Hello everyone, and welcome to another in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of: Nobility.
The Nobility domain is described as “You are a great leader, an inspiration to all who follow the teachings of your faith.” – So we have someone who leads people, whether that is into combat, or in more “civil duties.” Someone who exemplifies what we think of when talking about a nobleman, or someone who acts nobly. You’re likely to be a member of the nobility or aristocracy yourself, or at the very least be someone who came from a monarchy.
The powers gained are “Inspiring Word,” which provides a +2 morale bonus to a creature within 30 feet. That bonus applies to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws, so it is worth noting that it doesn’t stack with spells such as bless or prayer.
The second power gained is “Leadership,” which means that you get the Leadership feat, and you get a +2 bonus to your leadership score, as long as you uphold the tenets of your faith.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Nobility domain are as follows:
Divine Favor
This spell is simple, in that it gives you a +1 luck bonus (for every 3 levels you have, to a maximum of +3) to attack and weapon damage rolls. Which is quite handy, since luck bonuses are fairly rare, and they do stack with weapon enhancement bonuses.
Enthrall
This spell allows you to create your own friends, or at least convince others that they should be. Any creature failing their saving throw against you considers you to be friendly, though creatures of a race or religion unfriendly to yours get a +4 bonus on the saving throw. Importantly, this lasts as long as you keep talking, up to a maximum of an hour.
Magic Vestment
Simply put, this makes your armor magical, up to a maximum enhancement bonus of +5. Importantly, you can also enchant normal clothing in this way, allowing you to gain a measure of protection while maintaining a disguise or appearances.
Discern Lies
This allows you to know if someone is telling a lie. Importantly though, it does not allow you to know if someone is dodging the subject, or lying by omission, but you will know if they state a falsehood. (For GMs, it’s worth noting that if the subject of the spell believes something to be true, it will not appear as a falsehood).
Greater Command
This allows you to give one of 5 commands to a group of creatures (9 at the time where you get access to the spell), where you get a choice of telling them to Approach, Drop, Fall, Flee, or Halt. Unlike the normal command spell, however, it has a duration, which allows you to disable your opponents for a while.
Geas/Quest
These spells have seen great use in the plot-setup for various adventures, though often not in the games themselves. This is likely because most players are unlikely to use this as a spell themselves, as the goal of the spell is long term, but when applied to player characters it has a life of its own. For example, one PC encounters the villain on his own. The villain uses Geas/Quest and instructs the PC to bring the rest of the party to a certain point, at a certain time, and that he IS NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT AT ALL. That means that the player should do their utmost to lure the others there (or suffer some nasty penalties) and that he wouldn’t be allowed to explain why. GM, this is where you’re supposed to shine. Be creative in what an NPC might do, and allow the NPC to use their level of intelligence to at least shut down some of the loopholes that the players might use. (In my example above, the player cannot TALK about it, but the villain did not specify that he couldn’t WRITE about it for instance. That would give the player an out if he takes the time to consider it. Of course, you should put some time pressure on, just to mess with it, as it makes for a better narrative).
Repulsion
This is basically a spell that allows you and other creatures to works as magnets against each other, with you denying them access to the area in which you currently are. They can still attack you with ranged weapons or spells, but they must stay at least 10 feet away from you. (Potentially much more; depending on your choice, at the level you gain the spell, it can be a maximum of 130 ft.)
Demand
This particular spell does well in the hands of a creative caster. As described in the spell “influence the actions of the target creature by suggesting a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two). The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the activity sound reasonable.” So, in this case, the recipient won’t do anything suicidal like “Go kill the Red Dragon,” but you could make it far more reasonable by saying “Could you distract the dragon a moment? Then we’ll handle it for you.” That means that with a bit of creativity you can make most things sound reasonable. Caught stealing? “Could you do me a favor and say you were with me? You know I had nothing to do with it.” Need the goblin scout to lie to his chieftain and say he didn’t see you? “Could you claim you never saw us? We won’t bother your tribe, HONEST!” And I’d be wrong not to mention one of those all-time movie moments: “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.” – Have fun with it. 🙂 (Oh, and a range of “the plane that you’re on.”)
Storm of Vengeance
This is a spell of biblical proportions. While it doesn’t let you rain frogs, it is a long lasting spell with deafening noise, acid rain, bolts of lighting, hailstones the size of boulders (since they do 5d6 points of damage) and finally the clouds obscure vision. It’s worth noting that the effects are cumulative, meaning that by the end of the 10 rounds, you’ll have dealt 10d6 points of acid damage (with no save), thrown up to 48 lightning bolts, each dealing 10d6 points of damage (with saves for half damage), bludgeoning damage from the hailstones dealing 5d6 points of damage per round (for a total of 35d6 points of damage, with no save).
As normal, for this series of articles, we’ll be creating a deity for the Pathfinder RPG, but instead of our normal look at a “real-world” deity, we’re going to be adjusting a particular goddess from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. (I’m not sure if she’s appeared after 3rd edition, but she was fleshed out quite well in AD&D in the Powers and Pantheons books (funnily enough, one of my favorite game books).
New Deity
Siamorphe
The Noble, the Divine Right
Alignment LN
Worshipers aristocrats, nobles, rules, those who believe in the divine right to rule
Cleric Alignments LG, LN, LE, N
Domains: Artifice, Community, Law, Nobility, Protection,
Sub-domains: Aristocracy, Family, Industry, Leadership, Legislation
Favored Weapon: Light mace (in the shape of a scepter)
Symbol: silver chalice with a golden sun on the side of the cup
Siamorphe is the goddess of nobles, but more importantly, she is the goddess of nobility. Not only the status, but the act thereof. She represents both the RIGHT for nobles to rule, but also the RESPONSIBILITY of their rule. A fit ruler must be obeyed, an unfit ruler must be educated, and an unworthy ruler must be replaced with a worthy heir.
Unlike most deities, Siamorphe is mostly mortal, and lives among her worshipers, leading from a central temple. When Siamorphe dies, she passes on the mantle of divinity to her most worthy successor (usually one in the same family tree, but if no worthy candidates are there, then to a worthy worshiper). As such, any priest of Siamorphe could potentially become the goddess, and they tend to act accordingly, holding themselves to high standards.
Most of the clergy are nobles already, and they spend their days in the same way as other nobles of their country, often hunting or attending social events, and making sure that those serving them are productive.
There are no set holidays for Siamorphe, as these will correspond with the traditions of the individual country, and ceremonies are rare, usually held on important social occasions, such as noble weddings, births and the like. At other times, priests are expected to give thanks to Siamorphe for her gifts, before each meal, and before retiring for the evening. Late evenings are to be spent managing their noble estates.
Kim Frandsen
Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)
- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
