D&D 5E Eldath Dogma Question

[Bob_no_Oni]

Greetings again all,

I have a question in relation to the Dogma for Eldath. I am not able to link, so I am quoting the dogma here for people.

"The philosophy of Eldath is highly advanced. It teaches that peace can only come from within and cannot he taught or imposed; it must he readied through thought and meditation. The faithful of Eldath should seek stillness and thereby find peace. They are to plant trees and green-leaved things and tend such things when they need it, wherever they may be.

Eldathyn are instructed to nurture and aid and not to restrict or punish. They may defend but not punish. Eldathyn may work violence only to defend, and they may slay no thing of the forest save to prevent it from slaying themselves or another under their protection.


All worshipers of Eldath are to aid fellow Eldathyn and clergy of Silvanus and Mielikki whenever possible and to give assistance, support, and shelter to displaced forest dwellers and to those who work to defend ponds, marshes, and streamside woods everywhere. They must swear to take no thinking life save in direst need and to share with all beings the beneficial things that grow in or come from running water that all may know of and praise Eldath."


As such, I am wondering something in relation to it. Would you consider her clerics to be Actual Pacifists or Technical Pacifists? I am unsure a bit about the fight in defense part. Does that mean that I can attack if someone attacks my party first? Trying to get the character idea down and this seems to be a big part of it. Thank you for any help.

 

[Mirtek]

Not all FR deities are written with adventurers in mind, I am not sure that Eldath is the best choice for an active adventurer

 

[Wik]

Waaaaay back in 2e days, I have dim recollections of playing an Eldathyn druid. The way we ruled it was simple - you could only fight in self defence. For what it's worth, provoking others into attacking you so you could defend yourself was not cool... but you COULD heal allies and the like in a fight against foes. So long as you didn't provide combat buffs (which we figure is like giving a firearm to a soldier and then saying "hey, *I'm* not the one doing the killing!"), you were fine.

Basically, we treated my PC like a natural version of a combat medic.

It was also his goal to preach pacifism, and always seek a non-violent end first.

Also, we ruled that certain types of enemy were exempt from all this - the undead, for example, as well as many abominations and fiends.

But as a general rule, yeah, they're a little rough to play as a PC.... they're more for NPC types, I think.

 

[Irennan]

Waaaaay back in 2e days, I have dim recollections of playing an Eldathyn druid. The way we ruled it was simple - you could only fight in self defence. For what it's worth, provoking others into attacking you so you could defend yourself was not cool... but you COULD heal allies and the like in a fight against foes. So long as you didn't provide combat buffs (which we figure is like giving a firearm to a soldier and then saying "hey, *I'm* not the one doing the killing!"), you were fine.

Basically, we treated my PC like a natural version of a combat medic.

It was also his goal to preach pacifism, and always seek a non-violent end first.

Also, we ruled that certain types of enemy were exempt from all this - the undead, for example, as well as many abominations and fiends.

But as a general rule, yeah, they're a little rough to play as a PC.... they're more for NPC types, I think.

Protection spells would also be allowed, I guess.