Agriculture (CPrH)

Agriculture concerns Man harvesting Nature. The god has shown man how to plant, grow, reap, and utilize crops; man, in turn, worships the god as thanks for this bounty. The gods of agriculture is different from the other gods of nature and natural forces in that he represents the elements of growing that man utilizes and can control.

The priesthood of this god is principally interested in making sure that mankind continues to appreciate the agricultural god. An angry god of this sort can decide that crops fail, either on a local level or even worldwide, resulting in mass starvation and (eventually, if the god is not appeased) a destruction of civilization; man would return to a hunter-gatherer culture, living in small nomadic tribes and following herds of beasts, if this were to take place.

A god of Agriculture doesn't have to be the god of all agriculture. He could be the god of a specific crop (especially wheat, barley, corn, vines, olives, and other principal crops) or of a specific, lesser attribute of agriculture (sowing, reaping, brewing, etc.).

Most agricultural deities are female.

The priests of this god are on good terms with Druids and the priests of Community, Earth, Fertility, Fire, Life-Death-Rebirth Cycle, Nature, Seasons, and Vegetation.

**Alignment:** The deity is true neutral. His priests may be true neutral or neutral good; most are neutral good. The flock may be of any alignment.

**Minimum Ability Scores:** Wisdom 11, Constitution 12. Wisdom or Constitution 16 means +5% experience; Wisdom *and* Constitution 16 means +10% experience.

**Races Allowed:** Gnomes, half-elves, halflings, humans.

**Nonweapon and Weapon Proficiencies:** Nonweapon Proficiencies Required: Agriculture. Nonweapon Proficiencies Recommended: Local History, Reading/Writing, Religion. Weapon Proficiencies Required: None. Nonweapon Proficiency Group Crossovers: Priest, General.

**Duties of the Priest:** Guidance, Marriage. Observation of annual celebrations at the start of winter and start of spring. Vigilance against any threat to the community's ability to grow its food, including magical blights and droughts brought on by evil magicians or priests, artifacts or enemy gods.

**Weapon and Armor Restrictions:** Weapons Permitted: Bill, flails (both), hand-throwing axe, scythe, sickle. Armor Permitted: All non-magical non-metal armor, all non-magical (non-metal) shields. Oriental Campaigns: Also nunchaku. All together, these constitute Poor combat abilities.

**Other Limitations:** None.

**Spheres of Influence:** Major Access to All, Creation, Divination, Plant, and Summoning (can only use *wall of thorns , weather summoning ,* and *creeping doom* from this sphere). Minor Access to Animal, Healing, Protection, Sun, and Weather. This does not give the priest all the spheres indicated for a priest with Poor Combat Abilities, so he'll also have more than one Granted Power.

**Powers:** *Analysis, Detection, Identification* (as described in the Designing Faiths chapter) of any sort of domesticated grain or garden plant; the priest can look at a field and tell what's being grown, how far along it is in the harvest year, what the state of the crop is (healthy, diseased, drought problems, etc.), and even what species is growing it (this can be handy when the party is sneaking up on the dwelling of an unknown monster and there is a garden nearby, for instance). *Create Food & Water*: The Priest can cast this spell once per day in addition to all other spells that he can cast. *Immunity:* The Priest is immune to the harmful effects of spoiled vegetable or fruit substances; he will never be laid low by normal food poisoning. (He's not immune to deliberate poisoning of food, or of food poisoning in meats.) *At 8th Level:* The Priest can cast the *heroes' feast* spell once per day in addition to all other spells that he can cast.

**Followers and Strongholds:** The followers are received at 8th level, and consist of one fifth-level priest, one third-level priest, one second-level priest, and ten first-level priests, all of the same god, plus one second-level warrior and eight first-level warriors to act as guards. The priest may take the following on adventures: Three priests and two warriors of his choice. The priesthood will pay for half of the cost of stronghold construction at 8th level. The stronghold must act as a central source of information about agricultural techniques for the farmers of the area; the priests must not turn away farmers who come for advice.

**Possible Symbols:** Sickle, scythe, sheaf of wheat.

**Notes:** The weapons chosen for this priesthood are those which have some bearing in agriculture.