2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Seventy-Seven

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 22 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.

Now to take a look at the Spells for Clerics starting with Level 1, 2 and 3:

The first thing you will notice is that there are not very many spells for Clerics at each level, with only 14 Spells for the first three levels.

1st Level: 

Cure Light Wounds: During the course of one full turn this spell will remove hits from a wounded character (including elves, dwarves, etc.). A die is rolled, one pip added, and the resultant total subtracted from the hit points the character has taken. Thus from 2–7 hit points of damage can be removed.

Did you catch that? This spell was supposed to take a full turn to work, 10 melee rounds. We, from day one, house-ruled that it took one round to work and not one turn.

Purify Food & Water: This spell will make spoiled or poisoned food and water usable. The quantity subject to a single spell is approximately that which would serve a dozen people.

This is very useful if your players tend to hunt and the meat they are carrying around is going bad on them. In my dungeons you will sometimes come across a food-laden table or food-beverages or water. My players learned that it is more often than not wise to be sure it is safe and not just assume.

Detect Magic: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users.

This is the spell that both Magic-Users and Clerics have that really are completely the same, as both are 1st Level Spells and operate the same. 

Detect Evil: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that it has a duration of 6 turns and a range of 12”.

The Magic-User spell is 2nd Level, the duration is half and the range is half of that of the Cleric spell.

Protection from Evil: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that it lasts for 12 turns.

The Magic-User spell is a 3rd Level Spell and only has a duration of 6 turns.

Light: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that it has a basic duration of 12 turns.

The Magic-User Spell starts with a base duration of 6 turns and goes up by Level of the caster, the Cleric Spell starts at a base duration of 12 turns and goes up by Level of the caster.

2nd Level: 

Find Traps: By means of this spell the Cleric will locate any mechanical or magical traps within a radius of 3”. The spell lasts 2 turns.

Before the thief, the primary trap finder was the Cleric. In the early days, healing spells were not the first priority for a Cleric. As they gained experience at playing the class players learned that healing spells were not the most important thing that a Cleric could do.

Hold Person: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users except that its duration is 9 turns and its range 18”.

Versus being a 3rd Level Spell for Magic-Users. The Magic-User Spell was a Duration of 6 turns + level of the caster. And the Range was 12”. There are two ways you can go with this, either just duration of 9 turns or you can say that they left out the word "basic" and that it should be a Duration of 9 turns + level of the caster and treat it the same as the Light Spell between the two classes. We went with the second interpretation.

Bless: During any turn the prospective recipients of a Bless spell are not in combat the Cleric may give them this benison. A blessing raises morale by +1 and also adds +1 to attack dice. The spell lasts six turns.

This wording of this spell implies that it may take a full turn to cast; however, we ruled that it only takes one melee round to cast. How many of you did not need to look up "benison?"

Speak with Animals: This spell allows the Cleric to speak with any form of animal life, understanding what they say in reply. There is a possibility that the animal(s) spoken with will perform services for the Cleric, and they will never attack the party the Cleric is with. (The manner of handling the probabilities of action by animals is discussed in the next book). Duration: 6 turns. Range: 3”.

The players, in my experience, never cease to find an endless source of amusement in this spell.

3rd Level: 

Remove Curse: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users.

The same as the 4th Level Spell for Magic-Users.

Cure Disease: A spell which cures any form of disease. The spell is the only method to rid a character of a disease from a curse, for example.

Did you catch that? You cast Remove Curse to remove the curse and then you cast Cure Disease to cure the disease caused by the curse. You get bit by a Werewolf and you will need to have both spells cast to put it behind you.

Locate Object: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that the base range is 9”.

The Magic-User Spell is 2nd Level and the Range is 6” + 1“/level of the Magic-User. So for Clerics this spell is higher level, but also has a little greater Range.

Continual Light: This spell is the same as that for Magic-Users, except that the light shed is equal to full daylight.

Only with the Clerical Continual Light Spell is the light said to be equal to full daylight. Once the players figured this out, which did take a while, they stopped using the Magic-User spell to create objects with the spell as light sources. If you are going where there are any creatures that are harmed or hindered by full daylight, then this is the spell of choice.

Tomorrow I will look at the 4th and 5th Level Cleric Spells.