Aidan,
Sorry to hear things went so badly. My feeling is that your
experience is a symptom of a bigger problem for those who are
traditional D&D-ers trying out TFT: there's no real (dramatic)
good/evil forces per se in TFT, as in traditional D&D. That takes out
part of the fun (?) of playing a cleric.
That review I mentioned in another earlier thread also spoke of the
lack of Cleric support and how it was a let-down for some players.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_6466.html
"The lack of clerical magic distinct from wizardly magic also turned
off some people. There are people out there who like to play clerics
(Trust me! It's true!) You could play a cleric in TFT, but the rules
sort of suggested that all religions were frauds. It could have been
easily fixed: just give those with the Priest talent the ability to
bless holy water and allow holy water to act like a one-shot power
stone to charge spells."
It's true that ITL states in various places that priestly talents are
at the discretion of the GM. At the end of the "Religion" section on
page 31, it says: "In fact, the GM may wish to keep players in the
dark about whether priests are really getting any advantage at all!
That will test their faith."
I'm not sure a holy water charge would solve the problem, as
suggested above. Again, it could be the discretion of a GM to allow
it, provided the power came from a deity and not the priests ST as
per the Strength Battery item discussed in AW.
Traditional D&D (Hollywood?) clerics heal, turn undead and bless
parties (supposedly the blessings come from a deity). Deities and
their powers are left up to the discretion of the GM in TFT, whereas
it's a core aspect of D&D (and to some, part of the allure, because
of the classic good-vs-evil stories).
As for undead, in TFT there are ghosts, wights, zombies and maybe
vampires (which are technically diseased beings in TFT). There is no
ambiguous "evil" force that is really driving these things -
ghosts/wights/etc. can be good or evil, depending on the situation.
They're driven by some un-resolved thing: "A ghost is most likely to
appear because someone was killed while in the grip of some emotion
so strong that they simply refused to leave this life."
Zombies cost a wizard (evil or good) ST to make and maintain. Even
Vampires aren't very true to Hollywood in TFT (p.55, ITL): "It is
widely believed that vampires are repelled by garlic and holy
objects. A vampire with IQ 14 or better will not believe these
superstitions, and will not be affected by them. Daylight is not
fatal to vampires - but they don't like it. A vampire has DX 4 by
daylight, and cannot fly at all by daylight."
If you want to turn a zombie or vampire in TFT, you use an Avert
spell. To get rid of a ghost, you have to satisfy its reason for not
leaving this life. Less romantic perhaps, but more detailed and
possibly more interesting.