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slexlollar89
2009-01-15, 08:57 PM
Salutations!

I am in the process of refining my homebrew 3.5 campaign setting. The majority of it is heavily based upon a religion that I have created featuring several (at least 25+) gods, and their religious establishment. Recently, I have been writing details about these myriad gods and their particular worship, and now I have DnD block... I need help designing rituals and services that would be apropriate for a religious group (I.E. comunion for catholics, or rosh-hashanna for jewish people). So here is some backstory to work with if you need it:

The Holy Church of Tribunal Testament is a worldwide establishment created in ancient times to prevent strife among the sundry relkigious groups in the world. It cares nothing for morality or ethics, merely keeping all religious groups (called Sects of the Church) together. It actually is very much like the pre-enlightenment catholic church. Good evil, chaotic, lawful, whatever neutral gods are all worshipped in their own sects (temples bear the Church symbol with the individual god's symbol inscribed in it) and the Church superceeds any Sect's needs first. A council of 1 high priest from each sect rules as a governing body, with an elected high priest chsen among them.

Basically that's it, and there are literally gods of anything in my world, so any kind of cermony or ritual would be extremely appreciated:smallsmile:

sorry for the length guys:smallredface:

zakk2to2
2009-01-15, 10:58 PM
it depends on the gods themselves but just remember any evil ceremony is nothing without blood. you need blood everywhere. running down the walls welling up from the victims mouth, flowing out of a fountain. cant go wrong with blood for evil. if you need specifics for this check out the aztecs. while you might not want aztecs in you game but their rituals are fair game seeing as their dead and all.

Siosilvar
2009-01-15, 11:04 PM
it depends on the gods themselves but just remember any evil ceremony is nothing without blood. you need blood everywhere. running down the walls welling up from the victims mouth, flowing out of a fountain. cant go wrong with blood for evil. if you need specifics for this check out the aztecs. while you might not want aztecs in you game their rituals are fair game seeing as their dead and all.

And fire. The two things you need are blood and fire. And skulls. The *three* things you need are blood, fire, skulls, and evil priests. The *four*... no, wait, Amongst the things you need... I'll come in again.

herrhauptmann
2009-01-15, 11:38 PM
At first you looking for rituals that help with spell casting. If you want that, grab Relics & Rituals by Sword Sorcery Studios. For religious rituals, I'll think of a few things and try and get back to you. In the meantime, feel free to mix and match from the real world. Its a homebrewed world for you and your friends, no one to sue if you violate copyright of the Catholic Church or something.

Maerok
2009-01-15, 11:40 PM
Maybe each ritual requires a Patron Essence and Core, and start from there.

Essences would be fluids like water, blood, or air. And Cores would be solid things like gold. Combining the two and sacrificing them into lesser elements would allow one to interface with the ways of the world.

So for a ritual of time travel, you'd start off with water as your Patron Essence and metal as your Patron Core. From there you can flesh out particular appeasements to the relevant deities.

zakk2to2
2009-01-16, 12:03 AM
Maybe each ritual requires a Patron Essence and Core, and start from there.

Essences would be fluids like water, blood, or air. And Cores would be solid things like gold. Combining the two and sacrificing them into lesser elements would allow one to interface with the ways of the world.

So for a ritual of time travel, you'd start off with water as your Patron Essence and metal as your Patron Core. From there you can flesh out particular appeasements to the relevant deities.

this is a good plan but i would include a source of power. yes you use water in a metal chalice or somesuch(blood is a liquid you know wink wink) but what makes it go? maybe the lifeforce from the blood itself or the magic power from the ritual caster. if all it took was water in a metal chalice everyone would be hopping through time and if you look at any examples of dnd and other such games giving your players easy time travel even with expensive material is just begging for trouble.

Maerok
2009-01-16, 12:07 AM
Blood could also be the Premium Unleaded of magical rituals (as one of Prime Essences). It's fiendish but for the ritual invoker it'll get your point across. Gold could possibly be the same.

Questions to ask/answer:
How are rituals performed?
What makes them work?
Who can perform or discover them?
What sets rituals aside from magic?
Are rituals a form of magic or something else?

zakk2to2
2009-01-16, 12:26 AM
rituals also need their own reason for existing to start with. if its just magic that takes longer and is more complicated no one would use it. what you need is a obvious bonus from using rituals even if they are longer. it could be many things like maybe the ritual allows you to substitute things like other people live or blood instead of using your own xp or maybe it allows you to combine spells that you normaly could not and dont forget whats having rituals if there isnt some evil god with a unpronoucible name just waiting to be summoned to destroy the world.

newbDM
2009-01-16, 12:32 AM
Salutations!

I am in the process of refining my homebrew 3.5 campaign setting. The majority of it is heavily based upon a religion that I have created featuring several (at least 25+) gods, and their religious establishment...
......

I am not skilled enough to help you, however, I have to say wow. I am very impressed dude. I have so far done a handful of hoembrewed deities, and it is surprisingly hard and long work, and I did not even stat them up as statblocks/mechanics!

If you have them in text documents, would you mind sharing them? I am interested in seeing them, and how you made them.

slexlollar89
2009-01-16, 02:24 PM
well NewbDM I really have been overhauling my stuff, and Iv'e just started with the religion (because it's the basis for my seting) so the gods are not ver complete, mostly just domains and favored weapons... not even stats some of them are fleshed out very well in my head... and some aren't but If you want I can PM you my list and what I have... it's very very incomplete though.

In regards to rituals... zack2to2 was right on about giving maechanical bonuses... like one ritual I am toying with is for my god of Valor... he requires paladins to kill an enemy larger than himself, with a weapon smalller than normal (I.E. a human killing an ogre with a halflings knife)... if you do this, then drink wine mixed with the creature's blood, you get any sight based abilities the creature had (like detect Su stuff, see invis, true seeing, darckvision etc.) and immunity to fear for a while (I use a systm I created called Faith... represented by a number so th blessings and stuff last time based on this number)...

And yeah blood and gold are a given item for rituals... I was also toying with music, created offerings (carvings or toys) and burnt offerings too... I just don't want my religoin to turn into the Temple of Avo where I throw gold and BAM! insta-bless...

Maerok
2009-01-16, 06:31 PM
All of Fable was pretty bland.

Music is an interesting possibility.

LurkerInPlayground
2009-01-16, 06:36 PM
And fire. The two things you need are blood and fire. And skulls. The *three* things you need are blood, fire, skulls, and evil priests. The *four*... no, wait, Amongst the things you need... I'll come in again.
The *fourth* thing is an eldritch horror tearing its way through space-time into our world. The *fifth* thing, if you really want to ham it up, is a virgin sacrifice.

Thane of Fife
2009-01-16, 08:43 PM
I am not skilled enough to help you, however, I have to say wow. I am very impressed dude. I have so far done a handful of hoembrewed deities, and it is surprisingly hard and long work, and I did not even stat them up as statblocks/mechanics!

You don't really need statblocks or much in the way of mechanics for deities. Assuming that you're using 3.5e, all you really need would be:

1. Portfolio
2. Domains
3. Alignment
4. Favored Weapon
5. Relations to Other Gods
6. Attitude (i.e. How does he/she treat their portfolio?)

To the OP, some rituals:

The Rite of the Seventh Harvest

This ritual is held once every seven years at the beginning of the harvest season. Traditionally, it is hosted by a druid who lives near the community holding the celebration, and occurs three days after the first crops of the season are harvested. The day leading up to the ritual is filled with festivities, which by tradition are loud and noisy and jubilant. When the sun sets, however, all noise must cease, and for the rest of the night, the only noises allowable are the ritual songs which must be sung by the village women. All crops harvested up to this point will be burned at midnight, while the prettiest girls in the village dance and the druid overseeing the ceremony ritually sacrifices a cow. The creatures blood will be flicked over the burning crops, and the singing will die down as they consumed by the flame. Once the fire goes out, the villagers will go back to sleep, and the ceremony will not be held for another seven years.

Reasoning: The god of agriculture has seven sons, who take turns overseeing the harvest. The eldest six sons are frenzy to mankind, but the seventh is hostile. The festivities during the day are to lighten the mood for his awakening, and the song at night is to lull him softly back to sleep, with the crops and sacrifice meant to appease him with their pleasing scent. Anyone causing trouble on the day of the Rite of the Seventh Harvest will be severely punished.

Acleria's Day

During the reign of King Minakos IV, the orcs from a neighboring country grew particularly bold, and one fateful night they launched an attack which, somehow, broke through the capital city's defenses and resulted in the death of the king and queen. The orcs were eventually thrown back, but the city was devastated, and left without enough people to support the city for the coming winter. Many of the city's citizens fled, and the problem grew even more dire, until one young woman, Acleria, prayed for guidance. When her prayer was answered by the God of Plenty, Acleria seduced him. Exactly nine days later, even as more and more people began to flee the city, Acleria gave birth to 1,000 children. These children matured shockingly quickly, and the birth boom convinced people to believe they would succeed, and the resulting influx, saved the city from starvation.

The holiday actually lasts nine days. The first eight are traditionally filled with prayer and worship, generally outside of the walls of whatever community is holding the holiday, with businesses left closed. Then, on the ninth day, the birth is celebrated, and a huge feast is held as everyone returns to work. It is considered excellent fortune for a child to be born on Acleria's Day. The holiday is held once a year, every year, and takes place near the end of autumn.

Mando Knight
2009-01-16, 09:32 PM
You don't really need statblocks or much in the way of mechanics for deities.

Remember the -Nth Law of RPGs: If the creature has a statblock, the PCs must kill it.

zakk2to2
2009-01-16, 10:02 PM
if it can die they WILL try to kill it.

also if you dont want it to be a throw gold at the church for blessing type of thing make it so that it has to be special gold like maybe gold that was part of some uber improtant person in the church thats dead like in real life for example you would need a gold ring once worn by a dead pope. also unless its an evil or chaotic god make it so that the gold has to be earned by real labor and not by stealing.

newbDM
2009-01-17, 10:18 AM
well NewbDM I really have been overhauling my stuff, and Iv'e just started with the religion (because it's the basis for my seting) so the gods are not ver complete, mostly just domains and favored weapons... not even stats some of them are fleshed out very well in my head... and some aren't but If you want I can PM you my list and what I have... it's very very incomplete though.

In regards to rituals... zack2to2 was right on about giving maechanical bonuses... like one ritual I am toying with is for my god of Valor... he requires paladins to kill an enemy larger than himself, with a weapon smalller than normal (I.E. a human killing an ogre with a halflings knife)... if you do this, then drink wine mixed with the creature's blood, you get any sight based abilities the creature had (like detect Su stuff, see invis, true seeing, darckvision etc.) and immunity to fear for a while (I use a systm I created called Faith... represented by a number so th blessings and stuff last time based on this number)...

And yeah blood and gold are a given item for rituals... I was also toying with music, created offerings (carvings or toys) and burnt offerings too... I just don't want my religoin to turn into the Temple of Avo where I throw gold and BAM! insta-bless...

Sure. At the very least it would make for great inspiration.

Thane of Fife
2009-01-17, 10:42 AM
Iv'e just started with the religion (because it's the basis for my seting) so the gods are not ver complete, mostly just domains and favored weapons... not even stats some of them are fleshed out very well in my head... and some aren't but If you want I can PM you my list and what I have... it's very very incomplete though.

Actually, if you post them in this thread, you might find yourself getting more specific responses (and I enjoy seeing stuff like that, anyway).