Opinions needed, Single Deity World (Kinda Long)

[Cedric]

I am putting together a home brew world and I wanted the world to have one deity. This is my take on a single deity world. Please give me your opinions on this as a viable deity layout for a game.

- God – The only deity in this world. He is universally worshipped and revered by all sects of society. He is commonly referred to just by the over term, “God”. In texts and scriptures his name is mentioned as being Goliah, but no one uses that name in common parlance. Worship is usually focused directly toward God, but access to clerical magics almost always comes through one of his Saints, which represent different elements on his favor.

- Blessed of Goliah – a small, monastic priesthood that is very rarely encountered. These priests are charged with direct worship and service to Goliah. They have access to any of his domains and receive prayers and magics directly granted from the deity himself.

This priesthood is very small and very seldom encountered. They are considered to be somewhat saintly and would be immediately recognized for their unadorned but uniquely tailored grey robes. Members of this priesthood are strictly dedicated to maintaining their neutrality and as such will offer their services (for a price) to anyone. If someone raises an army and uses it to conquer, rape, pillage and enslave, they will say this is Goliah’s will and resurrect that person if paid to do so.

They will ardently defend themselves, but rarely have too…they are almost universally untouched and unscathed, even by non-human races (who also worship Goliah). (PC’s do not have the choice at character creation of being a member of this society, which will later be a PrC.)

- The Four Saints of Goliah

The normal method by which clerics worship Goliah is through his Saints. They represent the elements and the alignments. Clerics must choose one of them as a patron and must meet the alignment restriction. Despite meeting the alignment restrictions they may not choose two Saints.

- St. Kerridan, The Mountain King

Having dominion over the magics of the Earth, Kerridan controls the domains of Law, Earth, Strength and Protection. If you choose to access the will of Goliah through him then he grants your spells and you must be Lawful in some regard. Those priests who choose him as a patron are magistrates in nearly every kingdom of man and renowned for their skill at unarmed combat (wrestling). (PC’s worshipping through St. Kerridan gain a +3 divine bonus in Sense Motive and receive it as a class skill along with Improved Grapple).

- Ste. Genivieve, The Storm Warden

Having dominion over the magics of the Air, Genivieve controls the domains of Chaos, Air, War and Luck. If you choose to access the will of Goliah through her then she grants your spells and you must be Chaotic in some regard. Those priests who choose her as a patron are renowned for their prowess in combat and their knowledge of tactics and strategy. (PC’s worshipping through Ste. Genivieve gain +3 divine bonus in Knowledge: War and receive it as a class skill and gain a +1 luck bonus to hit and damage with any melee weapon).


- St. Warren, Master of the Seas

Having dominion over the Water, Warren controls the domains of Good, Water, Healing and Sun. If you choose to access the will of Goliah through him then he grants your spells and you must be Good in some regard. Those priests who choose him as a patron are renowned for their command of the healing arts and their knowledge of the sea. (PC’s worshipping through St. Warren gain a +3 divine bonus to Profession: Seamanship and +1 caster level on healing spells, which stacks with the domain ability if selected).

- Ste. Corrinah, Daughter of the Seven Hells

Having dominion over Fire, Corrinah controls the domains of Evil, Fire, Death and Destruction. If you choose to access the will of Goliah through her then she grants your spells and you must be Evil in some regard. Those priests who choose her as a patron are feared for their destructive magics and their command of the undead. (PC’s worshipping through St. Corrinah gain Extra Turning and Maximize Spell as bonus feats).

Access to the other domains: Animal, Knowledge, Magic, Plant, Travel, Trickery is available no matter which priest you worship.

Well…that’s it, opinions? I am still tweaking and balancing the abilities granted by the Saints, any thoughts on those is welcome as well.

Cedric

 

[Emiricol]

If there's only one god, won't the people blame it for the bad things that happen as well as the good? Just a thought.

 

[Cedric]

A fundamental part of the religious teachings of Goliah is that their is no destiny but what you make for yourself. If you are a failure in life, then maybe you had bad luck, but it was not a divine curse.

The Saints provide their power and influence to the world, but themselves are strictly forbidden from interfering.

In the end, the Blessed of Goliah are (secretly) tasked with enforcing this and ferreting out any cheating that may go on among the Saints.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The way you have it set up makes it sounds like there are just a bunch of gods (called saints) and a big uber-god; it sounds rather like ordinary polytheistic but with a slightly different flavour.

I run a single-deity campaign and have tackled it in a slightly different way which might be interesting for you to consider:

1. The deity (Asura) isn't universally worshipped yet. There is a home nation which is a theocracy where worship of Asura is universal, but the further you are from the home nation the less you will see in terms of temples and "reach" of the priesthood. It is a missionary faith, always seeking to spread.

2. Asura has many "aspects", and there are different sub-cults which worship these various aspects e.g. Asura the cleansing fire (healing and fire), Asura the fount of knowledge (knowledge and water), Asura the implacable warrior (War and Good). Rivalries and alliances exist between these subcults, enabling some politicking within the system. There are also tolerated evil subcults (lawful evil ones) such as Asura the Vengeful Ravager (war and fire) and banned chaotic evil subcults.

I fully understand if you don't want to tackle it this way, and for something which might be closer to your vision I would recommend reading Sepulchrave's story hour(s); It is based around a world with a single monolithic deity (Oronthon) with a whole angelic hierarchy, diabolic hierarchy and demonic hierarchy (two groups of fallen angels).

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58227

You might want to consider where Druids gain their power from in a monotheistic setting too.

Cheers

 

[I'm A Banana]

Sounds like you've FUNCTIONALLY got a four-god world with a one-god overdeity. Since the saints are what affects the daily lives of the worshipers and clerics, they're the most powerful socio-political forces in the world, not God...you've got two-axis dualism, basically.

It sounds pretty good, from what I can see. You've got a good division of domains, and a strong elemental theme...however, you are leaving True Neutral clerics out of the loop, unless you offer worship of God himself without a saint as a possible option from the start. But maybe your world just doesn't have TN clerics...(no big loss, the rules don't exactly encourage them as it is). Maybe they're druids or something (worshiping the Power of God as manifested in his creations, the world).

I would take the bonuses that the saints give, and tie them into a domain instead...maybe each saint offers an exclusive 'saint domain' that unifies a lot of their ideals. Those sound like great domain powers. You could check things like the FRCS for a glut of domains that might do similar things.

If you'd like, you could also make the powers granted by a 'prestige domain' in a PrC specific to each saint. Heck, you wouldn't even need a saint domain, then, just a PrC that grants abilities based off of those powers.

And the Blessed seems like a tailor-made PrC!

And just a note, it seems weird that the Chaos saint is the patron saint of tactics...tactics are generally ordered, regimented, planned, and logical...not exactly the things of Chaos...

 

[Cedric]

And just a note, it seems weird that the Chaos saint is the patron saint of tactics...tactics are generally ordered, regimented, planned, and logical...not exactly the things of Chaos...

I had to think about that one for a bit too..finally I decided to keep it that way as an intentional discrepancy. Kind of the way Drow are chaotic evil, but live in a lawful society...etc.

I realized this might look very much like a 4 deity society, because of the Saints. I was basically going to use roleplaying and my extended description of the religion to make the point that they are just representatives...but the real god is Goliah.

At any rate, it's on the back burner now though...I gave the players a choice of D&D or Champions ... and they chose Champions, so now I am working up my background for that. Definitely going to keep my notes on Goliah though, I really want to try that for a game someday.

Cedric