Community

When a god's principal interest is in one city (its growth, defense, and prosperity), he's called a god of community or, more commonly, a civic deity.

The priests of the civic deity are responsible for making sure that the god receives worship from the city's inhabitants, and promote all sorts of plans and efforts to improve the city: Civic improvement plans, improvement of the city walls and army, etc.

One god may be the civic deity of several cities, or each city could have its own, lesser god.

The DM may not wish for there to be so many gods in his campaign world. If this is the case, then a civic deity should also (and primarily) be the god of some other attribute, and would be a given city's civic deity in addition. For example, in Greek mythology, Athena was primarily the goddess of wisdom, and had secondary attributes as a goddess of war, of crafts, and of the city of Athens.

Civic deities are just as commonly male as female.

The priests of this god are on good terms with the priests of Agriculture, Ancestors, Arts, Birth/Children, Death, Guardianship, Marriage, Messengers, Peace, Prosperity, Race, Rulership/Kingship, Sites, Trade, and War.

Alignment: A deity whose sole attribute is that he is the protector/patron of a single community has an alignment appropriate to that community. Most are true neutral; their interest is in the survival of the community by any means, whether by law, chaos, good, or evil. Their priests may be of any alignment, but evil priests gather in one cult, neutral priests in another, and good priests in a third; at the DM's discretion, they don't have to get along. The flock may be of any alignment. The DM can decide that a particular civic deity is neutral good, in which case there will be no evil priests or flock; or that he is neutral evil, in which case there will be no good priests or flock.

Minimum Ability Scores: Wisdom 10, Charisma 12. Wisdom or Charisma 16 means +5% experience; Wisdom and Charisma 16 means +10% experience.

Races Allowed: Dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, humans. If a community has only one type of sentient race inhabiting it (or is principally devoted to one race), then the priests may be only of that race; if the population consists of several types of sentient races, then the priests of the community god may be of any race.

Nonweapon and Weapon Proficiencies: Nonweapon Proficiencies Required: Local History. Nonweapon Proficiencies Recommended: Etiquette, Heraldry, Ancient History, Reading/Writing, Religion. Weapon Proficiencies Required: None. Nonweapon Proficiency Group Crossovers: Priest, General.

Duties of the Priest: Guidance, Marriage. Education: The priest must preserve the history of the city, teach it to the young of his flock, and never let it be forgotten. Vigilance: Against any threat to his city. This is why priests of community deities often wander the wider world: They are acting as an intelligence network for the city, keeping their ears open for any hint of threat or danger to the city from outside.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Weapons Permitted: Dagger/dirk, knife, and any two from the following list (the DM decides based on which weapons are most representative of the city in question; at least one weapon should be in the 1d8 or greater damage range): Battle axe, bows (all), crossbow, flails (both), harpoon, lance, mace, morning star, net, polearm, quarterstaff, spear, sword/bastard, sword/cutlass, sword/long, sword/rapier, sword/sabre, sword/short, sword/two-handed, trident, warhammer. Armor Permitted: All armor and shields. Oriental Campaigns: Also added to choices list: Bo stick, daikyu, katana. All together, these constitute Good combat abilities.

Other Limitations: Priests of a civic deity must always wear clothing indicating their priestly status when appearing in public.

Spheres of Influence: Major Access to All, Creation, Healing.

Minor Access to Combat, Protection. These choices don't give the priest access to very many spells, so this priesthood will have good Granted Powers. Note that the DM may wish to substitute some other choice for the Major Access to Creation and the Minor Access to Combat if the civic deity that he has created has secondary attributes not reflected in this listing.

Powers: Incite Berserker Rage (as per the Designing Faiths chapter). Soothing Word (as per the Designing Faiths chapter). Turn Undead (the Community is a gathering of the living, and so priests of this sect are no friends to the undead).

Followers and Strongholds: The followers are received at 7th level, and consist of three third-level priests and six first-level priests, of the same order, and one third-level fighter and twelve first-level fighters to act as guards. The priest may take the following on adventures: Two priests and three fighters of his choice. The priesthood will pay for half of the cost of stronghold construction at 7th level. The stronghold must be built within the city, and it must act as a library specializing in the history of the city and the arts and literature created by important artists and writers from the city.

Possible Symbols: Whatever is used as the symbol for the community also serves as the symbol for this priesthood; if the civic symbol is a lion, so is the god's.

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