https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/tcoe/group-patrons#ReligiousOrder
Your group acts in the service of a religious institution. The patronage of a religious order isn’t simply a matter of each member of your party belonging to the same faith, though. The faith’s administration—with its own resources, goals, and leaders—directly sponsors and guides your adventures.
Types of Religious Orders
Not every religious order represents an alliance of worshipers devoted to godly ideals. Perhaps your group is a team of devotees pursuing a cause for your faith, or maybe you’re a bunch of cynics taking advantage of a wealthy congregation. Your collective faith could compel you to hunt evil monsters or stave off otherworldly invasions, to protect the powerless from oppression, or to spread the teachings of your religion in a hostile land. Or perhaps you serve a corrupt hierarchy by making its enemies quietly disappear—though even cynical mercenaries can become true believers when confronted with the miraculous.
Roll or pick from the Religious Order Types table to determine the type of religious patron you serve.
ROLL TABLE TO VTT
Religious Order Types
d6 Religious Order
1 Undead Hunters. This community of scholars and monster hunters laboriously researches the unquiet dead, tracking them to their lairs and permanently laying them to rest.
2 Devout Scholars. This federation prizes knowledge and texts pertaining to their god. They collect rare holy books and record the life stories of miracle-working prophets.
3 Relic Collectors. This order of archaeologist-monks seeks to fill their museum-like temple with storied holy relics.
4 Charitable Missionaries. Adhering to the belief that religion empowers civilization, this order travels far to help the downtrodden, seeking to draw new believers by their virtuous example.
5 Militant Inquisitors. This dogmatically rigid hierarchy seeks to stamp out all threats to their beliefs.
6 Doomsaying Evangelists. This order believes the world is about to end. They’re convinced that if they persuade everyone else of this fact they might stave off the impending doom.
ACOLYTES PREPARE FOR A COUATL FESTIVAL
Religious Order Perks
With a religious order as your group’s patron, you gain the following perks.
Divine Service. In times of need, your group can appeal to the priests of your faith for magical aid. An NPC cleric or druid of your faith who is of sufficiently high level casts any spell of up to 5th level on your group’s behalf, without charge. The caster provides any costly material components needed for the spell, as long as you demonstrate your need and are in good standing with the faith.
Equipment. Each member of your party has a holy symbol or druidic focus, even if it isn’t needed for spellcasting. Each of you also has a book containing prayers, rites, and scriptures of your faith.
Proficiencies. Each member of your party gains proficiency in the Religion skill, if the character doesn’t already have it.
Religious Order Contact
Your established order enjoys a robust following. It might be a cloister of priestly scholars who use your group as the adventuring arm of the organization, or perhaps a legion of paladins who call on your group’s finesse where swords and shields fail. You might receive orders directly from the immortal entity you worship or through an earthly agent, such as a high priest or an archdruid.
Roll or pick from the Religious Order Contact table to determine who relays messages to and from your order’s deity.
ROLL TABLE TO VTT
Religious Order Contact
d6 Contact
1 Shadow Tongue. A mysterious speaker for your order advises your next steps but fears being discovered by a powerful rival faith.
2 Inspired Creator. A gifted artisan conveys the will of the divine through prophetic song or artwork.
3 Mysterious Text. The gradual translation of a secret holy text points you toward the next step of a divine destiny.
4 Fierce Inquisitor. A severe hierarch directs you to cleanse wickedness from a region, from the order, or from within yourself.
5 Beloved Healer. A famed healer guides you to where you’ll be needed most, even if their reasons are unclear until you arrive.
6 Divinity’s Voice. Otherworldly messages direct you to undertake divine quests.
Religious Order Member
Your primary duty to a religious order is to further your god’s reach. That obligation ranges from proselytizing or performing religious services to meting out divine punishments or recovering lost relics. Beyond that, the needs of your order vary widely. Your patron relies on your group due to your particular skills or, perhaps, because it’s divine whim.
The Religious Order Member Roles table suggests positions you might fill in an order and the backgrounds frequently associated with each role.
Religious Order Member Roles
Role Backgrounds
Councilor Acolyte, Folk Hero, Hermit, Sage, Urchin
Defender Acolyte, Criminal, Folk Hero, Outlander, Soldier
Ascetic Acolyte, Entertainer, Hermit, Sage, Soldier
Inquisitor Acolyte, Criminal, Noble, Sailor, Soldier
Emissary Acolyte, Charlatan, Entertainer, Noble, Sailor
Chosen One Any
Religious Order Quests
The services you provide your religious order vary depending on the deity you serve and your party’s aptitudes. Regardless, religious orders are opposed by antagonistic faiths, foes whose rivalry with your order emulates the conflict between your respective gods. Some religious orders also hunt and destroy fiends, undead, or other beings they consider abominations, seeking to rid the word of their influence. Others root out heretics, real or imagined, to demonstrate the primacy of their deity.
The Religious Order Quests table presents a few examples of how you can honor and serve your deity.
ROLL TABLE TO VTT
Religious Order Quests
d6 Quest
1 Safe Escape. A band of the faithful wandered into territory hostile to your order. You must find them and escort them to safety.
2 Relic Recovery. You seek a lost symbol of the order discovered in a dangerous place or in the hands of an enemy.
3 Cult Hunt. You hunt a cell of zealots dangerous to your order or mortals at large.
4 Desperate Pilgrimage. You protect members of the order as they participate in a pilgrimage that takes them through dangerous lands.
5 Expunge Heresy. You seek out the source of blasphemy that’s taken root within the order.
6 Prevent Prophecy. A rival order stands on the cusp of fulfilling a prophecy with deadly ramifications. You strive to undermine their blasphemous agenda.