Saturday, February 17, 2007

Deities and more!

Hello again. Over the holidays I received an email with not one, but three whole questions!

Let's get started,

Question 1: In your first post, you mention having played AD&D before changing to 3.5 ed. I played AD&D for about 10 years now with the same "core" group members. I had some reservations regarding a change, thinking it might get to complicated with all that feats etc. I gave up on that and bought the rulebooks a few day ago, but have another problem now. First I only have one rulebook for five others to read ("logistic problem") and second they _would_ have to read it (amongst other things a "motivational problem"). Now I'm trying to set up a kind of comparison table for all changes, but that is quite a lot of work. I can't get rid of the feeling that such an overview of the fundamental changes AD&D <-> D&D 3.5 must exist, but I'm just unable to find it. Maybe you know a resource?

Answer 1: Indeed I do young reader! There is a conversion booklet on the official Wizards of the Coast site, you can find it at:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnD_CYC_intro.asp

It's hidden at the bottom of the page. I believe that will get everything into 3rd edition, but if you want to go to 3.5 (which I highly suggest) there is yet another conversion booklet to go from 3.0 to 3.5. You can find this booklet here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a

Question 2: While studying the classes I always stumble across the religion parts. Elhonna, Kord and Pelor? What happened to Lathander, Tymora, Bane (Cyric) or all the billion other good ol' gods? In many TSR books they play a major role and for me they are a very essential part of the Forgotten Realms. If I'm not totally mistaken, than those gods are still "in use" in the 3rd ed rule book "Faiths & Pantheons" - so what are the gods in the players handbook good for?

Answer 2: The deities in the PHB are just a standard set that aren't associated with any particular campaign setting and are often used as defaults now when making adventures or stories that aren't in the traditional settings. The deities you mention are part of the "Forgotten Realms" campaign setting. Just like Paladine and Takhasis (sp?) are part of the "Dragonlace" campaign setting. Therefore, information about the deities you're familiar with can be found in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting sourcebook or indeed in Faiths and Pantheons which is under the Forgotten Realms title.

Question 3: How dogmatic would a follower of a god (common as well as priests) be in a
polytheistic society, where gods (powers) are not just believed to exist, but their existence and their dominion over certain aspects of the world is a fact (so you can't really compare it with historic polytheistic societies like the greek) ? I often have trouble with my fellow player, because I think that even a priest of Mystra (magic) might pray to Tymora (luck) under given circumstances. The role of priests is really interesting, because in such a setting the can hardly
claim their god to be the one and only since the other powers (it's just the better description) are known to exist as well.

Answer 3: This is a very interesting question and I apologize now for how lengthy my response will likely be. In short, the answer to this question is entirely up to the DM and how s/he wants the campaign world to be. In some worlds, priests may freely offer prayers or even sacrifices to other gods. In others, gods may take offense if they are not prayed to for an event that they have a hand in ( e.g. Umberlee may get angry if sailors do not give her a sacrifice for a safe voyage). I am currently involved in a campaign where the entire pantheon is often worshipped as a whole, and while people may devote themselves to a single god, it does not preclude them from worshipping the others. In other worlds, worship of other gods may be more restricted. A person's chosen god may be seen as the only true god while the others are seen as powerful entities but lacking true divine power. This also leaves room for atheists in any setting, those who believe that there are no true gods and those that call themselves gods are just powerful outsiders who got a little too cocky. In the Eberron campaign setting, the gods are not active as was traditionally the case in D&D. In this case, clerical magic is sometimes seen by others as just another form of arcane magic with nothing divine about it. So, as long as you, as the DM, don't have a problem with clerics or other worshippers praying to other gods, it shouldn't be a problem unless their particular god is exceptionally jealous (e. g. Lloth).

Ok, that's three strikes. You're out.

Batter up!

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2 Comments:

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey! Thanks a lot for all the epxlanations. Great birthday present ;)

I really appreciate your answers and I'll try to convert my 2nd to a 3.5-froup :)

2/19/2007 04:38:00 PM  
Blogger Jono said...

No problem. Sorry it took so long to post it, I like to respond by e-mail first and I didn't get a reply from you. No biggie.

2/19/2007 06:17:00 PM  

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