I am trying to build a cult, but I don't have any idea on how to start it. How should I build the hierarchy? What classes or levels should I make them? etc....
Can I ask some pretty simple questions first? Like What are they a Cult of, and what kind of Cult are they.... Like are if they are a religious cult what is making them different than just being a "church" of their god
It depends. What kind of cult? A we-summon-otherworldy-but-nonfiendinsh-horror cult or a we-worship-demons cult?
For the first, an arcane caster might make a good leader. For the second, a cleric of some fiendish entity.
Level all depends on how big the cult is. Bigger the cult, higher the level. For your run-of-the-mill cult, I tend to do level 5~7. For bigger ones, I go up to 15, but never beyond that (mostly because in my world 15 is considered near-demigod status).
Real-life or in-game?
:P
For real life, go and watch the movie Fight Club.
For in-game I expect that you are talking about enemies of the player-characters.
Even if the members of the cult are highly religious, remember that most of them will not be priests. Therefore the classes of the lay membership will correspond to the kind of people the cult has been recruiting, and what they have been recruiting for.
If it is secret a cult of spies and assassins then a lot of members will have rogue levels. Rogue levels actually work well for most cults since rogues are good at operating in secret, which most cults are. The cult of a warrior god will have lots of fighters and similar classes. The Inquisitor class is another good one for secret cults because he has a good skill set including bluff, intimidate, and stealth. Many of the members of any cult will simply have NPC classes; adept, expert, commoner, warrior.
Peet
Do you want them to have a true belief structure? Either way you will probably want to make up some powerful and mysterious other-worldly things and decide what they, or it, want(s). You need to build in some reward/punishment system to encourage subscription to the belief. In your number 1 or 2 positions you need to have a high charisma character like cleric, oracle, or sorcerer. If it is a completely bogus religion a bard could do well too. Depending on the size you may want ranks of these people as well as enforcers like paladins and inquisitors. Your top guy could also be a high Int type and just have his right hand be the face.
I had a character in an evil campaign a while back who had a cult. He was a sword and board fighter half-Orc. He used a bite attack as part of his full attack and while it wasn't much he actually slayed a minor demon lord with the bite attack and the GM ruled that since i ate the Demon lord to kill it I assumed its demon lord title. This opened my character up to having other demons come wanting to take the title from me but also allowed my character to take the leadership feat. We used the leadership feat to build my character the cult of the demon lord. With my cohort as the cult leader (a sorceress) and my followers as the cult members. If this cult is for a player character that is how i would recommend doing it: the leadership feat. It was a lot of fun in our case and made for good role-play.
What level were you phat?
What level were you phat?
We were a epic stated (2d6+6 per stat) party of 6th level when we slayed Groth the "demon lord" he wasn't that powerful of a demon lord honestly and it took five of us to kill him. I just got lucky and did the kill blow with my bite attack. The whole "assume his title" thing was because my GM didn't think we could beat him and he wanted a reason to send other demons after us as a party. The cult to "Groth" was my idea and the GM thought it was a great use of leadership. Since we went to 7th level for slaying Groth i was eligible for he feat. So it worked out well for the campaign.
Don't overburden yourself trying to create a massively detailed command structure, backstory, and hierarchy (unless you really enjoy that kind of thing). Concentrate on those whom your PC's will be encountering.
- Minions
- Assassins and operatives
- Secret handshakes and signs
- Secret meeting places
- A mid-level priest who is secretly a member
- Some competent agents
- A commander who takes his orders from higher up
- The higher up, who is surrounded by his peers, and they work for a yet "higher" up.
- The Higher Up: a very competent and well-funded person with ambitions and who is in charge of a region and obtaining goals in that region (assassinations, buying officials, getting wealth, threatening would-be heroes)
- Some overarching villain: They might get a glimpse of him, but he's too smart for them (now). He's super well funded, and has an agenda. He knows things that would make a high level priest quake in his robes, and make high level paladins quake with rage, and he doesn't care.
- Some low level ritual that empowers all agents present for 24hrs. so they can do their dirty deeds.
- Some forbidden deity, long forgotten, who is lending them supernatural power and supernatural minions.
- Some innocents who get in the way at the wrong time and get the PC's involved.
Can I ask some pretty simple questions first? Like What are they a Cult of, and what kind of Cult are they.... Like are if they are a religious cult what is making them different than just being a "church" of their god
It has not been decided. I am looking at options for building one.
Don't overburden yourself trying to create a massively detailed command structure, backstory, and hierarchy (unless you really enjoy that kind of thing). Concentrate on those whom your PC's will be encountering.
- Minions
- Assassins and operatives
- Secret handshakes and signs
- Secret meeting places
- A mid-level priest who is secretly a member
- Some competent agents
- A commander who takes his orders from higher up
- The higher up, who is surrounded by his peers, and they work for a yet "higher" up.
- The Higher Up: a very competent and well-funded person with ambitions and who is in charge of a region and obtaining goals in that region (assassinations, buying officials, getting wealth, threatening would-be heroes)
- Some overarching villain: They might get a glimpse of him, but he's too smart for them (now). He's super well funded, and has an agenda. He knows things that would make a high level priest quake in his robes, and make high level paladins quake with rage, and he doesn't care.- Some low level ritual that empowers all agents present for 24hrs. so they can do their dirty deeds.
- Some forbidden deity, long forgotten, who is lending them supernatural power and supernatural minions.
- Some innocents who get in the way at the wrong time and get the PC's involved.
I find details easier to write after I have the big background details in line. It will also make the group feel more cohesive and less hodgepodge.
I can happily recommend the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding. It's a cheap little PDF with a chapter specifically about cults, and plenty of other awesome ideas.