Turning Undead is a powerful ability that harnesses divine energy to affect nearby undead creatures. You can use it to either drive them away in fear or, for the strong of faith, utterly destroy them.
How does it work?
Imagine a radiant aura spreading out from you within a 30-foot radius. All undead creatures within this area are affected.
You call upon your deity’s power, making a Wisdom check against a difficulty based on the undead’s strength. You do this for each undead creature in range. Think of it as a duel of wills using your faith!
Difficulty: The difficulty number is 10 + the undead creature’s hit dice. The tougher the undead, the harder it is to overpower them.
Outcomes
Destroyed (Wisdom check exceeds difficulty by 5 or more): Boom! The undead explode in holy light, utterly obliterated.
Turned (Wisdom check succeeds): The undead are overcome with fear and flee from you in the fastest way possible. They won’t attack you or approach within 30 feet, cowering if escape is impossible.
Bound by Orders (Wisdom check succeeds): If the undead is controlled by someone else (like a necromancer), they simply retreat out of your way, allowing you and your companions to pass or act freely.
Free-willed (Wisdom check succeeds): These independent undead still flee your presence, but not as desperately. They keep their distance (at least 10 feet) as long as you maintain your focus (no further checks needed).
Remember
- Turning Undead requires an action on your turn.
- You can only affect creatures within a 30-foot radius.
- The effect lasts for 1 minute or until the undead take any damage.
- This ability is primarily used by clerics and paladins, channeling their deities’ power.
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This might make clerics more powerful than what was in the turning table. For example at 1st level from the table there is a 0.5 chance of turning Skeletons, 0.3 of turning Zombies, and 0.15 Ghouls. If successful, roll the 2d6 (average of 7) HD are turned. So on average a 1st level cleric will turn 3.5 Skeletons, 1 Zombie, or 0.35 Ghouls. OK, for the save system assume a 1st level cleric with +2 WIS, so the save is vs 13. Does a 1HD creature get a +1 on their save? If so, this means a 0.55 chance of failure for each Skeleton. Not sure exactly what the radius you are thinking, but in a 30′ radius you could fit 30 say, so that is already about 16 skeletons turned. A Zombie will be turned with 0.5 chance, so about 15 Zombies turned. That is a lot more than when using the table. I think the clerics presence should be somewhat diminished by a ton of undead.
I think a 10 foot radius would make it more balanced. Then they would turn a bunch and more could rush into attack.
A bit confused about the Destroy part. Is it really just that you can destroy something if a turn against double it’s hit dice was successful? Could you give an example like you did for turning? Thanks. Also, why these seperate rules, there are rules in the Cleric class, which should it be? Thanks
These a proposed changes not implemented until they’re completely ready
Thanks, I like them so far, better than a table. Perhaps the base to destroy undead could be double the turn base (ie, 2 x (10 + hit dice))? I guess it is a matter of seeing if that works out to be roughly like the table.
It may make more sense to give turn undead a radius effect and then roll a save vs the the casters skill (10+WIS + ability focus). Making a roll for each monster. If the roll is below the target number they’re turned, but if it’s below the target by double the hit dice of the monster it is destroyed rather than turned…