Assist Pantheon


Source Pathfinder #217: Death Sails a Wine-Dark Sea pg. 67
Requirements The cult’s Fervor isn’t apathetic.
The cult is tasked with directly helping the pantheon with a task, such as investigating an organization, recovering a rare book, exploring a region, or thwarting a specific foe. This usually doesn’t involve the adherents fighting alongside the PCs or following them in a massive pack; instead, adherents might report to the PCs with useful leads, prepare potential battlefields in a way that favors their patrons, fire arrows that distract a beast, leave a pilfered key where the PCs can find it, or provide similar assistance at the adventure’s periphery.

The pantheon defines the task, working with the GM to refine it if need be. The cult attempts a check against a standard DC of the PCs’ level.

Critical Success As success, but the cult grants a +2 circumstance bonus to the triggering checks. This increases to +3 if the cult’s level is 7 or higher, and it increases to +4 if the cult’s level is 15 or higher.
Success Adherents disperse to assist the pantheon in its upcoming endeavors. The PCs can invoke the cult up to three times while pursuing the task; the cult Aids the PC, granting the PC a +1 circumstance bonus to the triggering check before rolling. The number of times the PCs can gain this Aid increases to four times if the cult is Medium or Large, and it increases to five times if the cult is Huge or Gargantuan.
Failure As success, but the cult can Aid the PCs only once.
Critical Failure Tragedy befalls some of the adherents as they provide support, such as being captured by foes, stepped on by a giant, or shipwrecked. The cult loses 1d4 Fervor Points and 1d4 Recruitment Points.
Special At the GM’s discretion, the cult might cache a useful tool where the PCs will find it rather than granting a circumstance bonus to a check. This might be a fistful of arrows made of a special material, a coiled rope stowed near where the PCs have to make a hasty escape down a cliffside, or a similar boon. The item’s level shouldn’t exceed half the cult’s level.