Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

The whole bit about Temurians not being too keen on ranged weapons comes from the 'Forgotten Realms Adventures' book. Under the section about Tempus it states:
"While recognizing the need for bows, slings, and even firearms and bombards on the battlefield, the specialty followers of Tempus take a dim view of missile weapons. In a perfect world, no one would use such cowardly items, but the world is imperfect. Therefore, no missile weapons can be taken a a chosen weapon unless it can also be used as a melee weapon (like a spear.)"

Specialty priests could chose a particular weapon and have certain bonuses with it. They could not pick a bow or sling as per above, but there is nothing stating that they could not use a ranged weapon. They would just not be comfortable using one. And the restriction was for specialty followers (i.e. priests) and not general followers.

The book is 2nd edition, so I would think that it no longer applies, unless there is a 3rd edition of it out there. In any case, if your PC has been RPing that ranged weapons are bad, they should only change their minds thru RP. I don't think it is cool to one day say 'bows are cowardly' and then the next say 'I've almost mastered the bow.' just becasue the general RP policy for the faith has been updated. As long as any changes are handled thru RP, there should be no real problems.

With the first post about how some see fleeing ic as something against Tempus' dogma.

While Tempus himself follows his code perfectly (in general the only thing a god can't do is act against his immutable nature) you aren't Tempus. In my opinion, anyone who plays a Tempus follower (priest or champion) should roleplay losing that favor from fleeing..and I'd consider it poor roleplaying if your mortal character always chose to stare death in the face and die biting the bullet.

Just like real life gods don't expect their worshippers to be as perfect (perfect being indicated with their views) as them, I think it can be assumed the same applies for FR gods. While Tempus may never /ever/ retreat from combat, he's powerful enough so that he may go thousands of mortal years without every feeling the fear a mortal character feels by hearing the simple marching feet of orcs.

So while Tempus may be dissappointed in those who flee - it's not nearly as bad, as say, ambushing a group of toddlers hugging puppy dogs. All gods realize the flaws of mortals, and deep down, he has to see the value in having followers at all. Because if they all lived 100% by his code, he'd only have a handful of very /very/ accomplished worshippers.

No one is expected to be as perfect as a god, only to strive to be. The followers of Tempus, in many senses, are an incredibly devout group for staying and fighting instead of fleeing just one time. Who is more devout, the person who dies once in his gods name - or the person who dedicates an entire life to his message?

Tempus is very simple, edict wise. But what he asks is so far out of mortal nature, that just doing so a few times is extraordinary. That's the hard part to rp correctly.

I guess what I'm saying is. It's more difficult to be a little devout (low favour because of retreating) to Tempus than it is to be very devout to other gods. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Just wearing the favor of Tempus in general, should imply that given the circumstance you are willing to die in battle as a matter of pride. Which is a frightening proposition to any non adventurers...and a good portion of intrepid ones.