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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9255685" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I guess my problem with the thread premise is that I don't think there should be a "Not-Cleric and Not-Paladin of a Not-Divine-God," because I don't think there should be "Not-Divine-Gods." Divine = deities, deities = divine. Other kinds of powers would not use a devotion-based method of interacting with us.In the case of the Primordials, it's quite clear that they're a lot closer to living (and only barely sapient) forces of nature/natural disasters/raging maelstroms than anything god-like. They, like actual Great Old One type beings, just...don't care about mortals. We are simply beneath their notice. Even ants would be too noticeable; we are like the microscopic life that lives on human skin, eating detritus, living around hair follicles. Things so small humans essentially don't notice them unless something has gone wrong.So I guess what I'd say is, at least for that specific kind of "power" (to use the Planescape term), the only idea that comes to me is....parasites, for lack of a better term. Thieves of power. Mortals that have discovered the way to steal a bit of power from these massive, uncaring forces. It's only a little bit--a pinprick, a fleabite. Stolen in little chunks, here and there. Always at risk from two different directions, just like actual bloodsuckers: on the one hand, drinking too deep and exploding because you overstretched your limits; and on the other, drinking too deep and causing the host to slap you until you're nothing but a bloody smear.There is no "cleric" vs "paladin" in this; there's just what you steal and how you steal it. I'd call it the Sanguisuge. Builds/subclasses would focus on different types of beings you're siphoning power from. I always associate giants with primordials, so the Primordial Sanguisuge would be tapping into elemental power, unfettered and raw, dangerous to everyone around (including the Sanguisuge herself). The Eldritch subclass would be pulling the life-essence of things antagonistic to the foundations of reality, and thus partially un-making themselves and others (applied to the self, naturally, this allows one to skirt around the rules that should apply to everyone; applied to others, well, when you break the rules someone depends on to live....)Gods, in this context, would be off-limits to the Sanguisuge because they pay close attention to this sort of thing and don't tolerate such parasites. They're too invested in mortal existence for that. Though I imagine there might be room for a "Dead Divinity" angle, where you siphon off your magic mojo from a mostly-but-not-entirely dead god's mouldering corpse...</blockquote>

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