Hey Psion, great thread here!
Psion said:
Note here... I'm not just talking about races.
Okay, for classes, here are my suggestions:
The Bruiser from EN World. Best acultural smack-down class ever. Think fighter meets monk with one of that clunky oriental feel.
Pretty much anything by
Shadowfoot from the Wizards Boards. This guy has made hundreds of feats tons of PrCs and some very good base classes. Highly recommended. Check out the Swashbuckler class if you want a nice take on it
Psion said:
Villains... I've used Cult of the Dragon with the serial numbers filed off before. What good villains do other settings have.
Well, here's one I recently thought up of: Have you ever heard of the Black Circle? When the black metal scene was in it's heyday in Norway, there was this group of musicians and associates focued around the bands Mayhem and Burzum were a scary group of people. The singer of Mayhem, "Dead" (a psuedonym) was fasinated with death (after nearly dying as a child), and wore distinctive "death paint" (see pic in sblock below). There were many rumours of devil-worship, there
were church burnings (some set by black metal musicians and some by their associates in the scene), there was the eventual suicide of Dead, who shot himself in the head with a shotgun (his band-mate Euronymous, instead of calling the cops, ran down to a corner store, bought a camera, and took pictures [later to be used as an album cover], and also supposedly made a stew from some brian matter; plus skull fragments were used to make necklaces. Lyrically, there was a focus on the bleak, the nihilistic, satanism, paganism, the occult, evilness, darkness, death, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.
Going with that, I'd suggest a Chaotic Evil villian cult, into ritual sacrifice, death and demon-worship, and comprimised of CE fighters, barbarians, dread necormancers, evil clerics of death, descruction or demon gods, and a large, underground network of associates who crusade against other, goodly churches, life itself, and goodness in general. Their leader could be a lich, or a vampire - some sort of powerful undead who hates life and wishes to crush humanity and all other intelligent races under his unforgiving, iron heel; afterwhich he will kill himself. He has to immortal (so he may see his plan through for as long as needed), and his cause has to be far reaching and depraved in the most unsettling of senses. He would use undead, demons, devil, yugoloths, possibly even far realm creatures as a part of his plan - what or whoever despises life to no end. He hates himself, but has an unquenchable hate of is enemies which is even larger than he. Y'know, stuff like that

[sblock=Dead, Mayhem's Vocalist]
[/sblock]
Hope that one helps
Psion said:
Deities? Being too busy to work at a pantheon right now
There was a thread awhile back which wished that there was fewer gods in Faerun. The following is the article which I wrote up for it, and is easily enough adapted for other worlds. You could potentually just "file off the serial numbers" and have a set of 20-30 gods and goddesses for you world. In any case, here you are:
Fewer Faerun Deities
20-30 deities... *rolls up sleeves*... lets see what we can do here...
okay, first off, we want the 4 elemental lords and ladies:
- Akadi (air)
- Grumbar (earth)
- Istishia (water)
- Kossuth (fire)
reasoning: D&D puts a lot of importance into the elements, so we might as well get 'em out of the way, right? Eldath and Umberlee were both subsumed by Istishia and Talos (with Talos getting the destructive part of the portfolio) during an epic battle during the time of troubles in which Istishia took them both out. Likewise, Valkur was killed during the Time of Troubles and Istishia again stepped in and took his portfolio - though Talos nabbed soem of his followers too. They are all still Greater Gods.
Then we have the seasonal deities:
- Auril (winter)
- Lathander (spring)
- Chauntea (summer)
- Mielikki (autumn)
reasoning: it only makes sense to have a god for every season: so here they are. Ulutiu was finally killed by Auril. Lurue was subsumed by Mielikki after being killed by Malar during the Time of Troubles. Auril is still a Lesser God, Mielikki is still Intermediate, Lathander is Still a Greater God and Chauntea is still Greater as well.
Then we have the gods of life and death:
- Lathander (life)
- Kelemvor (death)
reasoning: people are born and people do die, so these gods make sense. Jergals portfolio gets subsumed by Kelemvor. Both are still Greater Gods.
Then we have the deities of the sun and the moon:
- Lathander (sun)
- Selune (moon)
reasoning: these are around as well, so these deities stay. lathander is a Greater God, Selune is still Intermediate.
Then we have the deities of good and bad luck:
- Beshaba (bad)
- Tymora (good)
Alternatively, you could use the old deity Tyche which was both good and bad luck before being split in half. Both are still Intermediate. If using Tyche, then Greater.
The we have the gods of Justice and of Tyranny:
reasoning: these two had the big duke-out in the Time of Troubles, so ret-con it and say that Torm took over the Triad when he fought Bane, and the two other gods gave Torm all their power and their portfolios too - and a bunch of minor deities helped out as well. Thus, Torm has taken over Tyr, Imater, Red Knight and Siamorphe. During the battle Bane forced Gargauth and Loviatar to give him their powers during this battle, and even killed Oghma to try to find out how to kill Torm - though he still lost in the end (Azuth came and got the knowledge part of the portfolio before Bane could and Bane didn't want any of the other parts of the portfolio). Bane was pretty peeved at this, and after he killed and took over from his son, Iyachtu Xvim, Bane killed Hoar and took on the portfoilos of revenge and retribution. Torm has now swelled up to being a Greater God from a Lesser, and Bane is still a Greater God.
*whew* that was a good 10 gods and goddess down
Then we have some nature deities:
- Malar
- Shaundakul
- Talos
- Silvanus
Malar killed many during the Time of Troubles: Shillia and Lurue first, whos portfolios were largely taken by Chauntea, as well as Nobanion and Sharess who were making kittens in a thicket when Malar came in and slaughtered them. He then went down to Chult and ripped out Ubtaos heart at the top of a pyramid, taking over his portfolios.
Shaundakul subsumed both Finder and Gwaeron throughout the Time of Troubles, when it became apparent that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they ran into Malar.
Talos took over much of Umberlees church when she was killed by Istishia, and even siphoned off a bit of Valkurs followers.
Silvanus witnessed Malar killing Shillia, but he could not (or would not, perhaps) help the dying goddess. He took over her portfolio, increasing his patronism of woodlands and foirests.
Malar is now a Greater God alongside Talos and Silvanus, and Shaundakul is still intermediate - though his church has grown a bit.
Then we have a bunch of disjointed, but important deitites:
Mystra was infact killed during the time of troubles, but was mostly dissolved into the weave. He also took out Velsharoon (though Shar took his portfolios) at this point and tookout Savras as well, forcing him back into that staff of his. When Oghma (who had since subsumed Deneir, who despaired at not being able to be at his scribing table in
The House of Knowledge and commited dei-suicide) was killed by Bane (who hoped to find the knowledge on how to kill Torm), Azuth came by and snatched the knowledge part of his portfolio, as well as all of Deneirs. His church has swelled up to be one of the largest in Faerun, contested only by Bane, Cyric, Lathander and Torm. *Done, done, done, done and done.*
Cyric really went psycho and killed off quite a few gods and goddesses in the Time of Troubles. Among them were Mask and Talona. Now, Cyric is even more powerful with thievery and poison in his portfolio.
Tempus came upon Garagos and Uthgar fighting during the Time of Troubles and stood aside as the combatants fought. Uthgar eventually killed Garagos and took his portfolio and immediatly attacked Tempus - who fought a harried battle which he finally won. He is still a Greater God.
When Oghma was killed by Bane, Oghma took over the Insiration and Invention parts of his portfolio, and his church is flourishing now. He is still an intermediate deity, but is on the verge of becoming a Greater God.
Milil is much the same as before the time fo troubles, but he is a much more reserved now that both Deneir and Oghma are gone. He took in many of Oghma's and Deneir's bardic followers and his church has been doing quite well since - so much so that Milil is now and Intermediate God.
Shar is still here, lurking and waiting. She is happy that he eternal foe Mystra is now finally gone, but is seething with rage to see how well Azuths church is doing - though she smiles at the fact that she stole Velsharoons portfolio. She eyes Cyric ver closely now, waiting for her chance to take him out and become more powerful, and she is likewise angry at the fact that he killed both Mask and Talona without her even having a chance at them (she was in particular eyeing Talona, for her poisons). With followers growing from Velsharoon and general Shadow Weave users, she is content that her church is safe... for now.
Sune is still her beautiful, perfect self, but she is a little more cautious in how attached she gets to her lovers, now that more than half he clientele has been killed in one way or another.
Waukeen's church is thriving off of all the new gold coming in from Maztica, and is likewise very close to Helms church now, who are one of the main fores in Maztica at this time. Still and Intermediate Goddess.
Helm is the same old Iron-clad warrior he always was, and he maintains many of the same ties he did before the Time of Troubles.
cheers,
--N