TEXT: Professor Q's Guide to the Blessed 
   
  Building your Blessed 
  First things first, stick your highest dice type into Spirit – d12 if possible. Blessed spells are 
  entirely dice based, making it very important to have a good dice type in Faith. While d8 will get 
  you a 94% chance of success for a TN 5, a d12 is a 60% chance of success for TN 11 while 
  that d8 is only 40%. Additionally, getting raises for a lot of Miracles is amazing and sometimes 
  even overpowered – and you won’t see many raises with anything less than a d12. 
   
  After that it’s up to you. 
   
  What about Mien? 
   
  If you’ve been a bad boy and have been going into that no man’s land stuff and finding out 
  about Divine Interventions and Tale-Tellin’, you’ll know that Tale-Tellin’ is very important. 
   
  With that said, you really don’t need higher than a d8 in Mien, the reason being that there are a 
  LOT of ways to raise your Tale-Tellin roll by flat values. The gifts Pious and Charismatic both 
  give you +2 for a total of up to 4, and the Miracle Inspiration gives you a +2 for every success 
  and raise you get on the roll. That minimum of +6 from those abilities alone lowers the 
  maximum TN from 13 to 7, which is a 76% chance of success with a 5d8. Throw in Zeal or a 
  raise on Inspiration and you’re looking at a TN 5, meaning you could even get away with a Mien 
  of d6, and have a 70% success chance with an aptitude of 3. 
   
  Considering the enormous cost of raising your dice types, you better be planning on doing a lot 
  of Persuasion if you’re going Mien. For Tale-Tellin’ though, you just don’t need it. 
   
  Get your friends to join the Benediction Club! 
   
  There won’t be any discussion in this guide about which religion is “best”, though I will be 
  mentioning Miracle and Gift restrictions for each religion in that part of the guide. 
   
  The most important thing about your religion though is that you get as many of your friends 
  involved as you can. Voodooists and Shaman are restricted from using Faith for anything but 
  their Arcane Background, but your other posse members can get some amazing benefits for 
  following the same creed as your priest by putting points into the Faith aptitude. Let’s list a few: 
   
  1. 
  Add their Faith to your Faith rolls when you cast spells on them – this is primarily 
  useful for Lay on Hands. Besides the Shaman, you have the most potent innate healing 
  ability in the game being that you’re one of the few ways that can heal maimed 
  wounds. But, it’s also got an enormous drawback as well, and maimed wounds are 
  very chancy to try to cure. If your friend has Faith though, it’s that much less risky. 
  
  2. 
  Benediction – This spell is like having a free white chip every day for blocking wound, 
  and it gives +1 to all Guts rolls until sunset. This will save you and your friend’s lives 
  time and time again. 
  3. 
  Add Faith aptitude to damage when using a consecrated weapon – Consecrate 
  Armament becomes a damage buff in addition to allowing you to target the hardier 
  abominations if you have Faith. 
   
  What do I do with my other points? 
   
  Basically whatever you want. The Blessed can actually function very well with casting alone. 
  Though some abominations will be immune to your antics, you can still support your party by 
  taking damage for them, or providing crowd control with your obligatory protection spell. 
   
  But here are 3 roles that I suggest you consider. 
   
  Party Leader 
  Primary Stats: Cognition, Quickness and Mien 
  Favorable Miracles: Falter, Parley, and Strike Blind 
  Favorable Gifts: Charismatic, Wisdom and Insight 
   
  With this recommendation, you dump those damage based stats (Deftness, Nimbleness, and 
  Strength) and focus completely on skills. 
   
  The Leadership Mien skill is actually very potent, and with a high enough Quickness you can 
  support your party like a pro. Combine it with a high Cognition and none of your friends will find 
  themselves caught off guard. 
   
  Focus on Miracles like Falter and Strike Blind, and you will rarely be left with nothing to do in 
  combat situations either. 
   
  Marksman 
  Primary Stat: Deftness 
  Favorable Miracles: Wrath and Consecrate Armament 
  Favorable Gifts: Guardian Angel, Favored, and Zeal 
   
  Focusing on Shootin’ is a great fallback for anyone who was dealt a bad hand on the stat draw. 
  Even if you’re using a house-ruled point buy system, it’s a cheap and easy way to contribute to 
  damage in combat. 
   
  The Blessed isn’t the best choice for a Gunslinger, but Consecrate Armament gives them their 
  Faith as bonus damage for a number of bullets, and Wrath works well with guns. Though both of 
  those use Fate Chips, you can take Favored to help feed the need. 
   
  
  Guardian Angel gives you a nice bonus to avoiding ranged attacks, and Zeal will give you a flat 
  +2 to your Shootin’ skill. 
   
  Melee Fighter 
  Primary Stats: Nimbleness and Strength 
  Favorable Miracles: Smite, Dervish, and Battle Hymn 
  Favorable Gifts: Zeal and Spiritual Giant 
   
  Melee damage is what the Blessed excels at, rivaling even the Enlightened in power. The 
  downside to Melee is that it requires two stats to support it. 
   
  With that said, the Strength you’ll want for this build will easily qualify you for Brawny, and 
  combined with Spiritual Giant your size 8 will mean a lot less hurt for you – and being in melee 
  you’ll probably need it. 
   
  Smite will get your Strength to potentially supernatural levels (with flat bonuses to damage) and 
  Zeal and Battle Hymn will make it easier to hit enemies (melee being generally harder to hit if 
  the target has any ranks in Fightin’ at all). 
   
  The crown jewel of the Blessed arsenal though is Dervish. It restricts casting any more spells for 
  its duration, but getting two attacks in melee is remarkable. A sword deals 2d8 damage plus 
  your Strength, which you should have at least d8s normally. With 2 attacks you’re laying down 
  the hurt better than the more powerful guns. 
   
  One drawback of Dervish is that Christians are restricted from taking it. Not being the most 
  prolific religion makes it a little harder to get like-minded NPCs together to benefit from some of 
  your Miracles. Not a deal-breaker, but worth mentioning. 
   
   
  The Miracles 
   
  The meat and potatoes of this guide. Miracles cost 5BP each, so you can’t have them all, thus 
  it’s important to make informed decisions. 
   
  I will be rating these Miracles according to a 5 point scale: 
  * - This Miracle is garbage and should never be taken except in very bizarre circumstances 
  ** - This Miracle has redeemable qualities, but is too circumstantial to consider most of the time 
  *** - This is a solid Miracle, and is worth taking for most characters 
  **** - This is a great Miracle, you’ll definitely want this eventually if not right away 
  ***** - This is an awesome Miracle. Prioritize this. 
   
   
  
  Fire and Brimstone Miracles 
   
  Armor o’ Righteousness (***): If you were lucky enough to afford putting a d12 in your 
  Quickness stat, then take this Miracle. It’s effective, but it only lasts a round, meaning that you’ll 
  need to recast it on your first action every time. If you’re drawing the average two cards, it’s just 
  not worth it, but if you’re getting more than that this makes you practically invincible. 
   
  Babble-On (**): This is a really odd specimen. With a Faith of 5 it gives you about two and a 
  half minutes of thwarting someone’s communication. Outside of combat you can use it to cut 
  someone off from your conversation. In combat you’re going to have to argue with your marshal 
  about how it might benefit. One advantage it has is completely foiling any Tests o’ Will, so if 
  your Marshal likes to use those often then pick this one up. 
   
  Battle-Hymn (**/****): (Cabalist Jews, Sufi Muslims, and Taoists are restricted from taking this). 
  If you’re not a melee Blessed, then you don’t need to bother with this one. If you are though, this 
  is very easy to implement, and if anyone else in your posse uses Fightin’ it gets that much 
  better. The Guts bonus is just icing, in many cases you’ve already been exposed to the scary 
  thing before you get a chance to set this up. 
   
  Benediction (****/*****): If you at least have one other posse member that has Faith (in your 
  religion), get this Miracle from the start. If you’re alone in your principles, it’s still excellent. The 
  duration is perfect and the wound blocked is as useful as it is rare to be able to pull off. +1 Guts 
  is completely unnecessary for this spell’s value, but a welcome addition. 
   
  Bless Crops (*): I highly doubt this will ever come up, and even if it did, the effect is minuscule 
  compared to the likes of the Feast spell. 
   
  Burnt Offerin’ (***): (Sunni Muslims cannot take this Miracle) Fire can be handy even on 
  unexpected occasions, and this is the best fire-starting spell in the game, letting you light even 
  water soaked kindling with an acceptable chance of success. 
   
  Calm (**/***): Changing weather can be surprisingly useful, though this one is mainly focused 
  on good weather. The worst weather you can conjure is a downpour, so it’s impossible to use 
  this to help your Shaman get a thunderstorm for Lightning Strike. This is worth two or three stars 
  depending on how often your Marshal takes weather into account. 
   
  Censure (*): The effect on this is potent, as lowering the hand type of a Huckster spell will make 
  him shed tears of rage, but a lot of Hucksters are going to be near impossible to target with this 
  based on the TN relative to their caster level. Additionally, Black Magic is going to be your 
  biggest enemy, not Huckster hexes (though some campaigns might present an exception to 
  this). 
   
  
  Chastise (****): (Sufi Muslims cannot take this Miracle) Replaces Overawe with Faith, straight 
  up. So for 5BP you earned a Test o’ Will worth 15BP. Overawe isn’t the best Test o’ Will since 
  Grit mitigates it along with anything else that boosts Guts rolls, but it’s still a fun one to have. 
   
  Cloak (***): A hide spell, since you can’t move while using it. It’s not terrible, but unless you’re 
  being hunted by something, its main use will be for surprise plans or spy surveillance tasks, not 
  infiltration or stealth. 
   
  Confession (***): Save time with interrogations with this lie-detecting spell. Its short duration 
  means you’ll be casting it a lot during the conversation though since it’s really only long enough 
  for a question or two. 
   
  Consecrate Armament (****): (Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) Add your Faith aptitude to 
  your damage against designated targets. The Fate Chip cost is restrictive, but if you were smart 
  enough to put a 5 in your Faith, that’s basically an automatic wound against normal sized 
  targets. This is way better for enchanting melee weapons since it only targets single bullets, but 
  a few consecrated bullets could mean the end of your target as well. Chances are, you’ll 
  absolutely need this spell eventually, so pick it up sooner than later. 
   
  Consecrate Item (***): (Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) Adding +2 to your protection spell 
  could save your life, and +2 to consecrate armament negates the TN penalty for one more 
  bullet, but that’s really as far as this Miracle goes. Dealing minor wind damage to creatures isn’t 
  worth rating this spell any higher. 
   
  Dervish (**/*****): (Christians, Jews, and Taoists cannot take this Miracle) 2 attacks per round 
  at the cost of not being able to cast any more spells for the duration. Once you have your other 
  buffs up, this will turn you into a whirlwind of death. Obviously melee only. 
   
  Devil’s Plaything (***): Makes you completely immune to Mad Science gizmos. Since anyone 
  can use those infernal contraptions, this one is definitely worth considering for any Blessed. Still 
  slightly circumstantial in its applicability though, so only take it if you know you’re heading into 
  somewhere it will be relevant. 
   
  Dispel (***/****): Remove a persistent magic effect caused by either a Hex or Black Magic. 
  Since Voodooism and Blood Magic came out after this spell was written, I’d argue that both of 
  those should be affected as well. You’ll be glad you have this spell when the occasion comes 
  up, but if it’s hard to predict when that might happen you may want to skip this one. 
   
  Empathy (***): A nice companion to Scrutinize, and definitely worth picking up if you’re doing a 
  lot of investigation. 
   
  Endure (***): Prevents wind loss from wounds received. A few raises on the wind loss roll could 
  mean even a single wound causes you to become incapacitated. The cost of an action card 
  
  means strategically you may not want to cast this in most cases, but it has a relatively long 
  duration and is very effective at what it does. 
   
  Enigma (****): (Christians cannot take this Miracle). Easily one of the most effective crowd 
  controls in the game, if the target can understand what you’re speaking. The duration makes it 
  mainly a combat Miracle, but it’s enough time to sneak by a guard or something like that. It’s a 
  shame that Christians can’t take it. 
   
  Expose (****): +5 to Cognition rolls to catch people sneaking around, or to see through a 
  disguise, and has the special magical benefit of seeing through abomination’s disguises. This 
  will completely ruin your Marshal’s attempt at a who-dunnit with an abomination involved. More 
  to the point, it has a 10 round per Faith duration, so theoretically you could make a habit of 
  casting this all the time and almost never be surprised. Even if your Cognition sucks, this is 
  worth considering (in fact, this in combination with the Eagle Eyes edge and Insight, you’re 
  getting at least a +9 to Cognition rolls). 
   
  Exorcism (*): (Jews and Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) What kills this Miracle is the 8 hour 
  casting time. You’d definitely have a use for this in any faster time frame, but that speed restricts 
  this to only situations where your patient is benign for the duration. 
   
  Falter (****): Trade your action cards to remove your target’s action cards. If you’re not doing 
  anything else in combat, this is an excellent replacement assuming the target can understand 
  you and you have your posse around to take advantage. After the first attempt on a single target 
  the TN becomes 10, but if you have a d12 in your Spirit, that’s still a 76% chance of success, 
  which is acceptable. 
   
  Feast (***): (Sufi Muslims and Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) Doubles the food on hand for 
  each success, and this doubling is cumulative, so if you double it once, the new value is 
  doubled. The food quickly spoils, so you’re not going to save a town for longer than a day with 
  this Miracle, but if your marshal is keen on keeping close track of how much food you have 
  you’re probably going to want to have this. 
   
  Grace (*****): The four hour duration +2 buff to all Vigor rolls is the prime selling factor. That 
  means you should get this and bless every meal, because everyone makes Vigor rolls to live or 
  die in Deadlands. Most importantly, your entire party benefits from this. Purifying food and 
  bonus wind are nice additions, making this an even more premier Miracle. Note that the Vigor 
  buff basically makes this a TN 10 Miracle. 
   
  Guide (***): One of the better divinations available in Deadlands. Guides you to a location or a 
  specific item. You’ll be casting this a few times in any given campaign. 
   
  Hinder (****): Lowers a target’s aptitude for 3 rounds. TN 3 means you’ll be getting at least a 
  raise on this spell, meaning on average you’re going to be seeing a -2 penalty to the target’s 
  aptitude. Statistically, if the target has a 5 in the chosen aptitude, this is a -10% chance of 
  
  success unless you get better than a raise. If the target has a 3 in the targeted aptitude though, 
  you’re going to see an enormous benefit from this. If you can lower their aptitude to a 1, you’ve 
  also got them in much greater danger of going bust on their attempts. This isn’t a perfect debuff, 
  but one of the better ones in Deadlands in general. 
   
  Holy Roller (****): Gives a Fate Chip. Basically this is a one-time aptitude buff with the benefit 
  of being able to block wounds if you happen to be attacked before your next action since you 
  can’t use it on Knacks or spells like Wrath or Consecrate Armament. The action card cost 
  makes this restrictive in combat, but outside of combat it’s the only power you have that directly 
  can affect your Faith rolls and could mean the difference between hitting that TN 13 or not for 
  things like Lay on Hands or Resurrection. 
   
  Holy Vestaments (***): The overall usefulness of this Miracle depends on how often you’re 
  going to be in the extreme environments this spell describes, or how often you’re going to be 
  facing Black Mages that cast a fire or cold based Bolt of Doom. Burning houses could come up 
  though, and you could even plan on fighting someone in such an environment by creating it 
  yourself by planning ahead, which makes me think this is a pretty good Miracle overall. 
   
  Illuminate (****): Creates light that buffs your Search skill and can potentially debuff any 
  abominations in the area. Creating light is always useful, though the radius isn’t huge on this 
  one, and it has a duration of concentration. But, sometimes that -2 to the abomination rolls is the 
  best thing you can contribute to an encounter, and you can shut it off at any time. 
   
  Inspiration (****): (Jews cannot take this Miracle) It would suck if you failed that Tale-Tellin’ 
  after all the work you did to be able to do it. Since Blesseds get so much from Tale-Tellin’, you 
  should definitely consider picking this up at some point – particularly by the time you get to the 
  highest fear levels. 
   
  Intercession (**): This spell isn’t a bad idea, but it has too many bad things going for it, namely 
  its one round duration. That basically means it’s only going to help them for an action or two. If 
  you happen to have a high Vigor and your friend is stunned, or if they’re possessed by 
  something and need your Spirit trait, I can see this occasionally being useful. For the most part 
  though it’s just going to be a waste of BP. 
   
  Interpret Vision (*): Ridiculously circumstantial. Basically to be using this at any decent interval 
  is to have a second Blessed in the party with the Prophesy gift. 
   
  Last Rites (***): Ultimately a replacement for the Knowledge skill necessary to know what to do 
  to a corpse to prevent it from becoming some crazy abomination. If you ever kill a nemesis or 
  anything like that, you’ll be glad you have this Miracle since it prevents the marshal from 
  bringing them right back. 
   
  Lay on Hands (*****): Your party will expect you to have this, and you should. If anyone loses 
  an arm, you’re one of three methods listed in the books to be able to reattach them. Besides 
  
  that it’s extremely effective – it heals all wounds on a target, not just one at a time. As an added 
  bonus, this also cures diseases. The drawback is of course the chance that you take the 
  maladies on yourself, which is why I recommend your friends take a few points in Faith to help 
  you out in casting this. You may also want to pick up Soothe to remove those wound penalties 
  as well. 
   
  Lion’s Den (***): Replaces Animal Handlin’, but the duration of concentration is a little 
  annoying. Unlike Animal Handlin’ though, with a TN 15 you could make a friend or two to help 
  you out. A little circumstantial, but effective when you can use it (also pretty much necessary if 
  you want to make an animal companion using Divine Intervention). 
   
  Martyrdom (****): Take damage for someone within line-of-sight. Since you have access to 
  Spiritual Giant, you might just be the best person to take the damage. Also especially useful if 
  you happen to have Armor of Righteousness cast. Save a friend’s life and mitigate damage for 
  the entire party. If you have someone who can heal during combat (Blood Mage or Shaman) 
  this is completely broken and will trivialize basically any encounter. 
   
  Mediate (****): Stop the violence amongst humans within an area of 10 feet per Faith level. This 
  is excellent, especially if you’re decent at Persuasion. Note that it only has a duration of 1 round 
  though, so you’re pretty much walking on eggshells unless you manage to cast it again before 
  someone else gets an action. 
   
  Mercy (***): Deal non-lethal damage with lethal weapons. If you’re melee, don’t bother, but this 
  is a great way to knock someone out from a range. You could possibly Overawe them or use 
  Mediate for a similar effect, however, so while this isn’t a bad spell it’s also pretty easily 
  replaced. 
   
  Mighty Fortress (****): (Sufi Muslims and Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) Raise the armor 
  of walls, or the durability of vehicles. This is more useful if you have the latter, but you probably 
  should. Minute casting time means it will take some planning ahead, but even if it’s a horse 
  driven carriage, you could make this useful enough to cast it often, and with the one hour per 
  Faith duration, you should be casting it often. 
   
  Mysterious Ways (****): (Christians, Muslims, and Jews cannot take this Miracle) Walk through 
  a wall. Unfetter is probably better overall, but this one allows for a lot more subtlety for your 
  movement. 
   
  Ordain (***): Gives your friends the use of Miracles. The hour casting time and one-time use 
  effect is limiting, and it’s really bad that it uses the target’s Faith and not yours, but there are 
  some antics you can pull off with this that make it worth considering, especially if you took my 
  recommendation on converting the rest of your party. If you weren’t able to convince your 
  friends to follow the will of Buddha or submit themselves to Christ, then ignore this one. 
   
  
  Panacea (****): Completely necessary if your Marshal is using Werewolves, Tummy Twisters, 
  Rattlesnakes, or anything of that sort – so basically this spell is necessary. 
   
  Parley (****): Almost completely replaces the need to spend any aptitude points on language 
  skills – the only downside being that it costs an action card to start. If you take this and Babble-
  on, then your Tests o’ Will will work while theirs do not. 
   
  Protection (****): (Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) A spell you get for free with Faith, and it’s 
  a good one. You pit your Faith against the enemy abomination’s Spirit in order for them to be 
  able to target you. Since you should be maxing out your Faith, this will make you immune to 
  most of the lesser enemies out there. It only lasts a round though, so you’ll be wasting an action 
  card every round to cast it. It’s saved my life a few times already, so don’t forget you have it. 
  On a side note, I don’t really understand why Buddhists can’t take this since there are plenty of 
  stories where Buddhists protect themselves from evil spirits – but a free gift is pretty dang good 
  too (Taoists get stuck with crappy longevity). 
   
  Reassurance (**): A limited way to reverse the effects of a failed Guts effect. Considering the 
  TN is the Terror Roll, this could be almost impossible to pull off, not to mention the touch range 
  will make it tough to catch your panicked friends unless you’re focused on Melee (and also 
  Nimbleness as a result). It’s not useless, but you’re better off getting your friends in on the 
  Benediction club and encouraging them to take the Brave Edge to avoid getting scart in the first 
  place. 
   
  Retribution (****): (Taoists may not take this Miracle) You have to actually take the wound for 
  this to work, but dealing a wound to something that wounded you could turn a fight around 
  completely. This is especially true if you’re fighting something of an enormous size, since the 
  actual wounds are transferred, not damage. Not something you can plan around, but definitely 
  something worth having on your toolbelt to keep the odds even when it happens. Also note that 
  you only need to be able to see the target, which is similar to Martyr – and arguably you could 
  use Martyr in tandem with this to completely pass around a bad wound. 
   
  Sacrifice (***): Between Consecrate Armament and Wrath, you kind of want to keep your Fate 
  Chips, but if the party’s safety depends on someone else’s next action, this is one way you can 
  bolster them. This is a good one to combine with Holy Roller, by which this basically turns that 
  into a 2 action card skill buff spell. 
   
  Safe Keepin’ (***): 10 minute casting time makes this really restrictive, but if you have the time 
  you can set up a nice barrier inside a building, or a cave, to set things in your favor. The 
  description suggests using this while you sleep, which isn’t bad – the duration will get you a nice 
  4 hours in, at least. The fact that it automatically wakes you up is definitely a good thing, though 
  since it only affects supernatural creatures you’re probably still going to need someone taking 
  nightwatch. 
   
  
  Sanctify (***): (Sufi Muslims and Buddhists cannot take this Miracle) Very potent, and 
  permanent, but the week casting time makes it really only good for setting up a headquarters, 
  which means that ultimately you’re probably only going to get to cast this once or twice after 
  taking it. Still, extremely potent and for having a nice holy ground to setup base in it makes the 
  5BP almost worth it. 
   
  Sentinel (**): Gives you +5 to Cognition rolls to avoid surprise and lets you avoid falling asleep. 
  Avoiding sleep has its drawbacks, and thus I recommend Safe Keepin’ for the benefit that gives. 
  The +5 to Cognition rolls is good, but Expose does the same thing and doesn’t require 
  concentration. I imagine this would stack with Expose though, and nothing stops you from 
  having this up while walking around town, so it’s not completely useless, just a little outclassed. 
   
  Smite (*****): (Sufi Muslims and Taoists cannot take this Miracle) Buff your Strength to 
  potentially supernatural levels for a full minute. Each raise is one dice type, and if you break that 
  d12, you’re getting flat +2 bonuses to your Strength rolls. The name suggests this was intended 
  for use in combat, but the effect makes it have some great utilities as well. With a 6d12 Faith, I 
  once got 6 successes on this spell, which boosted my 4d8 Strength to 4d12+8, and it was 
  awesome. 
   
  Snake Handlin’ (***): Summon a crowd controlling boa constrictor or a poisonous rattlesnake. 
  It’s not bad, but the downside is that this spell doesn’t scale very well into the higher challenges 
  – there’s no way to make the snake better. The Boa only has a 2d8 Strength, so it’s not going to 
  hold much more than a wuss (but some of those Black Mages are pretty wussy), and the 
  Rattlesnake’s poison doesn’t have a high TN for the Vigor roll. It’s good for regular folk though, 
  and it’s a cool effect. 
   
  Solace (**): One-week casting time method of removing Dementias and Mental Hindrances. 
  The casting time makes this tough to recommend since even if you have a Mad Scientist friend 
  or someone who picked up a phobia from a failed Guts roll, you’re going to often be hard-
  pressed to find time to cure it. If it ever comes up, just spend 8 hours on the first day and the 
  bounty points to pick this up and then cast it. Until then, don’t bother. 
   
  Soloman’s Advice (**/***): Ask the Marshal a binary question, and he will tell you which answer 
  is correct. This is actually pretty good, and can easily break up a lot of the time spent arguing 
  about what to do next. The problem? You can only cast it “Once per adventure”. That can 
  potentially be a very long period of time depending on how you interpret that. The overall 
  usefulness of this Miracle is based on how much mystery your Marshal likes to employ. If you 
  find yourself doing a lot of investigation (which is very possible in Deadlands) then definitely 
  consider taking this along to speed things up. 
   
  Soothe (*****): Removes wound penalties from the target. Good duration and great effect, and 
  is the closest thing you have to combat healing. You’re going to want this to make Lay on Hands 
  more effective, cast it every time before you use Lay on Hands (the duration should be long 
  enough). You will also doubtlessly have plenty of opportunities to use it outside of that as well. 
  
  Spiritual Backhand (***): Ranged attack that deals 1d4 wind to the target per raise. Hilarious 
  effect and has tons of roleplaying implications. From an effect standpoint though, it could be a 
  little more powerful. Shamefully, this Miracle isn’t considered magical, and won’t affect 
  Harrowed or other abominations. 
   
  Strike Blind (*****): Make the target blind for an incredible effect. It is especially potent against 
  ranged attackers, though the 10 yard range restricts you from hitting them until it’s pretty 
  dangerous. One of the best debuffs in the game for creatures with sight. 
   
  Succor (****): Heal 1d6 wind per raise. This is generally useful, but especially so if you have 
  casters in your party that have a lot of wind per round abilities. 
   
  Temperance (**): Temporarily remove behavior flaws from the target with a minute casting 
  time. The duration is good (5 minutes per Faith), but with a casting time like that it’s going to be 
  tough to apply this very often. Could help you around stubborn government officials though. 
   
  Test o’ Faith (***): Let’s you use your Spirit dice for another trait. In a lot of ways this is awful, 
  since your dice types are probably already going to be okay for traits you’re actually investing in 
  for aptitudes. But, raising your dice type is an enormous BP cost, and this is excellent for things 
  like Knowledge skill checks, or even Tale-Tellin’ outside of combat, of course that latter 
  suggestion assumes your marshal gives you the dice type if you start the skill within the next 
  round. I wouldn’t build around any sort of dependence on this skill, but if you think outside of the 
  box it could grant you a ton of versatility with only a 5BP entry fee. 
   
  Two Places (***): (Christians, Muslims, and Jews cannot take this Miracle). This is an odd 
  Miracle. Taoist Blesseds can use this to double up on protection crowd control, and the list of 
  spells you can cast through your double makes this a good choice for party support in combat – 
  especially since the double can’t take physical damage. Outside of combat, you can cover a 
  greater area in a search, or talk to two groups at once. The -2 penalty to your actions is 
  troublesome, but not deal-breaking, especially if you apply something like Zeal to the aptitude 
  you’re using, but it does hurt your Faith spells. Add a star to this ability if your Marshal thinks 
  that spells like Mediate and Illuminate are centered on both manifestations of your character, 
  especially if they rule that you can have one of the doubles concentrate while the other casts 
  other spells. 
   
  Unfetter (****): Turn your Blessed into a master escape artist. The TN on this skill is very minor 
  if you’re the one trapped, and TN 11 isn’t too bad if you’re trying to break into things either. The 
  fact that this completely nullifies bonds and the need for Lockpickin’ makes this a premier 
  Miracle. 
   
  Walk on Water (***): (Muslims can’t take this Miracle) How often are you going to need to walk 
  on water? Depends on the campaign, but with this you don’t need to take Swimmin’ if all you 
  need it for is crossing things. 
  
  Wellspring (***): Eliminate Survival for finding water. 10 gallons a minute is pretty good, 50 to 
  60 gallons if you wait the whole time depending on your Faith. It also has a speed of 1, so if you 
  can come up with a reason for needing water in a hurry, that’s available as well. 
   
  Wings o’ Angels (***): Slow fall that you can affect a party member or two with. Lets you safely 
  fall 10 yards per Faith level, so no jumping into the Grand Canyon. Kind of circumstantial 
  overall, but not useless – especially if you have a habit of using flying machines (and for some 
  reason don’t fly higher than 60 yards in the air). 
   
  Word o’ Honor (****): Super long duration spell that helps you deal with those stubborn NPCs. 
  People will stop talking to you after a while once they catch on to your antics, but until then you 
  can get a lot of people to do what you want pretty easily using this. 
   
  Wrath (**/****): This spell justifies using guns as a Blessed. +1 damage dice is incredible when 
  used with those d10 rifles, and it doesn’t say anything about adding dice to Dynamite. It’s a one-
  time shot though, so it’s probably not worth using unless you have a high damage dice weapon 
  to take advantage of it with. Pick up Favored to supply yourself with the Fate Chips you need to 
  cast this. 
   
  Hexarcana Miracles 
   
  Anoint (*): Gives someone of your Faith a bonus to Mien based rolls equal to their Faith 
  aptitude for 1 minute per Faith level. You’re probably the best person in your posse for Mien 
  situations, and most of your buddies are probably not going to have more than two or 3 points in 
  Faith. Honestly, they’re just better off taking The Voice or Purdy if they want a bonus to some of 
  their Mien aptitudes. You might find a NPC that benefits from this, but not likely. 
   
  Anxious Seat (***): Give someone a flat bonus to a single skill roll equal to your Faith, 
  assuming you spend that many action cards to give it to them. There are a few situations where 
  this might come in handy – you can help your Mad Scientist friend get more on his Mad Science 
  roll, for instance. It’s not really good for combat, but it could help make an important Knowledge 
  check or something similarly non-combat. 
   
  Ashes to Ashes (*): Lets you make a Fightin’ check to a Zombie’s head and kill it instantly. 
  Considering this takes a good Fightin’ skill to pull off, you’re probably already melee if you’re 
  looking at this. And if you’re already melee, then you’re probably better off just casting Smite 
  and laying the smackdown the normal way, without the -6 to-hit (or just chop the zombie’s head 
  off with your sword). Add in the fact that this only affects some of the easiest abominations you 
  might encounter – one at a time – and this Miracle becomes useless. 
   
  Bear the Cross (*): Lets you suffer wound penalties for the target. Soothe lets you remove 
  them entirely for longer. This has range, which is an advantage over Soothe, but under normal 
  circumstances it’s not a big enough advantage to bother. HOWEVER, if you happen to be 
  
  Harrowed, and have the Hardy Gift along with maybe even the Thick Skin edge… then this 
  might be worth taking for that range. Add a star in that set of circumstances. 
   
  Console (***): A ranged version of Reassurance, making it a little better, but not by much. This 
  doesn’t cure any of the phobias or other effects of Guts checks, but the TN is MUCH easier. 
  Could prevent a bad situation, but you and your posse are better off investing in ways to 
  succeed Guts checks in the first place. 
   
  Fast (*): Survive without food for a number of days. I think picking up the Manna Gift is better 
  overall, since that gives you food for an infinite number of days. 
   
  Jawbone of an Ass (**): Makes a melee weapon out of mundane stuff. On average, this 
  weapon isn’t going to be that great, but if you get an awesome roll, then it could end up being 
  the best weapon you could obtain. It’s cheaper than picking up Martial Arts, but you waste an 
  action card every time you go into combat with this. 
   
  Judgement of the Unrighteous (***): Makes your wound penalties positive bonuses against 
  the target that dealt them to you. If you have Retribution, get this too – it makes a massive 
  combo for turning a combat back into your favor. 
   
  Opportunity's Knock (*): So you spend an action card… to make one of your action cards 
  better. Why not just use the action card for something else? It seems like the time of opportunity 
  has already passed by the time you get to cast this… 
   
  Perseverance (***): Gives you a bonus every time you fail at a single trait roll. It’s probably a 
  good one to cast before Dervish against a hard-to-hit target, and useful for some non-combat 
  situations like hitting that TN11 with Unfetter to unlock a door. 
   
  Prayers of the Faithful (***): Your friends sacrifice action cards to benefit one of your own trait 
  or aptitude rolls. If your friends are in the Benediction Club, then they can help out with some of 
  your tougher Miracles – and being one of the few ways to add flat bonuses to your Faith rolls, 
  that’s definitely a good thing. Sadly, this won’t help with Lay on Hands or some of the better 
  Divine Interventions because of the duration. 
   
  Quench (****): Put out fires. The fact that this puts out Magical Fire is what makes it awesome. 
  With a 10 yard per Faith level range, you can potentially knock a gyrocopter right out of the sky. 
  Being able to quench a large building might come up once or twice as well. 
   
  Sparrow’s Fall (***): Great duration way to keep in contact with your friends if you ever split up. 
  While the range is only 1 mile per Faith, it only says you have to be in that range to cast the 
  Miracle. Afterward I expect you can ride off to Oregon while the other stays in Vegas. It also has 
  the benefit of letting you give Fate Chips to your good buddy as well, and since you have 
  access to the relatively cheap Favored Gift, this could be a net benefit for your party. 
   
  
  Strength of Fellowship (***): If everyone in your party is in the Benediction club, this is way 
  better than Reassurance or Console for dealing with Guts rolls. You gain a bonus to the roll 
  equal to the number of people with Faith in the group, which if you even have two other friends 
  with Faith, that’s a +3. Very nice. 
   
  The Lord Provides (***/****): Get a massive bonus to your Scroungin’ skill and Survival checks 
  to find food. Lasts a very long time. The mileage you get out of this Miracle depends on how 
  much you can do with scrounging up materials for things, but your Mad Scientist or Voodooist 
  friend might be happy you have this Miracle even if you personally don’t benefit from it. 
   
  Water of Life (***): Grace for water, but not quite as useful. Unconventionally you might have 
  the opportunity to use this to dispel acid or maybe even lava (if your Marshal counts that as a 
  liquid). It has a speed of 1 and a range too, so in some cases it might be an easier cast than 
  Succor for curing wind (though the target then has to waste an action too). 
   
  Water to Wine (***): Turn alcohol into a sleep inducing brew. Great for planned situations, but 
  not something you’ll be doing often. 
   
  Fire and Brimstone Gifts 
   
  Beast Friend (**): +2 to Animal Handling, Horse Riding, and other animal related rolls. Horse 
  Riding is probably the biggest selling point here, but for the most part this is just not as useful as 
  Charismatic. 
   
  Charismatic (*****): +2 to Mien aptitudes when dealing with people. This gets you a bonus to a 
  Test of Will, Persuasion and the excellent Leadership skill – as well as the ever important Tale-
  Tellin’. Pick this one up. 
   
  Comforted (**): Not as good as Holy Vestments, but if you’re heading to Arizona or Montana, 
  and your Marshal is paying close attention to temperatures, pick this up – since Holy Vestments 
  requires you recast it every hour. 
   
  Divine Providence (**): Spend Fate Chips even if you go bust. With a red or blue chip, you 
  basically avoid busts entirely. But if you’re rolling 4 or more dice in any given aptitude, your 
  chances of going bust are pretty slim. Thus the value of this Gift depends on how many lower 
  level skills you tend to use. 
   
  Favored (*****): Get an extra Fate Chip every session. Consecrate Armament alone makes this 
  worth taking, and you should consider getting Luck of the Irish as well. 
   
  Guardian Angel (***): People Shootin’ at you get a -2 to their roll. This effectively changes the 
  TN to shoot at you from 5 to 7. Sadly this ONLY affects Shootin’, so it helps with few 
  abominations, and you have a lot of things to deal with humans more easily – such as Strike 
  Blind. Still a great passive benefit, especially if you’re ever surprised though. 
  
  Hardy (****): Ignore 2 levels of wound modifiers and stacks with Thick Skinned. For the 5BP 
  cost, this is an excellent value, and highly recommended. 
   
  Humility (**): Become immune to Tests of Will at the cost of not being able to use them 
  yourself. With other Miracles, the Blessed is one of the best Arcane Backgrounds to use Tests 
  of Will, so this ability’s drawbacks just aren’t good enough to outweigh the defense benefit. If 
  you simply have no interest in Tests of Will though, then base this gift’s value on how often your 
  Marshal actually uses them. 
   
  Insight (****): +2 to all Cognition checks. Since you’re likely one of the best leaders in your 
  party, you’re going to want a high Cognition as well. This is a nice cheap benefit that stacks with 
  the many edges that buff Cognition. 
   
  Lion Hearted (****): +2 to Guts rolls and -5 on the Scart Table if you ever fail a Guts roll. This is 
  better than Bravery, and costs one less BP to obtain (and they stack). 
   
  Longevity (**): Living longer is probably useless for most campaigns, but you also halve the 
  effects of magical aging and aging from the Scart Table. Probably not going to come up that 
  often. 
   
  Magic Resistant (****): Penalizes Black Magic spells targeting you by -4 and Hexes against you 
  by -2. Can’t be turned off, but the Hex’s power comes from the hand drawn, not the initial dice 
  roll, so this isn’t a huge drawback if you depend on your Huckster Friend’s helping hand. Black 
  Magic on the other hand is completely dice dependent, kind of like your Miracles, so imagine 
  this being like you got a -4 to your Faith rolls and that will give you an idea of how good this is. 
   
  Manna (***): Never worry about food. As with the many other feed the party skills this gift’s 
  usefulness is dependent on how much your Marshall keeps track of food. 
   
  Pious (*****): Lower the fear level within 5 or 6 yards around you by 2 levels. If you keep a close 
  formation, this is essentially a +2 Guts check buff that you don’t even have to think about. As 
  icing, it gives a +2 to Tale-Tellin’. You will want this eventually. 
   
  Portents (***): Marshal makes you roll against a TN 7 Spirit roll to determine whether what 
  you’re about to do is going to put you in danger. If you really suck at assessing a situation, or if 
  your Cognition isn’t good enough to catch the surprise as it comes, this could save you some 
  headache. 
   
  Prophesy (*): Get an ambiguous glimpse of the future once per adventure after praying for 1d8 
  hours. This sounds a lot more like a Miracle and not a Gift. In either case, you’re going to need 
  someone else with Interpret Vision to make it useful at all. Guide or some other divination is 
  much more proactive and useful for solving your problems, and this ends up just being an easy 
  way for the Marshal to send you leads on whatever quest he has planned. 
   
  
  Refuge o’ Faith (****): Replaces Dodge and Fightin’ with Faith for active defense. I don’t really 
  recommend replacing Fightin’ in general, since you add the aptitude as a flat bonus to the 
  enemy’s TN to hit you, but Dodge alone saves you 15 to 27 BP depending on your Faith level. 
  Chances are you’re not going to have d12s in Nimbleness either, so as an active defense it’s 
  good for Fightin’ too. 
   
  Restoration (***): Lets you heal every 3 days instead of every week, and gives you +2 on the 
  Vigor roll for healing up. Since you can’t heal yourself, you might downright need this if no one 
  else in your party has the ability. It’s still super slow, but combined with the Grace Miracle, 
  you’re going to see a lot of benefit in your natural heals. 
   
  Self-Discipline (***): (Christians, Jews, and Muslims cannot take this gift) Basically a passive 
  form of the Fast Miracle from Hexarcana – you can go up to your Faith level in days without 
  food, with the added bonus of taking half wind damage from suffocation and the ability to play 
  dead. It’s a nice grab-bag of occasionally useful abilities that by themselves are completely 
  outclassed, but as a package might save you some BP. 
   
  Spiritual Giant (*****): Raise your size by 1 with no strings attached. This is way cheaper than 
  Brawny, though if you can you should get both. 
   
  Strong Willed (***): Get a +2 bonus against Persuasion and Tests of Will, and gives magical 
  means of influencing your actions a -2 to be successful. The second part of that is what makes 
  this appealing, and this should be considered once you’ve already taken Magic Resistant and 
  want a little more protection. 
   
  Tongues (*): The changes to Gift of Gab in the revised edition of the Player’s Guide have 
  completely obsoleted this Gift, since that Edge is even cheaper and in many ways more 
  effective. Other than that, you’re just better off using Parley, since that makes you actually able 
  to convey any information you want, and doesn’t require both a decent Mien and Smarts to pull 
  off. 
   
  Vitality (****): Gives a +5 to resist diseases, which is specific, but +5 is an enormous bonus. 
  The added ability to resist diseases that are normally irresistible is a great benefit as well, and 
  though you don’t get your +5 on that resistance, the TN of 9 is surprisingly low and you should 
  still get your +2 bonus from Grace. 
   
  Wisdom (****): Get +2 to both Knowledge and Smarts. Don’t bother with this unless you’re 
  going to take full advantage of it, but for what it’s worth it’s a very nice bonus to some very 
  useful aptitudes (and Smarts is often used to resist allures). 
   
  Zeal (*****): A +2 bonus to an aptitude of your choice, which you can change every game 
  session. The flexibility of this gift makes it a must-have, though most of the time you’re probably 
  going to put it in Shootin’ or Fightin’ depending on what you’re most focused in, but that’s just 
  
  fine. This also stacks with everything, so combined with Wisdom, Insight, or Charisma you can 
  really power up your favorite aptitude. 
   
  Hexarcana Gifts 
   
  Clarity of Thought (*): This could save your life, but you’re definitely going to want to avoid any 
  situation where you’re only drawing one action card in general, thus you shouldn’t need this. If 
  you have at least a 4d8 in Quickness, your odds of NOT drawing at least two action cards is 
  about 6%, so you should put that 5BP toward raising the number of Quickness dice you can roll 
  instead. Or just take level headed instead. 
   
  Favored of Heaven (**): You’re looking at a 21% chance to avoid death in most cases with this. 
  That number is too low for me, and probably not worth 5BP when you could be spending your 
  BP on things that let you avoid death better instead. If you’ve seriously picked up every spell 
  and gift you’ve ever wanted though, this isn’t a terrible choice. 
   
  Good Karma (***): If you spend a red Fate Chip, the Marshal doesn’t get to draw from the pot. If 
  you’ve taken Holy Roller, you may consider this as well. 
   
  Gumption (*****): Basically a free blue Fate Chip every session. Perfect for that really close Lay 
  on Hands attempt, or a failed TN13 Divine intervention. Highly recommended. 
   
  St. Patrick’s Boon (****): Complete immunity to natural poison and a +4 bonus to unnatural 
  poison. Similar to the Vitality Gift, this is a specific defense, but the effect is powerful enough to 
  make it a great choice. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deadlands [multi]/Deadlands, classic/3rd party/Deadlands - Professor Qs Guide to the Blessed.pdf