Been holidayin' ... but I must write something for this blog, mustn't I? Thus I am offering this past two months work on the cleric. I trust it will be of some use to someone. Take note ... much of it is lifted, and does not appear on the subscription data that serves as my own work. That is why I am not charging for this. If WOTC wants to find me and give me trouble, I'll have to take this down.
There. Plenty of content.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteSo much there to consider, but the first thing that struck me -- why can't Christians become Jews, or Muslims become Christians? The way it's presented (pagan > Jew > Christian > Muslim), it seems like it's a linear progression to the "true faith", which apparently is Islam. Is that the intent?
I'm sure Ahmet would agree. ;)
Well, to begin with, the Jewish faith makes it quite clear you must be born a Jew to be 'Jewish' ... you can worship, but you'll never be considered a full member of the flock (speaking historically).
ReplyDeleteRemember the progression is described here ONLY for clerics, NOT for lay-people. The arrangement, you will note, is historically progressive. So for D&D purposes, the older religions won't take you back once you've chosen a newer religion. This has nothing to do with actual human history - which has no actual gods, since all actual religions are bullshit organizations to suppress people.
Paragraph 2: "... minimum wisdom of 9."
ReplyDeleteParagraph 3: "... minimum wisdom of 13."
Paragraph 4: "... wisdom exceeding 15."
So... you need a 16? Or a 15?
This problem has been around since at least AD&D 1e, and probably since OD&D. An editor needs to go through the entire text and regularize the numerical terminology to remove these kinds of ambiguities.
Zoroastrianism and Buddhism -- both founded hundreds of years before Christianity -- seem to be outliers, then.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Hinduism? Is that considered "pagan" along with Tengrism, Shintoism, etc.?
I'm also wondering about pagan gods in general -- Zeus, Thor, Ra, and so on. Are they still worshipped? Are they still alive?
Yes, Butch, they are still worshipped ... because its fun.
ReplyDeletePicador,
As a reader of English, I don't find the qualifier in Paragraph 3, that multiclassed must have a wisdom of 13, nor the word 'exceeding' to be ambiguous. If you use a dictionary, you can learn what the word 'exceeding' means.
This is, of course, a terribly long shot, but is there any hope of seeing this on the Wiki? Or indeed, any more of this sort of thing for other classes?
ReplyDeleteObviously any such endeavors are tentative at best, with the e'er looming shadow of the powers that be, but I for one would be very interested in seeing these.
Holy cow because it's fun!? I can think of a number of fun religions to play a priest or druid of all within spitting distance of Europe.
ReplyDeleteHrm, I may be completely off base with my interpretation of religion, but...
I think he means older religions within the line of progression of that religion.
Meaning, Hinduism is in a completely different line and though chronologically 'older' unrelated.
"Fun" in the sense that players want to play those religions and I let them.
ReplyDeleteWorking on the Illusionist spells right now, Arduin. And I will get around to finishing other aspects of the cleric when all the spells are completed.
The wiki is retired.
Shame I still reference the wiki periodically.
ReplyDelete