Cleric of Himself

[Conradine]

When the beleaguered mortals called upon one of their
deity’s most powerful minions, the solar Avamerin, Sertrous
claimed his fi rst and greatest victory. Avamerin led
a great army into the fen to destroy Sertrous. The obyrith’s
minions were evenly matched with the angel’s, and in the
end only the obyrith and the angel survived to face one
another. The battle was intense, but in the end the solar
defeated the serpent. As Avamerin raised his sword and
prepared to strike the killing blow, Sertrous asked him a
simple question: “Why serve your lord when his playthings
can gain the same strength of power through their own
will?” Avamerin struck then, slaying Sertrous. He returned
to civilization with the obyrith’s head as proof of his triumph
and spoke to the nation’s priests of the demon’s foolish
words. (DC 45)
Yet in spreading these words, Avamerin unwittingly
released a great secret. Scholars and priests puzzled over
Sertrous’s dying words and made an incredible discovery:
One need not worship a god to gain the power of divine
magic. Rather than worship a god, a cleric could worship
an ideal and gain the same reward. He could worship the
mountains, or the sky, or the act of war, or himself. He
could even worship a slain obyrith lord. Avamerin saw
this plague of godless priests thrive and was powerless to
stop it.


This is an extract from Elder Evils.


Quick question: what would be a good ( plausible ) background for a cleric who worship himself?

[Knitifine]

Four immediately scenarios come to mind with various level of believably.

1. The cleric is, or believes they are, the mortal avatar of a deity, and thus has decided they're entitled to their deity's power.

2. The cleric is, or believes they are, the reincarnation of a great hero-deity who never achieved full divinity before being slain by rivals.

3. The cleric is, or believes they are, actually an immortal god but are simply bound to 'some' mortal constraints based on their manifestation of the physical plane and use their divine magic to prove their divine power.

4. The cleric believes that divine magic is source in mortal soles, and so draw their divine power from the only soul at their command.

Bonus Points: Any of the above, but they started as a charlatan until they found out that their divine magic actually worked.

[khadgar567]

5. cleric is bona fide lunatic who made universe his ***** kudos to you mate you just create emperor joker in your setting

[Necroticplague]

Well, I can think of two easy ones off the bat:
1. Ego. Different mental traits can, taken to extremes, allow for magical abilities. Psions have mental force so great it twists the world around them, sorcerors have a personality so overwhelming the world is forced to comply with it. A cleric of themselves of this type simply has a self-full ego so great that their own conviction allows them to speak, and have the world obey. They spend their spell preparation time self-affirming, feeding their ego with the confidence that they can do anything. Probably has a god/messiah complex somewhat justified by their divine abilities. Would lose their clerical abilities if they failed to believe in themselves sufficiently, their deflated egos being to small to support their former glorious power.

2. Progression. They don't think they are divine in any way, but they worship themselves as a process. They take a monk-like view of spiritual and physical improvement. They aren't gods yet, but they think they can get there if they work on themselves, improving themselves step by step. Through determined training, they will ascend to better things. Their morning spell preparations involve the practicing of katas and focused meditations, planning their next steps along their road to enlightenment. Loses clerical powers if something severely rattles their faith in their ability to improve themselves, their road becoming too twisted within their minds to follow anymore.

[Afgncaap5]

I actually created a Mystic Theurge who almost did this. Frobwit Zanzibar was a performance magician who loved the true nature of celebrity and fame. My DM let me create a homebrew domain called the Celebrity domain, and while he never *quite* started worshiping himself more than the concept of fame and stardom in broader terms, he always sort of toed the edge because he was getting more and more famous with every quest resolved/every magic show he put on. Having said that: we did toy with the concept of Frobwit developing little magic kits for his youngest fans to start using, and we started making a template for low level Frobwit Fans that would grant a smattering of weak arcane spells, and also a bit of divine spells from a to-be-designed Frobwit domain, but we never quite got to that point in the story (it was also weird that Frobwit himself wouldn't have access to the Frobwit domain.)

I think to date my favorite thing about worshiping either Frobwit or Celebrity in that game meant that spells like Divination which granted communication with some sort of divine force or messenger would invariably have Neil Patrick Harris with angel wings showing up to give advice.

[Deadline]

Sounds like a classic example of one of the Planescape factions, the Sign of One. Basically, each Signer believes themselves to be the center of the multiverse. Can't imagine a Signer Cleric would worship anything other than themselves. :smalltongue:

[A.A.King]

"Cogito Ergo Sum"

Ultimately, the only thing you can be sure of is that you exist. Everything else that you think you see may be fake, an illusion, the only thing that is real is the fact that you exist to observe these illusions. You are the only thing you can have faith in, the only thing you can truly believe. It is more of a proces of elimination that full-blown narcissism. If you are skeptical as to the existance of things, your believe cannot grant you power. Nature may be fake, and the Gods may not exist (or the Gods may be faking their Nature while trying to deceive you). The only thing you can believe in is your self, and this faith is rewarded with Cleric levels.

"Cogito Ergo Deus Sum"

[Conradine]

Solipsism...

[digiman619]

Seeing as you can be a cleric of an ideal, it is theoretically conceivable, but it sends red flags of conceit and prima donna-ness.

[A.A.King]

Solipsism...

I figured I suggest something other than a simple Messiah-Complex :smallwink:

[daremetoidareyo]

Seeing as you can be a cleric of an ideal, it is theoretically conceivable, but it sends red flags of conceit and prima donna-ness.

Not necessarily, there is a more cerebral approach: Solipsism:
All that one can possibly know is gathered through the senses. One's senses are endemic to themselves. Therefor all of reality as one knows it is tailored to their experience. There is no way to demonstrate that the outside world is not simply imagined by the self.

[digiman619]

Not necessarily, there is a more cerebral approach: Solipsism:
All that one can possibly know is gathered through the senses. One's senses are endemic to themselves. Therefor all of reality as one knows it is tailored to their experience. There is no way to demonstrate that the outside world is not simply imagined by the self.

I didn't say that it was a categorically bad idea, I just said it can very easily go bad.

[SangoProduction]

This is an extract from Elder Evils.


Quick question: what would be a good ( plausible ) background for a cleric who worship himself?

My character was technically not a cleric, but my Warforged Artificer named Sid had himself as a Deity. Afterall, he was building new life, through his ever growing army of constructs (some of whom had notable intelligence...not as high as him, but higher than an average human). We eventually abstracted away the army with the Leadership feat.

One of my party members in an evil campaign has himself as his deity, because of all the creatures in the cosmos, he was the only one who was there with him through all the **** he's gone through.

[Thurbane]

If you consider yourself a deity and worship yourself, the following domains seem apt: Destiny, Fate, Mysticism, and especially Pride. :smallbiggrin:

[daremetoidareyo]

If you consider yourself a deity and worship yourself, the following domains seem apt: Destiny, Fate, Mysticism, and especially Pride. :smallbiggrin:

Don't forget to throw in warforged for no good reason, because it has the absolute best domain power

[Inevitability]

Don't forget to throw in warforged for no good reason, because it has the absolute best domain power

Rebuking constructs? I guess it's nice, but Planning, Magic, Travel and Deathbound is where it's really at.

[Braininthejar2]

I once played an rpg system that had a class specifically for that.