question about warpriests and alignments

[alkatrazshock]

Me again asking questions that im sure are simple, but this stuff is going way over my head, pretty much just asking about warpriests and how some things work. so my questions are as follows, and please put them in simplest direct form, cause most stuff that ends up going over my head is just simple things that are just worded to be much more complicated...

1. so my friend that was mentioned in previous posts, about him being a paladin and wanting to change due to being morally restricted, well I discovered the warpriest, a fighter that can heal is what he wanted, so it seemed perfect, my question is first off how does the deity thing work, like it sounds like a healer/warpriest needs one, but then in several sections says stuff about if a warpriest doesn't have a diety, so my question really in basic form is, are deities optional, and if so, why choose one, why to not choose one?

2. relating to question one, if a warpriest can be without a deity, does that mean he doesn't have to risk losing his class due to certain acts, cause all the ex warpriest sections says is to follow your gods ways and such, if you don't have one, does that mean you can pretty much do whatever within reason? what would be off limits other than the obvious of being true evil?

3. This questions is about how alignment works, this is the first time ive had to really go into depth about it, because the warpriest derives a lot of stuff from his alignment, so this is an extensive question, but I need to understand what it means when it says like, how to do his alignment with his deity, and the aura and all that, so I will try and simply the questions directly...

3A. The part where it says the alignment has to be within one of his deity's and then talks about direction of it, like up and down or something, don't have it in front of me, what does it mean exactly? I think I understand, but id rather know fer sure.

3B. the aura part of the class, he ended up choosing chaotic good, and it says to see detect etc. spell for details, and none of what I saw really told me anything about what the aura does or anything, and if the aura was chaos and good, or just good or whatever, so clearing up that ability and how it works, its uses and functions would be nice

3C. another question I think I understand, but wanna make sure, is where it talks about the spell restriction, and the question is pretty much the direct way of how that works, like it says you cant use spells opposite of your alignment, so I assume evil is opposed to good, and law is opposed to chaos, so I assume that that means since he is chaotic good, he can use no spells that have the part that says (law) or (evil) and such, so am I correct? is there more spells limits other than those 2 types and of course the obvious restrictions like what level and class he is?

4. this is just sorta a side question cause it keeps coming up, and I wanna clear up my knowledge on it, when you choose a deity, what does the favored weapon mean for you? I know for a warpriest he has that ability that pertains to it, but what about other classes, like a rogue or just a normal fighter, what is the purpose or features of the favored weapon of your deity?

I believe that's all the questions for now >.>

[Captain Zoom]

1. Deity/No Deity: In generic Pathfinder, CLERICs have a choice:

"As their powers are influenced by their faith, all clerics must focus their worship upon a divine source. While the vast majority of clerics revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of devotion—such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge—free of a deific abstraction."

A Cleric in the Paizo world setting known as Golarion is required to have a deity (though some DMs don't really require it).

In summary, in "Pathfinder RPG" no deity required for a Cleric, but in "Pathfinder/Golarion" a deity is required for a Cleric.

I don't see any specific language in the Warpriest rules that mirror the Cleric (see above), but there is indirect language implying that Warpriests use the same rules as Clerics: "If a warpriest isn’t
devoted to a particular deity, he still selects..."

2. If you dedicate yourself to a divine concept, you still have the restrictions. If you are a Cleric or Warpriest dedicated to Slaughter, but you keep sparing everyone and refusing to kill people, you're probably going to trigger the Ex-Cleric or Ex-Warpriest rules.

3A. There is a table of alignments on page 166 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. To be within one step of your deity's alignment, find your deity's alignment on the table. Your PC's alignment must be in the same box, or one box up, down, right or left (no diagonals). So, for example, a Lawful Good deity allows you to be Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good.

3B. The Detect alignment spells do not automatically detect people based on their alignment. You have to have an aligned "aura". So, joe-blow Fighter who is Lawful Evil doesn't normally show up on a detect evil spell (unless he meets the exception of "evil intent"). But Lawful Evil cleric Mathias will ping on a detect evil spell even if he's thinking pure, good thoughts, or is sleeping. Certain creatures can also detect auras. I think Devils and Demons might have the ability to detect good auras (so they know who the holy guys are), but I'm not sure and don't have time to look it up.

3C. Correct, a Chaotic Good Warpriest cannot cast any spell with the Law OR Evil descriptor.

4. Mechanically, favored weapon only matters if your class references it. For example, the Warpriest and Cleric are both considered proficient in their deity's favored weapon. There may also be feats that reference a deity's favored weapon, like the Guided Hand feat. For classes that don't reference their deity's favored weapon, it's just a roleplaying issue. Since Desna's favored weapon is the starknife, you probably see alot of her followers use the weapon, or carry one (compared to the general population); keeping in mind that they are not required to actually use or have such a weapon.

[alkatrazshock]

Captain Zoom wrote:

1. Deity/No Deity: In generic Pathfinder, CLERICs have a choice:

"As their powers are influenced by their faith, all clerics must focus their worship upon a divine source. While the vast majority of clerics revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of devotion—such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge—free of a deific abstraction."

A Cleric in the Paizo world setting known as Golarion is required to have a deity (though some DMs don't really require it).

In summary, in "Pathfinder RPG" no deity required for a Cleric, but in "Pathfinder/Golarion" a deity is required for a Cleric.

I don't see any specific language in the Warpriest rules that mirror the Cleric (see above), but there is indirect language implying that Warpriests use the same rules as Clerics: "If a warpriest isn’t
devoted to a particular deity, he still selects..."

2. If you dedicate yourself to a divine concept, you still have the restrictions. If you are a Cleric or Warpriest dedicated to Slaughter, but you keep sparing everyone and refusing to kill people, you're probably going to trigger the Ex-Cleric or Ex-Warpriest rules.

3A. There is a table of alignments on page 166 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. To be within one step of your deity's alignment, find your deity's alignment on the table. Your PC's alignment must be in the same box, or one box up, down, right or left (no diagonals). So, for example, a Lawful Good deity allows you to be Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good.

3B. The Detect alignment spells do not automatically detect people based on their alignment. You have to have an aligned "aura". So, joe-blow Fighter who is Lawful Evil doesn't normally show up on a detect evil spell (unless he meets the exception of "evil intent"). But Lawful Evil cleric Mathias will ping on a detect evil spell even if he's thinking pure, good thoughts, or is sleeping. Certain creatures can also detect auras. I think Devils and Demons might have the ability to detect...

alright, I get most of it, so his aura power is really just a flavor thing, I mean it matters with spells, but it doesn't add any enhancments? just says hey, im this aura and if someone tries to find this aura, they can detect me? and so since he is chaotic good, what is his aura, is it both chaos and good?

also I was curious, if he chose the god cayden cailean, what would he have to follow? I know little more than just he is sorta the god of drinking, so does he have to drink often or trigger ex warpriest? what about killing, can he kill if nessasary and not exactly evil? can he resist arrest? etc.

[Captain Zoom]

An aura has some mechanical effects (good or bad), so it is more than a flavor thing. There are certain feats only available to characters with auras, and some prestige classes require an appropriate aura to enter. In a game, scenarios may have events, traps, etc., that key off of or are triggered by certain auras. I think there may also be some magic items which interact with auras. But I'll admit that in ordinary game play, a PC's aura rarely seems to come up as a mechanical issue.

You should get the core book, it's only $9.99 as PDF. It lists the core gods of Golarion, among which is Cayden Cailean. You can get more info about Cayden Cailean in the Champions of Purity and the Inner Sea Gods books. Not every cleric or warpriest of a god will be the same. There could be a Cleric of Cayden Cailean who strongly identifies with his Freedom and Bravery aspects, and not so much with the Ale and Wine aspects. A PC Cleric of Cayden Cailean might be obsessed with making the perfect ale or wine, but be indifferent about drinking except for pleasure (as opposed to getting drunk). The whole ex-Cleric and ex-Warpriest issue is largely a roleplaying one and largely subjective (as between PC and GM). For example, if I were the GM, I would allow a Cleric of Cayden Cailean who doesn't drink alcohol if the PC had good reasons, but I probably wouldn't allow a Cleric of Cayden Cailean who championed a campaign to ban all alcoholic drinks from a kingdom or town. In the end, you need to find out what your GM's view is on the matter.

[FallofCamelot]

Captain Zoom wrote:

3B. The Detect alignment spells do not automatically detect people based on their alignment. You have to have an aligned "aura". So, joe-blow Fighter who is Lawful Evil doesn't normally show up on a detect evil spell (unless he meets the exception of "evil intent"). But Lawful Evil cleric Mathias will ping on a detect evil spell even if he's thinking pure, good thoughts, or is sleeping. Certain creatures can also detect auras. I think Devils and Demons might have the ability to detect good auras (so they know who the holy guys are), but I'm not sure and don't have time to look it up.

This isn't true.

Anything has an aura if it has an alignment but normally it is too weak to show up under detect alignment spells until you get to 5th level at which point you radiate the appropriate faint auras of your alignment.

What the Aura class feature does for you is enhance your aura so it radiates stronger. There is a table under the spell here

Thus a 1st level fighter wouldn't radiate an aura but a 1st level warpriest would. At 5th level said fighter would have a faint aura and said warpriest would have a moderate aura.