Once this skill is purchased, the character gains a Wounding Pool. For each purchase of this skill the character gains 25 Wounding Pool points. How these points are used by the character depends on whether they are a Dark Cleric or Dark Paladin.
A Dark Cleric or Dark Paladin may use their Wounding Pool to heal their own and any evil character’s (Dark Acolytes, Servants of Darkness, undead, demons, etc.) Body Points at a rate of one for one. The character may not use their pool to mimic Healing School spells. Additionally, either class may throw their pool points at any rate up to their maximum current number of pool points via a spell packet. The character would recite their in-game verbal (see below), throw their packet and call “X Dark”, where ‘X’ is the number of points used. Since a Servant of Darkness can both harm and heal other evil characters, they clarify their intent to heal by suffixing “Dark Healing” to their verbal. For example, if a character wanted to heal their demon ally for 25 Body Points, they would use their in-game verbal and say, “25 Dark Healing”. If they wanted to harm their demon ally instead, they would just say, “25 Dark”.
A Dark Cleric or Dark Paladin may also use their Wounding Pool Points to augment the damage type of their weapon attack with “Dark”, which does direct Body Point damage to any character and counts as Magic damage for the purposes of Damage Resistance. A character cannot heal an ally with their weapon swing, ever. The character needs to use their in-game verbal for each use of this skill. If the character fails to land their attack, they have 5 seconds to try to land the attack before they must recite their in-game verbal again.
A character that has the Dark Cleric skill can increase the damage of their weapon attacks but is limited to a maximum of 25 points (one purchase of the Wounding skill) of additional Dark damage.
For example, Raizen the Dark Cleric has five purchases of the Wounding skill giving her a 125 point Wounding Pool. She has used 50 points already leaving her with 75 Wounding Pool Points. During a town battle, she uses 40 points of her Wounding Pool by touch to harm Roselina, saying, “By the Dark Lord’s hate, I wound you, 40 Dark”. Roselina falls but others around her heard what happened and begin attacking Raizen. She normally swings 5 points of damage with her sword and uses 5 points of her Wounding Pool per swing to augment her damage. She now swings “10 Dark” and does direct Body Point damage to any character she strikes. The most Raizen can use is 25 points of her pool in one attack, so the most damage she can do is 30 Dark in one swing.
If the character has the Dark Paladin skill, they may use any amount of their available Wounding Pool in their attack up to the maximum total points left in their pool.
For example, Tyr is fighting the Ducal Guard. Outnumbered, he decides to increase his base damage of 7 Silver using his Wounding Pool. He recites his verbal and uses 3 points of his Wounding Pool. He now swings 10 points of damage and calls “10 Dark” damaging the Ducal Guard’s Body Points directly. Tyr can use more of his Wounding Pool with each attack to increase his damage accordingly. Fearing the arrival of the heroes, he decides to drop one of the guards quickly. Tyr currently has 153 Wounding Pool points left in his pool. He recites his verbal and strikes one of the Ducal Guards with his sword adding an additional 93 points from his Wounding Pool. The character says, “By the power of evil, I strike you down, 100 Dark!” He misses the guard, striking their shield instead, but the guards realize they are out matched and run away, leaving Tyr to fight another day. He has not used his 93 points so he still has 153 Wounding Pool points left to him that Tag Cycle.
Finally, Dark Clerics can use their pool points to cast Necromancy School creation spells or Demonology School summoning spells up to Rank 4 and not lost, for double the Power Point cost of the spell. If the character chooses Demonology, they need to pick an aspect – ice, fire, shadow, undead – and this aspect cannot be changed without divine intervention. The character must choose which school they wish to have access to when the skill is first purchased. The character may not change their choice once the skill is purchased for the first time. Note: Resist Evil will not stop these spell effects and the Absorption spell will stop the spell but not give any Power Points.
This skill requires the use of a verbal, which must be at least 5 syllables, not including the skill’s name, and must contain some reasonably recognizable version of the name of the skill. This skill can be delivered by touch, thrown, or through a weapon. If delivered through a weapon, the targeted character must be struck and weapons and shields will stop the attack. If the character misses their target, whether thrown or delivered through a weapon, or the target uses a martial skill to stop the attack, the skill is not used. If the attack is stopped by a Resist Evil skill or a magical defense that stops physical attacks, the skill is used.
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