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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kahuna Burger" data-source="post: 1421991" data-attributes="member: 8439">Glad I made my way to this and Strangemonkey's post before commenting, cause now I feel better that everyone doesn't miss the distinction - there is a difference between culture and cosmology. And, yeah, I find it quite boring that most games are played under the assumption that the vast majority of the populace knows and believes the true cosmology of their universe. The idea that if there is only one god only one group will get spells misses the existance of godless clerics, or alligment clerics, etc. Cleric spells scale with level just like wizards, and there no super good reason to consider it the channeled power of the diety rather than personal power shaped by belief in said diety. Additionally, the idea that the common man actually KNOWS the difference between arcane and divine magic, why bards are arcane even though they get cure spells and how rangers and druids differ from clerics... come on! There can be sorcerers who think their spontaneous magic is a gift from their god of choice and a cleric who sees his spells as the power of his opressed people made manifest, and if your players think their characters know anything about true cosmology from it, call them metagamers and throw dice at them.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> In some of my games I privately consider the "true" cosmology of the world to be atheistic. Keeps everything easy, and characters can believe whatever they want and say whatever prayers they choose while gaining their spells. Spells like commune and such are divinations just like scrying, and have no more need of a diety. In another, I'll probably have a deciever god or two. True cosmology is an issue for the DM alone in most cases, and religion is determined for each culture individually. A monotheistic culture is fine and dandy, and when they encounter a polytheistic (or other monotheistic) one with similar miracles, they can just do what Jack Chick does - say its demons giving them fake power to fool them out of their souls.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> Kahuna Burger</blockquote>

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