What effect might the death of these gods have?


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Some of the note here have made me think, so I've been reworking the portfolios a bit.


Good Fortune is taken out of the Arcane/Time portfolio - it's inherant in the Gambler's portfolio.

Love moves to Hearth and Craft. Passion is instead substituted into the Gambler's portfolio.

So they now look like this:

Mehana, The Oracle: Time, Arcane Magic, Divination
Telemere, The Gambler: Luck, Gambling, Trickery, and Passion.
Phelas, The Judge: Death and absolute Law.
Bak-Ta-Thut, the Three-fold God of War: War in all three of its aspects.
Nevari, The Mother: Hearth, Home, Love, Protection, and Craft.
Crustan, The Father: Nature, Animals, Plants.

Orb, The Sun and Moon: Sun and Moon. (Though he has since adopted select portions of other portfolios.)


Thoughts?
thanks!

jtb
 

Another Take at This; also, What other Portfolios is held by the Sun deity?

Mehana, The Oracle: Time, Arcane Magic, Divination
Telemere, The Gambler: Luck, Gambling, Trickery, and Passion.
Phelas, The Judge: Death and absolute Law.
Bak-Ta-Thut, the Three-fold God of War: War in all three of its aspects.
Nevari, The Mother: Hearth, Home, Love, Protection, and Craft.
Crustan, The Father: Nature, Animals, Plants.

Orb, The Sun and Moon: Sun and Moon. (Though he has since adopted select portions of other portfolios.)
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Just how many aspects is the Sun / Moon deity picking up? Would he perhaps resist the efforts of having the others revived (as it would lessen his portfolio and thus power)? Also, if he has picked up a portfolio element, then it would make sense that those elements would not be in decline. For instance, if he picked up righteous war then only the other two elements of war might be in decline. If he picked up plants (as they draw sustanence from the sun) then only animals might be in decline.

So what aspects has the ever more potent Sun deity picked up? From the sounds of it he has his choice and can pick / choose whatever he wants - and the more he chooses the less the world suffers, giving him plenty of justification to become the center of a henotheistic (or even monotheistic) religion. He might view adventurers striving to revive the others are endangering a tenuous rebalance / re-order he has carefully created over centuries to prevent greater trajedy. It could be an interesting development, to say the least. Now, onto the analysis of Armageddon:

Mehana, The Oracle: Time, Arcane Magic, Divination

Time was ever constrained and ordered by the potent power of Mehana. With her demise it has slowly grown wilder and swifter. Now throughout the world all things age at half again to twice their normal rate. Furthermore, distance is no longer the best measure of how long a journey will take, as time slowly alters at varying rates everywhere. Within a town the distances are small enough that few if any notice unless something exceptional happens.

But in the vast regions between towns it is possible to unknowingly travel through several such gradiants - all moving at different rates. Think of it as relativity with one's speed constantly varying without one's awareness of such. So the journey seems the normal amount of time (as it covers the same distance), but upon arrival it might be discovered that only two days have past (by the arrival town's calender) since you left the other town. Or it may be that several weeks have past. And this for a journey that normally takes around a week (and likely felt like a week to those taking it).

Magic is similarly more wild than before. Everytime a spell is cast roll a d6. If the result is 3 or 4 it casts as normal. If 2 or 5 it is -/+ (respectively) a caster level in strength. If 1 or 6 it is -/+ two caster levels in strength. Or perhaps a better idea: set up a chart for a d20 with 5 normal castings and 15 abnormal ones these can include increased caster level, metamagic feats, the opposite of a metamagic feat (narrowed instead of widened, minimized instead of maximized, depowered instead of empowered, slowed instead of quickened (ie: occuring next round), and perhaps a random change in element (if it has one), target, area type, etc. Casting magic is truly unpredictable. The spell will usually be what and where it needs to be, but not always. . . .

In some regions it is worse (no chance for normalicy, more extreme alterations, etc); these are the 'wild magic zones'. In other areas it is less terrible (10 chances for normal casting, no major alterations, etc). But these three regions (major, normal, and mild wild magic) tend to wander. . . . Finally, there are regions where magic seems to be dead. This might be minorly represented by a major wild magic zone where all the alterations lessen magic (decreased caster level, narrowed spells, area spells reduced to single target, minimized results, or etc).

A final idea: magic items are less dependable. All permanent magic items face a small chance of losing their power each time they are used (roll as if targetted dispelling, 1d20 vs the caster level that created it). This is only a partial dispelling, however, as a successful use against a +2 sword reduces it to +1. The item gains its enhancement (or its equivalent if flaming, holy, etc) and the Cha of the wielder against the effect. Roll once per item used in each encounter (not once per attack roll). Perhaps only use this in major wild magic / dead magic areas.

Divinations should suffer a -1 penalty to caster level, as it was a special focus of the deity. Note that this specific penalty to caster level (and any others mentioned) would stack with whatever bonii or penalties to caster levels come from other effects due to the fall of the deities.

Telemere, The Gambler: Luck, Gambling, Trickery, and Passion.

People are less intense, less passionate, more cold hearted and calculating. Affectionate friendships are more common than intense romances, arrangements of convenience are more common than arrangements based on love. Rages, Panics, Crushing Despair, and other effects that require great emotion require a Will save if intentionally inspired (DC 10 + half character's HD + Wis, perhap - Cha). All creatures receive a +4 bonus to Will saves to resist such effects being imposed upon them (+4 to all Fear saves, +4 to all saves vs Panic, +4 to saves vs Crushing Despair, +4 to resist being forced into a Rage, +4 to resist having their Attitude adjusted (w/ Diplomacy, etc), etc).

Luck is less common. Chance is less random. Prices are more or less fixed; haggling is rare. Critical hits require a critical hit during the confirmation roll also. Also, to reflect that luck is less on their side, all save DCs are increased by +1. Attempts at deception are also less likely to succeed (+4 to Sense Motive to counter Bluff, +4 checks made to see through a Disguise, etc). As such society is more 'open'. Most know they have little chance of succeeding in a lie, so less do so. Of course there are other ways to lie than to give a falsehood. Leaving out crucial parts of the story, or arranging the truth in misleading ways might be a little more common, and increase the complexity of interactions between foreign diplomats, perhaps.

Phelas, The Judge: Death and absolute Law.

Undeath is more common. Those that are reduced from 1+ hp to less than -10 tend to stay dead. Everyone else has to make a Fort save upon dying (DC 20 + half their HD - Con). If they fail they rise as undead 1d4 days later (a zombie, usually, although more potent undead: such as wights, vampires, and ghouls, are also known to occur at times).

Law is breaking down, but the lack of Passion is slightly weakening chaos, so most are drifting more towards Neutral (Chaotic) rather than true Chaotic. Laws are broken more often, enforced less firmly, and in general viewed as suggestions that most should follow - and usually do when it is not seriously inconvenient. With the disintegration of Law societies are slowly crumbling into smaller units. Self-sufficient villages, small towns, and the occasional manor, keep, or abbey with its attendant village are much more common than Counties or Duchies, and no more Kingdoms or Empires exist - anywhere. They have all collapsed into their component parts - often only to collapse again into even smaller units. There might be a few city-states in the world, with up to 2d4 attendant villages within a day's travel (approximately, read the view on Time, above) encircling it, but they are the rarity in this age.

All Lawful spells are considered -1 caster level. Chaos is not enhanced as it is weakened by the lack of passion and chance (luck/gambling). But neither is it weakened further. All spells that empower undead and turning used to bolster undead gain +1 caster level. Attempts to Turn or weaken undead gain -1 caster level.

Bak-Ta-Thut, the Three-fold God of War: War in all three of its aspects.

War and conflict in general is stagnant. Wars of Defense tend to falter as the inhabitants see no purpose in it if their foes out number or out gun them. They docilely submit, believing that resistance will only produce more pain and strife in an already difficult time. But as Wars of Conquest are also rare such events are uncommon. Why put forth the effort (no passion), and where will the resources come to gather, feed, supply, and move the armies? Also, the breakdown of law makes it impossible to form a kingdom or even a nice County for oneself for more than a few years. The more it is built up, the faster it seems to dissolude after. Instead the 'conquerers' are local bullies, lording over their single village or town, the local king of the hill, so to speak.

I believe you stated that Righteous wars have been picked up by the Sun deity, so people can still feel a call to aid those in distress, perhaps (ironically, considering its lawful bent) aiding in the breakup of the few counties and dutchies that occationally start to build up. Most such 'wars' of righteousness are mere local battles against a minor but locally significant undead, fiendish, aberration, or bullying / conquering problem. In the vein of: local paladin-esque adventurers destroyed a ghast and a dozen ghouls that were plaguing this town, or a wandering adventuring group loyal to the Sun deity toppled a local (bullying / conquering) bandit king lording over a large village, etc.

As another aspect, the tools of war are less strong. All sundering attempts against weapons and armor gain a +4 bonus. Combined with the weaker material and craftsmanship (see Craft, below) this results in most items rarely lasting through more than a few encounters unless magical. But as magic is wild such may not last long either (see last entry in Magic, above).

Nevari, The Mother: Hearth, Home, Love, Protection, and Craft.

Home life is failing. Children are born less often, marriages (and less official unions) are less common and less fruitful / united, and extended families are rare. Most families that exist are nuclear: parents and children, if any, and in some areas marriages are treated as loose verbal contracts that can be broken / negated easily and require yearly renewal. Many villages have large communal houses where the men live and where the women live, with a few smaller ones for the few more serious marriages currently active. Children are raised communally as marriages rarely last more than a few years - if that.

Romantic love is faded into affection, Compassion into mild interest / pity.

Crafted items are less sturdy, less able, less lasting than before. All hardness scores are decreased by 1 (if 10 or less), 2 (if 11 to 20), 3 (if 21 to 30), etc to a minimum of 1. This includes armor and weaponry, thus another reason they are so readily sundered. This also applies to the natural armor (and weapons, if such can be sundered in your games) of creatures.

Furthermore, all craft checks entail a -4 penalty (or +4 DC), thus making it harder to create new items. Repairing an item only encures a +2 DC (-2 penalty), but with the increased levels of difficulty fewer take the path of the artisan, so there are fewer around to craft items. Most items, therefore, are created by non-professionals and quite poor in quality. But as they are the only available items, they receive the normal price. Normal items are doubled in price, and Masterwork items are very rare - likely triple or even quadruple in price.

Crustan, The Father: Nature, Animals, Plants.

Nature is blighted, dying. Forests are replaced with fields, which in turn are replaced with marshes (in wet locations) or deserts (in dry locations). Marshes are regions where plantlife dies due to drowning. There are no trees except dead and rotting ones. There are few shrubs, and what grasses exist are yellowed with poor health.

Wood is less common as a result, making it a more valuable material in many respects. Most building use stone when possible - which is good as Fire is not weakened (due to the Sun deity remaining strong). Indeed, wild fires may even have contributed to the decreased woodlands. Note that woodlands do not die en mass. Rather, every year there are fewer trees, so woodland that exist are very open, having low density and little undergrowth (despite the lack of shade). Decrease the penalty to Spot checks by half, due to the lack of trees. Clearings are not uncommon in such a woodland, and trails tend to remain open without difficulty (although falling dead trees can be an issue, but overgrowth is not).

Plants produce less seed, and their offspring are often a little shorter, a little weaker than themselves. Slowly all plantlife is dying out.

Animals are not unaffected. They too produce less ofspring. Those that produce litters instead produce 1d3. Those that produce 2 instead produce 1. Those that only give birth to one now have only half as many children in their life as normal. All animal populations are slowly decreasing. Prey and predators alike are fading. With the increase in undeath after death, it is as common to come upon a zombie or skeleton deer as a living one. Worse, undead predators continue the patterns they had in life, thus ever increasing the competition for the living prey, as the living cannot also predate upon the undead prey (as the undead predators can).

Does nature include storms? If so then consider this: balance is gone, resulting in storms either not existing at all or being excessively wild. There is no such thing as mild / gentle rain. It either lashes down in a down pour that might result in a flash flood down stream or it does not fall at all. The wind is either still or blasting strong enough to impose penalties to Listen and to Range attacks. Due to the Sun deity still being strong, Summers are more fierce and Winters more mild - a mild boon to farming, as the sun may bake what was planted in the Spring unless plenty of rain alleviates the problem - preferably without drowning the fields. . . .

Anyway, how is this view?
 
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jerichothebard said:
One thing I forgot to mention is that the fall of the six gods happened around 1300 years before present game time.

1300 years ago, the six gods fell...

I could see you working in those two numbers (13 and 6) into your game a lot. Which room do they get in the inn? #6. How many months in a year? 13. Can't think of any others, but if you get a chance to spout off numbers, just make them 13 or 6. That would be cool.
 

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