Eberron: Pantheon Worship and Action Points?

[grodog]

In the GH discussion thread @ http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=197604 AFGNCAAP said something interesting about the Eberron setting:

Then again, I think the older established settings could benefit from some of the new takes that crop up in Eberron: the action point mechanic and pantheon worship for clerics, for example.

Can someone please provide details, in particular on the pantheonic worship model?

 

[Doug McCrae]

In Eberron, a cleric can choose to worship a whole pantheon rather than a single god or metaphysical force. The two from the setting are The Sovereign Host (which contains nine gods) and The Dark Six. All the domains of that pantheon's gods are available. The Sovereign Host's favoured weapon is the longsword while the kama is favoured by The Dark Six.

 

[Mark Hope]

Can someone please provide details, in particular on the pantheonic worship model?

Eberron uses the idea that a cleric can follow an entire pantheon, calling upon different deities as his needs dictate:

Following a Pantheon: Clerics may choose to devote themselves to the entire pantheon of the Sovereign Host (or the Dark Six) rather than choosing a single patron deity from the group. These clerics may choose their two domains from among all the domains offered by all the deities of the pantheon. A cleric can only select an alignment domain if his alignment matches that domain.

It's a cool little mechanic and nicely captures the idea of a cleric (for example) calling on Thor for strength, Odin for wisdom and Loki for aid with deceiving the enemy.

In my games, I took a similar approach, in that all clerics are followers of an entire pantheon. Individual deities have their own priesthoods, for which I use any of a number of variant base cleric classes out there or prestige classes, as need dictates.

The action point mechanic is pretty similar to the one in UA:

You can spend an action point to improve the result of an attack roll, a skill check, an ability check, a level check, or a saving throw. Certain feats and prestige class features allow you to spend action points in different ways, but this is their most basic use.

 

[Hussar]

Funny, Scarred Lands started out with the whole pantheon worship thing as well, but seemed to shy away from it later. There do seem to be a number of similar ideas in both settings.

/edit - to clarify

I AM NOT saying that there was any sort of stealing going on. More just a "great minds think alike" sort of thing.

 

[Grymar]

To build out on the AP thing, a character only gets so many per level (4 or 5 at first level) and they don't carry over if not used that level.

A player can use a single AP to add a d6 roll to a d20 roll, but must declare that he wants to before the results are known. As a character levels, they will be able to roll two or three d6s and take the highest result.

A character can take feats that give them options on how to use the APs. One feat will give a character the ability to burn two APs at once and then get a bonus standard action in a round. Another changes the AP die from d6s to d8s. Other feats will allow clerics or wizards to burn two APs to spontaneously cast a single spell or other characters.

What I have seen most often is that players tend to save them for saving throws. On the other hand I have a scout/fighter who is built to use APs and he has used them for everything from climbing checks to tumble checks.

 

[Klaus]

The action point mechanic in Eberron is toned-down from the same rule in Unearthed Arcana, which is included in some on-line SRD resources.

 

[Nightfall]

Funny, Scarred Lands started out with the whole pantheon worship thing as well, but seemed to shy away from it later. There do seem to be a number of similar ideas in both settings.

*eight*

My Revised Scarred Lands plans on doing that but at a much limited degree. For example while you can worship the whole 8 Victors (though I'm considering adding a 9th such as Nemorga), you can only do so IF you have a neutral component as your alignment. If you choose a War domain, you must do so dependent on your ethos, not your morality. Therefore a LN cleric of the Scarred Land panethon can gain access to Fire and War and use Chardun's weapon or Corean's but not Vangel. A CN can get Vangel's.

It's still in the works but I think that's a valuable tool. Plus it eliminates any problem having evil gods in a panethon with a good character.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Funny, Scarred Lands started out with the whole pantheon worship thing as well, but seemed to shy away from it later. There do seem to be a number of similar ideas in both settings.

Funny that they said in 2e that all clerics worshipped pantheons, and only some priests (specialty clerics) worship an individual God. However everyone usually picked specialty clerics because you could min-max easily with granted powers (sort of rolled into domain abilities in 3e).

 

[mhacdebhandia]

It is, in fact, more common - at least among the "civilised" races of Khorvaire - for clerics to serve the whole pantheon than for them to serve a single deity. Certainly, most followers of the Sovereign Host worship each of the gods and goddesses equally, modulo their own personal concerns (a blacksmith probably pays more attention to Onatar, god of artifice and the forge, than to Aureon, god of magic and laws).

 

[AFGNCAAP]

It's nice to be the start of a thread.

Pretty much everyone else has covered pantheon worship overall. I think that it'd make things a bit more wieldy for clerics in other campaigns such as FR. And, with the alliances between deities in FR, it's very feasible. For example, a cleric could follow:

• the Deities of Fury (Talos, Auril, Malar, Umberlee);
• the Triad (Tyr, Ilmater, and Torm); or
• the demihuman-oriented pantheons (dwarven, elven, drow, etc.)

instead of the individual deities listed.

And, I think this is feasible either through divine alliances (as with FR), national origins (such as a Suloise cleric worshiping all Suel deities like Wee Jas and Bralm), or alignment-based (such as the Gods of Good/Neutrality/Evil in Dragonlance).