Re: Hero Wars Questions (Hero Cults & Devotees)

From: KYER, JEFFREY <jeff.kyer_at_...>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 09:43:04 -0400

"Hibbs, Philip" wrote:
>
> >Does being a true devotee of a hero
> >preclude being a devotee of a god or can a devotee
> >of a god also be a devotee of a hero?
>
> As I understand it, a "hero cult" is in many ways a sub-group that worship the
> god in the same way that the hero did. The hero benefits from this in that the
> worshippers are re-enacting the hero's actions as well as the god's actions, so
> both are reinforced. Therefore, I'd conclude that it is possible to be a
> devotee of a hero and a god. In fact, if you are a devotee of a hero, I'd say
> you pretty much have to be a devotee of the god - the hero certainly was, and
> you are emulating him, aren't you?
>

Yes, but you can basically take a much *smaller* part of the worship and focus on that. Remember, you can only learn one secret and be devoted to one god.

My own take is that an initiate can dedicate himself utterly to a subcult which appeals to him (a very rare thing) and would learn that cults secret -- usually Heroforming. I suppose a devotee could do it as well, but I'd only allow him one secret --- his cult or the subcult.

Otherwise, it could be very dangerous in that a player could take a devotee, learn the secret of his cult and, since his magic is already very powerful, find it a trivial exercise to learn the secrets of any subcults if they shared affinities with the main deity (just teaching a new Combat Affinity feat to an Orlanth Adv, for instance)

Secrets are very special and should not be handed out because someone's got the right stats. I find most gods are pretty jealous blokes and one "secret to a customer" would reflect this well.

Jeff Kyer

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