Goddess Tymora: how does she view criminality?

[Merudo]

One of my player is a follower of Tymora (Lady Luck), goddess of good fortune, who is said to shine upon those who take risks. The player asked the head of a Tymora Temple if he should commit a crime, and I was a bit at a loss on what to answer him.

How does Tymora view crime? After all, committing a crime is almost always risky, so you would expect her to approve such a risk. Yet, she is a Good deity, and most crimes are neutral or evil acts. And Tymora is the goddess of gamblers and adventurers, not petty thieves.

There is also the concern that the head of a city temple might be reluctant to openly advocate for criminality, as does so could cause conflict with those governing the city.

[pr4wn]

It would help to know what the crime is.

If it is just petty larceny I could see the advice being along the lines of, "Those who are caught are truly guilty..."


-pr4wn

[False God]

One of my player is a follower of Tymora (Lady Luck), goddess of good fortune, who is said to shine upon those who take risks. The player asked the head of a Tymora Temple if he should commit a crime, and I was a bit at a loss on what to answer him.

How does Tymora view crime? After all, committing a crime is almost always risky, so you would expect her to approve such a risk. Yet, she is a Good deity, and most crimes are neutral or evil acts. And Tymora is the goddess of gamblers and adventurers, not petty thieves.

There is also the concern that the head of a city temple might be reluctant to openly advocate for criminality, as does so could cause conflict with those governing the city.

Bolded for emphasis, I think that answers your question. She's a good deity who is the patron of gamblers and adventurers, not criminals.

While those groups can overlap, I would imagine she would not approve of criminality unless there was some good-aligned purpose to it.

So there's a bit of "what's the crime" here of course, but simple criminal activity would, IMO, not be her domain.

[Christew]

Yeah, highly dependent on the kind of crime and the context. Tymora is a Chaotic Good deity, so she's not overly worried about the law. Robin Hood or Tasslehoff Burrfoot would certainly have her blessing, for example.

I think a little criminality is fine as long as it is not actively promoting evil.

[Spellweaver]

As a good goddess Tymora, like most good people, believes in laws in general for civilized places. Though as she is also chaotic, she does not make a big deal about it until you get to evil acts like murder. In a general sense, she is fine with a lot of lesser crimes like trespassing or breaking and entering or some light theft.

I'd have a typical cleric of Tymora walk the line of "officially" saying, "don't commit any crimes", while also saying "though sometimes you must do what is right for you".

After all, in a technical sense, adventurers commit "crimes" as a way of life.....



Lady Luck bids that each mortal chase his or her own unique goals, and it is in this chase that the Lady aids. Those who have no direction or goals soon know the embrace of the Lady’s dark sister, Beshaba, for those on no set course are at the capricious mercy of misfortune, which is no mercy at all.

[Zevox]

Yeah, depends on the specifics, but if you're hesitating, probably likely that she would disapprove of it. Stealing from a corrupt politician to expose his wrongdoing would likely be fine, but stealing from a random merchant because they have something you want but can't afford likely wouldn't, for instance. Tymora approves of bold risks, but when they start to become ill-intentioned, you're still going to run into problems with a fundamentally benevolent deity like her. Anything more harmful than a practical joke (which she does love) has the possibility of being at least somewhat of an issue.

To be fair though, it also matters less what Tymora herself thinks, and more what the particular cleric being asked thinks, since her clergy tend to be pretty independent, and each can have their own interpretation of her doctrines, so you could decide that this particular Priest(ess) is more flexible on such things than may be typical, if you would prefer them to be more okay with it in this situation.

[GoodmanDL]

Tymora isn't a Lawful deity. Minor laws, she's not going to care about. (Tymorans are notorious for jaywalking)
And a little bit if light rebellion is just fine.

Tymora is a Good deity. Breaking an unjust law in the service of a higher good is something her clergy might likely support or encourage. But they're not going to want you to break laws in ways that cause regular folk to suffer. That's Beshaba stuff...

[Mjolnirbear]

"Tymora has not chosen to reveal that to me, but I think that <insert personal opinion>"

[LibraryOgre]

Only semi-canon, but there is a priest in Baldur's Gate whose son got killed breaking in to the Temple of Umberlee. His objection is not to the B&E, but to it being too big of a risk for too little reward. There are at least two points in that quest where you can solve things by picking pockets.

I would say, as others have, that Tymora doesn't oppose a bit of relatively harmless criminality (i.e. stealing from those who can afford it, breaking and entering to places full of evil people for the purposes of defeating them), but would not approve wanton criminality (i.e. robbing people of things they need, hurting people for fun, etc.). She's not going to like reckless criminality, simply because it's a bad gamble.

[ScoutTrooper]

I have a player whose a Paladin; Oath of Glory of Tymora

In both aspects I expect her to strive to be as heroic as possible while risking one's self for others and self in daring acts.

The crime committed would have to go against not only one of her(The Paladin's) tenets but against Tymora's mythos. It can be tricky, and also depending on any applicable RP'ing prior to the offense, I might be incline to wave it.

An incident I had was when the party found themselves in a secret tomb guarded by Undying Soldiers, during the fight she checked her divine sense. It was revealed that the Undying Soldiers were good. Yet she didn't prevent the party from further harming them. Also took part in ransacking the tomb.

This resulted in a very angry goddess and fellow goddess(The Tomb belonged to a devote Druid warrior of Mielikki) Next long rest, I pulled them into the Astral Plane and the goddess's respective proxies slapped them on the wrist and the paladin was given a quest of redemption.