Level 1: Umur Pearlhammer

Level 1: Ethys Haffoot

We’re back with the level-up for character #3 of my four-PC party of adventurers (links to the previous two above). Today I dip my toe into the exciting world of spellcasters in Dungeon Crawl Classics. When I read and listen to DCC testimonials, the magic system is one the absolute favorite things that people cite, which is good since the spellcasting section dominates real estate in the core rulebook, accounting for two-thirds of the page count.

The real gem of spellcasting craziness is the Wizard, and my sense is that every DCC party everywhere has a Wizard for the sheer, hair-raising joy that class can create. Indeed, looking at Erin Wywood’s Level-0 character sheet, she is a prime candidate to be the party’s Wizard thanks to her high Intelligence score:

Erin Wywood. Level 0 Minstrel. STR 13, AGL 11, STA 13, PER 8, INT 14, LCK 10. Init +0; Atk dagger +1 melee (1d4+1); AC 10; HP 5; MV 30′; Act 1d20; SV Fort +1, Ref +0, Will -1; LNG Common, Halfling; AL Lawful; Equipment: holy symbol, ukelele, 32cp.

When it came to Umur and Ethys, I either completely ignored their starting equipment or actively erased it from the fiction (see Umur’s lantern or Ethys’ 10’ pole). Neither Level 1 character sheet kept a single item from their starting gear. Yet with Erin, her equipment defined the character for me. She is the village’s only minstrel, and I randomly rolled a holy symbol for her. Combining these items with her low Personality, I decided that she was a devoutly, righteously religious evangelist… annoyingly so. As a result, by Chapter 5 of the Portal story, I pretty much knew that Erin would be the party’s Cleric. 

Let’s pull out the core rulebook and see what being a Cleric entails.

Hit Points: Clerics receive d8 hit points each level, right between a Dwarf and a Halfling. I’m sticking with my minimum each level at half this amount in case I roll low… which I do! I roll a 2, so that becomes 4 hp, plus 1 for her Stamina modifier, added to her original 5. Erin will start Level 1 with 10 hit points.

Deity: Clerics are “militant servants of a god,” so the first task with a Cleric is to choose what divine entity Erin worships. The list of deities in the core rulebook is pretty sparse, but thankfully there are plenty of lists like this one, this one, and this one with tons of information on possible gods. I’m particularly grateful for the Knights of the North, which has detailed write-ups on deities for their campaign world. Indeed, when I stumbled upon their description for Shul, god of the moon, I immediately attached Erin to it. Perhaps it was beginning the entry with a song (which Erin sang in the final installment of Portal), or perhaps it was due to Portal Under the Stars’ celestial themes, but once I envisioned her holy symbol to be a silver, crescent moon on a silver chain, I couldn’t get the image out of my head. As a worshipper of Shul, Erin keeps her dagger as her primary weapon (which we’ll now say is curved like a crescent) and gains several other benefits which I’ll outline below. She can also wear the scale male she obtained from Portal, but she will meticulously paint it white before wearing it again.

Idol Magic: Erin can call upon the favor of Shul to perform miracles. Casting spells involves making a spell check, which will add her level (+1) but be hampered by her Personality (-1). I actually love the story here: If Erin can learn to lighten up and connect with her fellow mortals, her god will show her more favor. Can she figure it out? I suppose we’ll see.

At first level, Erin gains access to 4 Level 1 spells, which I’ll determine randomly by rolling a d12 on the Cleric table in the core rulebook, adding Sleep as a twelfth option thanks to the Shul write-up above. Here are the blessings she initially receives:

Spell 1: Paralysis, which makes sense for a god devoted in part to sleep and dreams.

Spell 2: Second Sight, which is a kind of augury and works for any god.

Spell 3: Holy Sanctuary, a nice way to keep our fragile party safe.

Spell 4: Resist Cold or Heat, which is self-explanatory.

I like it! I’m a little bummed to miss Sleep since it felt like a special, god-specific option, but I can’t argue with the ways in which Erin can initially express Shul’s favor. It’s easy to picture clutch casting for each of those spells, and fun to envision how her divine magic will visually express itself.

Cleric spellcasting is involved, and I won’t get into the details until it’s time for her to cast something in her adventures. Suffice it to say, when that time comes, I’ll talk a lot about spell checks, disapproval, sacrifices, and alignment.

Lay on Hands: One of the primary benefits of clerics in any system is their ability to heal, and DCC is no exception. A special kind of magic for Clerics, still made via a spell check, involves healing one hit die (or more!), plus things like broken limbs, poison, and disease. Again, I’ll get into the mechanics as it happens, but an interesting feature of DCC’s system is that alignment matters for her healing; it will be easier to heal Lawful characters (like Umur and Ethys) than characters of other alignments.

Other Abilities: As a Cleric, Erin can Turn Unholy, which is a way of wielding her holy symbol to affect abominations, devils, demons, and the like. Because she worships Shul, Erin gains 15’ of Darkvision (which as far as I can tell, is the same as Infravision). In extreme circumstances, she can implore Shul for Divine Aid, which is more direct intervention from her god that can do spectacular things at the cost of future disapproval. Finally, her Fortitude and Will saves go up by +1 each. The Knights of the North write-up also describes some flavorful points about her relationship to gold and how her healing expresses itself, which I’ll add to the fiction.

Title: This one is easy. Although the village of Graymoor is too small to have a dedicated church of Shul, the suggested title for Lawful Clerics is Acolyte, which fits Erin perfectly. She absolutely sees herself as an Acolyte of Shul.

Add all those bells and whistles together, and here is Erin Wywood’s Level 1 character sheet:

Looking at her sheet, it occurs to me that Erin would have made an excellent Warrior given her Strength and Stamina bonuses, which is something I hadn’t even considered when leveling her up. With those bonuses and armor, though, it’s fun to think of her more in the mold of “war priest” than “cloistered cleric” (to use PF2E terms), able and willing to engage in melee combat in the name of her holy purpose. Perhaps eventually she will need to get a heftier weapon than a dagger. All in all, I’m happy with Erin’s direction and I hope that Shul can keep her alive to see future level-ups. I’ll be looking for excuses to test her devotion and faith, with implications to that Personality score.

At the end of each of these posts, I’ve done a quick peek into the character’s inner journey from the Portal story to being ready for a Level 1 adventure. Let’s check in on our new Acolyte of Shul…

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Erin Wywood looked up, annoyance on her young, freckled face, when someone knocked at the door.

“Granddaughter?” a muffled voice carried from beyond the door. “Your parents have called me to speak with you, child. They are… concerned.”

Erin blew a curl of hair from her face and stood, groaning. How long had she been crouched there? Her back and legs protested that it had been far too long. She blinked and looked out of her small window. Was it night already? Erin rubbed at her eyes and stretched before opening the bedroom door a crack.

There was Councilman Wywood, grampa, looking down on her with a furious scowl. He no longer had hair atop his head, but the sides were white and long and stuck out everywhere. His white eyebrows were similarly untamed and exaggerated his disapproving stare.

“What are you doing in there?” he scoffed, already disapproving.

Erin returned the look, unblinking. “Praying,” she said simply, and moved to close the door.

“Now listen here!” he protested. “You cannot spend every hour in your room, child! You’ve had a fright, we all understand, but it’s done. Now is the time to be with family.”

She shut the door firmly. “It’s been over a month!” he shouted, muffled, through the wood. “And why is there paint on your face!? Erin? Erin!”

Fingers slid the lock shut as he continued to sputter beyond. Unperturbed, she returned to her work.

Spread out across the floor were segments of armor—cloth garments with many small, individual scales laced together to look like a fish or reptile—plus paint pots, water, rags, and brushes. Most of the armor was the same white as the paint and brushes, but a few pieces were an ominous, matte black. Erin sat cross-legged and selected one of these ebony items, a pauldron meant to cover a warrior’s shoulder.

Deftly, she snatched a brush lying on a cloth rag and dipped it into the paint pot near her knee. Beyond her door, she could dimly hear grampa yelling at her parents.

“The moon is barren,” she hummed in a low, clear voice. “The moon is old.” Unerringly, the brush moved across the armor, turning it white.

Erin did not realize that it was fully dark in her room now, and her eyes shone with a pale, luminous glow as she worked.

DCC Character Level 1: Hilda Breadon