Competition

This is the god of competition, especially of athletic competition. This god stresses fairness, impartiality, and truth in his followers. He is also a proponent of health, exercise, and physical self-improvement.

His priests follow the same goals, and support these goals by conducting regular athletic exercises and games, and by acting as impartial judges for those games.

Gods of lesser parts of the Competition attribute might be gods of specific events; for example, to be the god of Boxing or Wrestling might be a very honorable thing. It would be far less dramatic to be the god of the Broad Jump or the god of Synchronized Swimming, however.

Gods of competition are usually male.

The priests of this god are on good terms with the priests of the Divinity of Mankind, Fortune/Luck, Justice/Revenge, Peace, and Strength.

Alignment: The deity is lawful good; so must be his priests. The flock, who tend to turn to the god only in times or events of competition, may be of any alignment.

Minimum Ability Scores: Wisdom 12, Intelligence 10. Wisdom or Intelligence 16 means +5% experience; Wisdom and Intelligence 16 means +10% experience.

Races Allowed: Dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, humans.

Nonweapon and Weapon Proficiencies: Nonweapon Proficiencies Required: Endurance. Nonweapon Proficiencies Recommended: Reading/Writing, Religion, Gaming. Weapon Proficiencies Required: None. Nonweapon Proficiency Group Crossovers: Priest, General, Warrior.

Duties of the Priest: Guidance, Marriage. Judgement: Priests of this god are asked to be judges at all athletic events, to help ensure fairness in the sport. (A given event won't necessarily have only priests of this god as judges, but the later rounds of events, and especially the finals, will be judged only by these priests.) Vigilance: Against unfairness. Priests of this god loathe unfairness and dishonesty above all other human traits. This isn't just unfairness in the sports arena: They also oppose unjust rule. Additionally, when two forces of basically equal honor and righteousness clash, these priests, if they choose to become involved, tend to support the weaker side, the underdog.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Weapons Permitted: Bows (all), crossbow, dagger/dirk, hand/throwing axe, javelin, knife, lance, spear, sword (DM chooses one sword type from following list; choice should be the type of sword most commonly used in organized competitions in the campaign culture: Bastard, cutlass, khopesh, long, rapier, sabre, short, two-handed). Armor Permitted: All non-magical armor and non-magical shields. Oriental Campaigns: Also daikyu; katana would automatically be the sword choice. All together, these constitute Good combat abilities.

Other Limitations: A priest of the god of competition may use magical items in normal combat and warfare but he may not use them in competition matches, and he may not use them in challenge matches with enemies unless he declares their presence to the enemy in question. If he violates this rule, he offends his god; this is an "inappropriate weapon and armor use" from the "Priests and Punishment" section of the "Role-Playing" chapter, later in this book.

Spheres of Influence: Major Access to All, Divination, Elemental. Minor Access to Combat, Healing.

Powers: Analysis, Detection, Identification (as per the Designing Faiths chapter) of cheating in athletic competition and challenge fights. If the competition is set up with rules in advance, the priest of this sect, if he is watching the fight or competition from within 60', will always be able to detect when the rules are broken, and be able to tell whether it was deliberate or accidental; they are also 100% accurate when telling whether someone stepped out of a boundary, telling who reached the finish line first, etc. (This power is the principal reason that these priests are always asked to judge events.) Bless: The priest can cast this spell three times per day in addition to all other spells he can cast. At eighth level, he can cast it six times per day in addition to all other spells he can cast.

Followers and Strongholds: The followers are received at 8th level, and consist of one fifth-level priest, three third-level priests, and sixteen first-level priests, of the same order. The priest may take the following on adventures: Three priests of his choice. The priesthood will pay for half of the cost of stronghold construction at 8th level. The stronghold must include athletic fields, and youthful athletes from the local communities must be admitted regularly so that they might use those fields.

Possible Symbols: Laurel wreath.

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