Petitioners [Archive] - Wizards Community

Petitioners [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
PigFiend
04-22-07, 02:10 AM Hmm. I think my post didn't go through the first time.

Regarding Petitioners, why don't they get an armour bonus? The sample Petitioner in The Manual of the Planes is an Ogre without its traditional great club attack. Is it implicit by that that Petitioners neither use weapons? If you hand a Petitioner a +2 mace, can he do nothing with it? Or is it only suits armour he can't wear/get benefit from?

(As an aside, the Ogre Petitioner has a slam attack listed. As far as I know, unarmed an Ogre's attacks provoke attacks of opportunity and deal nonlethal damage albeit a lot of it. Is this arbitrary in the example?)

- PigFiend
CryoSilver
04-22-07, 02:25 PM I don't see why they couldn't use gear. It just so happens that this particular petitioner is not.
Naderion
04-22-07, 02:31 PM Sure they could, I just think that said ogre got claw attacks and therefore doesn't need a weapon.
PigFiend
04-30-07, 05:38 AM Manual of the Planes, p 199
'AC: Only size, Dexterity, and natural armor modifiers apply. Armor bonuses are not applicable.'

So, I'm still wondering why that is.
Calmar
04-30-07, 09:43 AM I guess these guys simply enjoy their afterlife and cannot longer understand the need of any kind of armed endevours anymore.
dfarnsworth
04-30-07, 10:39 AM Ever wonder if a Petitioner could "Ascend" to be something other? Like a celestial/fiendish being and on until they become a power themselves.

Ever wonder what happened to that looney Blackguard you killed near the beginning of the campaign?
Luis_Dragunov
04-30-07, 12:47 PM You see, petitioners are not... creatures, so to say. They are hardly real in the sense that they exist. They end up having no memories, no sense of individuality. They are souls given the barest strokes of personality and you should be all too enthusiastic with their corporeality.
They are much like avatars of the planes they now inhabit and, in time, will either join it or become outsider creatures that will then not even dream (and many won't even admit) that they were once mortals.
El_Machinae
04-30-07, 07:16 PM The Dwarven petitioners are supposed to be smithing armour all the time.
ripvanwormer
04-30-07, 07:42 PM They end up having no memories, no sense of individuality. They are souls given the barest strokes of personality and you should be all too enthusiastic with their corporeality.

That's not entirely true. They still have individual personalities, even fragments of memories of their previous lives - sometimes you can learn useful things from them about the worlds from which they hailed, although it's a bit of a crapshoot. Waking up in the afterlife is like waking up from a dream, or being born, and the things from before are hazy.

They generally don't have the skills they had in life, unless their deity desires them to. So petitioners of crafts deities may still have the ability to craft, and petitioners of warlike deities may still have the ability to make war. Or they may simply be retrained.
Luis_Dragunov
04-30-07, 08:54 PM That's not entirely true. They still have individual personalities, even fragments of memories of their previous lives - sometimes you can learn useful things from them about the worlds from which they hailed, although it's a bit of a crapshoot. Waking up in the afterlife is like waking up from a dream, or being born, and the things from before are hazy.

I belive I read somewhere (Manual of the Planes? Can't remember properly) that when you die, your soul is instantly transported to a plane that matches you best. At first, you remember everything from your life but, as time goes on, you start forgeting about your life. Small details at first, until you just can't remember and, as you lose that individuality, you become more and more an extension of the plane (or deity) until you either merge with it or become an extension of its will: an outsider.

That's why clerics have a limit on their raise dead, ressurection and true ressurection spells: it takes great devotion and skill to reach out to a soul and, when that soul can't even remember that it was alive once, it can't be brought back to the body.
El_Machinae
05-01-07, 02:17 PM Does having jurisdiction over petitioners benefit the diety, powerwise? Or should we view them as basically a 'meal-on-the-hoof'?
ripvanwormer
05-01-07, 04:16 PM Does having jurisdiction over petitioners benefit the diety, powerwise? Or should we view them as basically a 'meal-on-the-hoof'?

I imagine it benefits them just as much as any other group of faithful worshipers does.
Bob the Efreet
05-01-07, 04:50 PM Ever wonder if a Petitioner could "Ascend" to be something other? Like a celestial/fiendish being and on until they become a power themselves.

Yes, absolutely. Happens all the time. That's where tanar'ri come from, for example.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PigFiend 04-22-07, 02:10 AM	Hmm. I think my post didn't go through the first time. Regarding Petitioners, why don't they get an armour bonus? The sample Petitioner in The Manual of the Planes is an Ogre without its traditional great club attack. Is it implicit by that that Petitioners neither use weapons? If you hand a Petitioner a +2 mace, can he do nothing with it? Or is it only suits armour he can't wear/get benefit from? (As an aside, the Ogre Petitioner has a slam attack listed. As far as I know, unarmed an Ogre's attacks provoke attacks of opportunity and deal nonlethal damage albeit a lot of it. Is this arbitrary in the example?) - PigFiend
CryoSilver 04-22-07, 02:25 PM	I don't see why they couldn't use gear. It just so happens that this particular petitioner is not.
Naderion 04-22-07, 02:31 PM	Sure they could, I just think that said ogre got claw attacks and therefore doesn't need a weapon.
PigFiend 04-30-07, 05:38 AM	Manual of the Planes, p 199 'AC: Only size, Dexterity, and natural armor modifiers apply. Armor bonuses are not applicable.' So, I'm still wondering why that is.
Calmar 04-30-07, 09:43 AM	I guess these guys simply enjoy their afterlife and cannot longer understand the need of any kind of armed endevours anymore.
dfarnsworth 04-30-07, 10:39 AM	Ever wonder if a Petitioner could "Ascend" to be something other? Like a celestial/fiendish being and on until they become a power themselves. Ever wonder what happened to that looney Blackguard you killed near the beginning of the campaign?
Luis_Dragunov 04-30-07, 12:47 PM	You see, petitioners are not... creatures, so to say. They are hardly real in the sense that they exist. They end up having no memories, no sense of individuality. They are souls given the barest strokes of personality and you should be all too enthusiastic with their corporeality. They are much like avatars of the planes they now inhabit and, in time, will either join it or become outsider creatures that will then not even dream (and many won't even admit) that they were once mortals.
El_Machinae 04-30-07, 07:16 PM	The Dwarven petitioners are supposed to be smithing armour all the time.
ripvanwormer 04-30-07, 07:42 PM	They end up having no memories, no sense of individuality. They are souls given the barest strokes of personality and you should be all too enthusiastic with their corporeality. That's not entirely true. They still have individual personalities, even fragments of memories of their previous lives - sometimes you can learn useful things from them about the worlds from which they hailed, although it's a bit of a crapshoot. Waking up in the afterlife is like waking up from a dream, or being born, and the things from before are hazy. They generally don't have the skills they had in life, unless their deity desires them to. So petitioners of crafts deities may still have the ability to craft, and petitioners of warlike deities may still have the ability to make war. Or they may simply be retrained.
Luis_Dragunov 04-30-07, 08:54 PM	That's not entirely true. They still have individual personalities, even fragments of memories of their previous lives - sometimes you can learn useful things from them about the worlds from which they hailed, although it's a bit of a crapshoot. Waking up in the afterlife is like waking up from a dream, or being born, and the things from before are hazy. I belive I read somewhere (Manual of the Planes? Can't remember properly) that when you die, your soul is instantly transported to a plane that matches you best. At first, you remember everything from your life but, as time goes on, you start forgeting about your life. Small details at first, until you just can't remember and, as you lose that individuality, you become more and more an extension of the plane (or deity) until you either merge with it or become an extension of its will: an outsider. That's why clerics have a limit on their raise dead, ressurection and true ressurection spells: it takes great devotion and skill to reach out to a soul and, when that soul can't even remember that it was alive once, it can't be brought back to the body.
El_Machinae 05-01-07, 02:17 PM	Does having jurisdiction over petitioners benefit the diety, powerwise? Or should we view them as basically a 'meal-on-the-hoof'?
ripvanwormer 05-01-07, 04:16 PM	Does having jurisdiction over petitioners benefit the diety, powerwise? Or should we view them as basically a 'meal-on-the-hoof'? I imagine it benefits them just as much as any other group of faithful worshipers does.
Bob the Efreet 05-01-07, 04:50 PM	Ever wonder if a Petitioner could "Ascend" to be something other? Like a celestial/fiendish being and on until they become a power themselves. Yes, absolutely. Happens all the time. That's where tanar'ri come from, for example.