How Much Control Does the Priest Have?

The priest's command over these followers varies from faith to faith. A player-character priest cannot assume that he has a tyrant's powers of life and death over this followers and believers. The DM decides what sort of command the priest has over them based on the nature of the campaign's culture and on the dictates of the faith.

In a normal faith, the priest will be able to order his followers to work and effort like any employer (and, in a medieval or fantasy setting, employers have more power over their employees than in contemporary society). He can advise them and (if he chooses) put considerable pressure on them regarding the people they associate with or even marry.

Punishments

When he is displeased with their actions or performances, he can punish them by restricting their activities and movements, applying corporal punishments (beatings which may not reduce them below three-fourths their starting hit points), and assigning them particularly nasty tasks and duties. If their offenses are sufficiently great, he can fire then from service in his church or temple, or even separate them from the faith (as described earlier in this chapter).

Customarily, he cannot incarcerate them for any great length of time (i.e., over a week), seriously injure them (perform any punishments which reduce them below three-fourths their starting hit points), kill them (killing them and restoring them to life is still forbidden), or use harmful magic on them, including magic which denies them free choice.

Spells which are normally forbidden for purposes of punishment or even "guidance" include create light wounds, magical stone, shillelagh, charm person or mammal, enthrall, flame blade, heat metal, produce flame, spiritual hammer, call lightning (except when used to frighten instead of damage), cause blindness or deafness, cause disease, curse, summon insects (except when used to frighten instead of damage), cause serious wounds, poison, produce fire, cause critical wounds, flame strike, insect plague, quest (except when the target willingly undertakes the quest to atone for his misdeeds), spike stones, wall of fire, fire seeds, harm, creeping doom, earthquake, fire storm, wither, energy drain, destruction , or symbol.

Spells like command, entangle, cause fear, hold person , and confusion are permissible, because they last only a short time, or do not change a character's belief about any subject.

However, in evil faiths, the priest may be able to order the execution of followers for anything which displeases him. In particularly bureaucratic faiths, a priest may not be able to assign any punishment without a process of trial and conviction, or without permission from a higher-ranking priest at the faith's main temple or church. The DM will decide whether or not a particular faith has these characteristics . . . but most don't.

Important Followers

The DM should create many of these followers as fully-developed NPCs, including names, personalities, ability scores, equipment, etc.

When a large group of followers are "identical" in class and level (for example, if you have sixteen Normal Men and Women), one or two should be singled out and fully developed. When followers are already more individual (for instance, if you only have two second-level priests or one fifth-level fighter), such followers should be fully developed.

When possible, it's a good idea to role-play the arrival of such characters within the temple, the better to give the priest PC an idea of what his followers are like.

All of this work will make the temple and its inhabitants more immediate and real to the priest character (and the other player-characters).

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