A seperatist cleric of Zon and Shelyn. Very grey or even dark issues inside.

[Renegadeshepherd]

Hi all. Got to warn everyone right now Working on a seperatist cleric as the title said and would like some opinions on how I perceive the roleplay and the mechanical advantages. I've done a seperatist cleric of Shelyn who speedster into Zon before and I liked it but I'd like to go to a darker side of things. The idea has always been one that was logical to me that in if one follows one of the two they would have some sympathies towards the other. A more extreme individual would try to blend the views.

Roleplay: the tenet of Shelyn to preserve art and that life is art is foremost in my mind as I thought of this character. So my principle focus is to not kill when possible. As I principle follow Zon this may seem impossible but I am reminded of that old saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". The journey of becoming something greater could in a sense be art unto itself. So I want to roleplay the character as one who creates pain, suffering so as to turn a canvas/person into a masterpiece. This would take LONG time to achieve obviously but could be achieved. The secondary concerns would be traditional masochism of Zon and the instrumental skills of Shelyn (I love music).

He is t a jerk who randomly causes pain but is more calculating and predatorial like a serial criminal. He is lawful neutral so will perform good deeds from time to time if it serves either deities tenets. To fit in he does not injure himself in any way that can't be concealed to most onlookers. Going to make a backstory that involves his being former minor noble, losing title, and then warped views.

Mechanics: I think that this characters warped perception of things on many levels reflects a devils ideas. As such I'm leaning towards making him a summoning specialist first and foremost with sacred and superior summons. On top of this I wish him to be charismatic and take advantage of Zons channeling opportunities. I think death domain with pain portfolio works very well. From the lady Shelyn I like luck for its early game support and the spell list is pretty good and where it's spell isn't strong death domain grants a respectable one.

14,12,12,7,14(16),16 is what I'm thinking statwise with my human. Feats in rough order selective channel, spell focus (conj), augment summons, sacred summons, superior summons, improved channel, divine protection, quick channel. Is that order best? Replacing superior summons with divine protection might be better but I'm not going to be on the front Line but more likely the middle or a flanker.

Undecided on a weapon. Ideally I'd take a glaive but that isn't practical as far as I can see. A longspear works for reach of course but is that my best option? Sadly I think it is but I honestly want something else that can work and still have style. One could argue that I will use touch attacks a lot and not need a weapon but darn it I'd like one.

Finally my spells. Plan on using as many permanent spells as I can such as bestow curse, blindness/deafness, and such but I'd gladly take suggestions for roleplay or optimization. Any thoughts on necromancy? Has advantages of course but I don't think it fits the character.

Thx to anyone for looking and I appreciate any advice. I know that this may stir up some moral issues connected with this character concept and I welcome that but let's plz stay civil to each other.

[Kobold Catgirl]

I actually really love the idea, though I have a feeling your powers would be coming not from the gods themselves but from a "cause". The Shelyn-Kuthon quasi-truce is a pretty neat thing, but they still have opposed alignments an' rules is generally rules.

[QuidEst]

Well, mechanically, it sounds like it's technically a Separatist Cleric of Zon-Kuthon. Alignment seems like NE, maybe LE, and even Separatist needs to stay within one step of their deity. They could be addressing their prayers to Shelyn, but it's definitely Zon-Kuthon answering.

[Renegadeshepherd]

QuidEst wrote:

They could be addressing their prayers to Shelyn, but it's definitely Zon-Kuthon answering.

The character definitely knows he is praying to Zon-Kuthon though I'd see him as making a side prayer to Shelyn from time to time as well. The logic of the character is he is giving respect/love to her out of respect for his patron. Don't know if its overreaching that he would believe Zon still loves her from somewhere deep within and the seperatist emmuliate this.

[QuidEst]

Renegadeshepherd wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

They could be addressing their prayers to Shelyn, but it's definitely Zon-Kuthon answering.

The character definitely knows he is praying to Zon-Kuthon though I'd see him as making a side prayer to Shelyn from time to time as well. The logic of the character is he is giving respect/love to her out of respect for his patron. Don't know if its overreaching that he would believe Zon still loves her from somewhere deep within and the seperatist emmuliate this.

That seems reasonable. After all, he does make something of an exception for her clergy- something your charcter can emulate.

[Movin]

So you want to play a PC as the villain from Saw? Or perhaps the most recent batman movie version of Bane?
The idea being that adversity and hardship inspires beauty along with suffering and despair.

The trouble being that if one slices away at what a person is to reveal what they believe that person should be is a fantastic act of hubris. Ozymandias of the Watchmen is also an excellent example of this concept applied to a larger audience.

In order to incorporate the music concept I'd suggest making the puzzles, traps or challenges you set your targets up with the be based in such things.
Ex: make a trap which has its solution based of an Arpeggio or scale of one instrument or another. there is no need to be directly connected to music but it is very easy for nearly anything to have an oblique connection to song.

The spells Lullaby, deep slumber and hypnotism/Hypnotic pattern could all be used.
If you want song to be a thing you could also have your character be a Evangelist Cleric of Progress rather than worshiping ZK or Sheylen. That would net you bard songs and command/control spells in order to separate people and get them into positions where you could work on peeling them.

heres a thread from a while back about Nidal/ZK's culture that you might find useful in establishing a character like this.
Handy link

EDIT:
As an additiona incentive for the Evangelist option, it is the only option a cleric has to access the Bardic Spellsong feat, which would mean with a high enough perform check you could cast your influencing spells and other chicanery without anyone the wiser.

[Renegadeshepherd]

The evangist is actually where I started with this idea but in my mind I couldn't wrap the idea of a masochist or sadist inspire others, or being a musician for his pleasure. Even this I could push through if not for an evangelist having watered down channeling because pain variant is really good if you can stack up the penalties.

Side issue: if a romance situation should develope in game, how would this seperatist view it? Sadly I think it would be comparable to 50 shades of grey, I hate saying that so much! Not In the possessive way but it would be courtly and meaningful. I'd even say normal until any sex encounters would happen.

[LazarX]

The idea is interesting but the alignment would be evil.

[Renegadeshepherd]

If evil then neutral evil it is. I don't like alignments without neutral in it somewhere.