OotS 908

[Kaodi]

Mr. Burlew has confirmed that that was an inflict wounds spell; Durkon never prepared cure spells (because why would he?). When he tried to spontaneously cast one on Roy, it turned into an inflict spell, instead.

Alignment is one of those topics that pops up often over there, but no one ever convinces anybody of anything.

I personally believe that Durkon has exhibited evil (or at least dishonorable) behavior in this strip (I don't think the old, Lawful Good Durkon would ever have coup-de-gras-ed a a foe.) I further don't believe that Thor would grant spells to a vampire. Hel might, but, because of the wording of previous prophecy, I think it is much more likely that Durkon serves Nergal, now (whether he knows it or not).

No where in the rules does it say that becoming a vampire causes you do worship and draw power from the closest thing there is to a god of death. And especially I have never seen a rule for "your patron deity changes and you do not know it" .

An evil cleric (or a neutral cleric of an evil deity), can’t convert prepared spells to cure spells but can convert them to inflict spells (an inflict spell is one with "inflict" in its name).

As long as Durkon is evil he must cast inflict spells spontaneously regardless of who he follows. Thor may not give a damn about Durkon's alignment as long as he is serving the Order's cause. And I am not sure the fact that Durkon was forcibly turned into a vampire would be all that compelling a reason to stop granting Durkon power as long as Durkon did not do anything really offencive.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No where in the rules does it say that becoming a vampire causes you do worship and draw power from the closest thing there is to a god of death. And especially I have never seen a rule for "your patron deity changes and you do not know it" .

Maybe he knows and isn't telling.

 

[MarkB]

I personally believe that Durkon has exhibited evil (or at least dishonorable) behavior in this strip (I don't think the old, Lawful Good Durkon would ever have coup-de-gras-ed a a foe.) I further don't believe that Thor would grant spells to a vampire. Hel might, but, because of the wording of previous prophecy, I think it is much more likely that Durkon serves Nergal, now (whether he knows it or not).

I don't think changing deities as a high-level cleric could ever be that easy.

Depending upon how you interpret divine spellcasting, it's quite possible that the spells Durkon has memorised are effectively already 'his', and he can cast them regardless of a patron deity - it's when he tries praying for new spells that he'll run into problems.

Or Thor, being Thor, simply hasn't been paying enough attention to notice that anything odd is going on with Durkon.

 

[darrell_uk]

Assuming that Rich is following the D&D rules still (big assumption) than a diety swap may not even be necessary.

Clerics msy be one "step" away away in alignment from their god. If for instance Thor were LN, Durkan could switch from LG to LE without changing religion.

As I said though, ASSUMING.

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[Nyeshet]

I don't think changing deities as a high-level cleric could ever be that easy.

Depending upon how you interpret divine spell casting, it's quite possible that the spells Durkon has memorized are effectively already 'his', and he can cast them regardless of a patron deity - it's when he tries praying for new spells that he'll run into problems.

Or Thor, being Thor, simply hasn't been paying enough attention to notice that anything odd is going on with Durkon.

I tend to take this view of the situation: Durkon is using spells he has already received. Tomorrow morning is when he will have trouble (maybe). One thing to consider is that Durkon is LG while Thor is (usually) depicted as CG, a two step difference that should not be possible by the RAW. Or perhaps Thor makes an exception for dwarves. (ie: They are generally lawful, so as long as they are LG - that is, match at least one part of Thor's AL - Thor will accept them as his clerics.) On the other hand, if the one-step rule does apply, if Durkon has completely flipped AL (to CE) then he is still within one step of Thor's CG. The next couple strips should be enlightening.

 

[JediSoth]

Or Thor's too preoccupied with drinking and carousing to really care what one worshipper's new alignment is. This is the same god who installed a voice-prompt system to fulfill spell requests because he couldn't be bothered with it.