Sacrificing to the Gods

[Trask]

My players are entering a nation that I've established as sort of an ancient Greek inspired thing, and they perform sacrifices of primarily bulls (but also goats and pigs) to the Gods, and I want to build some kind of system around sacrifice and its possible benefits, to really give an incentive to do it and reason why its done at all, so I ask for some advice with the specifics.

I was thinking, if i was gonna keep it simple, that I could have the value of the sacrifice correspond with the ability for certain spells to be cast, from lesser restoration to raise dead, but also things like bless but with an upped duration, perhaps an hour or even 24 hours.

So for example, if 1 bull = 50 gp (made-up figure), how could/should I structure the price-to-spell cost of sacrifice? Maybe a number of bulls per spell level?

Throw me your ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Sigreid]

Maybe use the appropriate ceremony spell's benefits?

But really, {Scrubbed} sacrifices to the gods were as much about bribing the gods to leave you alone as much as anything else.

[Coffee_Dragon]

Sacrificing other party members should have strong incentives, like bonus ASIs, or people just won't do it.

[Trask]

Maybe use the appropriate ceremony spell's benefits?

But really, {Scrubbed post, scrubbed quote} sacrifices to the gods were as much about bribing the gods to leave you alone as much as anything else.

The actual purposes of sacrifice by the only way we can really evaluate them , {Scrubbed}, is multipurpose. Bribing the Gods to "leave you alone" isn't quite what I imagine when the characters sacrifice {Scrubbed} for his favor in the upcoming battle, or to observe and enforce an oath, or to fulfill a promise, or to ask forgiveness, or to ask for aid. I don't think {Scrubbed} religion was as pessimistic as hoping the Gods would not torment you. But thats off topic really.

Ceremony might be good for minor sacrifices like goats or chickens from minor gods or nymphs, but I dont really think it gives that oomph for a king declaring he will sacrifice 50 strong oxen to secure favor from the god of the sea in this upcoming voyage to the unknown continent.


Sacrificing other party members should have strong incentives, like bonus ASIs, or people just won't do it.

"And now I give you to {Scrubbed}" says the party Cleric as he manifests a spiritual weapon in the form of a spear into the side of the tied up Halfling Rogue.

[Grim Portent]

A cow is listed as 10gp and an ox as 15gp in the trade goods table, so that's a starting point to work from for value between livestock and magic.

I would probably put a pretty harsh increase in costs as you go up spell levels if it was casting outright spells. 9 bulls, even at 50gp each, would be far too cheap for a 9th level spell, but also too costly for a 1st level one.



What about basing it off the Divine Intervention feature from the cleric? Pick an appropriate minimum number of animals to get a base 10% chance of divine intervention, then increase it bit by bit for ever growing amounts of sacrificed goods.

Say 10 oxen for the base 10%, that's really cheap at 150gp but also unlikely to do much. If we then say that you need to double the amount offered for a 5% boost each time to a cap of 50% success chance. So a 15% chance needs 300 gold worth of sacrifices, 20% needs 600gp, 25% 1200gp and so on. This might wind up being more expensive than is reasonable for most occasions, but we're talking about literal divine blessings.

Allowing for the sacrifice of rare goods like saffron and silk would also be appropriate.

[Ventruenox]

Mödley Crüe: I offer up to the gods that this thread is kept in purely fictional contexts.

[JoeJ]

You might consider looking through the cleric spell list and see how many non-ritual spells could be cast as rituals without breaking the game if there is a requirement that it happen in an consecrated temple (that takes months or years to build).

[Sigreid]

Another thought would be the sacrafice let's the temple cleric attempt their divine intervention without burning their use. Maybe use a religion check to do the sacrafice right.

[Sorinth]

If the party doesn't have a bard then grant a bardic inspiration die that lasts until the next long rest. Maybe set the die based on the sacrifice, so a bigger sacrifice gives a bigger inspiration die.

[jjordan]

My players are entering a nation that I've established as sort of an ancient Greek inspired thing, and they perform sacrifices of primarily bulls (but also goats and pigs) to the Gods, and I want to build some kind of system around sacrifice and its possible benefits, to really give an incentive to do it and reason why its done at all, so I ask for some advice with the specifics.

I was thinking, if i was gonna keep it simple, that I could have the value of the sacrifice correspond with the ability for certain spells to be cast, from lesser restoration to raise dead, but also things like bless but with an upped duration, perhaps an hour or even 24 hours.

So for example, if 1 bull = 50 gp (made-up figure), how could/should I structure the price-to-spell cost of sacrifice? Maybe a number of bulls per spell level?

Throw me your ideas, I'd love to hear them.
The simplest solution would be that sacrifices have become a social method of demonstrating wealth and power. The gods don't *need* the sacrifices, but being able to make an ostentatious sacrifice increases your social standing and political power within the nation.

If the sacrifices are powering magic then I would suggest that it's hit points, not value, that determines how effective the sacrifice is. I would further suggest that you use 5hp-10hp per level of spell. Your bull would be able to power spells of level 1-3 at the low end of the cost and level 1 at the high end of the cost.

[SpikeFightwicky]

I have a "kingdom" in my game that is similar. Everyone in that territory is bound to an ancient Far Realms entity, with their culture built around sacrifice (not just ritual sacrifice, but general day to day sacrifices like giving up food or money to less fortunate and hungry people). Part of their harvest ceremonies / celebrations is to open a planar gate to the entity's location in the void, where a prepared tithe of a percentage of their harvest is sucked up into the portal and devoured by the entity. It's also where they send their prisoners that are condemned to death, and they don't bury friends and foes that died naturally or in combat. They're also sent to the Old One in funeral ceremonies.

In return, the majority of the population are born as either warlocks with the "Great Old One" pact or Divine Soul sorcerers as part of the bargain struck ages ago. One of the benefits is that the higher ups performing the ceremonies are granted occasional use of spells like Control Weather to ensure a bountiful harvest and mild climate as long as they meet their sacrifice quotas.

I keep mine very abstract because they aren't granted spells that have direct combat potential, but if you want to link it directly, you can go by the market value of whatever's being sacrificed. In the PHB, they list cows as worth 10gp, ox as worth 15gp, etc... another option is to use the "Spell Point" variant rule and figure out how many points a sacrifice is worth. A 6th level spell cost 9 spell points, so maybe an ox is worth 1 or 2 points, so they have to sacrifice 5-9 of them to get a ceremonial 6th level spell. You can also make is so that if they don't sacrifice X number of points at a certain time, then they suffer the effects of a spell (for more vengeful and less benevolent gods). Like, at harvest time, if they don't sacrifice 11 spell points (8th level spell) worth of stuff, the village and surrounding area suffer negative "Control Weather" effects (an 8th level spell).

[Lord Vukodlak]

Time for a little history lesson

For the [a certain ancient world faith], it was to honor the gods or it was to thank the gods or to ask a favor. While small parts of the animal would be burned to ash at the altar. The rest was cooked and eaten by the participants. It was a banquet between the community and the deity Your village sacrificed the cow to the God/Goddess and then they ate the cow as part of the ceremony.


For D&D purposes what the gods actually "eat" is the concentrated prayer and worship of the participants and that's the angle you should go for because that's the system the PC's can't game at least not easily.