What happens when clerics die?

[rubycona]

My thought is that, when clerics die, they should go to the realm of their deity and have some measure of power within that realm, based on their actions / cleric levels in life, and the manner of their deaths.

But... I can't seem to find anything that may directly contradict this idea.

I'm playing PF. I can obviously, as the DM, houserule that this is how my universe works, but even if I have to do that, knowing the rules I'm changing is useful.

Any thoughts, including whether or not this idea is going to cause problems, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[ArcturusV]

Nowhere I can remember has specific rules for Clerics in the Afterlife. In fact thought he whole DnD cosmology means it's kinda moot anyway.

You're not really "punished" so much as, in typical DnD worlds, there are planes for various alignments and someone just throws you into whatever plane matches your alignment. You aren't being "punished" or "rewarded" so much as someone is going and stamping the Chaotic Evil stamp in your passport and sending you to the Abyss, or stamping the Neutral Good stamp and kicking you off to Bytopia, etc.

Then again the game typically presumes that either you're going to be Rezed, so you won't have time to be some Big Shot in the Afterlife, or you're rolling up a new character and thus probably don't really care about the old one.

But it's an interesting question to explore. It just doesn't really get mentioned too much other than narrow examples like the Risen Martyr PrC.

[Analytica]

Note that the head designer for this part of Pathfinder is answering questions like this over at their forum:

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz2u4o&page=last?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Questions-Here

[Mystral]

Going aaaaall the way back to planescape, this is what happens to a soul when its owner dies.

The Soul gets cast on the great wheel, the outer planes (Hades, Elysium, Limbo etc.). It naturally gravitates towards the plane it is most associated with, alignmentwise. Praying to a specific god as a patron has little influence on that. A neutral good sailor who paid respect to umberlee because she'd sink his battleship otherwise would still go to the neutral good afterlife, or something in that neighborhood.

In the outer realms, each god has a place he calls his own. For example, a place in the Chaotic Good realm is called mount olympus, and all the greek gods are hanging out there (the nice ones, anway).

Now, if you get to your afterlife, there are two possibilities. You are either floating around as a soul, enjoying or langushing in your afterlife. If you are a soul drawn into the great library of boccob, you are most likely someone who values knowledge, and so you are looking over the peoples shoulders and admiring their work. After a while, you become less and less yourself and more and more like the plane you are floating around in, until you meld into the plane itself.

If you are lucky, you get reincarnated as a petitioner. You gain a new body typical to your plane and retain more or less your memories and personality, and are now able to serve your god, or do whatever petitioners in your plane do (party in the good planes, suffer in the evil planes, mostly). You can't become a real hero as a petitioner, as you are limited in the hit dice department (somewhere between 3 and 5, I think), but you're immortal and get to serve your god, so I guess that's something.

I'd imagine that a cleric of a god would automatically go to the realm of his patron, no matter his alignment, and be reincarnated as a petitioner of some standing, depending on his mortal life. For example, a high priestess of a war god would most likely be reincarnated into the station of a lieutenant, while an epic level priest of the goddess of love.. well, you go ahead and imagine that.

[rubycona]

... while an epic level priest of the goddess of love.. well, you go ahead and imagine that.

Haha, I like.

This works for me. Perfect, perfect. And even there being no existing answer to that question also works, because it means I'm more freely able to make up whatever the hell I please.

So yay!

[Sith_Happens]

The petitioner template is here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineMinions.htm#petitioners), in case you're wondering.

[Ashtagon]

When a cleric dies, you go through their pockets and look for loose change, same as for any other character class. With luck, you'll find enough there to buy a miracle and bring him back from the dead. But only if he is mostly dead.

[Jack Zander]

When a cleric dies, you go through their pockets and look for loose change, same as for any other character class. With luck, you'll find enough there to buy a miracle and bring him back from the dead. But only if he is mostly dead.

I keep saying, this forum needs a like button.

[rubycona]

The petitioner template is here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineMinions.htm#petitioners), in case you're wondering.

Very helpful, thanks :)

Basically, what I was wanting to know this for, is a PC cleric just died in a groundhog day setting, right at the beginning of the cycle. It just occurred to me that I could use this opportunity to feed a little bit of behind-the-scenes information to the players, if, as a cleric, he can "see" and remember aspects of the spiritual universe, from the other side of death.

If he's supposed to keep awareness, as a moderately high level cleric, it's not very stretched at all. Plus, this particular bit of information is... well, personally, I think it's brilliant, how I've done the groundhog day... but I had absolutely no idea how to show the PCs the effect groundhog day has had on the universe as a whole. It's not strictly necessary for them to understand, but it's great for them to know that literally, the universe is dependent on them to save it.

(For those that are curious, they've accidentally been bound to a paradox. Basically, the paradox cannot exist, so it sort of destroyed the universe (rather, caused it to cease to exist), with an echo of the universe existing for about 50 hours prior to the crux of the paradox. If the paradox ceases to exist, such as the players fixing it, then suddenly the universe can exist, and will exist again. They, as well as a few NPCs, exist and can act, can remember, because they are an aspect of the paradox. In a sense, they're the only things that truly exist in all the universe... everything else is either an echo, or cannot exist due to paradox.)

[Psyren]

Complete Divine describes what happens after death in detail. Clerics are no exception to this, though deities can (and may be more inclined to, in the case of a cleric) interfere with the process to some extent - such as imparting information to a soon-to-be-raised acolyte, as you are considering.

(Note that the Giant used this very tactic as well, with Jirix.)

[Sith_Happens]

Basically, what I was wanting to know this for, is a PC cleric just died in a groundhog day setting, right at the beginning of the cycle. It just occurred to me that I could use this opportunity to feed a little bit of behind-the-scenes information to the players, if, as a cleric, he can "see" and remember aspects of the spiritual universe, from the other side of death.


If dead characters who are petitioners are later restored to life (once again becoming player characters), they forget any of their experiences as petitioners.

Of course, being rewound in time to before the moment of death rather than "restored to life" per se might get around that.:smallwink:

[Urpriest]

Clerics in general don't have anything special happen to them, but clerics who are particularly well-liked by their god, like other non-Cleric recruits in analogous positions, may be turned into some sort of powerful outsider upon death.