Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
And you even admit it (boldong mine): "No, I can't fuff a cleric to fit my model for eastern spiritualism".
1: You will note that I removed that paragraph from the post in question.

2: That was not me "admitting" anything, that was me responding to the phrase that you used when telling me to re-fluff the cleric.

As noted: It's the way that the game itself presents the relevant forms of spiritualism that are the factor here.

Having thought on it more, and since it seems I need to explain lest I be... I can't put myself in the mindset of someone who is exclusively dependent on the whims of an external force for their powers, one that can cut them off from said powers at a moment's notice and will absolutely do so if they are no longer acting in the interest of said force or entity.

Every Cleric or Paladin or Druid or so on is the priest, champion, or representative of one such force or entity and would logically be expected to be acting in that entity's interests at all time... And since such beings are, in typical D&D cosmology, sustained by the worship of mortals and the consumption of the souls of dead mortals who worshiped them in life, their interests include converting people to the worship of said deity/force. Hence "if you're not preaching enough are you even doing your job."

That's the default, and that's what is typically represented in the mechanics.

I can't get into that mindset. I cannot get into the mindset of a willing servant of an entity that I have no recourse against, no matter what they're offering me in return.

Any deviation from the defaults that I can get into the mindset of ould be better represented by another class.

Monk, Wu Jen, Shujenga, spirit Shaman? That handles spiritualism on a more personal level. I can understand that mindset. The monk especially, since their take on spiritualism is mostly about personal improvement rather than interaction with external forces and, as I noted, has a great deal of room for reinterpretation before you're no longer on brand.