A Matter of Faith... [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Matter of Faith... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Greymalken
01-27-06, 10:13 AM An interesting situation has arrisen in a campaign I'm playing in. A gnomish cleric of Garl Glittergold has recently been preaching to the "uneducated" masses, and is drawing quite a number of followers who believe in what the little guy is saying. My question is the following, can a non-gnome or in fact any race for that matter, become a cleric of a racial deity? I mean does Moradin here the words of a honorable human blacksmith who makes a prayer to the Dwarven god before striking his hammer agains't tempered metal? And does Garl listen to the prayers of someone who truly believes the dogma and ideals that the trickster follows, regardless of whether or not they are three feet high? I haven't been able to find anywhere that states a racial restriction on what god a cleric can worship, it's merely alignment based according to the rules in black and white. I was just curious as to what other people's take and ideas on this might be?
phelanarcetus
01-27-06, 10:45 AM It may not be in 3.5, but I am certain that back in 3.0 it was stated that while a member of any race could worship any deity, only a member of the appropriate race could actually be a cleric of that deity. That may not remain in 3.5; nothing is mentioned in the SRD, at least, and that's all I have access to right now.

Of course, just because this gnome is converting people to worshipping Garl (which probably is earning him the enmity of the local clergy of other deities), doesn't mean that they have to become clerics. Even Commoners can choose one deity to worship, and they don't get anything for it.
Esponer
01-27-06, 11:04 AM You could always worship Garl Glittergold, but use the "cleric of an alignment" mechanism to allow you to actually not get your spells from the guy himself. Clerics don't need to worship gods to get their divine spells, they can "worship" alignments, so a cleric whose spells come from his alignment and who worships a god as a roleplaying aside would be fine.

Actually, I believe that all divine magic is just mentally suppressed psionics, with conviction being the mechanism by which these would-be-psionicists access their powers. Therefore, the gods really become irrelevant.
legowarrior
01-27-06, 11:55 AM On the whole, the alignment worship might make it possible to worship a god, and get spells from a differing source.
But in Forgotten Realms, and universes with similar traits, you get spells from gods.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Greymalken 01-27-06, 10:13 AM	An interesting situation has arrisen in a campaign I'm playing in. A gnomish cleric of Garl Glittergold has recently been preaching to the "uneducated" masses, and is drawing quite a number of followers who believe in what the little guy is saying. My question is the following, can a non-gnome or in fact any race for that matter, become a cleric of a racial deity? I mean does Moradin here the words of a honorable human blacksmith who makes a prayer to the Dwarven god before striking his hammer agains't tempered metal? And does Garl listen to the prayers of someone who truly believes the dogma and ideals that the trickster follows, regardless of whether or not they are three feet high? I haven't been able to find anywhere that states a racial restriction on what god a cleric can worship, it's merely alignment based according to the rules in black and white. I was just curious as to what other people's take and ideas on this might be?
phelanarcetus 01-27-06, 10:45 AM	It may not be in 3.5, but I am certain that back in 3.0 it was stated that while a member of any race could worship any deity, only a member of the appropriate race could actually be a cleric of that deity. That may not remain in 3.5; nothing is mentioned in the SRD, at least, and that's all I have access to right now. Of course, just because this gnome is converting people to worshipping Garl (which probably is earning him the enmity of the local clergy of other deities), doesn't mean that they have to become clerics. Even Commoners can choose one deity to worship, and they don't get anything for it.
Esponer 01-27-06, 11:04 AM	You could always worship Garl Glittergold, but use the "cleric of an alignment" mechanism to allow you to actually not get your spells from the guy himself. Clerics don't need to worship gods to get their divine spells, they can "worship" alignments, so a cleric whose spells come from his alignment and who worships a god as a roleplaying aside would be fine. Actually, I believe that all divine magic is just mentally suppressed psionics, with conviction being the mechanism by which these would-be-psionicists access their powers. Therefore, the gods really become irrelevant.
legowarrior 01-27-06, 11:55 AM	On the whole, the alignment worship might make it possible to worship a god, and get spells from a differing source. But in Forgotten Realms, and universes with similar traits, you get spells from gods.