Cities as Gods

Don't ever take a city for granted.

After all, it is bigger than you are; it is older; and it has learned how to wait...

A city is more than the sum of its inhabitants. Residents love their city, or hate it, or fear it... or have faith in it. It should be no surprise that their spirits tend to wake up, and to be powerful. By divine standards, they are only "Lesser Deities", but that's still quite sufficient from a mortal's perspective.

Alignment: Most cities are Lawful Neutral. People are the pieces that make them up, so they like those pieces to function smoothly. There are exceptions. Some cities take in a constant flow of naive youth searching for greatness, work them to exhaustion and then spit them back out poor and dispirited. Those cities are evil. So are cities whose economies are built on massive slave markets. There are also cities where plans for helping people dance freely from mouth to mouth -- those cities are good. And there are a few cities where nothing seems to make sense, and residents must learn to let go and embrace the madness. Those are chaotic. But Lawful Neutral is by far the most common.

Portfolio: The city itself, its people, and everything that is done there.

Domains: All cities have the Community and Protection domains, as well as the domains of their alignments (if any). Port cities and cities at crossroads often have the Travel domain. Cities that were once forts (even if most mortals have forgotten this) have the War domain. In addition, cities have domains for anything within them that is prominent enough to draw visitors from other cities. Domains often obtained this way include Craft, Greed, Knowledge, Magic, Trade and Wealth. Finally, cities have domains for any species (e.g. elf, dwarf, scalykind) that live there in significant numbers.

Cleric Training: Clerics of cities often begin by serving their city in a more mundane capacity, perhaps as a city guard or an architect devising infrastructure. Multiclassing is common. Once a cleric dedicates herself to a city, she must travel within it, learning every neighborhood and the hidden factors that allow them to function.

Quests: Clerics of cities act to protect the city. Threats range from a blocked sewer breeding disease to an attacking dragon. An invading army may or may not qualify as a threat. Most cities don't mind replacing their ruling class periodically, but being sacked is entirely unacceptable.

Temples: Most cities don't have temples. The entire city acts in some ways as a temple to itself. Others will have small shrines on street corners, in parks, or at the entrances of public buildings. Organizations of clerics often meet in ordinary conference rooms at city hall, or even in taverns.

Rites: City rites celebrate milestones for the city: the opening of a public library or the revitalization of a neighborhood. Some cities celebrate the anniversary of their founding, or of other important events. The celebrations are informal and joyous.

Heralds and Allies: Most cities use Urbanals (see below) as their heralds. Lawful neutral and lawful good cities often have hound archons as allies.

Relics: These vary by city. Common choices include self-updating maps of themselves, weapons to be used in their defense, specialized lyres of building, or horns which convey clear message to the entire populace.


Urbanal

Size/Type: Large Construct
Hit Dice: 22d10+30 (151 hp)
Initiative: 9
Speed: 50 ft (10 squares), fly 150ft(Good), climb 50ft
Armor Class: 36 (-1 size,+5 dex, +15 natural, +7 deflection), touch 21, flat-footed 31
Base Attack/Grapple: +16/+29
Attack: +5 greatsword +29 melee (3d6+18) or +5 longbow +25 ranged (2d6+5)
Full Attack: +5 greatsword +29/+24/+19/+14 melee (3d6+18) or +5 longbow +25/+20/+15/+10 ranged (2d6+5)
Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Attacks: spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities: change shape, construct traits, damage reduction 10/-, immunity to fire cold and electricity, tongues, urban glide, urban tracking
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +12, Will +14
Abilities: Str 28, Dex 20, Con -, Int 23, Wis 25, Cha 25
Skills: Climb +42, Concentration +25, Gather Information +34, Intimidate +32, Knowledge (local) +31, Listen +32, Search +31, Spot +32
Feats: cleave, great cleave, improved initiative, improved sunder, power attack, quicken spell, silent spell, still spell
Environment: the city it serves
Organization: solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 23
Treasure: none
Alignment: same as its city
Advancement: 23-33 hd (large); 34-66 hd (huge)
Level Adjustment: --

Spell-Like Abilities

At will—aid, animate objects, commune, continual flame, dimensional anchor, greater dispel magic, imprisonment (DC 26), invisibility (self only), lesser restoration (DC 19), mass cure light wounds, mass repair light damage, mending, remove curse (DC 20), remove disease (DC 20), remove fear (DC 18), resist energy, summon monster VII, speak with dead (DC 20), waves of fatigue; 3/day—blade barrier (DC 23), heal (DC 23), mass charm monster (DC 25), permanency, resurrection, total repair, waves of exhaustion; 1/day—greater restoration (DC 24), power word blind, power word kill, power word stun, prismatic spray (DC 24), wish. Caster level 20th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Spells

An Urbanal casts as a 20th level cleric of its city

Change Shape

An Urbanal can assume the form of any intelligent species of which at least one lives in the city.

Construct Traits

See the SRD

Tongues

An Urbanal can speak to any creature as by the Tongues spell. This also allows the Urbanal to read and write any langauge.

Urban Glide

An Urbanal can pass through city buildings, ground or infrastructure as an earth elemental passes through stone.

Urban Tracking

As urban ranger

Deflection

An Urbanal adds its charisma modifier to its AC as a deflection bonus.

Skills
A Urbanal has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. It can take 10 on climb checks even when rushed or threatened.