I am in need of some help finalizing my backstory. In short, she is a trickery cleric who grew up in a family full of clerics of the light domain. Her ancestors built a temple in the name of the god they worship and have lived there for generations. My cleric never enjoyed any of the teachings or mandatory meditation. Her defiance was punished quite often despite her family being generally nice people. She would be locked up in solitary to better focus on meditation. One day, she came in contact with the Traveler. A god who finally understood who she was and what she longed for: trickery, chaos and change. In an attempt to showcase her new powers and also take petty revenge on the people who had forced her to be someone she is not, she accidentally destroyed (part) of the temple. Since then she has been on the run, following the Traveler wherever he takes her in the hopes of never being caught by her family.
Now here are my questions:
- In what way could a lvl1 trickery cleric destroy part of temple?
- Is it maybe a bit drastic? As people who aligned with the god of her family are usually lawful/neutral good. How can I justify her treatment?
What I suggest is that the temple is on the site of a portal that if opened would release a Very Bad Thing™. Rituals are needed periodically to reinforce the wards that keep the portal closed. Your cleric could cast create or destroy water to douse the candles/torches/pyres required to perform the reinforcement ritual. It doesn't release the Very Bad Thing™, but allows it to summon something that would delay the ritual even further than a few unlit candles. Battle is fought, summoned creature is destroyed, ritual is completed in time and everyone is unhappy at your cleric. She escapes in the confusion of battle, and backstory continues as you have outlined.
Answer 1) There are a number of ways to destroy something. She could have set a fire to a bed and the fire got out of control. Could have caused an explosion by setting a fire that got to barrels of oil for lanterns. Create or destroy water, by creating water as rain in a 30 ft cube multiple times, flooding a section of the temple destroying precious artifacts. Be creative and think of what type of prank she would love to do and just up it to it being destructive by accident. Just think of how destructive the you want it to go and run with it.
Answer 2) Definition of Lawful Good: creatures can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society. Definition of Neutral Good: fold do the best they can to help others according to their needs. By these definitions, I would go that they believed she needed the solitary confinement to find herself and to find her purpose (which they believe is how they act). People are not perfect and even Lawful Good people can act Chaotic Evil if pushed hard enough. Also depending on the area a Lawful Good person may act more like a Chaotic Good or even Chaotic Neutral depending on their society's views. If their society expects them to kill the homeless because they think it's right, they are technically still Lawful Good because they are doing what their society thinks is right. Lawful Good in one part of a world may not be Lawful Good in another, especially in a world that different societies don't meet often to influence the other. As for it being a bit drastic, depends. You just have to flesh out how you want them to behave and if it is something that you truly believe they would do.
I hope I was helpful.
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Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
As people who aligned with the god of her family are usually lawful/neutral good. How can I justify her treatment?
Fallout with the god? Mistrust, disbelief? Conflict with reality v's faith? "Do as I say, not as I do"?
Any sort of animosity between parents/siblings/relatives? Lack of trust? Favoritism?
Influences from another plane? Another character?
Lawful/Neutral Good is only defined by the society they are interacting with and the rules those societies lay down. If the parents have had little exposure to other societies they would accept what the custom is in their own society. Plenty of opportunity for moral dilemmas.
There is always a 'black sheep' in the family.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
Sinnikal
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Hello everyone,
I am in need of some help finalizing my backstory. In short, she is a trickery cleric who grew up in a family full of clerics of the light domain. Her ancestors built a temple in the name of the god they worship and have lived there for generations. My cleric never enjoyed any of the teachings or mandatory meditation. Her defiance was punished quite often despite her family being generally nice people. She would be locked up in solitary to better focus on meditation. One day, she came in contact with the Traveler. A god who finally understood who she was and what she longed for: trickery, chaos and change. In an attempt to showcase her new powers and also take petty revenge on the people who had forced her to be someone she is not, she accidentally destroyed (part) of the temple. Since then she has been on the run, following the Traveler wherever he takes her in the hopes of never being caught by her family.
Now here are my questions:
- In what way could a lvl1 trickery cleric destroy part of temple?
- Is it maybe a bit drastic? As people who aligned with the god of her family are usually lawful/neutral good. How can I justify her treatment?
What I suggest is that the temple is on the site of a portal that if opened would release a Very Bad Thing™. Rituals are needed periodically to reinforce the wards that keep the portal closed. Your cleric could cast create or destroy water to douse the candles/torches/pyres required to perform the reinforcement ritual. It doesn't release the Very Bad Thing™, but allows it to summon something that would delay the ritual even further than a few unlit candles. Battle is fought, summoned creature is destroyed, ritual is completed in time and everyone is unhappy at your cleric. She escapes in the confusion of battle, and backstory continues as you have outlined.
Answer 1) There are a number of ways to destroy something. She could have set a fire to a bed and the fire got out of control. Could have caused an explosion by setting a fire that got to barrels of oil for lanterns. Create or destroy water, by creating water as rain in a 30 ft cube multiple times, flooding a section of the temple destroying precious artifacts. Be creative and think of what type of prank she would love to do and just up it to it being destructive by accident. Just think of how destructive the you want it to go and run with it.
Answer 2) Definition of Lawful Good: creatures can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society. Definition of Neutral Good: fold do the best they can to help others according to their needs. By these definitions, I would go that they believed she needed the solitary confinement to find herself and to find her purpose (which they believe is how they act). People are not perfect and even Lawful Good people can act Chaotic Evil if pushed hard enough. Also depending on the area a Lawful Good person may act more like a Chaotic Good or even Chaotic Neutral depending on their society's views. If their society expects them to kill the homeless because they think it's right, they are technically still Lawful Good because they are doing what their society thinks is right. Lawful Good in one part of a world may not be Lawful Good in another, especially in a world that different societies don't meet often to influence the other. As for it being a bit drastic, depends. You just have to flesh out how you want them to behave and if it is something that you truly believe they would do.
I hope I was helpful.
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
Thank you so much! You've given me some inspiration.
Fallout with the god? Mistrust, disbelief? Conflict with reality v's faith? "Do as I say, not as I do"?
Any sort of animosity between parents/siblings/relatives? Lack of trust? Favoritism?
Influences from another plane? Another character?
Lawful/Neutral Good is only defined by the society they are interacting with and the rules those societies lay down. If the parents have had little exposure to other societies they would accept what the custom is in their own society. Plenty of opportunity for moral dilemmas.
There is always a 'black sheep' in the family.
If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
Sinnikal