Hi all. My wizard died last week and I needed to roll a new character. I figured I'd play a cleric, flipped through the book and my eye initially fell on Asmodeus. The problem is that the group consists of 6 chaotic evil/neutral/good characters, so that was a no-go. Then my eye fell on Calistria and Norgorber. Thinking I'd go for something I've never played - a weasely secretive cleric who channels negative energy - I made a lvl10 cleric of Norgorber.
Now the problem. I cannot keep my Divine Focus hidden when casting spells or channeling. There's others with knowledge religion who will pass their check. Is there any way to circumvent this? Right now I pretend to be a 'free agent of Pharasma and Asmodeus, with a sprinkling of Nethys, Calistria and Shelyn and any other gods that may be required'. My thought was to have a cluttering of holy symbols woven together to be 'one big symbol' around my neck and use that when a DF is needed. Would that work?
Also, is there more information about the Reapers of Reputation than can be found in the Evil Gods splatbook or Gods and Magic?
Augustine's background is simple. He's a lawyer from Cheliax who worked for the bureaucratic institution of the empire. He slowly but steadily fell away from Asmodeus and Pharasma and slipped into the hands of this secret cult who worship the Reaper of Reputation. Augustine has little knowledge of religion and honestly doesn't care much for it. He's greedy, cares about acquiring wealth and power, but prefers to stay civil about it. When he got the chance to move on from being a field agent slash pro-active lawyer he did. After free-wheeling for a few years he joined a group of adventures.
So the build.
Aasimar Cleric 10 Norgorber (Reaper of Reputation: NEUTRAL)
STR 10 BAB 7/2 F7 R3 W7
DEX 10 HP (8+4.5x9+30=78.5)
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 20
CHA 16
Feats
1 Smite Channel
3 Guided Hand
5 Skill Focus Diplomacy (+6)
7 Quick Channel (channel as move action for 2 charges)
9 Selective Channeling
future feats: (greater) spell penetration, toughness, iron will, great fortitude, improved initiative, improved channel, lunge.
Skills
1 Diplomacy 10 ranks
2 Bluff 10 ranks
3 Knowledge Local 10 ranks
4 Sense Motive 10 ranks
5 Linguistics 1 / Profession Lawyer 5
6 Appraise 1 / Disguise 1 / Stealth 1 / Knowledge Religion 1
Charm+Trickery Domains
Aasimar abilities
Traits
1 Secret Knowledge (+2 Knowledge Local, becomes class skill)
2 Innocent (When you make a Bluff check to tell a lie, your target always wants to believe you, granting you the standard +5 bonus on your Bluff check. This bonus only applies if the lie you tell is either believable or unlikely.)
Notable gear: +1 spell storing short sword and a phylactery of negative channeling.
You could take the Birthmark trait. Adding some paint, or tattooing in some flourishes, to disguise it could work.
Having a birthmark of Norgorber isn't the most subtle of ways. If you then keep it covered by paint, I'm sure my dm will rule it as 'not visible'. If you work it into something else, sure that might work, but that's why I figured having a pantheon-esque clutter of holy symbols would do the trick.
You have chaotic evil and chaotic good people in the same group, but you're worried about the problem of alignment differences from throwing Lawful or Neutral in?
With Norgorber's portfolio, I think it's totally reasonable that he could let you use a false DF.
Of all the Golarion gods, I think Norgorber would be the one that would allow you to hide your holy symbol. Maybe you wield a symbol of Pharasma that has subtle flaws that make it pleasing to Norgorber. Ask your DM. I think it would be fair if the symbol is made in such a way that only a close inspection would give someone a check to detect the subterfuge.
Also, be sure to have an actual holy symbol of Norgorber on your person. This fits the trope of the heretical priest: he look normal, but a close inspection will reveal that something is very off.
Well, no one is CE just yet but two players are certainly asking for the DM to change the alignment on their sheets. I'm sure it is going to happen one day soon, but when that happens, they'll most likely be 'taken care' of. Functional evil is okay, but chaotic evil rarely is functional.
If you read what Asmodeus is all about, you know a proper cleric of Asmo wouldn't fit in a group of chaotic characters. Not without conflict and or the downfall of the Asmo cleric. One player is a cleric of Desna and I'd be unnecessarily creating a conflict if I had gone for Asmodeus :)
I am right now pretending to be an agent of Asmodeus and Pharasma and anyone who'd want to use the skills of a lawyer/intermediator, using his actual skills at being a lawyer and diplomat. I'll have to talk to the GM about using a fake holy symbol, but having at least eight holy symbols chained together and using that might just fool my teamies .. enough. They won't investigate anytime soon I think, but I still want to have the situation taken care of in case it happens.
Sadly Norgorber seems to be one of the least loved gods by Paizo as there's very little to be found on him. Okay, so the Reapers of Reputation are politicians and spies .. and if you extend that sphere/aspect of him, I'd include lawyers and diplomats as well. That's where my character kicks in.
I googled the forums for more about him and found a great post by Set. Perhaps this thread will also bring forth some great responses that future players of Norgorber can use to craft their characters with ^_^
As an idea of how to hide yet clearly display a holy symbol- have a book, probably a small one, which appears to have the holy symbol of a Nethys engraved on the cover. Have secret page be used on said cover to conceal the fact that it's actually the symbol of Norgorber. No one would suspect anything if a preist of Nethys waves around a magical book while casting spells.
You should probably do some spell research in said book, or have it be a treatise on the nature of magic, something like that. Bonus points if it's a masterwork tool for knowledge (arcana) so you can have it out and be consulting it with relative frequency ;)
Oh wow, that's a great idea. I can make it a codex of the law (from every country I've visited and that is an on-going project) with the religious symbols of all deities and icons/flags of every state on the front. I can wear it around my neck as a 'thick pocket' book. Thank you!
I once played a Norgorber cleric as some kind of spy that tried to keep her true deity hidden.
She had Norgorber's symbol worked into elaborate tattoos and stitched into her clothing disguised as some kind of pattern. The symbol was there, all over her body, but so worked into other intricate patterns that you needed to look carefully to see it. She didn't need to present a big holy symbol for her actions because it was visible all over her.
It worked pretty good, I thought it fitted with the theme and no one complained. Maybe something like that would be an option for you and your GM.