I am running a game and the group is now 9th level. I wanted to start having some of the characters interact either with or minions of thier gods. Only one or two members (of 5) want to have divine interaction. Do you guys have any ideas that would help, but not hinder the game? How about any good and bad experiences you might of had?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
I am running a game and the group is now 9th level. I wanted to start having some of the characters interact either with or minions of thier gods. Only one or two members (of 5) want to have divine interaction. Do you guys have any ideas that would help, but not hinder the game? How about any good and bad experiences you might of had?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
That really depends on how you want to handle the situation. Are the Gods in question favoring your PCs or are your PCs merely pawns on the chess board?
My experience is that the Gods should never reveal themselves as God unless they get offended or else it is really needed. If they interact at all it usually will be in the form of a NPC that the characters wouldn't pay heed to in the first place and then that character offers some advice.
A God can virtually be anyone, a beggar, a little kid, a red shirt . . . er, um, I mean a henchmen and any other character archetypes the characters might not suspect.
You can also go with the classic Gods help those who do not want help. These gods will keep their presence unknown and only give little nudges now and then when the PC they like gets stuck. This would be the Jason complex.
While any character can virtually turn out to be a God they can also virtually be any God. Perhaps they draw the attention of a God they don't want or there is a God working against them. This would be the Heracles complex.
Keep contact, even with holy characters, indirect because if you create a direct line then all sorts of things could and should go wrong hence Joan of Arc.
Depending on the character concepts of the other party members there could be some other possibilities.
In the campaign I'm in, part of my character's thing is the killing of Evil outsiders, so far mostly devils.
In our last encounter before the break, devils attack the town and we defend it. After fighting off the attack we go down to a river in order to fully destroy a vampire involved in the attack.
Once we finished that, we encountered a Pit Fiend (LE CR 20 Outsider, Party average level is 8). And a chase ensues. At the end of the chase a herald of Cayden Cailean (sp?), worshiped by the Halfling Outrider in the group, intercedes on our behalf and destroys the Pit Fiend.
I though that was pretty cool.
You can have an active heaven in your game but it does need to be handled with care. The use of celestrials in the god's employ would be best. Having a god manifest themselves has always been used, in my experience, to say that s**t has hit the fan. Also you don't want the gods messing with mortal affairs too much. Gods, as a rule, can only directly interact with mortals that worship them and they can not directly attack or harm followers of another god. This keeps gods from killing off all the followers of one deity so that that deity loses their power. A god should only manifest themselves if summoned by a very high level follower, 20+, or if a god that they consider a foe has manifested themselves already so that they can stop that foe.
You can have an active heaven in your game but it does need to be handled with care. The use of celestrials in the god's employ would be best. Having a god manifest themselves has always been used, in my experience, to say that s**t has hit the fan. Also you don't want the gods messing with mortal affairs too much. Gods, as a rule, can only directly interact with mortals that worship them and they can not directly attack or harm followers of another god. This keeps gods from killing off all the followers of one deity so that that deity loses their power. A god should only manifest themselves if summoned by a very high level follower, 20+, or if a god that they consider a foe has manifested themselves already so that they can stop that foe.
I agree with you. As a DM its a pain in my arse to invite gods and their ilk into the game. Two players of my group have asked to introduce thier gods or their helpers since they tidy a percentage of thier treasure. I really like the ideas you guys have and will introduce them into my game. Thanks again!