Cleric Question

[guitarsk813]

I am currently planning on playing a cleric in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. His deity will be Kelemvor, God of Death. What I am wondering is this: It says under Kelemvor's dogma that a cleric of his faith should speak against those who would artificially prolong life beyond its natural limits. They should help others die with dignity at the time appointed. Does this mean that when a party member dies that i would be unwilling to cast raise dead or ressurection on them? Or would my faith be ok with that because it falls within "natural limits". Also, would my character instruct the party to leave his body be and to not resurrect him if he dies? I am just curious as to what other people think about this because some of the dogma seems to contradict with a clerics function in the party.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I would say that most deaths while adventuring would be definitely un-natural, and so could be reversed by a cleric of the God of Death.

One way to handle the restriction would be for the cleric to do some kind of divination with regard to different party members. If he decides that the wizard will die by drowning, he will intervene quite vigorously to prevent him from dying from something else. But he will probably not tolerate any attempt to rescue the wizard if he is knocked overboard.

Other "fated' deaths might be poison, fire, falling, etc..

 

[Gaiden]

Actually, I have a completely different take on this.

I would say that almost all deaths of PCs would be considered natural and thus as a DM I would rule zero on raising/resurrecting the players.

The specific time when a death would be unnatural would be from an unnatural cause - namely - undead. If an undead uses a special power that kills the PC then I would permit the resurrection as undead are an abomination to the standard life/death cycle.

Pretty much everything else would qualify as a natural death however.

 

[Trellian]

It's kinda important to read Kelemvors dogma, in F&A that is.. cause he's not exactly like any previous death god Faerun has experienced.

As Guitar said, Kelemvors agents works against those who are trying to prolong life artificially prolong life beyond NATURAL limits... I think Kelemvor actually is talking about longevity and undeath, as lichdom..

So in my opinion, its OK for you to raise your friends if the die. Most of them do not contribute anything to Kelemvor after all, unless they were Faithless (no deity), when in said case their souls would end up as mortar in the wall around Kelemvors City of Dead..

 

[Piratecat]

As Guitar said, Kelemvors agents works against those who are trying to prolong life artificially prolong life beyond NATURAL limits.

He's right. Go take out Elminster!

 

[Artoomis]

How about this for a different spin on it?

Since he's the God of Death, he's interested very much in dead people (right?).

Thus, he's would be opposed to characters returning from the dead unless they were likely to produce more offspring - which would, of course, produce more deaths, in the long run. For most characters, this means raising/resurrection is okay, since adventurers tend to be young and fertile.

 

[DMFTodd]

You left out the important part "prolong their life beyond natural limits, *such as the undead*"

I don't see raises and resurrections being against the god. Kelemvor priests try to keep people from dieing (warning of plagues) so I don't see a reason they would want to undo an unnatural death.