Why does Atonement Cost XP?

[Rater202]

More specifically, why does it cost the Caster XP?

The spell description claims it's because, if the person did it of their own will, you have to intercede with your Deity on their behalf to cleanse their problem, but...

But clerics get their spells from their deities. If you prepared Atonement that morning, your God probably knows that you're planning to use i on someone and if they didn't think the person was worthy of Atonement they wouldn't have given you the spell.

If you commited an act of your own will that you regret and are genuinely repentant of to the degree that you wish for a Cleric to magically remove the metaphysical "taint" if it from you... Why aren't you, the person atoning, paying the 500 XP?

[Zaq]

Basically? To give it a real cost. It’s not trivial to get someone to spend XP on your behalf. Especially a caster with access to mid-level spells. You have to really convince them that you’re on the right track (for the relevant definition of “right track,” of course), and the caster has an incentive to not just pass out the spell willy-nilly.

Would it make about as much sense to cost the target as to cost the caster? Yeah, maybe, but from a different perspective. While I’m not fond of XP costs as a mechanic in general, if we start from the assumption that they exist at all, there’s something that makes fluff sense to me with the cleric being the gatekeeper.

There’s a very different feel between “you strayed from the path, so pay this XP penalty and get back to normal” and “you strayed from the path, so you need to convince this third party that you’re sufficiently sincere in your repentance that they agree to pay a deeply personal cost on your behalf to get you back to normal.” Adds more of a plot feel to it.

[XionUnborn01]

I just always felt that it showed two important things,

1: this isn't your everyday magic, this is advanced enough to be spiritually draining to the caster.

2: changing alignment is not easy and is draining

That's how it works in my head at least.

[King of Nowhere]

There’s a very different feel between “you strayed from the path, so pay this XP penalty and get back to normal” and “you strayed from the path, so you need to convince this third party that you’re sufficiently sincere in your repentance that they agree to pay a deeply personal cost on your behalf to get you back to normal.” Adds more of a plot feel to it.

my impression too

[Psyren]

I would have liked the idea if you could split the XP cost with the target, much like Psychic Reformation or Psychic Chirurgery. I'm guessing the notion of splitting XP costs for a spell wasn't something they thought of in core though.