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Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8677572" data-attributes="member: 5948">Plot overviewNext we get a summary of the shape and sequence of the campaign.[SPOILER="campaign spoilers"]Our bad guys are an order of seven demons who embody the Seven Deadly Sins.  There's a prophecy that the messiah will lead to their downfall so they're trying to get rid of him before he can.  Similarly, the three magi who attended Jesus at his birth are also reasearching the prophesy, from the point of the good guys, but the magi are widely scattered and hard to find.PCs start in Nineveh, hired by an old blind merchant to guard his son and a taciturn wilderness guide on a trek to the city of Teredon to cash in some investments.  There's a few random encounters on the way, then upon reachin Teredon it turns out that said son has a secret love interest there, and things are Not Okay with her.  PCs will expose (but not permanently defeat) the demon responsible for this state of affairs with tha aid of said guide who turns out to be an angel in disguise.  Angel says the PCs fought well and invites them to meet him in Egypt at some point to pursue the demon further, then teleports off.Then there's a fairly sandboxy stage where the PCs can search for the Magi and go for round 2 with the demon in Egypt.  After that, they've probably learned enough to identify the Messiah, so it's off to Judea where they touch base with a whole bunch of Gospel personalities and meet Jesus (strongly implied here is that the PCs are expected to become followers of Jesus at some point in this process).  Then there's another sandbox phase where they go around and hunt down the next 4 demons (and their cults and servitors) at various landmarks of the ancient world, then it's back to Judea to provide moral support for Jesus at Gethsemane, and witnessing the crucifixion.  THe crucifixion also acts as a 'ritual' of sorts that strips the remaining two demons of their human disguises, and makes it so that if they are slain they can never return to earth (the whole principle is that the sacrifice of Jesus banished 'sin' from the world, and since the demons were embodiments of the 7 deadlies... you get the idea).  After the crucifixion it's a quick teleport to the dungeon where the last two demons lurk for a big beatdown, and end campaign.[/SPOILER]Milestone levelling is used, since it's not particularly combat-heavy other than the big climactic demon smackdowns.  There's a LOT of travelling and long distances involved, the campaign might take years of in-world time, there's lots of biblically themed sidequests etc to occupy you in the meantime. There's some advice about handling TPKs and the like, and a couple of fairly generic plug-n-play encounters in the form of prison breaks and gladiatorial combats you can run if the party gets beaten and you want to decide that they were captured rather than killed.Creating a character.Bit of discussion about pre-campaign expectations, and how the DM should lay ground rules ahead of time if they want a no-spellcaster game, or what if one of the players wants to play a halforc?  There's 'Grace', an alternate quasi-alignment system, a single numeric value on an axis defined by how good you've been by god's standards, which has mechanical impacts at some points in the campaign.A few backgrounds, nothing particularly notable.Recommended lineages are human, giant, nephilim, rephaim.  All use set ability score modifiers (a sidebar says that's cos the OGL says they have to but unsubtlely hints at other methods)Giant - big and strong, 40 ft movement, bonus carrying capacity, Intimidate proficiency, and damage vs objects.  Come from their own isolated tribes but can be found in human cities, where they tend to get stereotyped as bruisers regardless of what they want.Nephilim - immortal descendents of humans and celestials who live among humans.  Live forever but tend to reset their own memories every century or so when all your friends/family dying gets too much to handle.  Celestial type, know sacred flame, cast Detect Good/Evil 1/short rest.Rephaim - creepy beings from the border of reality and Sheol.  Darkvision, necrotic resistance, access to an array of shadow/death-related spells as they rise in level.SubclassesI do like that most classes in this section have a bit of flavour text illustrating different examples of the class in question.  A bit like the class flavour text in the PHB, but setting-specific.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Nazirite (Barbarian) - a dedicated sacred order, this is a grab-bag of abilities replicating Samson, basically.  Extra melee damage and carrying capacity, blindsight (60ft range while raging!) and fear/charm immunity while raging.  Not too coherent thematically, but fairly powerful.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">College of Parables (Bard) - someone who illustrates lessons theough storytelling.  Give allies temp hp, a nice stun attack that doesn't cost inspiraton points, and the abiltity to actually talk someone into believing they're in one of your stories, a bit like phantasmal force.  I do like the 'you can tell a story and use it to send secret messages to your allies' bit though, cute and thematic.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">College of Psalms (Bard) - a holy singer who's kinda at the mercy of their inspiration.  Two free proficiencies is nice, but the class is built around a random table like the Spirit College bard from Ravenloft, you spend an inspiration, then roll the dice to generate an ability you bestow on an ally.  I'd allow this in pretty much any campaign.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prophesy Domain (Cleric) - a messenger/crusader specifically empowered by god for a particular task.  This is overpowered and I wouldn't allow it.  Two bonus proficiencies and the ability to speak to anyone regardless of language, deafness, or silence spells (I like this bit, it's a nice idea) but the Channel Divinity effects are nuts.  From 2nd level you can channel divinity to basically get a divine vision that's a better version of Divination (specific to your sacred mission).  From 6th level you can channel divinity to judge an enemy, which can include such effects as imposing disadvantage on all their saves or all their attack rolls for 1 minute, with no save applicable9!)  Just a no-brainer to use All The Time.  Also, a grab bag of immunities and resistances because why not at this point?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Baptist (Druid) - focuses on the ability of water to cleanse or bring new life.  A few extra water-related spells, and the ability to reduce or eliminate their impact on friendlies, plus can use wildshape to take a 'transendent form' which gives a LOT of bonus hp plus advantage on charisma and concentration checks. But the interesting bit is their 'baptism' feature.  By baptising a sincere creature (not yourself) in certain specific waterways of spiritual significance, you can give that creature permanent bonuses, from ASIs to new cantrips known to energy resistances etc etc etc, depending on the baptism location.  This is certainly a flavourful feature, but I don't know what to think about it.  It's certainly powerful, but it's a powerful ability that the PC themself cannot directly benefit from.  Very thematic, but how would it play?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spartan (fighter) - you know what thes are.  They're definitely Hollywoodised spartans rather than the real historical thing (there's a lot of that in this book), and their presence here is justified by some creative interpretations of questionably authentic passages from Maccabees that date back hundreds of years before this era when Sparta was basically a thoroughly subjugated theme park where stodgy old Romans took their wayward youths in the hope they'd learn lessons of self-denial, but eh, whatever.  The subclass itself could work for any gritty infantry shield-wall soldier though, from a hoplite to a legionary.  Mostly defensive abilties, sharing their shield bonus with adjacent friendlies and an improved shield bash.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Vanguard (Ranger) - a silk road caravan guard, basically, who's accustomed to walking though hostile and supernatural-infested terrain and watching out for their charges.  Can't be surprised and bonuses on the first round of combat, a list of bonus spells known that deal with supernatural evils (see invisibility, dispel evil, death ward etc, which are all very pracical and very handy to a ranger with a limited spell repertoire), and the ability to make a reaction attack against an opponent who is attacking an ally, which'd be GREAT for an archer ranger.  I like this one and would allow it in pretty much any campaign (so long as Sharpshooter was removed, cos that could get nasty)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Zealot (Rogue) - basically an urban guerilla. A bunch of really niche and situational crowd and city-related abilities, though some more general combat abilities come along after 9th level.  This is a weird one, very specialised and not particularly well-suited to what's involved in the campaign.  Can't say I like it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Order of Magi (wizard) - a stargazer and omen-reader.  You get a pool of omen dice (a bit like inspiration dice or a Psychic Warrior's psionic dice) and a couple of 'signs', abilities you can use omen dice to fuel.  You get more dice, bigger dice, and more signs known as you rise in level.  Soem definite balance issues with some of the signs - kill Sign of the Scorpion with fire, for instance.  Use your reaction to impose a 3d6 penalty on an opponent's saving throw at level 6, my bum.  Or 5d8 at level 14, ick.  And Sign of the Scroll is basically a freebie Commune every long rest, which'd be a royal pain as a DM too.</li> </ul>Some feats, they're not very interesting.Next, the campaign (not in great detail...)</blockquote>

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