Turn Undead: now with a smoother curve
by Anarion_ElendiliSo the recent Ghoul discussion made me take another look at the Cleric's Turn Undead ability, and it has a couple of pretty sharp transitions: first in the success chance, going from 7 to automatic, and secondly in the effect, either failing to turn completely or turning a whole squad of skeletons (sure, you might roll low on 2d6, but most of the time, you'd get 5-9). Later, there are jumps to Destroy, Destroy 3d6 and Destroy 4d6.
While normally I like simplifying things, this could be a place to complicate things a bit, to retain some of that 'this might not work all the time, guys' tension of the Turn Undead, as well as adding more gradual successes.
This is like fresh off the top of my mind, so probably needs some refinement, but...
1.) Continue the stepping down of the success value. Thus, a 2nd level Cleric, rather than automatically turning skeletons, would still have to roll 2d6 vs. 5, and a 5th level cleric would have a success value of -1 vs. skeletons (coming to this in a bit).
2.) Calculate the actual 'success margin' of the Turn Undead roll; i.e. if your success value is that -1 and you roll 4, your success margin (roll-target) is 5.
3.) The result of a successful Turn Undead is 1d6+success margin. If the Success Margin is 4 or higher, it doesn't just Turn the Undead, it Destroys them.
Yes, this means that a level 33 Cleric would have Success value of -25 (assuming I quickly calculated it right) against Skeletons and hence likely blasting 1d6+32 HD of them into smithereens (average of 10d6 or so). I am not particularly bothered by this; borderline immortal hero being able to melt an undead army sounds suitably epic.
It also means that a low level cleric is a bit weaker, as instead of a 2d6 HD turn, they get only 1d6+success margin, which is likely to be low-ish against the higher success value undeads. But they will make up for it later, and they might roll great and actually start popping skeletons at level 1 already.
Minor advantage... you can make the stepping a bit smoother at higher levels, where they are currently bundled together. You can easily enough represent this with a single number (To Turn Undead Class 0: TTUC0?), and just give each of the undead type a numerical class: like skeletons might be Class 0, and your 2d6 roll needs to be TTUC0+UC. So a first level cleric would have TTUC0 7, and a Zombie would be UC 2, a Ghoul UC 4... Or you could do it the way that THAC0 works, and start Skeleton UC 10 and TTUC0 17, or something like that. Just that human brain tends to work better with sums than subtractions. Anyway, very very easy to code automatically into the Cleric's excel character sheet.
What do you all think? Interesting idea? Terrible idea?
EDIT: Quick addendum... If one would like to keep the lower level clerics a bit stronger vs. Undead, you could change the result to 2d6+success margin, and if they miss the turn roll by one, they'd still manage 1d6 HD of monsters.
Here is our 1st level cleric's Turn Undead sheet (with the Target number automatically calculated [TTUC0+UC] when TTUC0 changes with levels):
Turning Undead:
1.) Take a round and roll 2d6-Target number for the Undead type (TTUC0+UC). This is your success margin.
2.) If the success margin is 0 or more, then you succeeded. Roll 1d6+success margin to see how many HD of undead you managed to Turn (min 1 creature). If the success margin is 4+, they do not Turn, but get Destroyed.
3.) You can repeat Turn Undead the next round, whether you succeeded or not.
TTUC0 (To Turn Undead Class 0): 7
| Undead | UC | Target |
| Skeleton | 0 | 7 |
| Zombie | 2 | 9 |
| Ghoul | 4 | 11 |
| Wight | 6 | 13 |
| Wraith | 8 | 15 |
| Mummy | 10 | 17 |
| Spectre | 12 | 19 |
| Vampire | 14 | 21 |
But assuming a tabletop game, I could just calculate the Target number on the fly, rather than having to replace my 'turn undead' row at each level. Instead I'd just update my TTUC0, while the UC for each undead type is a constant.