Difference between revisions of "Minor Deity Race"

Revision as of 09:51, 23 April 2020

Minor Deity

In times of evil, a hero always rises.
Blessed is each hero, indirectly or directly.

Overview

Average Height: Depending on template Race
Average Weight: Depending on template Race
Life span: Effectively immortal
Skin colors: Depending on template Race
Hair colors: Depending on template Race

Play a Weapon Spirit if you want…

• ...To serve the Goddesses in a more direct manner.
• ...To deliver mysterious guidance to mortals.
• ...To assist your group from the sidelines.
• ...To live inbetween the mortal and the divine sphere.

Weakness: Darkness

Bonuses:

• Choose Power Servant, Wisdom Servant, or Courage Servant. That choice is permanent. You lose access to most of your racial bonuses whenever and as long as the sum of your Traits in either one of the non-chosen Aspects is higher than the sum of your Traits in the chosen Aspect.
• Choose one other race. You look like and count as a member of your chosen race for effects. You do not gain the bonuses of the other race (however, see below).
• You are a Natural Glider. Lose access to this bonus if you violate your Trait balance.
• Choose Command, Influence, or Intimidate. That choice is permanent. You may perform a minor, non-composable Song without instruments, even if you haven't learned the Song (but not if you have already played it before resting), with a Musical Power equal to the chosen trait. You can’t do this again until you take an Extended Rest. Lose access to this bonus if you violate your Trait balance.
• If your chosen race has racial bonuses to get free Feats, Techniques and/or Spells, choose these now. At any time, choose one of your chosen race's bonuses. You gain access to that bonus until you take an Extended Rest. Whenever you take an Extended Rest, if you have chosen any number of bonuses between this Extended Rest and the last one, you gain that many Impurity points. Otherwise, you lose 1 Impurity point. See the table below for what happens when you accumulate Impurity points. Lose access to this bonus if you violate your Trait balance (that also means you cannot reduce Impurity points as long as your Trait balance is violated).
• Whenever you spend most of your day at a place of deep magical power and/or in the sanctuary of the Guardian Deity your essence originated from, lose 1 Impurity point whenever you take an Extended Rest. You can have down to -2 Impurity points that way.

Description

The lands of Hyrule are partially covered in the blessings of Guardian Deities, powerful servants of the Golden Goddesses and the lands themselves, protecting the settlement or landmark assigned to them and making sure its inhabitants will always have enough resources to ensure a peaceful day-by-day life. But sometimes, the forces of evil challenge a Guardian Deity's sanctuary. And sometimes, the force is too much for them, leaving them with no choice but either to retreat or, more commonly, to relinquish their immortality to greatly boost their blessing one last time, hoping that a hero shall appear and drive evil away before the blessing wanes.

Most Minor Deities are created when a Guardian Deity sacrifices themselves. Their fleeting essence is split up in multiple pieces before those fragments create shells resembling members of the mortal races. Each fragment retains a part of the Guardian Deities' memories and knowledge, although not much of their powers. As those Minor Deities travel the world in search for a hero or for something that can help the land they blessed, their powers grow, but they also develop individual personalities. Some Minor Deities are even capable of going against the will of the original Guardian Deity (although very rarely to the point they ally with the forces of evil). For the most part though, one Minor Deity will eventually rise above the others and reach a threshold where the fragments of the other related Minor Deities vanishes from their bodies. That one Minor Deity will return to their homeplace and be reborn as the new Guardian Deity while the other Minor Deities, now without essence, become just like regular mortals sans the ability to procreate.

In more unusual cases, a living Guardian Deity implants a part of their power into their most loyal servant as part of an important mission said servant must undergo. While they would never call themselves that, those are Minor Deities too. Once the important mission has been accomplished, the servants get to keep that part of the Guardian Deities' power as a blessing and may even become unique Guardian Deities themselves if desired. However, few servants pursue that possibility.

The rarest of Minor Deities are formed spontaneously out of nothing. This usually happens when a new settlement is built that needs protection or when those Minor Deities born out of a Guardian Deities' sacrifice fail to become the Guardian Deities' rebirth, either because their personalities clash with the rebirth or because they have been hunted by the forces of evil.

Playing a Minor Deity

Depending on how they came to be, Minor Deities initially tend to be either knowledgable but distant and cold or naive but curious. As they develop a personality, they become as multi-faceted as the mortal races. An exception are servants-made-Deities, since they already had a personality before. However, such servants lose their natural abilities of their race as they inherit the essence, something that may bother them greatly especially if they are Gorons, Zoras or Rito.

Gaining more knowledge about their own powers and their fate as a potential new Guardian Deity, paired with the eventual realization that they will outlive their friends and loved ones they may make on their travel, is an integral part of a Minor Deities' existence. This can temper their will to fulfill their destiny further or make them want to give up on their supernatural heritage and seek to be as mortal as their surroundings. While a Minor Deity can indeed reject their essence, this should be reserved for the end of the campaign. No matter if they lose their essence or make their final steps towards becoming a Guardian Deity, expect a bittersweet ending for that character's career and for the group as a whole either way.

When adventuring, Minor Deities can use their ability to glide and to perform any minor Song to help their group in a myriad of ways, even if the group already has a Rito and a bard respectively. Due to their commitment to traits from their chosen Aspect, they can cover a wide area of expertises and always perform decently in combat, dungeoneering, social challenges, knowledge challenges and crafting as long as it fits their niche. Of course, that means they will always underperform outside of their chosen Aspect, so a Power Servant will not always hit, a Wisdom Servant will not always activate additional effects and a Courage Servant, while hitting a lot more often, will not deal as much damage. In other words, Minor Deities can both be the backbone of a group and a hindrance if they are forced to perform well with traits outside of their Aspect.

In addition, a Minor Deity can tap into the bonuses of both their race and their chosen template race, which, combined with being the above-mentioned backbone of a group, makes them incredibly flexible in unique ways. However, the accumulation of Impurity points makes this enormous power come with a price tag that may not become immediately visible especially before you acquire Minor Deity-related Feats. Cleansing oneself takes time and dedication and should not be underestimated.

Lastly, remember that a Minor Deity has a strong tie to a specific settlement or location, so whenever the group visits it, you can expect to be able to get a wide variety of assistance because its inhabitants already know the character well and tend to like them. As a bonus, said settlement/location is usually the most obvious choice for a nearby place of power.

Characteristics: Introspective, Mystical, Friendly, Exalted, Distanced, Unsure, Pondering, Self-conflicted

Minor Deity Names usually take one of the more common names of the race they imitate to not attract unwanted attention. They would never give themselves a name based on the Guardian Deity whose essence they inherited, as they see said name as a title to earn.

Names: See template race's entry.


For GMs, this race provides a large challenge to design adventures around their dual nature, but also has a foundation for great roleplaying opportunities. Feel free to offer temptations, but be also generous with the passage of time so that players can at least partially cleanse their character. Also, assume that such characters are back to 0 Impurity points at the beginning of the next adventure, maybe even starting with -1 or even -2 points if a place of power was easily accessible inbetween adventures.
As a final note for GMs: Never force a Minor Deity into a situation where they have no choice but to accumulate 10 Impurity points. That decision should always be in the player's hand. After all, if you would force a player to lose their Minor Deity race, you could have simply prohibited the Minor Deity race at the table in the first place.

Feats

Guardian Deity Aspirant, Power
6 Tokens
Trait Requirement: Civilization 6, Minor Deity, Power Servant
Effect: You may use a Standard Action to transform into a Guardian Deity for the duration of one scene or encounter, increasing your Size to Huge but also becoming Cursed for the duration. You can’t do this again until you take an Extended Rest. If you become Helpless while transformed, you return to your normal form. You lose access to this feat if you violate your Trait balance.
When acquired, choose one Weapon Enchantment (if you choose Elemental Weapon, also choose a single Element to apply). This choice is permanent and cannot be changed later. While you are a Guardian Deity, you can become On Fire or end being On Fire as a Free Action and are immune to damage from being On Fire. Further, when you transform into a Guardian Deity, choose a single weapon an ally wields or carries in their belt or pack. It gains the chosen Weapon Enchantment at the Weapon's Rank, in addition to any Enchantment it might already have (if it's the same enchantment, they don't stack; take the higher Enchantment Rank). That Enchantment is lost once you return to your normal form.

Guardian Deity Aspirant, Wisdom
6 Tokens
Trait Requirement: Arcana 6, Minor Deity, Wisdom Servant
Effect: You may use a Standard Action to transform into a Guardian Deity for the duration of one scene or encounter, increasing your Size to Huge but also becoming Cursed for the duration. You can’t do this again until you take an Extended Rest. If you become Helpless while transformed, you return to your normal form. You lose access to this feat if you violate your Trait balance.
When acquired, choose one Armor Enchantment. This choice is permanent and cannot be changed later. While you are a Guardian Deity, you can become Electrified or end being Electrified as a Free Action. Further, when you transform into a Guardian Deity, choose a single piece of armor an ally wields or carries in their belt or pack. It gains the chosen Armor Enchantment at the Armor's Rank, in addition to any Enchantment it might already have (if it's the same enchantment, they don't stack; take the higher Enchantment Rank). That Enchantment is lost once you return to your normal form.

Guardian Deity Aspirant, Courage
6 Tokens
Trait Requirement: Nature 6, Minor Deity, Courage Servant
Effect: You may use a Standard Action to transform into a Guardian Deity for the duration of one scene or encounter, increasing your Size to Huge but also becoming Cursed for the duration. You can’t do this again until you take an Extended Rest. If you become Helpless while transformed, you return to your normal form. You lose access to this feat if you violate your Trait balance.
When acquired, choose one Elixir's special property from the Boosted Traits, Combat Prowess, Resist Damage and Resist Weather categories each. These choices are permanent and cannot be changed later. While you are a Guardian Deity, you can become Hard to Hit or end being Hard to Hit as a Free Action. Further, you can use a Minor Action to give the effect of one of your chosen special properties to an ally. The special property's effect has a Rank equal to half the Trait chosen for your racial bonus. You can use each special property only once per scene or encounter and each ally can only benefit from one effect at a time that way. If an ally is already has the same type of effect from food or an elixir, they don't stack; take the higher special property Rank. All effects granted that way are lost once you return to your normal form.

Guardian Deity Ascendant

9 Tokens

Requirement: GM Approval

Trait Requirement: Arcana 9, Civilization 9, or Nature 9; any Guardian Deity Aspirant feat

Effect: You no longer become Cursed when transforming into your Guardian Deity form and you may choose to remain in your Guardian Deity form while Helpless.

Voice of the Goddesses

6 Tokens

Trait Requirement: Any Guardian Deity Aspirant feat

Effect: While in your Guardian Deity form, your ability to perform songs without instruments includes Command Melody, Future's Fugue, Farewell to Gibdos, Song of Healing and Wind's Requiem.

Minor Deity race made by SirAston, the Goron Bard