Hiraeth Experimental Rules - Divine Piety

This Experimental Rule has been deemed not congruent with world tone & ideas. Feedback from Friday group indicated little interest in this sort of system unless tied to a campaign or feat.

This document contains experimental rules for the world of Hiraeth. These systems are designed to offer a different play experience, tying a character's power more closely to the narrative and the specific challenges of the setting. These rules are considered playtest material.

The Nature of Piety

Your faith is a tangible connection to your patron deity, a reservoir of divine energy you can draw upon. This power is represented by Piety Points. Piety is not a static resource that simply replenishes after a rest; it is a fluctuating measure of your deity's active favor, earned through devotion and risked through desperate pleas.

Gaining and Using Piety

You have a pool of Piety Points that ebbs and flows based on your actions and your daily devotion.

Starting Piety. When you first gain access to this feature, you begin with a number of Piety Points equal to your proficiency bonus + your spellcasting ability modifier. (If you do not have a spellcasting ability for the class granting this feature, you may choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma to serve as this modifier).

During play, you gain Piety Points primarily through three methods: Ritual Prayer, Fervent Prayer, and Acts of Devotion.

Ritual Prayer

This is the common practice of daily devotion, a quiet and focused supplication performed outside the stress of combat. This ritual takes 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the ritual, you make a Wisdom (Religion) check.

Result: 9 or lower. Your mind is clouded, and you feel distant from your god. You gain no Piety.
Result: 10 to 14. Your prayers are heard. You regain 1d4 Piety Points.
Result: 15 or higher. Your devotion is rewarded. You gain 1d6+1d12 Piety Points.

Fervent Prayer

This is a desperate, in-the-moment plea for aid made amidst the chaos of battle or another perilous situation. As an action, you can open your soul to the divine. This is a risky act; the gods do not always answer as one would hope. When you use this action, you make a Wisdom (Religion) check, applying any relevant modifiers.

Result: 9 or lower. Your plea is met with a severe divine reaction. The DM determines a fitting consequence, which could include attracting the attention of a hostile celestial or fiend, suffering a short-term madness, or having a sacred symbol crack and become non-functional for 24 hours.
Result: 10 to 12. Your faith wavers, and you feel a drain on your spirit. You lose 2 Piety Points.
Result: 13 to 18. A flicker of divine favor touches you. You gain 1d4 - 1 Piety Points (to a minimum of 0).
Result: 19+. Your prayer is answered clearly. You gain 1d4 Piety Points.
Natural 20. You achieve a moment of perfect, powerful communion. You gain 1d4+1d12 Piety Points.

Auspicious Conditions. The gods are more receptive when prayers align with their domains. Worshipping a sun god at high noon, a moon deity under the full moon, or a god of the forge before a roaring hearth can amplify your connection. When performing a Ritual or Fervent Prayer in a place or at a time considered sacred to your deity, you may add a +2 bonus to your Wisdom (Religion) check.

Spiritual Exhaustion. Calling upon your deity repeatedly in a short time is spiritually taxing. For each time you have used a prayer action since completing your last long rest, you must subtract a cumulative -2 from your Wisdom (Religion) check. This penalty resets after you finish 1d4 long rests.

Acts of Devotion

Your deity rewards actions that tangibly advance their cause in the world. These are not simple prayers, but significant deeds undertaken in your god's name. The DM can award Piety Points when you complete such an act. The amount should reflect the act's significance.

Examples of Acts of Devotion include:

Consecrating a desecrated temple to your deity (3 Piety Points).
Converting a character of significant influence to your faith (5 Piety Points).
Destroying a powerful artifact sacred to an enemy of your faith (1d6+2 Piety Points).
Undertaking a great personal sacrifice that directly serves your deity's tenets (DM's discretion).

Acts of Faith

You can spend your accumulated Piety Points to create a wide variety of miraculous effects.

Invocations of the Divine Domain

Cost: 6 Piety Points, 1 Action

As an action, you can expend 6 Piety Points to manifest one of the Invocations granted by your Divine Domain.

Miracles of the Battlefield and Protections and Healing

Sacred Strike. Cost: 4 Piety Point, No Action Immediately after you hit a creature with a weapon attack or a spell that requires an attack roll, you can spend 2 Piety Point to infuse the strike with divine energy. The attack deals an additional 1d10 radiant damage. This damage increases to 2d10 if the target is an undead or a fiend.

Overwhelming Spell. Cost: 4 Piety Points, No Action When you cast a spell that forces one or more creatures to make a saving throw, you can spend 4 Piety Points to choose one target of the spell; that creature has disadvantage on its initial saving throw against the spell.

Weapon of Faith. Cost: 2 Piety Point, Bonus Action You touch one weapon you are holding and channel divine energy into it. For 1 minute, the weapon becomes magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Divine Guidance. Cost: 2 Piety Point, 1 Reaction. When you or an ally you can see within 30 feet makes a skill check, you can invoke your deity's name to offer a small nudge. You grant a +2 bonus to that roll. You can use this after the roll is made but before the outcome is determined.

Sacred Glow. Cost: 3 Piety Point, 1 Bonus Action. You cause your holy symbol or a weapon you hold to shed bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet for 1 hour. This light is magical.

Sense the Divine. Cost: 1 Piety Point, 1 Action. You briefly open your senses to the divine tapestry around you. You learn the direction and general distance (e.g., "very close," "in this building," "across the valley") of any place or object within 1 mile that has been consecrated or desecrated by a deity. This sense does not penetrate barriers that would block divination magic, like a thin sheet of lead.

Restorative Grace. Cost: 2 Piety Point per die, 1 Bonus Action As a bonus action, you can touch one willing creature and "As a bonus action, you can touch one willing creature and spend 2, 4, or 6 Piety Points. For each 2 points spent, the creature regains 1d4 hit points.

Aegis of Faith. Cost: 2 Piety Point, 1 Reaction When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to manifest a shimmering shield of divine energy. The target gains temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your spellcasting ability modifier, which are expended immediately to absorb the triggering damage.

Purifying Spirit. Cost: 2 Piety Points, 1 Action You touch one creature and channel cleansing energy. You can end one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, or poisoned.

Insightful Rest. Cost: 3 Piety Points. When you start a long rest, you can spend 3 Piety Points to beseech your deity for guidance. During rest, you receive a prophetic dream or a fleeting vision. You can ask the DM a single question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity to occur within the next 7 days. The DM will offer a truthful reply, though the reply might be a short phrase, a cryptic rhyme, or an omen - the future can also change depending on your actions.

Invocations of the Divine Domain

Each Divine Domain grants access to a specific, powerful Invocation. The plan is to add a few for each Domain in the future. These are just examples.

Creation. As an action, you can spend 6 Piety Points to cause a wall of solid stone to rise from a solid surface you can see within 60 feet. The wall can be up to 30 feet long, 10 feet high, and 1 foot thick. Each 10-foot section of the wall has an AC of 15 and 40 hit points.
Death. You channel the chilling touch of the grave. Choose up to two enemies you can see within 60 feet. They must each make a Constitution saving throw. A target takes necrotic damage equal to 3d8 + your proficiency bonus on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.
Fate. 6 Piety Points, 1 Action. You tug at the threads of destiny that bind a creature you can see within 60 feet. The next time that creature makes an attack roll or a saving throw before the end of your next turn, you can use your reaction to impose advantage or disadvantage on that roll. You can wait for the die to be rolled before deciding whether to use this reaction.
Knowledge. You open the minds of your allies to divine insight. Choose up to three allies you can see within 60 feet. For the next minute, when those allies make an attack roll, they can add your spellcasting ability modifier to the result. An ally loses this benefit after they hit with an attack.
Life. A wave of pure vitality washes out from you. You and up to five allies of your choice within 30 feet either regain hit points equal to 2d6 + your proficiency bonus or can immediately end one effect on them that is causing them to be grappled or restrained.
Love. You evoke a feeling of profound loyalty and affection. Each ally within 30 feet of you gains temporary hit points equal to 2d6 + your proficiency bonus, and they have advantage on their next saving throw made within the next minute.
Magic. As an action, you can spend 6 Piety Points to create a 15-foot-radius aura of magical suppression that lasts for 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if concentrating on a spell). Any enemy that starts its turn within the aura or enters it for the first time on a turn must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature cannot cast spells or use magical abilities until the start of its next turn.
Nature. You call upon the primal power of the wild. The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point you can see within 60 feet becomes difficult terrain for your enemies for 1 minute. Additionally, you can cause grasping vines to lash out at one creature within the area, forcing it to make a Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 20 feet in any direction and be restrained until the start of your next turn.
Protection. You create a sanctuary around an ally. Choose one ally you can see within 60 feet. Until the start of your next turn, that ally has resistance to all damage, and opportunity attacks against them are made with disadvantage.
Storm. You summon a localized squall. Each enemy in a 20-foot cube originating from a point you can see within 60 feet must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes lightning damage equal to 2d10 + your proficiency bonus on a failed save, and they are pushed 10 feet away from the center of the cube.
Sun. A mote of pure sunlight appears and strikes one enemy you can see within 60 feet. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 3d10 fire damage and is blinded until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half damage and is not blinded.
Trickery. You bend reality around a creature you can see within 60 feet. You can teleport that creature to an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet of its current location. If you choose a willing ally, this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks and they have advantage on the next attack roll they make before the end of their turn.
War. 6 Piety Points, 1 Bonus Action. Your deity's favor guides your strikes. For the next minute, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. This effect requires your concentration (as if concentrating on a spell). Additionally, while this effect is active, the first time you hit with a weapon attack on each of your turns, you deal extra damage of your weapon's type equal to your proficiency bonus.