Turn Unholy Is a Spell Check, Not a Guarantee
Turn Unholy in Dungeon Crawl Classics is a cleric ability resolved as a spell check: 1d20 plus caster level plus Personality modifier. The number you roll is not the whole story. The cleric compares that check to the Hit Dice of the unholy creatures present, and the result table decides what actually happens, from no effect, to turning, to outright destruction. Higher checks reach higher HD and produce nastier outcomes for the enemy. Lower checks touch only the feeblest things in the room, if anything.
The common misread is treating Turn Unholy as a binary switch that either fires or does nothing. It is neither. A failed or insufficient check is a failed cleric action, which triggers the disapproval mechanic exactly like a botched spell. Disapproval accumulates for the day and grows the failure range, so a wasted turn attempt against something far above the cleric’s reach is not free. It taxes every prayer that follows.
Against high HD demons and undead, success is genuinely uncertain, and the math should be run before the dice, not after.
At the table: Before rolling, add caster level plus Personality to the cleric’s likely 1d20, weigh that against the biggest target’s HD on the result table, and if the numbers only clear the weakest creatures present, hold the attempt rather than bank disapproval.
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