Enforcer84 Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Those who hate d20 probably haven't read beyond the title so for the rest of you... my Breath of Fire Hero game as a large and conveluted Dietific Population, basically made up of the characters and major NPC's of the games. I like the concept of Godly Realms or "domains" and was wondering if you could help me with a few Domain abilities. Forexample: Ganer Bateson, Patron God of Community has the following domains: Community (really? Go figure) Protection Healing I am looking for 5 - 15 pt abilities for his priests. Priests get the Domain abilities at the beginning of thier careers in addition to spells. There are no Domain Spells. This is it. For Ganer, I have decided that the abilities are like this: Community: +1 to Oratory Skill (2pts), Bureaucracy (3pts), + 5 PRE when dealing with home Community (-1) (2pts) Protection: Village Ward: Change Environment 1" radius, -1 OCV, Long-Lasting 20 Minutes, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Difficult To Dispel (x4 Active Points; +1/2), Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2), Selective Target (+1/2) (27 Active Points); Incantations (Complex; -1/2), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2), Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2) (11pts) Healing: +3 to Healing Skill (6pts); +5 to Faith Roll for Healing Spells Only (-1) (5pts) Any Other Ideas for Domains anr their abilities? I'll post more as I get them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please I need to edit out references to a "Default Magic System", which I no longer use, but the basic idea behind the Domains wont change when I do that: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Conversion3e/Class3e/Clerics.shtml http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/GreyHEROContent/Powers/Spells/Spells.asp?Type=Divine&Subtype=Clerical_Domain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Off the top of my head: You could define a priestly domain as an EC of some kind. Or you could modify some of the spell colleges from 4th Edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakkenkin Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please Protection: Village Ward: Change Environment 1" radius, -1 OCV, Long-Lasting 20 Minutes, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Difficult To Dispel (x4 Active Points; +1/2), Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2), Selective Target (+1/2) (27 Active Points); Incantations (Complex; -1/2), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2), Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2) (11pts) what effect does the Change Enviroment do? How does it function as a Village Ward? Drakkenkin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please what effect does the Change Enviroment do? How does it function as a Village Ward? Drakkenkin Reading the Spell, I would guess that he intends that those unfriendly to the village suffer a -1 OCV penalty, making them miss more and thus "protecting" the hapless villagers from the raiders attacks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakkenkin Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Okay, got it. Sounds cool. Drakkenkin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted April 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please Reading the Spell' date=' I would guess that he intends that those unfriendly to the village suffer a -1 OCV penalty, making them miss more and thus "protecting" the hapless villagers from the raiders attacks.[/quote'] Exactly. It was more interesting than a force field! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please Any Other Ideas for Domains anr their abilities? I'll post more as I get them. Having created a mythology with over 300 named dieties for my Fantasy Hero campaign set in the world of Dolwr, I naturally also had to come up with a list of domains. My domain list has 509 entries. Granted there are a lot of areas of overlap, or of sub-domains, but you might find the list useful. If you want, let me know and I'll post it. Edit: I should add that a lot of the domains are specific to something in the god's personal myth, and may not be of much use. For example, Orm, the Regent for Azuth-Anam (King of the Gods) is usually referred to as the God of Law. Law is indeed his primary domain, but his entire list of domains is Law, Contracts, Barristers, Solicitors, Pearls, Amber, Garnets. The gemstones in his portfolio relate to a specific incident involving Tethwe, the Goddess of Mischief and Merriment. His portfolio also illustrates what I mean about a lot of overlap. Most people wouldn't bother to list Law, Contracts, Barristers, and Solicitors seperately. However, sometimes it's very useful to break things down in this highly granular nature. For example, Orm is what I'd probably call Lawful Evil in D&D terms -- a lot like Zeus, in other words. His son, Rhandormus the Just, is God of Judgment, Judges, Law Officers, The Falsely Accused, The Unjustly Punished. Orm may decree the Law, but his right and just son Rhandormus interprets and administers his father's Law. It's a lot of nitpicky detail in the Domains, but it fits my world and my mythology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted April 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please I'd like to see it; I mean I have about 30-40 gods with the "War" domain. I'm pretty sure that's going to be +1 with God's favored weapon and +1 with all combat. (10 pts total) but what should I give for the Love goddess? or the Family Domain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Im rewriting the Domain Cleric document as we speak, removing references to an obsoleted concept of a Default Magic System and collating specifics into one document rather than referring back to a master document as in the above link. Here is a sneak peek at the rough draft: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/GreyHEROContent/PackageDeals/domainPackages.shtml Nothing has changed content wise, but it's better organized (I hope). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Priestly "Domains" Help, Please I'd like to see it; I mean I have about 30-40 gods with the "War" domain. I'm pretty sure that's going to be +1 with God's favored weapon and +1 with all combat. (10 pts total) but what should I give for the Love goddess? or the Family Domain? Okay, here's the domain list. Reading this post of yours, I realize I may have inadvertently led you to an erroneous conclusion. The way I do priests in Dolwr is a bit fast-and-loose; that is, I don't have "Domain Packages" of skills, etc. I usually represent their devotion to a particular diety by way of Psych disads, Watched disads, Contacts, and in extreme cases, Hunted (by followers of rival dieties) or Reputation (Bad). These tend to be based more on the mythology of the world rather than on the exact domain of the diety the priest follows. For Skills, WF and such, I leave that up to the "individual" character. I can make some general assumptions (a priest of Orm will likely have a couple of levels in KS: Law, a follower of Thorn, God of Soldiers, will have several WF [likely hand-to-hand] and probably a combat level or two; a follower of Saven, Goddess of Wisdom & Warcraft, will likely have Tactics and KS: Famous Battles...things like that) but an individual is an individual, not a cookie-cutter, so I have no problem with a follower of Thorn who can't hit the broadside of a barn...maybe he joined the priesthood to try and improve his lousy aim, maybe he regards the ideals of the god so much that his heart demands he devote his life to that god, even if he's not very good at it. I'm not saying all the priests will be misfits & oddballs of course, but that I don't like to "straightjacket" myself with pre-defined things like "they'd all have at least +1 with xxxxx". Anyway...sorry for the long ramble. I guess I was under the impression you were looking for more domain ideas, not just things to put into a package for domains you already had. Well, maybe this will be of some use and maybe not. In any case, here goes: Abandoned, The Acting Actors Addiction Agents Provocateur Agony Agriculture Air Alchemy Allegations Amber Ambition Anger Anguish Archers Archery Architects Archives Art Artists Assassins Athletes Autumn Balance Banishment Bards Barristers Bats Beasts Beauty Betrayal Bigotry Birds Birth Bloodlust Bravery Brawling Brewing Brutality Bureaucrats Burials Caravans Carnal Knowledge Carousing Carpenters Cartography Cats Caverns Caves Celebrations Cellars Ceremony Champions Chaos Chastity Childbirth Children Chivalry Cities Civilization Coal Collaborators Comedy Comfort Common Sense Compassion Conquest Continuity Contracts Cooking Cooks Corruption Courage Courtship Craftsmen Creation Creativity Crossroads Cruelty Currents Dance Dancers Daring Darkness Dawn Day Dead, The Deadly Secrets Death Decadence Decay Deceit Deception Defense Delusion Deserts Despair Desperate Actions Destiny Destruction Determination Dignity Diligence Diplomacy Diplomats Disasters Discipline Discord Discretion Disease Distance Distilled Spirits Divination Domesticated Animals Doors Downtrodden, The Dragons Drama Dreams Drought Dueling Dusk Duty Dwarven Families Dwarves Earth Earthquakes Ease from toil East Wind Eccentricity Eloquence Elves Endurance Engineering Engineers Entertainers Entropy Envy Eternity Ethics Exceptions and Exclusions Excuses Exiles Expatriates Explorers Faithfulness False Promises Falsehoods Falsely Accused, The Famine Farmers Fatal Attractions Fatalism Fate Fear Feasting Fellowship Fertility Festivals Filth Fire Fish Fishermen Fitness Flowers Flying Creatures Fools Foresight Forest Creatures Foresters Forests Forgiveness Formal Combat Fortifications and Defense Fountains Fresh Water Friendship Funerals Fury Future, The Gamblers Gambling Games Garnets Gates Gems Generosity Genocide Giantish Families Giants Glory Gluttons Gluttony Glyphs Good Council Grace Grain Greed Guardians Happiness Harbors Harmony Harvest Hate Healers Health Hearth Hedonism Heralds Herders Heroes Hints History Home Honesty Honor Hope Horses Hospitality Humility Humor Hunger Hunters Hunting Idleness Illusion Individuality Industry Influence Ingenuity Insanity Insects Inspiration Intellect Intrigue Invention Islands Jealousy Journeys Joy Judges Judgment Justice Keen Senses Knights Knowledge Laborers Lakes Last Resorts Laughter Law Law Officers Leatherworkers Lesser Folk Liberty Lies Light Lightning Liquors Literacy Literature Livestock Locks and Keys Longevity Lost Causes Love Love (Brotherly) Love (Divine) Love (Romantic) Love, True (Selfless) Lovemaking Lovers Loyalty Luck Lust Luxury Magic Malice Malicious Humor Marriage Martyrdom Massacres Men and Mannish Families Mercenaries Merchants Mercy Merriment Messengers Metals Minerals Miners Mines Minstrels Mischief Misfortune Modesty Money Monster Slayers Monsters Monstrous Races Moon Morals Mountains Mountebanks Murder Music Mysteries Narrow Escapes Nature Navigation Necessity Negotiation Night Nightmares North Wind Oaths Obedience Obsession Occult Lore Oceans Offal Oppression Ores Outcast, The Outcasts Outlaws Pain Panic Papermakers Passion Past, The Patience Peace Pearls Perseverance Physical Pleasure Pillaging Plagues Plants Plays Playwrights Plenty Poetry Poets Poison Politicians Pools Portals Position Power Practicality Precious Metals Prestige Pride Prisons Privilege Prophecy Prophets Propriety Prostitutes Protection Protectors Punishment Purification Purity Putrescence Questions Rain Rainbow, The Random Chance Rascals Rats Reason Rebellion Recklessness Refuse Renewal Responsibility Rest Revelry Revenge Riddles Risks Ritual Rivers and Streams Roads Rogues Romantic Love Rulership Rumor Safety Sailors Scholarship Scribes Sea Creatures Sea Voyages Second Chances Secrets Seduction Self-Control Self-Deception Self-Defense Self-Justification Serenity Servants Sewers Sex Shadows Ships Shipwrights Skill Sky Slaughter Sleep Sloth Smithcraft Smiths Soil Soldiers Solicitors Song Songbirds Sorrow South Wind Speed Spellcasters Spies Spite Sports Spring Springs Stars Stealth Stillness Stonecraft Storms Strategy Strength Strife Strong Emotion Students Summer Sun Sunrise Sunset Sweetmakers Swordplay Theft Thieves Things Left Unsaid Thunder Tides Time Tolerance Torture Trade Traders Tradition Traps Travelers and Journeys Treachery Treason Trees Trickery Truth Tunnels Twilight Tyranny Ugliness Undead, The Underground Places Unity Unjustly Punished, The Unpredictability Valor Vanity Vengeance Vice Victims Victory Vigilance Vigor Violent Death Vitality Volcanos Wanderers War Warcraft Wardings Water Waterfalls Waterways Waves Weather Wells West Wind Wild Animals Wine Winter Wisdom Woe Women Woodsmen Woodworkers Wrath Writing Youth Zeal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Holy Crud! That's a lot 'o domains! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please That seems more like an "Area of Concern" or "Portfolio" list to me. So for example Anomalo the God of Alchemy, Discord, Entropy, and Chance might grant access to the Domains of Magic, Chaos, and Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please That seems more like an "Area of Concern" or "Portfolio" list to me. So for example Anomalo the God of Alchemy, Discord, Entropy, and Chance might grant access to the Domains of Magic, Chaos, and Luck. I guess my definition of 'Domain' may be a bit different from yours, then, because I've generally done it like this: A god has a Portfolio that contains one or more Domains -- and what I'm calling Domains (the things listed above) are what you're calling an "Area of Concern". In my world I don't have anything like a short list of a dozen or so "Domains" (Luck, Protection, Chaos, Law, etc.) into which everything must fit. Broadly speaking I do Divine Magic and Secular Magic as classifications. Within that, a given priest will employ spells that are in keeping with both the Portolio and the principles of the diety they serve. For example, in Dolwr the Goddess of Death, Tory, is called "The Final Friend", "The Gentle Lady" and "She Before Whom All Are Equal". Before Tory came into existence, anyone or anything that suffered what we'd think of as fatal wounds couldn't die, because there was no Death...and with wounds so terrible they could never heal, either, and so lingered on in suffering. This got to be its worst during the Foreverwinter, when Frestwith the Queen of Winter took over the world, and many were frozen solid or suffering from what would amount to complete internal organ frostbite. Into this came Tory, and she released those sufferers from their agony. Bringing the sweet release of death was seen as a great blessing by the suffering, or by the friends and relatives of those suffering who were now no longer in pain. Tory is a kind and caring goddess, and her priests, paladins, and spell reflect that. The only time this is otherwise is when someone has prolonged their life past their proper span, or when dealing with the Undead. In those cases, Tory is not vicious but she is relentless. Tory may be the goddess of Death, but she and her followers encourage people to live life to the full and with as much joy as possible. "There's always time for death, but the time for life comes only once." There are other dieties for the 'darker' aspects of death, like Murder or Slaughter. Tory doesn't get along with them well; she administers Death, but she doesn't seek to press it on all those she can. My point in this is that if you just looked at the average god with 'Death' in their Portfolio, you'd probably start thinking dark and evil sorts of things...mostly due to D&D and its relatives. Since Death is Tory's Portfolio but her attitude is very different from that of the 'average' death god, that's going to have a profound impact on the spells her priests receive, and it's often not easy to pigeonhole the effects neatly into a handful of "Domains". As a GM I have a pretty good feeling for what a particular NPC priest will do; for players, I make sure they have a good understanding of the god's philosophy and outlook, and then evaluate the spells on a one-at-a-time basis to make sure they're appropriate. Further example: would a God of War have access to Healing spells? Maybe, maybe not...Scaris, God of War, Bloodlust and Slaughter -- not likely! But his brother Thorn, God of Soldiers and War -- why not? For all the fact that I have these incredibly granular "domains", I don't like easy pigeonholing. Edit: It's drifting from the topic, but this reminds me of one of my favorite moments in the most recent Dolwr campaign of mine. For various reasons having to do with character background, it struck me while setting up the campaign it would be perfectly fitting that all the PCs had divine parentage, though they didn't know it...and this would also give me a good reason to move the campaign up to really high level stuff later on. In any case, during the first major combat (guarding a caravan with which they were traveling from some maurauding trolls) things went horribly wrong -- the dice were just brutal and before I realized just how bad it had gotten, one max-damage swipe from the biggest troll put one of the PCs so far down in the negative BODY range that the first point of bleeding would kill her...and one of the other PCs, who as it happened, had a healing potion, could not get to the downed PC before she'd bleed that point and die. Normally if things had gone this wrong through no fault of the players, I would have fudged things a bit to prevent a PC death this early in the campaign. Circumstances conspired though, and I didn't realize just how far down the injured PC was when I announced the troll's max damage blow. I was wracking my brain to come up with a way to salvage this without making it too much a 'GM ex machina' sort of event, when it came to me: Tory! The goddess of Death always comes personally for immortals or those of divine blood. None of the PCs (or players) knew the characters had divine blood, and this would be a way to salvage the situation and start them wondering. Bingo! When the PC with the healing potion saw Tory walking across the battlefield toward her downed comrade (and no one else on the battlefield seemed to see Tory -- the PC in question saw her because of the PC's divine heritage), she went a bit crazy...and did a Move Through on Tory, knocking her away and then wrestling Tory to the ground! This was the last sort of thing I'd expected to happen (but the way the night was going, it shouldn't have been a surprise). Tory didn't take hostile action against her assailant, just pulled herself free and explained gently that Alaranyndriel (the downed PC) was already dead (she was, by this point) and that she needed to be released from her fleshly remains. The conversation/debate went on for a while, and the more I talked as Tory, the more I realized there was no reason to 'spare' Alaranyndriel. Problems, problems. Fortunately, inspiration struck again -- and a haunting pipe melody (no words) began to drift across the battlefield. While most everyone and everything (including the trolls) were literally spellbound, Tory cocked her head to one side and listened to the music, a sort of primal, vital tune...and at its end said to the empty air "Very well, old friend. Just this once!", stood up from where she'd been kneeling next to Alaranyndriel's side, looked at the PC with the healing potion and said "Now! Be quick!" and pushed Alaranyndriel's spirit back into her body (putting her back at 1 point away from death). Whisper fumbled out the potion and managed to get it to Alaranyndriel's mouth, and that saved her life. Tory departed, and in the aftermath of that unearthly music, the battle just sort of stopped with everyone dazed and confused...the trolls even forgot to fight and wandered off back into the forest. The PCs spent some time after that discussing what had happened, what it might mean, and would Tory hold a grudge? [For the record, Alaranyndrield is half Fell, and she knows this -- the Fell are basically the demons and dark gods of Dolwr. While the vast majority of the Fell are evil, not all of them are...Nyn, the Goddess of Night, is a Fell but she is a 'good' diety. Alaranyndriel is the daughter of Bahdroune, Lord of the Dance -- and though he, too, is a Fell, he's neither good nor evil -- he's much more primal than that...a lot of the 'Green Man' in his make-up, you might say. It was Bahdroune's piping that brought the battle to a halt and asked Tory to spare his child, just this once.] [And also for the record...no, Tory doesn't hold a grudge against Whisper. She understands. ] So from what grew into a very big screw-up came some very neat interactions, hints about the PC's backgrounds, and one of my all time favorite scenes: "I'm going to run full tilt at Tory and knock her away! She's not coming anywhere near Alaranyndriel!!" "You mean you're going to do a Move Through on the Goddess of Death?!?" "Uhm...yeah. Pretty much." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Tory is a kind and caring goddess' date=' and her priests, paladins, and spell reflect that. The only time this is otherwise is when someone has prolonged their life past their proper span, or when dealing with the Undead. In those cases, Tory is not vicious but she [i']is[/i] relentless. Tory may be the goddess of Death, but she and her followers encourage people to live life to the full and with as much joy as possible. "There's always time for death, but the time for life comes only once." snip My point in this is that if you just looked at the average god with 'Death' in their Portfolio, you'd probably start thinking dark and evil sorts of things...mostly due to D&D and its relatives. Since Death is Tory's Portfolio but her attitude is very different from that of the 'average' death god, that's going to have a profound impact on the spells her priests receive, and it's often not easy to pigeonhole the effects neatly into a handful of "Domains". As a GM I have a pretty good feeling for what a particular NPC priest will do; for players, I make sure they have a good understanding of the god's philosophy and outlook, and then evaluate the spells on a one-at-a-time basis to make sure they're appropriate. Tory sounds similar to Lims Kragma from Feist's Midkemia, or Morr from Warhammer FRPG, and to a lesser extent Wee Jas from Greyhawk. All had differing stances on the things you are referencing for Tory, but Lims Kragma and Morr are almost identical whereas Wee Jas also did not like the Undead and was more of a funerary oriented Death God as opposed to Nerull "the Reaper" who was a Death all the time God. That aside, just because a God is a "Death God" doesnt necessarily mean they have to give access to the "Death" Domain if it is inappropriate to their schtick. You pick the Domains that make sense, or make a new Domain if nothing else fits. The advantage to making the Domains somewhat generic is that they are modular, and more importantly they are effects driven. Folling the Death Domain line of thought a bit further, a War God that focused on slaughter might give access to the Death, Destruction, and Chaos Domains (and not War), while a Death God that focused on final rest might give access to the Law (everything has a Fate), Protection (Not your time to die yet) and Travel (few priests, many funerals -- plus the "Ethreal Jaunt" Granted Power could be spun to have a Death God slant) Domains (and not Death) to their Clerics. Further example: would a God of War have access to Healing spells? Maybe, maybe not...Scaris, God of War, Bloodlust and Slaughter -- not likely! But his brother Thorn, God of Soldiers and War -- why not? For all the fact that I have these incredibly granular "domains", I don't like easy pigeonholing. What you are talking about is more similar to the AD&D 2e Spheres of Influence model than the D&D3e Domain model, where Specialty Priest had lesser or greater access to Spheres determined by their diety, and that defined what their Spell List was. You basically have a lot of Spheres of Influence, from your description. The D&D 3e Domain concept is completely different. All Clerics have access to all General Spells, save where Alignment restrictions come into play on a handful of Spells, and then have 2 or more Domains that "flavor" their Spell List basically, from which they can cast 1 extra Spell per Spell Level per day chosen from amongst all their Domains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Tory sounds similar to Lims Kragma from Feist's Midkemia' date=' or Morr from Warhammer FRPG, and to a lesser extent Wee Jas from Greyhawk. [/quote'] I'm not familiar with any of those except Wee Jas, and even then only in passing. I just got sick of seeing "death god = evil / evil followers" for years on end, and decided I was going to do it different. My mythology has a heavy dose of Greek influence (being the 'real' mythology with which I'm most familiar), and Hades wasn't evil, just stern. Why RPG systems so heavily rooted in Greco-Roman and Western European myth seem to always want to paint death gods as evil is beyond me. All had differing stances on the things you are referencing for Tory, but Lims Kragma and Morr are almost identical whereas Wee Jas also did not like the Undead and was more of a funerary oriented Death God as opposed to Nerull "the Reaper" who was a Death all the time God. That aside, just because a God is a "Death God" doesnt necessarily mean they have to give access to the "Death" Domain if it is inappropriate to their schtick. You pick the Domains that make sense, or make a new Domain if nothing else fits. Unlike most of the dieties in my pantheon, Tory only has two children (my feeling being that a goddess of death isn't the best one to be procreating and bringing new life into the world). Those children are Amin the Gravelord, God of Funerals and Funeral Rites (by Cethryn, God of Ritual) and Moriah, the Goddess of Massacres (via the afore-mentioned Scaris). Scaris persuaded Tory that every now and then even healthy populations have to be "thinned" for the good of all, and Moriah was the result. Neither parent is happy with their child...Moriah is businesslike and unmoved by her duties; Scaris wanted an enthusiastic partner in bloodshed and Tory more and more regrets doing anything that helps Scaris' aims. By the by, Tory is the Goddess of Death, but not the diety of the Dead...that's her consort Petris. (Petris was a mortal man, the son of the goddess of architechts, and he designed and built the Land of the Dead in 9 days and 9 nights. As a reward he was elevated to godhood and given dominion over the dead that Tory has released.) The duties that deal with the Death domain are a bit parceled out in my world. The advantage to making the Domains somewhat generic is that they are modular' date=' and more importantly they are effects driven. Folling the Death Domain line of thought a bit further, a War God that focused on slaughter might give access to the Death, Destruction, and Chaos Domains (and not War), while a Death God that focused on final rest might give access to the Law (everything has a Fate), Protection (Not your time to die yet) and Travel (few priests, many funerals -- plus the "Ethreal Jaunt" Granted Power could be spun to have a Death God slant) Domains (and not Death) to their Clerics.[/quote'] The only problem I have with the 'modular' approach is I'm afraid it would make too many dieties' priesthoods look too similar. It's quite possible to have, say, two dieties who have nearly identical portfolios but vastly differing outlooks. If you follow the modular approach of "x Domain means x ability" and do a plug-n-play sort of approach, then the priests of both those dieties would have identical benefits. Doesn't exactly catch the flavor of what I'm after in making each diety and their priesthood different from the others. What you are talking about is more similar to the AD&D 2e Spheres of Influence model than the D&D3e Domain model, where Specialty Priest had lesser or greater access to Spheres determined by their diety, and that defined what their Spell List was. You basically have a lot of Spheres of Influence, from your description. The D&D 3e Domain concept is completely different. All Clerics have access to all General Spells, save where Alignment restrictions come into play on a handful of Spells, and then have 2 or more Domains that "flavor" their Spell List basically, from which they can cast 1 extra Spell per Spell Level per day chosen from amongst all their Domains. I'm intimately familiar with the D&D stuff; I've been playing it from the red/pink "Basic" box up through 3.5 -- and you're right. I just called them Domains because I like that better than "Spheres of Influence" -- it certainly comes off the tongue easier! I also tend to 'personalize' the actions of my D&D dieties a bit more than many GMs do. Case in point: a couple of years ago two PCs got in a fight over a stupid misunderstanding (a case of jealousy) that led to a duel with near-fatal consequences. The uninjured PC made a frantic attempt to find a cleric before the other PC died, and latched on to a cleric of St. Cuthbert. When the priest cast the healing spell, it failed...the reason being that St. Cuthbert is a god of Common Sense as well as a bit of a curmudgeon, and he wasn't going to let a priest of his heal one of a pair of boneheads who still hadn't resolved their differences over a stupid misunderstanding. Eventually (before the wounded PC died) they did admit they knew better but had let their emotions run away with them...and meant it truthfully. The cleric's healing spells then worked. You see, I'd much rather look at a diety's 'personal myth' (the stories about them) to get a flavor of what kind of magics they'd grant a priest, instead of looking at some plug-in, modular approach to what they hand out and why. It's a difference in approach, and likely my approach wouldn't work for you, as I don't think yours would work for me. I use the Domains (my usage) as a general guideline, not as hard-and-fast rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please I'm not familiar with any of those except Wee Jas, and even then only in passing. I just got sick of seeing "death god = evil / evil followers" for years on end, and decided I was going to do it different. My mythology has a heavy dose of Greek influence (being the 'real' mythology with which I'm most familiar), and Hades wasn't evil, just stern. Why RPG systems so heavily rooted in Greco-Roman and Western European myth seem to always want to paint death gods as evil is beyond me. It the Manichean tendency to need "good guys" and "bad guys" in your standard adversarial RPG. Nobody wants to die, so death is bad, which means Evil with a capital E in the "Alignment" driven D&D mindset. Other games derived from D&D and there you go, Death = Evil. Ive never followed that particular trend myself. The Priests of Wee Jas in my Greyhawk setting fro example were split into two major sects, one that favored her role as a Goddess of Magic and another that favored her role as a Goddess of Death (the Passi Pullatum IIRC -- "Walkers among those who have passed" or some such). A third much smaller sect was of a unitarian bent and was struggling to reconcile the two major sects. The way I handled gods was via a concept of aspects. Many "gods" where just aspects of more powerful entities. Such as Hrugglek and Erythnul frex -- just two perspectives on the same entity. However, if worship of a particular aspect became too strong it could cause the greater entity to fracture over a long enough time line into two or more lesser beings. For example, a background thread had Kord in his Berserker aspect starting to fracture from Kord in his Brawler aspect over a very long period of time. In my version of GH long ago entities were much more basic and primordial and as millenia passed worship of them became more specialized and segmented, causing many of them to fracture. The entity known as Wee Jas was the remaining fragment of a much older entity that originally represented Night (in its connotation as Darkness, Mystery, Death, and generally the Unknown) that had segmented several times spawning several similar dieities including Lolth, and was at risk of splitting again if her worshiper base continued to break down along her seperate "Areas of Concern" so to speak. The only problem I have with the 'modular' approach is I'm afraid it would make too many dieties' priesthoods look too similar. It's quite possible to have, say, two dieties who have nearly identical portfolios but vastly differing outlooks. If you follow the modular approach of "x Domain means x ability" and do a plug-n-play sort of approach, then the priests of both those dieties would have identical benefits. Doesn't exactly catch the flavor of what I'm after in making each diety and their priesthood different from the others. You just make two packages, one for each, and include things in the Packages that differentiate them. Domains arent the only way to flavor a Cleric. I also tend to 'personalize' the actions of my D&D dieties a bit more than many GMs do. Case in point: a couple of years ago two PCs got in a fight over a stupid misunderstanding (a case of jealousy) that led to a duel with near-fatal consequences. The uninjured PC made a frantic attempt to find a cleric before the other PC died, and latched on to a cleric of St. Cuthbert. When the priest cast the healing spell, it failed...the reason being that St. Cuthbert is a god of Common Sense as well as a bit of a curmudgeon, and he wasn't going to let a priest of his heal one of a pair of boneheads who still hadn't resolved their differences over a stupid misunderstanding. Eventually (before the wounded PC died) they did admit they knew better but had let their emotions run away with them...and meant it truthfully. The cleric's healing spells then worked. That sounds like something I would do. On several occassions I even went so far as to have Healing Spells used on characters that had trash talked a Clerics God either not work at all or act as Inflict spells instead. Ive also had Clerics using their Spells in a fashion counter to their Patron's shtick not work at all. As an aside, Cuthbert in particular played a major role in past campaigns. As play developed the "Tennants of Cuthbert" was created in play, as a series of cliche/fortune cookie, common sensical guidelines. I dont have the full list anymore, but some of them were like "Tennant #[dont remember the number]: Many hands make for light work.", which was generally interpretted to mean help your fellow man, and such like. It was pretty funny stuff but took on a life of its own. It got to the point where other PCs would reference a tennant in an attempt to sway the three various Cuthbertites in the group to their way of thinking, or would call them on a tennant in conversation. Good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Actually Dr. A, your list seems like a big help. I was rather leery of simply giving all 40 warrior gods the same bonuses to their priests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please In my version of GH long ago entities were much more basic and primordial and as millenia passed worship of them became more specialized and segmented' date=' causing many of them to fracture. The entity known as Wee Jas was the remaining fragment of a much older entity that originally represented Night (in its connotation as Darkness, Mystery, Death, and generally the Unknown) that had segmented several times spawning several similar dieities including Lolth, and was at risk of splitting again if her worshiper base continued to break down along her seperate "Areas of Concern" so to speak.[/quote'] I like that approach, Killer Shrike! I realize in hindsight that I ended up doing much the same thing with the gods of Dolwr, but through offspring. Generally the offspring had either a more specialized version of the portfolio of one of their parents (Feodra, Goddes of Health and Fitness, was a daughter of Vendimion, God of Healers and Medicine) or something that was suggested by a combination of the portfolios of the two parents (Balderoque, God of Islands, is the son of Azuth-Anam God of Mountains and Giants [among other things] and Colia, Goddess of All the Waters, Mother of Oceans). That sounds like something I would do. On several occassions I even went so far as to have Healing Spells used on characters that had trash talked a Clerics God either not work at all or act as Inflict spells instead. Ive also had Clerics using their Spells in a fashion counter to their Patron's shtick not work at all. As an aside, Cuthbert in particular played a major role in past campaigns. As play developed the "Tennants of Cuthbert" was created in play, as a series of cliche/fortune cookie, common sensical guidelines. I dont have the full list anymore, but some of them were like "Tennant #[dont remember the number]: Many hands make for light work.", which was generally interpretted to mean help your fellow man, and such like. It was pretty funny stuff but took on a life of its own. It got to the point where other PCs would reference a tennant in an attempt to sway the three various Cuthbertites in the group to their way of thinking, or would call them on a tennant in conversation. Good stuff. That sounds like a fun campaign! I've had a lot of campaigns where various aspects of myth or religion 'took on a life of their own'. For example, Dolwr started off with only about a dozen gods, most of whom were named in the Tale of Creation that I spun off the top of my head after 5 minutes of thought. I worked into that Tale several elements that I knew would appeal to the player, like the First God, the King of the Gods, being a giant (this started off as a solo game with only one player) to a more practical concern -- since I was creating this out of whole cloth, I wanted a generously large yet somewhat restricted area of land for the world. I settled on an extra-large-economy size island (small continent) as being ideal...and that meant I had to explain why the world was mostly water...so that lead to Colia's Joy (the coming of the oceans that nearly wiped out everything), which also led to the creation of the First Giants, First Dwarves, and First Men by Azuth-Anam to try and combat the rising waters. And so on and so forth. There was an incredible amout of precedent-setting (for this world) material in that Tale of Creation, but only a dozen or so gods. As you can see from my having over 300 named and detailed dieties, it did kinda grow over time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Actually Dr. A' date=' your list seems like a big help. I was rather leery of simply giving all 40 warrior gods the same bonuses to their priests.[/quote'] Thanks, Enforcer84. If it helped in any way, it's been my pleasure! Forty warrior gods? Yikes! How many gods do you have in your world anyway, or is war a very popular pastime? Hmmm...hang on a sec, I just realized something... I most likely have more than 40 warrior gods in my pantheon, too. Why do I say "most likely", as if I don't know? I'm glad you asked! I set up a rough scale of power for my dieties, based on the D&D framework (don't throw things at me, please!). Greater God, Intermediate God, Lesser God, Minor God, Demigod, True Immortal. (A note of explaination: in Dolwr, gods can and do die, though it's a rare thing. Everyone that dies goes to the Halls of Waiting. If they're non-divine, they eventually pass on into the Land of the Dead, from which no one but Tory and Petris have ever returned. The gods who die never go beyond the Halls of Waiting; they're just confined there for a length of time sufficient to heal/rebuild their bodies. The more thorough their death-dealing wounds, the longer it takes. There are two kinds of "immortals": the so-called Lesser Immortals, like the First Giants and First Men, who live until they're killed [at which time they journey to the Halls of Waiting and eventually pass on into the Land of the Dead] and the True Immortals. True Immortals are the lowest ranks of the true divine beings...they generally have no supernatural abilities apart from not aging and the fact that if they die, they'll eventually be back, like any other diety. Otherwise no powers, usually no worshippers [though there are exceptions] and no ability to grant spells to any followers / priests they may have. In Dolwr, what ultimately happens to you in the Lands of the Dead is a mystery to man and god alike...only Tory and Petris know for sure, and they aren't talking.) Okay...that brings us to the level just above True Immortals, the Demigods. There are lots of demigods, and most of them are collectively known as tennyo. The tennyo are divine beings of little power. Unlike the True Immortals, demigods have actual supernatural abilities, though as a rule they are not worshiped individually nor do they grant spells. There are a great variety of types of tennyo; usually they assist one of their parents in tasks related to the parent deity’s domain. They serve as heralds, craftsmen, warriors, or in whatever capacity is deemed useful by their parent. Examples would the the Aquariae (tennyo of rivers and streams), the Solarae (tennyo of the Sun), the Astarae (tennyo of the stars) and so on and so forth. Some tennyo have become known in their own right, though rarely. One such example would be Theda, the Aquaria of the river that bears her name and runs through the Breccian city Emir Mikhara. Theda is known as the “Mother of Pots†because her mortal son Vartryl invented the craft of pottery. Theda is the local patron goddess of Emir Mikhara and is worshipped there, though nowhere else. As I said, there are lots of types of tennyo, and I haven't detailed (named) even a fraction of them yet. It seems likely that one or more of the war-affiliated gods would have tennyo that perform as shieldbearers, standard bearers, bodyguards, and so on for the war god in question. Since the tennyo are gods, though minor ones, I probably have a lot more than forty 'war gods', if you count the relavent tennyo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Well, Like I said the "Gods" are based on the playable characters and some NPC's from the Breath of Fire SNES and Playstation RPG's many of them were warriors who could also do magic. So my "War" domain will probably apply to several of them. When I get further along I will post what I have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Damn, Dr. Anomaly. I would pay to read your god write-ups. Reading both yours and Killer Shrikes posts makes me pine for the time to play in your campaigns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Damn, Dr. Anomaly. I would pay to read your god write-ups. Reading both yours and Killer Shrikes posts makes me pine for the time to play in your campaigns. I'm flattered, but you'd not have to pay to read them. I'd share if they were in a state to be worth sharing. What I mean by that is this: I've got all the "crunchy" bits entered & organized: portofilios, allies, enemies, offspring, power level, that sort of thing. What keeps it from being something useful I could share with other people is that only a tiny fraction of them have any bits of personal myth or description of personality and goals written down. Most of that's still just in my head, and without that, all that it is, is a collection of data / facts. I'm working on getting those "fluff" bits down in writing, but it's taking me a while, primarily because of a lack of time. I did type up the creation myth the day after I spun it at the beginning of the campaign, so I wouldn't forget it. Since that's all "fluff", if anyone wants to see it let me know and I'll post it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please I would love to take a look at it as I am in the process of developing the creation myth for my game world, I'm always looking for idea fodder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Re: Preistly "Domains" Help, Please Okay, but I'll start a new thread for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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