Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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More of a lore question here... Wouldn't mind the help! The Grave domain specify that such clerics "seek to destroy undead"... Hence, it doesn't sound like one could be a member of the Covenant of the Grave faction... Which seems like a little bit of a shame. Or am I missing something?
The Covenant of the Grave is not a monolith in their views and morals, but I would assume that a Grave Cleric who belongs to the Covenant of the Grave would likely take a similar stance on undead as the Raven Queen. Simply put, intelligent undead (such as vampires and liches) need to be destroyed as they're seeking ways to cheat death. While skeletons and zombies are little more than mindless constructs made of human remains.
Thank you!
Also, you're not required to stick with the description in the grave domain.
I like to play by the rules... I'm as Lawful Neutral as one can get. But thank you, for your insight, nonetheless.
The flavor description of the class isn't the rules. If the idea doesn't vibe with you, that's fine, but if you like the subclass mechanics, you could work with your DM to tweak it a bit to make it work better with your character concept.
In my conceptual version of the pantheon of Death in the Forgotten Realms, there is Kelemvor as the Judge of the Dead, Jergal the Scribe of the Dead, Myrkul the Lord of Death (and sometimes when Kelemvor's attention is elsewhere, Undeath) and Bhaal the Lord of Premeditated Death. Myrkul and the arch demon Orcus are often in constant battle over who commands the undead. Kelemvor prefers that souls who die, travel swiftly to his Judgment Hall for determination of their final destination.
Officially, Kelemvor deplores any and all undead because these creatures mess up the orderly processing of the deceased. Jergal deplores any and all undead because, with one exception, they mess up his paper work. Jergal's one exception are his book mummies. Jergal scribes the names and actions of the deceased in a large book, which consists of a mummy that holds its arms wide to display the ledger sheet pages. When the pages of a book mummy are filled, that mummy shuffles to a book case and a new book mummy takes its place.
Yes, I know, I have created the Ultimate Abomination, a divine bureaucrat, Jergal. But what can I say? I am a retired bureaucrat.
Small addenda: technically speaking, the NPC known as The Raven Queen is NOT the deity of Death in my group's version of the Realms. Other campaigns may have her as the deity of death but our campaign uses Kelemvor, Jergal, Myrkul and Bhaal, instead.
Since Jergal (in the Forgotten Realms) is the Scribe of the Dead and the Deity of Fate, I have wondered about a cleric with the Seer Apprentice background from Arcana Unleashed, who wanders the land preaching a prophecy of ultimate Doom to one and all, who will in time take the Apocalypse domain and continue to warn every one to prepare to meet their end.
Jergal isn't in 5.5e(Like Hoar, Gwaeron Windstrom & Savras) &, and that's wrong.
But yeah...no /clerical Domain or setting-neutral organization is a monolith.
I have a Necromancer Wizard that uses undead to fight undead, because he has a policy of "Fighting Fire w/Fire". He defies Kelvemor & the Raven Queen only because he sees no point, since he's doing the right thing in his own mind.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Well, Jergal is a rather quiet and unassuming sort of deity, who conned three upstart mortals (Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul) into "accepting" his various divine duties and obligations, so that he could be free to be the Divine Scribe, the Divine Bureaucrat. After the Time of Troubles, when Cyric grabbed the office of Death, Jergal continued to keep the books. After Cyric was replaced by Kelemvor, Jergal was still there, with the books of the deceased. Odds are, when Kelemvor is replaced by some one else, in the background, keeping the books, will be, Jergal.
As for the other deities such as Hoar (deity of vengeance) and Savras (deity of what!?), in a future source book of the Forgotten Realms, they will probably reappear. Of course, in your campaign, if you have the older Forgotten Realms source books, you can reinstate them.
"Fighting Undead with Undead": having one skeletal horde bashing another skeletal horde. Interesting idea but where do you find the corpses and other dead things that you are animating? Most communities will object to see the corpses of their departed dancing off into the night like that Michael Jackson video "Thriller". Do that sort of thing often enough and communities will send good aligned adventuring parties after you.
Well, Jergal is a rather quiet and unassuming sort of deity, who conned three upstart mortals (Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul) into "accepting" his various divine duties and obligations, so that he could be free to be the Divine Scribe, the Divine Bureaucrat. After the Time of Troubles, when Cyric grabbed the office of Death, Jergal continued to keep the books. After Cyric was replaced by Kelemvor, Jergal was still there, with the books of the deceased. Odds are, when Kelemvor is replaced by some one else, in the background, keeping the books, will be, Jergal.
As for the other deities such as Hoar (deity of vengeance) and Savras (deity of what!?), in a future source book of the Forgotten Realms, they will probably reappear. Of course, in your campaign, if you have the older Forgotten Realms source books, you can reinstate them.
"Fighting Undead with Undead": having one skeletal horde bashing another skeletal horde. Interesting idea but where do you find the corpses and other dead things that you are animating? Most communities will object to see the corpses of their departed dancing off into the night like that Michael Jackson video "Thriller". Do that sort of thing often enough and communities will send good aligned adventuring parties after you.
Well, Jergal is a rather quiet and unassuming sort of deity, who conned three upstart mortals (Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul) into "accepting" his various divine duties and obligations, so that he could be free to be the Divine Scribe, the Divine Bureaucrat. After the Time of Troubles, when Cyric grabbed the office of Death, Jergal continued to keep the books. After Cyric was replaced by Kelemvor, Jergal was still there, with the books of the deceased. Odds are, when Kelemvor is replaced by some one else, in the background, keeping the books, will be, Jergal.
As for the other deities such as Hoar (deity of vengeance) and Savras (deity of what!?), in a future source book of the Forgotten Realms, they will probably reappear. Of course, in your campaign, if you have the older Forgotten Realms source books, you can reinstate them.
"Fighting Undead with Undead": having one skeletal horde bashing another skeletal horde. Interesting idea but where do you find the corpses and other dead things that you are animating? Most communities will object to see the corpses of their departed dancing off into the night like that Michael Jackson video "Thriller". Do that sort of thing often enough and communities will send good aligned adventuring parties after you.
You'd be surprised how far trust can go when you have a NPC companion Cleric(Mostly a healbot) Geas you in front of the families of the deceased to recover any remains no matter how dusty, chopped-up, pasty or smoldering, & properly re-inter whatever's left. That's how my Necromancer stays in good faith.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Ah huh, and about how much are you paying the various families for the privilege of animating some one's grand parents? Ample amounts of coin, preferably gold, along with that Geas, will go a long way to persuade folks to permit you to march grand father and grand mother off into battle.