The God of Suffering (CBN)

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The lot of humanity is to suffer and shed tears, and this god embodies all of the pain and misery in world. A prolonged and agonizing life is merely the prelude to a long-awaited death that brings final comfort and release from all sorrows. Although pain and sadness are almost always viewed as evil or undesirable aspects of living, the deity who embraces these symbols has a predominantly benevolent side and seeks to comfort the afflicted and bring solace to the sorrowful. He is a god of endurance and compassion, as well as pain and madness.
Priests of the Crying God, most commonly known as Flagellants, are wandering ministers of pain and consolation. They are attracted like flies to centers of evil, desolation, and natural disaster in the world, where they either nurture or assuage the sorrow. In a plague-stricken community that welcomes their priesthood, they may take on the role of heroes by healing the sick and raising the dead. But woe to the cruel or ungrateful town, for their fate shall be even greater pain and hardship under the ministrations of the Flagellants.
Alignment: The Crying God is neutral good, since he embodies not only sorrow but also endurance and compassion. His priests however, may be either neutral good, neutral, or neutral evil. Evil Flagellants form a separate Cult of Pain, largely ostracized from the mainstream priesthood, which strives to spread suffering in the world and argues that death is the only true consolation for the living. The flock of the Crying God may be of any alignment.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wisdom 12, Constitution 15. Priests with a Constitution of 17 or greater can use the increased hit point adjustment as if they were fighters (thus a Flagellant with Con 18 gains +4 hit points per level). This increased tolerance to physical damage reflects the priest's incredible tolerance for pain.
Weapon Proficiencies: Flagellants may choose from a wide variety of weapons, including the whip, scourge, mace (any), staff, club, and flail (any).
Dress/Armor Allowed: Members of the mainstream (neutral or neutral good) priesthood, known as the Brotherhood of Sorrow, may not wear any type of armor, nor can they don any form of ceremonial raiment save a simple felt skullcap of white, gray, or red (depending upon the priest's rank in the Brotherhood). Aside from the cap, their clothing is tattered rags or hairshirts, so that all around them can see the open bleeding wounds on their limbs and back, symbols of the pain and suffering they must endure for their religion.
Most high-ranking priests (Master Flagellants) tattoo holy symbols, religious inscriptions, or even blue-gray tears below an eye as a mark of their devotion. Other Masters, who consider that tattoos do not cause enough suffering, prefer elaborate body piercings as symbols of their authority.
The evil Cult of Pain accepts this costume as well for all but the highest members: their Painbringers (high priests), who direct the hurtful worship services, wear blood red robes (or even red-painted armor and shield) in addition to their red skullcap.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Required (this takes two slots only): endurance. Recommended: (General) any; (Priest) healing, herbalism, musical instrument, languages (ancient), local history, religion, spellcraft; (Warrior, this takes one slot only) running. Forbidden: all Rogue or Wizard.
Role: Flagellants can play either a positive or negative role in the campaign. If the DM wishes to stress the kind and compassionate nature of their god (perhaps to offset the presence of evil Plague Priests in the same campaign), the Brotherhood of Sorrow can then serve as traveling healers of pestilence or as bizarre mentors with a thorough knowledge of local history. The priests strive to become tragic, sacrificial figures whose self-imposed tortures mirror the suffering of the world and enable them to cure others. They symbolize endurance in the face of adversity and the triumph of life over death. Flagellants welcome all forms of pain and hardship as tests of their faith.
Despite their good intentions, the Brotherhood is most often viewed with a strange mixture of horror and derision in the elite circles of most societies. The common person, who usually benefits from the Flagellants' cures and always enjoys a good spectacle, may also have mixed feelings about the priesthood. Nevertheless, the Crying God and his followers usually find themselves at the crux of countless jokes and farces, but this ridicule is viewed only as one of life's many hardships, eagerly borne for their religion.
The evil faction of the priesthood, known as the Cult of Pain, is a sadistic band of cutthroats, thieves, and torturers who use their priestly powers and reputation to extort riches from the communities they visit. As such, they make excellent campaign villains. Although the Cult of Pain shares many of the same motives as the priesthood of Pestilence (and possibly the Scabrous Society), most alliances are usually temporary, lasting until some specific goal has been accomplished, such as the destruction of a specific barony. Although the mainstream Brotherhood priests vehemently denounce the cult's horribly evil activities, they nonetheless accept its existence as yet another form of sorrow they must continually endure.
Spheres of Influence: Major Access to All, Charm, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection. Minor Access to Combat, Elemental, Summoning, Sun, Weather, and Travelers (TOM).
Granted Necromantic Spells: 1st: none; 2nd: aid, slow poison; 3rd: cause blindness or deafness/cure blindness or deafness, cause disease/cure disease, death's door, feign death, negative plane protection, remove paralysis; 4th: cause insanity/cure insanity, poison/neutralize poison; 5th: slay living/raise dead; 6th: none; 7th: destruction/resurrection, energy drain/restoration, wither/regenerate; Quest: health blessing (TOM).
Note that only members of the neutral evil faction will regularly use the harmful spells from the Necromantic (and Healing) spheres.
Granted Powers: All Flagellants gain a +4 bonus to saving throws that involve any form of endurance or resistance of pain and suffering. They gain a +2 bonus on all ability checks involving Constitution (such as swimming, running, or drowning). In addition, Flagellants have the ability to focus the power of a single healing or harming spell (such as cure or cause serious wounds). This augmented spell, when cast by the priest will either cure or inflict maximum possible damage. This power can only be used once per day.
Flagellants also have the power to control emotions in others. Starting at 3rd level, they can remove fear from others and negate the harmful effect of emotion-based spells or magical items which cause pain, suffering, or hopelessness. For every level of experience, a priest can perform this on up to two persons per day. Recipients of this ability need only be able to see and hear the priest for it to take effect (no saving throw).
Starting at 5th level, Flagellants can bestow powerful emotions in others, including courage, hope, and joy, as well as fear, hate, and sorrow (as the 3rd-level priest spell emotion control in TOM). They may use this ability once per day, affecting as many as two creatures per level of experience who can both see and hear the priest (subjects are allowed a saving throw if unwilling).
Finally, the priests of Suffering cannot turn or command undead.
Other Limitations: Flagellants embrace a lifestyle of pain, self-mortification and hardship. The Brotherhood relishes none of life's pleasures, for such would impede their ability to heal its sorrows. They can keep no wealth and may own no more Spartan possessions than what they can carry themselves. If there are two paths or choices, the Flagellant will always take the more difficult of the two. He or she will always walk before riding, climb mountains rather than use a cleared pass.
This obstinacy and almost insane impracticality has been the cause for frequent ridicule by non-believers, who sometimes derisively refer to the Flagellants as the “Cult of the Stupid” or the “Brotherhood of the Mad.” Flagellants must remain both chaste and celibate.
In addition to its reputation for fanatical self-denial, priests of the Brotherhood must engage in ritual flagellation in order to gain spells. Typically, a priest must inflict one point of damage on him- or herself in order to be granted a single spell. Of course, this damage may be healed by memorizing curative spells, but more often, the wounds are merely cleansed so that they will not fester, and the curing spells are retained for those not fortunate enough to be blessed with divine endurance. Even if they are not memorizing new spells, these priests must engage in ritual flagellation at least once per day. These gruesome rituals are carried out in public whenever possible (usually in a town or village square, where they quite often draw quite a crowd of curious rubberneckers and sometimes gain new converts).
The Cult of Pain takes a somewhat more relaxed view of these restrictions. The important goal for these priests is that others are meant to suffer pain and loss. These priests gain spells by inflicting pain and damage, not by experiencing it themselves. The cult is organized in a strict hierarchy of sadistic torturers: highest Painbringers flagellate the lesser priests, who in turn both whip and beat the few members of the faithful flock. In the cult, only the Painbringers have license to amass personal wealth, indulge in physical luxuries, or marry. Few cult members are entirely sane.
Possible Symbols: The Whip, Scourge, Rack, Spiked Coffin, Bound Hands.