Pssthpok said:
So a sorcerer deity with Revenge would be a less-effective spell-caster?
I think I'd rather see these template penalties be a matter of inability to increase rather than (up to) -2x divine rank penalty. I mean, for some builds that would reduce a score to less than 1. What the hell's that about?
I agree with this, actually. Weaknesses associated with a Portfolio should be about vulnerabilities to damage types, or penalties to certain skills or saves under correct circumstances, not blanket reductions of basic character-building attributes like the ability scores. The only case where I would even consider ability score penalties to be appropriate is for Portfolios that actually are all about the opposed ability score, for example a Strength deity loses points in Intelligence. A deity of Knowledge should
not have a STR penalty, because the Portfolio
is not the Intelligence Portfolio- however close it may come in terms of skill use.
Only an actual deity of Intelligence should get a STR penalty as a Portfolio weakness.
It is important to keep in mind that Portfolios are typically abstract concepts, with many shades of gray in their meaning and use; the PC in my second game who has the Dominance and Concealment Portfolios, for example, will not be getting Law and Secrets from the IH (the two closest samples to those concepts that I could find). I will instead be making two new ones for the character, and even if Concealment (for example) comes close to Secrets in terms of concept and what it does, it is not the same Portfolio and will not be treated as such.
Also, it should be noted that not everybody assigns ability score opposites the same way; for example, I would never set up two physical scores or two mental scores as opposed to each other- it just doesn't make sense to me. I always match one physical to one mental when thinking that way. STR opposes INT, DEX opposes WIS, CHA opposes CON is the way I would typically do it- and I could see certain circumstances where I would change those designations too.