Help with roleplaying...

Alright, so I'm starting a new campaign tonight in my friend's game, and I have absolutely no idea how I want to play my cleric... The only real guidelines that I have are that he's a cleric of Aymara, godess of love, music, etc. from The Book of the Righteous.

I have a feeling that he'll like to spread the words of his religion (mainly love and beuaty stuff) but I'm just not sure how to convey all of it. HELLLLLP! PLEEEEASE!
 

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Trevalon Moonleirion said:
Alright, so I'm starting a new campaign tonight in my friend's game, and I have absolutely no idea how I want to play my cleric... The only real guidelines that I have are that he's a cleric of Aymara, godess of love, music, etc. from The Book of the Righteous.

I have a feeling that he'll like to spread the words of his religion (mainly love and beuaty stuff) but I'm just not sure how to convey all of it. HELLLLLP! PLEEEEASE!
Seeing how he's a cleric of the goddess of love & music, give him some ranks in Perform, and have him sing songs about the goddess and about the power of love and beauty whenever they are in a town, or he has interested and willing listeners. Maybe all the important points of the religion have been set to music? I don't have Book of the Righteous, so I can't speak more to the religion itself, but those are some ideas that just spring to mind.
 

Cleric as a mechanical class is set up to be the generic paladin, a god's divinely powered combat champion with more emphasis on spells than a paladin has. I normally see them as fanatic devotees warriors. Other models are a priest, an extreme devotee of love who is simply in tune with her grace.

For roleplaying the love and beauty ethos angle it is easy to go overboard into farce such as an over the top Queer Eye imitation. I'd recommend avoiding this temptation.

I don't own it so I am not familiar with the BotR deities. I'd take one aspect of your deities portfolio and make that your character's interest. Decide if you want to play a hedonist, or a devotee of chivalrous romance, or even an intellectual snob who looks down on those who don't appreciate fine art.
 

Voadam said:
Decide if you want to play a hedonist, or a devotee of chivalrous romance, or even an intellectual snob who looks down on those who don't appreciate fine art.

I am not familiar with BotR either, as I do not own the book. :)

However, I see clerics as someone who would spread all aspects of their religion's beliefs - a.k.a. all the aspects of the deity's portfolio.

As Cthulhu's Librarian suggested, perhaps have him sing of the beauty of love and kindness, or somesuch. Perhaps make him unwilling to engage in battle unless direly threatened, as harming someone is against his beliefs of "love all", or because he is unwilling to cause harm or loss of beauty to another.

I play a priestess of Sune (from the Forgotten Realms, the goddess of Love and Beauty). I generally play her as being unwilling to cause permanent harm to another. She tends to use damaging spells only against monsters such as undead, constructs, or demons, and charm spells against others (never underestimate the force of a charm spell - remember, most things have bad Will saves! And at higher levels, you get things like Dominate). She also refuses to use "ugly" spells (ones that cause an unpleasant visual effect, like Horrid Wilting). She tends to be kind and diplomatic to everyone, even though in many cases she needn't. I don't know about the goddess Aymara, but Sune preaches that "beauty is more than skin-deep" and that beauty should be shown in your personality and dealings with others, as well as love.

Now, that's not to say that you couldn't play a hedonist, or a devotee of chivalrous romance, or even an snob. :) My character quite often tells her companions how "quaint" and "rustic" the inn they are staying at is, or how their campsite is, etc. (And believe me, the other PCs can sense the sarcasm hidden under the heavy, thick layer of diplomacy). ;)
 

Wow. A surprising problem. You don't know what kind of concepts to pull together for the role-playing of a cleric. And I had always thought they were the most 'pre-filled out' role-playing class in the game...

Well, my recommendations are to make use of your spells components and such in role-playing. When "Shield of Faith" calls for a small bit of holy text, use that as a good opportunity for a solid (possibly funny, possibly profound) one-liner from your character. Write down a few catch phrases and mini-philosophies. Ones that you can quote at good times, but won't bog down the game with lectures.

Also, a little bit of normal character development like being fanatical about one of the aspects of your religion tend to be great ways to provide that necessary motivation for an adventure. As a cleric of love, I'd have to say that when you find a man and woman that seem to be quite susceptable to love for each other, you should make your opinions and actions count towards that goal.

Being loud helps, since you are probably not going to be quite and contemplative... but there are reasons for those kinds of moments. Maybe it would be wise for your character to carry a bit of wine, to let that liquid courage do the work for your god at times (not that I'd ever support such a belief in life, but it's great for a character). Be vague when necessary, and profound when you can...

And most of all, the best thing I can recommend is that as a player you write down a few paragraphs and little bits and pieces of "religion" surrounding your diety to quote and abide by in character.

That's it for now, though I would like to ramble for a bit longer.
 

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