4E Intro to Mystara - Immortals
by atzanteotl/katana_oneI played OD&D Mystara for years, completely ignoring AD&D 1st and 2nd. When 3.x came out, I made the switch and started a Wrath of the Immortals campaign which ended, sadly, when some drastic changes occurred in my personal life.
I've since moved on to running a generic 4e campaign for a new group. But lately my desire to resurrect Mystara has led me to begin making notes on adapting Mystara to 4e.
My guiding philosophy in this endeavour is to keep things simple and not over-think or over-design, yet still try to capture the feel of Mystara. I plan on using the 4e PHB as my design guideline.
To that end, one of the first tasks I feel need to be completed is to replace all of the 4e gods presented in the PHB with Mystaran Immortals. As my group will be completely new to Mystara, I don't want to overwhelm them with the sheer number of possibilities out there. Over time I plan on expanding the list, but for now, I only need 11 Immortal candidates to replace the PHB's 11 gods.
Mechanics-wise, the change is only cosmetic, as I plan on using the same Channel Divinity cleric feats with new names (this is, after all, less work for me, and it keeps the same PHB options on the table). However, I wanted to make sure I had a nice, rich sampling of Mystara's pantheon to choose from in order to get the right flavour. In some cases, the changes were pretty straightforward, in others, not so much. In the end, here is what I came up with:
Avandra = Korotiku
Avandra is the god of change and luck in 4e, and Korotiku seemed a natural choice due to a similar outlook and he definitely fulfils the requirement of adding Mystaran colour to the pantheon.
Bahamut = Halav
Okay, not really. I had considered either the Great One or the Star Dragon, but the dragon Immortals are really only interested in dragon-kind and not likely to take a keen interest in most PC clerics, except perhaps dragonborn. Halav fits the description of the honourable warrior the best, in my opinion.
Corellon = Ilsundal
This was an obvious choice, really.
Erathis = Petra
The god of civilisation meets the Immortal patron of besieged cities.
Ioun = Alphatia
This seems a good fit, although I may have to tinker with Alphatia's outlook, since in WotI she is presented as a pacifist. She also has the drawback of being a slightly obscure foreign Immortal if I am running a Known World campaign.
Kord = Thor
This one was immediate and obvious, and is one of the things that originally suggested this endeavour. Kord's description on page 22 of the PHB fits Thor perfectly.
Melora = Ordana
Goddess of nature, Immortal of the forest. Melora's portfolio may be more inclusive than Ordana's, but this works well enough. As an aside, if I decide to run a campaign set in Karameikos, I will use Zirchev instead.
Moradin = Kagyar
Again, an obvious choice.
Pelor = Ixion
A no brainer (although Ixion is much more of a hot-head than Pelor - pun intended).
The Raven Queen = Thanatos
Okay, this one gives me a lot of pause. The 4e model I'm working with restricts PCs to worship of non-evil deities, which is a good model in my opinion (exceptions for players who have good, solid character concepts). But all of the suitable Immortal candidates here are implicitly described as evil. I also tried to come up with a non-evil Immortal with whom the Raven Queen's Channel Divinity power would be compatible with no luck so far.
Sehanine = Valerius
The similarities are sketchy at best, but really, who else in the Mystaran pantheon would be a better candidate for the role of the god of love?
Looking for feedback, suggestions and other thoughts.