Piety

Standard Piety

Choosing alliance with a plane often grants you communication with one of the plane's more powerful inhabitants, either directly or indirectly. If you are devoted to acting in this being’s best interest, they may be willing and able to grant you powerful rewards. The strength of your devotion is measured by your piety score. As you increase that score, you gain blessings from this entity, your patron.

Piety has nothing to do with faith or belief, except insofar as a person’s thoughts and ideals drive them to action in a patron’s service. Your piety score reflects the actions you have taken in your patron’s service. The relationship your character has with their patron does not need to be devotion or service necessarily: this partnership can be a bargain or a deal, or a simple agreement, or a begrudging compromise; consider why your character and patron interact with each other when designing your character and your piety rewards.

When you choose a patron to serve, your piety score related to that patron is 1. Your piety score increases by 1 when you do something to advance the patron’s interests or behave in accordance with the patron’s ideals. Your piety score typically increases only when you accomplish a significant goal (such as the completion of an adventure), make a significant sacrifice of your own self-interest, or otherwise when I sees fit. Consider your patron’s goals and ideals when creating your character, which I use to judge whether you earn an increase in your piety score. As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your patron’s requests, and will have to put in active effort to gain additional piety. I decides the amount of any increase or decrease, but a single deed typically changes your piety score by only 1 point in either direction unless your action is very significant. As of right now, piety can NOT be gained out of session and can only be increased at the table proper. I may change this if everyone feels they have no time to accomplish their individual piety goals with the group.

Alternate Piety

Alternatively, you may be powerful enough to give such power to other beings yourself. You may be an aahura sent down to Rubicon to oversee war efforts, a powerful archfey defending their home turf, or a dragon in disguise banished to Rubicon, just as a few examples. Keep in mind, anything this powerful will require individual discussion, me allowing you to do it, and I won’t give you all the tools these beings might have by default.

The devotion of others alone is power, and this devotion to you increases your own piety score. Note: you can either gain piety from devotion to another being OR through others’ devotion to you (only if you are powerful enough to grant piety rewards yourself), NOT both.

If you choose this path, your self piety begins at 1. Your piety score increases by 1 when you would cause another creature to act in your interest or behave in accordance to your ideals. Your piety score typically increases only when you guide others to accomplish a significant goal (such as the completion of an adventure), inspire others to make a significant sacrifice of your own self-interest, or otherwise when I sees fit. Gaining a follower (more than someone just saying “oh yeah you’re cool”) will also increase your self piety. This will be more fickle than standard piety, as you can less consistently cause others to devote work to you, and will not be able to be gained passively (as in, you can’t sit around and just say “well my minions love me so I should gain piety today”. You still have to do work). I decide the amount of any increase or decrease, but a single deed typically changes your piety score by only 1 point in either direction unless your action is very significant. As of right now, piety can NOT be gained out of session and can only be increased at the table proper. I may change this if everyone feels they have no time to accomplish their individual piety goals with the group.

Benefits of Piety

When your piety score crosses certain thresholds—3, 9, 12, and 20—you gain a piety reward. This replaces usual Special leveling, and will likely be inconsistent between players as you work for your own separate goals and ideals. If your piety score exceeds and then falls below one of those thresholds, you lose the benefit you gained at the higher tier.

Inspiration and Piety

To some extent, piety is its own reward. Behaving in accordance with your patron’s goals and ideals inspires you and might enable you to succeed where you might otherwise fail. At my discretion, whenever you increase your piety score, you might also gain inspiration, reflecting the improvement in the harmony between you and your patron (or you and your followers).

Impiety

Not every hero chooses to follow a higher being, or amass followers in their name. If you don’t devote yourself to a patron’s ideals or grant power from your own ideals, you don’t have a piety score and you gain no rewards for piety, but you don’t suffer any negative consequences that would arise from such alliances and attention.

If you choose this, you will gain a Special as usual and it will have the standard leveling scheme of gaining a feature at level 1, 6, and 12.

Changing Alliances

If events in your character’s adventuring career warrant doing so, you can abandon the service of one patron and turn to a different one. Once you abandon a patron’s service, you can rarely go back without performing some act of contrition.

I will decide whether your new patron will accept your service and what you might have to do to prove your commitment.

When you change patrons, you lose all the benefits granted by your old one, including rewards for piety and any other blessings. You no longer have a piety score to your old patron, and your piety score to your new patron starts at the lowest piety level in the party. This is to allow for lore-accurate switches without terrible setbacks.

Instead, you might gain the opportunity to become a patron yourself and gain self-piety. This has the same result; you lose all the benefits granted by your old patron, including rewards for piety and any other blessings. You no longer have a piety score to your old patron, and your new self-piety score starts at the lowest piety level in the party. This is to allow for lore-accurate switches without terrible setbacks.

Example Piety

Here's an example of how you should write or consider your piety features.

Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon

The most powerful metallic Demon Lord and a pillar of nobility and justice, champions of Bahamut must uphold those same ideals and honor their commitments.
Earning and Losing Piety
You increase your piety score to Bahamut when you expand the Demon Lord’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:

• Enact justice with minimal hesitation.
• Help the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless.
• Take constant but subtle actions on behalf of good.
• Spread Bahamut's will to others.

Your piety score to Bahamut decreases if you diminish Bahamut’s influence in the world, commit acts of injustice or cruelty, or work against Bahamut's will in ways such as these:

• Allow injustice to prevail or persist.
• Harm or abuse the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless.
• Take actions on behalf of evil.
• Furthering the aims of another patron in defiance of Bahamut’s will.

Bahamut's Devotee (3+ Piety)
You've initiated your quest to uphold justice, and the platinum dragon smiles upon you. You can cast shield of faith a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of once) per long rest without spending any material components.
Bahamut's Votary (9+ Piety)
You've protected the innocent and upheld the ideals of Bahamut greatly. You can now cast banishment once per long rest without spending any material components. Your wisdom modifier is your spellcasting modifier when using this feature.
Bahamut's Disciple (12+ Piety)
Bahamut sees you as worthy and he imbues you with some of his own draconic power. You can now cast dragon's breath at 6th level, once per long rest without spending any material components. Your wisdom modifier is your spellcasting modifier when using this feature.
Platinum Champion (20+ Piety)
You've proven yourself beyond a doubt to be a great hero, Bahamut bestows a divine boon to you. Increase either your wisdom or your constitution ability score by 2, and also increase your maximum for the ability score you chose by the same amount.

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