I have a question about Paladins, Clerics, and crises of faith.
During my last session, the Cleric in my game went through some stuff that made him question his deity. The spell that was supposed to resurrect someone he cared about, due to some failed rolls, ended up ensuring she would never come back again. Even her death in the first place was because the Paladin killed her, though as a Cleric he did not blame him because she was a criminal.
So now he is having a crisis of faith and floated the idea of changing classes to me. I’m not exactly sure how this would work but I’m interested in where he’s going. Does anyone else have experience with this where either you or someone else you were playing with decided to abandon or change their deity? How did that work?
Sounds like a good opportunity for a compendium class like Forsaken or blackguard. I am a little confused. is there a cleric and a paladin? or just one? if he just wants to swap deity then ask him about the new one and how he plans to gain its favor. what are the consequences of turning your back on the original deity? maybe you should come up with a deity or devil and try to tempt him in his time of uncertainty.
Sounds like a good opportunity for a compendium class like Forsaken or blackguard. I am a little confused. is there a cleric and a paladin? or just one? if he just wants to swap deity then ask him about the new one and how he plans to gain its favor. what are the consequences of turning your back on the original deity? maybe you should come up with a deity or devil and try to tempt him in his time of uncertainty.
Here’s the thing about these classes to me: while it’s not a problem to model the paladin’s commitment to a set of ideals in game terms since they’re very tightly defined, modeling faith is really difficult because it’s such a hard concept to quantify. Your cleric is having a crisis of faith here essentially because of a series of botched rolls. That’s random chance, though you can take that to represent divine intervention. My problem is that if the cleric performed the rituals correctly and the deity still refused, that’s a crisis of faith, but if he messed it up (as a failed roll would indicate) then that’s not his god refusing to speak to him, it’s just him failing to priest properly which puts the weight of failure on his own worldly skills and not on the gods at all. Essentially what I’m saying is, if his deity refused to answer his request then you HAVE to know why. Offer him the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his god. Don’t just let him give up on his faith so easily. People in the real world have unshakable faith in a deity they never get anything from. In a fantasy world priests get all sorts of proof that their god is real every day. They don’t have to have faith, because they have PROOF. So, if he is losing faith you need it to be for a really good reason, and give him a chance to role play it out before he changes classes. Talk to the player about this and see what they want to do.
Here’s the thing about these classes to me: while it’s not a problem to model the paladin’s commitment to a set of ideals in game terms since they’re very tightly defined, modeling faith is really difficult because it’s such a hard concept to quantify. Your cleric is having a crisis of faith here essentially because of a series of botched rolls. That’s random chance, though you can take that to represent divine intervention. My problem is that if the cleric performed the rituals correctly and the deity still refused, that’s a crisis of faith, but if he messed it up (as a failed roll would indicate) then that’s not his god refusing to speak to him, it’s just him failing to priest properly which puts the weight of failure on his own worldly skills and not on the gods at all. Essentially what I’m saying is, if his deity refused to answer his request then you HAVE to know why. Offer him the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his god. Don’t just let him give up on his faith so easily. People in the real world have unshakable faith in a deity they never get anything from. In a fantasy world priests get all sorts of proof that their god is real every day. They don’t have to have faith, because they have PROOF. So, if he is losing faith you need it to be for a really good reason, and give him a chance to role play it out before he changes classes. Talk to the player about this and see what they want to do.
Your cleric should look to his deity for answers. Or, if that’s what your player thinks his character should do, if you are a fan of that, then I would recommend a compendium class or let him start out as a new class. Same character, just being a cleric is all he knew, so he wouldn’t be good at anything else. Just find out the most fun course of action for both you and your player.
Your cleric should look to his deity for answers. Or, if that’s what your player thinks his character should do, if you are a fan of that, then I would recommend a compendium class or let him start out as a new class. Same character, just being a cleric is all he knew, so he wouldn’t be good at anything else. Just find out the most fun course of action for both you and your player.