I am not sure if this belongs here or where else, if it belongs elsewhere please redirect me.
I am pondering a new campaign but two ideas have crossed my mind:
1) I want the party to be all divine classes (paladin, cleric, avenger, invoker)
2) I want the party to all play monsters from the back of the monster manuals
now for the actual plot of the campaign:
The raven queen is one of the newest gods to the realms and as such even has her moments of rest. At this time the raven queen will be withdrawing from the world at large for her time of sleep, people will still die, and the souls will still pass on and be handeled to the other gods. However in her year long moment of weakness, Orcus will attempt to strike for his chance at power and he finaly might have the means to win.
Once long ago when the raven queen first took her mantle, she channeled herself into an avatar and as all people are she used too much of her power the first time through and permanently warped the hosts body to that most resembeling a were-raven. this body carries a sliver of her divine power all the way to the bone and indeed the bones themselves are cherished like saint bones of the catholic church. Orcus seeks to collect the bones of the first avatar and bind the raven queen to a mortal body once more so that he can slay her and rightfully take her place as god of the dead.
The raven queen knows of this plot and has called for these heroes to gather the bones before the agents of orcus can. hence the begining of the campaign will start in a church with these random people unified in faith.
Anyone with ideas or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Hmmm...if you mean to go for it, you may need to set a concrete number of bones.
No less than 3 and no more than 12. You could even have them show up in the most uncanny of places. For example a femur could be the scepter of a king, whom just happens to be the target of an assasination plot, if he is protected he will give it up.
The bones themselves would grant story item like abilities to the players. A finger bone that was crafted into a ring could potentially be a much more spectacular magic item.
Or if that is not your thing, the bones themselves don't work unless certain requirements are met, like finding a raven priest to bless them or such.
There is quite the potential here.
It sounds like a very interesting campaign. Please keep us updated as to how it comes out.
You could start the pc's in a large isolated monestary. It could be a place of learning for all the divine classes.
(It's possible that this thread fits better in the "What's a DM to do?" forum, but I don't think it's out of place here.)
Limiting your players in class and race selection isn't a problem, provided they're okay with it. That said, I think you should be open to reflavoring some other classes as divine to widen the selection a bit more. For example, a Shaman could probably work as a divine character.
If you're planning on getting (or already have) Adventurer's Vault 2 I'd suggest making the raven bones a group set (or whatever the item sets that can be spread over the party are called).
Other than that it seems like a cool idea and I wish you the best of luck!
Yeah, I was thinking the bones as a group set might work too. Or they could be even more powerful and act as an artifact. There was an artifact, the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar, that was kind of along those lines in 1e. Each tooth had a power and then there were set powers you got when you had various numbers of them. The basic concept could work, maybe a sort of combination of group set and artifact. The nice thing about that would be no one party member would have to be singled out to bear the artifact and it could grow in power appropriately over the course of the campaign as more bones are found.
An eidolon of the Raven Queen would be a pretty good place to put one.
This sounds awesome. I would love to play in a game like this. Nice job. please keep us updated on how it progresses. =)
Okay, an all-divine campaign to find holy relics is a sweet idea, but that brings up the question, what's the specific reasoning behind only wanting "monster" races?
How does that tie into the main theme of the campaign?
An eidolon of the Raven Queen would be a pretty good place to put one.
I fail my knowledge check there, a what?
Okay, an all-divine campaign to find holy relics is a sweet idea, but that brings up the question, what's the specific reasoning behind only wanting "monster" races?How does that tie into the main theme of the campaign?
On one hand it is a chance to offer the players "redemed" monsters. As an unaligned goddess, she is probably the most common "upgrade" from the likes of lolth and Zehir for most monsters. Also most cultures and races have a death aspect in some form or another so she is the most easily accessable to any race.
Two is the idea that as the outsiders looking in, they might actualy be given the temptation to let the world burn as they fight to save the elves and dragonborn who try to slay them with such closemindedness.
Three is that it is easier to run a party of mosters with maby 1 face for a changeling rather than the one monster PC being picked out all the time and getting resentfull.
If the players choose against this I wont hold it against them and simply run it standardly.
I like your reasoning about using monster races.
An eidolon is a monster from the first MM, a divine construct.
I suggest you also let them adventure in the Shadowfell, since that plane is where she keeps her domain. Just a thought.
I have moved this thread based on a VCL request. 
Playing good guy monsters can be pretty cool. I've played a Goblin, and a few more outlandish things at times. To a certain extent some of the fun of it is taken away if you have to be an already "redeemed" monster. Though ... playing a lantern Archon was fun.