Dragonlance [Dragonlance/Faerun] Anyone here met any Cataclysm/Wall of the Faithless defenders?

[Orius]

If I were going to run a Realms campaign, I'd probably just ignore the stupid thing altogether. It sounds mostly like a plot device for the post Time of Troubles metaplot in the novels, so there's a lot of good reason just to ignore it outright.

Playing a Flat Earth Atheist in the Realms sounds like something a troublemaker player would do since the idea is that the gods have a strongly enough presence in the world that people generally don't doubt they exist. But unless you're playing a cleric or other strongly religious sort of character, then I don't see that it's a big deal if a character is more casual about observances.

 

[Weiley31]

If I recall correctly, there WAS a faction in 3.0/3.5, either in the Planar Handbook or something, that basically declared their faction as atheistic(in regards to DND and its deities) and basically viewed the gods as just really SUPER POWERFUL mortals that reached that point and pretty much were liars about being actual gods.

Ah yes: Page 43 in the Planar Handbook. They're known as The Athar. They also had a more specialized division in their order, which was a prestige class, known as Defiants. Such a prestige class actually had bonuses to resisting divine spells and crap like that.

 

[Argyle King]

Sure, but much like the guy who says his level 1 paladin is going to Kill Bane, it is a motivation, but most DMs aren't going to actually have it happen, or stick.



Well, they supposedly have some way of telling, since they can judge you False. Which is "You say you believed, acted like you believed, but really you didn't"

And, the ability of the Judge of the Dead to know the truth of a soul isn't an unusual religious concept either.



Again, you are free to try, but usually "I ascend to godhood following this six-step path" is beyond the scope of most games.

And, I think the thing you are missing here is that none of these concepts really need the Wall. They are aided by the Wall, because you wrote them that way, but they could work without the Wall.

Am I responding as a player or am I responding as a character?

That's true. Though, I dug out some of my old 3E books. Allegedly, it's completely fine to die (or be dying) and decide in that moment that you want to believe (enough) in a deity to not be forced into the wall. As far as knowing if I'm lying? There are easy to acquire magic items and class features which make it so others cannot accurately divine my thoughts. Besides, this is why I would employ some disgruntled angels and devils.

Further thoughts: Smuggling people through the Wall as a supernatural coyote could be lucrative.

In a game where the Wall and supernatural politics (or the afterlife) matter, I do not see it as being outside the scope of the game to have character goals which relate to the Wall.

A lot of things could be done without the Wall. It's not a feature of games in which I have played. At the same time, I do not believe the concept is inherently bad. I somewhat agree that the implementation of the idea is bad, but the concept isn't (I believe) bad by default.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Am I responding as a player or am I responding as a character?

That's true. Though, I dug out some of my old 3E books. Allegedly, it's completely fine to die (or be dying) and decide in that moment that you want to believe (enough) in a deity to not be forced into the wall. As far as knowing if I'm lying? There are easy to acquire magic items and class features which make it so others cannot accurately divine my thoughts. Besides, this is why I would employ some disgruntled angels and devils.

Further thoughts: Smuggling people through the Wall as a supernatural coyote could be lucrative.

In a game where the Wall and supernatural politics (or the afterlife) matter, I do not see it as being outside the scope of the game to have character goals which relate to the Wall.

A lot of things could be done without the Wall. It's not a feature of games in which I have played. At the same time, I do not believe the concept is inherently bad. I somewhat agree that the implementation of the idea is bad, but the concept isn't (I believe) bad by default.

Wow those colors are hard to read.

I don't think magic items help you when you are a dead soul, you also may not have class features. You certainly don't have spell slots (cause you are dead) so I don't see how you are blocking Godly Knowledge of your Soul. While alive? Sure. While Dead? Not so much.

And, sure, the concept of a Wall of Souls, is not inherently bad. But I'm talking about the concept in general, I have been specifically talking about the RAW implementation of this concept in FR.