Shar (Forgotten Realms) - Dark rituals that give powerz to PCs (Pls help)

IMC, the PCs like to keep things secret from one another. The entire campaign has been punctuated by little investigations here and there into the other players.

One of the players is a Cleric of Shar (level 13 now), and he has kept his deity a secret from the other players since the beginning. However, due to recent events, it's becoming clear that his secret will soon be exposed.

The player has spoken to me about possibly revealing his true nature to the rest of the party, but he wants to see if they will join him in his worship of Shar. He would like for me to create a dark ritual or something that would entice the other PCs into joining him. He'd really like it to be something that will advance in power as they level up, so it's not a short-lived allegiance.

Since Shar is all about using hidden cult cells to do her bidding, this is perfect. The Cleric of Shar could easily be seen as the "cell leader" and the other PCs, even without levels in cleric, could be seen as cultists or followers.

I want to offer something that the players will like, and I really like the idea of possibly enticing the other PCs to begin worshiping this dark god. I want the dark ritual that they enter into to be powerful enough to be really attractive from a player perspective, but not overpowerful. I also want the ritual/powers to be in the vein of Shar. It should be about shadow, darkness, and evil. And hate for Selune, the moon goddess and Shar's twin sister.

Ideas I've had are:

* A free level in cleric (not sure about this, too weak? too strong?)

Maybe the ritual offers a few different things to choose from and each PC gets to choose only one (whichever they want). Each time the ritual is performed (which can only be done once every two levels of the cell leader), the members can choose another power. These would be things like:

* +1 Profane bonus to AC
* +1 Profane bonus to Attack
* +1 Profane bonus to All Saves
* +4 Profane bonus to Gather Information, Sense Motive, Bluff, Hide, or Move Silently (pick one)
* Spell-like ability usable once per day (but what ability? something shadow-oriented no doubt -- maybe a spell from Shar's domain spells? And what level of spell would be allowed? Maybe, it could be anything from Shar's domain spell list that the cleric cell leader can already cast?)

Drawbacks: I want there to be some secret negative to performing the ritual too. I'm not sure I want to take the heavy-handed approach of automatically changing their alignments to evil, but this is definitely an evil act.

I had the idea of using Gaes/Quest. Basically, the cell members would be compelled to obey the cleric cell leader in matters of the church as though under the effects of Gaes/Quest. The cell leader could not use this power to force a member to do something non-church related, like "Fetch my shoes," but he could use it for matters of faith, like "Kill that Selune follower."

As for the leader of the cult, his "negative" is that he now has a personal relationship with Shar. She will communicate with him through his dreams and in the dark of night to make her wishes known to him. She will expect him to obey her desires and carry out her commands. Failure to comply will be met with some kind of punishment (loss of WIS maybe? or loss of spells?).

I'm looking for any suggestions or feedback on this idea.

If you have the Faiths and Pantheons book, there are some notes there about rituals used by the Church of Shar to give their agents and clerics an "ace in the hole." As I recall they were cool, but had excessive drawbacks. Maybe use them as a starting point, but tone down the drawbacks and/or amp up the power?

I love this!

I suggest +1 profane bonus to a single save category for every three levels gained as a worshiper of Shar. One at the first level, then one at the 4th level, one at 7th, etc. They can choose each time - so the first time they gain a level, they might choose +1 to all Will saves. Then after they gain 3 more levels, they could choose +2 Will or +1 Will and +1 Reflex or Fort. You get the idea. If this is not enticing enough, just make it +1 to any save once per day or something.

On the negative side, for EACH level they gain as a worshiper of Shar they must perform an evil act. You don't tell them this. Once they gain the first level, they begin to feel a little uneasy. Don't connect it with the bonus. If someone does something evil, they feel better. If not, the feeling becomes stronger - they start feeling the urge to do the wrong thing in situations ("You can hardly resist the innkeeper's gold." "The prisoner is almost dead anyway, you feel like finishing the job."). Eventually, it raises to a geas-like degree.

OOOh. I can feel the evil already...

Nice idea. I really suggest to be very evil with the drawback act, and as the ability of the Harvester, a devil, states:
"The victim feels a strange urge and he can feel soothing relief waiting for him if
he only gives in to the malevolent whispers that echo in his mind."
If the char. takes too long to complete this quest, i'll start to give 1d4 Wis dmg every week (he's going nuts for the voices in his head) until fulfilled.

For the bonuses: maybe 1 every 4 levels of Cell, can take multiple times

Smite Good 1\day (similiar to paladins')
+1 Saves vs spells\effects cast by a Good Opponent
+1 Caster level in a single school of magic, all spells from that school considered "evil"
DR 2/good, overcome DR/evil (adds up with other DRs)

from cell 12+:
The next feat the character gains can be a Vile feat from Book of vile darkness
The char. can learn 1 spell from Book of vile darkness (not for free)

maybe you can gain more hints looking at Evil outsiders abilities. Heck, you could give them the evil outsider subtype traits somewhere around 16 or 20 lvl of cell (wich, if they fight good folks, is more a drawback than a bonus)

I just wanted to followup on my post from earlier to let you know what happened.

The player (cleric of shar) was really wanting to offer something cool and flavorful, so we decided against +1 bonuses. Instead, we made the following deal:

* Each PC who entered into the ritual could choose one spell from the two domains known to the cleric PC (which were Knowledge and Darkness). This spell is then treated as a spell-like ability for the PC, usable once per day. Everything else about the spell is treated as though the Cleric of Shar was actually the caster. So, they could not take a spell of too high level or from a domain that the Cleric PC did not know.

- OR -

* Each PC in the ritual could take one ability granted by one of the two Sharran prestige classes, Nightcloak or Shadow Adept. We basically cherry-picked a few abilities from each class to put on a list. As with the spells, the abilities available were based on the levels that the PC himself had in his own prestige class (Shadow Adept).

The idea was to offer a number of cool abilities (and some not-so-great ones), but only allow each player to pick one, and make sure that none of the abilities were more powerful than what the Cleric PC had access to as well.

Other Effects: During the ritual, one of the PCs (the one who had been reluctant to join the cult when the cleric PC first spelled out what he was offering) expressed some concern over what he was being forced to commit to. He was more or less just going along with it and not really meaning it.

Shar then tested the PC cleric by whispering in his mind, "This one lacks faith. Would you destroy him if I commanded it?" The answer: "Yes." Shar then decided, very well, she would allow this cult cell to be formed, and she granted its leader a strong instrument to that purpose.

The PC cleric has a Gaes/Quest effect in place that he can call upon with regard to the party members. This control only extends to matters of faith like, "Hey guys, I think we should destroy this temple of Selune," not secular matters like, "Hey, hand me my shoes." Only the PC cleric knows he has this control. That fact was not made known to the others PCs.

Also, the PC cleric now feels the breath of Shar on the nape of his neck. He knows she is watching him. He now feels a "personal relationship" with Shar that he has never known before. I plan to use this to propel the story and to give the cleric orders from his deity.

I like it

Good job!