Domains of the Gods

[Mr. R]

My recent ruminations has been about the magic granted to priest of the various deities of my world.  I have in all cases been looking for a very plug and play type of set up.  I have a traditional mage type in the form of Metier magic, a more primitive, primal Totemic magic, a source for all those magical toys from Runecrafting.  Now how to make divine magic seem different. One thing I wanted was that each deity had its own special purview or portfolio.  Also I wanted to get away from every cleric having access to the same spell list, but all everyone wants is the heal spells.  So to Killer Shrike I go for some inspiration...  What is this?  Domains.  Spells that are organized according to a portfolio?

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Content/PackageDeals/ExtentionPackages/DomainPackage.aspx

 

 

 

So I decided to grant my deities access to 3 to 4 of the domains.  Could you good people take a quick look and see if you agree with my choices, or maybe make suggestions.  I'll worry about the costing structure later (though I am leaning to a VPP with the limitation Only for Spells from Chosen Domain (-1)) The granted Powers are all 10 pts so they can serve as gateways to the Greater Mysteries.

 

Anyway,  My deities..  (Note ??????? means I am unsure whether that domain fits.   I'd like to limit it to 3/deity, though having a house rule that as a cleric you can only chose 3 out of a possible 4 or 5 is possible!)

 

 

Quote

Toubaris

God of Commerce: Also the traveller, the explorer, of keeping your word, oaths (for good or ill). The god of the legal cheat. The collector, the god of wonder and exuberance! Master of language. (any other ideas?)God of Trade , contracts, and commerce.

 

Skill

Liberation

Travel

Good??????

 

Themis

Goddess of Justice: The balancer, the god of just endings. Goddess of vengeance. the goddess of honour, (any other ideas?) Feuds? Perseverance? Retribution

 

Law

Light???????

Protection

Vengeance

 

Marileea

Goddess of Earth: Mistress of Agriculture. Lady of Seasons. Birth, death and milestones. Queen of the Forest/Jungle. The herbalist / poisoner. (any other ideas?)

 

Death

Plant

Earth

Decay?????

 

 

Readaer

God of Knowledge, learning, tactics, logistics, Healers, cooking

 

Healing

Knowledge

Magic

Voice????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

Kogano

God of the Sky: Lord of the sun. The one who gives warmth. The drought lord. Mountains (any other ideas?), 

 

Sun

Light

Chromata

?????

 

Selan

Goddess of the Night Sky: Lady of the Stars, the navigator, Patroness of sailors, desert travellers. The night predator. romance. (any other ideas?) Poetry, beauty

 

Darkness

Air

Cold

Changeling?????

 

 

Quote

Tolar

Lord of Storms, the rain bringer, Thunderer, Destroyer, Renewer, 

 

Weather

Thunder

Lightning (Reskinned Light)?????

Water

 

Zylan

Pestilence, Purges, sickness, 

 

Decay

Deastruction

Terror

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chast

The Lady of Luck/Trickery, the queen of chance, the thrill seeker, the one who brings down the mighty, fortune favours the bold 

 

Chaos

Luck

Skill

Knowledge????

 

 

Bitva

Wrath God. Blood, suffering, anger, suffering cruelty, war

 

War

Strength

Terror

Evil????

 

Orchen

Fire Lord  Heat, chaos, Uncontrolled fire, 

 

Fire

Chaos

Light

Sun????

 

 

Olea

Goddess Revelry thieves, generosity, the potlatch, Alcohol, Celebrations

 

Trickery

Chaos????

Liberation

Travel

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Man]

I don't see anything obviously wrong with any of your domain assignments, though I confess I didn't go over them super carefully.  The one thing I would add is that I wouldn't stress too much about it--it's not as though gods in real life have clearly delineated spheres of influence.  I wouldn't have an issue with some domain overlap between deities conceptually, it's more a question of game balance for your campaign.

[Mr. R]

5 hours ago, Old Man said:

I don't see anything obviously wrong with any of your domain assignments, though I confess I didn't go over them super carefully.  The one thing I would add is that I wouldn't stress too much about it--it's not as though gods in real life have clearly delineated spheres of influence.  I wouldn't have an issue with some domain overlap between deities conceptually, it's more a question of game balance for your campaign.

 

 

Thank you!  That is encouraging.  I'll look into a few more overlaps as I am looking for a more organic feel to my deities!

[Killer Shrike]

So...the Domain's you link to are meant to be used with the Dominine magic system, which is a relatively close conversion of D&D 3e style Clerics.

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHero/MagicSystems/dominine.aspx

 

Having said that, it could be adapted to some other model of course.

 

[Mr. R]

4 hours ago, Killer Shrike said:

 

Having said that, it could be adapted to some other model of course.

 

 

 

That is what I plan to do.  I am thinking a VPP with a limiter of only domain spells, all at one use (want to cast it more often, use more charges) and maybe give all a LTE so that even then, the spells are not abused.  I am capping at 90 AP and that give a few VERY powerful spells.  Access to about 3-4 domains gives a good spell selection.  They are powerful, within their defined purviews!

[Killer Shrike]

For such a very constrained use case, it would probably be better to use a Multipower vs a VPP. Maybe something like...

 

Domainu:  Multipower, 45-point reserve,  (45 Active Points); Formula Based Total Spell Usages per Day (Usages = (MP Reserve / 15) + ((CON + EGO + PRE) /10), rounded down; -1/2), Domain Spells Only (-1/4), Only While In Good Standing With Patron Deity (-1/4); all slots Side Effects, Always Occurs (AP/10 LTE; -1/2)

[Mr. R]

23 hours ago, Killer Shrike said:

For such a very constrained use case, it would probably be better to use a Multipower vs a VPP. Maybe something like...

 

Domainu:  Multipower, 45-point reserve,  (45 Active Points); Formula Based Total Spell Usages per Day (Usages = (MP Reserve / 15) + ((CON + EGO + PRE) /10), rounded down; -1/2), Domain Spells Only (-1/4), Only While In Good Standing With Patron Deity (-1/4); all slots Side Effects, Always Occurs (AP/10 LTE; -1/2)

 

 

OHHH!   I like!

[Killer Shrike]

Here's a character I threw together with a take on this idea... Sylu, an exemplar of Calistria, the goddess of vengeance:

 

https://www.killershrike.com/MiscCharacters/Fantasy/Rochemotul/Starting/Sylu.HTML

 

Her MP is setup so that there are no charges / slots per day, but every time she switches the MP slots around she suffers 10/AP LTE (so, 4 per activation in her case).  This allows flexibility but at a cost. Switching slots willy-nilly is very fatiguing. 

[Killer Shrike]

In this context, outside of the expected use with the Dominine magic system, I think it is warranted to reduce the cost of the domain unlock talents from 10 to 3 points, and have them function as enhancers (reducing the cost of a choice selection of relevant abilities taken within them. The unlock tax of 10 points per makes sense with Dominine in that it effectively buys an extra charge per spell level per day within that model. But with this lighter weight / much more restricted use case that isn't true and 10 points per domain unlock seems too taxing.

[DShomshak]

On 7/7/2022 at 3:37 PM, Mr. R said:

Could you good people take a quick look and see if you agree with my choices, or maybe make suggestions.

 

Whatever you pick is probably fine. Speaking from my 40+ years of experience as a GM and worldbuilder, I can say your players probably will probably neither notice nor care about your choices for such details... unless they get in the way of a PC getting what the player wants, in which no amount of internal logic will prevent complaining. So don't stress about it.

 

In fact... it might be more interesting to try this exercise: Write down the domains you want available on slips of paper, Put the slips in a bag and shake them up. Pull out three domains at random. See if you can make up a god for that set of domains, no matter how deranged the combination may seem. With a little work, you can probably come up with a myth to justify why the same god deals with, I don't know, Death, Light, and Travel.

 

I also recommend the World Creation Superdrafts threads in the Non-Gaming Discussion forum. A game of competitive shared world construction, in which each participant takes the role of one of the gods making that world. There've been six so far, I think, in which people came up with amazingly creative gods In the last one, I went rather conventional with a God of Love; but other people produced gods of Metal, Colors, Moons, Doors, and a truly terrifying God of Tyranny -- among others. I guarantee these will broaden your horizons when it comes to designing gods.

 

EDIT: Here's the link to the last one. Enjoy.

World Creation Superdraft 6: May 2022 - Non-Gaming Discussion - HERO Games

 

Dean Shomshak

[assault]

2 hours ago, DShomshak said:

With a little work, you can probably come up with a myth to justify why the same god deals with, I don't know, Death, Light, and Travel.

Example: The Sun Travels across the sky each day, bringing Light to the world, and ferrying the Dead to the underworld.

Actually an easy example, although not so much if you have established the Sun as a separate domain from Light.

Poseidon was a neat historical example: the Sea, Horses and Earthquakes.

[DShomshak]

Heh, or Apollo: Sun/Light, Archery and Athletics, Medicine, Music? A bit of a grab bag. But then, if the gods are people with personalities and life stories of their own, why would they be tightly consistent any more than mortals are tightly consistent? Over time, my interests have included paleontology, Star Trek, librarianship, vampires, superheroes, and writing. Among others. I'm sure anyone here could list similarly scattershot interests.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Mr. R]

Thank you all for the advice!