Cheiromancer
Adventurer
How to be a God set me thinking about what a god needs to do exactly.
Say you are a starting out demi-god.
First thing you need are some clerics. You need to have some sort of mechanism whereby you can steal clerics from other deities (clerics devoted to certain ideals might be safer), and ordain new ones.
Second, you need some mechanism of communication and control. When your clerics pray to you, will you be able to hear them? Will you be able to answer them (with advice, or small miracles)? Will you be able to monitor their activities and punish them for their offenses against Your Will? Applying these mechanisms to your worshippers is a lower priority, but you should be able to keep an eye on non-clerics as well.
Third, you need a staff. Do you really want to answer every augury, divination and commune personally? Heck, how will you find out whether a particular activity will bring weal or woe, or what the answer to a yes/no question is? Divine senses and portfolio senses are definitely needed, but so are some gofers to keep track of the details.
Fourth, you need a domain. Some place where your servants call home- also, some place where your faithful can go to when they die. Maybe you can work out an arrangement with another deity who already has a heaven/hell up and running.
Fifth, you need security. Suppose a more powerful deity decides it wants your clerics and worshippers. What are you going to do about it? Actually, you probably need security right from the start. Some kind of feudal arrangement with a more powerful deity. This implies some sort of structure or legal system whereby you can assert your rights and be rewarded for faithful completion of your duties.
Of all these functions, only the fifth one really requires a lot of personal power (high hit dice, DR, SR, etc.). And that is only if you want to fight off other gods (or demon princes, or whatever) by yourself.
So anyway, does anyone have any ideas about how the mechanics of these functions can be implemented?
Say you are a starting out demi-god.
First thing you need are some clerics. You need to have some sort of mechanism whereby you can steal clerics from other deities (clerics devoted to certain ideals might be safer), and ordain new ones.
Second, you need some mechanism of communication and control. When your clerics pray to you, will you be able to hear them? Will you be able to answer them (with advice, or small miracles)? Will you be able to monitor their activities and punish them for their offenses against Your Will? Applying these mechanisms to your worshippers is a lower priority, but you should be able to keep an eye on non-clerics as well.
Third, you need a staff. Do you really want to answer every augury, divination and commune personally? Heck, how will you find out whether a particular activity will bring weal or woe, or what the answer to a yes/no question is? Divine senses and portfolio senses are definitely needed, but so are some gofers to keep track of the details.
Fourth, you need a domain. Some place where your servants call home- also, some place where your faithful can go to when they die. Maybe you can work out an arrangement with another deity who already has a heaven/hell up and running.
Fifth, you need security. Suppose a more powerful deity decides it wants your clerics and worshippers. What are you going to do about it? Actually, you probably need security right from the start. Some kind of feudal arrangement with a more powerful deity. This implies some sort of structure or legal system whereby you can assert your rights and be rewarded for faithful completion of your duties.
Of all these functions, only the fifth one really requires a lot of personal power (high hit dice, DR, SR, etc.). And that is only if you want to fight off other gods (or demon princes, or whatever) by yourself.
So anyway, does anyone have any ideas about how the mechanics of these functions can be implemented?
