Isiem, from Nightglass and Nightblade, is a wizard and failed cleric of Zon-Kuthon. At least, so it appears. He did receive clerical training after some years of wizardly training, but he's no longer loyal to either Nidal or Zon-Kuthon. This does raise some questions, though. Using Isiem as an example:
1. What happens to the experience he used to gain his cleric levels? According to the CRB, once he atones for his apostasy, he gets his cleric levels back - but Isiem pretty clearly isn't going to do that. So is all that experience wasted, or does he get it back to use for other things?
2. What if he decides to become a cleric of some other deity? Does he start over, or does he start where he left off, rank wise, but with powers based on his new deity?
3. CRB says he loses everything except simple weapons, light and medium armor, and shield proficiencies. Seems to me his bonus languages and whip proficiency (Zon-Kuthon's preferred weapon) while he might get them from the god without any mundane training, that seems kind of unlikely — these are the kind of things I'd expect him to have through mundane training, so I'd think he should be able to keep them. I suppose we could house-rule it that way. Am I reading the RAW correctly, though?
4. I don't know what Isiem's class levels are (or were), but assume he got to 5th level wizard and 2nd level cleric. As I understand multi-classing, it's character levels that determine how many experience points you need for the next level, whether that be level six as a wizard or level 1 (or 3) as a cleric, or whatever. So if Isiem got to the levels assumed, on the medium XP track, he has between 35,000 and 50,999 XP, 15,000 of which got him to Wizard 5, and 20,000 of which got him to second level cleric, and the remainder, if any, waiting for his next level gain. To get to second level cleric without multi-classing would have cost only 2000 XP. So multiclassing is expensive, XP-wise. Or did I miss something?
Bonus question: What are Isiem's levels? :-)
1) He still has the cleric levels, but he loses his class abilities (besides the ones you mention.) They still provide him saves, BAB, HP, skill points and class skills, and proficiencies.
2) He can apply all of his cleric levels immediately if he becomes a cleric of another deity. So, if he's an ex-cleric 2 of Zon-Kuthon, and then gets redeemed and decides to become a cleric of Sarenrae, he is a cleric 3 of Sarenrae and has all the powers a 3rd level cleric would normally have.
3) He would not lose any languages, as he has already learned them - the "Bonus Languages" class feature is no longer relevant, as it was simply giving the option to use his normal bonus languages for those languages. I am not sure RAW about the whip proficiency - I would personally say he keeps his whip proficiency, but by the rules it does seem to say he would lose the whip proficiency.
4) People still use XP? Anyway, a level is a level is a level - whether you apply it to a single class or you multiclass, it never takes more or less XP. It's no easier to become Fighter 1/Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Wizard than Fighter 4, nor is it any harder.
edit: losing the favored weapon proficiency, while it seems odd, could very well be a deliberate way to prevent conversion cheese. If you could keep the whip proficiency, it would give an incentive to start the game worshipping whatever random deity favors the weapon you want, and then converting to your actual deity. By losing proficiency with your ex-god's favored weapon, it eliminates the incentive to hop around with different deities picking up weapon proficiencies.
Zon-Kuthon's favored weapon is the Spike Chain just to point out also from what I understand somewhat based off of this FAQ they actually get the Exotic/Martial Weapon Feat so they'd keep their ability to use the favored weapon, if they still want to is another question.
Spiked chain. Okay. My excuse is that I have CRS, a syndrome that affects all us old folks sooner or later. For you youngsters, CRS stands for "can't remember stuff". By the way, CRS is only the first stage. The next stage is CRAFT. I'll let you all figure that one out.
Time and money to retrain to wizard? Where's that in da roolz?
Society rules on experience are indeed different, and I wasn't thinking about them, but about the XP table in the CRB.
"There is no X thousand of which is cleric or Y is wizard xp."
Course not, what I said was the first 15000 XP he earned got him to Wizard 5, and the next two levels he took in cleric cost him the next 20000 XP he earned.
I would have thought atonement is only necessary for him to go back to Zon-Kuthon. I don't see why another god would care about atoning for the heinous crime of apostasy with respect to Zon-Kuthon. In fact, I would think such other god would welcome the new convert with open arms.
I did envision the possibility that apostasy without atonement might cause one to lose levels and their associated XP altogether, but I guess that's not on.
Suppose Isiem does nothing about his 2 cleric levels. Is he still "cleric 2"? Really? With no connection to a deity, no spells, and no clerical powers? Or does he just have a "hole" in his résumé?
Yup, as much so as a fallen paladin does.
Spiked chain. Okay. My excuse is that I have CRS, a syndrome that affects all us old folks sooner or later. For you youngsters, CRS stands for "can't remember stuff". By the way, CRS is only the first stage. The next stage is CRAFT. I'll let you all figure that one out.
Time and money to retrain to wizard? Where's that in da roolz?
Society rules on experience are indeed different, and I wasn't thinking about them, but about the XP table in the CRB.
"There is no X thousand of which is cleric or Y is wizard xp."
Course not, what I said was the first 15000 XP he earned got him to Wizard 5, and the next two levels he took in cleric cost him the next 20000 XP he earned.
I would have thought atonement is only necessary for him to go back to Zon-Kuthon. I don't see why another god would care about atoning for the heinous crime of apostasy with respect to Zon-Kuthon. In fact, I would think such other god would welcome the new convert with open arms.
I did envision the possibility that apostasy without atonement might cause one to lose levels and their associated XP altogether, but I guess that's not on.
Suppose Isiem does nothing about his 2 cleric levels. Is he still "cleric 2"? Really? With no connection to a deity, no spells, and no clerical powers? Or does he just have a "hole" in his résumé?
Retraining rules are in Ultimate Campaign
As far as Isiem's level…
I still don't know how Ascaros managed to precisely teleport himself, 3 people and a 400 pound (plus gear) wagon. Useful tools, indeed.
Thanks, Thanis.
Regarding Ascaros: he cheated. Actually, maybe he got some help from Zon-Kuthon. Which is cheating. :-)