Turning Undead

Turning undead is invoking the power and holiness of one’s deity to drive off or even destroy foul undead creatures. In general, evil gods cannot or will not empower their priests with such an ability. However, for priests with the power to turn undead, the below rules outline the basics. Various priest orders will have subset rules which can either increase or decrease the effectiveness, target specific undead more effectively or otherwise alter the effects of turning rolls. In general, turning undead is now a percentile based roll using the below

Base Line Turning Percentages

Any priest level

    Base 80%        Fractional Undead (disembodied hands, animated skulls, etc.) – success by more than 10% destroys 
    Base 60%        Lesser Zombies, Skeletons, Afflicted Beasts 
    Base 50%        Lesser Ghouls, Ghosts

Minimum 5th^ level priest – lower level may attempt at -20%/level below 5th

    Base 40%        Wild Vampire, Ghast (Full Ghoul), Lesser Mummies 
    Base 35%        Median Zombies, Skeleton Warriors

Minimum 7th^ level priest – lower level may attempt at -25%/level below 7th

    Base 25%        Primary and Secondary Vampires, Primary Ghosts, Complete Mummies

Minimum 9th^ level priest – creatures in the lists below cannot be destroyed without special deity powers specified; DM

    Base 10%        Master Vampires, Wights (Greater Ghoul) 
    Base 0%         Special Undead (Vampire Lord, Lich, etc.; DM)

Percentile Adjustments

Gain +5% per priest level to turning roll  Making a turn roll by 10% allows driving off 1d4 of the specified type who will not come within 100 yards of the turning area again for a minimum 24 hours, but may indeed stalk from beyond this range
Making a turn roll at 20% or less of necessary roll destroys 1d4/level of the affected undead type (i.e. – if you have an 80% chance of turning lesser zombies, rolling a 16% or lower actually destroys a number of them) while the number driven off is increased to 1d12/level +priest level
Making a roll by any other amount in between drives off 1d6/level of the specified type who will flee at their fastest rate and away from the priest for 3d6 minutes and no matter how they react after that will not return within 300 yards of the turning location for 48 hours minimum

Additional Turning Rules

Only one turning attempt may be made per melee round

Once an undead has been targeted for a turning attempt, they cannot be targeted again for at least 24 hours

A priest may attempt to target any reasonable size or portion of an undead crowd as desired with each turning attempt (thus if a 5th^ level priest is being attacked by 30 skeletons, his minimum turn amount would be 5. Thus if he only targets 5 skeletons and succeeds, they will all be affected no matter the d4/d6 roll. However, this would take 6 melee rounds to turn all 30 skeletons.) Certain scenarios may be determined too difficult to identify to narrow targeting down in such a manner and DM’s ruling is final

Sample Situations

A first level priestess of Janus, Child of the Daystar is attempting to protect a stranded group of refugees from a small group of 35 lesser zombies in western Lor’Aserion. Children of the Daystar turn as 1 level higher and gain a +5% to their destruction percentage. Her base turning percent is Base 60% (for lesser zombies), plus 10% (turns as 2nd^ level priest) for a total 70% chance to at least turn some of the zombies. She rolls an 16% which is a critical success (normally crit would be 14%, but her +5% bonus helps her) which will allow her to turn 2d12+2 zombies and destroy 2d4 of them completely with her turning attempt. She rolls 6 on her destruction dice leaving 29 still subject to her turning attempt (though with a maximum of 24 capable of being affected, there are 5 which she can attempt to turn with a second roll.) She rolls 18 on the turning leaving only 11 lesser zombies unaffected, thus 6 cannot be attempted to turn again.

A tenth level priest of Vishnu, Knight of the Golden Blade is attempting to drive off a pack of wild vampires lead by a primary vampire. 40 wild vampires and a single primary vampire. Knights of the Golden Blade have a blessed weapon that is very harmful to undead, but do not gain any improved turning abilities. Thus versus the wild vampires turn percent is Base 40%, plus 50% (10th^ level priest) for a total 90% chance of turning. He rolls a 46% and has a normal success (had an 18% chance of critical success) and has targeted all wild vampires in a single shot for 10d6 that will might be turned. He rolls a total of 42 (average for 10d6 = 35, so slightly above average) driving off all of the wild vampires, while he draws his sword, striking the primary vampire with his golden blade, vaporizing it in a shower of flame.

A fifth level paladin of Laurana, Sister of the Silver Sword (and a 5th^ level priest for this exercise) is attempting to thwart a primary vampire’s advances. Sisters of the Silver Sword turn as one level higher and double the number of turned (not destroyed) undead. Since a primary cannot usually be affected until 7th^ level, she takes a -25% penalty (2 levels too low, but effectively only 1 due to order bonus) to the Base 25% for a base of 0%. She gains +30% turning as 6th^ level with a 6% chance of a critical. She rolls a 32% which fails, but spends an action point to gain 1d6% and rolls a 4 and thus makes her turning attempt within 10% forcing the primary vampire away and keeping him at bay for at least 24 hours.