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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shades of Green" data-source="post: 5395532" data-attributes="member: 3297">This kind of a setting would be a very refreshing change from the typical D&D cosmology with its omnipresent deities. And, suddenly, religion involves even more role-playing than usual - as minor "gods" (i.e. spirits) have to be bargained with, so you - the DM/GM/Referee - get to "play god" in almost every adventure, while the Cleric gets to have a chat with "god" a lot of times in a campaign!If you want to go to a more radical direction, you can change the way magic - especially divine but possible also arcane - works in the setting (I'll be using 3.xE terms as I don't know 4E well enough).First and foremost, "gods"/spirits/kami/fey become monsters/NPCs with powers of their own. They can use their powers just like any monster - in many cases requiring a line of sight (or a given range) and maybe even having a limited number of uses per day. Any character - not just shamans - can try and convince a "god" to use its power for the character's benefit. For example, a mighty forest spirit (say, the spirit of an ancient oak) might have the power of Reincarnation, and might be convinced to use it to bring a dead friend back from the dead - typically at a price. Shamans, though, would probably have an advantage when bargaining with spirits in this way, as they'd know how to better approach the spirit and what gifts or services would best work with it (or how to find the spirit in the first place).Second, you might want to ditch most spellcasting classes and replace them with something along the lines of a Sorcerer. This shaman or sorcerer won't need a spellbook and won't need to memorize spells (and should also get a good number of uses per day), BUT will have to learn his spells from somewhere (and NEVER get the automatically) - in most cases, from a "god". And convincing a "god" to teach spells shouldn't be too easy. This goes well with the trope of Sorcerers consorting with "demons"/fey/etc. Of course, the more powerful the spell, the greater the lengths you'll have to go to to learn it; a forest spirit, for example, isn't likely to know Fireball - you'll have to seek a powerful Fire Spirit or Dragon and bargain with it! Another option, for the more nefarious Sorcerers, would be to make sacrifices (and some "gods" would only accept [demi-]human sacrifices!) to bribe a "god", or, alternatively, to trap a "god" and force it to teach a spell as the price for its release (and, later, the "god" might try to get revenge!).EDIT: I just realized that many D&D monsters could very easily serve as "gods" in such a campaign, from fey to dragons to aboleths!</blockquote>

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