Post/Author/DateTime	Post
bitterspike 05-31-07, 10:11 AM	Concept : a cleric who is focused on balancing good and evil. I was thinking of beginning a campain with something different than the usual good cleric without going on the opposite "bad" cleric that doesn't fit the party and that i don't feel so appealing. Could you advice me which god would most fit this particular character, as i'm not fond of "nature" clerics ? Do you have any idea of a good reason which might have begun my quest for balance ? edit : FR campaign setting.
Apupunchau 05-31-07, 10:35 AM	Not particularly good with Balance Clerics but here are some other ideas for non good or evil clerics if you aren't dead set on a balancer. A lawful neutral cleric who's more concerned about enforcing the law than he is in whether it is right or wrong. A True Neutral Cleric who's god is a good of knowledge (Like Thoth or that other god from Dragonlance) He's not concerned about what the knowledge is or what it's used for just that he also has the knowledge and it is available to all. A Chaotic Neutral Cleric who follows a god of luck not fate because that's predetermined but luck. He'll flip coins to make decisions as he wants to go where ever luck takes him.
Fithero 05-31-07, 10:58 AM	I once played an Archivist who was True neutral. Instead of focusing on being neutral, he focused on bringing balance to the multiverse. If good was currently winning in the grand scheme of things, hed summon a few demons in a village. If evil was winning, he'd go and take out a cabal of necromancers somewhere. Peace
bitterspike 05-31-07, 11:41 AM	God of knowledge idea looks interesting, it can combine with the balancer idea pretty well. Fithero, you've got the idea, what was the reason your archivist choose this behaviour at the beginning ? special event in his life, way he was taught... thank you for the replies.
Apupunchau 05-31-07, 12:00 PM	The problem I see with character that switch between good and evil to keep balance is that sooner or later you're going to have to purposefully screw your party. And why some people may think this is a great Role-Playing experience for the other players it's not. Funky characters like this a great for solo play and a blast to RP as I've done it myself I just don't think they are viable for a party.
bitterspike 05-31-07, 12:37 PM	You have a good point here Apupunchau, maybe the balancer is not so good. I will stick to neutral, but maybe it will be easier to focus on the idea of the knowledge god. simply playing the neutral alignment by extending the area of investigation: I could have some "borderline" tendencies by searching the explaination for death but not at any cost (after taking out a cabal of necromancers, there's nothing wrong at investigating what was the aim of their experiments) and "good" tendencies helping raising fund to build a library about some forgotten lore eveyboby else find useless. it should still be a good moment of roleplay without being suicide on a long term basis. I'm still open to other ideas. once again thx
Apupunchau 05-31-07, 01:40 PM	What campaign setting are you useing. Homebrew, Ebberon or maybe Forgotten Realms. If it's the realms I suggest being a human from Mulhorand and following Thoth he is after all a True Neutral god of knowledge.
bitterspike 05-31-07, 01:52 PM	Yes, it will be Forgotten Realms (the information is in my original post btw) I'll have a look at Thoth and at the Mulhorand specificities. your help is greatly appreciated!
Fithero 05-31-07, 07:48 PM	I always had my character try and balance out the greater good and evil scale. It would take years for him to bring about the balance he was looking for. We were in a pretty dark period of time in our worlds history. The other party members were looking to bring about the end of that dark age and defeat the demon that was ruling while my character was just wanting to restore the balance. So, everyone got on fine. He didnt make it though... damn pit fiends... :(
Westbound 05-31-07, 10:12 PM	Just my two cents. I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons, in all of it's variants (including the original Chainmail - I actually have it at home), and the concept of alignment Neutrality always rubbed me the wrong way. When someone would ask me what it was to be True Neutral, I would reply, half-jokingly, that to be True Neutral was to be a coward. What does Neutral mean? It means you're not Good, or Lawful, or Chaotic, or Evil. I thought Paladins had it rough, but here the poor Neutral Druid has to concern himself with things in such a way that doesn't favor one thing or the other, and has to somehow factor out that one side or the other is growing more powerful and therefore they have to be curtailed to preserve the "balance." But this "balance" is derived from a sense of preservation of the status quo. For the Druid's case, if his beloved forest or whatever habitat he hails from (there are desert Druids, ya know) becomes threatened by something, does he think it's an act of Evil? What if a force of Good wants to turn a desert, which is the poor druid's (rich druids seem wrong, somehow) home, into a garden? What if some benevolent clerical organization wants to change the habitat of an area into something that supports forests and other vegetation, introduces rivers, and large wildlife in an area that, for millennia, has never seen such things? What is the druid to do? What the clerics are doing isn't necessarily destructive, but it will change the druid's way of doing things and will change his home, his chosen habitat. How about vice-versa? What if the forest bound druid is facing a force that wishes to change his area into a desert? Okay, let's talk about your Neutral Cleric. What would cause your cleric to act? Would he act to protect a village, and if so does the threat necessarily matter? You might protect your village from hostile monsters, but what about a plague? Some Neutral minds might not think the plague is necessarily hostile, but is a natural force of life. What if this plague is part of nature's balancing act? I have tremendous problems with true Neutrality because the concept of "balance" is too subjective. One man's garden is another man's trash heap. And to those who aren't interested in the welfare of mother nature, what would motivate such a person to want to defeat an evil wizard or dragon? What gives him the authority to dictate that such and such person, monster, or organization, is too powerful and therefore must be defeated or curtailed in order to preserve the balance between good and evil? Also, on top of this, the idea that Neutrality should be a force that should be reckoned with is laughable. To give you an example, once, back in 2E, my friends and I were marching through a dungeon. After we defeated the monsters inside, we came upon a huge library of scrolls, both arcane and divine. One scroll we found had a Protection from Neutrality spell on it. We all laughed. "When are we going to use that? When the bunnies start nibblin' our bums?" When is the villain ever a Neutral character? How menacing would that person be? You got a guy who can't make a serious decision without debating whether or not it's based on good or evil, law or chaos, and he's who we're going up against? Wake me up when a real threat happens. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ