Trickery Cleric of Shelyn RP?

[Sir-Carlos]

I was looking at the Pathfinder Gods yesterday, and I really like the goddess Shelyn. She seems like a nicer Sune. I now want to incorporate her into my game (the DM said it is ok). But the Domain I want to play, is Trickery. How would a Trickery Cleric of Shelyn play? Why would Shelyn have a Trickery Cleric? Any suggestions on how to Roleplay that?

Thanks in advance :-).

Also, I hope this question is okay in this forum. If not, please remove it.

[Chronic]

Isn't shelyn the goddess of love? If so, then trickery is a very common thing in love, for both good and bad reasons. You could be a mischievous matchmaker, tricking people into falling into each other's arms, for their own good. I'm sure there is many other possibilities. Also didn't shelyn tricked her crazy brother to steal his awfully malignant glaive? (can't remember if she fought him or tricked him).

[Abracadangit]

I think it's a fantastic question.

Shelyn's the goddess of art, right? Trickery Clerics do a lot with illusory doubles, so maybe your character could paint or sketch or otherwise "art" their illusory doubles into existence. Maybe Shelyn has a whole sect of Trickery Clerics, devoted to using art to topple tyrants and/or make mischief for would-be oppressors.

[Guy Lombard-O]

I think it's a fantastic question.

Shelyn's the goddess of art, right? Trickery Clerics do a lot with illusory doubles, so maybe your character could paint or sketch or otherwise "art" their illusory doubles into existence. Maybe Shelyn has a whole sect of Trickery Clerics, devoted to using art to topple tyrants and/or make mischief for would-be oppressors.

Sounds like proficiency with a Forgery Kit and some sort of Artisan's Tools are in order. Because that rebellious sect of Shelyn has to fund their insurgency somehow, right?! Maybe pick up History proficiency as well, so you can create more convincing provenances for your fuax-antiques?

[Psyren]

5e still suffers a bit from the lack of printed domains. Shelyn's PF domains are Good, Protection, Air, Luck, and Charm, none of which have particularly great translations to 5e subclasses as of this writing. (Personally I think 5e domains should have been smaller, bite-sized choices like Combat Styles or Infusions, combined with the spell list additions so that they wouldn't need the depth of design of a whole subclass to be able to churn out a bunch of them in multiple splats - but that's just me.)

The most likely choices I would have for Shelyn based on what 5e has available are Peace and Trickery, so you're on the right track there.

[Sir-Carlos]

Thank you all! You had some fantastic ideas and gave me a lot of inspiration!

[Xerres]

Shelyn is a Goddess of Love, Beauty, and Art. Its her nature to be loved, and she wants others to feel this in turn.

As a Cleric your role would be to remove the boundaries that keep true love apart, but not necessarily to foster ideas of love yourself. You're an aid and a guide, but you only remove the obstacles that hinder others, you aren't necessarily a matchmaker. Love can't be forced or tricked, but it can be hindered and that's what you oppose.

Aside that, protecting places and objects of great beauty is important. You see beauty in all people and want to help others see what you see. Art inspires a sense of wonder that should be spread across the world.

For a Trickery Cleric, life lost is beauty lost to the world. A preference to deceive and misdirect is better than killing when you can avoid it. And appearance is often deceptive, maybe other people can't recognize the beautiful things that you see in what seems mundane or even ugly. When you charm others, or craft illusions, it may be an expression of creativity. Your Goddess is a colorful and vibrant deity, mixing colors and ideas to create something new is a wonderful thing. Nothing is truly stagnant, find fascination in the way you can change things.

I'd make a point of saying my spells are colorful and my illusions are immaculately beautiful. If I Dispel Magic, then I dissolve it to pure essence to see the impossible colors it creates. When I give someone advantage on Stealth, their features shift to match with the environment around them in a way that's almost hypnotizing. Things like that.

[Guy Lombard-O]

Shelyn is a Goddess of Love, Beauty, and Art. Its her nature to be loved, and she wants others to feel this in turn.

As a Cleric your role would be to remove the boundaries that keep true love apart, but not necessarily to foster ideas of love yourself. You're an aid and a guide, but you only remove the obstacles that hinder others, you aren't necessarily a matchmaker. Love can't be forced or tricked, but it can be hindered and that's what you oppose.

For a Trickery Cleric, life lost is beauty lost to the world. A preference to deceive and misdirect is better than killing when you can avoid it. And appearance is often deceptive, maybe other people can't recognize the beautiful things that you see in what seems mundane or even ugly. When you charm others, or craft illusions, it may be an expression of creativity. Your Goddess is a colorful and vibrant deity, mixing colors and ideas to create something new is a wonderful thing. Nothing is truly stagnant, find fascination in the way you can change things.

I don't know if it's just that I'm a cynic, or if it's because I've been binge-watching the show "You" lately, but I feel like you might be missing a fun interaction between a kindly goddess of love, and an adherent whose Trickery domain is potentially at odds with that sphere of influence.

Have you ever heard the phrase "All's fair in love and war"? That's where I'd take this character. Love can be tricked into existence. Because people feel love. And people can be tricked. And if people fall in love...with other people...with works of art...with beautiful objects or people...then it hardly even matters whether that love is based upon the reality of those people and objects, or simply upon the beautiful illusions of what they appear to be.

So hijinks, falsehoods, directed mayhem and even murder may all be legitimate tools in bringing about the ultimate goal of increasing the net volume of love in the world. Think of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream", and all the duplicity and misdirection which is employed in the pursuit of love. Excising out the bad and destructive, leaving room for the good and beautiful to grow, and leading others by the nose until they stumble into their better selves...this seems like a legit path for a Trickery cleric of love. You're the pied piper of love, the psychic Astroglide of romance, the facile facilitator between the beautiful and the needy. So get out there and spin those marks around until they find themselves aboard the love train!

[Xerres]

I don't know if it's just that I'm a cynic, or if it's because I've been binge-watching the show "You" lately, but I feel like you might be missing a fun interaction between a kindly goddess of love, and an adherent whose Trickery domain is potentially at odds with that sphere of influence.

Have you ever heard the phrase "All's fair in love and war"? That's where I'd take this character. Love can be tricked into existence. Because people feel love. And people can be tricked. And if people fall in love...with other people...with works of art...with beautiful objects or people...then it hardly even matters whether that love is based upon the reality of those people and objects, or simply upon the beautiful illusions of what they appear to be.

So hijinks, falsehoods, directed mayhem and even murder may all be legitimate tools in bringing about the ultimate goal of increasing the net volume of love in the world. Think of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream", and all the duplicity and misdirection which is employed in the pursuit of love. Excising out the bad and destructive, leaving room for the good and beautiful to grow, and leading others by the nose until they stumble into their better selves...this seems like a legit path for a Trickery cleric of love. You're the pied piper of love, the psychic Astroglide of romance, the facile facilitator between the beautiful and the needy. So get out there and spin those marks around until they find themselves aboard the love train!

For a Trickery Cleric just trying to get people falling in love, sure thing, no argument. If you're devoted to the specific Goddess of Love Shelyn, then that's not her sphere. Very earnest and honest, which I find interesting. She's such a pure expression of Love that even evil deities that want to end all creation love her, though they interpret it in horrible and repulsive ways. Joy, discovery, creation, wonder. Trying to figure out how to align the concept of Trickery to Shelyn's principles, rather than reinterpret them, is an interesting idea to me.

I can definitely see many, many ways to subversively pursue the concept of Love. But that's a failure to follow the ideals of your deity, and frankly failure is easy. But possibly more interesting, if that's what OP wants. If OP isn't in Pathfinder Setting, then Shelyn is what they make of her and "Love by any means necessary." might be the right interpretation.

If the idea is to follow Shelyn as she's presented in her home setting, then I think emphasizing that she's also a Goddess of Beauty and Art is helpful. She's a wellspring of joy and wonder, seeing beauty in all things and feeling love for others and being loved in turn. She's just a happy Goddess, how you can use the Trickery domain to spread that ideal is a fun question.