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Donations and Intervention
By Sean K Reynolds
Many deities are worshiped casually by the people of Faerûn by making donations to a temple or shrine of that deity. If the character has recently (within the past tenday) donated to the church of a deity, and she is in a situation relevant to the portfolio of that deity, the deity may intervene in some small way to aid that character. When the circumstances are appropriate, the player should point out the situation to the DM, and if the DM agrees, an intervention check is made. (Dungeon Masters can also take this into account with NPC foes and allies if he or she wishes!) Essentially, a character calls upon divine aid as a free action and must do so BEFORE he or she takes an action and rolls the dice.
The chance of a minor intervention is based on a Charisma check (DC 12) and is modified by how many gold pieces the character has donated to that faith in the past tenday (see Table 1: Intervention Modifiers). If the check is a success, the character immediately benefits from a guidance, resistance, or virtue orison. If the check fails, the character receives no intervention and receives no other chances for intervention from that deity until another donation is made. A player may request intervention on behalf of another character, but it is up to the DM to determine if the circumstances around the other character are appropriate.
Table 1: Intervention Modifiers
*Donations of less than 2 gp simply do not receive an intervention check modifier.
For example, Nartak steps between an angry owlbear and his unconscious ally Phillipa, making sure the beast doesn't carry away his fallen friend for a meal. The owlbear is about to attack Nartak and possibly reduce him to 0 hit points. Nartak's player reminds the DM that Nartak donated 5 gp to the temple of Helm (deity of protectors) yesterday, and asks for an intervention check before he begins his next action, as he is acting as a protector for his fallen friend. The DM agrees that this is an appropriate circumstance for an intervention by Helm, rolls the modified Charisma check for Nartak's player, and gets a 14 (+3 bonus due to gp modifier plus +2 bonus due to Charisma modifier plus a roll of 9 on 1d20). This succeeds, so Helm intervenes by targeting Nartak with a virtue spell, granting him 1 hit point. Nartak attacks the owlbear, but doesn't succeed in bringing it down. Instead the owlbear attacks, and brings Nartak to 1 hit point. Without the intervention of the virtue spell, Nartak would have been at 0 hit points (disabled) when he next attacked the owlbear and would have dropped to -1 hit points for performing a strenuous action while disabled, putting them both at the mercy of the owlbear if he failed.
Should a set of characters donate money or items as a group, any one of the group members can call for an intervention at any time before he or she takes an action, and the DM can decide the target and the effect the deity uses should the circumstances warrant an intervention. Also, it is possible to gain assistance from other group members who have also donated to the same deity, but this cooperation does not garner any more than a +2 bonus on the check, no matter how much the character donated to the temple. (If the assisting character donated only 2-3 gp, the check receives only a +1 modifier, however.)
Optional Rules
If the DM desires, he or she can add in more levels of divine intervention. Tables 2 and 3 cover the higher ranges of modifiers and results. You can make all spells of those levels from a deity's domains available as well as the three spells mentioned above.
Table 2: Expanded Intervention Modifiers
*Donations of less than 2 gp simply do not receive an intervention check modifier.
Table 3: Expanded Intervention Results