Heroes of Horror Campaign Idea

[airwalkrr]

So I've been looking at Heroes of Horror and some ideas for a campaign have been forming in my head. As a Greyhawk fan, I like the idea suggested of a campaign where Iuz has won and the word is mostly ruled by his minions. There would be pockets of resistance everywhere, but by and large the world of Oerth is a very evil and desolate place.

Taking this a step further, suppose Iuz's victory was so great that he managed what no god has ever managed before: cutting off the divine conduits that link mortals to their gods. Suppose Iuz enacted some effect that shields Oerth from the divine influence of all beings except those who originated on Oerth. This would limit the gods quite a bit. Mayaheine and St. Cuthbert would be his greatest rivals while the followers of Rao, Heironeous, Pelor, etc. would find their divine powers squelched. Perhaps this effect was how Iuz managed to defeat many of the nations that are very devoted to specific powers, like Veluna and Furyondy. Shortly after he completed this effect, Furyondian followers of Heironeous and Velunese followers of Rao were powerless and quickly fell to Iuz. With the two greatest barriers to his domination out of the way, Iuz easily subjugated most of the Flanaess.

As a side effect, the cleric class is no longer a very viable option for PCs unless one is a cleric of St. Cuthbert or Mayaheine (or other ascended mortals like Vecna). However, a new kind of divine caster has arisen in the world to take the traditional place of the cleric: the archivist class from Heroes of Horror. Clerics of Iuz reign freely in the land sowing chaos and disruption and clerics of good gods have fallen by the wayside. However a group of devoted learners have dedicated themselves to preserving divine lore. This group is the archivists, who master divine magic by memorization and non-specific prayers rather than direct divine channeling. They lack many of the abilities of their cleric forebears, but have abilities that help them to cope with this new, bleak world. In effect, the cleric class is off limits to PCs as are most classes that receive divine magic directly from gods (i.e. favored soul). Paladins and rangers use the non-spellcasting variants from CW and gain their other magical abilities from a source besides their god. Religions remain, but magically powerful priests are a thing of the past.

What do you think? Could the archivist replace the cleric for this kind of campaign and would these other changes work?

 

[Kafkonia]

What do you think? Could the archivist replace the cleric for this kind of campaign and would these other changes work?

Your idea is actually very close to an idea I had, but I was going to cut off all gods from their followers.

The key difference to me, it seems, is that I was going to allow divine spellcasters who worshipped concepts, but none who worshipped deities. So clerics would still be good to go if they worshipped, say, Justice (Law and Good domains) but not if they worshipped Heironeous, and all Favoured Souls would be out of luck because you have to be favoured by a deity.

Your way, it sounds like clerics are cut off regardless of whether they worship gods or concepts -- which makes me wonder why other divine spellcasters would still be around. If rangers and paladins are cut off, how are druids affected?

 

[smootrk]

I love the Archivist class, but minus Clerics and their spontaneous healing, the Archivist will have to devote much of their spell choices to Healing their companions - which takes a lot of flexibility away. Archivists were not designed as Healers primarily, and regulating them to that task will detract from their usefulness (and I wouldn't want to play one if I had to memorize tons of healing instead of all the cool options that I could otherwise memorize - ie. any/all divine spells possible).

On the other hand, the Archivist seems more appropriate for Clergy than the warrior-priest model of the Cleric. Make the Archivist the standard for divine casters (maybe with an addition of Domain powers) and limit some of the clerical abilities and I think you will have a decent role-reversal. Clerics have their place as the roaming 'Knight' of the Church or other in-the-field defenders of the faith.

 

[Kafkonia]

I love the Archivist class, but minus Clerics and their spontaneous healing, the Archivist will have to devote much of their spell choices to Healing their companions - which takes a lot of flexibility away.

You could, um, use the Healer class... :\

 

[smootrk]

I mean no offense if you like the Healer class, but I my humble opinion, the class is cr*p. I would rather tweak the setting/existing classes a bit (as mentioned above) than drop in the Healer class to fill the gap of the missing divine healing.

***edited - opted to not be snarky in return to what was probably meant as a witty response.

 

[airwalkrr]

Your way, it sounds like clerics are cut off regardless of whether they worship gods or concepts -- which makes me wonder why other divine spellcasters would still be around. If rangers and paladins are cut off, how are druids affected?

In my campaigns, I never allow clerics of "concepts" as that is still a pretty silly idea to me and imho prone to abuse. Besides, nothing is an incentive to throw flavor out of a campaign than allowing priests to be "godless." Just my opinion of course. Druids in my Greyhawk campaigns usually acquire power from Beory, Obad-Hai, or Ehlonna and occassionally from other gods. The general idea here is that conduits for divine magic have been cut off unless the god originated from Oerth. In this case, Beory IS Oerth, and since I never allow clerics of Beory in my campaigns (I require them to be druids) I imagine I would allow druids to continue as usual.

 

[airwalkrr]

I mean no offense if you like the Healer class, but I my humble opinion, the class is cr*p. I would rather tweak the setting/existing classes a bit (as mentioned above) than drop in the Healer class to fill the gap of the missing divine healing.

***edited - opted to not be snarky in return to what was probably meant as a witty response.

Well, the playability of the healer class aside, healers would be no more viable than clerics in this campaign. I probably should have included this in my OP, but in my campaigns divine casters and "divine" classes have patron deities 99.9% of the time. I never allow exceptions unless it is for a profound story purpose.

 

[Wraith Form]

So I've been looking at Heroes of Horror and some ideas for a campaign have been forming in my head. As a Greyhawk fan, I like the idea suggested of a campaign where Iuz has won and the word is mostly ruled by his minions. There would be pockets of resistance everywhere, but by and large the world of Oerth is a very evil and desolate place.

Taking this a step further, suppose Iuz's victory was so great that he managed what no god has ever managed before: cutting off the divine conduits that link mortals to their gods.

* SNIP *

This was called the Midnight setting.