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Originally Posted by BalazarIago
It is not the place of a priest to decide if the actions of his God were appropriate or not. What exactly did he expect his God to do? Send an Avatar to kill the goblins and rescue the important and obviously devout 3rd level cleric?
I side with you. The gods don't save their follower's backsides personally all the time (except if the goddess in question is named Mystra and the follower is Elminster, of course, but then, you can argue that lovers look out for each other ;-)). But that's not really the point. That poor guy did just endure months of torture, which is a tremendous strain on body, mind, soul and spirit. He felt left alone by his god. Things like this can change person.
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I don't argue that the priest went through a tremendous ordeal. I guess the main question I have here is what did the character expect his God to do? What would have had to happen for the priest to feel that his God had not abandoned him?
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Who is to say that his God did not arrange for the arrival of the adventuring party or that He stayed the hand of the goblin leaders.
If that were true, than there would have been a sooner rescue.
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That would have to depend on how long it takes to manipulate the world to cause the desired effect. Having no experience with this, I will have to defer to others on this.
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Who is to say that the priest was not being punished for his lack of faith, or even tested to see if he is worthy.
The fact that we're talking about Lathander. Lathander's neither evil nor stern. Lolth does things like that to her followers all the time, for she's evil and chaotic. Ilmater might do things like that, since he's the deity of suffering. Even deities like Tyr or Helm might do it, for they demand blind obedience. But Lathander is a gentle soul. He tests the hearts of his followers in different ways. (For example, he might let one of his followers fail in a athletic contest even though he's the best sportsman in there, because he didn't train hard enough. By thinking he was good enough for the rest, he stopped becoming better. Only if he tried hard he'd become the best again.)
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If the priest feels that at the first sign of personal anguish, lose and setback, is a sign that his God has forsaken him, then he obviously places more value on his role in the Church that is reasonable.
I'm sorry? First sign of anguish? He was tortured for months. After he had to witness most of his comrades die. The fact that he survived this shows that he's all but squeamish.
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As for him changing Gods. An Evil God might take him, just for spite, but a Lawful Good God would not. Who is to say that at the first sign of difficulty, this priest won't bail again. He obviously feels that a God is required to earn his devotion, instead of learning that it is the God who requires a level of devotion and repays that devotion with granting the priest special powers and divine spells.
Again, we aren't talking about "the first sign of difficulty". Tyr would see that this soul has suffered much and now burns with the desire to right the wrong done to him. I'd say that he'll receive him with open hands.
And the gods have to earn the devotion of their followers. After Ao saw that the gods had become careless, he first cast them down onto the Prime, and after the Time of Troubles was over, he declared that the power of a deity is directly dependant on his followers, so they actually have to vie for them. That's also the reason why only deities can grant divine magic now.
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I misspoke regarding this due to the fact that I forgot we were talking about Forgotten Realms. Based on your above comment, then yes, I can see Tyr taking the priest into his fold.
Hrmmm, makes you wonder if Tyr arranged for the Priest to be captured and tortured so that his view of the world would be drastically changed and therefore want to join Tyr.
I can understand the young priest having this crisis of faith. Wondering why his God had forsaken him, or what he had done for his God to ignore his pleas for help and salvation. To be honest, this is something only his DM can answer.
For the record, I don't see the actions of the Character as a sign of bad roleplaying. I think that the player is doing very well. But I do question if the player is playing a Cleric well. But that is mostly left up to opinion.
A priest who has been given the powers of his God, who has been blessed with divine powers and divine spells, is someone special and has a special link with his God. They are not friends, but they have a very strong bond. In the opinion of the character (and the Player by default), the God has made a horrible breach of trust and as such, the priest is leaving the fold. I have no problem with any of that, but one thing I would expect to see from that priest would be to search out why. Why did his God forsake him. Why did his God ignore his pleas. This is something, as a priest, I would want to know. Did I do something wrong?
The fact that the priest has changed his outlook because the events that occured, not withstanding, does not change who the character is at heart. He is angry, he feels betrayed and he wants vengence. The interesting thing I see here, is that he does not want vengence on those who hurt him physically, but he wants vengence on the God who let it happen.
