Plot Ideas hidden in 4e

[Andor]

There are a few neat ideas hidden away in 4e in spite of the generally skimpy fluff.

My favorite so far in a couple of little paragraphs on page 61/62 where it discusses that the source of a Clerics powers come not from his god or church directly, but from his Ordination as a priest. If the Cleric and Church part ways afterwards it doesn't matter, the Cleric still has his powers.

This is a great idea since it allows for all sorts of schisms, conflict, and splinter sects within a religeon without begging the question of why the God doesn't just yank powers from the ones who have 'lost their way'.

Those gods who have an alignment wil apparently not allow the ordination of Clerics who don't either match their alignment or are unaligned, but the above paragraphs imply that once ordained alignment drift doesn't strip a cleric of his powers, so you can easily wind up with fallen but still empowered evil clerics of good gods.

And that is all kinds of happy plot goodness for GMs.

What tidbits of 4e have you noticed?

 

[Negflar2099]

I think the same holds true for Paladins. Alignment drift won't affect their powers.

As for your question I noticed a lot of stuff that would make for interesting stories. One particularly interesting one was the way artifacts work. If an artifact is angry with its owner (it has a low concordance) or it reaches its departure point and moves on it could end up anywhere. Artifacts don't have to be passed down from generation to generation. Imagine a lowly farmer whose family sword gets replaced with a legendary artifact all because the artifact moved on from its previous owner. What would that farmer do? What if a powerful King angers an artifact enough that it moves on and he spends countless resources searching for it? What if the farmer suddenly found himself facing the King's army and he's done nothing wrong?

Another interesting little story mechanic was the ability of Ghosts to possess people. Imagine someone whose lover has died so she lets the lover's Ghost possess her so she can feel close to him. Unbeknown to her the Ghost is merely using her to feel alive again or for some other nefarious purpose.

There's cool stuff hidden in them there mechanics. We just have to dig.

 

[frankthedm]

More than enough room exists to paint the gods as conspirators who coveted the creations of the Primordials. All the gods, not just Tharizdun, knew about the “Seed of Evil” and Its dangers, but it was Tharizdun who volunteered or was chosen to hurl the seed into the Elemental maelstrom in attempt to weaken the Primordials.

 

[lukelightning]

Residuum:

It's used to make magic items...and where does it come from? Magic items. Perhaps there is no more residuum being created/found...