Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 5651511" data-attributes="member: 14159">I'll agree 100% that the 1e/2e rule of nerfing clerics based on the power of their patron was poor game design.I don't think there are 7 levels of power though, for the record.  Quasi-deity and hero-deity are both Divine Rank 0, just different names for the same thing.  Quasi-deity, demigod, lesser god, intermediate god, greater god, overdeity. . .and I don't know of any overdeities in official D&D settings that have Clerics, they usually don't need or ask them.  Okay, in Forgotten Realms Ao had some "ministers" for a few years. . .but they get no spells, and it's implied that they only arose because Ao made his existence known to mortals at the end of the Avatar Crisis/Time of Troubles and thus drew worshippers who wanted to follow the mightiest deity of all, but that sect collapsed over time when it was clear he didn't grant spells or even want mortal followers.Clerics are the envoys of their deities on the material plane, and their power level is more the power of that mortal (in skill and experience in using divine gifts) than what their deity grants them.  A high level Cleric of a weak Divine Rank 0 quasi-deity is almost certainly the most senior priest of his religion (may even have been a friend of the deity before he ascended), and would wipe the floor with a low level Cleric of the Divine Rank 20 Greater God of a huge portfolio, and if that low Level Cleric thought that "My god can beat up your god" would be a good yardstick to base who to get into a fight on, he'll probably be standing before his god in the afterlife explaining that logic soon.  In this case, no matter how strong the deities are, it's the skill of the clerics themselves that is at question.</blockquote>

Verification