[3.5, Cleric] Changing Deities

[Flarp]

I was going to ask this in the RAW 3.5 Q&A, but I flipped through the PH and found nothing on it, so...

Is it possible/plausible for a cleric to change his worshipped deity/domains midway through a campaign, with an appropriate in-character reason? If so, are there any rules governing how this would be done?

I'm currently using an earth and protection domain quasi-tanking build in lieu of anyone with more than a d8 hit die, but we're supposedly getting a fighter soon.

[Ganurath]

An Atonement spell cast by a cleric of the newly chosen deity is required for the transition.

[DementedFellow]

I would allow it but whatever domains the previous deity gave would be gone and so would any abilities gained from said domains.

[cheezewizz2000]

Depends entirely on your DM. Clerics that lose favour with their deities lose class-features (ie: spells), so be careful. If your DM is particularly lax/cruel you may end up being granted spells by two deities and you'll have to try and keep them from finding out about each other.

Ohh! I quite like the idea of sit-com clerics.

[Vangor]

"A cleric who changes his patron deity must complete a quest to prove his devotion to his new patron. The nature of the quest depends on the deity, and it always clearly reflects the deity's alignment as well as his or her goals and beliefs. To start the process, the cleric must voluntarily accept a geas/quest spell cast by a higher-level cleric of his new deity. During the quest, the cleric has no access to spells or cleric class features -- except his weapon and armor proficiencies, which he does not forfeit.

Upon completing the quest, the cleric receives the benefit of an atonement spell from a cleric of the new deity. The character then becomes a cleric of the new deity and is inducted into the clergy during an appropriate ceremony of the DM's choosing. After selecting two of the new deity's domains in lieu of his old ones, the character has all the powers and abilities of his previous cleric level, plus the granted powers of his new domains.

This method is the only one by which a cleric can change his deity."

This is located on the Divine Conversion sidebar of Pg 193 of PHB2.

[Kol Korran]

as been said, it all depends on your DM and how you two work it out. i happen to be playing a cleric of a god of war now, who is looking for a purpose, but finding that warring in itself is not enough. plus he is in the plane of shadow, fighting forcs of evil cleric who corrupted some tribes to become undead. he is very affected by it and wishes to bgring an end to the scourge. he also seeks to bring mroe to his life than just war, he seeks "the light" it could be said...
so we decided that the sun god makes a sort of deal with his current god, and that they are going to use the clerci as a weapon in the fight against the darkness. long story short, after some mulling, contemplation, discussion and quit a bit of roleplaying, the cleric in the middle of a battle with the undead gets another vision, while the battlefield is encased in daylight and bless. short stop for a revelation of the presence of the other god, and the cleric gets the sun domain instead of another domain he had. he now holds two domains, one from each god, and has a belief that somehow combines them both.

so you see, it realy is up to the DM, i just suggest you build it into the campagin nicely. could be a quest as suggested, but not necessery.

hope this helped. if you can tell us a bit more about the cleric and the intended conversion and campaign maybe we can help with "making the revelation".

Kol.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

There's an alternate ruling in one of the Green Ronin OGL games (either "Hamunaptra" (pseudo-Egyptian setting) or "Testament" (the heroic Biblical setting)) which I was just reading - effectively you lose a level, as though energy drained.