I'm playing a cleric of sarenrae in an upcoming campaign, and I was trying to figure out how to roleplay a cleric of sarenrae... Do I try to save every combatant, or is it ok to just destroy the majority and save some?
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Sometimes you wouldn't even need to save any of them. Sarenrae does expect followers to ask themselves, "Is this even plausible?" A pack of undead or Demons/Devils/etc. are the sort of things that can be destroyed outright. Likewise, Sarenrae's probably not going to bat an eye at your Cleric cutting down an entire bandit gang he witnessed destroying a village and cackling about how fun it was setting kittens on fire.
Mainstream Sarenism allows the Cleric to be realistic about who he spares. The daring burglar who steals valuable things but doesn't kill anyone in his work? A Sarenite would probably subdue him (with violence, even) but will make sure they do not kill or maim him if it's at all avoidable. The guy who was drafted into the evil imperial army? Also probably worth sparing because he doesn't want to be there to begin with and is only obeying out of threat of harm to himself.
This is also just how only the main sect behaves. Others are more extreme in one way or the other. Cult of the Dawnflower for example has a notably reduced interest in redemption, and will kill enemies as a first resort if they have even a basic justification for it. One supposes pacifist extremes, rare as they are, might also exist.
At any rate, you don't have to have your Cleric spare everyone. If confronted with an enemy, you can ask: "Would the world be genuinely better off with this foe dead and gone?" If the sincere, fair answer is "Yes, and there's no realistic chance of changing his ways", then scimitar away. Sarenrae understands some evil needs to be destroyed outright and will generally give your Cleric the benefit of the doubt unless he's egregiously violating her merciful/redemption tenets.
Ah thank you I was concerned that I was supposed to try and save everyone that I could save no matter what. I figure the demon is a no, but the evil cleric should get a "hey repent of your sins, or my good friend the pally is going to cut your face off"
my only advice is dont play a pacifist in my experience they bring down the game for other players as the character is bound to object to most of the parties actions
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Be a free-will individualist: Anyone who comes to you seeking redemption shall be redeemed, no matter their past deeds. But those who do not seek redemption need not be spared if they commit deeds of evil (such as attacking a true servant of light, goodness and forgiveness).
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Also remember to strike from you mind the word redemption (and sometimes staying alive) when you fight the servants and/or forces of Rovagug, when you do encounter them simply eviscerate them, blow their place up and then sanctify the place for good measure.
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Here is the Wiki article on Sarenrae. This article includes notes on the clergy.
A couple of years ago I posted a question on the ask James Jacobs thread
"how could the church and faith of slavery co exist with slavery? especially in Qadira?
Here is the answer i got from James Jacobs link
April 16 2011 4:16pm
"Sarenrae herself, and her church, does not tolerate slavery, but nor do they preach "Kill the slavers!" They would certainly look for non-violent ways to seek a slave's freedom—purchasing the slave and setting the slave free is probably the preferred method.
Now that said, there's a wide range of individual variations among the specific worshipers of Sarenrae—as with ANY religion. There are some worshipers of Sarenrae who would, perhaps, seek to simply comfort slaves if possible, espcially if they see the alternative (living on your own with no support structure in a dangerous city) is more painfula nd dangerous than slavery itself. There's ABSOLUTELY some worshipers of Sarenrae who crusade against slavery and slavers themselves and DO use violence against the slavers.
Now, as for Qadira? It's important to keep two things in mind about Sarenrae's faith being the most widespread faith in Qadira:
1) It's not in charge. The government of Qadira is richer and more powerful than the church of Sarenrae in Qadira, and as a result, the government is the one that gets to say if slaves are legal or not. The church has to either go along with that or rebel, and in Qadira's case, the church has opted to go along with it.
2) The church of Sarenrae in Qadira is NOT the most faithful of all of Sarenrae's churches. In fact, it's one of the most corrupt of her churches, because they've more or less lost sight of the "redeem your enemies" and "peace is better than war." Over the course of many generations, the church of Sarenrae in Qadira has become militarized, basically, and they're a lot more pro-war than they should be—but not SO pro-war that the chruch is in immediate danger of losing all their clerical powers. This church's tolerance of slaves in Qadira is but one of many examples of how the church is straying from Sarenrae's path. It's also why there's a schism building among the church, as a growing number of worshipers are coming to realize that things have somehow gone sour in the faith here. But an outright rebellion would tear the church apart, cause massive unrest in the faith AND in the nation, and could even start a Qadiran civil war—which is exactly the type of thing the true worshiper of Sarenrae DOESN'T want. So the actual honest worshipers of Sarenrae in Qadira are sort of caught in a terrible spot—either stand up for the actual teachings of their goddess and risk tearing their church apart, or stay quiet and risk letting the church stray that one final bit that finally forces Sarenrae to take action against the church.
All of this is set up to give a really interesting political angle to the church, honestly—it'd be super easy to just paint Sarenrae's church as a "can do no wrong" set of do-gooders, but this is, in my opinion, a far more interesting and realistic portrayal of the corruption of power. And it's got built into it the seeds of a really interesting-sounding campaign!"
I hope this helps
Be a free-will individualist
Being both a member of an established church and invested with the Power of a God, I would actually emphasise the importance of not being a free-willed individualist. You represent your Deity and your church first and foremost.
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sorry for a super late reply, but I have a paladin of Sarenrae that I really love playing.
She basically opens fights with an attempt at diplomacy if they're not obviously demonic, but acknowledges that they only have one chance to surrender before the party will move forward so that I don't drag down the party too much.
If they seem redeemable at all though, she will continue trying to talk them down during the fight and accepts the BBEG surrender at any point if it is made.
Basically, I've modeled her after the character of Michael Carpenter from the Dresden Files who, (spoilers for the most recent book) tries to save someone who is possessed by a fallen angel at a critical point in the battle instead of just slaying him.
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Be a free-will individualistBeing both a member of an established church and invested with the Power of a God, I would actually emphasise the importance of not being a free-willed individualist. You represent your Deity and your church first and foremost.
While VRMH makes a generally valid point for most clerics/paladins/other church-related classes, I agree more with KutuluKultist in this particular instance.
According to most of the general information sections about Sarenrae (on sites such as pathfinderwiki), she was the first deity to openly support Ihys (one of the two primary creator gods, the other being his brother Asmodeus) in his decision to bestow free will on mortals. She was also the only one able to convince Asmodeus to stand down and cease his war on freedom after he killed Ihys.
Basically, in my opinion, Sarenrae most likely would ENCOURAGE her faithful followers to exercise the free will and individuality for which she fought so hard to preserve.
THIS WAS MY FIRST MESSAGEBOARD POST SO HOPEFULLY IT CAN BE CONSIDERED A MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTION AND NOT JUST FLUFF
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Recently, I've had my sorcerer character go through a bit of a transformation during the events of "Rise of the Runelords". While I wrote him as a poor son of a farmer with a hatred for goblins (who would raid the farms outside Sandpoint, where he lived), I decided (once in play) that my character was a religious sort. He believed that evil creatures, such as goblins and some giant-kin, were evil because they lacked souls. The cleric in our party encouraged this belief.
Well, during the raid on Thistletop, our referee had a goblin beg for mercy and surrender. My NG Sorcerer immediately stopped, stunned. It seemed as if this creature was honestly remorseful and, therefore, might actually have a soul. I spared him and, honestly, never ran into the goblin, since. Something similar happened with some of the ogre-kin near Hook Mountain. Our cleric (of Abaddon) kept to his position that these creatures were purely evil and irredeemable.
So, upon gaining 11th level, I had my character take a level in Cleric and devoted himself to Sarenrae and her teaching of redemption.
I've found it to be rather exciting to go in this direction as it offers some perspective on redemption that our adventuring party has lacked in the past. It's still fairly recent so I'm not sure how it's going to play out, but so far I think the key element I've focused on is the idea of mercy.
From what I've experienced, the quality of mercy is at the heart of Sarenrae's clergy. It is mercy that speaks towards redemption or, if no redemption is possible, a swift and painless end. If you put mercy at the core of your portrayal of a Sarenrae cleric, most of the rest will follow.
Yours,
Sylvan
I don't think Sarenrae would approve of this thread, she doesn't like necromancy.