Discord
Changelog
10-04-2013, 10:35 AM
After having inflicted the Time of Troubles upon Thay, it may not come as a big shock to anyone that I am fascinated with the Forgotten Realms pantheons and its gods and religion in general. I love how rich, detailed, and diverse it is, and I have always strived to implement the worship of gods as D&D rules and sourcebooks explain - within the limitations of the NWN engine. While there still is some things to be desired, I feel that we have a pretty good framework where clerics, druids, rangers, and paladins are more than just another class with different powers, but that they truly do represent their god and their god’s views in the Thay PW.
So what this is leading up to is to provide my perspective and reasons for a change that could affect any wayward cleric, druid, ranger, or paladin PCs. That is: When the next server update occurs, a PC casting a divine spell will be checked to see if they have a clergy alignment allowed by the god they worship. If they do not, they will be unable to cast divine spells until their alignment is again back to whatever alignment(s) the god allows of their clergy OR the PC renounces their god and then selects another god to worship who allows a clergy alignment that they have. You can find the full listing of Forgotten Realms gods here along with allowed clergy alignments.
From what I’ve seen, most people do a splendid job of playing PCs with ‘divine’ spellcasting abilities. This change is not because of any problem I have noticed, but rather because I want the rules of the server to handle what people may have been voluntarily (or not) enforcing on themselves if their PC falls from the path their chosen god expects of his/her worshippers. I state this now because I want to give players who may have divine spellcasting PCs affected by this a heads-up to look at your alignment and start working to change it to one allowed for clergy of the god you worship. There are ways in-game to shift to Lawful, Chaotic, Good, or Evil (definitely the easiest one) without DM intervention. Start doing activities to shift your alignment now, if needed.
Next I want to address the the inevitable ‘what-if’ questions regarding scenarios of falling from grace or rising from damnation and worshipping another god of the opposite ethos you started out as. For example, ‘what-if’ I have a Paladin of Torm who falls from grace and decides to become a Blackguard of Cyric?
In cases like this, it should be RPed that it is actually Cyric who provides all the spells and abilities even though, technically, they probably should not receive Paladin spells/abilities anymore since Cyric doesn’t allow paladins. This could/should be explained in the same way that a god will grant spells for PCs who worship ‘dead’ powers like Myrkul and Bhaal. Those PCs can still cast divine spells because another god chooses to give them that ability for [insert a reason only known to the god doing it]. In this example, maybe Cyric gets some perverse pleasure by allowing a corrupted Paladin of Torm the ability to use Paladin-like spells and powers. Who really knows the will of the gods? ;)
However, I would hope that most PCs seek to get back into their god’s good graces by changing their ways rather than renouncing worship of their original god. Renouncing a god takes a decent chunk of XP from the PC (especially at higher levels) along with kicking them out of their temple if they joined a temple to that god. Therefore, changing worship is not a thing to be taken lightly, and once done, the PC will never be able to go back and worship their original god again...
So what this is leading up to is to provide my perspective and reasons for a change that could affect any wayward cleric, druid, ranger, or paladin PCs. That is: When the next server update occurs, a PC casting a divine spell will be checked to see if they have a clergy alignment allowed by the god they worship. If they do not, they will be unable to cast divine spells until their alignment is again back to whatever alignment(s) the god allows of their clergy OR the PC renounces their god and then selects another god to worship who allows a clergy alignment that they have. You can find the full listing of Forgotten Realms gods here along with allowed clergy alignments.
From what I’ve seen, most people do a splendid job of playing PCs with ‘divine’ spellcasting abilities. This change is not because of any problem I have noticed, but rather because I want the rules of the server to handle what people may have been voluntarily (or not) enforcing on themselves if their PC falls from the path their chosen god expects of his/her worshippers. I state this now because I want to give players who may have divine spellcasting PCs affected by this a heads-up to look at your alignment and start working to change it to one allowed for clergy of the god you worship. There are ways in-game to shift to Lawful, Chaotic, Good, or Evil (definitely the easiest one) without DM intervention. Start doing activities to shift your alignment now, if needed.
Next I want to address the the inevitable ‘what-if’ questions regarding scenarios of falling from grace or rising from damnation and worshipping another god of the opposite ethos you started out as. For example, ‘what-if’ I have a Paladin of Torm who falls from grace and decides to become a Blackguard of Cyric?
In cases like this, it should be RPed that it is actually Cyric who provides all the spells and abilities even though, technically, they probably should not receive Paladin spells/abilities anymore since Cyric doesn’t allow paladins. This could/should be explained in the same way that a god will grant spells for PCs who worship ‘dead’ powers like Myrkul and Bhaal. Those PCs can still cast divine spells because another god chooses to give them that ability for [insert a reason only known to the god doing it]. In this example, maybe Cyric gets some perverse pleasure by allowing a corrupted Paladin of Torm the ability to use Paladin-like spells and powers. Who really knows the will of the gods? ;)
However, I would hope that most PCs seek to get back into their god’s good graces by changing their ways rather than renouncing worship of their original god. Renouncing a god takes a decent chunk of XP from the PC (especially at higher levels) along with kicking them out of their temple if they joined a temple to that god. Therefore, changing worship is not a thing to be taken lightly, and once done, the PC will never be able to go back and worship their original god again...