Consecration System

[MrGrendel]

What is consecration? It means “to associate with the sacred.” Lots of things could potentially be consecrated... areas, objects, even people. A cleric, for instance, is by definition “consecrated.” The most obvious mechanical effect of the difference between deities is in the domains of their priests. So how would this look like in EfU? Rather than try to come up with a bunch of different random things that could be done, I'd like to break it down and come up with something that can be made to look like a consistent system, using the “logic” that seems to dictate what we have.

I imagine three steps of consecration, or the progress of a Consecrator:
1. Countering, negating. Desecrating.
2. Altering of existing effects.
3. Imbuing proper.

These different steps would be the natural progress a consecrator would make. Firstly, desecrating (or cleansing) opposing holy/unholy items. It's easier to destroy than create. Secondly, rather than destroy, learn to alter; bend things to the will of your deity. Last of all, the actual creation of effects or bonuses through this should be hardest. What should it be usable on, though?

Consecration targets, in order of difficulty:
1. Opposed, magical items. (Desecrating only.)
2. Neutral and opposed magical items. (Alteration of effects.)
3. Mundane items, areas. (Imbuing of new effects.)

Pretty straight-foward, since destruction is easiest, the first item on the list is probably going to be objects of veneration of opposed faiths. The second, for alteration, might include these, but also “neutral” objects with various magical effects. Last and most difficult to achieve would be consecrating areas or items that were previously mundane, since creating effects proper should be most difficult.

The next question is how to define or flesh out the sacred items. There are different approaches. I feel that the most elegant, rather than a deity-by-deity approach, is to define things by domains. This should significantly cut down on the amount of customization needed, and at the same time result in a unique per-deity list... there are less domains than deities, and each deity has multiple domains.

In other words, rather than an item “sacred to Kelemvor,” add an item “consecrated of Law.” Not only does this apply to far more deities than just Kelemvor, but you have a whole slew of deities of the Chaos domain whose priests might be interested in destroying this object. We simply need to determine opposing domains for the majority of domains, and then each deity ought to have a good number of “opposing” artifacts their consecrators can look for to destroy.

If we're going by domains, one could also use spells. So a priest of Kelemvor might look for items with spell effects granted by undeath domain, stone bones for instance.

If these items are valuable or useful, it might also help create some conflict between opposing priests... a cleric decked in loot consecrated to his deity might make a more interesting target for robbery by enemy priests looking for a nice stash of sacred things to desecrate in their deity's name.

Another question is how to limit progress? Naturally, actual consecration skill should be most prominent. Cleric or perhaps druid levels should play a part. I think there should ideally also be a progress counter, which tracks how much a cleric has destroyed or purified in the name of their deity as well, as this is a hidden investment with monetary value.

Anyway, here is an example of how I'd envision a typical, successful consecrating priest going about things... by the ideas above:

1. Connie Consecrator consecrates a generic “money sacrifice,” which is destroyed. The system checks her deity domains. Let's say one of them is “Good,” and the opposed domain is “Evil.” Connie receives the “insight” that she should destroy items of Evil whenever possible. This could be specifically created items clearly described as “dedicated to deities of Evil” (domain), or it could include items with charges of spells normally granted by the evil domain, such as negative energy ray, etc.

2. Connie faithfully destroys scrolls of such whenever possible. Each such event adds a small bit to a counter of Connie's consecration progress. At a certain point, Connie will receive another insight, either of more powerful artifacts that can be purified/desecrated, or (eventually) of a way to alter neutral or opposed magical items to attain bonuses granted by some of Connie's deity. For instance, Evil grants Enervation (5) but Good grants Lesser Planar Binding (5)... so it might impart her with a method to change scrolls, wands or possibly specially created “consecrated” loot items from an opposed type to her own.

3. Doing so successfully further increases Connie's consecration progress score... until at some point it is enough for Connie to gain insight on actually creating or enhancing some of the effects of her deity's domains through a ritual process. Perhaps consecrating an area with a Good domain method would allow spells granted through this domain to be cast at increased duration, for instance, with an appropriate component cost, etc, possibly also checking for the caster's deity's domains. Or the creation of items charged with already granted powers, like for Good domain, Lesser Planar Binding, etc. The power of this alone would not necessarily be much beyond the ability to create scrolls or extend spells, though the amount invested may warrant more. Not interested in power, I'm sure DMs are better than me at figuring out balance.

Of course, many things could be designed that are more creative and tailored to each deity, I just wanted to think about how a system might work that is based on the information we already have about deities and domains.

The last thing needed would be to decide which domains are opposed ones; though it's a bit sketchy, I'd lay it out something like this.

Air vs Earth, Fire vs Water, Law/Fate vs Chaos, Good vs Evil, Repose vs Undeath, Darkness/Cavern vs Sun, Destruction vs Protection, Healing vs Hatred, Knowledge vs Illusion, Death    vs Renewal, Planning vs Luck, Trickery vs Trade, Nobility/Metal vs Animal, Charm vs War, Portal vs Travel.

Undecided: Drow, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Fungus, Magic, Metal, Ooze, Plant, Reptilian, Retribution, Rune, Sea Caves, Spells, Spider, Strength, Storm, Suffering.

That should be enough to ensure that just about every singly deity out there would have at least a few 'opposed' domain items/domain spells for their clerics to look out for.

[Howlando]

This is probably too much work to script vs. the benefit. But feel free to propose something less complicated, at some point it would be nice if consecration did something.