop Baron Von Evil from terrorizing the populace.  You have X resources available, but none happens to be magical healing.  What do you want to do?  

Honestly, I don't understand what the question is really asking.  D&D stays the same game without magical healing.  You play your character.

Which is fine its just some folks have siad they do without clerics and go on to explain that alchemists stores sell healing potions really cheap etc etc .

My point is merely that if you intoduce things that directly mirror clerical healing, say increasing herbalism to allow 2d4 heal from a politice or you make healing potions common such that they cost 25gp and can be found readily for sale in most large towns then you aren't really doing without clerics you are just replacing them mechanically with an alternative that doesn't also weild a mace and have to do al the mapping.

If you take AD&D as is and just take out the clerics and leave everything else then fine. Potions are rare, herbalism is irrelevant and you have to rely on standard natural healing. No problem with that. I find it gets hard once PCs get to say 7th or 8th level but generally no issue.

Ah, OK, I jive with your jig jibba.  

For myself, I've never done anything special to give a shit when the party doesn't have a cleric.  If the party wants healing stuff, they can follow rumors and go after some just like if they wanted a flaming sword.  That's up to the party to decide, not me as DM.

In Arrows of Indra, it would seem to me that as long as a party has some healing herbs and unguents, and have someone with the doctor skill, they manage pretty well.

RPGPundit

Dragon warriors doesn't have clerics.
It's a sort of DnD style game (levels, classes, hit points, use a D20 to hit but the lower the number rolled the better).

There is a sorceror class that has a couple of healing spells, but they're not specialist healers like a cleric.

Quote from: Old One Eye;633430Well, the party has virtually no healing resources at low levels if they don't have a cleric.  They just deal with it; the game has rules for natural healing.

Your party consists of 3 thieves and a magic user.  Your goal is to stop Baron Von Evil from terrorizing the populace.  You have X resources available, but none happens to be magical healing.  What do you want to do?  

Honestly, I don't understand what the question is really asking.  D&D stays the same game without magical healing.  You play your character.

Well, they certainly wouldn't be having much combat. How long would it take to plumb the depths of a dungeon like Caverns of Thracia with access only to natural healing?

So what you're saying is it never ocurred to you that most people play D&D as a combat-heavy game. Really?

I've had parties with this predicament before (no magical healing in the group), but not by design. Sometimes the cleric/druid is out of action for one reason or another, and sometimes in beginner groups nobody wants to play one of the healer classes.

When that happens, the group simply adjusts its style: no head-on attacks if possible. If that fails, they end up running to safety until they can heal -even if it takes days or weeks- or they can take the calculated risk of continuing the adventure without being fully healed. Kinda like football and hockey players going back into the lineup before they're healed and/or rested.

Quote from: jibbajibba;633412The question extends to how you handled healing though.
If you have no clerics but you can pick up potions or wands of healign or if every PC has a periapt of wound closure then removing clerics is really trivial.

The question really is if you remove all magical healing how does the game survive and what are the options.

One tactic my group used (when I was playing) was to make up for the missing magic with tents, bedrolls, etc brought along by the pack animals and followers. This allowed the wounded characters to rest "in the field" without having to all the way back home.

when I ran Dragon Warriors without a healer of any kind (not even a sorcerer), I made sure that some of the enemies had healing potions on them, which they would try to use if they could, so the party had to think of hard and fast tactics to kill them fast and efficiently to loot their potions.  

It worked quite well and kept the players on their toes.

I'm about 75% of the way through writing up an optional class for OSRIC/1e; if it all comes right in playtesting then in theory you'll be able to replace clerics with witches (who have a whole new spell selection that includes a few heals and a way to raise the dead, but with a darker feel to it, and the class doesn't turn undead, wear heavy armour, swing blunt weapons etc).

Witches will come with a counterpart NPC class called Inquisitors who're all about hunting them down and killing them for heresy...

Those two npc's sound like a lot of fun! I hope I see your post when they're done!

Quote from: P&P;633937I'm about 75% of the way through writing up an optional class for OSRIC/1e; if it all comes right in playtesting then in theory you'll be able to replace clerics with witches (who have a whole new spell selection that includes a few heals and a way to raise the dead, but with a darker feel to it, and the class doesn't turn undead, wear heavy armour, swing blunt weapons etc).

Witches will come with a counterpart NPC class called Inquisitors who're all about hunting them down and killing them for heresy...

Quote from: Baron;633939Those two npc's sound like a lot of fun! I hope I see your post when they're done!

I agree. Witches and inquisitors sound like cool additions for OSRIC/1e.

Especially intriguing is that witches seem to be a PC class, and inquisitors an NPC (nemesis) class.

Ooh, some interest!  I wasn't necessarily expecting that... but since there is interest, could I persuade either or both of you to playtest these classes for me?  Or even just read them over and give me your reactions?

Cool stuff for Osric?  I didn't expect that in this thread!  It looked all..the usual from the hating title and all.  

You are thinking of replacing the cleric with the witch?  The witch class goes way back, for sure.  Witch and Inquisitor npc, are you going to insert them into a special campaign that you are think of releasing?