You are a god. Whether ancient and forgotten, the face of a major religion that no longer truly believes in you, or merely obscure with few followers, your power has dwindled, and you are forced to take mortal form. Regardless, your power comes from your followers’ belief in you, and so you seek to make a name for yourself once more.
Unlike mortals, who can choose their name, your name is merely that which your followers call you. Thus, you could come to have many names, or none at all. It doesn’t matter, so long as your followers believe. You can also claim to be other minor gods of similar domains, in order to gain more followers.
- Skill Proficiencies: Religion, the associated skill from your Divine Domain (see below).
- Equipment: A holy symbol depicting your personal icon (can be used as a spell focus).
As a god, you are expected to have a domain. An aspect of the world which you can influence, at least to some degree. While most major gods may have two or three, your lack of power restricts you to just one. Choose or randomly determine one of the following domains. Whichever you choose also provides proficiency in the associated skill (in parentheses).
| d10 | Divine Domain |
|---|---|
| 1 | Life (Medicine) |
| 2 | City (Persuasion) |
| 3 | Knowledge (History) |
| 4 | Light (Perception) |
| 5 | Magic (Arcana) |
| 6 | Nature (Nature) |
| 7 | Trickery (Deception) |
| 8 | Death (Intimidation) |
| 9 | Music (Performance) |
| 10 | Animals (Animal Handling) |
While you lack the powers of a true god, you do retain the knowledge and memories. As such, you have knowledge of certain things that an ordinary person shouldn’t, especially as they pertain to your domain. This knowledge may not, however, be completely accurate, as it is difficult to remain completely up to date when one lacks true omniscience.
In addition, you cannot truly die. While you can become separated from your physical form, which can itself be destroyed, so long as you have believers with memories of you, you can reincarnate into a new physical form, while retaining your previous memories. The process of reincarnation may take several days, or more, as the DM sees fit. You will, however, die completely if your followers cease to believe in you.
Suggested Characteristics
You seek people who believe in you as a god, regardless of whether you are good or evil. Whether you cultivate that belief through benevolence or fear matters little, it is only the belief that matters.
| d6 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I like to say seemingly profound things. Though they don’t always make sense. |
| 2 | While I have lived a long time, I am somewhat out of touch with mortal things. |
| 3 | I enjoy the simple pleasures that only a mortal life can provide. |
| 4 | I am constantly thinking of new ways to strike fear into the hearts of my followers. |
| 5 | I sometimes laugh at the plight of mortals, forgetting that I, too, am such. |
| 6 | I am fascinated by mortals and constantly try to observe and analyse their behaviour. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Benevolence. I want my followers to know that I care about them. (Good) |
| 2 | Justice. I want my followers to have a clear sense of right and wrong. (Lawful) |
| 3 | Fear. I want my followers to know and fear my power. (Evil) |
| 4 | Freedom. I want my followers to have the freedom to make their own way in life. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | Balance. I want my followers to help preserve the delicate balance of the world. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Survival. I don’t care why my followers believe in me, just that they do. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | If I still exist, I must still have a follower. I want to find them. |
| 2 | I need followers to survive. I want to convert as many as I can. |
| 3 | I am sick of being weak. I will make all who meet me fear my power. |
| 4 | I want to live a mortal life, so that I may better understand my followers. |
| 5 | My companions are my only followers. I must protect them. |
| 6 | I want to accomplish some grand feat in order to attract more followers. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | While my followers may critically misinterpret my teachings, I am often too lazy to correct them. |
| 2 | I tend to be both envious and jealous of other gods. |
| 3 | While I need followers to survive, I tend not to understand what it is they actually need from me. |
| 4 | My ego often gets the better of me and I like to brag about being more powerful than I actually am. |
| 5 | I take umbrage with those who claim I don’t exist. Often violently. |
| 6 | I don’t actually care about my followers. I just need them to survive. |
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Posted Mar 23, 2019i would really like a race for this or a class
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Posted Mar 25, 2019I'm going to assume you're looking for race and class recommendations. Personally, I recommend playing an innate magic class, like sorcerer, bard or druid, or a cleric. Cleric, in particular synergises well with this background and you can even be your own diety. If you would rather be a melee-dealing war god, a magic-using melee class, like paladin or eldritch knight fighter would work well, but a barbarian would also work. In particular, an oath of vengeance paladin would make for an interesting narrative, and the path of the storm herald has some features that would work well for a barbarian god.
As far as races go, inherently magical ones work best, but you can use pretty much anything. Elves are the obvious go-to, mostly for their long lives and their fey nature. Other examples might be kalashtar for their psychic nature, aasimar for their celestial nature, or tieflings for their fiendish nature. If you're making a war god, you could go with something obvious, like an orc or a goliath, or something a little more unusual, like a loxodon or a minotaur. Personally, I had a tortle in mind when I created this, since the whole idea came from the Discworld book Small Gods.
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Posted Jul 17, 2019The divine domain thing doesn't appear in the character builder, you only get the religion proficiency.
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Posted Jul 18, 2019Background specific tables don't show up in the character builder. Technically speaking, they're meant for origins (as with Outlander or Folk Hero) or specific details (like with Charlatan or Sage), and are not inherently mechanical. That said, you can add the domain proficiency manually in the character sheet by clicking on the proficiency you want, then selecting it in the Customize menu of the description panel.
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Posted Jul 18, 2019Ah ok, thank you very much for this information. I understand now. :)