The God Template

Recently I purged this blog of all posts. I did this because I felt like the majority of the posts were nothing more than half-ideas that weren't of use to anybody but myself. So I've decided to go through all of my previous posts and refine them for presentation.

With that said, here's the first of those posts—a template for god's and deities.

In my home campaign I got tired of my cleric character's players ignoring their deity. Half the time they couldn't even remember their god's name, let alone what his role was in the universe.

Clerics are paragons of divinity after all. Not just healing machines! So I created a template that I made my players fill out to incentivize fleshing out their god with small mechanical boons.

Here it is in its entirety:

Name: Simple enough. The god's name has no mechanical effects but it forces the player to write it down and (hopefully) remember it.

Alignment: Gods can be lawful, chaotic, or neutral. Lawful gods usually serve a role in the universe's continuation while chaotic gods want to return it to the void from where it sprung. Neutral gods can serve either roll but they are usually concerned with domestic affairs such as growing crops, raising cattle, and creating rain.

Realm: Each god has realm that he is responsible for. This realm could be as general as "fire" or as specific as "the hearth". A god's realm provides a theme that serves as a foundation for a cleric's powers.

Weapons: A god claims d3+1 weapons to be blessed by his decree. These weapons have to be specific. (I.e "longswords" or "shortswords. Not "swords".) A cleric receives a +1 bonus to his attack and damage rolls when using his god's chosen weapon(s).

Spells: A god will bestow one of his clerics with 10 spells over that clerics lifetime. A cleric learns two first level spells at level two, two second level spells at level four, two third level spells at level six, and etc. These spells are always considered to be prepared by the cleric but don't count towards the clerics prepared spells for the day. These spells should match the god's theme and be explainable though lore.

Example:

Morga'a, The All Seeing Eye
Alignment: Neutral
Realm: Knowledge
Weapons: Spear, dagger, and darts
Spells: Lvl2) Bookspeak, Identify. Lvl4) Augury, Locate Object. Lvl6) Clairvoyance, Speak With Dead. Lvl8) Divination, Wizard Eye. Lvl10) Contact Outer Sphere, Feeblemind.

Morga'a is the all seeing eye that floats eternally inside the infinite tower, recording all knowledge throughout the universe inside an infinite number of tomes with its infinite tentacles.