Should deities just go away in the core rules?

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RandomCasualty
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by RandomCasualty »

FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1082592277[/unixtime]]
relative to the entity whose free will is being questioned. The ant in the maze doesn't have free will because the operator of the maze dictates their every action.

Sure he does. He can choose to explore the maze or not to, turn left or turn right.


The man on the street does have free will because there are no gods or scientists looking at his every move and altering his landscape at whim to coerce him into action.

He has more options but he doesn't have any more free will.

Free will has nothing to do with the number of choices you have, it is merely the ability to make a choice. Even if your choices are death by hanging or death by electrocution, that's still a choice and you still have free will. So long as you can make a choice if it is presented to you, you've got free will.

The only way to lose free will is through the use of dominate spells, or when you don't have it to begin with like when you're a golem or simulacrum.

Merely limiting the number of choices someone has in no way removes their free will.

Nature is ambivalent. You can draw power from it, but it doesn't care. You can make a hydroelectric plant, and draw power from Nature, and Nature won't care. You can leave that potential energy difference in big piles - and Nature still won't care.


Eh... you're mixing science and magic again. in the real world, "Nature" is merely a concept that has to do with stuff that's not technological or man made. It can't really care because it has no mind.. This also means it can't grant spells.

When you talk in terms of D&D, nature does have an agenda, and that's to support nature. Druids lose their power if they no longer revere nature, and if nature can actively revoke their powers, then it must have some mind and some agenda. Nature basically seeks to maintain natural things. Someone burning a forest and replacing it with a city is acting against nature because they're destroying part of the natural world. Nature is essentially anti-civilization.


The Power of Good may be able to allow you to withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune - but you can stare at a rock all day and the force Good has on that rock is exactly zero. Without a moral agent involved, there is no Good, and it is thusly powerless.

If it is powerless how does it grant someone power? Who are you communing with when you cast commune as a cleric of "good"? How much does the force of good actually know, if anything?
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Sir Neil
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by Sir Neil »

FrankTrollman wrote:He's BIONIC FRICKIN SANTA CLAUS! He knows when you've been bad, he knows when you've been good, he knows when you are awake, and he knows when you are asleep. He can visit every house in the whole world at midnight of the same evening, and he's got a bag with an unlimited supply of rocket launchers in it.


This has to be the most awesome phrase I've seen all day.
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Username17
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by Username17 »

If it is powerless how does it grant someone power?


A crowbar grants me the power to open any door, which is pretty awesome.

You don't need to bring Bionic Frickin Santa into this to explain where power comes from.

-Username17
da_chicken
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by da_chicken »

/me pictures Frank strolling up to LotR's Black Gate with peanut butter, a butter knife, and a crowbar.
Lago_AM3P
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by Lago_AM3P »

By having the gods even be there the DM is saying "Play nice or I'll hit you with my giant penis again!"

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I'm putting this in my quote box soon. The current one is getting old.
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Crissa
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by Crissa »

...I suppose it's too late to point out Frank is an atheist, and rather dislikes the idea of any sort of god-like things?

Ohwell.

-Crissa
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Desdan_Mervolam
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Re: Should deities just go away in the core rules?

Post by Desdan_Mervolam »

Heh, Y'don't say? ;)

-Des
Don't bother trying to impress gamers. They're too busy trying to impress you to care.
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