User:Average/Gods
Player-characters can have gods. For becoming one, see deity. Gods are generally personal and concrete, but sometimes ancient gods have set up things that continue to silently influence and define an eon. They aren't always around anymore, if no one believed in them. Through some great deed or knowledge, they attained great power, but there was no one to help them keep it. The gods evolved, learned the concept of entropy, and made humans to counter-act it. Humans, through their different awareness, turned this perceptual data into more order.
The more "modern" gods are generally denizens of some great, heroic or fearful, deed that instilled loyalty. Some such demi-gods are simply legendary, hardly an object of worship for those players who are seeking real adventure.
DMs manage the will of the gods and regional game masters set thier agendas. Before, DMs did this more-or-less subconsciously, through finessing die rolls and such. But now, it is much more straightforward. Gods are trying to accomplish things over time. When any particular player moves in one of their directions, they get advantage from the gods - the gods are rolling one of the die, you could say. Or perhaps some equipment that the god is aware of how to create is placed in the players way as a seeming good-fortune.
Three main abilities:
- Detect alignment: they can naturally detect the alliances of each PC and NPC, giving some ability to detect whether they can assist their aims or harm them.
- Command: They can command PCs and NPCs that are made by those gods with the power of their words. This does not include the power to live or die, though they can send mana to them or cut it off (adverse alignment)
- Teleport: They can send objects or themselves across the realms to either a place in which they are familiar (prior visited) OR to a general area that they are not very familiar. The exact location for this latter is decided by Oerth goddesses who keep the harmony of the material planes and place it to either where it provides greatest harmony or to those who need it the most.
The third one shows the interplay between gods and goddesses and points to something interesting. Ideally and ultimately, they must work in harmony. One could say, even, that the ultimate goal of the powers-at-large is to create a Utopia. This, so far, has become the highest goal of the realms held by the wisest of gods/goddesses, because every other goal, such as power and such, were played out during the Mage Wars of the First Age, the memory of which is still held by the re-occurrance of spellplague.
When there are NPCs that are oppositely-aligned with the players gods, they can get a critical hit which means the DM has to roll an equivalent dice on all top numbers rolled by the player.
Also, on that note, if there are gods that are adverse to your character's gods, interaction with traps and hoard-bosses will trigger engagement with that gods. So, if you kill all the goblins and then get to the goblin-boss and get him down to critical hit-points, the god of those goblins may have to roll with the other gods to decide what will happen next. That could range from the goblins god coming down and trying to slay you, to a light curse on your player that gives you bad luck in some circumstances that that god has power over, to an infection that occurs from the blade of the goblin.
Influence of gods generally involves apparently random luck (mediated by the DM), the emergence of oppositely-aligned NPCs to take out, or gifts (special weapons or enchanted equipment) that assist their far-reaching goals. Generally, the higher the level of god, the more general and subtle the effects of their influence on the realms -- they know the fumblings of others will generate opportunities.
When a player chooses to become a cleric and announces their loyalty to one of the gods, the trust score from their god is improved dramatically. The difference is something like 10% to 99%. That gives significant protection (AC equivalent) without having to do anything, depending on the power of thier god. A fighter (or any other PC) is generally no more than half of that (up to 50%). For goddesses, druids and herbalists get favor, as witches don't give their loyalty.
DMs track the trajectories of gods (to establish trade along the sword coast to islands westward). Progress gets players +XP. If they act against their own gods, they can get bad luck.
Gods have a host of traits (depending on what stats they have) and an ally list in which they allocate various advantages and luck. These bring subtle advantages to PCs and NPCs below, most of which are just written off as happenstance. If a god has high STR, for example, then the advantage given is in battle, since they no longer have any need for it. The amount of advantage is based on the deity's XP. Traits as follows:
- STR: battle advantage (conferring +DAM)
- DEX: greater reliability to their loyalists
- CON: strength of auric field given to those in their trust network (like clerics who've declared them their god)
- INT: quality of help or equipment, battle strategies
- PTY: sublimated to the others, as per deity info,
- CHR: amount the god looks or seems cool to those below
- PER: confers no direct advantage to the realms, but allows deity to be more aware of what's happening by other PCs and NPCs (if they aren't exercising stealth).
- ASM: equipment items appear exactly where they want
- MANA: the accumulated mana of the gods (from worship from or by those below or death-reclamation from battles) gives more power to the gods to affect the world
- HP: how much emergency aid is at their disposal. Mana gets converted to HP while they are at rest, but in emergency this stored HP can convert to life power to aid their underlings.
- XP: power to accomplish the above
STR attribute affects fighters (giving +DAM bonusii) if they are loyal to the god OR the god simply favors them. Fighters have to figure out whether to accept this extra power or stay ronin.
Since they are no longer incarnated, gods sometimes compete for followers to get the PTY energy. They may build lovely temples, sacred texts, and recruit others to expound on the virtues of their gods.
Gods can duplicate equipment by their thoughts -- if they were the ones who originally made every part of it. What happens is that the universe spins into motion to create those items and it gets to the PCs or NPCs desired. The efficiency (items made per day) of this depends on their total accumulated Piety (PTY)-- how many levels of people put their faith in that god. Add the total levels and the total PTY of those who put their faith in that god. If the total of levels is greater than the total of PTY, then (that many or prize LEVELs) items can be made per day. If no one has any faith in that god, nothing happens. The effectiveness of the creation (how intricate, beautiful, or powerful) depends on the accumulated ASM scores. Again, like efficiency, but add the total of ASM scores, they could churn out a highly-prized item (high ASM scores) one a day or several lessor ones. The time for delivery to that player (or NPC) in the game universe is a factor of the amount and number of loyal followers if their dieties who are opposed to the existing order, or if positively aligned then simply the total DEX of everyone who believes in that god. Pretty neat, eh?
Gods can develop these abilities (PTY, ASM, and DEX) by setting up nice shrines (for PTY), making challenges that create disabililies elsewhere (raises ASM score somewhere else), or striking fear in the people (increasing DEX). The morality of these effects have not been tested nor measured, but then these are the gods -- they are tested and measured by the amount of value they add to the realms.
There is also the god of coinage: Loki. Loki will make custom-made gold pieces and such to cities and leaders loyal to him. Otherwise you will have to build the skillset to engrave and smelt coins. He only asks that 10% be spent on the greater good of the realms: either better trade routes, better conditions for people, greater protection for the good-aligned creatures the gods have made.
Ancient gods:
- giants, and sons (involved in the creation of the land of the realms): In time, they got cut down to size, their remnants are now found in the Aryan races.
- wizards and half-wizards, unnamed. They, too, got reduced in power, until the Age of Great Magic rises again. Their power now in the realms is a far cry from what their power was when they were level 1000. In fact the very idea of levels you could say originated with them.
These are the creators of the realms and many of the NPCs, including pretty much all the animals. Now lesser gods take the limelight, with generally less wisdom and, frankly, less power, but far more fanfare. Many of the other NPCs are fall-out and mutts from the various battles as entities fought for the power from which the realms came from. You probably shouldn't fraternize with them too much, lest they think they're more valid than they actually are.
