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Are "evil gods" necessary? [THREAD NECRO]
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8023336" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>To add to what Voadam has said: both the cleric and the paladin are mechanical realisations of a Christian knight templar or warring bishop archetype or saintly king archetype. They are heavily armed and armoured. They heal with a touch; they abjure evil spirits; they conjure light in darkness, hurl their staves to the ground and turn them into serpents, and call down pillars of fire. Originaly they defaulted to good or lawful good - evil high priests were labelled "anti-clerics".</p><p></p><p>Having these archetypes worship pre-/non-Christian gods creates a strange state of affairs.</p><p></p><p>Another oddity is that the druid, who in archetypical terms is closer to a pagan priest, is often depicted as having no relation to the gods at all, but rather as drawing power from some nebulous "nature".</p><p></p><p>My own view is that it's not too much work in AD&D and 3E versions of the game to keep the mechanics but bring their religions and metaphysics into more sensible alignment with the archetypes. Maybe 5e makes it a bit trickier. 4e has it's own integration of classes to cosmology that makes sense on its own terms.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8023336, member: 42582"] To add to what Voadam has said: both the cleric and the paladin are mechanical realisations of a Christian knight templar or warring bishop archetype or saintly king archetype. They are heavily armed and armoured. They heal with a touch; they abjure evil spirits; they conjure light in darkness, hurl their staves to the ground and turn them into serpents, and call down pillars of fire. Originaly they defaulted to good or lawful good - evil high priests were labelled "anti-clerics". Having these archetypes worship pre-/non-Christian gods creates a strange state of affairs. Another oddity is that the druid, who in archetypical terms is closer to a pagan priest, is often depicted as having no relation to the gods at all, but rather as drawing power from some nebulous "nature". My own view is that it's not too much work in AD&D and 3E versions of the game to keep the mechanics but bring their religions and metaphysics into more sensible alignment with the archetypes. Maybe 5e makes it a bit trickier. 4e has it's own integration of classes to cosmology that makes sense on its own terms. [/QUOTE]
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