Paladin / Warlock Faith conflict query

[cbwjm]

The argument against this is, humans are free to worship one or all the gods, and most of the peoples do pay reverence to all of the ones important to them, but they aren't priests and paladins. The difference is that to be a cleric or paladin, they give their faith and devotion to one god only, and in return, that god grants its blessings. Gods gain their power through worship. They want all the worshipers they can get to increase their status in the pantheon and increase their influence on the world. When they have less worshipers, they weaken, and when they have none, they can't influence the world at all. Because this the way their power and influence work, they will not be willing to share it. (Story theory)

The argument against this is that we have had pantheonist priests in the past, no reason this couldn't also be the case in a 5e game. Even paladins in the past weren't required to follow a god, they just had to be lawful good. It's only specific campaign settings, like the forgotten realms, that required them to follow a specific god.

 

[Guest 6801328]

You know that scene in The Wire when Brother Mouzone and Omar corner Stringer Bell in the abandoned building?

One of them is your deity, one of them is your patron, and one of them is you. Guess which is which.

EDIT:

Oh, hey, whaddya know....here it is (TL;DW: jump to 2:40)

[video=youtube;XXOvbEJRfRg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXOvbEJRfRg[/video]

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my campaign, I would allow any multi classing, however the player needs to provide a good back story to why this is happening (from my experience they are clever people and can usually justify this). Doing it just for meta gaming reasons I do not like (a one level dip then change to get the savings throws for instance) does not justify it and I would not allow it, however so far players have always been able to find in game reasons in the character concept to do this.

Why? Ultimately, a class is just a meta game construct players use to build a concept. If my player wants to play a character that is best represented by 2 levels of rogue and then all future levels in warlock, so what? If there is a concept being explored and mechanically represented, that’s all that matters.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

These discussions bring so forth so many house rules masquerading as 'one true faith' gaming!

The question was how I handle conflicts that might arise, and this is how I handle it. If things work differently in your game world, then I don't know anything about that.

It looks like the absolutism of AD&D paladins will still take another generation to die out. Oh well.

Blame Tolkien. He may not have had paladins, but he had the absolutism of Good and Evil down solid.

 

[Riley37]

Gods gain their power through worship. They want all the worshipers they can get to increase their status in the pantheon and increase their influence on the world. When they have less worshipers, they weaken, and when they have none, they can't influence the world at all.

So you say. There's a religion which says that the creator-god had enough power to create humanity, *before that god had any worshippers at all.* Your religious assumptions are showing and you're applying them as if they were universal to D&D, rather than specific to your table.
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I have some familiarity with ancient Greek and Roman religion. I have NEVER come across ANY hint, in the stories of those cultures, that worship of one god is a zero-sum trade-off against worship of another god. Odysseus gets along particularly well with Athena; that isn't a loss for Zeus. Aeneas sacrifices to the Penates one day, and to Hera on another day.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

Why? Ultimately, a class is just a meta game construct players use to build a concept. If my player wants to play a character that is best represented by 2 levels of rogue and then all future levels in warlock, so what? If there is a concept being explored and mechanically represented, that’s all that matters.

Yes to build a concept, tell me the concept and the 'story' that goes with it, not just a mechanical concept, min/max is just not going to be a good enough reason, the game story is the responsibility of both me (the DM) and the player.

 

[ccs]

Certainly you should check with the DM to see if multiclassing is ok. But if they say yes I’d say it is up to you to explain how your character thinks about it.

While you can certainly think about it however you please, you aren't the only one who needs to be thinking about this. That's why I remind you to include your DM.

 

[ccs]

I have some familiarity with ancient Greek and Roman religion. I have NEVER come across ANY hint, in the stories of those cultures, that worship of one god is a zero-sum trade-off against worship of another god. Odysseus gets along particularly well with Athena; that isn't a loss for Zeus. Aeneas sacrifices to the Penates one day, and to Hera on another day.

Yes, because there's no tales of pettiness/jealousy/rivalry/spitefulness etc at all in Greek & Roman myth....

 

[ccs]

"As the saying goes, you cannot serve two masters."

I recognize that saying from one specific real-world religion. The one you were raised in, perhaps? Do all the gods in all D&D settings follow the teachings of that particular religion?

The range of answers to this question, follows from the range of religious beliefs of the forum participants. Those who were raised in a religion and don't actively practice it, still tend to hold deep assumptions based on its teachings.

Wonder Woman has gifts from six deities: "Demeter, great strength; Athena, wisdom and courage; Artemis, a hunter's heart and a communion with animals; Aphrodite, beauty and a loving heart; Hestia, sisterhood with fire; Hermes, speed and the power of flight." If Wonder Woman isn't welcome at your table or in your setting, then that's your choice. I'll find her a seat at mine.

As a player, I find that Oath of Ancients and Archfey Patron go together just fine.

Wonder Woman is, your Warlock/Paladin MC character isn't.
Chalk it up to the gods having a family spat or something at an inconvenient time for your character.
Or better yet, perhaps the Fates saw that you would not MC like this.

 

[Olrox17]

I'll just share this: in my game, eldritch blast scales on warlock levels, not total character levels. This little house rule has really reduced the amount of paladins (and sorcerers, and bards) trying to MC warlock.
The few ones that still do it, they do it for interesting story reasons.