Clergy specializations

Will be made official when I've gotten suggestions and feedback.

Healers: Are taught immersion, and through immersion to identify themselves with living beings, recognize their injuries and use the Light to mend flesh and bone.

Priests who specialize in healing would also be able to:
- Identify and cleanse poisoning.
- Give blessings for quicker recovery from diseases.
- Cleanse diseases completely at advanced levels
- Calming panicking and upset individuals through a mind-soothing touch.
- Identify mental illnesses.

Warders/Exorcists: Are trained to achieve a high resistance against all unholy magic.

Priests who specialize in warding and exorcisms would be able to:
- Form protective shields against magical and physical attacks.
- Create wards to protect areas, objects or individuals against curses.
- Clease shadow-based curses.
- Banish demons and slay undead.
- Bolster strength or endurance (own and others) through power words.

A healer may of course channel Light into an undead and attempt to slay it as well, but would likely risk to inflict a good deal of damage upon himself due to close contact with a tained creature.

Similarly, an exorcist may be able to mend basic wounds, but exhaust himself more in the process.

Why specializations?

Balance, balance, balance. I am studying game design, soon to graduate, and if there is something I've learned, is that balanced characters, game mechanics and story provides more quality and fun. I personally believe that if there are things a priest -cannot- do with the Light, it provides more character value and urges more cooperation. For instance, I've always kept Eyre very vulnerable to shadow and fel to balance out his powerful, (but rarely used) healing abilities and empathic powers.

Furthermore, it would give the clergy roleplayers a deeper sense of identity in my eyes, but this is just a speculation.

While we've already started to teach the specializations vaguely, I'd like to hear opinions and suggestions towards the current structure.

What Cedric mentions here is something that I have encouraged both in-game and on these forums at several occasions, and after a skim through the proposed system I can only announce my approval. To be all-powerful with the Light is easy, given how a similar force does not exist in real and hence lacks recognisable boundaries to our human minds. We will have to import factors such as exhaustion and human logic to balance it - which definitely proves for a better roleplay experience, while simultaneously encouraging co-operation between clergymembers, something that would make the Cathedral roleplay as a whole increase in both quality and level of fun.

The specialisations themselves are good, and we certainly have no need for more. The two should be collective enough, and flexible too, as to allow room for individuality. They adhere neatly to the powers we usually tie to priests, as well; that of mending wounds and safeguarding against darkness and evil.

*attributes bad typing and wordage to the writer's presence in class at the current moment*