Divine power drawn from a place/object?

[Satyrn]

I definitely like this Satryn. Certainly something that can be added to enhance these sites. I still want the basic power to come from these locations or objects as well. As the Gods have pretty much wash their hands of this world, these casters are forced to draw power from what was left behind in times long past.

Unless it seems like the idea is a non-starter, I don't want to divorce myself from the idea that some divine power must be replenished. I would also need to nail down how long, and how much use constitutes as diminishing ones pool. Which could become more robust as one levels up.

I've had more thoughts on this.

I'm thinking the Channel Divinity feature seems like the best place to model this. It's what readily feels like xrawing power from the gods, and so a player losing out on it makes sense - and yet at the same time it's not so integral to a character's power, so a player isn't likely to feel shafted by losing it for a little while.

It can also make your job easier because now you can use all those Channel Divinity features as the benefits of "attuning" to a shrine, etc (probably want a different word than attuning to avoid confusing it with magic items).

Like, perhaps visiting a shrine to the former god of storms gives the player access to the Tempest Domain's channel divinity feature - and the cleric could also attune to a war god's shrine for the War Domain's, getting him up to the maximum of 2 that a normal cleric gets.

Maybe tack on the Domain spells to this, too: partly attuning to the shrine grants 1 of the spells from each level, and the domain's channel divinity; fully attuning gets all the domain spells, the domain's channel divinity and turn undead. A cleric could partly attune to 2 shrines, or fully to 1.

 

[jgsugden]

2 Things strike me:

1.) Your approach of not wanting to make this too mechanical seems right, and
2.) Divine beings work in mysterious ways.

There doesn't need to be a rhyme or reason to the way you implement this - and keeping it vague and surprising can be part of an interesting story (as long as it is not torturous on the players).

The way I'd do it would be to have each cleric have a holy focus, which is either a relic, location or celestial being. PCs generally function as normal, but feel weak after a bit and feel a need to return to the focus to recharge. This should be a role playing prompt, but unless they entirely ignore it, I would not give it any mechanical effect on their spells or abilities. Make these feelings arise when it suits the story you're telling, but not too often and it should be a nice thematic element without disrupting the game.

 

[Istbor]

Thanks for the feedback folks. A lot of useful suggestions that will take some time to contemplate.

Also glad I didn't just get a wall of chatter saying "Your idea's bad and you should feel bad!"

 

[Eltab]

Larry Niven's "The Magic Goes Away," and other stories set in that world, might inspire you.

I like and would work in that worshippers can 'recharge' the old Divine power, slowly.
Keep this as a background thing: the Cleric has to turn in his Holy Symbol to sit on an altar at a church and be venerated for a month before it can empower his spells again. Lucky for him, he can carry two and swap out as needed. Or he could set up a chain of churches and trade Symbols between them. However if he becomes excessively reliant on Divine power he could drain both (all?) of them at once. Yeah, you can cast that True Resurrection spell ... but nothing else at all for at least 40 days of devotions afterwards.

 

[Leatherhead]

Well, lets rip off a few ideas:

Taking a page from Eberron:

The church of the Silver Flame worships, well a giant silver flame. Which is comprised of the souls of countless valiant warriors and ministers, and keeps a powerful demon lord entrapped within it's burning embrace. This flame is a physical thing in the world that people can go and worship at, which also bestows power on people.

Now if we are going to meet all your needs here, namely having a central nexus, various hubs, and even miniature artifacts to carry around, we are going to have to look somewhere else to fill that in. As it just so happens, I was reading a Green Lantern comic book today, and it would flesh out the bill perfectly. Green Lanterns have their rings give them superpowers. The Rings need to be recharged via batteries that look like lanterns every day. There is the Central Battery on the Green Lantern homeworld which is basically limitless power, and each member posseses and hides a smaller personal battery that they can use to store more power so that they can spend extended periods of time away from their main planet.

Bringing this all together with some polish:
You have a magic eternal flame that people need to pray at daily for power. The major churches across the land would have a protected bonfire. Smaller churches and shrines would have a brazier. Individual people would have candles (lasting anywhere from a day to a week), while important people would get a lantern (lasts up to a month). Periodically, the flames from everywhere other than the eternal flame would have to be relit. Permanent fixtures in churches and shrines would accomplish this via a ritual not unlike the Olympic Torch carrying ceremony, while individual people would only have to go to the nearest shrine or church.

 

[Istbor]

Well, lets rip off a few ideas:

Taking a page from Eberron:

The church of the Silver Flame worships, well a giant silver flame. Which is comprised of the souls of countless valiant warriors and ministers, and keeps a powerful demon lord entrapped within it's burning embrace. This flame is a physical thing in the world that people can go and worship at, which also bestows power on people.

Now if we are going to meet all your needs here, namely having a central nexus, various hubs, and even miniature artifacts to carry around, we are going to have to look somewhere else to fill that in. As it just so happens, I was reading a Green Lantern comic book today, and it would flesh out the bill perfectly. Green Lanterns have their rings give them superpowers. The Rings need to be recharged via batteries that look like lanterns every day. There is the Central Battery on the Green Lantern homeworld which is basically limitless power, and each member posseses and hides a smaller personal battery that they can use to store more power so that they can spend extended periods of time away from their main planet.

Bringing this all together with some polish:
You have a magic eternal flame that people need to pray at daily for power. The major churches across the land would have a protected bonfire. Smaller churches and shrines would have a brazier. Individual people would have candles (lasting anywhere from a day to a week), while important people would get a lantern (lasts up to a month). Periodically, the flames from everywhere other than the eternal flame would have to be relit. Permanent fixtures in churches and shrines would accomplish this via a ritual not unlike the Olympic Torch carrying ceremony, while individual people would only have to go to the nearest shrine or church.

That is some interesting perspective that hadn't occurred to me.

I will have to look into this route a bit more and see what I can take from it to marry into other ideas.