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Has anyone dealt with this?
Nualia dealt with him. ;)
Seriously, though, I agree with what you said. But maybe Father Tobyn was old and had traveled in his youth, but his health didn't allow it anymore? What's more, Father Zantus doesn't seem to be traveling much either.
As for the controlling part... maybe he just loved Nualia too much and was over-protective of her. Maybe he wasn't that bad after all, but she perceived his protection and rules as a prison.
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My players are currently in the catacombs of wrath.
They have captured Tsuto and read his journal.
They have put together most of his and Nualia's story, largely through the bard questioning people.
The bard is a worshipper of Desna and finds Father Tobyn's behaviour to be contrary to the descriptions of her priests, and I tend to agree.
He didn't travel and tried to direct Nualia's life.Has anyone dealt with this?
The problem may be that Tobyn pre-dates the final pinning down of Desna.
I decided that Tobyn had travelled in his youth, before he settled down. Travel is not, in any case, the be al and end all of Desnan worship. Perhaps Tobyn is primarily a dream and vision interpreter?
As for directing Nualia's life... It obviously wasn't done with a heavy hand (she was not caught until her pregnancy showed) and he was trying, albeit clumsily, to direct her toward a Desnan life. Perhaps he had a dream or vision of her holy, higher calling?
That a father might have grand plans for his children, that he might be frustrated and irate when she did something that he perceived as limiting her future opportunities - these seem like reasonable things to occur.
Tobin is a man, not a saint, he made mistakes in his rearing of a child; surely this puts him a large cohort of people?
If your bard wants to get self-righteous and give Tobyn a lecture, well... I'd have Tobyn break down in bitter tears of regret and then ask the bard if he'd never made any mistakes in raising his own children?
Well, considering that all your information about the man is coming from what could mildly be described as biased sources...
And even if there's not another side, the fact of the matter is that, cleric of Desna he might be, he is also a human being--flawed and perhaps foolish.
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Actually... and this got cut for space from the final adventure...
The fact that he stopped traveling in favor of living in one part of the world, and the fact that he was so controlling of Nualia (an overbearing trait that, in the end, was pretty much the main cause of her rebellion and fall from grace) was meant to portray Tobyn as a not-that-great priest of Desna. He was a nice guy, and the locals loved him, and he was friendly enough to most, but he wasn't a model priest of his faith anymore. His failings, although they might seem slight, were ultimately responsible for a LOT of pain and suffering; not just to Nualia, but through her drive for revenge, to a lot of Sandpoint as well.
There was an element in the original adventure that had Nualia and the goblins desecrating Tobyn's grave, removing his body from his crypt, and using it for vile goings-on back at Thistletop—basically, his remains and their desecration was going to be the final stage that would scour the last bits of aasimar from Nualia, and the PCs would have a chance to stop that and perhaps learn a bit more about how Tobyn's problems with his faith and his failings as a father-figure were responsible for a lot of what's been happening, and also serves to showcase more of the "sin" themes (Tobyn's being sloth and pride, probably) of the campaign.
The fact that your player picked up on these elements even though they were downplayed in print is pretty cool, in other words!
It's hard to follow up the comments of the Editor-in-Chief, but the matter of Father Tobyn came up in the first iteration of RuneLords that I ran... and a little bit in the second time.
Burnt Offerings is very much a tragedy, if you consider that many of the 'bad guys' just got turned around by life, bad luck, or some bad choices.
Speaking of Father Tobyn directly, it really depends on whether you see a diety "cutting off" a cleric when they deviate from the faith. Because real world clergy stray from their core values all the time, and sometimes they're just too close to the situation to see it for themselves.
And, say for example, Father Tobyn had strayed from Desna's principles- would she just turn away from him, or try her best to put him back on course. Would he be able to hear and understand those messages, or might he misunderstand?
Real life and contemporary fiction are filled with these same sort of questions.
Also.. there are Varisians who settle down to a lifestyle that is similiar to the old Chelixian way of doing things (going so far as to have a VArisian Council in Magnimar).. And there are orthodox or traditional Varisians who keep to the 'old ways'.
That's when happens when two different cultures meet and intermingle.
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Actually, for Chopper...
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Father Tobyn certainly didn't deviate far enough from Desna's faith to get cut off. Despite his failings, he WAS still a mostly good guy, and he did an AWFUL lot to encourage the worship of Desna. If deities cut off their clerics for every tiny and slight deviation from faith, there'd be precious few clerics in the world. And PC clerics would certainly be hit the hardest! :-)