A world without gods, where clerics worship demon princes (armies of the abyss)

[Harp]

Not surprisingly, the campaign setting/campaign background I'm currently developing has exactly this sort of setup. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the demon princes in Armies of the Abyss are a little more subtle than blood-sucking mass murderers. In the real world, lots of people studied or even imagined themselves making deals with demons, and very few of these folks were bloodthirsty villains. Most of them were opportunistic, or in a tight spot, or what have you.

As I'm currently setting things up, I plan to either use the thaumaturge or the cleric for my religious aristocracy. There's at least one goddess in a land far removed from the campaign center, but whether or not she's actually divine is a matter for another day (mostly because, at this point, I just don't know).

Currently I've got no paladins in my game, either, and I'm toying with the idea of ditching alignment as something everyone has. We'll see how it goes.

Interesting stuff. Just out of curiosity, Erik, are you talking about a campaign setting for a game of your own, or is this the potentially to-be-published setting you alluded to in the 'low magic setting' thread on the d20 Publisher's forum? Or both?

Gotta admit, I'm mightily intrigued either way.

 

[kenjib]

This sounds like it could have a very Clark Ashton Smith or Robert Howard type feel. Sounds good.

 

[Voadam]

So druids and bards are a good character's best friend when he wants to heal. Unless you still allow nongod ethos clerics.

 

[The Sigil]

Read again...

True but you didn't see anyone burning St. Paul when he healed people. Or any of the other saints.

You didn't? My bad, I thought he "appealed to Caesar" just for kicks. And I guess they didn't crucify Jesus Christ or behead John the Baptist or demand Elijah's head or... wait... um...

But hey if you guys want the evil guys to have ALL the divine magics, go for it! [/B]

I am intrigued by the concept that only evil gets divine magic... so sorcerers and wizards are thought of as the "good guys" and clerics eschew armor to "blend in" better.

Would there be paladins in such a world? If so, how would they differ from fighters? Do they get no powers and fewer feats?

Another intriguing concept... what happens if the gods just suddenly up and leave, turning a "regular" campaign world suddenly to "only evil divine casters?" You'd have a lot of bitter cleric and paladin PCs!

--The Sigil

 

[Crypt King]

No thanks

Unless your running an "evil," game, removing the ability for good heroes to access Divine magic, unbalances the balance put into the rules of the game, namely healing. The party would lose access to the ability to heal characters.

I'm not poohing on the concept, but for the game, without some ability for players to heal wounds, beyond resting for two monthes between adventures, you run the risk of dead fast characters, and that's not too fun.

 

[Desdichado]

Crypt King:
Unless your running an "evil," game, removing the ability for good heroes to access Divine magic, unbalances the balance put into the rules of the game, namely healing. The party would lose access to the ability to heal characters.

I'm not poohing on the concept, but for the game, without some ability for players to heal wounds, beyond resting for two monthes between adventures, you run the risk of dead fast characters, and that's not too fun.

So adopt the VP/WP system and you're good to go.

 

[uv23]

Quite the contrary. Forcing characters to accept the healing power of demon worshippers would make it all the more tasty. There would have to be some overriding themes to the campaign to give the whole setting relevancebut I think it could really work. Like I said, not everything needs to be balanced. Imbalance can make for the best stories.

 

[Erik Mona]

>>>
Erik, if you need a hand let me know. I can spare a little time, especially when something is this interesting. I have to admit, your book was the first d20 product I've bought in a while that has actually inspired me. Kudos.
>>>

Wow! Great! That's really nice to hear. I'd love to hear what you've decided to do with it.

--Erik

 

[Erik Mona]

>>>
Interesting stuff. Just out of curiosity, Erik, are you talking about a campaign setting for a game of your own, or is this the potentially to-be-published setting you alluded to in the 'low magic setting' thread on the d20 Publisher's forum? Or both?

Gotta admit, I'm mightily intrigued either way.
>>>

Right now, it's about twelve pages in a Word file and about as many pages of scribbled notes in my notebook. I'm primarily doing it as a dumping ground for ideas I'd rather own myself (as opposed to ones I come up with for other people's worlds), so it's not outside the realm of possibility that it will eventually be published. In fact, I'd quite like that.

There's a long ride before that happens, though. You'll be hearing more about it, I'm sure, as I get closer to actually putting the thing together. The main impetus is that I'm planning to run a campaign for some friends at work, and after 20 years, I just can't bring myself to run a game with another damn gnome or elf in it.

--Erik

 

[Erik Mona]

>>>
Unless your running an "evil," game, removing the ability for good heroes to access Divine magic, unbalances the balance put into the rules of the game,
namely healing. The party would lose access to the ability to heal characters.
>>>

That's one of the reasons I'm thinking of ditching alignment as something that everyone has. If no one is "good" in the typical D&D sense of the word, you don't run into these kinds of problems. If demons are the only thing to worship, lots of "nonevil" folk are going to end up worshipping demons, mostly because they'd rather not die of horrific diseases or enjoy the benefits of divine magic.

Remember, though all the demons in Armies of the Abyss are evil, most of them are pragmatic rather than bloodthirsty. It would be simplicity itself to have nonevil clerics of, say, Succothbenoth or Nocticula along for the ride with a "nonevil" party. You mention druids, which will play a very important role in what I'm currently throwing together, too.

--Erik