Year of the Lost: Small Gods

Another topic I’ve overlooked is ‘small gods’: semi-divine entities that can be focus of faith at local levels.

In most roleplaying games, it seems deities are omnipresent, if not omniscient and omnipotent. It would suck to play an adventuring cleric who can’t do their thing because they’re too far from home.

For those who don’t travel much, though, a small god with small powers that reach a small way… can be enough.

It turns out I had this thought some time ago, and I don’t think I’ve changed my mind much. Pathfinder 1e’s mythic rules, with only some small tweaks, does a lot of what I’m looking for.

  • Mythic creatures with the divine source universal path ability can grant spells as a deity, in a limited way. At tier 3, the path ability grants only two domains. At no time can the mythic creature grant spells of a level above their tier. At tiers 6 and 9 the path ability can be taken again, allowing choice of another domain and two subdomains.
    • For my purposes, this is almost perfect. Narrow spell choice (only two domains) and only low-level spells fit the trope I’m looking for. Non-adventuring clerics are unlikely to need higher-level spells, and the narrow spell selection works for me.
  • If need be, a mythic creature can take the longevity tier 1 universal ability. They no longer die of old age, and no longer take age-based penalties to physical ability scores.
    • This solves a potential problem if the base creature is otherwise short-lived.
  • At tier 9, mythic creatures gain the immortal mythic ability. If killed (except in some limited ways), the creature is returned to life 24 hours later.
    • I like where this fits. Mythic creatures tend to be pretty hard to kill, and the highest-tier ones can be even more so.

All in all, a ‘small god’ being defined as a mythic creature with specific path abilities looks good.

Next up, of course, is to try it out.

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