Priests of Kord(God of Athletics, Sports, Brawling, Strength, Courage)
AL: any chaotic(50% CN, 35% CG, 15% CE), RA: see below, SY: white gauntlets, blue boots, and a red girdle, Aex: +5%, AR: chain mail or less, any shield, Wpn: battle axe, cestus, club, mace, maul, morning star, broadsword, longsword, two-handed sword*; SPH: all, charm, combat, chaos, creation, divination(m), healing, necromantic(m), protection, summoning, war. Spl: none, Add: none.
Kord is worshipped more than any other Suel deity. Kord is worshipped throughout the Barbarian States, northern Ulek, Almor, the Great kingdom, Hepmonoland, and on Lendore Isle. Small isolated churches dedicated to Kord may be found among peasants over the entire route of the Suloise Migration.
Priests of Kord may never duplicate the exact color pattern Kord wears on his girdle, gauntlets, and boots. Only his sons and daughters (those extraordinary mortals who have been sired by Kord with a mortal woman) who join the clergy may dare to don dragon-hided armor as Kord does. Priests of Kord may turn undead if of good or neutral alignment, or command undead if they are of evil alignment. Priests of Kord gain a +1 saving throw bonus vs. fear at first level which increases to +2 at 4th level, +3 at 7th level, +4 at 10th level, and finally to +5 at 14th level. This saving throw bonus applies to all types of fear, including auras of outer planar creatures, fear caused by undead, the effects of very high or very low charisma, and so forth. Priests of Kord are also granted other powers as they gain in level, as follows:
Level………Vestments……………………………..Power 1st ………...white only……………………….........none
4th ………..white & blue garments…..………........detect law 1/day
7th………...red, white, & blue garments…………...protection from law 1/day
10th ………red girdle w/ blue & white trim……….enlarge (on self) 1/day
14th ………white boots, red girdle, & blue trim…...strength (on self) 1/day
Bonus spell abilities are granted cumulatively.
Priests of Kord have the ability to go berserk, as do berserker warriors. At any time, the priest may choose to Go Berserk. This isn't an instantaneous process—he must spend a little time to "psych himself up." It takes a full turn (ten combat rounds) to Go Berserk. In that time, the character is growling, moaning, uttering imprecations . . . it's impossible to be quiet when trying to Go Berserk. He may also be fighting during that time, meaning that he can start to Go Berserk on the round the fight begins, fight for ten full rounds, and then be Berserk on the eleventh round. Of course, when the Berserker knows a fight is coming, he can begin to Go Berserk, even if there is no fight currently going on. At the end of a full turn of preparation, he can become Berserk instantaneously. If there's no enemy in sight yet, he can hold the Berserk until combat is engaged. But if no combat takes place within five more full turns, he automatically reverts to "normal" and suffers the ordinary consequences for coming out of a Berserk (described below). The character can come out of his Berserk once the last enemy is down (he must literally be down on the ground, even if still alive and surrendering; the priest will stay berserk and continue fighting so long as there are enemies still on their feet). Once the fight ends, the Berserker must come out of his Berserk state.
For these reasons, Berserking is a more appropriate reaction when the characters are about to attack or be attacked by a foe they know about. If the characters are, instead, jumped by a small party of orcs, it's usually not worth the effort to Go Berserk; the consequences and effort outweigh the benefits. When Berserk, the character has phenomenal endurance and resistance to pain and some forms of magic. Only while Berserk, he gains the following benefits:
(1) He is immune (no Saving Throw is necessary) to the wizard spells charm person, friends, hypnotism, sleep, irritation, ray of enfeeblement, scare, geas, and the clerical spells command, charm person or mammal, enthrall, cloak of bravery, and symbol.
(2) He gets a +4 to save against the wizard spells blindness, Tasha's uncontrollable hideous laughter, hold person, charm monster, and confusion, and the clerical spells hold person and hold animal.
(3) The emotion spell has no effect on the Berserker priest, unless the caster chose the fear result. If fear was chosen, the Berserker priest gets a normal Saving Throw; if he makes it, he continues on as before, but if he fails it, he is prematurely snapped out of his Berserk, with all the normal effects of coming out of the Berserk (but he doesn't suffer the fear effect). The fear spell has exactly the same effect: If he saves, there is no effect, and if he doesn't save, he's snapped out of the Berserk. If he fails a saving throw against charm monster, he simply counts the caster as one of his allies; he doesn't come out of the Berserk or obey the caster's commands.
(4) Being Berserk offers no real protection from finger of death, except that the spell effects do not take place until the character has come out of his Berserk. If the Berserker priest saves, he doesn't suffer the 2d8+1 damage until immediately after he snaps out of the Berserk. If he fails to save, he doesn't die until he snaps out of the Berserk.
(5) The Berserker priest, while Berserk, is immune to KO results from the Punching and Wrestling rules, and takes only half damage from bare-handed attacks from these rules.
(6) While Berserk, the priest gets +1 to attack, +3 to damage, and +5 hp.
Special Hindrances: The Berserker priest has hindrances as severe as all those benefits he receives.
(1) When the Berserker priest goes Berserk, the DM should immediately say to him, "Tell me how many hit points you currently have." From that point until the fight is done and the Berserker priest has returned to normal, the DM keeps track of his hit points. The player is not told how many hp he has left, nor how many points of damage he is taking with each attack. (After all, the character can feel no pain . . . so he cannot keep track of how close he is to death.) The DM simply tells him something like: "The orc-captain hits you with his axe, a mighty blow which you barely feel . . ." It is therefore very possible for a Berserker priest to be nickled and dimed to death and not know it until he drops dead. The DM can also, if he so chooses, roll all Saving Throws for the Berserker, not telling the player whether they were failures or successes.
(2) While Berserk, the priest can use no ranged weapons or spells. He kills only in hand-to-hand or melee-weapon combat.
(3) While Berserk, he must fight each opponent until that opponent is down. Once an opponent is felled, the Berserker priest must move to the nearest enemy and attack him. He can't, for instance, choose to attack the enemy leader if that leader is behind seven ranks of spearmen. The Berserker priest must keep fighting until all enemies are down, as described earlier.
(4) While Berserk, the priest cannot take cover against missile fire.
(5) If, while the character is Berserk, another character tries something he can interpret as attack (for instance, hits him to move him out of the way of an incoming attack,) the Berserker priest must roll 1d20 vs. his Intelligence. If he succeeds (that is, rolls his Intelligence score or less), he's dimly aware that his friend is not attacking him. If he fails (rolls higher than his Intelligence), he now thinks his friend is an enemy, and continues to think so until the fight is done and he is no longer Berserk.
(6) While Berserk, the priest is temporarily unaffected by the clerical spells bless, cure light wounds, aid, cure serious wounds, cure critical wounds, heal, regenerate (and wither). He will gain the benefits of those spells only after he has come out of his Berserk and suffered any and all damages which occurred then.
(7) The taunt spell is automatically successful, and will cause the Berserker priest to abandon his current enemy and rush to attack the taunter.
(8) Finally, when the character comes out of his Berserk, bad things happen to him. He loses the 5 hp he gained when he became Berserk. (This could drop him to or below 0 hp and kill him, of course.) He collapses in exhaustion (exactly as if hit by a ray of enfeeblement, no saving throw possible, for one round for every round he was Berserk. He suffers the effects of any spells which wait until he's returned to normal before affecting him (finger of death, for instance). And only then can healing spells affect him.
References:
Dragon Magazine #87 “Gods of the Suel Pantheon: Kord the Brawler and Phaulkon, his father”, by Lenard Lakofka.
The Complete Fighter's Handbook, by Aaron Allston.
Recommended Reading:
The Scarlet Brotherhood, by Sean K. Reynolds
Visit this link HERE for an explanation of how and why these entries were compiled and for links to other information. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Last edited by Cebrion on Mon Jul 22, 2013 4:33 am; edited 5 times in total
For those of us that don't have the "kit" series of supplements, could you post the highlights of the Berserker Kit since it is such an important aspect of the priesthood of Kord.
I can't believe I didn't know Kord was the son of Phaulkon. However, that makes things fit nicely with what I was doing. Phaulkon is also a god of archer, so having Kord's "ancient" symbol by just 8 arrows (just like the chaos symbol of Arioch) fits nicely. The change to a barbarian, brawling deity didn't happen until after the fall of the Suel Empire and the scattering of the tribes. So, the barbarians maintain this old God of War which morphs a bit to fit their circumstances.
however, as the PCs learn in the Lost City of the Suss, this old Kord is a true god of war and chaos. Much more of an Ares/Mars type than the strength, berserker type of later. Thanks for all the insights I found here. They will help.
A comparison to Ares is fairly accurate, though Kord is not so bloodthirsty. Kord is a counterpart of Erythnul, while Ares would rest in the center of those two. So...
Kord (flexing his muscles): "Demonstrate your prowess, and by all means fight when you must."
Ares (hefting his weapons): "Why isn't everyone fighting?
Erythnul (covered in blood): "FIGHT!!!"
Kord has always been about fighting, brawling, and tests of strength/physical prowess though. The only thing that might change post cataclysms/migrations is the way people portray him. The Thilonrians will surely portray their gods in a manner that fits with their own appearance, while Suel elsewhere will do likewise. Accordingly, the statues of Suel gods in Urnst temples will undoubtedly look very different from those in Thilonrian temples. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Cebrion, just wondering if you allow your berserking priests to cast spells while they are 'psyching up' but are not actually in 'Berserk mode' at that time.
Of course, they are obviously NOT quiet about it...
They can cast spells during that time, as they are not under the hindrances of the Berserk effect. As you say, they will just do so loudly. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
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