As i get ready to run Dark Sun for the first time ever, i noticed that in page 9 it gives an alternative for divine characters and one of my players wanted to play one (any). Well, a while back i made the Archivist (look at my sig for a link) which a character that uses "divine" magic by reading ancient chants, hymns, prayers, etc, from prayer-books or tablets of dead gods. Obviously i offered the class to my player since its the only divine class that would make a bit of sense (if any) in Athas. Now what i ask of this community is to please look at my class and tell me how can i refluff it so that it feels more akin to Athas and the Dark Sun Campaign. Thanks in advance!
The problem is that any group of historians is going to run afoul of powerful people and/or the Dragon in DS, so it seems like an Archivist would be rare or unique. Any of the divine classes could be slightly refluffed to fit the same concept of someone who seeks out ancient knowledge and gains power from it.
The refluffing you want might have to do more with the setting, deciding which gods where were and when/how they were conquored, than one specific class (despite the fact that you class looks decent at first glance). So, if you've got Archivists, do you have Runepriests, Invokers, or any of the other divine classes (and how about Devas)? Which gods or divine realms will they encounter fragments of? What relationship (if any) do the sorcerer-kings have to the gods? And if you don't want to do that thought exercise, the player will probably be disappointed that the character designed to seek out the mysteries from the dawn of time is stuck dealing with mysteries and plots from the past two millenium instead.
Sorry my post isn't helpful.
The second edtion Darksun Fiction has characters that are clearly clerics, but instead of worshiping a god they drew power from elemental energy, such as the Sun or the Wind. I don't know much about how they worked the mechanics of that, but if I was running a DS game I would say ok to a divine character, but no specific diety chanel divinity feats, and you might work with the player to reskin some of the powers to more elemental effects (maybe fire instead of radiant keyword, that sort of thing.)
In theory, there is nothing wrong then if you have Divine power boosted as much by faith as actual godsend, to have divine classes in there. Look at Eberron.
The runepriest, likewise, isn't a terrible fit for DS.
The problem is that any group of historians is going to run afoul of powerful people and/or the Dragon in DS, so it seems like an Archivist would be rare or unique. Any of the divine classes could be slightly refluffed to fit the same concept of someone who seeks out ancient knowledge and gains power from it.
The refluffing you want might have to do more with the setting, deciding which gods where were and when/how they were conquored, than one specific class (despite the fact that you class looks decent at first glance). So, if you've got Archivists, do you have Runepriests, Invokers, or any of the other divine classes (and how about Devas)? Which gods or divine realms will they encounter fragments of? What relationship (if any) do the sorcerer-kings have to the gods? And if you don't want to do that thought exercise, the player will probably be disappointed that the character designed to seek out the mysteries from the dawn of time is stuck dealing with mysteries and plots from the past two millenium instead.
i am going with the: "You have come to own a relic from an ancient agethat grants you odd powers. You're unsure of its origin or what the strange symbol emblazoned on the relic's surface represents." sidebar, she agreed and said she wanted to work that out herself since she will be the only divine class in the group, so we will go over it together and see if we can make it match up.
This is an interesting character and one that a DM should incorporate into thier storyline as anyone with historical objects should run afoul of any Sorceror King and thier templars. Sorceror Kings don't want thier disciples/slaves learning about a time -before- the SK's, to the average peoon the Sorceror Kings have always been and always will be. Let's also not mention that being able to -read- alone is conscidered a crime as it either means your learning about the past or your practicing defiling or both.
i yet have to see what she comes up with and after that i shall fill up the remaining pieces.
I would be annoyed if I asked my DM to play a divine character and he said "No, because they don't fit the campaign setting. But, you can play the divine class I created, because I will go through the effort of refluffing that."
Sorry my post isn't helpful.
And where did i say i told her she could only play the class i made? She looked at the divine classes but none of them matched what she wanted, i gave her the option of the archivist, she looked at it and liked it. Id appreciate if your next comment contributed a little like all the other posts have done so far
The second edtion Darksun Fiction has characters that are clearly clerics, but instead of worshiping a god they drew power from elemental energy, such as the Sun or the Wind. I don't know much about how they worked the mechanics of that, but if I was running a DS game I would say ok to a divine character, but no specific diety chanel divinity feats, and you might work with the player to reskin some of the powers to more elemental effects (maybe fire instead of radiant keyword, that sort of thing.)
We are doing that as we speak but id also like to see what you guys can come up with!
A fact from the 4th multiverse; now, Faith have an important part into Divine power source. Not to Eberron's level maybe, but....
In theory, there is nothing wrong then if you have Divine power boosted as much by faith as actual godsend, to have divine classes in there. Look at Eberron.
Will do sir and see what my player likes or not from there.