• Name: Helm
• Allegiance: Unaligned
• Portfolio: Soldiers, Body Guards, Protection, Watchfulness, Duty, Obedience
• Titles: He of the Unsleeping Eyes, The Vigilant One, The Watcher, The Sentinel, The Great Guard, The Stern, The Uncomplaining, The Uncompromising, The Merciless, The Executioner, Lord of the Bronze Mask, He Who Blocks the Stairs
• Symbols: An open staring eye; A bronze mask with flaming eyes; An iron band
• Worshipper Alignments: LN, LE, TN
• Core Doctrine: “I was following orders.”
  • Edicts:
    • Never betray your trust.
    • Stand, wait, and watch carefully.
    • Careful planning always defeats rushed action.
    • Protect that which is in your charge with your life.
  • Anathema:
    • Disobeying any order from a superior.
    • Questioning any order from a superior.
    • Violating the chain of command.
    • Leaving one’s post for any amount of time for any reason.
    • Being deprived of ones sight or other senses.
• Allied Faiths: Cyric, Hoar, Kelemvor
• Enemy Faiths: Mask, Mystra, Talos, strained relations with most others…
• Pseudonyms: Gorm Gulthyn (among Dwarves), Gaerdal Ironhand (among Gnomes)

Base Requirements

• Races: Human
• Classes: Cleric
• Ability Requirements: Stamina 14
• Alignments: Lawful Neutral
• Starting Cash: By class

Proficiencies

• Weapon Slots: By class
• Allowed Weapons: Any Weapons
• Allowed Armor: Any Armor, no shields
• Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
• Required Weapon Proficiencies: none

• Non-weapon Slots: By class
• Available Groups: Spiritual, Detection, and Martial
• Bonus Proficiencies: Blind-Fighting, Land-based Riding, Religion, Runecraft
• Required Proficiencies: none
• Recommended Proficiencies: Armor Optimization, Avalanche Style, Awareness, Danger Sense, Defensive Tactics, Detect Illusions, Detect Noise, Law, Tracking, Zeal
• Forbidden Proficiencies: none

Priest Spheres:

• Major: All, Combat, Guardian, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Thought, Wards
• Minor: Charm, Travelers

Overview: Helm, He of the Unsleeping Eyes, is the god of guardians and protection. The ecclesiastics of Helm’s faith act as bodyguards, sentinels, or any other role that actively involves defense, protection, and warding. Despite the damage to Helm’s reputation done during the Avatar Crisis, many folks in authority seek out clerics of Helm for those difficult defense-related tasks. These clerics are responsible for much of the income flowing into the coffers of this relatively unpopular (in the North, anyway) church¹.

As in the Time of Troubles, during the Day of Black Sun, Helm remained at his post, ignoring the pleas of the other gods for aid. While this won him no friends (save Cyric who appreciated his inaction), it strengthened his position in the eyes of his worshipers as a dutiful and impartial guardian.

Description: Clerics of Helm cut an imposing figure in their plate armor, open-faced helm with a sky blue plume, and a two-handed weapon such as a polearm, battleaxe, or two-handed sword. Over their armor, the priests of Helm often don a golden-colored tabard with Helm’s eye emblazoned on the chest. These clerics give the impression of being immovable objects, planted in locations by their duty and staying there until their job is done.

Role-Playing: A cleric of Helm takes his job of defender very seriously. Many will not even talk while on duty. To some, this seems to indicate that the cleric is simply not paying attention. On the contrary, he is so focused on defending his charge that he does not allow himself to be distracted by superfluous people and idle, empty-headed chit-chat. The loyalty of a cleric of Helm is beyond question. Loyal and vigilant, they tackle each assignment with a serious, stolid determination.

The concepts of guarding and protecting are passive and defensive by nature. Clerics of Helm, on the other hand, aggressively respond to crises that have already taken place like kidnappings or the theft of a valuable item. The clerics call this “reactive defense.” They see any such retrieval mission as a “quest”, and will single-mindedly go forth and carry out their mission. Any being or force that stands in their way should either move aside or prepare to face their collective wrath.

Many clerics of Helm are aware of the sullen dislike that most other deities have of Helm, and they tend to watch the clerics of those deities with suspicion.

Special Abilities:

• These clerics begin their careers with a free suit of plate mail armor and a two-handed weapon donated by the church of Helm.
• Clerics of Helm can turn undead.
• Helm’s clerics are surprised only on a 1.
• Clerics of Helm gain a +2 bonus on all Detection Proficiencies, due to their constant vigilance.
• A cleric of Helm can prepare one extra spell per spell level, this spell must be from the Guardian sphere.
• Clerics of Helm cast spells from the Guardian and Protection spheres as if they were one experience level higher than normal.
• At 7th level, the cleric can cast a special Glyph of Warding once per day. This glyph, which resembles the eye of Helm, causes 1d6 hit points of damage per level of the priest, exploding in a silent blue flash of magical cold energy when activated. The special glyph requires no verbal components and is cast simply by pressing Helm’s holy symbol on a surface for one round; the glyph appears as a branded Helm’s eye and lasts for twelve hours per level of the priest. In all other ways, it acts as a normal glyph of warding spell.

Special Disadvantages:

• Clerics of Helm are not especially welcome in the Heartlands and the North, thanks to Helm’s belligerent role during the Time of Troubles. He kept the gods from ascending the Celestial Stairway, and killed Mystra when she attempted to do so. All NPC reactions have a penalty of -4 against the faithful of Helm.
• Since the church of Helm is suffering a dramatic drop in popularity, the only steady sources of income are the proceeds from the cleric’s missions. Thus, each cleric of Helm must tithe 50% of his treasure or salary (coins, gems, jewelry) to the church.
• If a cleric of Helm is somehow blinded by destruction of his eyes or by magical means, he must make a saving throw vs rods or suffer the effects of a Fear spell for 1d12 hours. While blind, clerics of Helm lose all of the special abilities listed above. Regaining his sight will be the cleric’s paramount goal, after which his special powers are also restored.

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Return to Religions.

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Regarding the Avatar Crisis

¹ During the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR (only 4 years ago), when the gods walked Toril, it was reliable Helm whom Lord Ao trusted with the task of keeping the other deities from returning to their divine realms in the planes without returning the stolen Tablets of Fate. For this task, Ao left Helm with all his divine abilities, guarding the Celestial Stairway to the planes.

On Midsummer, when the goddess Mystra—who had spirited away a portion of her divine power in the realms, which she then recovered once the gods were cast from the heavens—attempted to pass him without the Tablets, she was turned back by the Watcher, and when she forcibly tried to pass the Watcher, he destroyed her with a catastrophic explosion in the skies above Castle Kilgrave, north of Arabel in Cormyr. Following Mystra’s death, Helm shed a single tear that fell to Toril, but stopped before hitting ground. Hovering over the crater of destruction left below, the teardrop appeared as a magnificent gemstone, filled with the torment and guilt that Helm felt inside. In addition, it was Helm’s killing of Mystra that brought Wild Magic into the Realms.

This action had enormous repercussions for Helm. Whilst it put off any of the other earthbound deities attempting the same action, it also caused the other deities and mortals alike to hold Helm in great contempt. After the Time of Troubles ended and other gods were restored to their former existences, Helm himself was no longer bound to stand guard against them and much of his worship had faltered. The reputation of his clergy was made worse when the natives of recently discovered Maztica, whom the priests of Helm were subjugating in their conquest of the region (in 1361 DR), highlighted their cause.