Neutral Evil deity worshipper alignments

[Harasha]

So I was making a LE half-orc cleric of Luthic, a Neutral Evil deity, and came across a weird quirk I'd seen in D&D and NWN may years ago and forgot about.

She's a NE deity so her worshippers should be one step away, right? LE and CE? But instead they are LN and CN, you can't be LE and worship her.

Weirder still this is not the only one. There are other NE deities with LN and CN worshippers. Velsharoon is one, Ilneval is another..

I feel like this has to be some cut and paste typo from a rule book and affected NE deities should have LE and CE clerics opened up mechanically.

EDIT-- Three more, Auril, Sebek and Yurtrus. I can maybe see one or two having this wonky exemption to the one step away rule but six?

[Red Ropes]

Luthic's clerical alignments are LN, CN, and NE.

They do not respect the one step rule, she has a peculiar focus for the orcish race and has an all female monk order dedicated to her as well.

Layfollowers (non clerics, non religious classes) of any deity DO NOT need to be near their alignment at all. This has always sort of been a thing in FR. In general, however, those people who take a patron and are likely not near the deity's alignment in their ethics and will be judged harshly in the afterlife.


Another interesting deity in this way would be Gargauth whose priesthood is ONLY LE.

[Harasha]

I think six very different NE deities having the same weird worshipper alignments is more likely a rulebook cut-and-paste error than anything intentional.

Of course we can come up with creative explanations for why Velsharoon and Yurtrus don't like LE but LN is okay, but is it really the intent? I don't think this is addressed in any official source material after all.

[Sab1]

I think it's a lot easier and makes sense this to be for neutral, since neutral covers some of chaos and lawful. I always see it as a LE follower of a NE gods might simply focus on certain aspects of the god (maybe ones that benefit them the most) or simply interprets much of the dogma differently.


CE gods like Lolth or Cyric probably aren't going to ever have too many LE followers, as most Lawful people can't support that much anarchy and chaos. Where chaotic people are going to find most Lawful gods too restrictive and controlling.

[Cerk Evermoore]

Lawful alignment is related to your support of direct institutions and the rule of law. Drow can be lawful as long as they respect the drow code.

[BegoneThoth]

What's the Drow code

[Thanatosis]

What's the Drow code

Sapphic Bushido

[Harasha]

LOL.. Discussions here always go weird..

Again, we are trained to justify missing elements in the game with imaginative explanations but sometimes a typo is a typo. In Luthic's case she was made a LE deity in later editions so I highly doubt the intent was to block LE clerics. There's no explanation for LN/CN worshippers of any of these NE clerics I can find in 3.x source books, though I admit I haven't done an exhaustive search, but having worked in both print and web publishing I know how easy it is for something like this to slip and how inertia keeps it from being fixed.

At the same time I'm making a LN healer/monk of Luthic that should be LE, so I think it's a minor issue. It's that or waste a gift slot and .5 ECL which, no thanks.

Anyway can we lock this and I'll make a suggestion, or move this to suggestions, that these evil NE deities be allowed LE and CE worshippers.

[Sab1]

What's the Drow code

Anything is ok as long as you don't get caught.

[Morderon]

What's the Drow code

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted"

Wait wrong game.

Still works.

[BegoneThoth]

Thought it was like "live in a hole, insist you're the best."

[Harasha]

Again, can we please lock?