southsamurai, 11 months ago

I used to run a monk/cleric devoted to a goddess of mercy and healing.

Maximized mobility, carried no weapons, and would only fight to protect the wounded and weak. The entire sect would only fight defensively anyway, no lethal damage, no going after enemies if they fled, total pacifist otherwise.

It was fun. She would dash across a battlefield, bouncing off of combatants, heal her party and never get touched.

I ended up rejiggering the idea into a home brew class and expanding on it in my own world. The Fists of Kwannon. No spells that weren’t healing or protective in some way, gestalted monk and cleric, only with anything that wasn’t healing, protective, or could be used for those goals removed. Added in an extra vow to the sect that they could never refuse to heal on request, but anyone requesting their services must cease fighting and quit the field after being healed.

I ran one in a multi year campaign (it ended up going most of a decade from start to finish, though there were gaps in it) all the way to 20 as a DMPC. Despite DMPCs not usually being fun, she was a blast.