Hello everyone, and welcome to another 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: Void.
The Void domain is described as “You can call upon the cold darkness between the stars to gain flight, travel to other worlds, or summon monsters from beyond to do your bidding.” – This is a really clinical way to describe something that could be so much more. But from just this short description, we get an image of flying, of monsters, and of the vast darkness in space. Prime ground for some Cthulhu Mythos in your games. – Even if you look at the Pathfinder Golarion setting, practically every deity that has access to this domain is either crazy, evil or beyond human understanding (and usually all 3).
The powers granted are “Guarded Mind” – which simply gives you a +2 bonus against mind-affecting spells. While this is a simple bonus, it could easily be played up as being part of the insanity that most worshippers of this type experience. Being insane simply makes it more difficult for others to affect your mind.
The second power granted is “Part the Veil” – which allows you, as a swift action, to also cause a target to be confused for a number of rounds equal to the spell’s level. It only works on spells that allow a Will save, but the combinations that could be found could be quite interesting. Like casting a simple spell on a target, to convince the people around him that he is out of his mind. Especially if those around you know that the spell is NORMALLY benign. But since it allows a Will save (even if it’s normally harmless), that could easily work in your favor in certain situations. It’d also allow you to turn a normally harmless spell into a harmful one, should you need to in a tight situation.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Void domain are as follows:
Feather Fall
Reducing your fall speed to 60 feet per round and with a casting time of 1 immediate action, this spell is the thing for safe climbing, although if you’re REALLY far up, you may want to wait with casting it until you’re somewhat closer to the ground, such as falling off a mountain or a gigantic cliffside. This spell can be used to make the equivalent of an aerial assault, dropping down upon your enemy in near silence, from a direction they’re very unlikely to expect. It is good if combined with invisibility, as the invisibility spell already prevents them from seeing you closing in, so feather fall can do just fine on its own, due to the sheer unexpectedness of the assault.
Levitate
Levitate is the poor man’s fly spell, in that it only allows you to move straight up or down. Crucially however it is NOT the recipient who’s able to control the movement, but the caster. And that can cause trouble for the recipient, as they can’t control the movement on their turn, so it’s not a great spell for combat (especially with the cumulative penalties on to-hit rolls).
Fly
One of the most commonly used movement spells, fly gives you a fly speed of 60 and good maneuverability. More importantly though, is that it allows you to reach areas and creatures that you would not normally be able to engage, like the “Fly-By Dragon” for a barbarian character and so on. The spell is versatile enough, and the duration long enough, that you could even use it simply to make the Small characters in your party able to move faster, for a while at least, or the heavily laden fighter in his armor, to be able to keep up. Just be wary of flying around when there are people with dispel magic and antimagic field spells around. You might just come crashing down.
Planar Binding, Lesser
This spell requires a fair amount of preparation ahead of being cast. First you must prepare a magic circle (failure to do so is generally considered a “BAD IDEA”), secondly, you must have obtained the proper name (in some case this is referred to as the “true name”) of a specific individual and then you must cast the spell. (It’s also a good idea to use a spell like dimensional anchor to avoid it escaping through teleportation and planar travel).
It then summons the creature to your location, and you can attempt to compel it to perform a single service for you. Generally speaking, it helps if you bribe the creature. Once the service is completed it is instantly sent back. If it is an open-ended task, then the spell only lasts 1 day per level.
Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that the creature might seek out revenge on you later, depending on the task you assign it.
Overland Flight
This is basically fly writ large. The speed you travel at is a bit slower, but it lasts for a LOT longer. The big downside though is that it only affects the caster, unlike fly which you can cast on others.
Planar Binding
This functions the same way as planar binding, lesser except that you affect a more powerful creature with it.
Reverse Gravity
This does what it says on the tin, forcing people to fall upward if they’re not secured. This can cause really nasty falls if you stack the “cubes” of the area high enough. At the level where you gain access to it, you can stack 15 cubes on top of each, causing someone to hit an area up there for 15d6 points of damage. Remember though the duration can be dismissed, so you can cause them the same damage falling the other way, and to multiple creatures. (And since there’s no saving throw on the damage (though an Acrobatics check can less it), it makes for an excellent damage dealing spell).
Planar Binding, Greater
Just as with the other planar binding spells, except more powerful.
Interplanetary Teleport
The ultimate in transport spells. There’s no range limit so you can teleport to any planet that you know of (though not to other planes). Just as importantly, if you know where you’re going on the planet, it’ll send you there, without risk of going off target. If you don’t know the location on the planet, it’ll send you somewhere safe (or at least not immediately life-threatening). And if you’re trying to travel to someplace that you’d not be able to survive, such as the surface of the sun, it fails. And if you HAVE taken the proper precautions before going, it’ll work, so it even checks the viability of the target before sending you. That does make it a bit more difficult to send an enemy, but you can at least get well and truly rid of them this way.
New Deity
Yog-Sothoth
The Gate, The Key, and the Guardian
Alignment Key
Worshipers Time travelers, doomsayers, the insane, those wishing for knowledge or power
Cleric Alignments CN, NE, CE
Domains: Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Knowledge, Madness, Void
Sub-domains: Catastrophy, Dark Tapestry, Entropy, Insanity, Night, Thought
Favored Weapon: heavy mace (with a rounded head)
Symbol: 9 globes, tied to another with a single line, with each symbol unique to each group of worshipers
Yog-Sothoth, the Gate, the Key, and the Guardian is an unfathomable old entity, likely having existed before time itself. Unlike most beings, even of deity status, Yog-Sothoth exists in multiple realities, dimensions, planes and even times, all at once. It is said that Yog-Sothoth not only knows when the end of all things is coming, but has seen and experienced it, and is doing so even now.
Whether it even knows if its worshipers exist is unknown, as it gives spells and powers to both those that actively devote themselves to its unfathomable purpose, as well as those that pay mere lip service. All end up in the same state, however: Utterly and completely insane, unable to distinguish reality from fiction.
There is no rhyme or reason to the way its clergy is set up. The only constant is the high priest of each area where the cult has power, controls every single aspect of that cult, from the way services are performed, right down to what each individual worshiper must wear in order to please Yog-Sothoth. War is constant between the various cults, as the respective high priests have each received (or claims to have received) a vision for Yog-Sothoth’s plans, and that ONLY THEIR CULT is in the right. As such, they often spend far more time fighting each other than they do everyone else. But each cult is still a deadly threat, as they will, if left unchecked, inevitably overreach their own power and summon something that they cannot control.
Kim Frandsen
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