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View Full Version : Pathfinder Has this been done? Priest as feat tree



JusticeZero
2014-07-22, 03:37 PM
For a setting idea, I wanted some gods - defined as "something strong enough to say 'I'm a god' and get away with it" basically in this case - to be an influence, but substantially less influential and weak than the traditional "Gods". As such, I was looking for a system that decomposes the whole idea of divine magic into a handful of feats to be added to a character so that they can do things like, "My worship of ____ allows me to rebuke plant monsters. That's basically all it does.." or "My devotion to ___ lets me do this other thing.." while also saying "And the fact that I am a worshipper means I can do various social thingies".
Has anyone seen a decent system that does something like this?

Epsilon Rose
2014-07-22, 04:10 PM
I don't think I've quite seen something like that, though it wouldn't surprise me if there were casting or class feature feats floating around somewhere. That said, you should keep in mind that players only get 10 feats and those are pretty easy to chew through, so a really restricted feat that only lets someone "rebuke plants" might not be very appealing if they have to spend a normal feat slots, and possibly rearange their build, so they can do it.

redwizard007
2014-07-22, 04:19 PM
That said, you should keep in mind that players only get 10 feats and those are pretty easy to chew through, so a really restricted feat that only lets someone "rebuke plants" might not be very appealing if they have to spend a normal feat slots, and possibly rearange their build, so they can do it.

You are thinking like a gamer. If you think like a story teller then this rocks. I'm not saying its a good idea but it certainly warrants some consideration. I'm going to spend the evening and a bit of tomorrow brainstorming and see if I can come up with anything that is workable.

JusticeZero
2014-07-22, 06:18 PM
I also don't worry as much about feats, given that I usually run E6 - but i'm not specifically looking for E6 stuff necessarily.
Also curious what the bestowing entity would need to pull it off, beyond "because i'm awesome".

Epsilon Rose
2014-07-22, 06:24 PM
You are thinking like a gamer. If you think like a story teller then this rocks. I'm not saying its a good idea but it certainly warrants some consideration. I'm going to spend the evening and a bit of tomorrow brainstorming and see if I can come up with anything that is workable.

Unfortunately, this is a game and most of the people who would be looking at these feats are games. If the feats don't hold up mechanically, then good fluff won't save them.

JusticeZero
2014-07-22, 08:10 PM
Most people are also going to add in the fact that having a feat of being favored by the gods can also be used to open doors in RP that are opened by being able to say "I'm a priest" and having a way to back it up. anyways, I like plant monsters. They show up pretty often in my games.

Epsilon Rose
2014-07-22, 08:26 PM
Most people are also going to add in the fact that having a feat of being favored by the gods can also be used to open doors in RP that are opened by being able to say "I'm a priest" and having a way to back it up. anyways, I like plant monsters. They show up pretty often in my games.

Ehh. Feats with ill defined RP benefits can very easily not pan out well. Quite frankly, if these gods got their titles by being ridiculously powerful, then there really shouldn't be anything from stopping a sufficiently powerful PC from acting as one of their priests, even without the feats. I mean, are your really going to tell the guy who beat am adult dragon to death with their bare hands that they AREN'T a priest of the god who got his title by killing 12 great worms with his bare hands? What I'm saying here is that, in this setting, they'd probably do a better job of being priests by picking a build that lets them emulate their god to a certain extent.

JusticeZero
2014-07-23, 03:12 PM
in this setting, they'd probably do a better job of being priests by picking a build that lets them emulate their god to a certain extent.
Which... is.. the whole point of the request...? Not all gods are known mainly for being able to smack things really hard.

Veklim
2014-07-23, 03:49 PM
What I can see working is having a devotion-style feat per 'deity', and then a short tree expanding on the abilities (no more than 3 or 4 feats tops). Best way to start this sort of thing is with the gods though, and working your way down.

Amechra
2014-07-23, 04:29 PM
There are a bunch of Devotion feats scattered around the official books, each of which gives you a 1/day ability (except for Knowledge Devotion, which is for all intents and purposes at-will).

There's a good set of homebrew ones here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?196229-New-Devotion-Feats)

There are also Faith feats from Complete Divine, which give an action-point like resource pool that refills through acts of faith (like following rituals, completing important quests, etc, etc); sadly, I only know of 4 in existence (and I wrote the 4th one. Yeah.)

You could let people spend Faith points to fuel extra uses of Devotion feats (maybe handing out 2 Faith points for each Devotion feat you take?) instead of Turn Attempts.

Epsilon Rose
2014-07-23, 04:33 PM
Which... is.. the whole point of the request...? Not all gods are known mainly for being able to smack things really hard.

That was just a quick example. It could just as easily have been a wizard or factotum saying they're a priest of a knowledge god or an artificer claiming to be the priest of a forge god. My point was that you can't really balance weak mechanics with RP benefits because you can get those same RP benefits by actually role-playing.

Look at it this way. In the Eberon setting there is a tree of feats that revolve around dragon marks. You take a feats to gain and advance a dragon mark and you gain a number of minor abilities. They also have really cool fluff and implied RP benefits. Unfortunately, almost no one takes them, because their benefits are minor and there are better ways to spend your feats.

redwizard007
2014-07-23, 05:38 PM
Let me preface this by saying this is not even remotely compatible with most games, however, I am still intrigued by the idea of running something like this in a bronze age Conan-ish setting or a light hearted Mediterranean mashup similar to Xena.


New Feat Type: Devotion Feats
Devotion Feats: Devotion feats are a type of feat granting divine power to a character. They may only be gained by pledging ones self totally to a deity or other higher power and undergoing a specific ritual. What constitutes a "higher power" is always determined by the DM and may vary by campaign. To gain each Devotion Feat the recipiant must undergo a ritual binding him to his new patron. If the higher power is not physically present at this ritual then he must be represented by a servant with at least one Devotion Feat more than the recipient will have after gaining the new feat. All Devotion Feats may be taken as a wizard's bonus feats.

My thoughts here were that in a some campaigns even a beholder, dragon, or advanced dinosaur could fit the bill for a higher power but I'd expect most campaigns to use powerful outsiders.

entry level
Devout Worshiper [Devotion)
You have been initiated into the inner circles of your faith. As the divine teachings become clear to you you gain the ability to perform minor miracles.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (Religion) 2 ranks
Benefit: Choose any 3 cleric spells of up to first level. You may cast any combination of these spells a number of times per day equal to your character level -1, to a maximum of 10 times per day. Use your total character level to determine caster level and determine the DC of any saving throws based on the character's charisma.

Slight bump to include granted powers and turning
Servant of the Divine [Devotion)
You are learning to channel the divine power within you to perform greater feats.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (Religion) 4 ranks
Benefit: Choose any domain granted power offered by your divine patron or Turn or Rebuke
Undead (as appropriate.) You now gain that granted power.

level 2 spells
Initiate of the Divine [Devotion)
Your connection to the divine is becoming even stronger.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (Religion) 6 ranks, Devout Worshiper
Benefit: Choose any 3 cleric spells of up to second level. You may cast any combination of these spells a number of times per day equal to your character level -2, to a maximum of 9 times per day. Use your total character level to determine caster level and determine the DC of any saving throws based on the character's charisma.

level 3 spells
Touched by the Divine [Devotion)
Your connection to the divine has become strong enough to be noticed by outsiders.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks, Initiate of the Divine
Benefit: Choose any 3 cleric spells of up to second level. You may cast any combination of these spells a number of times per day equal to your character level -3, to a maximum of 9 times per day. Use your total character level to determine caster level and determine the DC of any saving throws based on the character's charisma. In addition your aura (see Detect Evil/Good/etc.) registers as strong.

level 4 spells
Student of the Divine [Devotion)
Your divine spark burns brightly, allowing you still more advanced miracles.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (Religion) 10 ranks, Touched by the Divine
Benefit: Choose any 3 cleric spells of up to fourth level. You may cast any combination of these spells a number of times per day equal to your character level -4, to a maximum of 8 times per day. Use your total character level to determine caster level and determine the DC of any saving throws based on the character's charisma.

Obviously this could continue on for 5 more levels of spells. Additional feats could be drawn up to fit specific "gods" but without having those powers drawn up it is kind of hard to tailor something to them.

redwizard007
2014-07-23, 06:11 PM
Deity specific feat tree for Thor

Hit real hard
The Brawler [Devotion]
Like your patron Thor, you are far stronger than your size might indicate.
Prerequisites: Devout Worshiper feat dedicated to Thor
Benefit: You gain a +4 Enhancement bonus to Strength. Once per day you may increase this enhancement bonus to +8 for a number of rounds equal to your charisma modifier. You gain an additional use of this ability at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level.

Hit real hard again
Thunderer [Devotion]
The strikes of your weapon echo that of your patron's.
Prerequisites: Devout Worshiper feat dedicated to Thor, The Brawler
Benefit: Your attacks with any hammer (or maul) are made at +2 and deal damage as if your weapon was one size larger than it is. Once per day you may designate a single attack with a hammer (or maul) as an automatic critical threat before rolling to hit. If the attack is successful then resolve the strike as a critical hit but convert half the bludgeoning damage (rounded down) to the electricy type and the rest to sonic type damage. Resolve damage from other sources normally. Gain an additional use of this ability at 12th and 18th level.