I imagine there could be other alternative punishments or consequences.
I think that would be interesting to see.
But anyway, I am still pondering about some things, so I will try it differently.
Worshipping multiple deities still confuses me (OOCly), and of course if I am confused OOCly it makes it even harder for my character to not be confused about something ICly. Since I do not quite know what to make out of certain code changes.
Let me briefly put this into perspective:
If I am not mistaken then years ago, before crusaders, there were no characters who really actively believed in more than one deity. I don't think it was possible to gain faith in Evren back then at all for instance. But you could do "god Evren" (or "worship Evren"), and then go on to roleplay as a worshipper of that deity.
At least with crusaders, this is no longer entirely exclusive, and it is not possible to ignore this ICly (because the crusaders have unique abilities, and this must logically stem from their belief in Evren and Taniel). So obviously, for whatever reason, these two deities more or less joined forces, empowering those that follow the restrictions imposed by those two deities. (If I am wrong OOCly here, help me out.)
So now I am wondering whether it would be possible to be a cleric of
more than one deity at the same time. And this puzzles me heavily. I can very well imagine for several reasons that the answer will be no, but let me elaborate.
On the one hand all deities seem to behave the same. For instance, no matter what deity you leave, your character will appear weaker temporarily due to the vitality loss "punishment". No matter if the deity is the all forgiving and loving Gwen or the ruthless ruler of all undeads Sathonys, this reaction seems to be absolutely the same. No matter if you were a cleric, or a worshipper of that deity before. No matter for how long you were a cleric or worshipper (i.e. technically the switch seems to be quite easy, no matter what individual background that character would have)
Additionally, if you have more faith in a respective deity, you get a clear IC message "You feel drawn towards", so in a way you still can only worship one deity, otherwise you will "feel drawn again" and start worshipping another deity.
(The IC message also slightly confuses me, because I wonder if the character should actively try to resist this? Why does he get the IC message? Shouldn't he be proud that a deity would like of him to start worshipping instead? Or is it an OOC message?)
Hmm, I seem to lose my train of thought, so let's go to
one question and remember that I more wonder about the roleplay than code technicalities:
- Would it be possible, with adequate roleplay, to worship two deities at the same time as a
cleric, including to pray for miracles? I used to think that gods are extremely
exclusive, but if they can do alliances and empower their servants, why would it be strictly impossible to be a cleric of TWO deities at the same time (if it makes IC sense, and so forth).
Of course there is an OOC issue involved here. Unlikely that "super" clerics with a greater access to miracles are wanted, since this could devalue "normal" clerics quite quickly.
But this is a balance issue, you could just as well have those clerics access to more miracles, yet tone the effects down a lot, so that he would not become a "super" cleric. Or, another idea would be to have this cleric "switch" between deities: for one year he would have access to Taniel miracles, then Evren miracles, etc.. Anyway, this is a balance issue, I am puzzled about the IC implications more.
I don't know how many remember the time when every miracle had a "mastery". Then came the beseech deity skill switch, which is cool to have for several reasons in my opinion, the most important being that you don't have to artificially spend time "training" individual miracles anymore.
Also, a nice change seems to be that miracles can not be interrupted as easily. In the past it was quite easy to force aborting miracles by "tickling" your enemy during combat.
I guess I am trying to find out how exclusive deities really are (OOCly), and also whether it *would* be possible to have non-standard clerics. I have no preference at all for either way, but I am confused about some things here.