Ruins of Adventure
Shar
- Name: Shar
- Allegiance: Gods of the Wild
- Portfolio: Darkness, Night, Loss, Forgetfulness, Secrets, Caverns
- Titles: Mistress of the Night, The Lady of Loss, The Nightsinger, The Dark Lady, The Two-faced Goddess
- Symbols: A black disk with a border of deep purple; or Four interlocking silver circles on a black field; or Chakram.
- Worshipper Alignments: Any
- Core Doctrine: There is perfect freedom in darkness, good and evil have no meaning, and none can judge what they do not see.
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Edicts:
- Avoid the light.
- Console the mourning.
- Secrets are meant to be kept.
- Forget your slights and bear no grudge.
- Spread the bliss of ignorance and forgetfulness.
- Work ill, that others may experience loss and turn to Shar.
- Destroy servants of Selune wherever they are found.
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Anathema:
- Creating light of any kind.1
- Sharing or spreading knowledge of any kind.
- Condemning or passing judgement on the actions of others.
- Allied Faiths: Eldath, Lolth, Mask
- Enemy Faiths: Cyric, Mystra, Selune, Shaundakul
- Pesudonyms: Deep Duerra (among Dwarves), Ibrandul (in Calimshan)
1 Priests of Shar may use light sources where they already exist, but may never create new light, even if it would be useful (such as a cook fire).
Base Requirements
- Races: Any
- Classes: Cleric
- Ability Requirements: as Cleric
- Alignments: Any Neutral
- Starting Cash: By class
Proficiencies
- Weapon Slots: By class
- Allowed Weapons: Any One-handed Weapons
- Allowed Armor: Any Armor or Shields
- Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
- Required Weapon Proficiencies: none
- Non-weapon Slots: By class
- Available Groups: Spiritual, Larceny, and Sorcerous
- Bonus Proficiencies: Blind-Fighting, Hiding, Religion
- Required Proficiencies: none
- Recommended Proficiencies: Soothsaying
- Forbidden Proficiencies: none
Priest Spheres:
- Major: All, Combat, Creation, Earth, Healing, Protection, Sun, Thought
- Minor: Necromantic, Travelers
Overview: Despite Shar’s evil tendencies and her being the goddess of night, darkness, and loss, there is another side to the goddess, a side that is actually beneficial. The clerics of Shar function as oracles and care-givers to the emotionally damaged. The clerics bring the bliss of forgetfulness to such troubled souls and have actually made some progress in seeing Shar’s faith become a socially acceptable one.
Shar’s greatest enemy is Selûne, the goddess of the moon. Shar insists that even her more benevolent clergy directly oppose Selûne and her worshipers. In the wake of the Day of Black Sun, more and more people are turning to Shar, seeking refuge against the relentless heat and unholy light of the Black Sun, putting her in direct conflict with Cyric as well.
Description: Clerics of Shar wear tunics and leggings of deep purple with black trim, over which lies a voluminous cloak and hood of black with purple trim. Their garments are black as midnight, and usually leave little to the imagination. The clerics have a special perfume scent that some people swear has amnesiatic properties, but this has never been proven, and the clergy of Shar is not saying anything on the matter.
They prefer weapons that are easily concealable, such as daggers, clubs, blowguns, hand axes, or even horseman’s maces. Any armor is permitted, but the clerics prefer armor that is quiet and offers a good degree of flexibility like leather.
During high ceremonial functions, priests of shar wear tall pointed hats, decorated with many (functional) chakram.
Role-Playing: These clerics are the children of Shar in every way. They are dark-humored, soft-spoken folk, who make no sudden moves to draw attention to themselves. Clerics of Shar believe that life is full of pain, and only the emotional oblivion of Shar makes it tolerable. Unlike their brethren, these clerics actually have compassion towards the sufferers of mental anguish. Only the servants of Selûne inspire overt homicidal impulses in them. Preferring to cultivate a reputation as mysterious folk, the clerics of Shar frame their oracular proclamations in obscure riddles and mysterious symbols.
Special Abilities:
- Clerics of Shar can both command and turn undead.
- All clerics of Shar can see in the dark, courtesy of infravision. This has a range of 60-ft. for those without infravision or adds 60-ft. of infravision for those who have it already.
- In combat against worshipers of Selune, clerics of Shar get a +1 to attack and damage rolls, and a +4 bonus to their morale. If there are multiple opponents, the cleric will ignore them and focus on a target known to be a worshiper of Selûne.
- Clerics of Shar can cast Forget once per level, each day.
- A cleric of Shar of 3rd level or higher can act as an oracle, telling the future for one questioner per day. The base chance of accuracy is 40%, plus 5% per level above 3rd. This otherwise acts as a Divination spell, cast at the cleric’s level.
- At 5th level, the cleric can cast Darkness, 15-ft. Radius three times a day.
- At 7th level, clerics of Shar can cast Continual Darkness once a day.
- A cleric of 7th level or higher has access to a special perfume. If the smeller fails a save vs. poison when within 5-ft. of the cleric, they are affected by a forget spell. One application lasts for a day. Clerics of Shar are immune to the perfume’s effects. If anyone else wears the perfume, they smell as if sprayed by a skunk (-4 temporary Charisma loss).
Special Disadvantages:
- Clerics of Shar are not suited for combat. They fight at a -4 penalty to hit in bright sunlight, or during the full moon. They are also surprised on a 1-4 on a d10 under those conditions.
- Despite their semi-benevolence, clerics of Shar are often identified with the evils brought by the rest of Shar’s faithful and suffer a -2 reaction penalty accordingly.
- Clerics of Shar may only cast reversed forms of spells from the Sun sphere, where such exist.
Return to Religions.