It's a homebrew campaign.. My big bad is trying to eliminate any magic coming from deities. I need help with any ideas on how this can be accomplished. Any ideas? I'm at a creative block :/
If you rely on "standard 5e lore", it will be difficult, because there is such a baseline of divine and arcane powers, which pretty much everything is connected to. At a homebrew campaign, where you don't give a sh** about it, should you decide to do so, you can make it work as you like: - Is the deities power reliant on them having followers? Making the followers forget about the gods could render the gods powerless and dying. - Can you shatter the connection of the "realm of men" and the "realm of gods"? Perhaps the divine magic gets into the world via places of worship? Destroy that temple and the the god can't grant his blessing to the priests any more. - Can you siphon divine magic away to some "nether realm"? Perhaps the big bad wants to open portals to that, draining divine power off the world. - Is the foundation of magic (e.g. the Astral Sea) neutral and limited as a resource - and arcane and divine magic share its power? Perhaps using up that resource will create a decline of magic in the world. But the big bad has found a way to store that energy in arcane "containers"?
One of the first ideas that leaps to my mind is the Norse Myth about Idunna and her apples. The Gods must eat the apples regularly in order to retain their strength and vitality (Eternal youth..and so on..) and without the apples they wither, and lose their strength/abilities.
So when Idunna gets captured by a Giant.. things start to go bad quickly.
If in your setting your divine powers also had some form of source they drew their power from aside from beliefs of followers.. snagging that source seems a good way, and sets up a possible rescue/recovery scenario.
I think really though a lot of it would depend on the nature of your particular cosmology and where they draw their power from.
It's a homebrew campaign.. My big bad is trying to eliminate any magic coming from deities. I need help with any ideas on how this can be accomplished. Any ideas? I'm at a creative block :/
There are no official means of doing so, because the rules are mostly about what PCs can do, and that's beyond the scope of what a PC is expected to be able to do.
That doesn't mean it's impossible. Just that you have to invent a plot device that makes it possible.
It's a homebrew campaign.. My big bad is trying to eliminate any magic coming from deities. I need help with any ideas on how this can be accomplished. Any ideas? I'm at a creative block :/
I just mentioned these books on this forum recently, so forgive me if I seem repetitive. I suggest a reading (or a web search for a summary) of the Avatar Trilogy. The beginning of the first book spells (no pun intended) this out in the Forgotten Realms. Basically the overgod revokes the other deities' powers because some of them did something to anger him. They were forced to take the forms of their avatars on Faerûn, and thus hilarity ensued. The finale of the third book was interesting, by the way.
This sounds very reminiscient of the Time of Troubles. The key to all magic is supposed to lie in Mystra's control, as she is the keeper of the Weave. Supposedly that is why there are no spells above 9th level anymore. Regardless, during the Troubles, magic wasn't working right, and gods were walking the Prime Material in Avatar form.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Vecna, blocked other gods in vecna lives with a specific alignment of stars and a spell. Strahd could block some spells and communication with outside entities in 5e, he doesn't block clerics because saying no clerics seems like a bad move but how spells worked changed. Some older editions also had rules about gods needing worshipers for power.
So generally in 5e lore I'd say that planes that you control can block gods, gods can rarely block other gods by taking advantage of sources of power like an alignment of stars and specific gods can be blocked out by losing followers. You don't have to stick to lore its just some ideas that will feel very dnd.
It's a homebrew campaign.. My big bad is trying to eliminate any magic coming from deities. I need help with any ideas on how this can be accomplished. Any ideas? I'm at a creative block :/
If you rely on "standard 5e lore", it will be difficult, because there is such a baseline of divine and arcane powers, which pretty much everything is connected to.
At a homebrew campaign, where you don't give a sh** about it, should you decide to do so, you can make it work as you like:
- Is the deities power reliant on them having followers? Making the followers forget about the gods could render the gods powerless and dying.
- Can you shatter the connection of the "realm of men" and the "realm of gods"? Perhaps the divine magic gets into the world via places of worship? Destroy that temple and the the god can't grant his blessing to the priests any more.
- Can you siphon divine magic away to some "nether realm"? Perhaps the big bad wants to open portals to that, draining divine power off the world.
- Is the foundation of magic (e.g. the Astral Sea) neutral and limited as a resource - and arcane and divine magic share its power? Perhaps using up that resource will create a decline of magic in the world. But the big bad has found a way to store that energy in arcane "containers"?
Hrm….
One of the first ideas that leaps to my mind is the Norse Myth about Idunna and her apples. The Gods must eat the apples regularly in order to retain their strength and vitality (Eternal youth..and so on..) and without the apples they wither, and lose their strength/abilities.
So when Idunna gets captured by a Giant.. things start to go bad quickly.
If in your setting your divine powers also had some form of source they drew their power from aside from beliefs of followers.. snagging that source seems a good way, and sets up a possible rescue/recovery scenario.
I think really though a lot of it would depend on the nature of your particular cosmology and where they draw their power from.
There are no official means of doing so, because the rules are mostly about what PCs can do, and that's beyond the scope of what a PC is expected to be able to do.
That doesn't mean it's impossible. Just that you have to invent a plot device that makes it possible.
I just mentioned these books on this forum recently, so forgive me if I seem repetitive. I suggest a reading (or a web search for a summary) of the Avatar Trilogy. The beginning of the first book spells (no pun intended) this out in the Forgotten Realms. Basically the overgod revokes the other deities' powers because some of them did something to anger him. They were forced to take the forms of their avatars on Faerûn, and thus hilarity ensued. The finale of the third book was interesting, by the way.
Thanks for the feed back! Gives a lot to think on!
This sounds very reminiscient of the Time of Troubles. The key to all magic is supposed to lie in Mystra's control, as she is the keeper of the Weave. Supposedly that is why there are no spells above 9th level anymore. Regardless, during the Troubles, magic wasn't working right, and gods were walking the Prime Material in Avatar form.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Vecna, blocked other gods in vecna lives with a specific alignment of stars and a spell. Strahd could block some spells and communication with outside entities in 5e, he doesn't block clerics because saying no clerics seems like a bad move but how spells worked changed. Some older editions also had rules about gods needing worshipers for power.
So generally in 5e lore I'd say that planes that you control can block gods, gods can rarely block other gods by taking advantage of sources of power like an alignment of stars and specific gods can be blocked out by losing followers. You don't have to stick to lore its just some ideas that will feel very dnd.
Just came across this thread and here's my "30 seconds of thinking about it" answer: