Pharika

Pharika is a god of affliction and medicine, alchemy and aging. In the earliest days of Theros, Pharika seeded the world with countless secret truths--mysteries of medicine, minerals with strange properties, nexuses of magic, and the like--which she hid among Nylea's wilds and the shadows of Erebos's Underworld, leaving clues where mortals might find them. It isn't altruism that drives her; she studies the innovation and suffering of mortals, deciphering in them ever greater mysteries as she treats Theros as her personal laboratory.

Pharika typically takes the form of a green-skinned human woman with the lower body of a snake. Her hands are thickly scaled and a pair of bronze-scaled vipers seamlessly emerge from her chest. She is never without her kylix, a drinking cup within which she can produce virtually any medicine or toxin. When her aims require subtlety, Pharika often takes the form of a serpent or a medusa, or sometimes an aged human.

Pharika represents the duality of life and death distilled into a single draught that can serve as tonic or toxin, depending on the dosage. She is most associated with affliction, whether that phenomenon takes the form of a disease, a venom, a drug, or the passage of years. Her cures are reliable but come at a cost. In some cases, that cost is pain as the medicine courses through the imbiber's body. In other cases, she demands years of life, either from the patient's lifetime or the researcher's labor.

Little escapes Pharika's cool gaze. Even when outwardly friendly, she is cunning and calculating, watching for the slightest sign of weakness or desire that she can exploit later. Those who offend her rarely recognize their misstep until she strikes.

Alignment. Neutral Evil

Realm. Nyx, the Realm of the Gods

Allies. Nylea, cordial with Athreos, Erebos

Enemies. Keranos, but gods rarely go into outright conflict with her

Edicts. create cures for or document the spread of afflictions, overpower powerful foes by using poison or tonics, discover or document the unknown or poorly understood creatures, build or restore temples to Pharika or sites that glorify serpentine creatures

Anathema. destroying alchemical, medical, pathological, or similar research, performing notable acts of healing without exacting a significant price, slaying a medusa or serpent

Areas of Concern. alchemy, disease, equal exchange, experiments, medicine of any kind, poison, snakes and serpentine creatures

Worshipping Pharika and her Champions

The diseased and the dying alike often make written entreaties to Pharika for a remedy. Prayers are written on scraps of paper or shards of pottery, sealed in small pots, and buried in bogs, leaving them as secrets for others to exhume years later. Many people pray to her before undergoing a medical procedure, picking herbs, or confronting a venomous animal. Nights of a waxing crescent moon (roughly the first week of each month, when a sliver of moon lingers in the early evening) are sacred to Pharika and are thought to be an auspicious time to harvest medicinal plants.

Pharika's followers include members of several small mystery cults, which embrace varying aspects of her divine nature. The most infamous of these is the Cult of Frozen Faith, led by a medusa. Initiates receive a lethal dose of poison, become petrified, and then are restored to flesh one year later. Petitioners who have Pharika's favor emerge alive and healthy; those she doesn't care for fail to survive the transformation.

Pharika's Champions

Alignment. usually neutral, often evil

Suggested Classes. Blood Hunter, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Wizard

Suggested Cleric Domains. Death, Knowledge, Life

Suggested Backgrounds. criminal, guild artisan, hermit, outlander, sage

Most champions of Pharika seek to uncover the world's greatest secrets through science, alchemy, and magic. They are often enamored with the mysteries of life and death, along with snakes or other venomous creatures.

Pharika's Favor

Pharika craves champions who support her ongoing experiments, torment her enemies, and deliver cutting-edge aid to the suffering. Yet, just because someone serves Pharika doesn't mean they are immune to her whims. Why did Pharika turn her gaze upon you, and how did you survive long enough to earn her approval? The Pharika's Favor table provides several suggestions.

Pharika's Favor

d6	Circumstance
1	You were born in a plague-struck village's final days, ultimately being the only survivor.
2	Exposure to a rare toxin granted you visions of Pharika, and you have sought her wisdom ever since.
3	Your medical attention proved crucial to a stranger's survival, and now your acquaintances periodically fall ill, as though Pharika is testing you again and again.
4	A sagacious serpent once offered you guidance and has influenced your studies ever since.
5	You are dying. As death grows nearer, you are increasingly adept at deciphering nature's mysteries.
6	You have no idea why Pharika showed interest in you, and you might sometimes wish she hadn't.

Devotion to Pharika

In accepting Pharika as your patron, you entrust your health and your knowledge to her. As her follower, consider the ideals on the Pharika's Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.

Pharika's Ideals

d6	Ideal
1	Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what he stands for. (Any)
2	Scholarship. Unlocking the natural world's secrets is a challenge I welcome. (Neutral)
3	Balance. My work shall save as many lives as it takes, balancing the deserving and the insufferable. (Neutral)
4	Immortality. Those who discover nature's darkest and direst secrets earn the right to live forever. (Evil)
5	Fatalism. Everyone dies. As a result, I may employ their brief lives to further my agendas. (Evil)
6	Tutelage. The world is a deadly classroom, and students need an expert guide to survive. (Neutral)

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Piety with Pharika

You increase your piety score to Pharika when you expand the god's influence in the world in a concrete way through acts that enforce her anathema.

Your piety score to Pharika decreases if you diminish Pharika's influence in the world, contradict her ideals, or make her look ridiculous or ineffectual through acts in her anathema.

Pharika's Devotee

Piety 3+ Pharika trait

As a devotee of Pharika, you have power over affliction. You can cast ray of sickness with this trait a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Pharika's Votary

Piety 10+ Pharika trait

Pharika's blessing shields you from most maladies. You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you are immune to disease.

Pharika's Disciple

Piety 25+ Pharika trait

Pharika blesses you with Pharika's Balm, an effect that can cure or enfeeble. As an action, you can touch a creature and choose one of the following:

The target regains hit points equal to 1d8 + your Wisdom modifier, and you can cure the target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it.
The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, or for 1 minute, the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

You can use this action a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Champion of Affliction

Piety 50+ Pharika trait

You can increase your Dexterity or Wisdom score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.

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