Saturday 23 March 2013



PIETY


A Character Piety is measured by piety points, which are gained through pious acts and lost through Impiety. The current number of Piety Points determines the piety level. As with experience levels, increased Piety brings more benefits that “kick in” at discrete intervals. Unless experience, however, it is easy to lose Piety and drop a Level. The listed Piety Points (Pip) are the minimum necessary to enter the corresponding category. All followers of an Immortal begin Pray with 1 point of piety in their given Faith. All servants (Clerics, Clerics, Paladins, Avengers. Healers, Shaman, Shamani, Masters, Druids, Knights, and Dervishes) begin with 1d4 Pip. This rule is only used for entry in a new religion after successful initiation rituals.
A beginning character determines his current beginning Piety according the table here, from “In The Line of Duty” with the ability trait Reverent. At higher levels of Piety, all followers and servants gain with special powers and advantages as a sign of divine favor in the fight against the enemies of the faith. All benefits of piety are cumulative. The character’s effective power level with any granted ability is the same as that of a Paladin of the same experience level (that is a 1/3 of a Cleric). Example; A pious follower of Odin is a Bard level 12. He is given the major ability to Turn Undead. When he does, he has the same chance as a Paladin of the same level, thus as a Cleric level 4.
A character’s Piety represents the protective aura placed around him by his Immortal. This aura is usually invisible to Mortals (thus can be seen by Second Sight), but may be detected by appropriate spells. All extraplanar servants of the character’s Faith (Guardian Angels, Souls on the search of a body to be Reincarnated, etc.) automatically know his current Piety level (not number), and extraplanar servants of other faiths can detect his Piety level by making a successful Wisdom check. Extremely Pious characters (Piety level 100 and above) may become noticeable to the casual observer after a Wisdom check (may be repeated each day). The nature of the aura will generally reflect the character’s faith. For example. A follower of a good aligned faith may radiate a feeling of peace and goodwill, while a servant of evil may radiate a chilling unease.

Gaining and Losing Piety

Character’s receive Pip gains or losses at the same Time the they receive experience points, when the events of the adventure are still fresh in the minds of the characters, and of the Immortal (even Immortals look only rarely more than once a day upon their followers). Since different faiths have different demands, these are listed under each Immortal separately. To calculate Piety awards, simply add all applicable awards and penalties to determine a number.

There should be a strict limit on how many can be gained, and as thus no more than 10 Pip are gained each month maximum. Note that one act could have many consequences. For example, robbing a poor box is both “theft from a church” and “Harming the Weak”. Any number of Pip can be lost during any amount of Time, according to the character’s behavior. Canny characters will plan their actions so as to minimize Piety losses and maximize gains (killing only in a good cause, doing a few extra good deeds to make up for a lapse, etc.). Add up all awards to the character’s current total, and apply all results immediately. 

Transition from one level to another is a major event in a character’s life, and most Immortals may wish to throw in some sort of sign or omen (a pleasant or disturbing dream, an unpleasant bit of weather, etc.).

If the total Piety Points are reduced below 0, the character’s Piety remains 0, and a divine Curse is placed on the character as a warning. A character who commits a further offence earns a further curse for every three such offenses (rounded down). If this is the first Time for the character, a good or tolerant (or ignorant) Immortal may let him off with a warning, and the curse will only last one day. Otherwise, all curses are permanent until the character has atoned for his deeds. Although a character may earn enough Piety to go above 0, all curses remain until the offence that triggered each one is atoned for separately.

Although all Immortals and their faiths have much the same categories of awards and penalties, each Immortal will have specific behaviors that earn each one. For example, although all Faiths require some sort of regular ceremonial observance, the exact nature of the observance can vary widely, from some private meditation to wild festivals. Each Immortal can determine the specific actions that will earn each award or penalty in his or her Faith.
A character may be not content with his Immortal, its faith and its rules and restrictions, and as thus might want to change to another religion or faith (and thus Immortal) without penalty. When he is divinely cursed, however, only opposing Immortals will accept the character without proof of loyalty to the chosen faith. When accepted by another Immortal all divine curses may be removed if that Immortal wishes so, or later as a period of training and acceptance.

Skeptics

Some characters don’t follow any Immortal, and as thus don’t have any piety, nor religion, or faith. The Reverent skill is always below 6 at best. These characters will have no problem by any Immortal rules, they have no Immortal or religious based rules or restrictions. These characters will mostly be either true Neutral and well balanced, or Chaotic and absolutely uninterested. No good or Lawful character could become a skeptic. Skeptics have much penalties, most positive based spells will not work on them. All these spells have only a 25% chance of success on the character (this includes any healing spells), as the Immortal, refuses to spend his might (the power of the spell send through his loyal follower; the casting cleric) without true cause.
The cleric must explain this explicitly beforehand or soon thereafter in his prayers or he instantly drops in Pip 1d4 points, depending on the mood and character of the Immortal in question. Negative based spells (Blight or Cause Wounds) work normally. The skeptic character has no restrictions of entering any temple, holy ground, or similar. But can’t activate any clerical magic from items (Good or Bad), and is not affected by positive clerical shrines or holy powers. These characters often become marionettes of the powers of Entropy, as Immortals often aren’t interested in them. Entropic Immortals misguide them with trickery, guile, and outright lies to enable acts no follower of them (or other Immortals) would do. Skeptics also can’t become Immortal, as some Immortal power must guide them, alter them. If trying to become Immortal, they often follow the trail of Entropy, unknowingly, unstoppable, slowly guided toward Chaos, Death, Destruction or Evil.

Religion Skills:

In addition to its other uses, the Religion skill automatically gives knowledge of mandments and prohibitions and associated piety gains and losses) for the owner’s faith. A successful skill check gives the same information for other common faiths in the area. NPC clergy spend a lot of their time using this skill to give guidance to their flock. However, such guidance is only the owner’s “best guess”, and may or may not be the actual intent of the Immortal.

Spell notes

In general, any spell that specifically affects ‘evil’ creatures (such as protection from evil, detect evil or holy word) will function on characters of an evil faith only if their piety level is devoted or higher—in other words if they are strongly evil. The reverse is also true. Reversed spells of this nature affect good characters only if they are strongly good (piety is Devoted or higher)
For the purposes of the following, any offense that causes a loss of 4 or more piety points is a higher — in other words, if they are strongly evil. The reverse is also true. Reversed  spells of this  nature affect good characters only if they are strongly good (good-aligned followers or servants with a piety of Level II or higher). “major offense,” while any offense that causes losses of from one to three points are “minor” offenses.

Common Awards and Penalties All Followers and Servants


Following minimum standard of Behavior

A minimum standard of behavior (attending occasional services, giving spare change to church, not spitting on the Shrine, etc.).                                                                                                +0
Failure to Uphold Minimal standard of behavior, mocking the Immortal, etc. Includes behavior such as drinking on a day of abstinence.                                                                                               -1

Attending Major Religious Events

Major events such as Festivals, Mysteries or observance occur 3-6 times per Year (different for each Religion). Each one should occupy most or all of the days and involve some sort of expense (either as a Sacrifice, or a gift, or “I simply must buy a new Robe for Year Day!”) from 1 to 100 Gp.         +1
Neglect to attend a major event for any reason                                                                         -1

Tithes a percentage of all income

A tithe is a percentage of income donated to Clergy of the Faith; it may not otherwise benefit any of the character or his friends or relatives in any way. The percentage of income that a given Faith requires is entirely up to the Immortal or the Clergy. 10% to 50%                            +1
51% to 90%                                                                                            +2
90% or more                                                                                           +3
Failure to make the required tithe (or misusing Tithes)                                   -1

Constructs a small Shrine

Specific requirements must be determined by the Immortal, but may include building the structure alone and by hand, spending 100 gp or more, consecration of the site by a servant of the faith, or placing the shrine in a specific location (such as a bridge, road-crossing or t-split, or in a forest). Characters rarely gain Piety from constructing more than a small shrine per month.       +1

Harms a small Shrine of own Faith                -2

Constructs a Temple

This may be a church, a monastery, a school run by Monks, or even a Hospital. Temples must be well constructed (of average or better quality), and have a central meeting area, one or more altars, and smaller rooms sufficient for the Temple’s purposes. The characters are entirely responsible for either constructing, funding the Temple, or finding staff for it. Constructing a Temple is a major event and will lead often to different adventures. Note that Strongholds that higher-level characters build in order to attract followers do not count.                                                                                      +4
Harms a Temple of own Faith                                                      -10

Martyrdom

This is dying a conspicuously heroic Death at the hands of an enemy of the Faith while fighting for one’s own Faith. Characters well aware that a member of the party had Raise Dead memorized do not qualify for this award, those who expected someone with this spell near or willing to raise him at a later date, but not sure about it do qualify.                                                                                          +10
Betrayal of a Holy Cause to the enemy in order to save one’s own life            -10

Aiding Servant of own Faith

Assist a Servant in their duties or Quests, without Thought of reward.         +1

Harms Servant of own Faith

If Servant                          has 0 Pip                     -1 per Level/HD
If Servant is Killed            and had 0 Pip               -2 per Level/HD
If Servant is harmed          and had more Pip         -2 per Level/HD
If Servant is killed and had more Pip                     -4 per Level/HD

Harming or impeding a member of enemy Faith

An “enemy Faith” isn’t just a Faith that isn’t an ally…it’s a faith that is actively opposed to yours, and whose servants work to harm yours. Highly intolerant Faiths regard all other Faiths as “enemy” (the Immortal Vanya shows such tendencies, and Thanatos is almost to any Faith an enemy).               +1

Aids member of enemy Faith

Willingly and knowingly                                                                           -4
Willingly and knowingly if enemy member has 0 Pip                                -2
Unwilling but forced                                                                               -3
Unwilling but forced      if enemy member has 0 Pip                                 -1
Unknowingly                                                                                           -2
Unknowingly              if enemy member has 0 Pip                                       -1

Clerics, Healers, Paladins, Avengers, Shaman, Shamani, Druids, Dervishes, Knights of Religious orders, etc.

Carry out any of the above duties
All servants are expected to perform all eight duties above and receive the same amount of Piety as a follower would.                                 x 1
Committing any of the above offenses             x 2
Carrying out additional basic duties of servants
This includes ceremonies, giving advice and spiritual guidance, casting spells to aid followers, obeying all class restrictions, and so on. Again it is assumed that characters will do this unless the do otherwise.                                    +0
Neglecting basic duty
Each day or a fraction of a day. (this includes the usage of weapons not allowed, as with Clerics)                                          -2
In addition to common behaviors listed above, each Faith has unique awards and penalties. Many Immortals demand Good, Neutral, or Evil behavior from their followers and Servants. To know this look at the book of the Immortal. When there nothing special is given, use the standard Piety penalties and bonuses.


http://pandius.com/Immortals%20of%20Mystara.pdf

Prime Source;
Dragon Magazine 236 page 42 by Lachlan McQuarrie

Healers

Prime Requisite                     Wisdom
Experience Bonus         -20%       Wisdom  3-5
                                    -10%       Wisdom  6-7
                                    +5%        Wisdom 13-15      
                                    +10%       Wisdom 16+
Hit Dice                       1d6 per level up to 9tth level  +1hp / level / Constitution adjustment.
Starting with 10th level    +1 hp/level      Constitution bonus no longer applies
Armor                           None.
Weapons                      No edged or pointed weapons, all other permitted
Sometimes an Immortal will enforce a weapon, even if pointed (ex. Vanya with swords), but other restrictions will apply.
Special                 Clerical Spellcasting, Immortal granted ability, Turning Undead, special abilities.
Maximum Level:             36.

Healers, as the name implies, are designed to allow rapid repair of other characters. The Healer has therefore special abilities and special spells that allow them to do this. No Healer can ever chance his class on his or her own volition. The Healer has a special set of spells exclusive to his own class, but can Turn Undead as a normal Cleric. Even in saves and hit roll they are equal to normal clerics. In any not mentioned case use the cleric statistics instead.

Basic requirements

Minimum scores of 15 each in Intelligence, Wisdom and Dexterity. 
Healers can only be Lawful or Neutral. A Chaotic Healer is not possible, and when a Healer turns Chaotic due some magical effects he will turn out to become a mere fighter with no abilities remaining to either c
                    -One Knowledge Skill as:     Knowledge of Plants and Fungi
                                                                or Knowledge of Diseases and Afflictions
                                                                or Knowledge of Races
                    -Alchemy                                                               
                    -One Healing Skill as:        Healing
                                                             or Veterinary Healing General
                                                            or Veterinary Healing Specialized
                   -One Profession Skill as:     Chirurgy
                                                            or Apothecary
                                                           or Anatomy/Taxidermy
Later Skills may be chosen from this list, but also other skills may be chosen. But only these skills grant the Healer an extra bonus of 1 on the skill checks. All other skills are penalized by 1, except knowledge skills.


Disabilities:

Healers can’t wear any armor or shields, bracers, and as normal only one protection device.
The spells they are able to cast can never be used in a harmful way, so a “Cure” spell can’t be turned in to a “Cause” spell, etc..

Abilities;

Special abilities are conferred upon the Healer at several abilities as according the following table, any experience and Saves or hp are as per normal Cleric class.

Lay on Hands:

Cures 1d6+1 healing points, but he can close only minor wounds of up to 7 damage, any wounds with more damage will reopen with movement and the healing has failed completely (except when rested for at least 1 day per 1+ Constitution bonus hit point lost).
So the Lay on hands will cure several wounds completely as long as they do not exceed 7 points.
This ability doesn’t remove any other afflictions. So when a bear attacks a character with claws for 5, and 6 and bites for 8 damage, and hugs for 6, only one of the claw wounds can be closed, an attempt on the bite will stay closed it for as long as the patient doesn’t move or otherwise exerts himself.
The Hug damage will not be healed since this is crush damage and not a wound.
Thus it is also useless to do this on poisoned, sick, crushed, paralyzed creatures, since it cures only wounds.
The Healer can use this ability once per positive Wisdom adjustment point, even when he has no spells.

Detect Molds, Slimes

At 40’ distance the healer will be able to detect the presence of slimes or molds by smell and sight of the environment, but not the species.

Identify general type of potions
Identify the general type of magical effect of a potion by taste, smell, viscosity, touch and color. But it doesn’t reveal what specific kind of potion it is, only to what type it belongs.
The 5 Types are:
-Healing          (Any curing, Longevity):-
-Enhancers      (including Agility, Giant Strength, Fly, Heroism, Fire Resistance, Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, ESP, Fortitude, Levitation, Luck, Sight, Speech, Speed, Invulnerability, Strength, Swimming, Treasure Finding ),
-Alterations     (including Blending, Defense, Elasticity, Ethereality, Diminution, Merging,  Elemental or Gaseous form, Growth, Invisibility, Water Breathing.):-
-Controls       (including; Dragon-, Animal-, Human-, Undead-, Giant-Control, Dreamspeech):-
-Poisons         (includes bug repellant, poisons, and antidotes).

Detect Disease and infections

The healer can detect the presence of a disease in a patient, it’s direct living area, and (DM) the whole nearby affected environment on sight or smell, only.) But this doesn’t reveal what disease, a special healing skill check or spell and lots of Time are needed to recognize diseases or infections.

Use Rods and Wands

The healer can from now on use rods and wands usable only to Magic users with a 5% chance of success/level above 16 (-2 per failed check, cumulative per try.). Any failure will result in not being able to use the item at that moment.

Use 4 first level magic spells

The healer can now learn to cast magic spells in addition to prayed spells (spellbook needed!!, often the prayer book is used instead) on a successful Intelligence check and tutoring (by a Mage of at least level 9) in the spells to be memorized. These 4 spells can never be exchanged for any other spells, and all four must be learned at the same Time. This learning takes three times as long as a magic-user would need to, with only half the chance of success, at double the normal costs. This all due the difference in working with magical forces between the two classes.
                                               
Some spells will be made available to Healers at different levels of powers when they follow a specific Immortal.
These spells can only be extra spells if the description at the Immortal’s notes say so. Mostly a spell will be made unavailable to the Cleric for the spell to become available.   

The Healer Spell list

All Aquatic based Immortals or those with Clerics below water will chance the following spells:
Purify Food and Water        into         Purify Food and Clear Water                                              
Insect Plague                        into         Shrimp Plague                      
Aerial Servant                      into         Summon Undine
Earthquake                           into         Sea Fury

Reversed spells can only be cast by Evil or Chaotic casters, with only a few exceptions; Darkness, Free Person, Barrier, Snakes to Sticks, and when the Immortal (in the guise of the DM) allows it temporarily. Obliterate and Slay Living can however be memorized and cast at Undead creatures. 

The Colors and symbols used in the list have different meaning, as explained in the List Legend.
Uncommon, Rare and Very Rare spells are normally not found at the local Clergy, the percentages given are the chance that a single specific temple knows this version of the spell.
Elemental spells (Energy, Matter, Thought, Time,) and Alignment spells (Good, Evil, Chaotic, Nongood or Evil) can only be cast by those of the given immortal’s element and alignment, often the cleric has to have this alignment too, to be able to memorizeand cast the spell.
Aquatic and savage coast spells can only be found in these regions and are a rare to very rare or even completely unknown in any other areas.
Quest spells are rarely granted by the Immortal, and then only when requested (the cleric thus must have researched and found information about the spell) and the immortal justifies the usage of the spell in the specific conditions the cleric requires (sometimes, the immortal will give the cleric the spell requested, but specifically forbids the usage elsewhere or when).





Friday 22 March 2013

Respect given to where needed.
As said before I am more a compiler than creator. I collected various bits and pieces together, created by others. From my opinion these persons nead their respect for their part of my work.
So here I give specified links which all lead to the Site Pandius.com where fans have created the basic information about several important parts of Mystara which I used in the map I compiled (.http://breathofmystara.blogspot.nl/2013/03/the-last-months-i-noticed-that-no.html)

These Gazetteers give all information about various specific regions on the map.

The current existing "holes" on the map will be filled in here on; Breath of Mystara blog (http://breathofmystara.blogspot.nl/)

Wendar Gaz F1
Realm of Wendar, gazetteer 

Denagoth Gaz F2
Denizens of Denagoth, gazetteer

Northern wildlands Gaz F3
Northern Wildlands, gazetteer

Ghyr Gaz F4

Heldannic Knights Gaz F7
http://www.pandius.com/The_Heldannic_Knights.pdf

Landfall Gaz F8
http://www.pandius.com/landfall_gaz.pdf

Oceansend Gaz F9
Kaarjala Gaz F10
http://www.pandius.com/Kaarjala_gazf10.pdf

Search the main Vaults of Pandius site and you find more information
http://www.pandius.com

Thursday 21 March 2013

Hello there again.
Besides the map I have compiled here recently (I'm more a compiler  who fletches everything together like a well designed tapestry, filling the holeswith creations of my own design) I also have compiled a book (massive Tome) about the Mystaran Immortals.
It is hosted on the Pandius site (Pandius.com), for shortcut here the shortcut.
It takes a while to download, but its heavy illustrated and very comprehensive.PDF of 800+ pages

The Book is named the Immortals, and is the first of my work.

I hope anybody who reads it will enjoy it.


http://pandius.com/Immortals%20of%20Mystara.pdf


BTW other books will come soon.
These are the chapters of the most-heavily illustrated complete monster manual where all information of a specific creature is compiled together. 

Soon no more  searching for what does a Leveller eat, what is the wingspan of my dragon, how much weigh the bear I just killed, what good parts does a gelatinuous cube have if harvested, etc.

Soon the PDF will be ready and make accesible to all.
Be warned the book will be set in chapters online as it currently host a 3450 pages, and i'm still working on the last two chapters.

The First two chapters are fully finished, the wait is how to place them online, probably by Pandius.com again.

Other ideas are welcome.

Here a preview



Monday 18 March 2013

The last months I noticed that no complete detailed map existed of the Continent of Brun.
After several weeks of surfing I compiled a lot of information and existing maps.
I decided to fuse these together into a comprehensive map of the NE part of the continent..
Later I will try to clarify specific regions of this map.

Download it Here
http://6inchnails.deviantart.com/art/Tm-North-360178285?ga_submit_new=10%253A1363604362
On thev right on that Deviantart page  is a download button.
Hope you'll enjoy. it sofar.