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Will Favoured Soul be required to choose a God in AL?
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<blockquote data-quote="Pauper" data-source="post: 7177765" data-attributes="member: 17607"><p>I don't know that it's pointless to speculate, but it's probably pointless to get too worked up over the options. I kind of like speculating, though.</p><p></p><p>To my mind, this is really more of a 'how much are you into the Forgotten Realms as a setting' question. To see what I mean, let's look at paladins.</p><p></p><p>The Player's Handbook does not explicitly state that paladins must worship a deity -- paladins derive their powers from the strength of the oath that they swear at 3rd level (and, in theory, any preparatory oaths they take prior to that). Yet many paladins in AL do have patron deities -- particularly those who fall along the more traditional 'LG and LG-adjacent' section of the alignment grid. It's not at all uncommon to sit down at a table with a paladin and have the first question asked be "Paladin of whom?" The idea of a paladin who doesn't worship a specific deity is odd enough that, even though the rules allow it, it seems off and 'wrong' to not do so, especially in the Realms, which is a setting in which the gods are far more visible and, for lack of a better term, 'activist' than in other settings.</p><p></p><p>In that sense, I suspect if you create a Favored Soul for AL (once the XTGE comes out), the most common question you're going to get is "Favored Soul of whom?" Divine sparks aren't just lying around waiting for people to pick them up and incorporate them into their souls -- the idea in the Realms would be that your spark indicates your connection to a divine power.</p><p></p><p>I could see that choosing a Favored Soul who doesn't know which deity provided the divine spark would be an interesting role-playing decision. Still, that sort of choice works much better in an independent campaign, where the DM can incorporate that RP point into adventures, than it does in AL, where the campaign itself doesn't really care about your individual character's RP goals and drives. (For example, the campaign also doesn't include anything for Hermit characters to determine the secret bit of lore they've discovered and now have to deal with, or for characters with personality traits like "I seek an ancient scroll that is said to grant enlightenment to all who read it" to eventually find the item they're seeking.) In that sense, you're better off treating the divine spark 'donor' as an acting decision -- the character may not know who it is, but you as the person running the character should know, if only because then you can effectively play the character in those accidental moments where an adventure provides an opportunity for your character to figure out some of the mystery.</p><p></p><p>tl;dr: You probably won't be required to choose a deity for a Favored Soul, just as you don't have to choose one for a Paladin, but in the Realms, it'll seem weird if you don't.</p><p></p><p>--</p><p>Pauper</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pauper, post: 7177765, member: 17607"] I don't know that it's pointless to speculate, but it's probably pointless to get too worked up over the options. I kind of like speculating, though. To my mind, this is really more of a 'how much are you into the Forgotten Realms as a setting' question. To see what I mean, let's look at paladins. The Player's Handbook does not explicitly state that paladins must worship a deity -- paladins derive their powers from the strength of the oath that they swear at 3rd level (and, in theory, any preparatory oaths they take prior to that). Yet many paladins in AL do have patron deities -- particularly those who fall along the more traditional 'LG and LG-adjacent' section of the alignment grid. It's not at all uncommon to sit down at a table with a paladin and have the first question asked be "Paladin of whom?" The idea of a paladin who doesn't worship a specific deity is odd enough that, even though the rules allow it, it seems off and 'wrong' to not do so, especially in the Realms, which is a setting in which the gods are far more visible and, for lack of a better term, 'activist' than in other settings. In that sense, I suspect if you create a Favored Soul for AL (once the XTGE comes out), the most common question you're going to get is "Favored Soul of whom?" Divine sparks aren't just lying around waiting for people to pick them up and incorporate them into their souls -- the idea in the Realms would be that your spark indicates your connection to a divine power. I could see that choosing a Favored Soul who doesn't know which deity provided the divine spark would be an interesting role-playing decision. Still, that sort of choice works much better in an independent campaign, where the DM can incorporate that RP point into adventures, than it does in AL, where the campaign itself doesn't really care about your individual character's RP goals and drives. (For example, the campaign also doesn't include anything for Hermit characters to determine the secret bit of lore they've discovered and now have to deal with, or for characters with personality traits like "I seek an ancient scroll that is said to grant enlightenment to all who read it" to eventually find the item they're seeking.) In that sense, you're better off treating the divine spark 'donor' as an acting decision -- the character may not know who it is, but you as the person running the character should know, if only because then you can effectively play the character in those accidental moments where an adventure provides an opportunity for your character to figure out some of the mystery. tl;dr: You probably won't be required to choose a deity for a Favored Soul, just as you don't have to choose one for a Paladin, but in the Realms, it'll seem weird if you don't. -- Pauper [/QUOTE]
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