Shattered Kingdoms

This is a dangerous argument which is likely to get you hated if I follow it to its conclusion.

This. Agreed.

This. Agreed.

Here's the counter argument. Sorcerors and Necromancers and other such 'scholarly' types are experimenting with magic that they don't really control or understand. The main reason they get killed is them basically going 'oh, yeah I forgot about that' *BOOM*. Usually, at the end of an angry charmie's knife after you went to sleep while concentrating on something else, or forgetting to deathshroud, or walking into an antimagic room, or teleporting into the wrong place by misspelling a word...

Priests, on the other and, their magic is safe. It comes from their God. There's nothing to worry about. They can heal themselves, they have a bunch of spells that protect them from harm. They don't need to be stressed about surviving their daily tasks, and if you do get into front row combat, there's their trusty shield they can rely on. Hence, no dodge.

I say its fine as it is. If you don't like the fact priests don't get dodge. I think on the other hand, the real problem with priests is that the faiths have huge gaps between them in terms of mechanics. Its just better for you to play certain faiths over the others as a priest. Being forced to wear cloth armor with a faith spell that is sub-par compared to others because you want to be part of a certain RP group sort of feels like you're cheating yourself.

Priests have been known to take the front line in a fight, otherwise there definitely wouldn't be heavy armoured priests, as well, which would give them incentive to learn to dodge and not just rely on a shield. It is just as dangerous on the front line as it is to make a charm attempt go wrong.

This isn't about me liking or not liking if priests have dodge. This is not about a religion spell that is near useless/worthless. Please remove that from your argument. I am simply looking at it rationally. I would argue these same things whether or not I am currently playing a priest. Please do not attempt to place perceptions on my behalf into this.

Not unless they're dumb or a griffon in a certain cabal. Just because some priests get heavy armor doesn't mean they are viable to go in the front row. The front row is the absolute worst place for a priest to be, because if you get knocked prone as a priest you're totally useless.

Does mean you are in agreement that dodge should be taken away from caster classes that aren't in the front row? Necromancers, Sorcerers, Warlocks?

I'm in agreement with the stance that all you seem to be trying to accomplish is to make the game slightly less enjoyable for the other casters. Galthryn's stance seems like a good explanation of things currently, which is that priests are primarily defensive casters and as such don't have to worry about their basic cantrips causing people to try and kill them. Sorcs, necros and warlocks all gain at least one spell which is purely offensive in nature at novice, which is also when they can learn to dodge. In addition, priests can not only wear light armor at level 1, but they can take a few hits, heal themselves up, and just keep on trucking. The other casters can't rely on innate healing from level 1 to help them out.

Priests do not need the dodge skill. Especially if you are a heavy armor priest. This would completely imbalance the game as heavy armor priests are already invincible and there have been no recorded pdeaths of any heavy armor priest ever.

I assumed Travorn meant this in regards to lore. Hence the term BATTLEpriest given to certain heavy armor religions. Within the lore of a religion, priests have been known to take the front lines. That is how I interpreted it anyways. True, priests do have more defensive magic, but as several others have said already, dodge seems universal. Sorcerers dodge the blade of their angry charmie who got dispelled and all that jazz. I don't see why a priest wouldn't attempt to avoid an attack flying at their face if for some reason they are in a bad position.

*Well, that giant is about to cleave me in half, and I can't get my shield up in time... I guess this is the end. It is a real shame there isn't some sort of action I could perform to not get hit by that immense weapon. This is going to hurt.*

As far as game balance goes, I haven't played a heavy armor priest in a very long time, so I can't speak on that matter.



I know SK isn't Dungeons and Dragons verbatim in terms of mechanics, but I always imagined the dodge skill in this fashion.
Lets say your AC is 20, your dodge skill is giving you a +4 to your AC. The enemy swings rolling a 19, you just see the "miss".
They swing again and get a 22, however because the AC from dodge was responsible for the enemy miss you see "you dodge so-and-so's attack"

I am aware this example is NOT representative of SK mechanics (at least I assume). This is the point of view I chose to take due to my being used to Dodge not being
separate from AC in terms of mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons.
Dodge is the basic defense mechanism of every critter out there, I don't see why a clergyman wouldn't be able to dodge.