So I am creating a silver dragonborn wizard with the acolyte background whose parents died, and was raised by a priest in a temple dedicated to worshipping Bahamut.
I've been looking through the books, and I haven't seen any lore or information about how people follow the platinum dragon, what his domain is, or what his morals are. If anyone has any information about Bahamut, or ideas as to how to worship him, I'm all ears.
Here's a link to his wiki, a lot of useful info there: Bahamut wiki
In a nutshell, Bahamut is a dragon deity opposing Tiamat and her followers. Bahamut appreciates good deeds and actively opposing evil and injustice. He doesn't seem to place much value to large temples and such, but excepts his followers to show their dedication through deeds against Tiamat and injustice in general.
He is popular amongst good dragons, dragonborn and other good-aligned draconic races. As what his domain might be, Life or Light seems appropriate choices.
A straight copy-paste from the wiki about Bahamuts personality, should give you some ideas what his followers would be like:
Bahamut was stern and very disapproving of evil, always arguing with Asgorath about his crusade against it. He accepted no excuses for evil acts, and didn't tolerate even minor offenses by evil creatures.
In spite of his stance, he was also considered one of the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He had limitless empathy for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless. He usually preferred to polymorph those who had offended him instead of killing them.
By draconic standards, Bahamut was neither vain or desirous of treasure. He valued wisdom, knowledge, prophecies, and songs instead. However, he also pursued viciously (usually sending his champions and followers) those who tried to steal the hoard from his palace as, after all, he was the god of justice.
Bahamut also liked to prove the strength and worthiness of his followers by battling against them in his dragon form, halting the combat when his followers were injured or when they overcame him. However, he was prone to get carried away by his zeal, and had powerful healers on hand in case he had gravely injured one of his followers in those battles.
By playing a Lawful Good Character who follows Bahamut, how do I reasonably justify doing things that aren't 100% Lawful Good? Because I know its not possible to fully do that.
In my opinion, "Lawful" and "Good" are guidelines on how your character usually acts. Lawful Good characters can be expected to help those in need and respect laws and customs of others. They can, however, be pushed to choose a way that is more "Good" but less "Lawful" and vice versa. "Lawful" doesn't mean the character NEVER breaks ANY laws and "Good" doesn't mean he always acts helpful and merciful. There's also the aspect of Greater Good. It's reasonable for a lawful good character to brake a law if it helps to preserve peace and order in general. A small act of evil might be acceptable if it helps the cause of Greater Good.
Lawful Good character might not like breaking into a manor and stealing an important artifact. They might try but if the artifact helps him to, say, save hundreds of lives, he might still go through the act. In this case, "Good" outweighs the "Lawful". If he is very lawful, he might turn himself in after the threat is over and confess his crime.
Hopefully you find something helpful from my rambling.
How about being kicked out of the temple for some reason you don't know (and everyone from there expects you to know what you did wrong, but they won't speak of it)? They gave you a task to right your wrong, and you have no idea how to do it.
There could be a much bigger story there, but I'd let the DM surprise you.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Playing lawful good is tough in my opinion. I kinda punish players who don't follow the strict guidlines that LG sets in my campaign. If your int is low you could roleplay a dummy who doesn't get what you are doing bad. Or have a low cha and be to socially awkward to tell the party no lol.
There's a YouTube channel called The Dungeoncast who have an awesome episode all about Bahamut. They go over who he is, what he's about, and what he expects out of his followers. It's pretty funny, too, so the 20+ minutes of info goes by pretty quick.
In a nutshell, Bahamut is a really cool dad, and he's basically Dragon Jesus. He expects kind of a lot out of his followers, comparatively speaking, and temples are not super common. He really wants his followers to go out into the world and crush tyranny wherever it lives. That lends itself more to paladins than clerics, but I believe the book says his cleric domains are war and life? Pretty much Bahamut's deal is: weed out followers of Tiamat, free the oppressed, stand up for the weak, and don't be a big greedy jerkface.
Dragons and dragonkin naturally are kind of predisposed to greed and selfishness and Bahamut really wants his followers to rebel against that nature. I don't think that means you don't get to call yourself lawful good if your character can't adhere to that 100% of the time. Also, assuming you're running 5e, your character really doesn't have to share alignment with your god anymore. My man's PC is a paladin of Bahamut and he considers himself true neutral (probably more neutral good but whatevs). It is kind of surprising how little info there is about Bahamut in the core rulebooks. In the Dragonlance setting, he's known as Paladine, and I think he's a way bigger deal there, but I don't know anything about Dragonlance. If you run out of ideas, maybe try checking there?
It is very hard to RP alignment when it conflicts with personal goals or the goals of the party. Conflicts with the party are worse in my opinion, since you can't resolve them by yourself alone (or between yourself and the DM, more accurately).
In essence, I would regard alignment as the internal moral drive of your character. What would they hope they could do, what would they always strive to do in a perfect world? The real ("real") world of your campaign isn't very accommodating to your personal desires though, I would imagine. I would say when circumstance forces you to go against alignment, take extra steps to RP your struggle (preferrably without disrupting the party or the flow of the game).
If you are constantly driven into situations where you feel you're forced against your alignment, have a sit down with your group and discuss whether they could agree to steer the adventure a bit into a direction where you're less conflicted all the time, or if you maybe would have it easier changing your character's in-game beliefs due to the stresses the world imposes or even roll another character entirely. Alas, the trauma of constant inner struggle could actually be fun to RP, and might lead into some great story moments.
Stumbled upon this while looking for Dragonlance content, but hey, Dragons of any sort are good enough content for me.
As a dedicated Paladin player, it is often hard to walk that line of being Lawful Good to the extent that most think you are a Holy Roller with a stick up his ass about everything being by the book, with no exceptions. I play my Paladins to the extent that they follow the law to the best of their abilities and that as long as it is for the good of themselves, the party, or any 3rd party they may be assisting (within reason) then it should not break any vows or tenets that may be in place. This obviously can be counteracted by any DM that deems that sort of play "too loose" but it is always a conversation that should be had with your DM/GM as to how you want to play your character vs how it will work in their setting.
Best of luck to you in your adventures as a follower of the Platinum Dragon!
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Currently on Version 1 of a custom Bard Subclass. Would love to hear your feedback! Give a look in the link down below!
I think everyone is tired of me philosophising about alignment at this point, but I would say this:
You don't have to be equally lawful and good. I would choose one behaviour to be more important than the other. Alignment shouldn't make you a cookie cutter character. In my interpretation, a lawful character is honourable and a good character is benevolent. Or that's one interpretation I could make. Maybe it is the easiest interpretation I could make. So, I would suggest being a person who keeps their word and doesn't compromise in their beliefs, who genuinely wants to help people prosper. Maybe the party doesn't do what you know is right. In those cases, I would recommend having your character participate in actions that go against their beliefs (and if the players are pushing the adventure down paths that your character wouldn't participate in, they're being jerks as players. Intentionally or unintentionally, they're unreasonably excluding you from the game. It would be like suggesting dates for the game only when they know you couldn't make it. It's unreasonable, because "LG Clerice" isn't itself unreasonable-- unless the campaign is opposed to that.) Or if you have to participate in the action, make some rules about what you are willing to do (Only protect, not willing to take a life, even in defence, etc.) and then pay a heavy tithe to the church.
Ultimately, as a player, you are writing this universe along with the other players and the DM. You bring your universe's understanding of Bahumat and his priesthood to life with your interpretation. Your character, to some extent, defines these things. Just do what you think is right and don't worry too much about what your alignment means.
I’ve re-skinned Bahamut for my homebrew campaign into the setting’s goddess of justice, honor, nobility, and the sky. I also play a cleric of a Bahamut for the Tyranny of Dragons campaign. So I’ve done a deep dive on the topic.
As-written, I’d say domains are Life, Light, and War; I added Tempest for my homebrew, because sky god. The way that I integrate the draconic penchant for acquitting wealth with the notion of seeking justice is this: the quest for justice is meaningless without the means to achieve and maintain it. One must acquire wealth and power in order to bring about and maintain a just society. Likewise, justice is active; not passive. Justice doesn’t happen just by wishing for it; you have to go out and make it happen, and you have to be vigilant in order to keep it happening. Material from other sources (I highly recommend 4E Draconomicon, as well previous editions’ version of the same) suggest that Bahamut is really big on the philosophy of helping others help themselves.
As a god of nobility, I’d say Bahamut would want worshippers to lead by example: if a ruler wants to be trusted, they have to be honest. One cannot achieve justice while treating others unjustly. If one wants to inspire noble behavior, one must act nobly.
I would also say that while Bahamut prefers not to kill opponents, his mercy is not unlimited. This can be summed up in the saying “kindness to the wolf is cruelty to the sheep,” or “mercy for the tyrant is injustice for the subjects.”
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So I am creating a silver dragonborn wizard with the acolyte background whose parents died, and was raised by a priest in a temple dedicated to worshipping Bahamut.
I've been looking through the books, and I haven't seen any lore or information about how people follow the platinum dragon, what his domain is, or what his morals are. If anyone has any information about Bahamut, or ideas as to how to worship him, I'm all ears.
Here's a link to his wiki, a lot of useful info there: Bahamut wiki
In a nutshell, Bahamut is a dragon deity opposing Tiamat and her followers. Bahamut appreciates good deeds and actively opposing evil and injustice. He doesn't seem to place much value to large temples and such, but excepts his followers to show their dedication through deeds against Tiamat and injustice in general.
He is popular amongst good dragons, dragonborn and other good-aligned draconic races. As what his domain might be, Life or Light seems appropriate choices.
A straight copy-paste from the wiki about Bahamuts personality, should give you some ideas what his followers would be like:
Bahamut was stern and very disapproving of evil, always arguing with Asgorath about his crusade against it. He accepted no excuses for evil acts, and didn't tolerate even minor offenses by evil creatures.
In spite of his stance, he was also considered one of the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He had limitless empathy for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless. He usually preferred to polymorph those who had offended him instead of killing them.
By draconic standards, Bahamut was neither vain or desirous of treasure. He valued wisdom, knowledge, prophecies, and songs instead. However, he also pursued viciously (usually sending his champions and followers) those who tried to steal the hoard from his palace as, after all, he was the god of justice.
Bahamut also liked to prove the strength and worthiness of his followers by battling against them in his dragon form, halting the combat when his followers were injured or when they overcame him. However, he was prone to get carried away by his zeal, and had powerful healers on hand in case he had gravely injured one of his followers in those battles.
By playing a Lawful Good Character who follows Bahamut, how do I reasonably justify doing things that aren't 100% Lawful Good? Because I know its not possible to fully do that.
In my opinion, "Lawful" and "Good" are guidelines on how your character usually acts. Lawful Good characters can be expected to help those in need and respect laws and customs of others. They can, however, be pushed to choose a way that is more "Good" but less "Lawful" and vice versa. "Lawful" doesn't mean the character NEVER breaks ANY laws and "Good" doesn't mean he always acts helpful and merciful. There's also the aspect of Greater Good. It's reasonable for a lawful good character to brake a law if it helps to preserve peace and order in general. A small act of evil might be acceptable if it helps the cause of Greater Good.
Lawful Good character might not like breaking into a manor and stealing an important artifact. They might try but if the artifact helps him to, say, save hundreds of lives, he might still go through the act. In this case, "Good" outweighs the "Lawful". If he is very lawful, he might turn himself in after the threat is over and confess his crime.
Hopefully you find something helpful from my rambling.
How about being kicked out of the temple for some reason you don't know (and everyone from there expects you to know what you did wrong, but they won't speak of it)? They gave you a task to right your wrong, and you have no idea how to do it.
There could be a much bigger story there, but I'd let the DM surprise you.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Playing lawful good is tough in my opinion. I kinda punish players who don't follow the strict guidlines that LG sets in my campaign. If your int is low you could roleplay a dummy who doesn't get what you are doing bad. Or have a low cha and be to socially awkward to tell the party no lol.
-Sol
There's a YouTube channel called The Dungeoncast who have an awesome episode all about Bahamut. They go over who he is, what he's about, and what he expects out of his followers. It's pretty funny, too, so the 20+ minutes of info goes by pretty quick.
In a nutshell, Bahamut is a really cool dad, and he's basically Dragon Jesus. He expects kind of a lot out of his followers, comparatively speaking, and temples are not super common. He really wants his followers to go out into the world and crush tyranny wherever it lives. That lends itself more to paladins than clerics, but I believe the book says his cleric domains are war and life? Pretty much Bahamut's deal is: weed out followers of Tiamat, free the oppressed, stand up for the weak, and don't be a big greedy jerkface.
Dragons and dragonkin naturally are kind of predisposed to greed and selfishness and Bahamut really wants his followers to rebel against that nature. I don't think that means you don't get to call yourself lawful good if your character can't adhere to that 100% of the time. Also, assuming you're running 5e, your character really doesn't have to share alignment with your god anymore. My man's PC is a paladin of Bahamut and he considers himself true neutral (probably more neutral good but whatevs). It is kind of surprising how little info there is about Bahamut in the core rulebooks. In the Dragonlance setting, he's known as Paladine, and I think he's a way bigger deal there, but I don't know anything about Dragonlance. If you run out of ideas, maybe try checking there?
It is very hard to RP alignment when it conflicts with personal goals or the goals of the party. Conflicts with the party are worse in my opinion, since you can't resolve them by yourself alone (or between yourself and the DM, more accurately).
In essence, I would regard alignment as the internal moral drive of your character. What would they hope they could do, what would they always strive to do in a perfect world? The real ("real") world of your campaign isn't very accommodating to your personal desires though, I would imagine. I would say when circumstance forces you to go against alignment, take extra steps to RP your struggle (preferrably without disrupting the party or the flow of the game).
If you are constantly driven into situations where you feel you're forced against your alignment, have a sit down with your group and discuss whether they could agree to steer the adventure a bit into a direction where you're less conflicted all the time, or if you maybe would have it easier changing your character's in-game beliefs due to the stresses the world imposes or even roll another character entirely. Alas, the trauma of constant inner struggle could actually be fun to RP, and might lead into some great story moments.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -Death
Stumbled upon this while looking for Dragonlance content, but hey, Dragons of any sort are good enough content for me.
As a dedicated Paladin player, it is often hard to walk that line of being Lawful Good to the extent that most think you are a Holy Roller with a stick up his ass about everything being by the book, with no exceptions. I play my Paladins to the extent that they follow the law to the best of their abilities and that as long as it is for the good of themselves, the party, or any 3rd party they may be assisting (within reason) then it should not break any vows or tenets that may be in place. This obviously can be counteracted by any DM that deems that sort of play "too loose" but it is always a conversation that should be had with your DM/GM as to how you want to play your character vs how it will work in their setting.
Best of luck to you in your adventures as a follower of the Platinum Dragon!
Currently on Version 1 of a custom Bard Subclass. Would love to hear your feedback! Give a look in the link down below!
College of Ancestral Balance
Links will open in a new page. Comment HERE with feedback! Thank you!
I think everyone is tired of me philosophising about alignment at this point, but I would say this:
You don't have to be equally lawful and good. I would choose one behaviour to be more important than the other. Alignment shouldn't make you a cookie cutter character. In my interpretation, a lawful character is honourable and a good character is benevolent. Or that's one interpretation I could make. Maybe it is the easiest interpretation I could make. So, I would suggest being a person who keeps their word and doesn't compromise in their beliefs, who genuinely wants to help people prosper. Maybe the party doesn't do what you know is right. In those cases, I would recommend having your character participate in actions that go against their beliefs (and if the players are pushing the adventure down paths that your character wouldn't participate in, they're being jerks as players. Intentionally or unintentionally, they're unreasonably excluding you from the game. It would be like suggesting dates for the game only when they know you couldn't make it. It's unreasonable, because "LG Clerice" isn't itself unreasonable-- unless the campaign is opposed to that.) Or if you have to participate in the action, make some rules about what you are willing to do (Only protect, not willing to take a life, even in defence, etc.) and then pay a heavy tithe to the church.
Ultimately, as a player, you are writing this universe along with the other players and the DM. You bring your universe's understanding of Bahumat and his priesthood to life with your interpretation. Your character, to some extent, defines these things. Just do what you think is right and don't worry too much about what your alignment means.
I’ve re-skinned Bahamut for my homebrew campaign into the setting’s goddess of justice, honor, nobility, and the sky. I also play a cleric of a Bahamut for the Tyranny of Dragons campaign. So I’ve done a deep dive on the topic.
As-written, I’d say domains are Life, Light, and War; I added Tempest for my homebrew, because sky god. The way that I integrate the draconic penchant for acquitting wealth with the notion of seeking justice is this: the quest for justice is meaningless without the means to achieve and maintain it. One must acquire wealth and power in order to bring about and maintain a just society. Likewise, justice is active; not passive. Justice doesn’t happen just by wishing for it; you have to go out and make it happen, and you have to be vigilant in order to keep it happening. Material from other sources (I highly recommend 4E Draconomicon, as well previous editions’ version of the same) suggest that Bahamut is really big on the philosophy of helping others help themselves.
As a god of nobility, I’d say Bahamut would want worshippers to lead by example: if a ruler wants to be trusted, they have to be honest. One cannot achieve justice while treating others unjustly. If one wants to inspire noble behavior, one must act nobly.
I would also say that while Bahamut prefers not to kill opponents, his mercy is not unlimited. This can be summed up in the saying “kindness to the wolf is cruelty to the sheep,” or “mercy for the tyrant is injustice for the subjects.”