The great deception revealed in 'religious texts'

[Turjan]

That's why Rule 0 exists. If it bothers you that there is anything listed under "favored weapon," then take a black Sharpie and strike it out. Problem solved for your game!

Or replace it by something less lethal:

Favored Weapon: lousy limericks. Opponents must make a Will save DC 20 each round or permanently lose one point of INT.

 

[Driddle]

I disagree with the idea that every god has to have a favored weapon...

Others here have said much the same thing.
But can you show me a WotC D&D product that doesn't end its description of a gawd without a weapon reference?

I'm all for a "favored something else" instead -- favored effect, favored spell, favored color, favored skill, favored rodent casserole recipe ... whatever. Haven't seen it yet, though.

 

[Goblyn]

Buh???

Of all the elements that comprise this system, you'd think that religion would offer the greatest opportunity to define the campaign as something other than hack-and-slash.

Why would you think that? Religion is as hack-and-slash as it gets.

But, that is beside the point, really. We don't want to get into a discussion about religion because not only is it not allowed, it's also pointless.

The real reason is that these are not Gods. They are gods, which may or may not at one time were mortal. The 'favored weapon' is a game mechanic for clerics of said god.

Even pacifists have BAB.

 

[Nisarg]

I've always disliked how vanilla D&D uses clerics and religion.
There are two primary errors involved:

1. The assumption that every god must be suitable for a PC cleric. Hence, stuff like making the goddess of peace have a great waraxe for favoured weapon. Because if not, oh noes, someone might not want to pick her for his deity!

2. The assumption that every party is going to be in combat. While this is a safer bet, there's nothing wrong with making 88 out of 100 gods be available to fighting clerics, and leave the other 12 without things like favoured weapons or combat oriented magic. That way in a non-combat game you can choose from some of those, and in a combat-oriented game you can just ignore those 12 as they would not be suitable for the flavour of the campaign.

Nisarg

 

[Psion]

D&D is an RPG only in the narrow sense that you're expected to role-play your way through combat scenario after combat scenario.

Speak for yourself. My games are certainly not roleplaying through combat scenario after combat scenario.

Favored weapon is there for one reason: so that when you DO get into combat, you know what appears when you cast spiritual weapon or the like. (If the deity has the war domain, that the deity has a favored weapon should be a non-issue.)

That cleric is too combat oriented for many concepts, I would not argue*. But let's not generalize that into a bogus claim about the game as a whole.

* - (In fact, in other recent threads, I asked the audience, with very little response, what they thought of making a specific theological reason for making clerics the way that they are stemming from a common religious/cultural background behind the class, as well as contemplating other religious traditions that would explain why other divine casting classes are different, such as shamans, healers, druids, and whatever other divine class you may have. AFAIK, only Scarred Lands and Valus take a crack at this.)

 

[WayneLigon]

Yunitee is the goddess of love, communication and harmony. She advocates the use of non-violent solutions to the misunderstandings so common among people, and many of her followers are diplomats renowned throughout the land for their level-headed fairness. Yunitee's holy symbol is a smiling face overlooking two clasped hands. Her favored weapon is the great waraxe.

If you missed the paradox in the text above, you're obviously jaded to the great deception of D&D. Don't feel bad, though; you're not alone.

No reason for a goddess of peace not to have a favored weapon. She might certainly advocate peace, diplomacy, and love but any deity is also going to know there's a time when there's nothing to do but fight. They will go to that option with extreme reluctance, and there may well be clerics of that faith that will indeed lay down their lives with no resistance, but not all of them will.

No 'deception' involved, and never has been. It all depends on the individual campaign.

 

[LordVyreth]

What's the big deal? It's just there to prevent a logical gap for things like the War domain bonus and the Spiritual Weapon spell. Sure, the former isn't obviously relevant if the god doesn't even use that domain, but what the the spell? You could just say that spell is banned for that god, but then that opens up another massive can of worms. It could result in lists of banned spells for every single god, which brings things right back to the 2ed system.

Besides, I can't imagine a god of absolute pacifism working in the core rules anyway. Against humanoids, sure, and I can even see it against traditionally evil races like orcs, drow, beholders, mind flayers, and so on. But what about when the hordes of undead invade your village? Even the peace-based Vows in BoED have some exceptions, undead included. And even if your Yunitee worshipper refuses to even thinking about harming the hair of any living thing, regardless of how eager it is to kill you, when the skeletens burst, in, what's wrong with breaking out the greataxe?

 

[Sejs]

There are also deities that have "Unarmed Strike" listed as their favored weapon. Here's a thought- how about that goddess of peace having "Grapple" as her favored weapon? Not every god's favored weapon is just a weapon; a god of crafts FW a hammer? That's what he forges with. God of Travel's staff? It's his walking stick. Goddess of the Harvest's scythe? It's an agricultural tool.

 

[likuidice]

Favoured weapon: Hug. (hell, make it a grapple)

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

More like Favored Weapon: (Guilt) Trip