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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9664110" data-attributes="member: 6877472">From an in-universe example, gods denying priests and other champions their powers (and also, whatever sources druids, rangers, and so on- which can be a god in some settings but not in others) makes sense.  Though there are many examples in fiction of people abusing powers granted to them as well, leading to heretical sects and the like.  YMMV.In fact, there's a good reason for a power to not revoke their powers- by doing so, they're basically saying "oops, my bad", rendering them fallible.  This is dependent on the campaign setting- one's gods could be fallible.  The Greek and Norse myths come to mind.  OTOH, if the gods are meant to be infallible, then it creates a paradox- why would they entrust their powers to someone they knew would abuse them?It gets a little worse with evil gods as well.  Being able to turn the powers of darkness against themselves is a classic trope, after all.  As a game mechanic, however, it can often lead to DM's, feeling that this is a "downside" for a class that must be enforced, to "balance" the powers of that class, quickly leads to players losing their powers for any infraction.The investiture/oath/pact/whatever therefore becomes a crutch to the player, as they now must appease the DM in order to actually play their character.  It doesn't take long, after being burned by this, for players to come to the conclusion that it's simply not worth it to play that class, and instead, find an option that gives them more freedom.I don't see this as a good thing for a game.  As for the argument that someone could just take the powers and do what they want, consider that while the power might not directly intervene (though they might screw with them, as in the case of Balaam), the other followers of that power's faith have no such limitation- they may find themselves excommunicated from their church, branded a heretic, hunted down by inquisitors, paladins, and executors of holy judgment, and even run afoul of angelic beings or their equivalent.</blockquote>

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