Deity Concordance - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Deity Concordance

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
smeej
May 15, 2011 18:10:08 All I could find on this subject was a short thread several years old: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

I was wondering if anyone has made any attempts to implement something like this.

I want to reward my characters for being consistent in their actions and make it more of a sacrifice to switch deities or conduct. I was thinking that setting up something like deity concordance and handing out boons based on that could be interesting.

I was also considering merging it with the ideas of themes, somewhat. At a certain point, you could unlock a decent little encounter power as well as access to additional utilitiy choices and whatnot.

I don't want to punish players as much as create an incentive to stay consistent in their conduct and create story opportunities if they change moral directions and was wondering if there's any way to keep this sort of balanced.
#2
mercaius
May 16, 2011 2:27:48 Deity concordance sounds similar to the means by which a player has to earn the favor of a major artifact before she can use its best abilities. You might use those for a good starting point for your own homebrew rules.
#3
slobo777a
May 16, 2011 8:10:41 I like the idea of themes, and of basing a mechanic on artifact concordance. You could base a template off a deity-specific artefact, and assess changes on each extended rest or level up.

I think some things to watch are:

1) Don't favour or penalise Divine power source PCs with the rules. This is probably easiest to achieve if you go for benefits only, and avoid benefits that interact with Divine powers, or if that seems too seperate, and you want to tweak Channel Divinity etc for those characters, ensure an equivalent benefit is available to non-Divine PCs.

2) If you think you might have players unwilling to commit to a deity theme, or that comes out in play, see if you can figure out something else for them, just for fairness' sake.

3) Figure out a simple, fair mechanic for swapping allegiance between deities (such as starting at a low fixed concordance depending on alignment difference between deities being swapped).

Unless you have a lot of time to dedicate to a complete set of deities, you might want to only stat those that the players have expressed an initial interest in.

I might consider making the most useful benefits of an "aligned with the gods" mechanic very generic (i.e. the same beneit for all gods), or maybe only alignment specific. And make the concordance events different. Then you avoid players focussing on potential synergies between deity-granted powers and the character, and looking more at "What do I do to please the deity I have chosen for RP reasons (or which deity should I choose because it matches my PC's world view on how to act)?"
#4
salla
May 16, 2011 16:26:16 What of PCs who don't follow a deity?
#5
MacEochaid
May 18, 2011 1:19:19 By reserving a category of atheist or apostate you could actually even more deeply theme the importance of a deity in your world. What does it mean for a hero who doesn't have a diety's favor?

If four members of the party are bound under the banner of the Celestian Trinity, maybe the fifth adds flavor by being the odd man out.

"Hang your Avandra, I make my own luck"
this scrappy self made man has a power that lets him have a reroll

"I've never seen Bahamut's justice in a world full of monsters, don't listen to the lies of priests"
this cold die hard cynic, maybe he has a benefit that allows him to resist domination, stunning, or other mind control effects

"The God's just stand in my way"
This actually villanous schemer might get bluff bonuses, or a sneaky power

This might make more clear that in a campaign, especially PoL, there is a conflict between the community of the few organizing under the auspicies of higher order beings, or the loner who will question the path through Letherna on the day he dies, and not a morning before.
#6
Neutronium_Dragon
May 18, 2011 2:40:53 It isn't just a matter of "god-worshippers vs atheists" either. Primal-background characters are the most obvious PC-oriented example, but there are plenty of others, even if some of them tend toward being NPC choices (primordials, demons, etc).
#7
Damon_Tor
May 18, 2011 12:28:21
Building off of what others have said, it sounds like each player is given an "artifact boon" which waxes and wanes in power as the character acts in accordance with the dieties' edicts (like an artifact) but is not a physical item (like a boon). PCs who worship other diety-like entities like primal spirits or demons could have similar boons.

Sounds like a good system to me, in general. I would like to see the system relate in some way to divine characters. Perhaps it could be as simple as "you may treat this boon as a +X implement type of your choice for divine powers." or something.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 smeej May 15, 2011 18:10:08	All I could find on this subject was a short thread several years old: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... I was wondering if anyone has made any attempts to implement something like this. I want to reward my characters for being consistent in their actions and make it more of a sacrifice to switch deities or conduct. I was thinking that setting up something like deity concordance and handing out boons based on that could be interesting. I was also considering merging it with the ideas of themes, somewhat. At a certain point, you could unlock a decent little encounter power as well as access to additional utilitiy choices and whatnot. I don't want to punish players as much as create an incentive to stay consistent in their conduct and create story opportunities if they change moral directions and was wondering if there's any way to keep this sort of balanced.
#2 mercaius May 16, 2011 2:27:48	Deity concordance sounds similar to the means by which a player has to earn the favor of a major artifact before she can use its best abilities. You might use those for a good starting point for your own homebrew rules.
#3 slobo777a May 16, 2011 8:10:41	I like the idea of themes, and of basing a mechanic on artifact concordance. You could base a template off a deity-specific artefact, and assess changes on each extended rest or level up. I think some things to watch are: 1) Don't favour or penalise Divine power source PCs with the rules. This is probably easiest to achieve if you go for benefits only, and avoid benefits that interact with Divine powers, or if that seems too seperate, and you want to tweak Channel Divinity etc for those characters, ensure an equivalent benefit is available to non-Divine PCs. 2) If you think you might have players unwilling to commit to a deity theme, or that comes out in play, see if you can figure out something else for them, just for fairness' sake. 3) Figure out a simple, fair mechanic for swapping allegiance between deities (such as starting at a low fixed concordance depending on alignment difference between deities being swapped). Unless you have a lot of time to dedicate to a complete set of deities, you might want to only stat those that the players have expressed an initial interest in. I might consider making the most useful benefits of an "aligned with the gods" mechanic very generic (i.e. the same beneit for all gods), or maybe only alignment specific. And make the concordance events different. Then you avoid players focussing on potential synergies between deity-granted powers and the character, and looking more at "What do I do to please the deity I have chosen for RP reasons (or which deity should I choose because it matches my PC's world view on how to act)?"
#4 salla May 16, 2011 16:26:16	What of PCs who don't follow a deity?
#5 MacEochaid May 18, 2011 1:19:19	By reserving a category of atheist or apostate you could actually even more deeply theme the importance of a deity in your world. What does it mean for a hero who doesn't have a diety's favor? If four members of the party are bound under the banner of the Celestian Trinity, maybe the fifth adds flavor by being the odd man out. "Hang your Avandra, I make my own luck" this scrappy self made man has a power that lets him have a reroll "I've never seen Bahamut's justice in a world full of monsters, don't listen to the lies of priests" this cold die hard cynic, maybe he has a benefit that allows him to resist domination, stunning, or other mind control effects "The God's just stand in my way" This actually villanous schemer might get bluff bonuses, or a sneaky power This might make more clear that in a campaign, especially PoL, there is a conflict between the community of the few organizing under the auspicies of higher order beings, or the loner who will question the path through Letherna on the day he dies, and not a morning before.
#6 Neutronium_Dragon May 18, 2011 2:40:53	It isn't just a matter of "god-worshippers vs atheists" either. Primal-background characters are the most obvious PC-oriented example, but there are plenty of others, even if some of them tend toward being NPC choices (primordials, demons, etc).
#7 Damon_Tor May 18, 2011 12:28:21	Building off of what others have said, it sounds like each player is given an "artifact boon" which waxes and wanes in power as the character acts in accordance with the dieties' edicts (like an artifact) but is not a physical item (like a boon). PCs who worship other diety-like entities like primal spirits or demons could have similar boons. Sounds like a good system to me, in general. I would like to see the system relate in some way to divine characters. Perhaps it could be as simple as "you may treat this boon as a +X implement type of your choice for divine powers." or something.