(Proposal) All things Ieranth - The Hex Lord

Sparky · Nov 19, 2003

Ieranth
"yair-anth"
The Hex Lord, Doom King, Grim

Enworldian Lesser Deity
Symbol: The Evil Eye or a "bad luck" charm
Home Plane: Demi-plane, The Tower (also The Stone of Spite)
Alignment: Neutral Evil.
Portfolio: Curses, spite, accidents; failed endeavors.
Worshippers: Those who wish harm upon others; those who have failed and pity themselves or blame others.
Cleric Alignments: LE, NE, CE.
Domains: Evil, Destruction, Doom/Misfortune.
Favored Weapon: Intelligent, dancing net, "Spider".

Ieranth is the god of bad luck, ill fate and accidents. He is the god of destiny gone awry. He is not a well-liked god, but if you want someone taken down a notch or two - for real - prayers to him may prove fruitful. Few ever admit to venerating Ieranth, but his name is invoked in whispered hisses across the breadth of Enworld. Ieranth himself is spiky and easily given to offense - he holds at least one long-standing grudge against all in the pantheon except Hyrag. Few know why the Hex Lord's wrath does not fall upon Hyrag, but the god and his followers enjoy a certain amount of freedom from the machinations of the spiteful Ieranth. It is forbidden for clerics of Ieranth to use the magics granted them to harm a follower of Hyrag, this is one of the few iron-clad tenets of Ieranth's dogma.

Followers of Ieranth form loose cabals and worship in secret. They tend to be ambitious and paranoid and as a result these cabals are constantly forming and dissolving. Rites almost always involve scrying, plotting, muttered incantations and the invocation of local luck taboos - breaking mirrors, spilling salt and so on.

Ieranth spends most of his time holed up in his heavily-defended tower stronghold nursing his wounded pride and plotting revenge against those who have wronged him or his adherents. Those who encounter Ieranth rarely see him coming. He always appears clad in a long black robe with a deep cowl. His hair is white and wispy, as is his fine, neatly trimmed goatee. His eyes have hourglass shaped pupils, like those of a goat.

Doom/Misfortune Domain Proposal:
Granted Power: You gain the power of ill fortune. Once per day you can curse a single creature's luck. The target suffers -2 to all checks/saves/attack rolls for 1 round per cleric level. Cursing someone's luck is a standard action and requires a noticable gesture or look. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Doom/Misfortune Domain Spells
1 Doom
2 Darkness
3 Bestow Curse
4 Control Water
5 Unhallow
6 Animate Objects
7 Control Weather
8 Earthquake
9 Soul Bind

Sparky · Nov 19, 2003

I was going to update Ieranth yesterday, but couldn't get to it. Here he is with some other pieces to fill him out some more. Feedback appreciated, especially in regards to the Doom Domain.

Thanks all.

Thomas Hobbes · Nov 20, 2003

Looks interesting- Fant's the sort to quietly mutter invocations to this sort of guy when people start annoying her...

Doom special ability seems a bit clunky, though. First recomendation: Make it 24 hours/level, or A day/two levels, or something like that.

Second: Make it Doom, which only affects 1 person (Bane is a tad indescriminate), is more effective (-2 to everything), and, of course, appropriately named.

Third: Make the chance a caster level check against 11+Character level or HD of target. Change the 11 if you want it to be easier/harder. My general problem with this part is that you need a whole new table in order to make it work.

Make it something flat and easilt calculatable, like (if you wanted basically the same chance as you have now) 3%+10% per +1 wisdom bonus, although I think even that's a bit clunky.

Sparky · Nov 20, 2003

Good ideas. I edited with those changes. Let me know if that's what you meant.

Thanks!

Thomas Hobbes · Nov 20, 2003

Yup, that's about what I meant. Just remember, though, that the caster level check mecanic makes the chance of invocation much higher than 30-40% (usually). Also, a question: does the "charm" wear off after 1 use (that is, has a duration of "1 day per level or until discarged,") or can it be invoked repeatedly?

Sparky · Nov 21, 2003

What about this as the granted power for the doom domain?

Clerics of Ieranth get +2 to their attack rolls when making Trip or Disarm attempts. For the opposed check (for tripping) the Cleric uses Wisdom instead of Strength. The target rolls a die - if the result is odd, the target uses the lesser bonus between Strength or Dex; if even, the greater.

Hmm... still clunky... nothing like adding rolls to combat, eh?

Clerics of Ieranth get +2 to Craft(Trapmaking) checks (I know crafting is undetermined as such - will flesh this out if need be when we get all that settled.)

Thomas Hobbes · Nov 22, 2003

I actually sort of like the Doom Charm. You could just make it a spell like ability with duration 1/day until discharged, and make it something like a 25% chance per important encounter (or a DC 15+character level check). Which seems to fit the basic idea- you curse someone, and they suffer a run of bad luck at some point.

Jack Haggerty · Mar 7, 2004

I vote YES! to approve both Ieranth and the new Doom domain... Though a Doom charm seems like it would be more trouble than its worth.

Sparky · Mar 8, 2004

I had a thought about this - what if the Doom domain ability was the same as the Luck domain ability, except that it works on someone else. A cleric with the Doom domain can make someone reroll a successful check or saving throw, or whatever it is the Luck domain ability is - something like that, which I don't remember off the top of my head.

It achieves much the same effect as the Doom charm, but with much less fuss. If need be, there could be a 'charm' associated with it. A voodoo-doll type thing.

I wouldn't nomally be in favor of a power that allows one PC to give grief to another PC, but I think something like this could work in PbP.