Why do almost all evil gods allow neutral clerics?

[Yqatuba]

I'm guessing so PCs can be clerics of them?

[Cavall]

Because some of the concepts of a God arent just evil and good.

Asmodeus for example is one of the best choices for a lawful God.

Neutral means that the cleric is capable of evil just as much as good, it's not the driving force in them. They have other goals and the other aspects of the gods they worship appeal to those goals.

[Set]

You can't win if you don't even *try* to appeal to the people who weren't already going to worship you anyway, and almost all evil gods have some areas of concern other than 'evil for the lulz' that a non-evil priest can focus on, such as law, for an Asmodean, or hedonistic gluttonous excess for an Urgathoan, or 'that which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger' for a Kuthite, or succor to the those deformed or twisted in body or mind / 'every child born is a gift' for a Lamashtan.

Some, like Rovagug, are a harder sell to non-evil folk than others, but he sometimes comes across like Cthulhu or Azathoth, dimly aware, at best, that he even *has* worshippers, and not really caring if they 'get it right...'

Meta, sure, it's so that the wordcount spent on non-good gods isn't mostly wasted since PCs 'can't play them' in most games, but in-game, it makes sense that gods *want* worshippers, and are willing to accept the devotion (and, eventually, souls) of people who aren't getting it 100% right, since it's all cash in the bank in the end.

I assume the same rationale for why good gods allow non-good clerics. They are willing to tolerate non-good clerics because they A) hope to convert them to a more moral stance, and B) need someone who can connect with their non-good worshippers and 'speak their language,' as it were (so that they too, can perhaps eventually 'see the light' and become good, although it's 'good enough' if they pay lip-service to the tenets of a good faith and more or less avoid evil).

[Volkard Abendroth]

There is much that a lawful neutral cleric of Iomedea and a lawful neutral cleric of Asmodeus can agree on.

For example, the need to maintain law and order in the city.

[Albatoonoe]

Because that is a blanket rule that is applied to all deities regardless of if it makes sense or not. They are changing this specifically in 2nd edition so that God's allow specific alignments. No neutrals of Rovagug, for instance.

[BigNorseWolf]

Partially that.

Also lets say you have a CN mother of monsters brand orphanage where you raise up abominations because you think they're fascinating. They're going to do what they do and rampage the countryside anyway so Lamashtu really doesn't care if you're not planning on all that death and destruction.. it will happen...

[Meirril]

Maybe because the gods don't care about alignment? Each god has areas they are concerned with due to their personality. The domains each god offers gives you an insight on what the deity actually considers important. While a lot of deities include alignment in their domains, for an equally large amount of gods alignment isn't a domain choice because they are more strongly focused on other things.

Very few dieties are paragons of their alignment. Most have a focus that is much more mundane. While there are a few gods that embrace 'good' none of them embrace 'evil'. Lamashtu is the Mother of Monsters. Asmodeus is the Lord of Hell and is more about Order and Ruling than he is about cruelty. None of the gods say 'just do as much evil as you can if you want my favor'. They all want you to act in a certain way.

Except Grotus. Don't trust Grotus.

[Set]

Meirril wrote:

Very few dieties are paragons of their alignment. Most have a focus that is much more mundane.

A good point. Of the 'big 20,' only Abadar is explicitly a god *of* an alignment. There is no 'god of good' or 'god of evil' or 'god of chaos.'

They all happen to have their alignment(s) as a Domain option, but that doesn't make them a god *of* that alignment anymore than Shelyn is a god of air (which she has little or nothing to do with, despite it being one of her Domain options), or Iomedae is the 'god of the sun' (which is very much Sarenrae's bag!).