I used to think clerics were dumb. If you're playing a big damn hero, why make your main defining MO just to be the lackey of someone bigger than you?
But it occurs to me now that Allison is basically a cleric of the Crown, and that's a way to play the archetype that I could get down with.
I'm disappointed that this means she used the power of the king to outdrink the devil, rather than just the power of her sorority.
>>47956857
>he lackey of someone bigger than you
You could look at it like that, sure. I am fairly certain that this is a very valid way to play a paladin/cleric
But you could also be someone who isn't simply serving some outworlder, but serving and spreading a set of principles that he truly believes just, and a bigger entity also happens to do that, while helping you out as a sing of approval.
You aren't fighting against/for crime because you get spells for it, you do it because you firmly believe that is the right way of things.
>>47957496
Even so, it's someone else's right way. If you end up disagreeing with that someone else, you're fucked.
>>47956857
There's a lot of wiggle room for Clerics, but in the real world prior to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation they tended to multi-class a lot more than they do now.
The real world has also had a lot of wiggle in "clerical" attitudes once you get away from Christianity (and the rest of that monotheist tradition). Adoration, Emulation, Agent, or Servant all apply to different deities and periods. Propitiation is not common among "clerics" as such (except in true pantheons where one priest serves all), but was frequently seen in the non-clerical populace.
>>47957541
Yes, but it's not like you just listen to one heated speech from them, sign a contract of "supepowers for servitude: attention, damnation if contract breached".
You have a long time to think about it, and you have to act according to the god's dogma consistently
>>47957589
There is also the approach beyond propitiation: Exploitation. Seen mostly in fictional sources, and represent rather poorly in D&D by the Ur-Priest, the idea is to syphon the power of the deity away for mortal gain, even while doing what the deity might want. It is a cynical approach to divine power. Immoren's Cirle Orboros, the nastier of D&D druids, probably a fair amount of Cthulhu Mythos activity, OWoD's Wurm followers. "If things go too far in one direction our deity/power source will show up in person to "fix" it, and that will be a bad day for everyone, us included. So you'll just have to let us blow up that building."
>>47956857
Then play a cleric dedicated to an ideal. You don't have to be a lackey of a god, the magic only requires that you believe. Not that you believe in a god.
>>47958516
A cleric dedicated to an ideal is no true cleric.
>>47958516
Gods essentially are pure ideas.
>>47958543
You still don't have to worship a god. Just because a god stands for some idea doesn't mean you have to worship that god just because you believe in the idea he stands for.
>>47958536
Stating something doesn't make it true.
>>47958617
No, but it is true. D&D oddities notwithstanding, service to divinity is the defining feature of a cleric.
>>47958645
>implying clerics are clearly defined outside of D&D in the first place
