Dark Sun and the Religion skill

[Neverfate]

Even an atheist can be a theologists.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

Even if there aren't gods performing miracles all the time, that doesn't mean that there aren't religions on Athas. (Just like in real life.)

There are religions worshipping several Sorcerer-kings, other minor religions, cults of a variety of different kinds, dead gods and their religions and the ever popular undead and immortal monsters. Still sounds pretty useful.

 

[SageMinerve]

While it is true that there are religions on Athas, even without gods, you can question the utility of devoting a skill to it.

Remember, this is not 3 ed: there are fewer skills, each one covering a wide range of topics. Furthermore, players have few ressources to devote to skills. Chances are, without any Divine classes, no character wil have Religion as a class skill. Because of that, the PC group as a whole will have difficulty succeeding in any but the easier skill checks.

Will the players consider investing in Religion, considering there are so many useful skills? If no PC is trained, can you as DM ask your players many difficult Religion skill checks?

It's true that there are enough topics to cover, like undead, demons/devils, elemental worshippers, etc. But I feel that I can't expect, as a DM, my players to be able to be very knowledgeable in these matters.

 

[occam]

There do exist Religion checks in some of the skill challenges in published 4e Dark Sun adventures. However, I've noticed that the DCs for the Religion checks seem to be lower than for equivalent skills, which I attributed to the expectation that almost no one would be trained in it.

 

[DracoSuave]

It's true that there are enough topics to cover, like undead, demons/devils, elemental worshippers, etc. But I feel that I can't expect, as a DM, my players to be able to be very knowledgeable in these matters.

To say PCs on Athas are not likely to be knowledgable of elemental worshippers is like saying a character in the Forgotten Realms isn't knowledgable of Selune and Tymora.

Elemental worship is not -at all- uncommon in Athas. Every nomadic tribe has some form of speaker to the Air, or Earth, or the Sun that fuels their power. Knowing how to find one who speaks to water itself can mean the difference between life and death. Knowing how not to offend the spirits of the land can prevent a druid from killing you in your sleep....

And religion also covers the clergy of the Sorcerer Kings....

Let's talk about that for a moment.

Every important city on Athas (except Tyr if you play after Kalak's death) is ruled over by a sorcerer-king. This sorcerer-king has a clergy of followers, called templars, who act as the center of worship for the sorcerer-kings. The sorcerer-kings actually have the ability to grant their templars powers.

Let's say you were accused of a crime.
The accuser? A templar.
Your judge? A templar.
The jailor? A templar.
The executioner? A templar.
The investigator? A templar.
You need a license to run a business? A templar.
You want to enslave a debtor? A templar.
You need a bank? A templar.

The important thing to remember here is that on ANY world where a clergy runs the show, knowledge of how that clergy works is pretty damn important.

Knowledge of religion is a damn survival skill on Athas.

 

[Obryn]

I'm under the impression that elemental worship is Nature-based, given its link to the primal power source.

-O

 

[Holy Bovine]

Well a few of the Sorcerer Kings are worshiped as divine beings by the followers (the one who rules Gulg is anyways) so Religion would help there. I have no problem if players don't want their PCs having religion at all - like others have said undead still exist and knowing weaknesses and vulnerabilities is key to fighting them in 4E. We start almost every fight with the question "Can I do a monster knowledge check for this thing?" when fighting something we've never encountered before. Of course the DM sometimes makes us guess which skill is actually relevant!

 

[Obryn]

In all seriousness, given that there are plenty of monsters in the Creature book with Religion-based Lore, I'd say it's not a horrible idea.

Probably not the best idea, but it's not like I'm banning it!

-O

 

[Camelot]

I guess in the end, I'd let the player decide.

If the player said, "I want to be knowledgeable on the topic of elemental spirits; I'll be trained in Nature," I'd let them use that skill in those situations.

If the player said, "I want to be knowledgeable on the topic of elemental spirits; I'll be trained in Religion," I'd let them use that skill in those situations.

 

[DracoSuave]

I'm under the impression that elemental worship is Nature-based, given its link to the primal power source.

-O

I'm under the impression that religion is Religion based, given its link to religion.

-D


(that is to say, both are probably correct)