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Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:02 am
by Zynarc
Is the skill Turn Undead is supposed to work for evil clerics?

As an evil cleric, I tried to turn some undead but nothing happens to the undead. They do not flee or come under my control.

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:05 am
by Oghma
I was reading a little about the rebuke command recently. It works like turn undead, but for evils. I did not find much information I could use, but it might work better for evil pc's then turn undead. Is it a similar or different ability and skill? This is not the proper place to discuss it, but if alignment restrictions affect turning, it could be incorporated into the game for future use.

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:27 am
by Tavik
Moved to Suggestions for further discussion. Evils (as per 3.5 rules) should have rebuke instead of turn, giving them the ability to take control of undead rather than make them run or die all the way.

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:38 pm
by Nysan
I thought evils did control undead, at least the lower level versions. Nysan gets the "skeleton now follows you" echoes when I use turn undead sucessfully.

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:58 pm
by Arnof
My interpretation of what I read on d20 (my first time consulting anything source, ever :shudder:) is that, well I'll just quote it instead:

From: d20SRD - Turn Undead/Rebuke
Undead that would be turned are rebuked instead, and those that would be destroyed are commanded.
B

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:20 pm
by Kirkus
I don't know much about this but wouldn't it be simpler to have two commands for evil clerics. One for evil clerics to attempt to put undead under their command and one for evil clerics to attempt to rebuke undead.

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:45 pm
by Keltorn
One thing to note is that FK's turning undead doesn't work like it does in D&D. They're pretty different.

1. Turning in FK affects only the designated target while D&D's turning hits everything in a sixty foot radius (to a limit).
2. FK's turning deals direct damage on a successful turn attempt. In D&D, turning causes undead to flee from the cleric for a duration instead of taking damage. If the cleric is much stronger than the undead (the cleric has twice as many levels as the undead does), they are instantly destroyed.

As for rebuking, instead of causing undead to flee, it causes them to "cower as if in awe." Similar to how good clerics can outright destroy undead, evil clerics that are much more powerful than the undead can control them.

From what I understand, turning in FK is supposed to just deal damage to undead, slaying them if it deals enough damage. For evils, it would make sense to allow controlling the undead when set to KILLMODE STUN. That being said, I know I've seen this work with good clerics as well, but that might have been fixed now.

Re: Turn Undead for Evil

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:20 pm
by Raona
Please see also
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10347&p=75410&hili ... vil#p75410

Keltorn has this right, in how it is intended to work. I think it workable to use killmode to decide if undead are indeed killed vs. taken over, because generally one fights one type of monster at a time. But this post now being in the suggestions area, the question to ask is this:

If it isn't already this way, the game will eventually cause evil (and neutral, I think) clerics to kill an undead with turn if they are on killmode kill, and to command them if they are on killmode stun.

If a different approach to this is warranted, this is the place to make the case for it!