Hello, I need tips. How can I be a good cyric's follower?

[Sergio]

Hello,
I'm going to play a new campaign pretty soon. D&D 3.5

I've got to ask you a few questions about how I should play it. It is a campaign merely focused on roleplay and we are going to be EVIL.

Anyway, we are three guys, planning to join as three followers of Hextor. I would like to play a chaotic evil barbarian, but it is going to represent not a good choice for such a god.

My questions are twofold. Given that I would like to be a barbarian half ogre, how feasible would it be

1) to try to undermine the cult of hextor?
2) Could I be a cyric's follower? How realistic would it be to fool them?
3) How could I make a coherent background as a half ogre barbarian? Could it be that my tribe loves cyric and we bring destruction on his wake?
4) How far is cyric from the chaotic stupid side of things, when it comes to the roleplay?

[RedMage125]

Hextor is Greyhawk, Cyric is Forgotten Realms. But I'll just assume your DM is doing some weird combo.

Why could your character not worship Hextor, anyway? Only clerics need to follow the "one step" alignment rule. A CE Barbarian could absolutely worship Hextor. Hextor is a war god, the patron of battle. And although he favors rigid structure on a societal scale, he also teaches the might makes right and only the strong should rule.

To answer your questions, though:

1) Why would your barbarian care to undermine a church? Evil characters do things for their own reasons. Just because you're Chaotic doesn't mean you have to oppose any Lawful organization. Hextor's "cult" is actually a well-organized religion. Undermining them by yourself would be a monumental challenge. Infiltrating them would be easy enough, but taking them down from within by yourself? Very difficult.

2) Easy enough. "What god do you worship?" isn't some kind of password. A single Bluff check, which could be handled by a more Charismatic party member would suffice to get you in.

3) You could be from a tribe of ogres, slightly smaller, but smarter than your full-ogre kin. The tribe could certainly worship Cyric. Ogres are savage and cruel. Cyric would suit them fine.

4) Cyric is far from stupid. He's actually quite intelligent. He was insane for a short period, during which time he SEEMED Chaotic Stupid, but during that time, he also shattered the love between two (formerly mortal) Greater Deities. What the intelligence of the deity has to do with how his worshipers behave is completely non sequitur. Even smart deities occasionally have stupid worshipers.

[Krazzman]

Cyric is an evil god. Playing a barbarian that follows him isn't too far fetched.

I would recommend reading up on cyric's exploits until he invented the magical plague that shaped faerun as that is the event where they switched from 3.5 to 4th edition.

Good luck, don't forget the obligatory red boots and red bracers/gauntlets.

[Sergio]

Hextor is Greyhawk, Cyric is Forgotten Realms. But I'll just assume your DM is doing some weird combo.

Why could your character not worship Hextor, anyway? Only clerics need to follow the "one step" alignment rule. A CE Barbarian could absolutely worship Hextor. Hextor is a war god, the patron of battle. And although he favors rigid structure on a societal scale, he also teaches the might makes right and only the strong should rule.

To answer your questions, though:

1) Why would your barbarian care to undermine a church? Evil characters do things for their own reasons. Just because you're Chaotic doesn't mean you have to oppose any Lawful organization. Hextor's "cult" is actually a well-organized religion. Undermining them by yourself would be a monumental challenge. Infiltrating them would be easy enough, but taking them down from within by yourself? Very difficult.

2) Easy enough. "What god do you worship?" isn't some kind of password. A single Bluff check, which could be handled by a more Charismatic party member would suffice to get you in.

3) You could be from a tribe of ogres, slightly smaller, but smarter than your full-ogre kin. The tribe could certainly worship Cyric. Ogres are savage and cruel. Cyric would suit them fine.

4) Cyric is far from stupid. He's actually quite intelligent. He was insane for a short period, during which time he SEEMED Chaotic Stupid, but during that time, he also shattered the love between two (formerly mortal) Greater Deities. What the intelligence of the deity has to do with how his worshipers behave is completely non sequitur. Even smart deities occasionally have stupid worshipers.


Cyric is an evil god. Playing a barbarian that follows him isn't too far fetched.

I would recommend reading up on cyric's exploits until he invented the magical plague that shaped faerun as that is the event where they switched from 3.5 to 4th edition.

Good luck, don't forget the obligatory red boots and red bracers/gauntlets.

First of all, thanks for help.

1) I tend to forget that the one step rule is only for clerics, but my queries do remain and I hope to not annoy you with these: what I'm wondering is how far-fetched would be behaving as a chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian in a religion such as the one by Hextor. Wouldn't my adherence at such a religion thwart the very same nature that do characterise a barbarian (being chaotic)?

1.1 Or could I just think about it as if when there isn't Hextor, there are no rules on the way I act, but when Hextor comes I just subdue myself to his authority and to the church itself? Doesn't this sound neutral evil, more than chaotic evil?

2) We are planning to be comrades during our journey. Thanks for that bluff check, I'll think about it and think of a way to make it as realistic as possible.

3) Would hextor suit them too? How would a tribe of ogres react to me changing to hextor?

4) Thanks. Honestly my only thought about cyric followers is from all the 'mad accolyte' stuff I've heard around, where they behave in such a way that they do not act as a cohordinate beings but everyone thinks to himself.



@to Krazzman
thanks. where would I read of such exploits?

[hamishspence]

First of all, thanks for help.

1) I tend to forget that the one step rule is only for clerics, but my queries do remain and I hope to not annoy you with these: what I'm wondering is how far-fetched would be behaving as a chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian in a religion such as the one by Hextor. Wouldn't my adherence at such a religion thwart the very same nature that do characterise a barbarian (being chaotic)?

1.1 Or could I just think about it as if when there isn't Hextor, there are no rules on the way I act, but when Hextor comes I just subdue myself to his authority and to the church itself? Doesn't this sound neutral evil, more than chaotic evil?

Technically Barbarians don't have to be Chaotic, only Nonlawful:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/barbarian.htm

[Krazzman]

First of all, thanks for help.

1) I tend to forget that the one step rule is only for clerics, but my queries do remain and I hope to not annoy you with these: what I'm wondering is how far-fetched would be behaving as a chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian in a religion such as the one by Hextor. Wouldn't my adherence at such a religion thwart the very same nature that do characterise a barbarian (being chaotic)?

1.1 Or could I just think about it as if when there isn't Hextor, there are no rules on the way I act, but when Hextor comes I just subdue myself to his authority and to the church itself? Doesn't this sound neutral evil, more than chaotic evil?

2) We are planning to be comrades during our journey. Thanks for that bluff check, I'll think about it and think of a way to make it as realistic as possible.

3) Would hextor suit them too? How would a tribe of ogres react to me changing to hextor?

4) Thanks. Honestly my only thought about cyric followers is from all the 'mad accolyte' stuff I've heard around, where they behave in such a way that they do not act as a cohordinate beings but everyone thinks to himself.



@to Krazzman
thanks. where would I read of such exploits?

I borrowed a book series about the time of sorrows from a friend of mine some years back. Alternatively looking up the wiki pages for cyric might bring some results.

I highly recommend the books though as cyric is depicted as an adventurer until becoming good of death and some of his plots to gain more godly domains.

[RedMage125]

First of all, thanks for help.

1) I tend to forget that the one step rule is only for clerics, but my queries do remain and I hope to not annoy you with these: what I'm wondering is how far-fetched would be behaving as a chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian in a religion such as the one by Hextor. Wouldn't my adherence at such a religion thwart the very same nature that do characterise a barbarian (being chaotic)?
No, because Hextor is also a god of war and cruelty. He teaches that the strong rule over the weak by right. A barbarian who wishes to conquer may well worship him.

Chaotic in alignment means nothing in regards to civil laws and authority. A tyrannical dictator who rules a LE empire may, himself be chaotic.


1.1 Or could I just think about it as if when there isn't Hextor, there are no rules on the way I act, but when Hextor comes I just subdue myself to his authority and to the church itself? Doesn't this sound neutral evil, more than chaotic evil?
Is submission to a religious authority any different if it were a cleric of Cyric?


2) We are planning to be comrades during our journey. Thanks for that bluff check, I'll think about it and think of a way to make it as realistic as possible.
Np


3) Would hextor suit them too? How would a tribe of ogres react to me changing to hextor?

Why not? Don't pigeonhole every deity into one personality just based on alignment. Vecna and Nerull are both Neutral Evil and are WILDLY different. Hextor is, first and foremost, a War deity. So is his brother Hieroneous


4) Thanks. Honestly my only thought about cyric followers is from all the 'mad accolyte' stuff I've heard around, where they behave in such a way that they do not act as a cohordinate beings but everyone thinks to himself.
Cyric demands absolute submission to his authority, he wants everyone to revere him as the ONLY god. He delights in murder, intrigue, assassination, and torture.




@to Krazzman
thanks. where would I read of such exploits?

Avatar Trilogy (which really is 5 books). Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep, Prince of Lies, and Crucible.

Cyric starts the story as a mortal (dual-classed Thief/Fighter), and becomes god of Strife, Death, and the Dead. He kills a few other gods, too, and becomes a complete megalomaniac.

[Grim Portent]

If the idea of submitting to the authority of the church as a CE character doesn't make sense to you, bear in mind that the idea of 'Might makes Right' extends from gods down to mortals as well as between mortals, you aren't acknowledging the authority of the church and it's clerics entirely on their own merit, but on Hextor's. It's his might that makes you acknowledge those who he grants blessings and spells to, not their own save when they are stronger than you on their own merit.

At level 5 you may give a level 1 cleric begrudged respect because of what he represents, which is to say a fragment of Hextor's power bestowed into a mortal, but a level 15 cleric will command your obedience through sheer might, but once you become stronger than the level 15 it's his religious authority bestowed upon him as an agent of Hextor that entitles him to any respect from you and your might that commands respect from him.

(Levels used for illustrative purposes, you obviously don't have to base relative authority on a linear scale tied with level, strength comes in other forms independent of level.)