Faith ( Rules ideas for a Religious world)

[Sidran]

K this isn't the full of it but I am working on a world that is based of Divine magic working by faith. and the like here goes


Faith

Faith is the strongest ally that the elves of Aryande have against the great blight. Characters who start within the lands of the Elven Combine automatically start with a faith rank of 4, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins start with a faith rank equal to their level + their wisdom modifier. Other classes start with 0 faith.

Characters who start with ranks in faith have innate abilities not available to characters who gain the faith after the beginning of game play ( except through great deeds). Faith is the flowering of the divine at the core of humanity. It can inspire, it can motivate, it can heal, It can bring new life to an ailing soul. It should be noted that I do not talk about faith as a faith in a holy office, or in a particular religions teachings, but faith in the Divine, that which is higher than mortality.

Faith works like a feat it can gain ranks and gets additional modifiers from piety, or religious acts, and once a player has at least one rank in faith they gain their Wisdom modifier also.

Faith is one of the strongest weapons in the arsenal of a character, with it he can push back the hordes of undead that swarm, bring justice to the evil of the world, and sanctify cursed lands.

Those with faith may attempt to heal another’s wounds by “laying on of the hands” and praying. However the power of the Divine is fickle and not every wound will be healed every time. When a Character attempts to heal a subject they must specify the number of their hit points they are willing to transfer into the injured. If the faith check DC 15 is successful that number of hit points is transferred into the subject. If the check fails the character may try again but each time he does so the DC raises by +2. Healing by faith is an act of self sacrifice and has raised many to martyrdom.

The faithful will find that it is much easier to draw upon their faith on holy ground or on the holy days of their religion. In these locations, or on the Holy days a Character receives a DC one less than the normal standard on all faith related rolls.

When two or more faithful are together their is a chance that they can pool their faith to accomplish a greater divine act. They must come from the same religious tradition ( I. E. a Lutheran, a Catholic, and a Baptist all are of the Christian tradition). When characters attempt to pool faith they must join a circle and pray to their deity, requesting the divine link of power. A success occurs when each individual succeeds at a Faith check ( DC 20). Once linked they will remain so until either the link is broken by the death of one of the linked, or until one of the linked chooses to sever the tie.

As I stated above characters with True or Natural faith gain abilities that are not open to those that convert to the faith later.
Examples of these abilities are listed below.

Fast Healing [1-3]

Faithful with this ability heal faster than they normally could. Lost limbs will slowly reattach over time. Characters who have this ability are immune to common poisons such as hemlock, or arsenic

Raidiance [4-6]

Characters with this ability emit a holy aura that rallies allies to his cause. In addition undead, and demons shy away from a character with this ability. Creatures who are damaged by sunlight such as vampires take 1d6 damage from the raidiant light.

Gift of Life [7-8]

Once per month a character with this feat can bring back a recently deseased ally if they are willing to return from the dead.
This ability works like the true resurection spell, except that after its use the Character who uses the abilities power feals deminished and insubstantial for a period of four hours. While in this period they themselves receive a -2 to hit, and to Fort, and reflex saves.

Power of Truth [9-10]

Characters with this ability can automatically discern lies, and with a successful Will check (DC 15+ targets Wisdom Modifier) he can compell a targeted subject to tell the truth.

To others these abilities seem like miracles and because of this some NPC's may fear or be jealous towards the characters who wield these powers.



Examples of works by Faith

Deed                                 DC
------                                 ---
Removing a curse              &nbsp 14
Sanctifying holy ground        15
Turning a Zombie              &nbsp 17
Cure Moderate Wounds         19
Walking on Water              &nbsp 22
Turning a Vampire               26
True Restoration                  30
Summoning a Celestial         35

These are examples of how faith can work abilities that are considered class abilities such as Laying on Hands, or Turning Undead may receive additional DC modifiers depending on the wishes of the DM, and the level of the Character

 

[Crothian]

Sounds intriging so far. I'd like to see some more concrete examples and their DCs.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It's an interesting idea. One of the hurdles you'll have to overcome is the possibility of retries. If characters fail at the check can they try again until their faith works? Allowing this makes sense in a lot of ways but would present some game balance issues when permanent effects were always undone if enough people prayed long enough.

I guess the game balance issues could all be worked through though. Just don't expect characters to carry over damage from one battle to the next.

You could also say that if it's not granted the first time it won't happen. That would be at odds with most traditions though which suggest either persevering in prayer or incurring the favor of the divine through multiple rituals or sacrifices if one doesn't work.

I guess there's one other significant question: do you see the power of faith doing this by itself, independant of the object of the faith? Or does faith simply get the attention of the elves god (God?) in this case and allow him/her to work?

 

[Sidran]

good questions and yes that is a dificulty.


My one allusion to preventing the retry is that after the first try the DC of the wanted effect goes up +2 or what have you.

But I could definintly see the usefulness of setting a limit on the number of tries.

As a rule of thumb I want faith to be a means of giving the god ( God) power to give spells to the Choosen Clerics of my world.

But it is not just the elves that get this its everyone the Elves are mentioned because they are the most dominant Inquisition type religion on my home brew world. They activily go out seeking Magicians, and Sorcerers Witchs and the like and punishing them for their dark acts. ( This is explained by the History of the Elves of the world, and How the Greatest magician of their number turned and betrayed them at the Last great battle of Elf & Man and in the process unleashed a magical force that swallowed the Elven Haven of Myrdathnor, and to this day Adventurers can travel in the mist shrouded land and feel the presence of those that were consumed by the force. Indead some have told that Wraithen armies still play out that last battle of Elf & Man.

 

[netnomad]

I like it.

What do the numbers next to the abilies represent?

How do non-diven clases get more faith? A Feat? A skill? or DM's descression?

My friend and I where working on somthing simular that kind om complments your ideas.

Here is a little bit of what we wrote:

The Power of Faith
A cleric’s power comes from his deity, and more importantly, his faith in his deity. A cleric does not cast spells; he performs miracles through the power of his faith.

To perform a miracle, the cleric must make a skill check vs. a difficulty level. The difficulty level is based on the power of the miracle and several other factors, including the relative faith of the recipient of the miracle. This skill check is known as a faith check.

Performing a miracle requires a faith check using the cleric’s Knowledge: Religion skill. If the character is a druid the faith skill is Knowledge: Nature. The base difficulty is based on the level of the miracle. The target number is the miracle level + 10. (The player will succeed about 80%of the time if the skill is maximized) For example to have a 3rd level miracle occur, the unmodified target number would be 13. A cleric cannot take 10 or 20 on these checks. The biggest modifier to the check is the targets religion or beliefs. (See Opposed Religions) If the check fails the miracle is minimized, if it fumbles a crisis of faith happens.

If a faith check rolls a 1 or a 20 a Crisis of Faith (see below) happens. If a 1 is rolled the performer has a crisis, if a 20 is rolled the target divine class has a crisis. If the target is not a divine class and a 20 is rolled, the miracle works to its maximum effect. For example Joban performs a Cure Light Wounds miracle on Dira and rolls 20 on his faith check, the miracle would heal 8hps of damage plus Joban’s class level. (This works like the Maximize Metamagic Feat)

Crisis of Faith
Whenever a divine character (such as a cleric or paladin) receives a benefit from a deity other than his own, he may go through a crisis of faith. It is very unsettling to be touched by the power of a deity one does not worship. If this crisis of faith is not passed, the character will lose touch with is deity and lose all benefits that are derived thereof. As should be obvious, this crisis of faith is especially troublesome for other clerics.

Simple Method:
If a 1 is rolled the miracle does not happen and is lost until the cleric can pray again and atone.

Complex Method:
If a cleric has a crisis he must atone for his misdeeds. He must worship at a shrine or temple to regain his divine miracles. Use a black mark type system? One day of atonement for each mark? Each mark lower the Faith check by 1? The cleric can also burn XPs if they can’t atone for their misdeeds. If a 20 and then another 20 is rolled on a faith check it removes a black mark.

Opposed Religions
It is much easier to benefit from a miracle if one worships the same deity as the cleric performing it. This is why missionaries are so effective – when a community only has access to a single divine spell-caster, it behooves them to take up the worship of that deity, in order to better profit from the miracles that deity grants.

Atheists or agonists are particularly hard to affect with miracles. Their negative faith tends to cancel out any miracles, beneficial or harmful, cast at them. As such, has Spell Resistance to miracles. The base SR for an atheist is equal to his Will saving throw. Or use the targets level to increase the DC of the faith check.

Simple Method:
In the flavor version the faith check is modified by the targets alignment. This modifier only occurs when the target is a divine class. The modifier is –2 for every degree of alignment difference. The cleric must have the same alignment as his or her deity. For example if the cleric is Lawful Neutral and the target is Chaotic Good the modifier would be -6 (-4 for the difference between law and chaos and -2 for the difference between neutral and good)

Complex Method:
In the full version the target’s deity domains modify the faith check. The modifier is –2 for each opposing domain (See table).

NetNomad

 

[Sidran]

Hey Net

Hmm good question, yes other classes get them I was thinking via a feat, or at the DM's descretion (based off of role playing)

The number at the side of the abilities is a roll chart number for randomness. (D10 Roll)


Thanks for sharing your faith rules and yes the do flesh each other out a little better.


a few continuations of my notes


...Characters with faith have more protection against sorcerous beings, and foul magics. As such a character with four or more points of faith can on a successful check (DC 10 + Base DC of Spell) counter spells, spell like abilities, and effects. This is a supernatural ability.

Loosing faith

Faith can be earned, and faith can be lost. Faith is lost when a character does something that goes against the prescripts of his faith, Or is considered Anathema to the teachings of his Religion. ( It is up to the DM to determine when and how a character looses faith). Faith that is lost in this way can be regained through prayer and suplication, or through acts of good will.

[b] Table 2: Examples of how faith is lost [/b]

    Deed                               Faith 
   -------                              Lost

A Close NPC dies as a result of the            
PC's Mistakes. Leaving the PC fealing    -1
guilty, and berift.                   


Close to completing his life's goal the 
end is torn from him by an act that      -2
seems of God.

The PC fails a trial set by his Elders   -1

A PC's Attempt at "laying on hands" 
Fails at an inopertune time.             -1

The PC Fails at an attempt to save 
A fellow PC from final death.            -3

Faith should not be lost at every turn for the worst, but when the stress of the world threatens to overwhelm the Character questioning his Diety, or his personal faith is a possible occurance. Any time where a player questions his faith he should loose -1 point of faith, due his crisis of faith.

 

[netnomad]

>> The number at the side of the abilities is a roll chart number >> for randomness. (D10 Roll)

Ahhh that makes sense.

>> Thanks for sharing your faith rules and yes the do flesh each
>> other out a little better.

You are most welcome. To tell you the truth I take you stuff some of my stuff and reworking it in to one system since They work so well together.

One other thing: I would also suggest not to use the Cleric and Paladin "as is". Since they benefit most from faith and get extra abilities from faith you might want to tweak those classes. Other classes can take it as a feat 9or gaing by RPing) but for the Holy classes faith should be built into the class. When I used my rules above (I'm taking a break from DMing and now am a player) I had two class that replace the Cleric and Paladin. I never finished the reworked Cleric but I did complete the Paladin. The file is huge (10+ pages)! If you want a copy to look at I'll be more than happy to send it to you.

Netnomad

 

[Sidran]

A copy would be awesome it will help me clarify my own Ideas on the subject of Clerics, and Paladins.

I was thinking that I should just make new Alt. Classes for those two but that is a lot of work when I should be focusing on the world. ( which I am doing for the most part, See the Creature Catalog forum Home Brews for the Nemesis Dark Huntsmen that is going to be chasing my players for a while, and coming soon the Stag Warriors which are Weredeer basically and guard the forest against the dangers of the Mortal Realms.)

 

[netnomad]

I tried to send you a copy of the Class but your MailBox is full.

Do you have another address that you want me to use?

NetNomad

 

[Sidran]

Duaneljens@cs.com or you can try my other email again I just now cleared it out