#(capable of having whatever property you as GM would like added to them by making the sack a sack o' +whatever daggers; magical by default)

[regallibellbright]

Both my brother and father are frequent GMs for the ttrpgers in our social circle. They also each play in the other’s game.

This leads to fun situations like a week or two ago when my brother brought up giant undersea scorpions being a thing that exists in casual conversation.

Dad: That’s coming up in a game.

Bro: (His girlfriend, who plays in Bro’s) already forbade them.

Mom: *laughing* I love that you both went straight there. You and she just knew he’d do that.

Me: Who do you think he learned from? And who plays in his games and therefore KNOWS exactly what he’d do?

Bro is, I believe, the one who suggested to Dad back when we were still kids the phrase “carnivorous crickets,” before realizing he was giving the GM ideas. Horrifying arthropods are in fact part of his GMing style.

So anyway, Dad’s the GM tonight, Bro’s visiting his girlfriend, so I just heard the alarm go off and Dad go “time to go kill some adventurers.”

I told him to have fun.

#family shenanigans #ttrpg #arthropods #insects #carnivorous insects #just feels like something I should tag for #with the virtual campaigns it's very amusing because you can hear one of them say something from one room #and then the other respond not-infrequently #at least if you're on the main level (as one is upstairs and the other downstairs) or if you are me and can hear through floors #... usually not distinctly but I can occasionally make things out if respective doors are still open #walls as a given though I have to wear headphones whenever someone's in therapy #as a total bystander in BOTH games (and any others one or both of them may be running) who relies on them for transport #it's not at all uncommon for me to hear their plans for one or the other's game and/or help pick choices for a dungeon design or the like #(because yes of course my game designer little brother has both a massive homebrew setting and often designs dungeons off his own ideas) #he also does magical items himself he has fun with that #winner has to be the Sack O' Daggers - an unassuming porch containing infinitely respawning magic daggers #(capable of having whatever property you as GM would like added to them by making the sack a sack o' +whatever daggers; magical by default) #you cannot sell them; only one is active at a time; but if you're going to be checked before entering somewhere hey! #You just have an unassuming empty pouch. Totally empty. SURPRISE! Daggers. #(and of course my dad who has been involved in this hobby since the 70s when he was a teenager is pretty experienced as a GM) #the real monster of mythic proportions in the household is actually frogs that nearly wrecked his party in like the 70s/80s #leading them all to ask 'what? do they have vorpal tongues or something?' #the vorpal frogs have come up at least once since with INTENTIONAL death in their eyes #but yeah of course I gleefully enable them both in trying to kill each other's characters this is bonding time for them #and all their friends. Hey there's a third GM in that group don't feel TOO sorry for everyone.

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Using Deities in your Campaign

Deities are tricky to use in your setting if you aren’t clear on their lore, capabilities, and limitations. Here are some ideas to think about, and some scales for divine miracles if you’re unsure whether a deity can or cannot do something.

Deific Origins

Where do deities come from, and where do they get their power? Such questions may never arise in some campaign settings, but in others it may be integral to the story's plot. Make sure you have answers to these questions if your setting deals often with deities. Below are some examples of divine origins for deities in your setting.

Persistent Power. It is possible that the gods are static and unchanging. Since the dawn of existence, the deities have had the same amount of power and always will. They are hard to surprise and even harder to please.

Power from Worship. A common idea is that deities get their power from the belief and will of their followers. As such, the deity may depend on their worshipers more so than in other settings. They may ask for more worship or to spread their influence on the Material Plane. Likewise, gods can fall into extinction without proper amounts of belief.

Power is Deferred. Perhaps your setting has one overbeing that defers some of its powers to the deities below it. The overbeing may have a certain amount of power to give out. In this way, becoming a god is a matter of being allowed to have divine power. The overbeing's temperament would play a large role in such a decision.

Power is Seized. In a setting with a limited amount of divine power to go around, deities and powerful beings would vie for such power. A deity's divine essence is something it earns by taking it for themselves. New gods rise and fall as new entities take their power for themselves.

Mortal Ascendancy. The deities in your setting could have once been mortals who attained such power they ascended into godhood. If there is an unlimited amount of divine power to go around, just about anyone could become a god. With a limited amount of power, mortals that wish to become deities will have to first defeat one of the existing gods.

Magic Power. A deity could simply be able to wield magic to perform its godly duties. This magic may be beyond mortal comprehension or be so much power that a mortal could not physically channel it, but it is still magic. Deities would have layers upon layers of magical enchantments and wards imbuing them to give them their divine might.

Planar Power. Deities could get their power from the planes themselves. Perhaps they only have this power while they remain on their plane, so they need mortals to enact their plans in the Material Plane. Multiple deities on the same plane would be able to try and steal power from one another.

Cosmic Power. To have power beyond mortal grasp, a god could wield power from the cosmos among the stars, harnessing supernovas to fuel their deific might. In this case, the gods might not even exist in a plane outside the Material Plane, unless the cosmos exists between such planes.

Power from Birth. Perhaps deities are born of mortals in your setting. They could either be the offspring of a deity and a mortal, or be a mortal child gifted with a divine spark that will awaken when they are ready. This lets gods grow up to be fickle and humanlike, but can also be far more dangerous if a mortal turns evil. Existing deities would each have great interest in the birth of any new god.

Divine Forms

Deities generally take three forms: a metaphysical form, an avatar form, and a hidden mortal form. A deity is able to shift between their forms, depending on what is needed.

Metaphysical Form. A deity's metaphysical state is just that: beyond physical. It cannot interact with things or creatures in the Material Plane, except when directly related to its domain or portfolio. In this form, they are beyond comprehension and cannot be harmed except by another deity. They are simply made from divine magic, meant to move the aspects of the universe and to gift their clerics with bestowed spells.

Avatar Form. When a deity needs to be able to interact with things and creatures, such as in combat, a deity manifests an avatar. The avatar is its focused consciousness and divine essence rolled into one. It still has its abilities but its senses become less ubiquitous and its power less expansive.

The avatar can take any form the deity wishes, and many favor certain appearances over others. This is where worshipers might get notions of gender or symbols or favored weapons and animals from deities, which are truly formless beings.

An avatar can only manifest on the deity's native plane, which prevents god from meddling in mortal affairs.

Hidden Form. A deity could hide among mortals, pretending to be a simple animal or innocuous humanoid. Doing so, however, causes the deity to lose a large portion of its power while in this form. It also leaves a power vacuum in its native plane that risks being taken over by someone else. A deity hiding amongst mortals must take precautions to guard its portfolio back in its home plane or ensure other deities don't realize they are gone.

While travelling in its mortal form, it typically has the statistics of a 20th-level character class, with its regular deified ability modifiers (it is not restricted to a max of 20). They lose most of their godly traits and actions, as well as any divine bonuses to their AC. They are reduced to working with mortal implements and spells instead.

A deity in its hidden form is protected by a nondetection spell at all times, and no magic outside of that from a deity can realize its celestial nature. A non-deity creature with Truesight does not see the deity's true form either. A deity slain in this form fades into nothingness and reappears in their metaphysical form on their native plane and cannot hide among mortals until a certain amount of time has passed, always at least a year but sometimes as long as a century.

Limits to Power

Deities are more interesting in a setting when there are clear boundaries to what they can and cannot do. It creates tension as rules are established and everyone struggles to work within them or work around them. Deities would do anything if their power was truly infinite, so universal limitations should be somewhat specific.

Divine Meddling

How much can deities intervene with the realms and workings of mortals? Usually, deities do not have much in terms of such power on their own. They must work with lesser creatures to carry out their plans and wishes. Perhaps a deity requires specific rituals or displays of worship before it is allowed to divinely intervene, and even then only if it suits the deity.

However, deities in your setting might be different. They could regularly intervene in mortal affairs at their own whims, perhaps only being stopped by another deity or by spells that might prevent their interference or observation.

Free Will

In your setting, how many of mortals' decisions are their own? Due to the nature of tabletop games, creatures are generally assumed to have a degree of free will since player characters are controlled by entirely other people than the GM. This also gives players autonomy without feeling like their decisions are pointless or controlled.

Deities might reward or empower creatures that act or feel the way that they want, using temptation or devotion to sway mortal minds. Generally, though, mortals should be able to make the final choice.

If you must take away the free will of creatures, including your players, simply tell them that their fates are unknown but are written in stone. Whatever choices the players make, that was their destined choice.

Miracles

Deities can perform a variety of miracles outside of their personal statistics. Such things are beyond listing and calculation, so it is better to leave these miraculous abilities open-ended within your campaign, but at least have a good idea of what a deity is capable of.

Domain Miracles. A deity should be able to manipulate both physical and metaphysical properties of aspects within its domain in miraculous ways. For instance, a winter god should be able to manipulate ice and snow, but also perhaps sadness and fear which could be tied to the idea of winter

The limits of these powers can vary depending on what you will allow in your setting. Try to imagine the upward limits of what your deities can do within their domain so that you can answer relevant questions of players when they try to test such limits.

When in doubt you can always have the deity make an ability check. Let the deity use its key spellcasting ability, whether it uses Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, and give the action a difficulty class with deific proportions. Use the Domain Miracles table to determine how difficult something is for the deity. Thanks to massive ability scores, it is possible for a deity to reach up to 30 if it is a major deity, but maybe not as an intermediate or minor deity. Since it is a static ability check, no proficiency bonus is added.

In general, a deity should be able to multitask fairly well within the limitations of its domain. Outside its domain, it could still have powers, but be less powerful and less focused. When a deity is taking multiple actions to manipulate reality using miracles, increase the DC of each miracle beyond the first by 2 if all the actions are within the deity's domain, or increase the DC by 5 if any of the actions are outside their domain.

You might warrant that certain domain aspects might be far and beyond a deity's limitations. With our winter deity example, for instance, they might not be able to affect aspects that include fire, the sun, heat, or intense passion. In such cases, the deity automatically fails any ability check to control the aspect.

Creation Miracles. Some deities can be considered creator deities. These gods should have the power to create new things and change or shape the world anew. Of course, they can do so to a greater extent within their own domain. Depending on the complexity of the thing the deity intends to create, the deity may need rest to recover after creating it. Moreover, they could fail at creating the intended thing, causing it to be deformed, corrupted, or flawed in some way. Use the Creation Miracles table to determine how difficult something is for the deity to create and how much rest is required afterward. The deity should roll an ability check whenever it tries to create something. If it fails the check, the effort is failed or has unintended results and the deity must still rest for the required period.

A deity gains a +5 bonus to this check and halves the resting period if one of their domain aspects is "Creation". A deity gains a +5 bonus to this check as well for each deity aiding them with the check. If multiple deities make the attempt, each participating deity must rest for the rest period.

During the resting period, a deity cannot perform any creation miracles. Doing so would cause them to become quite vulnerable to the actions of other deities or ambitious and powerful mortals. How vulnerable they are is up to you.

Divine Senses

What can deities sense? Surely they can see many things but perhaps not all things. This could be especially true when there are multiple deities that could be watching any given event. You must set parameters for deities' senses in a campaign that involves godly meddling. Here are some ideas regarding this.

Domain Senses. A deity can sense anything related to the aspects of its portfolio or domain. A sea deity can sense events in the ocean, while a deity of love can sense when creatures feel love. The stronger the aspect, the greater the sensation for the deity. Unless the deity is taking action to scry on a specific event with magic or other such method, the deity cannot sense any specifics about the event in their domain. They merely sense that something has happened, but cannot see it or hear it.

You could perhaps give a deity the ability to scry upon things associated with their domain, seeing or hearing in a small radius around it, but only if they specifically opt to focus their attention to the task.

Metaphysical Senses. A deity can always hear prayers that are directed to them, though they are heard stronger and more clearly depending on the weight carried by the prayer. A large congregation will be heard more loudly than an individual, but a powerful cleric performing an elaborate ritual might be heard more clearly than an entire town.

Avatar Senses. When a deity is physically present, as an avatar, its senses are far stronger than the average mortal. They can see and hear for a number of miles around them equal to their passive Perception value, but are still limited to their natural sensory limitations. For instance, a god with Darkvision can see in the dark, but not around opaque barriers. A deity with Tremorsense could sense things beyond such barriers, and a deity with Truesight can see through illusions.

Some deities might have the ability to see around barriers with a unique sense that we could call remote viewing or ubiquitous sight. Deities could also get around this limitation if they can use certain divination spells to do so.

#dungeons & dragons #5e #DnD #Deities #Gods #Pantheons #D&D