Is Changing Religons allowed in PFS?


Pathfinder Society

Liberty's Edge 1/5

My character is a cleric of Korada(NG) and while in the past few games another character who is a worshipper of Sarenae(NG) pulled some amazing rolls and saved the party atleast 5 times, giving credit to her god. Her character used Diplomacy to share with me the "Book of Sarenae." I feel that after experiencing many miracles and reading Sarenae scriptures my character would honestly convert. Is my character allowed to change his deity in PFS?

Grand Lodge 1/5

Lvl. 1 sure, you can change your PC to whatever you like. At lvl. 2+ I'd rule NO. Consider a priest who is trained for years if not decades all of a sudden changing to the worship of a different deity. It doesn't happen. If you have been worshiping Korada for a few months sure but in order to become a priest, your faith has to be pretty solid and you have to put years into it including training, indoctrination and tests of faith.

So, I'd say the likelihood of it occurring is non-existent. The priests of Aroden took years if not decades to switch allegiance to Sarenae and their god actually died and ceased to grant them divine powers, while some of his priests NEVER changed and are still waiting for his return century(ies) later.

Your cleric still hears his god and his prayers are still answered. If you don't like the PC you chose, start a new one but I doubt you can change at lvl. 6 or 10. That's like me saying I'd like to change from a regular fighter to an archer at lvl. 5. Sorry, too much opportunity for gaminess.


Atonement can be used to change, if I remember correctly. Though I do feel its a little awkward to be converted.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

its a role playing game in rule number 1 to have fun if u are going to change no more the once per carrer and think long and hard about it its a life chageing event and u are going treated like a low lvl 1 amogst fellow worshepers ang going archer u can do just by picking up the feas u wat after or multi class as ranger ur just take a long time the feats or want and focuse mor with bows

Grand Lodge 1/5

My point still stands, your original character would disappear. Fact of the matter is, I've never heard of a Cleric changing gods without an Alignment change, atonement wouldn't fit into this category. Not to mention that the spheres of worship might be different and changing those would require for the character to be re-educated.

So, changing a CLERIC's religion in PFS is tantamount to a re-roll, which is a boon granted by some of the Pathfinder elite, in return for doing something for them, like DMing a Convention table for 3 days or something like that. Its not a freebie that I imagine will be granted, I'd imagine you'd need M.B. to grant permission for something like that.

5/5 *

Without official ruling, I would be in the camp of being allowed if an atonement is acquired. I would be tempted to add that your new deity must also grant the same two domains you currently have. Changing domains would be more akin to changing class features, which gets into a rebuild.

Would you allow a non-cleric (or inquisitor/paladin) to change religion in PFS? I don't see a problem for a fighter. It's only a problem for other classes because some class features depend on it.

But there are currently no rules supporting this or nothing explicitly prohibiting it.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

see were u ae comeing from eric but if it realy had that big 0f a deal in the game i would but it doesn't ths were haveing fun kicks in and if he idnt post the qetion i don't think anyone would care as long as hes not conistanly changeing gods

Liberty's Edge 1/5

crobledo serane and kordian do have some matching domains serane has ore and i don't which one he took

Liberty's Edge 1/5

kordora my bad

Grand Lodge 1/5

Meh.., I personally don't have a horse in this particular race, I just don't see it as being allowed, not as a freebie. When I think of a cleric, I think of a priest or a rabbi or a mullah or a monk (Buddhist).

So a lvl. 1 character to me is a person who went through seminary school, which is about 4 years of education, testing of faith and all that other religious stuff. Its not like a Muslim mullah could change religion and all of a sudden become a rabbi or an ordained Catholic priest or a Buddhist priest, because he read the holy scriptures of that faith, and liked what he read better than what he already had.

But I'm waiting to see the ruling on this.

Dark Archive 2/5

For most classes, religion is largely irrelevant in terms of functionality. Now mind you that's barring the presence of certain traits available only to worshipers of a certain deity. Instances where a change in religion would directly alter how a class operates might be far harder to justify, if even permitted at all within the confines of the rules.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

forgot about those the beard traits if a player cooses a non specific religion to fallow trait would it be a rebuild

Liberty's Edge 1/5

rolfcopter what are your traits

Liberty's Edge 1/5

if any of u traits has to fallow kordoran then no u can not change whats so ever

Liberty's Edge 1/5

kordora

1/5

Or, describe it as he becomes a 1st level cleric of God #2.

4/5

I'm with CRobledo. With the lack of any sort of rulings associated with a cleric changing deity and what happens to domains, then it is unprecedented to be able to do so in PFS. There can be no "GM adjudication" in any situation in PFS (Or at least...that's the theory ;p). So if you want to change your deity, it would have to be in a way that doesn't allow any sort of house rule, and that way would be if it doesn't change any class features, traits, feats, or whatever, and it would require an atonement for a cleric. The problem? It's still going to change weapon proficiency for a cleric, so it's really not feasible for a cleric.

Now, there can easily be a "PFS House Rule" written on this as with the "any character must be within one step alignment-wise of their god, regardless of class," but without any guidance on such a case, it can't really happen.

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

I flagged the original post for FAQ clarification.

5/5 *

After thinking about it a bit more, I would think that the ex-cleric section of the CRB would apply in this case, and changing religions would not be allowed.

But also flagged as FAQ for clarification.

Shadow Lodge 1/5

I think it's Roleplaying thing and in a home game standpoint it would be easy. The problem is that from an organized play standpoint some people will suspect cheese and see it as a character change. And it is, it is technically changing the character's mechanical workings.

So if it were up to me (i.e. I'm in charge PFS, not I'm your GM) I'd allow it, but it would cost the same prestige cost as changing factions, and it would never be 'free'.

Ironically, I could see it as fairly easy for an Oracle. As Eric rightly pointed out, clerics are the priests/Rabbi's/whatever who are tied to the minutia of a religion while Oracles are the Prophets whose followers create the minutia about them after they're dead...and become clerics.


I can become a cleric in a day, without years in school. Same with wizard. I just need to take a level in the class when I level up. I find the idea that you have to suffer or "Just reroll" to be brutal and unnecessary myself. I could've sworn I read somewhere about atonement dealing with this, but I can't find the thread at the moment.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

I feel that with an atonement of the most expensive kind, changing Deities is quite alright.

Shadow Lodge *

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

I think the big issue for a cleric changing deities is the domain change and the weapon proficiency -- I'd have a hard time seeing a way around the necessary rebuild for a standard cleric.

However, a Separatist Cleric *might* be allowed to change deities -- since they specifically don't get the weapon proficiency and are specifically allowed one domain not on their deities list. So as long as they still met alignment requirements and still had one of the new deities domains after the switch, then maybe.

And given what a Separatist Cleric is, it even makes sense, since you're already considered a heretic.

3/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

Andrew Christian wrote:
I feel that with an atonement of the most expensive kind, changing Deities is quite alright.

I think that's reasonable too (to keep people from switching domains every morning when they prepare spells), but in the absence of any rules on it, I think changing deities should be considered out-of-bounds in PFS. So just make sure to click the FAQ.

Silver Crusade 4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Kerney wrote:
Ironically, I could see it as fairly easy for an Oracle. As Eric rightly pointed out, clerics are the priests/Rabbi's/whatever who are tied to the minutia of a religion while Oracles are the Prophets whose followers create the minutia about them after they're dead...and become clerics.

Oracles are just like non-divine classes when it comes to their religion. They don't have to be a worshiper of the deity that gives them their power. In fact, they don't even have to know which deity it is.

My battle oracle, Gorjo, thinks he was cursed by devils, because he has the tongues curse and can only speak Infernal in battle. In actual fact, it was Iomedae who cursed him. She knew that left alone, he would grow up to be some minor village warrior, living out an uneventful life where he accomplished little of consequence. But cursing him in such a way got him chased out of his home village, and he instead grew up to see the world and become an adventurer. Now, he fights the forces of evil, as she intended for him, but he still think that the curse that ruined his life came from devils, which is actually why he hates devils so much and wants to hunt them all down and kill them.

But back on the original topic, I think changing religion for a PC who doesn't get a mechanical benefit from their religion should always be allowed. But for divine characters who are required to have a patron deity (clerics, inquisitors, paladins), their identity is tied too closely to their religion. If they became an ex-cleric of their starting religion, I would expect them to have to start over in a new religion, not be able to pick up at the level where they left off.

1/5

Fromper wrote:
Kerney wrote:
Ironically, I could see it as fairly easy for an Oracle. As Eric rightly pointed out, clerics are the priests/Rabbi's/whatever who are tied to the minutia of a religion while Oracles are the Prophets whose followers create the minutia about them after they're dead...and become clerics.

Oracles are just like non-divine classes when it comes to their religion. They don't have to be a worshiper of the deity that gives them their power. In fact, they don't even have to know which deity it is.

My battle oracle, Gorjo, thinks he was cursed by devils, because he has the tongues curse and can only speak Infernal in battle. In actual fact, it was Iomedae who cursed him. She knew that left alone, he would grow up to be some minor village warrior, living out an uneventful life where he accomplished little of consequence. But cursing him in such a way got him chased out of his home village, and he instead grew up to see the world and become an adventurer. Now, he fights the forces of evil, as she intended for him, but he still think that the curse that ruined his life came from devils, which is actually why he hates devils so much and wants to hunt them all down and kill them.

But back on the original topic, I think changing religion for a PC who doesn't get a mechanical benefit from their religion should always be allowed. But for divine characters who are required to have a patron deity (clerics, inquisitors, paladins), their identity is tied too closely to their religion. If they became an ex-cleric of their starting religion, I would expect them to have to start over in a new religion, not be able to pick up at the level where they left off.

An Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 eould be kind of cool.

Rubbish, but still cool...

Silver Crusade 4/5

Funky Badger wrote:
Fromper wrote:
Kerney wrote:
Ironically, I could see it as fairly easy for an Oracle. As Eric rightly pointed out, clerics are the priests/Rabbi's/whatever who are tied to the minutia of a religion while Oracles are the Prophets whose followers create the minutia about them after they're dead...and become clerics.

Oracles are just like non-divine classes when it comes to their religion. They don't have to be a worshiper of the deity that gives them their power. In fact, they don't even have to know which deity it is.

My battle oracle, Gorjo, thinks he was cursed by devils, because he has the tongues curse and can only speak Infernal in battle. In actual fact, it was Iomedae who cursed him. She knew that left alone, he would grow up to be some minor village warrior, living out an uneventful life where he accomplished little of consequence. But cursing him in such a way got him chased out of his home village, and he instead grew up to see the world and become an adventurer. Now, he fights the forces of evil, as she intended for him, but he still think that the curse that ruined his life came from devils, which is actually why he hates devils so much and wants to hunt them all down and kill them.

But back on the original topic, I think changing religion for a PC who doesn't get a mechanical benefit from their religion should always be allowed. But for divine characters who are required to have a patron deity (clerics, inquisitors, paladins), their identity is tied too closely to their religion. If they became an ex-cleric of their starting religion, I would expect them to have to start over in a new religion, not be able to pick up at the level where they left off.

An Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 eould be kind of cool.

Rubbish, but still cool...

I really think that's probably the closest thing to RAW we're likely to find for this. The only open question is whether Ex-Cleric is a separate class from Cleric, thus allowing multi-classing.

But I'd like to hear Mike Brock or someone else from Paizo weigh in on the original question. I clicked the FAQ button, and I hope everyone else will, too.

5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

FWIW, I agree on allowing it with the expensive atonement (3000gp?) - that's pretty much what it's for. That's not a rebuild though, I don't see that you'd get to make any new choices.

On that, IIRC Religion traits are actually pretty specific - if you stop worshiping that god, you lose the benefit of the trait. You don't get to switch it, you just lose the benefit.

Grand Lodge 1/5

Majuba wrote:

FWIW, I agree on allowing it with the expensive atonement (3000gp?) - that's pretty much what it's for. That's not a rebuild though, I don't see that you'd get to make any new choices.

On that, IIRC Religion traits are actually pretty specific - if you stop worshiping that god, you lose the benefit of the trait. You don't get to switch it, you just lose the benefit.

Actually, you do get to make quite a few new choices.

A quick example is my cleric of Pharasma. If I change my religion I would no longer have access to certain spells. But if I changed it to a different religion I might get access to the benefits of several magic items that I wouldn't as a cleric of Pharasma. Gods and Magic I believe, will show you about 20 different items that are tied to different religions. One item in particular allows the clerics of Pharasma to cast Augury for free but this power is not accessible to no Pharasmin clerics. So, changing faith could be exploited and abused my myself.

Shadow Lodge 1/5

Funky Badger wrote:


An Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 eould be kind of cool.

Rubbish, but still cool...

I remember another rpg system (think it was a L5R edition) where, under specific circumstances you gradually got to 'switch over' over time as you adjusted to the new role. In Pathfinder I could see it going something like--

5th Level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 would at
6th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 3/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 3
7th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 2/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 5
8th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 1/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 7
9th level- Cleric (Sarenrae) 9


Eric Saxon wrote:
Majuba wrote:

FWIW, I agree on allowing it with the expensive atonement (3000gp?) - that's pretty much what it's for. That's not a rebuild though, I don't see that you'd get to make any new choices.

On that, IIRC Religion traits are actually pretty specific - if you stop worshiping that god, you lose the benefit of the trait. You don't get to switch it, you just lose the benefit.

Actually, you do get to make quite a few new choices.

A quick example is my cleric of Pharasma. If I change my religion I would no longer have access to certain spells. But if I changed it to a different religion I might get access to the benefits of several magic items that I wouldn't as a cleric of Pharasma. Gods and Magic I believe, will show you about 20 different items that are tied to different religions. One item in particular allows the clerics of Pharasma to cast Augury for free but this power is not accessible to no Pharasmin clerics. So, changing faith could be exploited and abused my myself.

I'm not sure if anyone is suggesting changing religions on the go to use multiple magic items. I think those items actually have the cost of the spell on them, but someone is free to double check for me.

They would change their favored weapon, and likely domains. Spells most likely wouldn't change. If I remember right Pharasma only condemns raising dead, but to be honest if your a cleric looking to raise dead it probably wasn't the best first choice. I actually spaced if any of the spells were deity specific or if any additional ones from that book are legally added.

Grand Lodge 1/5

I don't know if the spells are actually allowed from that book either but I believe the items are. Thus access to those items would then be open to the new faith of the Cleric in question.


Eric Saxon wrote:
I don't know if the spells are actually allowed from that book either but I believe the items are. Thus access to those items would then be open to the new faith of the Cleric in question.

Well anyone can use the items. They just have an added bonus for people who worship the deity. Again, its not like they can change deities on the go to get any of the items bonuses. The worst offender would probably be a non divine tied character such as a fighter who only worshipped deities when he used the items.


Eric Saxon wrote:

Lvl. 1 sure, you can change your PC to whatever you like. At lvl. 2+ I'd rule NO. Consider a priest who is trained for years if not decades all of a sudden changing to the worship of a different deity. It doesn't happen. If you have been worshiping Korada for a few months sure but in order to become a priest, your faith has to be pretty solid and you have to put years into it including training, indoctrination and tests of faith.

Except in Pathfinder you DON'T have to train for years to become a priest... or a wizard... or a bard... Its really the RAW downfall of Multiclassing.

PErsonally I LIKE the idea of long backstories explaining things... but if someone has a 'Road to damascus' type 'calling', I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it.

As for switching gods mid-stream... Paladins can become Anti-paladins and they still get spells from their new patron, so the idea isn't that far fetched.

I think there would have to be a pretty sound story or reason to ditch one god in favor of another, but I think it's certainly doable.

I can picture a cleric of Erastul who's off doing his thing, and comes back to find his home and family destroyed... At which point he says to heck with 'God of Homestead and Community' he obviously didn't help when they needed him... I;ll dedicate to Gorum and take the fight ot my enemies!!!

The only question is whether Gorum would have him? If adventurers are 'rare' and he's got some xp, Hp, and levels under his belt... And most importantly, would he be of USE to the new god... He probably would grant some spells to him as long as their purposes align.

What I'm NOT sure about, is whether he'd get to transfer his levels over... or if he starts at multiclass level one... I can REALLY see an argument going for BOTH directions...

Honestly if I was a DM, I'd probalby let him keep his levels. A 6th level cleric of Gorum isn't any mechanical improvement over a 6th level cleric of Erastul. If its story based and not min-max attempt I usually side with whatever's 'fun'.


Eric Saxon wrote:
Majuba wrote:

FWIW, I agree on allowing it with the expensive atonement (3000gp?) - that's pretty much what it's for. That's not a rebuild though, I don't see that you'd get to make any new choices.

On that, IIRC Religion traits are actually pretty specific - if you stop worshiping that god, you lose the benefit of the trait. You don't get to switch it, you just lose the benefit.
Actually, you do get to make quite a few new choices. A quick example is my cleric of Pharasma. If I change my religion I would no longer have access to certain spells. But if I changed it to a different religion I might get access to the benefits of several magic items that I wouldn't as a cleric of Pharasma.

Majuba's point, which you ignored in favor of honing in on one narrow reading of one phrase, is that you don't get to rebuild and thus change previous choices into new selections. If you have a Religion Trait, you still have it, and since you can't have more than 1 Religion Trait you can't select another even by Extra Trait Feat.

Grand Lodge 1/5

Yes, I got that. Except if you don't have a religious trait, you lose nothing. My cleric is lvl. 7, I had better choices, I could be without one.

But let's say you are a Cleric of Pharasma like my PC who is LN and your domains are Healing and Death. And I want to change to worship Torag, my alignment allows it except now I get to switch domains or are we going to say that you are stuck with the domains you chose in the beginning?

Since neither Healing or Death are Torag domains. So unless the player is going to go on without Domains or Domain spells. And if he wants to re-pick his domains, it becomes a partial rebuild.

And then there's the RP aspect that the OP mentioned as his PRIMARY reason for the change. What do you think happens to apostate priests of a deity that actively participates in the life and times of its priest?

And granting of Divine Power is most certainly an active participation. You are a sworn, oath bound, vassal of your god. And all of a sudden you are going to switch allegiance without your liege's permission or consent? Consider that there are now assassins, zealots and crusaders sent to put an end to your life due to your broken oaths.

A priest is not the same as a worshiper. You were trained by the temple, you ate its food and now you spit in the face of liege because you had an adventure? So are we going to saddle the GMs with a resolution to someone's apostasy? What about other PCs, who worship this Deity, would they be forced to go on adventures with a heretic who betrayed their god? Doing this, opens up a huge Pandora's box and I'm not sure any GM wants to deal with it. It already takes plenty of time to run modules without having to deal with this.


OK, Domains are an issue relevant to Majuba's post and 'rebuilds', good you had a constructive point to make there.
To add on to that, if switching Domains is possible when switching Deities,
why shouldn't it be possible with the same Deity? (possibly via same atonement process)
If you could do so by switching from God A to God B and then back to God A (with new Domains), why not without the God B detour?
If you can't switch Domains, and just lose the benefits of any Domain the new God doesn't offer, there is no problem though.

This is PFS, and assassins and zealots are not going to hunt down any PC because of a GM's opinion of that deity's vindictiveness/jealousy over the PC choosing a new Deity to worship. Same for if the Cleric simply drops the worship of the original Deity and just becomes a Fighter, possibly swearing allegiance to different Gods.

As for "What about other PCs, who worship this Deity, would they be forced to go on adventures with a heretic who betrayed their god?", again this is PFS and PCs may worship Gods who are flat-out enemies. I really think this thread is more productive if it's kept to the actual rules issues, and not throwing in hyperbolic non-canon fluff.


By Canon, some followers of Aroden HAVE switched to worship and receive powers from other gods. The details of how and how long they took to do this aren't specified, but that's tangential to whether you CAN do so or not. By canon, you CAN do so. You can't start over taking Cleric levels in a different Deity's worship (same for Bloodlines, Wizard schools, etc), so based on Canon we must assume that they are using the exact same Cleric/Paladin levels, re-focused to worship another Deity (for those Paladins who were deriving their powers from a Deity to begin with, which is just one Archetype, not most Paladins)

Shadow Lodge 4/5

A month or two ago I asked the same question. A lot of people hit the FAQ for it too, but there was no official answer yet. Maybe this one will help us get an answer. :)

Personally, I would rule that it can be done. If the two deities (and alignments) both allow for the same sort of Channeling, that can not change. The Cleric would retain the old weapon proficiency and NOT receive the new deity's weapon proficiency. If the new deity offers any of the same Domains, the Cleric must keep those as well. If not, then they are allowed to switch Domains. All previously purchased Traits, Feats, gear, etc. . . remains, even if the new choice of deity does not allow you to use it anymore, but the Cleric may not take any more options for the old deity. An Atonement may or may not be needed. I would rule that it would depend more if the new deity required an alignment shift or held a different alignment than the old.

The only issue I really see with this, in PFS play specifically, is how to keep it from being abused, and having someone switch deities so that they get whatever Domains they want that day. I don't see it happening often, but there is always the chance. In my thread, a lot of people assumed you just could, and hadn't heard of people trying to abuse it. I would guess that this would be something for mostly levels 3-5, after you have gotten some experience with and begun to flush out the character, but not before you are very invested, and just start to realize that your 1st level decision just really doesn't fit what you want.

Grand Lodge 1/5

By Canon followers of Aroden have taken on his HERALD (Iomedae) as their deity in the absence of Aroden. I'm not sure Aroden and his Herald had different domains. But if they did, that was a special case. The god with a claim to his worshipers had to DIE. The priests of Aroden essentially became Ronnin. And even then, they didn't go to 10 different gods, they all wound up with the same god, so I'm not sure that applies quite the same way, as what the OP wants to do. His god (liege) is still alive and still may wish to have vengeance, justice or lay some sort of a claim.

Finally, they didn't re-focus to worship another Deity, they had to start over in a new hierarchy. An archbishop of Aroden didn't all of a sudden become an Archbishops of Iomedae. Welcome back to lvl. 1? It doesn't specify, so this is mere speculation.

The price of following a new god, here's a possibility. You gained all your wealth and power and prestige, with my spells and my help. Guess what, I want it all as is my due and you can leave me a penniless pauper. Welcome to lvl. 1 150 gp. :D Just like you can't leave your liege with his lands and titles and swear allegiance to a new liege. You first have to renounce everything you gained while in the employ and under the protection of your previous liege. Otherwise its a declaration of war.

So, I could see you switching faiths. But you loose all your gear and are stuck with the previous domains and still have to pay for an atonement, PP are fine for this.

But again, I'm not sure what MB has to say about this. This isn't going to be decided by us. Heck, I don't even particularly care what the decision is or what the cost of doing so is. This is purely an intellectual exercise for me.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

My understanding is that Asmodeus and Abadar, as well as a few other deities took a decent amount of Aroden's faithful as well. I think what your referring to are the Clerics of Aroden that had not gone to other deities in the time between Aroden's ninja-vansh and Iomedae becoming a deity, of those, most switched to Iomedae, (which is kind of odd really, as Aroden and Iomedae don't really have that much in common).

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Eric Saxon wrote:
By Canon followers of Aroden have taken on his HERALD (Iomedae) as their deity in the absence of Aroden. I'm not sure Aroden and his Herald had different domains.

Eric, the two gods had very different portfolios. Different alignments, even.

Also, I'm willing to be corrected, but could you cite a source that says that Aroden's clergy had to move to Iomedae. (For, say, a Lawful Evil or True Neutral cleric of Aroden, I don't see how they could have.) I don't think canon says that.

Shadow Lodge 1/5

Jeez, I thought this was about changing religion in general, and was scared because my tiefling magus switched religions 3 times.

5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Thanks Quandary - that was exactly what I meant. Absent a campaign ruling, I don't see that a deity switch would allow re-choosing domains in PFS. Meaning you would lose access to it if the new deity cannot provide it. You *will* lose the weapon proficiency as well (see Ex-Cleric), so I can see that changing actually.

In a home game, I'd probably work out some transition, eventually.. But I've actually never had it happen, except in an epic game where the cleric was courted by the god directly, and it did have most compatible domains.

1/5

Kerney wrote:
Funky Badger wrote:


An Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 eould be kind of cool.

Rubbish, but still cool...

I remember another rpg system (think it was a L5R edition) where, under specific circumstances you gradually got to 'switch over' over time as you adjusted to the new role. In Pathfinder I could see it going something like--

5th Level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 4/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 1 would at
6th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 3/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 3
7th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 2/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 5
8th level- Ex-Cleric (Korada) 1/ Cleric (Sarenrae) 7
9th level- Cleric (Sarenrae) 9

I'd totally go for that in a home game...

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Eric Saxon wrote:
You are a sworn, oath bound, vassal of your god. And all of a sudden you are going to switch allegiance without your liege's permission or consent? Consider that there are now assassins, zealots and crusaders sent to put an end to your life due to your broken oaths.

Okay, but what if it's not "all of a sudden," and what if the cleric asks permission and goes through channels? We have an example of a god's herald shifting alegiance, by asking and receiving permission. Surely a god might be less clingy regarding her 3rd-level clergy?

Maybe a priest who wishes to switch from Shizuru to Iomedae needs to ask around and find a corresponding Iomedaen cleric who wishes to serve the Empress of Heaven.


Chris Mortika wrote:
Maybe a priest who wishes to switch from Shizuru to Iomedae needs to ask around and find a corresponding Iomedaen cleric who wishes to serve the Empress of Heaven.

A cleric exchange program?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston

Also, I would imagine that some dieties would be more understanding than others. If a cleric switched from Shelyn to Calistria, I could see Shelyn understanding. The other way around, not as much.

Silver Crusade 1/5

From a pure GM standpoint, in a home game, I would rule you could make the change, but your domain powers would go away and you'd start the new domain powers at level 1, your spells, so long as you worshipped a god of similar alignment, wouldn't really be affected, but your domains would.

However, you're asking specifically for PFS and I'm not sure what the answer is here from the top's perspective.

That said, if I had to guess, you'd probably run into a ruling much like you would if you wanted to change your opposition school or bloodline as an arcane caster, which is, "sorry, make a new character."

Shadow Lodge 4/5

There is a difference between a Sorcerer's Bloodline, something that they where born with and a Cleric's faith, something they choose. It's much more of a social institution, and a Cleric can violate tenets or simply leave the faith, and lose their abilities, while a Sorcerer can't. They can decide to never again use them, but not (minus a few spells) to just no longer be a Sorcerer.

So the question isn't is it possible at all, as much as how is it handled in PFS?

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