[Lore][Homebrew] Gods and Saints

St. George slaying a dragon

    In order to incentivize characters interacting with the Church in my setting, which I will go into more detail in a future post, I thought it might be cool to give patron saints specific domains that directly tied into game mechanics like turning undead and saving throws.  Originally, I was going to keep the gods and saints fairly distant from the player characters but when I was creating some saints I had remembered the stories about St. George killing dragons and thought that a devout follower of his would likely get a bonus on saves vs dragon breath.  That's when I edited my saints to directly tie into game features and mechanics.

    Basically, how it's gonna work is that a character, of any class, can select a patron saint whom they can pray to for assistance.  The actual mechanical benefit comes at a cost though.  Characters are expected to not only be devoted to their patron saint (you know, following their teachings and actually roleplaying your character's beliefs) as well as a payment in gold of a value equal to 10% of their XP cost.  The donation to the Church would be a monthly thing and the price only goes up as the character levels up so a 1st level cleric who's devoted to St. Carr the Vampire Slayer would only need to pay 150 gp per month to the Church in order to get a +1 vs turning undead (or maybe turning vampires specifically).  

    I might also add specific requirements for each saint that is somewhat independent of the religion as a whole.  Right now all I have for a code of conduct is a set of commandments (given to humanity on a golden scroll) but it could be fun for saints to have their own little objectives.  St. Carr the Vampire Slayer might require his followers to never leave an undead... alive.  I'm not sure the right word for that but basically he could have a rule where his followers HAVE TO kill any and all undead they come across and if they don't, they'd lose the blessing.  This could make for interesting religious orders but it could be a bit much imo.  I'll have to work on it some more.

    I want to keep the blessings useful but also somewhat minor.  Basically I want them to just be in the background as something that's kinda cool and useful but isn't too complicated for players to the point of making them disinterested.  That's why I feel that a +1 bonus to a saving throw or something similar could be a cool mechanic, plus it encourages the players to interact with the setting's religion a bit more.  One thing I find really lame is when a player chooses to play a cleric simply because they think the party needs a healer as opposed to actually wanting to run a character who is devoted to god(s).  To me, a cleric should be similar to Sister Rebecca in the Moldvay Basic example of play.  They've sworn an oath to their deity and are willing to take a stand, even against their own party members, to stay true to their beliefs.  From what I've seen, a lot of clerics (and paladins) are all too willing to turn a blind eye to the evil committed by their fellow adventurers because they don't want to cause any friction or conflict.  Clerics, imo, should be some of the most annoying people as well as some of the most beloved people by their party.  Sure, it might be frustrating riding with a cleric when all you want to do is kick in doors and kill monsters but you'll be glad they're with you when you come across hordes of the undead or if you need your burial site to be consecrated so that you don't end up rising up again.

    Currently, I'm still fleshing out my starting saints (players will be able to make their own and I'll make more as the campaign progresses but I wanted to have a handful of options for players to select from to start off with) and once I'm done with them I'll make a post about them.