God and PrC - Cause that's how you do Evil

So here I wanted to do 2 things mainly:

1. Make a kind of evil and offer a kind of god that, say, would be tolerable for a PC divine caster to take up without the DM banning him at once, while STILL being actually evil and not just refluffed neutral at its core.
2. Make an evil god that offers positive energy channeling for the sake of it.

Lord Xanetum

Lesser Deity (rank 8)

Symbol: A golden plate glove holding a shard of light, with a pentagon shaped wooden shield behind.
Home Plane: Material
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Selfishness, Prosperity, Power, Success, Survival, Self-defense, Longevity, Brightness, Freedom
Clergy Alignments: Any evil
Domains: Evil*, Healing, Liberation, Life, Protection, Sun
Favored Weapon: Longsword
*Clerics of Xanetum almost never take the evil domain. The ones that do, though, do for very pragmatic reasons, such as the need to battle strictly good opponents on a daily basis. Overall, however, it is discouraged.

Lord Xanetum appears as a solidly built 6'4" feet tall gray elf donning a golden armor made of a peculiar combination of force, positive energy, and actual gold. Naturally, he has gray skin and black long hair stretching all the way to his torso. His eyes are blindingly bright and can see through any barrier or deception. An incredible entity to look at, he overwhelms both his foes and worshipers with his nigh impossible to resist frightful presence and an intriguing emanation of both a strong evil and a strong good aura.

Xanetum walks the earth, having forever established himself on a far away and not well known island, where he sometimes brings his most devout worshipers to train them into Selfguards.

Dogma

Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is whether you're still alive. The next most important, naturally, is whether everything happened according to plan.

Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples to always follow their desires and selfish needs, as long as they don't put themselves in needless danger in the process. If there are people in the way, then to hell with them.

The disciples of Xanetum are also taught to enjoy the beauty of life and always be in good health. His temples are generally near or within plantations or other large patches of greenery. A character that has Xanetum as his patron deity must not cause himself pain, undersleep, exert himself, use drugs or engage in dangerous activities with little to no reward.

Also, a disciple of Xanetum is to respect life in general. Sure, he must not let others stand between him and his goals, he can steal as much as he needs, he might plunder and pillage for other's resources, and he is not required to have any mercy for opponents if they attacked first, but it generally stops there. Most disciples would be hard pressed to deride pleasure in the suffering of others (torture for anything but intel being strictly banned by the Lord himself). Also, they would most likely make conscious efforts to minimize the collateral damage caused by their battles, unless such precautions would prevent them from aptly defending themselves. Another form of needless suffering a disciple would never cause is that of retribution or vengeance. When a foe is no longer a threat, regardless however horrible his actions were in the past, it would be just wasteful and straight out dangerous to go after him in the present (especially since he has everything to lose, and you, nothing to gain). Suffice to say, things like going on a murder spree in a dwarf settlement because once one dwarf hunter happened to shoot you in the leg from afar are strictly forbidden.

Another thing that is important for a disciple of Xanetum is success in his undertakings. Lying, cheating, fighting dirty, and rigging competitions are second nature to those people, although they do tend to act more honorably when around each other.

There's no martyrdom for a disciple of the Lord. You die, you lose.

The last, and probably most important lesson Lord Xanetum teaches, one that he has always applied himself, is that of pragmatism. Truth is, good magic and magic that channels positive energy are simply BETTER at keeping you alive and well protected than some debuffing, raising dead critters, soul damage or cannibalism.

Clergy and Temples

Temples of Lord Xanetum are usually hidden in the woods, as he is frowned upon by the general population as all evil gods are. If a temple is done well, over 100 feet wide and long with a bolted roof and hard rock pillars, clerics of Xanetum call their master to arrive himself at the location and create a shrine for them. Those shrines are always glittering of precious metals, and no two shrines are really alike.

The clerics of Lord Xanetum wear long robes of various colors and models, don't spend much time on actual prayer and generally have a pretty diverse and erudite knowledge.

What a Xanetum ceremony actually looks like is as such: everyone comes with a glass of wine and line in a circle, and then take turns. When it is somebody's turn, he drinks all his wine at once, stands while touching the altar, and then talks about his life experience and whatever in the recent period made him proud of himself. In truth, disciples of Xanetum wouldn't waste anything aside from words, but the deity itself actively refuses material sacrifices of any kind.

Tipping the Balance of Good and Evil, Questing, Positive Energy

For those who worship Lord Xanetum, self-absorption is absolute. They care mostly or only for their well being, and in game terms this translates to, in addition to other things, a complete disregard for the balance of good and evil in the world, which is extremely unusual for those who pray to divine evil. A cleric, paladin, or selfguard of Xanetum may very well slaughter scores of evil dragons, banish fiends, free slaves, heal wounded children, consecrate grounds, summon celestials and fight for the greater good, and all of it wouldn't matter. As long as they personally are rewarded or just generally better off when all is said and done, no matter how much the world is improved and the balance is tipped in favor of good, they are still considered to be upholding the doctrine of Lord Xanetum exquisitely.


And now for the PrC:

Xanetum's Selfguard

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

To qualify to become a Selfguard, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Survival 4 ranks, Heal 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks
Spells: Must be able to cast 2nd level divine spells, must have at least one method of healing damage magically
Proficiency: Must be proficient with the longsword
Religion: Must have Lord Xanetum as a patron deity. Must have served him for more than 6 months already.
Alignment: Any evil
Special: Must have never sacrificed himself to protect someone else, attempted suicide, taken drugs, or cast Corrupt magic.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |

Spells

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Egoism, Dual Channel, Superficial Affinity|

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Ally Shield, Light Shard (1d4, 1)|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

3rd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Golden Aegis, Fast Healing 1|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

4th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Divine Aid, Light shard (2d4, 2)|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

5th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Meat Shield, Fast Healing 2|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

6th|+4|+5|+2|+5|Moderate Affinity, Light shard (3d4, 3)|

7th|+5|+5|+2|+5|Divine Condition, Fast Healing 3|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

8th|+6|+6|+2|+6|Greater Divine Aid, Light shard (4d4, 4)|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

9th|+6|+6|+3|+6|Death Avoidance, Fast Healing 4|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

10th|+7|+7|+3|+7|Greater Affinity, Light shard (5d4, 5)|

+1 level to existing divine caster class

[/table]

Class Features

All the following are class features of the Xanetum's Selfguard prestige class.

Weapon Proficiency: Selfguards gain proficiency with all shields (including tower shields).

Spells: When a new selfguard level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of selfguard to the level of whatever other divine spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a selfguard, she must decide to which class she adds each level of selfguard for the purpose of determining spells per day.


Egoism (Ex): Once per day, as a free action, choose a percentage between 0% and 50%. Healing effects you use on yourself heal x% more, and healing effects you use on others heal x% less.

Dual Channel (Su): If you have a cleric level, and thus can spontaneously cast inflict spells, you automatically gain the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells as well. If you have no cleric levels, choose one of the two.

Superficial Affinity (Su): Being surrounded by light and positive energy made you resistant to it. For 1 minute per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Neutral for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede Evil targets more (spells that only give information, however, are not affected: you still read as evil). Closing and activating this ability are full round actions.

Ally Shield (Ex): At level 2 or higher, you may use this ability as a nonaction or immediate action when you are attacked in melee or at range with a weapon or projectile.

If nonaction: select an ally within reach+5ft. You gain +2 to shield AC, or +4 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, you receive 75% of the damage and your ally receives 25%.

If immediate action: select an ally within reach+10ft. You gain +4 to shield AC, or +6 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, both you and your ally receive half damage.

Light Shard (Su): Starting at level 2, whenever you make a melee attack or melee touch attack, but only once per round, you may choose to deal holy damage to the target, equal to 1d4*class level/2 (this damage cannot be prevented as long as your initial melee or melee touch attack hits). Then, until your next round, you receive a sacred bonus to AC equal to your class level/2 against everyone except the target you attacked, which treats you as having a bonus to AC equal to your class level.

Golden Aegis (Su): At level 3, as long as you carry a shield, gain DR/evil equal to your class level*1,5 (rounded down), and your shield cannot be sundered or disarmed.

Fast Healing (Ex): At level 3, you gain Fast Healing 1. This advances to 2 at level 5, 3 at level 7, and 4 at level 9.

Divine Aid (Su): At level 4, you may cast Commune as a spell like ability up to charisma times per day (minimum 1).

Meat Shield (Ex): Like Ally Shield, except you may use any creature, and unwilling ones get to make a Dex roll against a modified check where you roll 1d20 and add both your wisdom and strength modifiers.

While using Meat Shield on allies, extend range by 5.

Moderate Affinity (Su): Growing even more fond of positive energy, you can further mitigate its annoyances. Aside from the benefits provided by Superficial, from level 6, for 2 rounds per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Good for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede nongood targets more. During the time you are treated as Good, you may wield good-aligned weapons with no penalty. Closing and activating both abilities are full round actions.

Divine Condition (Ex): A level 7 or higher Selfguard has been truly blessed by Xanetum - he no longer ages, no longer has a maximum age, and becomes immune to diseases of any kind. Furthermore, he becomes immune to nonlethal damage.

Greater Divine Aid (Ex): A level 8 Selfguard may use Limited Wish as a spell-like ability once per day. If he dies during a day in which he has not used his Limited Wish, any attempts at raising him back to life succeed without consuming any material components.

Death Avoidance (Su): A level 9 Selfguard is treated as having a permanent Surelife effect on himself. He may change the effect of the spell once per day.

Greater Affinity (Su): A level 10 Selfguard is infused with just as much holy energy as any paladin out there. He may treat himself as being Good for 1 minute per class level per day and Neutral for 5 minutes per class level per day, and during both periods he detects as Neutral instead of evil. Also, as a free action he may voluntarily hide or resurface his evil aura.

Very interesting.

Thanks, PrC added.

Imo, that's the kind of Evil we should have have since the beginning of D&D... An Evil that isn't to be marked as "rampaging psychopath" everywhere it goes.

Evil shouldn't be the emo "I want to destroy the world, so much suffering and pain!", but more the "I go first.".

In this direction, your evil god is, in fact, more neutral than evil: he says "after yourself and your goals, put the others", that's more neutral than evil.

As written I see him more as a neutral god using evil or uncarry means to fullfill good goals: a neutral god by D&D.

Personally, I view them as such:

Good=put others before yourself (altruism)
Evil=put yourself before others (egocentrism, selfishness)

By that standard, any and all gods actively promoting selfishness, as Xanetum is, are evil.

So it's Pelor, the Burning Hate?

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Originally Posted by Tebryn

So it's Pelor, the Burning Hate?

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Ha, good one.

Anyway, this guy ain't evil. He cares way too much.

An egotist isn't automatically evil; you can watch out for number one without crushing number two.

The best explanation I've ever seen for the alignment system explains it thus way (paraphrased):

1. Lawful Evil: These are the guys who get a sort of personal satisfaction when they tax a family to the bone, or when they evict old ladies that don't pay their rent.

2. Neutral Evil: They won't go out of their way to be an *******. However, if you are in their way, they will kill you without a second thought. This goes for anything that gets in their way. Ever read The Bad Seed? These guys are sociopaths, pure and simple.

3. Chaotic Evil: They want to watch everything burn. Society, friendships, love, personal connections... They are tinder for your flames.

In other words, evil isn't supposed to be nice. On the same hand, good isn't supposed to be nice either, but that applies more for evil.

If you want to see a good examination of how "evil" thinks as an alignment, here's a statement from one of the guys who wrote Exalted:

"They don't care about you. To the extent that they care about you, they hate you for making them care about you."

So this guy is Neutral. TN at the worst. Because Altruism is selfish.

You might not think it, but when you are being altruistic, you get a rush of pleasure, which is a reward in and of itself; it's actually evolved into our species due to something called "inclusive fitness".

So, I'm sorry to say this, but your views on alignment in a completely fictional game that doesn't matter in the slightest could take a little more inspection.

I'm perfectly aware that in the real world, altruism is selfish to a certain degree. But, as you said, this is a fictional game where that doesn't apply.

Also:

A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. - from the SRD, and perfectly in line with my minor deity (except for the word "sport", of course)

Also, if evil were to be defined as extremely as you put it in all cases, why are the "usually evil" races not extinct?

Plus, there's always the neutrality density question which does admit variants (like, a human village has an average alignment of Usually Neutral. But does that mean that 90% are neutral and 5% are good and 5% are evil, or that there's a neat even spread of 33%? Because if it's the latter, you would have to do much, much less to be considered evil, and if it's the first, you will have to do incredibly more to be good).

This is why I prefer Lord_Gareth's Color Wheel as Alignment to the standard system, or just scrap it completely.

Because seriously, when you get down to it, there are too many redeeming qualities in most mortals for them to be truly evil; if I had my druthers, alignment would only exist as subtypes.

Nah, you just define evil too restrictively. In real life you can consider someone to be evil just because he's a cheating bastard, even if he never killed anyone and has empathy and compassion for his family.

Pseudoethics aside, PEACH the PrC if you may :).

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Originally Posted by Phosphate

Nah, you just define evil too restrictively. In real life you can consider someone to be evil just because he's a cheating bastard, even if he never killed anyone and has empathy and compassion for his family.

Pseudoethics aside, PEACH the PrC if you may :).

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Depends on who you ask, really. I wouldn't call 'im evil. I'd still punch him directly in the vulnerables, but that doesn't make him evil.

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Originally Posted by Phosphate

Pseudoethics aside, PEACH the PrC if you may :).

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Probably too powerful; fast healing plus strong DR make for a solid class even without full cleric casting, and there's a reason that they never give out stuff like "no maximum age".

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Originally Posted by Yitzi

Probably too powerful; fast healing plus strong DR make for a solid class even without full cleric casting, and there's a reason that they never give out stuff like "no maximum age".

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Then tell me, which levels should not add +1 to caster, and how many of them?

Assuming this is still intended as tier 1 anyway.

I see no problem with the "no maximum age". Death by old age is a fluffy thing, not a crunchy thing. Giving a class fluffy powers isn't an issue.

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Originally Posted by Phosphate

Then tell me, which levels should not add +1 to caster, and how many of them?

Assuming this is still intended as tier 1 anyway.

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In order to balance it against other (tier 1) clerics, I'd say if you lose levels at levels 1 and 6 it should be ok. If you want it also to be balanced at tier 3 when combined with a tier 3 cleric, you'd need to reduce it by a lot more.

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Originally Posted by silphael

Giving a class fluffy powers isn't an issue.

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Of course it is. It means that in the big picture they should be extremely powerful, and in extreme cases can destroy verisimilitude. It's not an issue if you're treating D&D as purely a mechanical game with no roleplay, but in that case it isn't really worth making a primarily-fluff homebrew.

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Originally Posted by Yitzi

In order to balance it against other (tier 1) clerics, I'd say if you lose levels at levels 1 and 6 it should be ok.

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Ok, deal.

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Of course it is. It means that in the big picture they should be extremely powerful, and in extreme cases can destroy verisimilitude. It's not an issue if you're treating D&D as purely a mechanical game with no roleplay, but in that case it isn't really worth making a primarily-fluff homebrew.

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Then why are great wyrms rare?

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Originally Posted by Phosphate

Then why are great wyrms rare?

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Because it's rare for a dragon to live to that age, due to things like adventurers and an overly strong love of treasure (which can get in the way of self-preservation.) A cleric of Xanetum isn't going to get into the same sort of trouble as a dragon if he can help it.

So?

Just sayin.

Also, by that logic shouldn't all devils be epic sorcerers if they gave a damn(ation)?

I'm just gonna say that I don't personally have much of an issue with an unlimitied lifespan; you can get that by playing an Elan, or a Warforged, or if you go Necropolitan...

Though I do think that Timeless Body would be more appropriate, fluff-wise; since the PrC is essentially "by the power of NARCISSISM!", it makes more sense for them to not age, but still die eventually, rather than going ahead and giving them immortality.

Because, in practically every piece of fiction that I've read, becoming immortal involves a diminishing of certain personal traits (like beauty, sanity, or some such other stuff); giving it to all sufficiently powerful worshipers of a given god makes you wonder why Selune, Sharess, or Lastai haven't given similar benefits to their worshipers.

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Originally Posted by Amechra

since the PrC is essentially "by the power of NARCISSISM!", it makes more sense for them to not age, but still die eventually, rather than going ahead and giving them immortality.

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How exactly? What's your argument?

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giving it to all sufficiently powerful worshipers of a given god makes you wonder why Selune, Sharess, or Lastai haven't given similar benefits to their worshipers.

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Because they WANT their worshipers to eventually join them in the afterlife?

Xanetum doesn't, since, you know:

Home Plane: Material

Check my little fluff argument in my last post; it's OK if you disagree.

And there is a slight issue with having a god that rooms on the material plane...

Namely, the Prime Material is an essentially "Neutral" place. Not alignment-wise, but you can essentially call it a battleground plane, in that both Celestials and Fiends are equally matched on the Material Plane.

There is also the tiny issue that creatures that live on the Prime Material are immune to Summoning and Calling spells, which gives a good indication that the underpinning of existence is different on the material plane; in my mind, this is why there aren't any "true" outsiders on the material plane:

Because it doesn't produce them. It just doesn't have the right sort of environment for them.

Plus, his range of divine influence is SEVERELY curtailed on the PM; on an outer plane, his divine influence stretches for 8 miles, while on the PM it only extends 800'. No god would want to call the PM their home unless they had a very good reason too; it just isn't the best place to live.

And since this is a god of SELF-INTEREST... I doubt he would go for anything but the very best option for himself.

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Originally Posted by Amechra

Check my little fluff argument in my last post; it's OK if you disagree.

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Oh, the thing with giving up something for immortality? Yeah, it's a cliche I don't buy.

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Because it doesn't produce them. It just doesn't have the right sort of environment for them.

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Just because the first sentence is true doesn't mean the other is as well.

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And since this is a god of SELF-INTEREST... I doubt he would go for anything but the very best option for himself.

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He wouldn't go in a good aligned place cause he's evil, and he wouldn't go to one of the hells (3? 9? more? dunno) cause he's a knight in shining armor, and that's GOT to attract some attention (attention from great deities of evil when you're only divine rank 8? nooo, thanks).

Also, the neutrality of the material plane suits him because he doesn't pledge allegiance to anyone's cause but his own. And his cause is to get the best deal for himself (which, at the moment, means amassing more worshipers to increase in rank), not to advance the powers of evil in general.

You know what? I figured out why I dislike this so much.

Because this is the kind of behavior that wrecks groups.

Seriously, as a DM, it is MUCH easier to deal with a complete monster who wants to kill everything, or with an unscrupulous killer, or whatever.

People who are only interested in themselves are almost impossible to work into a party dynamic, and end up just pissing everyone off.

I actually do have some (admittedly circumstantial) evidence to support this:

1. We had one player who wanted to play a Cleric as a healbot; I said OK, since my players generally suck and need the extra help. Then she decided that she would be playing a decidedly self interested character, and basically told anyone who wanted healing to pay her first. This included when the party sorcerer was starting to bleed out (she was planning to loot his corpse in front of him); she only healed him after he threatened to kill her in his last few moments if she didn't heal him.

2. There's another character (in a more recent game, that I am not DMing) who will not do anything if you don't pay him. This includes doing things that he wouldn't be going out of his way to do anyway, such as getting his revenge on a particular cult. To make matters worse, our DM decided to introduce a new player as an enemy defector; he killed her character, and doesn't see why anyone would even care, even though that new player just spent the previous hour and a half making the character.

3. We had one guy, who doesn't game with us anymore, who decided that his character thought that another party member wasn't going to share the party gold (that other character happened to be the party treasurer), and proceeded to stab him in the back.

My issues with this is that it gives players total license to pull off the above; and believe me, the above will be the result, unless we are talking about sufficiently mature players, in which case there wouldn't be a problem, no matter what alignment they are playing.

So in other words, there is my opinion.

If a player is completely uncooperative with his fellow partners, they stand a worse chance to actually finish their given quest.

No quest, no sweet, sweet reward.

Of course, that's not going to help with the sort of player who plays "attack the party" characters as Chaotic Evil, but that sort of player is going to be a problem no matter what alignment they play; the only solution is to allow the party to kill their character and then not let them make a replacement.