Hello everyone, and welcome to the third in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of: Chaos
The Chaos domain is described as “Your touch infuses life and weapons with chaos, and you revel in all things anarchic.” – so supposedly we have some form of chaotic force of nature, personified in this person, an anarchist and a rebel.
The powers given are Touch of Chaos – those who play Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition will know this as a disadvantage, in that for the next round whenever the target rolls a d20, he has to roll 2, and take the lowest result.
The second power is Chaos Blades, which enables you to give a weapon the anarchic special weapon quality, enabling it to bypass damage reduction and causing 2d6 points of damage extra to lawful creatures. Even the “wielding effect” can be used aggressively—put it on the opponent’s weapon and VOILA, he’s just gained a permanent negative level while wielding the weapon, a good way to take a particularly nasty opponent’s weapon out of the combat.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Chaos domain are as follows:
Protection from Law
A good protective spell against lawful creatures needing to get to grips with you, but the real strength of this spell comes from the protection against mental control. That part of the spell applies regardless of the alignment involved, so it is possible for you to gain a second saving throw, suppressing the effect of the mental control for the duration of the spell, which could potentially be a life-saver in situations where you or your allies get confused, dominated or otherwise controlled. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be in effect when the control takes place, so you can cast it as a reaction to your opponent’s actions or preemptively if you know what you’re facing.
Align Weapon
In effect, a poor man’s version of the Chaos Blades described above, this enables a weapon to bypass damage reduction for some creatures, but once you get access to Chaos Blades you don’t really need it. However, an important note on this is that it DOES affect siege engines and ammunition, so you could potentially have some nasty siege equipment if you ever face creatures large enough to engage with siege equipment.
Magic Circle against Law
Same strengths and weakness as Protection From Law, except now, of course, you have a radius for the spell.
Chaos Hammer
A small, but powerful attack spell in the right circumstances, Chaos Hammer is in many ways a Fireball spell that slows your opponent if they are lawful or neutral aligned. Chaotic characters aren’t affected, so you could drop this on top of a melee combat, knowing that your chaotic friends (assuming they’re chaotic) would be safe from damage.
Dispel Law
This provides you with a number of bonuses, a +4 deflection modifier to AC against lawful creatures, and if you successfully make a touch attack on a lawful outsider (or creature from another plane), you can potentially drive that creature back to its home plane. And finally, you can automatically dispel an enchantment cast by a lawful creature or any lawful spell, though this ends Dispel Law.
Animate Objects
I don’t know if I’m the only one, but whenever I read this spell, I can’t help but think of Disney’s Fantasia, and the scenes in there. It allows you to animate non-magical objects (like furniture and so on) and have these serve you. (Depending on the size of them, you might have multiple objects serving you, the rules for which can be found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary). At the time where you get this, you can animate up to 11 Small objects, the equivalent of 5 Medium (+1 Small), 2 Large objects (+3 Small) or 1 Huge and 3 Small ones. As they increase in size, they also increase in Challenge Rating, with 1 Huge being a CR 7. So when you first get it, at level 11, you could animate 1 CR 7 creature, plus 3 CR 2 creatures, for an effective Encounter level of 8, on top of your own (with your own being at 10 (level 11 minus 1), the total encounter level would be 11 – considering you’re still all alone at that point (i.e. not including a party), you’re doing pretty well).
Word of Chaos
Non-chaotic creatures hearing a Word of Chaos can suffer a number of effects, depending on their level compared to yours, plus you might banish non-chaotic outsiders from your plane. That said, this is likely a spell that only the villains will use often, as PCs generally do not encounter many creatures of a level lower than their own.
Cloak of Chaos
Cloak of Chaos is an excellent defensive spell in that it protects you as an upgraded Protection From Law. You gain the same bonuses, but against all creatures; plus you gain a spell resistance against lawful spells and creatures, and finally lawful creatures attacking you might get confused from hitting you in melee. And at the time when you get the spell, you’ll be level 15, so you can give this benefit to up to 15 creatures for 15 rounds. Definitely a spell worth bringing along.
Summon Monster IX
The various summon monster spells are generally great to have, and in this case, you can summon only chaotic creatures, though if you’re only applying the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, you’ll have access to the Ghaele Azata, the Glabrezu Demon, and the Nalfeshnee Demon. It might well be worth it to talk to your Game Master and check if there are other monsters of CR 13-14 that he’ll allow you to summon with this spell (like an Adult Red Dragon for example).
New Deity
Note: Normally, for this section, I take an example from Earth Mythology and set it up so that it’s possible for characters to become associated with that particular deity. For this installment, however, I felt the need to revisit an old nemesis in the D&D mythology, dating all the way back to the 2nd Edition Dungeon Masters’ Guide, under the Rod of Seven Parts. As Paizo and therefore Pathfinder, in general, cannot use the IP parts of the OGL, this version presents the Queen of Chaos as one that you can introduce in your game within the Pathfinder continuity, so here, for example, she will seek out the Sihedron, instead of the Rod of Seven Parts, and will be the enemy of the Runelords, rather than the Wind Dukes of Aaqa.
Please welcome the:
Queen of Chaos
Demon Mother, Fallen One, Queen of the Qlippoths
Alignment CE
Worshipers power-hungry kings and queens, conquerors, the insane, those seeking lost items, and historians
Cleric Alignments NE, N, CE, CN
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Madness, War
Sub-domains: Blood, Demon, Entropy, Hatred, Insanity,
Favored Weapon: Spear
Symbol: a tentacle holding a star consisting of seven different colored pieces
The Queen of Chaos is one of, if not the most, ancient of the Qlippoth Lords, and is one of the main rivals of Lamashtu, laying claim to the title of Demon Mother, and is by many, believed to be the actual mother of Lamashtu, the strongest of her children. The Queen only rarely interacts with mortals, having suffered a defeat in a long-ago struggle with the Runelords over their possession of the Sihedron. She claims to have inspired the ancient Xin, to create the star, intending to take it from him when it was completed. However, she had not counted upon the strength of the seven Runelords serving under him, and after a great battle, she was defeated and banished back to a lair within the abyss, known as the Steaming Fen. With the re-forging of the Sihedron (in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path), she sensed that her time is now at hand, and she has re-emerged from her lair, seeking the Sihedron once more, and her rightful place as the Ruler of the Multiverse.
Worship of the Queen of Chaos must never be done at the same time of day twice in a row, and her worshipers are therefore often up at odd times of the day. Equally, she has no set holidays, with each temple deciding on a holiday after some arcane calendar in each temple (read: At the High Priest’s complete whim). Each day must see the shedding of blood, and failure to do so brings the displeasure of the Queen, though she cares not how much blood or from whom the blood comes, as long as it is shed each day.
Next week, we take a look at the Charm domain. Let us know in the comments if you have anything you wish to add or see addressed. 🙂
Kim Frandsen
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