Forgotten Realms: Shar Cleric + Shadow Weave = Sith Lord?

[Matafuego]

Relying on Disguise Self will be difficult since I only have a single hour duration at level 6. Could always go for the Phantom of the Opera look, or the Tom Cruise character from Vanilla Sky. That was creepy.

I wouldn't wear a Mask if I were you, or your character might get tackled

 

[Sound of Azure]

That's great!




Update: Just talked to DEm and appraised him of my background. Due to that, he's easing off on the whole deformity thing.
Looks like he really likes the character background I wrote, and really wants to run with it. I'm still gonna end up all Sith-lord-ish eventually, but not as bad as before.It'll still happen, but slower than before.
DM is also allowing me a magic item to disguise myself, in addition to my own protections.
If my PC pleases Shar enough, it could be arrested completely, possibly reversed.

Not as good a change as I'd hoped but as I said, I'll run with it anyway.

 

[Drowbane]

Bah. Don't sell your soul to Shar. Shar doesn't give a rat's turd about you. Now Orcus on the other hand...he'd like you.

That is precisely what my Deathmaster tries to convince everyone!

 

[sckeener]

I'm not going to go against the DMs idea (it's his campaign, after all), but has anyone heard of this before? I'm not exactly up on FR fiction or even much of the background material.

agreed that it is his game, but that is just silly.

Is he going to give you any bonuses for this extra penalty?

(yeah, I read the other posts and that he is going to do it slower now...but it is still a penalty)

 

[Nyaricus]

Is he going to give you any bonuses for this extra penalty?

(yeah, I read the other posts and that he is going to do it slower now...but it is still a penalty)

That's a good point - you should get like +1 caster level or SOMETHING.

(Go for the +1 Caster level )

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Shadow weave users turn ugly? That's the worst thing I ever heard. It doesn't make sense. It makes anti-sense. It's the living antithesis of all that is sense.

- It's not Star Wars. If you want to DM Star Wars, DM Star Wars.
- Shar is a goddess of secrets. And the Shadow Weave is one of her greatest secrets. Now if all practicioners would turn ugly within the tenday, it woudln't really help the secrecy part, would it?
- Even the Shadovar (who dwelled on the Shadow Plane for centuries) aren't ugly. Quite the opposite, they're possessed of a (admittedly dark) beauty. And they're no longer human.
- This is not necromancy. You don't die from using shadow magic. You're no zombie.
- There are effects from using shadow magic, but they're not physical. They're mostly a darkness of the soul as you're severed from the Weave. You might get a dark complexion and seem somehow cold, but no ugliness. How are those shadow adepts supposed to seduce others to their dark ways?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I read a short story about a shadow weave user just so I could get flavor for me own. Your DM is off-base. The shadow weave used to do Wis damage if you didn't have shar as a parton diety. It corrupts mentally if you don't have proper control, but the physical affects are nil and actually counter productive to Shars ends.

The dude in the story was charming, albeit a bit pale, and free of deformity. Only the leader of the group of humans he was trying to subvert to his will was not willing to follow him. He forged some swords that granted him power over their souls, and the leaders men all willingly picked up the swords, and after a great loss, the leader did too.

That Dude wasn't just a shadow weave user, either. He was one of the Princes of Shade. That means he wasn't even human any more.

Other popular Shadow Weave Users:

Aeron Morieth: This one actually predates 3e. He learned to tap this "new source of power", but still managed to cling to the regular weave. He was a half elf sorcerer with a very intuitive understanding of magic. Of course, he prevailed in the end, but there were some instances where the influence of the Shadow Weave heavily clouded his judgement.

Galaeron Nihmedu: The Sorcerer from the Return of the Archwizards Trilogy. He, too, had his soul darkened by the shadow weave (paranoia, periods of unconsiousness you would easily describe as sleep if it were not for the fact that he was an elf, and so on), but didn't turn ugly, either.

Erevis Cale: Okay, not necessarily a Shadow Weave User, but he became a shade by the machinations of his deity. His skin turned dark, but he didn't turn ugly, either.

Spoiler TAG for whomever lives on Endoor and missed SW Ep 2 thru 6 (!)

Well,

Spoiler

Palpatine wasn't THAT deformed in his public appearances...

So maybe your character can do it. What does your DM think about it?

Plus, he wasn't deformed by the Dark Side. He was deformed by force attack launched by a jedi. Vader wasn't deformed by the Dark Side, either, but by more or less natural causes.

 

[Sound of Azure]

"Darth Zelkyr"

Hey, all this talk of Star Wars makes me want to play Knights of the old republic!

First session went well tonight. Everyone had lots of fun playing in character, especially at the little star wars references here and there.

This week was the second week of play, with two other characters being introduced that week. This session opened with my character arriving at Waterdeep, observing an altercation between a rather confused young Mulhorandi teen (PC of the other new player) and the city guards.

My PC ended up taking this kid under my wing, making him address my PC as "Father Zelkyri" and generally turning him into my "apprentice". It was pretty funny, and became something of a running joke. The "kid" already owes my PC several favours in getting him out of trouble with others, as well as several monetary favours I helped him with. He seems happy to act very erratically and violently whenever possible, so...maybe not that much of a challenge.

I've also started the temptation of a barmaid to the "dark side", giving into anger at her family for selling her to the Inn she works at.
There's also a Selunite cleric at the Temple of Stars that's taken an interest in my PC. I'll see where that leads over time.

I also "guided" the whole party into doing what I wanted by subtly guiding our tactical discussions in the direction I wanted. Managed to take 3/4 of our reward without anyone else noticing, just by taking the job of writing down the treasure. One person picked an item, then I briskly moved on. No one said anything

A few other surprises rule-wise: taking damage while on holy ground unless I had protective spells up (like protection from good). Rapid alignment change: Several of the other PCs changed alignment (sometimes twice!) during the game today. Certain spells being "out of character", such as casting guidance on the rogue, being too helpful. Also, my clerical wand of cure light wounds failed to work on the "kid". I'm not sure why, yet (DM didn't say, but said it might be revealed later if I look in the right way).

Apart from when I actually mentioned I was going in disguise somewhere with disguise self operating, the "sith ugliness" thing didn't come up.

All in all, I had a great time... just the rules are taking a bit to get used to. It's slightly out of my usual expectations. On the other hand, everyone got quite into their characters, and I'm kinda enjoying hamming it up as a "faux-sith". Got some bonus XP for RPing in character the way I was, so I guess I'm doing something right!

Thanks all for the suggestions and interesting ideas!

Edit: Kae'yoss: Those stories sound really interesting. Could you list the novels/articles they come from so I may be able to track them down (Except Erevis Cale, my library has the trilogy with him in it)?

 

[Sound of Azure]

Oh yeah, in return for my deforming body, I got the Initiate of Shar feat from Champions of Ruin for free, and I will get bonus metamagic or item creation feats every fourth level I take in Shadow Adept and Nightcloak. He also threw in Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat (he said it fit in his opinion *shrug*).

Pretty generous, I thought!

 

[FrostedMini1337]

The short story was in the "The Best of the Realms", which is actually just a pretty sweet book overall.