Divine casters and the "one step" rule

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:00 pm

In the tabletop sourcebooks, it is commonly held that a divine spellcaster has to be within one "step" in alignment from the deity he serves. This would apply to clerics, druids, paladins and rangers. So for example, a cleric of Loviatar (LE) could himself be Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil, or even (gasp) Lawful Neutral, but could not be Chaotic Evil, as chaos diametrically opposes the deity's ethos of law. Likewise, a Lawful Good ranger could not be a follower of Selune (CG) for the same reason of opposition to one of the deity's ethos.

Do we adhere to the "one-step" rule on FK, traditionally? I've never actually stepped back to consider it being any different.

Gregal · Post by **Gregal** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:48 pm

I am a bit confused, or it may be my lack of knowledge, but is a ranger considered a divine spellcaster? If so I did not know that.

As for the one-step rule I personally think this should be put into affect, not only for the public alignment, but for the "hidden" alignment as well. Say a cleric straying a bit too far could have his/her spells temp disabled. It would just add to the rp of being a priest to a god.

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:01 pm

Yes, rangers are divine casters, in the books, and reflected in the "begins to pray" echoes, and the use of Wisdom as their primary stat for casting. Rangers, like druids, receive their spells from the gods.

Rhytania · Post by **Rhytania** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:02 pm

Code: Select all

Rangers, like druids, receive their spells from the gods.

Actually they don’t. In the books and canon source, it is not required for a Ranger or Druid to take on a Deity, as their spells and powers are given to them by Nature. There was an article off of WOTC that I referenced in a post a long time ago that delved a bit into this as to why the Nature-Based classes cast as Divine and not Sorcerer Style, and it reasoned that Nature in and of itself is Semi-Sentient (aka the Gaia Theory). It is recommended that druids and rangers take on a Deity as they can get special bonuses from that deity that are not available to others, however it is not required. In FK the Druid class is mingled with the Cleric class for Nature Deities, while in Canon they are quite different and separate.

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:18 pm

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, page 23: wrote: Druid
Like Clerics, the druids of faerun receive their spells from a particular patron deity, always a deity of nature or animals. However, druids so not necessarily see a clear division between nature and the divine forces that run through nature

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, page 26: wrote: Unlike clerics, druids, and paladins, Faerunian rangers do not have to choose a patron deity until they reach 4th level and acquire divine spells (without a patron deity, a ranger cannot cast spells).... Rangers and druids have similar preferences for deities, although some rangers with odd interests (such as hunting undead) choose different patrons.

The core rulebooks say different, but then, the 3E core rulebooks even allow a cleric to be agnostic, which is just... wrong, and undermines the whol concept of having a faiths and pantheons system. Faerun is quite picky about tying all divine prayer to the deities that preside over it.

Rhytania · Post by **Rhytania** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:45 am

Damn Ed Greenwood and his heretical drifting away from the core rule books!

Moradin · Post by **Moradin** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:47 am

In this setting, Rangers receive all of their allowed prayers without needing to follow a deity. This gives players the option to decide for themselves where they feel their power originates.

Larethiel · Post by **Larethiel** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:17 pm

If there's this one-step-rule at FK, then what about the players with default characters? For example if you choose to play an elven priest, which are restricted to follow Corellon only and you're not sure how to make up that character because you start playing a priest the first time and take the option of a system-made character/default priest and it sets your aligment on lawful god.
Am I mistaken or does this not keep you from becoming a priest of Corellon who's aligment ist chaotic good as far as I know ?
Or would you perhaps have to apply for a change of your aligment?

Thanks

Leohand · Post by **Leohand** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:07 pm

My DM usedthe one-step rule for human deities only. Non-human priests to non-human deities, generally speaking, was restricted by the preferred alignment of the god. He used the one-step rule for non-humans very infrequently. I'm not sure that this was an actual rule though, it may have just been a preference of my Dungeonous Masterous.

Sindava · Post by **Sindava** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:19 pm

To address the original question "Do we adhere to this one-step rule" and also comment upon the most recent question from Larethiel.

Faith managers act in concert with their deities when deciding what alignments are acceptable to them and the basis for allowing a particular alignment to follow a god is usually this faith breakdown:

http://www.forgottenkingdoms.com/deities/deities.shtml

Exceptions have been made and I have known alignments to be adjusted if the player was new and unaware of a specific alignment requirement.

Overall though, I have never heard a deity or faith manager quote the 'one step' concept or seek to directly apply it to all matters of faithing.

You will note that Corellon only requires his priests to be good aligned, not CG or NG only.