Psion
Adventurer
I think Zappo is talking about 2E generally here, not just Planescape.
I was talking about Planescape, and my assertion is only that under the PS setting, the theory on divine power is very specific.
I think Zappo is talking about 2E generally here, not just Planescape.
hong said:There are Taoist priests, and in legend and folktales they could also do all sorts of wacky magic. If that isn't good enough to make them divine spellcasters in D&D, I don't know what is.
hong said:1. Any class that gives people the ability to make skeletons and zombies blow up, and call down a column of fire from the heavens, is usually going to do a weak to awful job of emulating anything from the real world.
2. There are more divine spellcasters than just clerics.
3. I hope you're not implying that all those clerics of Cyric, Bane, Hextor, Nerull and whatnot are good emulations of the Christian priesthood.
trancejeremy said:In most cases, they are more or less just powerful people. If you read a lot of the old Greek stuff, you get the impression that most of them didn't have much use for those sort of gods, either.
I can see worshipping an omnipotent god, or something like the mother godness (ie, the embodiment of nature), but worshipping something like the god of wine or god of hairbrushes just seems silly.
Most of the D&D god worship seems to be simply bribes. If you worship the god of x, you'll get power of some sort. That's always rubbed me the wrong way. A quote by a semi-famous Islamic writer has always struck a chord with me:
"I will not serve God like a laborer, in expectation of my wages."
I cannot see most people worshipping a D&D style god in that manner.
Storm Raven said:The question is: does it emulate the attributed mystical powers derived from real world religions?
I already pointed that out, but apparently, attributing a spiritual tradition with any other form of priesthood than "cleric" in D&D is "demeaning and insulting".
So, you are asking whether intolerant faiths that sanction things like torture, burning at the stake, and conversion at sword point are reflective of the Catholic church of the middle ages? Do you really want me to answer that?
fusangite said:Hong, the Taoist priests (I acknowledge such a position exists) lead worship of traditional Chinese folk deities. While self-styled Taoist and Confucian "priests" have existed intermittently over the past 2000 years, they are not priests of Confucianism or Taoism; they are priests of Chinese folk deities.
The priesthood views the many gods as manifestations of the one Dao, "which could not be represented as an image or a particular thing." The concept of a personified deity is foreign to them, as is the concept of the creation of the universe. Thus, they do not pray as Christians do; there is no God to hear the prayers or to act upon them. They seek answers to life's problems through inner meditation and outer observation.