Alignment restrictions on worship

[Onestep]

As per thread name, how tight are alignment restrictions on worship of a Deity, if that worship doesn't provide mechanical benefits?

I was really keen on playing a True Neutral Ascetic Wizard who worshipped Irori, who pursued that which improved himself, while casting away that which did not. But I got into a slight debate with the DM, who said that to worship Irori, said character had to be Lawful Neutral. This didn't really fit with the coldly utilitarian way I envisioned the character pursuing power.

Of course, I originally envisioned said character for a game of 1E, where the one-step alignment rule made this a non-factor.

[HammerJack]

They aren't. Alignment restrictions are for who that deity will grant divine power to. They have nothing to do with preventing people from worshipping deities that don't give them anything back for it.

[Deadmanwalking]

HammerJack wrote:

They aren't. Alignment restrictions are for who that deity will grant divine power to. They have nothing to do with preventing people from worshipping deities that don't give them anything back for it.

Yep. This. The deity might not give bonuses to you for your worship unless your Alignment is correct, but nothing prevents you from worshiping them anyway.

[Stephan Taylor]

It should, however, make you something of a pariah if you come into contact with more traditionally aligned worshipers of the deity. They may either find you misguided or outright heretical depending on how you approach your religious beliefs.

[Deadmanwalking]

Stephan Taylor wrote:

It should, however, make you something of a pariah if you come into contact with more traditionally aligned worshipers of the deity. They may either find you misguided or outright heretical depending on how you approach your religious beliefs.

This really depends on degree of divergence and specific faith.

For example, based on the OP's reason for asking, most worshipers of Irori are LN, so the likely reaction of most of them to a True Neutral follower will be that the poor soul has insufficient rigor and discipline to achieve true enlightenment. They'd likely find such a person simply overly lax rather than truly misguided or heretical per se.

Any noticing at all will likely also take time and familairity. Nobody you meet in an inn is gonna notice a bookish Wizard as doing anything too atypical for a devotee of Irori, it would take time for them to notice the aforementioned lack of discipline and rigor that reveal their non-standard alignment.

But yeah, other devotees will, with time and familiarity, certainly notice issues with the faith of such non-standard worshipers, the form that takes is just gonna vary quite a bit.

[Mechagamera]

I think it also depends on the circumstances the PC encounters the other worshippers. The TN alignment is a flaw on the path to enlightenment, but it isn't necessarily a flaw that needs to be removed right away. Maybe if the wizard reaches a stumbling block that he can't get over, then advice about greater discipline would go over better.

[Temperans]

Irory does preach that the path to enlightenment is different for every person. Even if he does highly prefer discipline (given his misgivings about Nethys being too chaotic).

But do note his nephew Gruhastha, became a god because of how "perfectly profound" his book was.

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* P.S. The wiki says this under the Clergy section, "Each must follow his or her own slightly different path to enlightenment, but there is little infighting among Irori's followers."

So as long as you dont do anything too crazy or antagonistic, you should be fine.