Do you put any religious connatation toward your Cleric?

Sharguild

Hmm, touchy subject;
A few previous topics brought it to mind.
Now the diversity of this game is evident and the cross-cultural appeal is note-worthy.
However DnD, on which it was based, had a distinct recognition of certain aspects.
One of these, the Paladin, was based on identified criteria established through assimilation of aspects derived from medevial Europe during the chivalric era of the mid 13th-15th century.
The Cleric however, though time-framed simplistically during the same era has been given broader scope.
As I understand it, though do not know accurately, the latest implementations allow a world of usage.
Curious what your Cleric follows as a righteous path (if at all) and what divinities ( be they Faerun oriented or real world) they adhere to.
I make one request, there is no wrong answer here so be respectful of other's choices.
I will lead off with my next post.

Sharguild

My Cleric is a righteous fighter of Demonic and Fell creatures that impede the lives of mortal man.
He or she, will fight to the death to preserve the right of man to hold a place of ownership, within this world. Respective of other races, he will gainsay forces of evil and place devotion ahead of self aggrandizement, in order to ensure that demons and devils do not subvert nor supplant our efforts.
- No specific religion
- only one cause, destroy evil and the agents that promote it.
- assist others in this endeavour, join a group of adventurers on occasion when the cause is served.

BelgarathMTH

I sometimes like to imagine my cleric characters as "dressing the part" as priests or bishops, where my mental images come from real life religious vestments.

I remember the picture of clerics from the 1st edition AD&D handbook, where the characters in the drawing were wearing robes and vestments that looked inspired by real life historical Catholicism.



At costume parties or in CoS play, there needs to be an iconic identifying dress for a cleric. The classic party of four has the warrior in shining plate, with a sword and shield; the thief in leather and feathered hat or hood, with daggers or a bow; the wizard in robes adorned with stars and half moons, with a pointy hat, a book, and a wand; and the cleric in - what? What identifies him or her?

Chain mail with an overlay depicting a red cross, carrying a mace and shield could do it, for one. (In fact, isn't that what Sarevok's first victim is wearing in the intro movie, so that you know he's a cleric?) You could replace the cross with a Forgotten Realms holy symbol of some kind, say two hands bound together with cord, but you risk people not recognizing the symbol of Ilmater, or any other FR holy symbol. The Christian cross unmistakably identifies you as a cleric.

(BTW, if you ever want to do something artistic with a red cross, be aware that the relief organization by that name protects it as a copyrighted trademark. The NWN devs had to take the red cross graphic off of the NWN healing packs for fear of legal action.)

Or, I sometimes envision the party cleric as wearing vestments, with a bishop's mitre and a shepherd's staff (which could be magically enchanted to be effective in combat.) The mitre is completely impractical for adventuring, but it does identify the party cleric beyond mistake.

Simple black garments with a clerical collar, as for a priest, also works. Again, completely Christian.

Anyhow, this could be a very interesting discussion.

I think one has to be very careful mixing real life religious symbols and ideas into D&D though, because it can get people upset.

Also, someone is bound to be along to point out that in the world of the Forgotten Realms, you *must* worship one of the official deities in order to receive spells and/or avoid eternity in the Wall of the Faithless.

I think people should be free to create whatever kind of homebrewed rules for clerics they want, but the "rules lawyer", "by-the-book" types won't like it.

HaHaCharade

My current run through has a Cleric/Ranger of Selune in the party. He feels more with his deity in the far north, as the stars and moon of his goddess are more clearly observed in that place's night skies. Though, that's not what brought him to Icewind Dale in the first place... ah, backgrounds

I love the Forgotten Realms, and tend to pick deities for most of my characters. Some make it into their backgrounds, some don't.

Glidderdust

I have a game with a fighter/cleric and don't really see him as a traditional priest or bishop from medieval times. I see him more as a fighter who gets divine spell casting due to his lineage.

FinneousPJ

Nah, real life religion has no place in my game.

Lord_Tansheron

FinneousPJ said:

Nah, real life religion has no place in my game.

Especially considering that you cannot in any way shape or form compare religion in our world to religion in a world where gods are proven beyond doubt to be most definitely real... That puts an entirely different spin on the whole faith thing...

Silverstar

My cleric in ID:EE (finally gotten it, yay!) is unkitted. Apart from being able to pick any alignment, unkitted clerics have no advantages so I guess it's a rare occurence for people to pick one these days. I do envision her to be a cleric of Mystra though.

Two reasons for this: party leader is a sorcerer and what better companion could he have than a priestess of the diety of magic? And secondly, as far as I remember from descriptions given in other games, Mystran clerics tend to root out and destroy evil magic users of which there are no shortage in most CRPGs.

The day they put Lorekeeper of Oghma in BG(II):EE I'll try playing that as a main character.