What in the heck happened to the Priest class?

Herenicus

Aminah said:

It seems FUN to RP a priest trying to explore an alternative path. No, I'm not talking getting drunk and handing out shields to enemies. I mean hardcore, philosophical and even metaphysical exploration into what Good is and even what Devotion is. Good is immutable, but must the paths also be? Can we have open debate? Can we have alternative, parallel paths to the same goal? This question is as important for the players as it is for the Garden.

If you can bear standing inside a tent and pissing out, there are orthodox and liberal wings to every major faction. 

Jeslyn

Aminah, first of all welcome! I've been away for a little bit, and I don't know if anyone has said that yet. I'm actually very glad you've chosen to play a Cyrenian devotionist. I'd also like to say that excomm is seriously a hard status to achieve, having played a solid 7 months and only being able to count the recent on one hand. You literally have to say screw the bloodsworn and Good. 

Secondly, the diaspora is really one of the things keeping me playing. I enjoy the community, even though it is small, and I like how everyone looks out for each other. If you're very interested in Priest/paladin roleplay I'd engage as soon as possible in Diaspora.

Thirdly, I find it is better to give it a test run and see if you like it first than listen to older experience. While they can be right, they were devotionists during a different time and their roleplay stories were different. Their experiences may not reflect your own.

Finally, seek me out IG. I'd love to meet you!

Sarathai

Aminah said:

Sarathai said:

Aminah said:

Excommunication must exist solely for roleplaying possibilities, yes ? Why can't the Deacon just boot people from the class? That may solve the issue more effectively if that's the route you want to take.

Because kicking somebody out of an entire class can cost them several hundred credits in lost lessons, plus rendering artifacts useless (e.g. artie maces). While an excommunication will hurt a lot, it's presumably possible to work your way back. If you're rendered classless, even taking said class again will still leave you hundreds of credits out of pocket.

But come on. We have to agree that excommunication likewise exhausts enormous investment. Though, unless I'm totally as ignorant as I seem, excommunication is reversible whereas class removal would not be

 I know @Melodie was excommunicated once, got it reversed, and was then excommunicated again later. Don't have any details beyond that, but the equivalent Forest enemy and Anathema (High Warden and Dread-whatever, respectively) are both, I think, reversible.

Melodie

The unique aspect of excommunication is that once excommunicated, only a Divine (in this case, Aurora, Deucalion, or Tecton (the latter not likely to)) can reverse it, whereas with anathema (the necromancy version) and possibly the forest version, mortals can also reserve it.

Also I'm not sure I'm a good example of excommunication(s), my cases were... weird.

Aodfionn

To echo what Jeslyn said re: Excom, you really do have to be pretty much asking for it to get excom'd these days. 

Jarrod

Discussion of multiple paths of Good and the possibilities of supporting those varying paths results in a city at the bottom of a lake.

I much prefer Targ how it is.

Herenicus

If dorm room debates on what constitutes the good life were entertaining Public reading, that would be one thing. In Achaea, they are, at best, an unwanted distraction from the storylines that many of us prefer to read or write, and that goes doubly for the faction that bears the burden of responding. 

Jarrod

Brief explanation for Aminah since they sound newish and might not know:

Shallam used to be the city of Good. Its theology was convoluted if you're being generous, and it resulted in a lot of conflicting views of what being 'Good' meant. The city had 5 gods it subscribed to, and there never seemed to be a unifying force in the city, apart from the occasional strong leader who still had dissenters working against them. During an event a few RL years ago, the city was destroyed and sank to the bottom of a lake, and the forces of Good ended up in Targossas under two new Gods. The Bloodsworn, Aurora and Deucalion, put forth a singular truth of what Good is, and Targossas is based on that singular ideal.

Siduri

Jarrod said:

Brief explanation for Aminah since they sound newish and might not know:

Shallam used to be the city of Good. Its theology was convoluted if you're being generous, and it resulted in a lot of conflicting views of what being 'Good' meant. The city had 5 gods it subscribed to, and there never seemed to be a unifying force in the city, apart from the occasional strong leader who still had dissenters working against them. During an event a few RL years ago, the city was destroyed and sank to the bottom of a lake, and the forces of Good ended up in Targossas under two new Gods. The Bloodsworn, Aurora and Deucalion, put forth a singular truth of what Good is, and Targossas is based on that singular ideal.

Slight correction, it now lies in the Lemnian Sea, not in a lake! But yes, Jarrod explained the situation perfectly!

Caladbolg

Aodfionn said:

To echo what Jeslyn said re: Excom, you really do have to be pretty much asking for it to get excom'd these days. 

The only thing I honestly see you getting excomed for other than asking for it is holding conversations with Ashtani which is something Cyrene in general seems to do alot.

As long as you try to convert them every now and again in the conversation your perfectly okay to talk to them as far as i've ever seen.

Of course, the only time i've ever had anyone ever try to do anything to me for talking to the enemy was when I mischanned an ooc channel to a ig channel and that certain person we all find annoying took it to the leadership of targ and after they laughed at him tried taking it to Aurora.

Seriously was a miss-chan followed by miss. >_> I can understand rping it out a little bit if it wasn't something overly ooc but going to the point of going to targ leaders and your gods because someone hit clt4 instead of clt14 is a bit much.

Anywho,Yeah basically have to ask for it.

On the other hand the reason we generally want Targossian only devotionists isn't because we hate Cyrene or rogues or whatever. It's simply because this is bottom line a game. and that's our Factional classes that belong to our group and is part of our rp.

Personally though just my two cents I think every city should allow priests/paladins/Infernals/Apostates/Occultists. but the only way to join for instance Mhaldor would be for the Priest/Paladin to become excommunicated. Being able to use the powers you learned as good and actually have a feeling that you completely betrayed your allies and such for the power of Sartan seems better rp to me than half the stuff in the game.

Occultist not even sure if they can be excommed but I feel like the class should be regulated a bit more. like Devotion/Necromancy  instead of losing Karma though (gained through knowledge) Losing the ability to make pacts or something.

And while yes. Excom's make the class lose basically everything that makes it a class is extremely lame the rp potential there is just unmatched in my eyes.

(Plus would really help if you got excommed as a paladin and could still be one with out devotion while in mhaldor for instance if you can't afford a class change yet)

Kaden

Caladbolg said:

Occultist not even sure if they can be excommed but I feel like the class should be regulated a bit more. like Devotion/Necromancy  instead of losing Karma though (gained through knowledge) Losing the ability to make pacts or something.

They can lose domination. It just doesn't happen and I don't think it's something a player can decide to do. Don't quote me on that though, but the one and only time I've seen it happen was announced worldwide by a denizen.

Aodfionn

Admin strips it, mortals cant. 

Khairt

RIP in peace Rektznik

Silvarien

Aminah said:

Priest has been isolated into a tiny pocket of playability due to its arbitrary class restrictions.

I understand limiting Devotion with excommunication. There is a solid RP justification.

But Healing? Really? I have been told that I can physically bless people, but the blessing receiver has to be allied to Targossas for it to give a benefit. ((Yet bliss will still work???)) [[Or standing in rites (??)]

This is really too much. You might as well force all new Devotion users to be Targossan.

Look. There are some of us who want to roleplay diverse paths to good. That's how it was supposed to be originally. The garden shouldn't always be accommodating the radicals on this issue. Let it play out in the game. So far, divine intervention on this will only isolate the forces of good into a negligible pocket, especially in terms of class.

@Aminah : There's a bunch of ways to make use of being a Priest. One, literally any Priest has SOME ties to Targossas, so there will always be people you can impact by blessing them. Two, there's a lot of abilities that still work on whomever, such as Rite of Revitalization, Rite of Healing, and Hands. Priests are one of the best detecting classes, with Trace and Seek. So, yes, it's definitely a limitation with the Healing stuff, but there's a ton of stuff you can do even without that. And while some people see the related RP as a restriction, if you got a person that thrives on that kind of RP, it's really a pleasure to play the class, even though there's technically a restriction to it.