Can you worship a portfolio, rather than worshiping a god directly?

Chronicler

Like say you didn't worship Amaunator, the Sun God.

Say your religious order just worshiped The Sun. That burning orb in the sky. Would your prayers just naturally work their way to whatever appropriate deity handles these things?

BelgarathMTH

Under 2nd edition rules, technically, no. Your divine spells came directly from the god or one of its minions. Druid spells came from nature itself, so that might be closer to what you're talking about. Starting in 3rd edition rules (Neverwinter Nights), druids also had to get their spells granted by a god.

As of 4th and 5th editions, the rules were changed to put less emphasis on polytheism, and clerics could in fact draw spell power from a cause or an ideal.

Individual dungeon masters have always been free to "homebrew" pretty much any rule they want for their games, and you as a player are free to do so in Baldur's Gate, since the game mechanics don't enforce the rules about clerics and deities, at all.

sarevok57

actually starting in 3rd edition divine characters didn't actually have to pray to a good to get their spells, sometimes the "divine" energy is just inside of them, kind of like a sorcerer per se

in fact lets see if i can find it...

Page 30 of the players hand book ( 3.5 edition ) states;

Some clerics devote themselves not to a god but to a cause or a source of divine power. These characters wield magic the way clerics devoted to individual gods do, but they are not associated with any religious institution or any particular practice of worship. A cleric devoted to good and law, for example, may be on friendly terms with clerics of Lawful and good deities and may extol the virtues of a good and lawful life, but he is not a functionary in a church hierarchy

then page 32 goes on to say; choose a deity and some domains or you may choose to have no deity as well, but still get to choose 2 domains


when it comes to druids ( page 33 of the PHB v2.5 ) it says;

A druid reveres nature above all. She gains her magical powers either from the force of nature itself or from a nature deity

so even druids do not need to be devoted to a deity either

jmerry

The Baldur's Gate series is based on 2nd edition rules, and it's pretty clear that clerics and paladins need a divine patron. Player characters don't have to specify who that is, but it's assumed that they have one. And all of the joinable NPCs in those classes definitely have one.
Well, OK, not always divine. Dorn has a fiend for a patron, after all.

To use your example of Amaunator - Amaunator definitely cares about his rituals, as seen in the ruined temple of his you investigate. Worshipping the sun without performing Amaunator's rituals wouldn't gain his favor, and might well annoy him. From his perspective, you're not worshipping him right. No spells for you.

Druids ... not so much. Cernd, in all his dialogue, never mentions a patron. He seems to follow nature in general.

Zaxares

In addition to what Belgarath and sarevok have said, depending on the setting it could indeed be sufficient just to venerate a specific cause or ideal. In the Dark Sun setting, for example, Clerics worship one of the Elemental Spheres, or the Sun, and receive their spells despite not venerating a particular Elemental divinity (like an Elemental Prince, for example).

Pokota

(though it should be noted that in the Dark Sun setting that's because all the gods are either dead or actively malicious entities dedicated to consolidating their own power in order to prevent outright oblivion)

mlnevese

The only exception in 2nd Edition was Darksun where there were no gods. Clerics drew their powers straight from the elements.