:smack:
Now you’re just making me feel stupid!
Continuing with the Star Wars theme, Luke’s Dad was ultimately redeemed in a thoroughly unconvincing fashion. So that implies that Burlew could either redeem Tarquin convincingly (which is wholly plausible, since Tarq suffers from potentially correctable misperceptions of himself, his family and world and by extension his self-interest) or simply kill him off. Either one could work. His death could certainly work: as other’s have noted unsympathetic actions preceded demise for Malack, Nale and even Miko, albeit in a different way.
When have Nale or Miko (or Tarquin, when you get right down to it) performed sympathetic actions ? 
You could even take it further by having him first lose limbs to Julio before signing on with Xykon, but that’s probably too much. (“Never go full STAR WARS!”)
How many rounds does it take for a (vampire)cleric to meditate for spells?
Minimum 15 minutes, up to an hour. 15 minutes lets you meditate for up to 25% of your spells, and after that it’s prorated, with an hour getting you 100% of your spells.
This is complicated by the fact that you can’t refill a spell slot that you’ve used until you pass a certain point of day (e.g., sunrise for sun-worshipping clerics). For example, if you meditate at 7 a.m. in the morning and gain 3 first level slots, and you fill two of them with bless and command, and then at 8 a.m. you cast command, you have one unused slot, one used slot, and one slot filled with bless. You can meditate for 15 minutes and fill the unused slot, but you can’t swap out bless or refill the used slot until 7 a.m. the next day.
This is complicated by the fact that Durkon is vamped, and who knows what that does to his spellcasting or his customary meditation time.
Wow, that is complex. I belatedly googled the srd and came up with the answer of 1 hour (1000 rounds, right? Holy crud.), but I figured it’s D&D, so there’s always more to the story, and sure enough.
1 hour is only 1000 rounds if you celebrate the one hundred minute hour :).
And yeah, it’s complex, but it’s to get around munchkin tactics while still allowing flexibility. Here’s an easier way to look at it:
You get X number of spells per day, with “day” starting for your character at a time of your choice. You can prep 'em at any point, but you can’t get more than X spells through sneaky cast-and-prep tactics.
Is that simpler?
:smack: There I go again, letting my experiences during the French Revolution unwittingly slip. Apologies. 
Yup, got it. And I do clearly see the point of “meditating” as a means of not gaming resource allocation. I was just very surprised that there were intermediate points where you could meditate less to get some spells in lieu of everything for that day. Thanks large for the detailed explanations.
Yeah, gosh, me too. I am starting my first 3.5 campaign this weekend.
Reading this thread for tips.
If they do need a Sarlacc equivalent, there’s always the sandworms.
Glad to help! I’m playing a priest now in a pathfinder game (a third-party class like a wimpy scholarly cleric), and I generally leave one or two slots “open” every day, so that if we end up needing a particular utility spell that I hadn’t anticipated, we can take 15 minutes for me to meditate and then we have the spell.
If the Star Wars parallels keep up like this, I can predict Elan’s happy ending will involve the ghosts of Tarquin, Belkar, and Julio Scoundrel all standing together.
Anyone who’s a fan should read this thread: OotS in a different Genre.
I admit I laughed out loud at
I have a real soft spot for Thog.
There are people that don’t have a soft spot for Thog?
thog have soft spot in thog’s head!
I don’t. He’s evil. He’s no MiTD.