A question Regarding Favored Souls

[KrimsonNekros]

If something happened that caused a FS to change their deity, not as in their deity died, but they actively made a choice to worship a new, possibly conflicting deity; what would happen to their powers? Would they continue on as they were previously, just having a different power source now, or would they have some kind of power loss as a result?

[A Tad Insane]

I don't have any RAW in front of me, but I would suspect they would lose all spells and class features, considering how, unlike clerics, their power was just randomly shoved onto them by a god because reasons.

[Harrow]

Favored Souls, as far as I can tell, don't have any prerequisites and have no falling conditions. Basically, the fluff is they don't worship a deity, the deity worships them. You can be a chaotic evil worshiper of Vecna and still receive power from Heironomous because he still believes that deep down you're a good person, no matter how many orphanages you burn down.

[Red Rubber Band]

Favored Souls, as far as I can tell, don't have any prerequisites and have no falling conditions. Basically, the fluff is they don't worship a deity, the deity worships them. You can be a chaotic evil worshiper of Vecna and still receive power from Heironomous because he still believes that deep down you're a good person, no matter how many orphanages you burn down.

Maybe not so far as a deity worshiping the character, but similar.
The deity says, "I like you. I will grant you power." And thus spake the deity.

Boom. Loves it.

If the character starts... acting out of character... (goes from Good to Evil or w/e) the deity may rescind its gift. But until the time that the character's nature changes, there's no reason for the god to say, "Whoops. That was a bad idea."

[Jeff the Green]

There's nothing requiring the favored soul to worship the deity that gives them power. Technically they don't even have to be within one step of their deity's alignment (though the true neutral restriction still applies), and they don't have the alignment-based spells restriction other divine casters have, so you could have a LE favored soul of Ehlonna or a LG favored soul of Heironeous that casts animate dead.

As mentioned, there's also no falling conditions, so even if you were to (gods forbid!) become neutral when your deity isn't, you don't lose anything beyond the ability to gain more favored soul levels.

[CRtwenty]

Just more evidence that the entire Favored Soul class was written an hour before the start of a three day weekend at WotC's headquarters. :smallyuk:

[AzureKnight]

My dm and another player had this same issue come about with a cleric in 2e, where he put on a cursed item with the opposite alignment effect. His actions caused his god to dismiss his prayers and strip him of his powers.

After the curse was removed, the ex-cleric had the option to atone for his acts and again gain his deities favor. Instead the player cursed the deity and swore hatred to him for turning his back on him in his time of need.

The player then prayed to the god's enemy and asked his blessings. The god answered by bestowing his favor upon him with a -1 level. Then tasked him to prove his faithfulness by desecrating his old deity's temple.

After the deah of one of his party and several alcolites, the temple was laid to ruin. Afterwards the evil deity restored his status to full removing the negative level, and even giving him the needed exp to advance to the next level.

So all in all a fun adventure for all, and the grounds of how we could switch gods in gameplay which we call "The Go **** Yourself and Your Attonement" Sagas.

[Psyren]

Favored Soul is like... being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize your first day of office :smalltongue: Or perhaps more accurately, it's like giving someone tenure based on their aptitude scores.

Basically the deity sees potential in you and hopes to cultivate it, but unfortunately doing so is risky for them because they can't revoke it once given. When it works, it's a great way to effect meaningful change in the church in a suitably subtle way. And usually it does. But the few times it doesn't, well, the results can be pretty bad.

Note that it applies in reverse just as easily - you could be the favored soul of an evil deity but refuse to give into temptation, and use your powers for good. This is a pretty common trope in fiction.

[Jeff the Green]

Note that it applies in reverse just as easily - you could be the favored soul of an evil deity but refuse to give into temptation, and use your powers for good. This is a pretty common trope in fiction.

And equally common is raising armies of the dead to fight the evil god, winning, and then becoming the evil god in his stead. :smallamused:

Of course, that can be fun to play too.

[Red Rubber Band]

Basically the deity sees potential in you and hopes to cultivate it, but unfortunately doing so is risky for them because they can't revoke it once given.

Is this in the write up? I didn't think there was anything stopping the deity from taking your powers away. :smallconfused:

I mean, they're a god.

[Harrow]

Is this in the write up? I didn't think there was anything stopping the deity from taking your powers away. :smallconfused:

I mean, they're a god.

You get your power from class levels, not a god.

Basically, there are no rules for a deity taking your powers away like there are for Druids, Clerics, and Paladins. While it could happen for story reasons, that would be a houserule.

[Psyren]

Is this in the write up? I didn't think there was anything stopping the deity from taking your powers away. :smallconfused:

I mean, they're a god.

Being a divine caster doesn't give you any special vulnerability to deities that other characters lack, it has to be specifically called out in your class description. Favored Souls don't fall, and neither do Shugenja or Spirit Shamans.

[nedz]

Is this in the write up? I didn't think there was anything stopping the deity from taking your powers away. :smallconfused:

I mean, they're a god.

Yes of course, but that comes under Rule 0 i.e. DM Fiat.
Now DMs can do this, but it gets lame quite fast.
Far better, IMHO, to take the line "gods work in mysterious ways": which, ..., well.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If something happened that caused a FS to change their deity, not as in their deity died, but they actively made a choice to worship a new, possibly conflicting deity; what would happen to their powers? Would they continue on as they were previously, just having a different power source now, or would they have some kind of power loss as a result?
RAW? Nothing. If it happened in an actual game... I don't see why your old god would keep granting you power, so I'd probably have some sort of event where you quest to persuade your new god that you deserve power as well, after which you get to "retrain" your spells known to better reflect your new god's agenda.

[Captnq]

by RAW? nothing.

You get your powers from your levels, not the god. Don't care what the fluff text says, you grant your own spells. Yes. I suppose a god could strip you of your powers. A god could strip a wizard of his levels too. You made no deal, entered no bargain, have no obligation, have nothing in common with the god that "gave" you these powers. He gave potential. You spent the XP.

It isn't based on faith. You have your powers based on ... reasons.

The class sucks.

[Psyren]

The class sucks.

I was 100% with you up until this point :smalltongue:

Both crunch and fluff-wise the class is fine, if a bit dull and MAD.

[KrimsonNekros]

A lot of good views here guys. Thanks for the help.