If you play BGEE you can just run a Blackguard from the start. Otherwise, I would be very surprised if BGIIEE let's you switch a Paladin into a Blackguard!
Deities are purely a role playing decision, it has no actual application in BG. But isn't Oghma actually neutral or lawful-neutral? Not a very good candidate for a paladin.
Helm has Paladins, and I believe he's Lawful Neutral.
Cryivm if I were DMing you I'd say try again. You can't get cleric, druid or paladin abilities by being unsure of your faith or role in life. Those abilities are for individuals who are prepared to be an instrument of their faith through a lifelong commitment. Obviously BG can't really force that issue in any way, and there's nothing wrong with a character concept built around those issues and conflicts. But not as a divine caster.
I would disagree. Once you become a divine caster, it would certainly be possible to have doubts because of your recent experiences without immediately losing your powers. It would be very boring to roleplay a Cleric if you had to be careful of your DM taking away your powers at the slightest hint of uncertainty.
Yeah I know ultimately it's my game but I want to fit in with the story. I'm thinking of my rolling a half-orc fighter/cleric and calling him a warpriest. I want a warrior of faith kind of background but without being zealot or strict by the rules kind of person. I want a little flexibility in making decisions.
Even Paladins have more leeway than you might think. You adhere to a strict code of gentile chivalry and moral uprightness, but you're not a robot by any stretch of the imagination. Think of a Paladin like the Knight in the Canterbury Tales, a devout man of a god and a warrior both, taking part in some campaigns that were historically controversial and might have been considered downright evil by some. He also killed some of his opponents during "listes," which were traditionally not intended to be lethal combat. Despite these flaws, he is still considered the most morally and socially upright of the Pilgrims. This is the Forgotten Realms, and even the best of us need to get our hands dirty in this world of conflict and magic.
I never got that option, first playthrough ever was with a thief dualed to fighter (this was when I was young and didn't realize that going thief6/fighter was not a good idea for preparing for BG2. Second playthrough I wanted to dual paladin to mage after BG1 (again, I was young, there was no internet access, had no idea I couldn't dual paladins) when I realized I couldn't I just kept playing through the BG2's. It never gave me the option. Is it possibly a patch that allowed it? Because I've never played them with anything but the off-the-disc version.
@kamuizin that doesn't apply in Faerun. Forgotten Realms specifically declares you MUST worship a god to use divine spells, the principle source only works in Greyhawk or other settings that don't forbid it.
Complete Divine page 5 and 6, the Favored Soul discussion led me to read a bit this player handbook complement, the "who do you serve" point define from where a cleric can channel his divine power.
In fact one of the bases for the build of complete divine was the book "Magic of Faerûn by Sean K Reynolds, Duane Maxwell, and Angel Leigh McCoy;" and nothing in complete divine state that part of the contend wasn't meant to Faerûn.
We have examples by the way in official D&D material, in the figure of Zhjaeve and Bishop (bishop faithless nature even put him into the wall of the faithless for example). Fall From Grace is another example of godless cleric, she's follows the sensation philosophy of the sensation faction in Sigil (but i give that she's an walking exception, being a succubus priest of Lawful Neutral alignment in the game Planescape: Torment)
From my thoughts, i see godless clerics not as atheists (even if one think that he is). Gods in Faerûn at least, are beings that bound themselfs to principles and thus become the personification of that principle. A godless cleric that dedicate himself for justice will link himself with every god that has justice as portfolio.
Complete Divine is a generic setting book (based on ideas from other books, but left generic so it can be adapted to any setting easily). It specifically says in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which trumps all other sources where the setting is concerned that divine caster's MUST have a god or they will be unable to use divine spells or supernatural abilities related to divine powers.
NWN and NWN2 take so many liberties with the rules and lore that using them as references is ridiculous. They're even MORE broken then BG is...and that's saying a lot. (Though it's possible that Zhjaeve does indeed have a god, and he simply isn't represented in game....most Githzerai that bother worshiping a god at all worship the God of Psionics, since his ideal is to promote self-sufficiency, self-control, and order at the cost of making him weaker due to people relying less on him)
Planescape is not part of Forgotten Realms and is in fact it's own setting with it's own rules, that is just nominally connected to other settings as a bridge. Sitting at the conflux of multiple universes is what gives belief the power to warp reality on a god-like level.
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In fact one of the bases for the build of complete divine was the book "Magic of Faerûn by Sean K Reynolds, Duane Maxwell, and Angel Leigh McCoy;" and nothing in complete divine state that part of the contend wasn't meant to Faerûn.
We have examples by the way in official D&D material, in the figure of Zhjaeve and Bishop (bishop faithless nature even put him into the wall of the faithless for example). Fall From Grace is another example of godless cleric, she's follows the sensation philosophy of the sensation faction in Sigil (but i give that she's an walking exception, being a succubus priest of Lawful Neutral alignment in the game Planescape: Torment)
From my thoughts, i see godless clerics not as atheists (even if one think that he is). Gods in Faerûn at least, are beings that bound themselfs to principles and thus become the personification of that principle. A godless cleric that dedicate himself for justice will link himself with every god that has justice as portfolio.
NWN and NWN2 take so many liberties with the rules and lore that using them as references is ridiculous. They're even MORE broken then BG is...and that's saying a lot. (Though it's possible that Zhjaeve does indeed have a god, and he simply isn't represented in game....most Githzerai that bother worshiping a god at all worship the God of Psionics, since his ideal is to promote self-sufficiency, self-control, and order at the cost of making him weaker due to people relying less on him)
Planescape is not part of Forgotten Realms and is in fact it's own setting with it's own rules, that is just nominally connected to other settings as a bridge. Sitting at the conflux of multiple universes is what gives belief the power to warp reality on a god-like level.