Quote:
Originally posted by Stratos:
1. If these philosophies are strong enough to grant spells to clerics then one can argue that they (the philosophies) almost have been given life on their own by their worshippers. Perhaps not your average Forgotten Realms diety but some kind of entity, a "living" symbol of that very philosophy. That's how some people in real life choose to view God or a pantheon of gods/godesses.
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That's true, I didn't think of that. People would identify with the philosophies themselves, in that case. After centuries of having the philosophies being the primary divine influence, people probably wouldn't think twice about it. They would simply see the clerics as the representatives of these forces. I remember reading the Elric series years ago, and the relationship between Order and Chaos in that comes to mind. There are entities that are extraplanar representatives of these forces, but ultimately they are just seen as Order and Chaos, the primordial forces of the universe. The four philosophies would be seen the same way, and the extraplanar entities would simply been seen as embodiments of these philosophies. The elemental creatures would probably be seen as the embodiments of the force of Nature.
What would evolve would be different philosophical orders, similar to an Eastern feel. Each order would probably have a prestige class (or classes) associated with it. Each one would probably have several domains associated with it, along with a favored weapon (or weapons) for that order. Thus, it would act almost like its own religion, with its own "interpretation" on how that philosophy would best be served.
Quote:
Originally posted by Stratos:
You could use designators to certain spells but if evil clerics can't cast healing spells etc. and instead concentrate on some more offensive/destructive spells then they become quite different from a good cleric. Whereas the good one would heal and do things that most people associate with the cleric class, the evil would probably have more offensive spells and be more of a divine combat spellcaster like the druid.
I don't know about the law/chaos thing but perhaps a chaotic cleric could have access to some confusion and charm like spells that his more lawful collegue wouldn't and the lawful one had access to more protection spells.
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That was kind of the thing I was envisioning when I thought about the division of the cleric class; the good guys would be the healers and protectors, while evil guys would be the destroyers. That fits with the using of positive and negative energy. I could just leave the spells as they are, which would allow good clerics to use destructive energies (and evil guys to heal) just like regular 3rd edition rules. This would also be okay, since they already specialize in using either positive or negative energy.
The lawful and chaotic clerics are a sticky point. It would make sense that they have granted abilities instead of extra spell slots. I think charm and compulsion spells would fall more on the lawful side, while spells that protect against such effects (and confusion spells) would fall on the chaos side.
That still does not help much with the paladin. The cleric is a minor overhaul, while the paladin is a major one.
Thanks, Statos! That does help a lot! [img]smile.gif[/img]