Flapping Around On Bat-like Wings, The Medic's Misery Is A Foul Parasite That Lurks In Temples, Hospitals

Flapping around on bat-like wings, the medic's misery is a foul parasite that lurks in temples, hospitals and other places of healing. It feeds on magic energy, sapping the strength of clerics and druids as they go about the business of tending the sick.

Their huge, yellow eyes glisten whenever they spy an opportunity to inflict pain and suffering, which they do by projecting sickening rays of necrotic energy at whatever vulnerable targets present themselves. Medic's miseries avoid open conflict and tend to retreat when presented with vigorous opposition, relying on their flight and small size to escape into darkened hiding places.

Give.

These

Tables

Are

So

Freakin

GOOD!

Shoutout to Lady Tiefling for being kickass.

The hideous chimera that is a deep blue devil combines the worst features of fish and fiend, with a leathery tail, scaly wings, gills where its face should be and a single eye suspended from its head like an anglerfish's lure. Truly, it is hard to imagine a more repulsive creature.

They are deployed as amphibious shock troops whenever the armies of the Hells need to project force into aquatic regions, and spend the rest of their time tormenting sailors and innocent merfolk. Deep blue devils are cunning and creative, and love to come up with exciting new ways to inflict pain and misery.

All deep blue devils hope to one day earn promotion to the rank of ice devil, with true mastery of the elements of air and water. In the meantime though, they serve their superiors only grudginly, always on the lookout for any opportunity to offload their duties onto someone else.

Worldbuilding: Religions

Religions have many different aspects that should at least be given thought if not careful consideration. Use these to guide your creative process when developing new religions and deities.

Key Aspects

Deity/Pantheon: Your religion does not need to necessarily have a deity, and it can even have an entire pantheon. I would venture that while a trained priest might perhaps specialize in one deity, a religion can have many.

Dogma: What are the principles and teachings of your religion? What does the deity implore of their worshippers? What is and isn’t allowed? What are the ethics of the religion? Why must we follow these principles?

Symbols: As important as the religion’s dogma are its symbols. How is your religion recognized on flags, tabards, armor, weapons, artwork, and holy symbols? Does your religion have a holy color or color scheme that they could use for their priestly robes?

Temples: Where are the religion’s places of worship? They could be secluded and secret or in/near cities. What do they look like? Are they merely household shrines or grand cathedrals? Do they have any distinguishing features?

Religious Practices

Rites and Rituals: What sorts of special ceremonies do the clerics of your religion practice? Are there any special material components that have meaning for the religion, deity, and ceremony? How long do ceremonies take and what is supposed to come from them? Rituals always serve a purpose, even if that purpose is merely affirming your faith. Rituals are useful as story elements as well as for players to perform.

Affirming Faith: telling your god you’re there and in prayer. It can be as simple as a daily prayer or weekly ceremony or more in-depth like a monthly or yearly ritual.

Proving Devotion: proving your faith to your god, usually meant for those who might be in doubt or who have wavered.

Initiation: rituals for new members to the religion.

Induction: rituals for new clergy members or clergy moving up in hierarchy.

Satiation: your deity demands sacrifice of something valuable to you or to it.

Boon/Blessing: the ritual seeks something of your deity, perhaps a bountiful harvest or victory in battle.

Magic: a ritual might be held to cast certain spells or perhaps to increase the power or scope of a spell. These can also be used in creation of magic items.

Healing: rituals for performing healing magic.

Funerals: ceremonies for the dead.

Marriage: ceremonies for binding individuals together spiritually

Holy Days: Often rituals can coincide with special days or times of the year. Holy days can be predicted and often signify important seasonal or historic events. Harvest, springtime, solstice, and equinox holy days are common, as are those commemorating the deaths of martyrs or important dates in the religion’s history.

Myths/Legends: Are there any stories or parables that your religion teaches? What stories of the gods do they tell? Do they have any specific myths relating to things like the creation of the world, the creation of elements, the invention of everyday things, or perhaps the invention of morality?

Prayers/Sayings: To help you roleplay priests of this religion, you can come up with some common greetings, farewells, and blessings that might be associated with the religion. “Pelor shines upon you” and whatnot.

People

Titles/Hierarchy: What are the ranks of the clergy and do they have any special titles? Are there any notable NPCs in the religion’s hierarchy? For instance, those that worship Mammon, the archdevil of greed are often called Covetors.

Clergy: Do the clergy perform any services for the rest of the population? Usually this involves healing or holding ceremonies, but they could have a broader scope in a theocracy or a narrower scope if secluded or unpopular. What do the clergy look like and wear? Do they favor certain classes other than clerics?

Worshippers: What sort of people are drawn to the religion? Are there certain races, classes, or kingdoms that worship them? What convinces them to follow the religion’s dogma? Is it out of fear, necessity, protection, comfort, or prosperity?

Relations: Does this religion have allies or enemies? These could either be allied or rival churches, deities, or religions. Furthermore, certain kingdoms or people could ally with or oppose the religion. Think of how each faction and religion in your world sees this religion.

Culture

Art: How does your religion express itself? Define your religion’s art, architecture, fashion, and songs and how they compare to other religions and cultures.

Relics: What sorts of holy relics belong to your religion? These can be body parts or objects belonging to important martyrs or high priests or heroes that champion the religion. These might be kept in temples or may have been lost to time. Perhaps some are magic items being used by chosen (or unscrupulous) adventurers.

Death Marks (5e rule)

I’ve been trying for a while to come up with a rule that makes getting knocked out in 5e combat riskier without increasing the burden on healers (as instant death at -Con hp or injuries at 0 hp would). Here’s my idea:

Each time you recover from going to 0 hit points, mark off a death saving throw with a big X (a death mark). That saving throw is already marked as a failure the next time you drop to 0 hit points. Therefore, if you have three death marks, dropping to 0 hit points is automatic death. Remove one death mark each time you finish a long rest.

With this rule, you can go to 0 hp once every day with no consequences, but any more than that and your character is at increasing risk of death.

DMWisdom from this point on.

This is an awesome idea! I feel like this could also allow the games to involve more combat in one rest. The creators said you should be able to fit 6 encounters into a long rest, but that seems a bit much to me. (Yeah, I know it’s encounters, not necessarily fights.)

Questions for you:  - What happens upon “death”? Do you get xdy hit points back? Maybe one hit die, expending it?  - Can a healer get there and heal the felled character, thus allowing the player to not expend a death save? Perhaps if the healer gets there before the player’s next round?

Have at it with the constructive criticism, followers!