Cthulu Mythos (pantheon) in 3.5, making it work and making a paladin/cleric

[Yvhv Weide]

Alright so the title is kinda self explanatory. I want to incorporate a few sections of the lovecraftian pantheon (the outer gods, great old ones, and dark ones) and basically set their insanity driven followers as foes. First i just want to build a paladin or cleric of three of the evil critters(that is, three seperate characters each following one of three deities ive chosen.) the three ive chosen are Cthulu (of course), who for all intents and purposes is considers to be CE Aligned. The second is Nyralethotep, the Dark one of deciet, trickery, magic, and shape shifting, whose alignment (i feel) would be either NE or LE. The Third is Shub-Niggurath, the twisted goddesses of fertility,birth, and mal-formed creatures, Whose alignment (again i feel) would be Either NE or CN. Id like to ask for suggestions on possible Cleric Domains that already exist that would kind of fit with these. Or suggestions for spells that could be built into the domains for them. Ill provide links to information on these critters soon.

[TheFamilarRaven]

Well, for starters, you're posting in a 3.5 section, so paladins of an evil deity is a big no-no unless you're using the class variants. As for domains, based on what you have written ...

Cthulu: Madness, Destruction, Evil, Chaos
Nyralethotep: Evil, Magic, Trickery, Mind
Shub-Niggurath: Evil/chaos, Creation, Strength, Madness

[Yvhv Weide]

Yes variants are in use. (i am a strong believer in variant paladins). Plus this for homebrew, whether evil or chaotic paladins exist or not in the setting i have created and molded, shouldnt really be in question, i think. But i do see the validity of your statement. Yes. Variant paladins are in use in some form or state. I would like to thank you for what youve suggested though.

[DMVerdandi]

1. Are you tracking that paladins do not get their magic/powers from deities?
They are not militant arms of churches/servants of deities, clerics are. That is why clerics are (ahem), better.
Paladins are white knights, and get their powers from being noble and true. Like a disney prince.


2. Domains that would work are of course (madness, darkness, magic, domination, entropy, summoner, time, Dream,oracle, tyranny, transformation)

[Yvhv Weide]

...wow...fluff war!! Honestly again, i dont care for the "offical handbook fluff". Honestly even if it is wrong of me to say so, (which most likely it is), i have never really cared for much of the "handbook fluff" that most people hold onto for certain classes as mere gospel. I understand the need to justify things by the book in order to get a grasp of basics and mechanics. But at some point i think the hand books are meant to be open to interpretation for both the dm and player. As long as i hold true to the mechanics of the class what does it matter if i change up the fluff to suit the HOMEBREW setting in which the game takes place? Everyone seems to be caught up in technicalities of lore and fluff in the materials that they cannot see past it. Im just trying to make things a little different and interesting from basic lore and fluff.

Now then, with that out of the way, id like to thank youball for your assistance, and your suggestions. If anyone has any more suggestions that could be helpful or interesting please do not hesitate.

[Efrate]

The Elder Evils suppliment has one that closely follows your third. She makes an overabunbance of life by parasitizing the world. I havent flipped through it in a bit and am afb right now but its there.

The free viles feats are definately worth looking at. Madness and the one that bounces spells off to force saves at negative 4 make for great tactics.

[Jack_McSnatch]

I made this suggestion in another thread, but you might wanna look at the mind flayers of thoon in mm5. There's a bunch of interesting mind flayer types who all follow this nebulous thing called Thoon. They're really short on info about Thoon, as its supposed to be open to dm interpretation, but all the mind flayers and the whole concept of Thoon just screams "Lovecraftian horror"

[Thurbane]

The WotC d20 Cthulhu (https://www.amazon.com/Call-Cthulhu-Horror-Roleplaying-WotC/dp/0786926392) book has stats for some of the mythos as deities. Their domains are pretty underwhelming on the whole.

[Ashtagon]

A while ago on this site someone made an entire far realms magic system. I'd use that for Cthulhu style cultists. Playing up their otherness is the way to go.