Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Tweaking Turn Undead

Turn undead is a cleric classic: you present your holy symbol, recite some scripture, and depending on your level and the undead that you're confronting—and sometimes demons—there's a chance that you'll chase them off, or outright obliterate the opposition.

Given that it doesn't make sense for all clerics to be able to do that, or to even limit it to undead, in Dungeons & Delvers we renamed it to Rebuke Adversary, and instead let you determine what sort of creatures you can affect. So, an elven cleric worshipping an elven god could chase off or destroy orcs, while a cleric of a storm god could could do the same to fire-based creatures.

I think at first we made it a talent, so you didn't have to deal with it if you didn't want to (I like the idea of giving players as much control as possible over how complicated their character gets). But then, if you picked monsters that might only rarely appear, if ever, why bother? In the end we did bake it into the class, and also added a series of talents to beef it up, but players pretty much never took them due to their uncertain applicability.

So in 2nd Edition we're just removing it from the class entirely, instead making it creature specific. As in, the creature's entry or stat block will mention if it has some weakness or aversion to holy symbols, prayers, and the like (or even more mundane objects, such as, say, nails). Vampires are an obvious case, as are redcaps and even trolls.

It'll be one less thing for players to have to write down and remember, something that could potentially take the place of a more reliable option, with talents that you're only maybe going to take if you know your adversaries are going to be commonplace.

These "turning checks" will now just be a Wisdom or Charisma check, something any character with a holy symbol could potentially attempt, though it might require your character to be genuinely religious on a case-by-case basis (or it makes the check more reliable/effect more powerful). We can also add in some Intimidate and Religion Skill Perks to modify it, or further increase reliability and/or efficacy.

Of course there will still be Miracles that let you repel or destroy undead (and other creatures), as such an effect is thematic for the Sun and/or Death Domains. The upside is that clerics have the ability to temporarily gain access to Miracles (Divine Inspiration), so you don't even have to fully invest in the more situational selections via the Receive Miracle talent.