Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice. (Part II)

Last post I covered a recommendations on how to convert treasure to experience points as part of training as opposed to a flat exp bonus simply for treasures fetched from an adventure.  This post covers sacrifice.

Trials and Tribulations of Sacrifice

Sacrifice is meant to show devotion and dedication to a god/faith but let’s be honest here it’s also a business arrangement between people and the divine and the agencies that represent the divine.

Some scarifies may be a simple as walking into a temple, or finding a donation altar and plopping down the coin and splitting. but most are sacrifices are likely to be a bit more demanding in requirements and timing. There are only so many occasions one can slay a bull to consecrate the ground for the spring planting for example and a DM should make those occasions clear to players.

At it’s core sacrifice has the same wealth to exp ratio as does training. Training and sacrifice do not typically interfere with each other as only lengthy rituals, purifications, and such would interfere with ability to train and likewise the reverse. Typically a character will still be able to make donations once a week.

How rewarding those donations are and complications that may ensue will have a lot to do with a character’s relation to the faith, the local priesthood, and the god(s) themselves.

results will follow the Experience point Reward table as outlined in the last post.
Experience Point Reward Table

2d6+mods	Result
3 or less	Unsuccessful*
4 to 6	Limited Success
7 to 10	Typical Success
11 to 12	Unexpected Success
13 or more	Amazing  Success**

 * a roll of two “1’s” on the 2d6 roll will always be unsuccessful regardless of modifiers applied.

An unsuccessful sacrifice is just that unsuccessful. There is no gain in exp for the sacrifice offered. Even worse if tow “1’s” are rolled a followup roll on the Faithful Rejection table is required.

Limited Success: the character will gain 50 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Typical Success: the character will gain 100 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Unexpected Success the character will gain 125 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Amazing Success: the character will gain 150 exp for every 100 coin of good sacrificed and is required to roll on the Divine Favor table.


Modifiers to experience rewards for sacrifices.

-2 If of a Lawful faith and trying to sacrifice goods in excess of level x 100 in a single week.

-2 If of an Evil faith and no flesh or blood of a recently living creature is involved in the sacrifice.

-3 if Good and a recent opportunity (The last game month) to grant mercy was forsaken.

-2 if Lawful and violated a contract in the past year.

-2 if violated the buried remains of any of matching alignment in the past year.

-2 if desecrated a holy place of a non-opposed faith in the past year.

-2 if lawful and sacrificing an unwilling victim.

+1 if there is a living sacrifice involved. (take heed of other modifiers here)

+1 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing an intelligent victim at the time of the sacrifice.
+2 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 2-11  intelligent victims at the time of the sacrifice.
+3 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 12+ intelligent victims at the time of a sacrifice
+1 additional if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 100+ intelligent victims at the time of a sacrifice.-1 for each week tithe has been lacking. (Tithe does not count towards sacrifice).

1d100 roll	Faithful Rejection
1 or less	Marked by god(s), excommunicated and Cursed. All of the faith will recognized the mark an either be reviled or act aggressively upon meeting.
2-5	Excommunicated and cursed, no repentance identified
6-9	Excommunicated and cursed, repentance identified.
10-16	Excommunicated (barred from faith, no healing spells or magics from clerics of the faith shall benefit character, similar alignment likely to fail 33% of the time)
15-20	Cursed with no repentance granted.
21-30	Cursed with repentance identified.
31-40	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to 7 holy sites each 1-12 weeks apart. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 50% chance to fail.
41-50	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to3 holy sites each 1-6 weeks apart. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 33% chance to fail.
51-60	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to holy site 1-8 weeks away. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 20% chance to fail.
61-70	Sacrifices shall be denied for a year unless repentance is made. Tithe is doubled during this period.
71-80	Sacrifices shall be denied for a month unless repentance is made. Tithe is doubled during this period.
81-90	Sacrifices shall be denied for a year Tithe is doubled during this period.
91-99	Sacrifices shall be denied for a moth. Tithe is doubled during this period.
100 or more	Sacrifice found to be unworthy. -1 to other sacrifices made at the same site. Penalty removed after sacrifice of double value or better is made.

modifier to faithful rejection table:
+level If a cleric of the faith
-5 if character Alignment doesn’t match faith completely.
-5 if character has missed seasonal devotions for past 2 seasons.
-5 if Charisma 6 or less
+5 is Charisma 15 or more.
+1d20 if character built or contributed 20% or more to construction of Shrine or Temple in past.

1d100 roll	Divine Favor
20 or less	Character gains a +1 reaction bonus from  members of the faith and sacrifice bonus for the next month.
21-40	Character gains a +1 reaction bonus from  members of the faith and sacrifice bonus for the next 12 weeks.
41-45	Character gains +1 to saving throws for the next week.
46-50	Character gains +1 to saving throws for the next month.
51-55	Character may cast a single 1st level spell sometime in the next week.
56-60	Character may cast a single 1st level spell sometime in the next month.
61-65	Character may cast a1st level spell once per week for a month.
66-70	Character may cast a1st level spell once day over the next month.
71-80	Character is Blessed for next week
81-90	Character is Blessed for next month.
91-95	Character is Blessed for next month and is accompanied by a holy disciple for that time.
96-99	Character is Blessed for next month and permanently gain a holt disciple as a henchman,
100+	Character is Blessed for next month and during that month is accompanied by a divine servitor. (Saint, Angel, Minion, Demon, depending on faith)

modifiers to Divine Favor table:
+level If a cleric of the faith
-3 per level if not a devoted member of faith.
-5 if character has missed seasonal devotions for past 2 seasons.
-5 if Charisma 6 or less
+5 is Charisma 15 or more.
+1d20 if character built or contributed 20% or more to construction of Shrine or Temple in past.

Blessed characters are treated as if under the influence of a Bless spell of the duration noted above. If there is no bless spell in your game the character is +2 to saves and granted a +1 to hit vs members of opposing alignment and is able to strike opponents of the faith that normally require magic to harm even if lacking an appropriate magical weapon.


Religious requirements are open to interpretation and demands of the faith and aren't going to be identical from faith to faith or campaign to campaign. Just adding the sacrifice roll and the Divine Favor and Faithful Rejection tables to a campaign is going to impact how religion and the PCs in a campaign interact.