D&D General Clerics and Divine Ascension

[dave2008]

So, you haven't got a quote, and have in fact made it up? It's fine for it to be the rules for your campaign, but please don't claim it's official D&D lore.

That Planescape quote says absolutely nothing to support what you were claiming, which was:



And that's simply not true. There is no D&D lore I'm aware of that supports this notion that "every other god" will come after you for messing with the Prime Material. There's no trans-pantheon agreement not to mess with the Prime Material. It might be a bad idea in the sense that you're pooping where you eat and you're going to piss other gods off if you cause a huge mess and kill their worshippers, but that's a completely different thing from "under pain of death by every other god coming after you".

In the BECMI Immortal rules, gods (Immortals) couldn't enter the Prime in their godly form, they had to assume a mortal form. Page 3 of the Player's Guide to Immortals: "Whenever the character revisits the Prime Plane, the character can only assume his or her original mortal form." There is more description on page 25 under Original Form.

Also, in the 2e Legends and Lore page 6: "They never visit the Prime Material Plane in their true forms, for this plane is the focus of so much divine attention that it is impossible for any deity, no matter how powerful, to enter it personally." And on the same page under Avatars: "When a god has business upon the true Prime Material Plane, he must send an avatar.

From the 3e Deities and Demigods, page 18, intercession by the D&D Pantheon side bar: "The gods of the D&D pantheon are keenly interested in events on the Material Plane, but they stay on the Outer Planes by general agreement..." and "...When the deities of the D&D pantheon intercede in mortal affairs, they often do so indirectly or through intermediaries."

I am sure there is more like this, but these seemed like the most broadly applicable that I could think of off the top of my head. So I don't know about tracking down another gods, but there is a lot of lore about gods not being able to directly act in the Prime. Fortunately I don't use published settings so I am free to ignore all of that and have gods walk among mortals in their full power (if I want).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So I don't know about tracking down another gods, but there is a lot of lore about gods not being able to directly act in the Prime.

Yeah there's always been stuff about that - though it varies edition-to-edition, setting-to-setting, and often self-contradicts - but for me "Unable to enter the Prime Material" is totally and completely different from "Able to enter it but triggers a Divine lynch mob/hunting party". YMMV.

 

[Bohandas]

i dont know what the official statement is in ANY edition of D&D on divine ascension of clerics, but essentially what a cleric is, is a servant of a god among the planes (mostly material plane) so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have them become different gods (maybe servitor gods) considering they are a cleric.

In Greyhawk, the paladin Murlynd canonically became a servitor god to Heironeous

well to me its kinda obvious and i thinking about other divine casters in editions such as 3e such as favored soul, which is a class where you are basically a lesser avatar of a god. if your running a campaign and you for some reason want to continue playing the game when your players characters rise to godhood; or you just want to have a closing narrative, and no other options seem appealing, heres an option, the cleric becomes their patron deity. basically the essence of the cleric and the deity merge, the alignment of the deity now becomes the alignment of the cleric and that players character now dictates the behavior of that god. this also opens up room for slight shifts in gods alignments over time as the most significant servants of them whom they allow to maintain their powers can be new influences on the direction of the religion.

not a super fleshed out idea or anything, just a passing thought i think it might be interesting to some.

The word for this is "Theosis"

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The word for this is "Theosis"

Ooooooh that's a new word to me and I have a ridiculously large vocabulary! Thank you!

 

[dave2008]

Ooooooh that's a new word to me and I have a ridiculously large vocabulary! Thank you!

Pretty close and related to "Apotheosis"

 

[Umbran]

The word for this is "Theosis"

Not to be confused with "theitis" - the inflammation of a deity.

 

[Celebrim]

The word for this is "Theosis"

Theological quibble:

The described idea is closer to Henosis. Theosis has a more specific meaning.

 

[Arch-Fiend]

no i kinda think theosis is closer to what i was describing with growing in likeness or unity with your patron deity. the other term for theosis is deification though not with the idea that you become a separate deity from your patron deity but become that deity.

 

[Umbran]

The described idea is closer to Henosis.

In which the character becomes... a giant chicken.

 

[Maxperson]

So, you haven't got a quote, and have in fact made it up? It's fine for it to be the rules for your campaign, but please don't claim it's official D&D lore.

That Planescape quote says absolutely nothing to support what you were claiming, which was:

And that's simply not true. There is no D&D lore I'm aware of that supports this notion that "every other god" will come after you for messing with the Prime Material. There's no trans-pantheon agreement not to mess with the Prime Material. It might be a bad idea in the sense that you're pooping where you eat and you're going to piss other gods off if you cause a huge mess and kill their worshippers, but that's a completely different thing from "under pain of death by every other god coming after you".

Re read it dude. It says exactly what I said. Here's the quote you deliberately ignored.

"Simply put, gods who start warring on the Prime are just begging to have every other power in the multiverse eliminate them"