Why cant i worship an Evil Deity?

[prootwaddle]

The problem is poeple thinking this is a D&D game. It's just an action MMO with a D&D background.

It doesn't even have a D&D background; instead it has a D&D4 background.

People who use these forums, and enjoy playing NO, will have to get used to constant disappointment from people who expected something closer to D&D.

[lordeeto]

Yea I will make evil content for every one to play with the foundry! It's decided! As much as it wont really effect players it will give them the opportunity to work along side some of the secret societies and hidden evil factions of ad&d, my lore is old school so i may have to read up on 4th ed more because I know the Zhentarim is scattered to the wind but I will try and work in them and some other evil factions that people can play if they wish to be evil, I will have to wait to see what foundry offers but i have high hopes.

If people have idea's on what they would want to do, feel free to post here! Possible assassinations and then murder of witness's, infiltration of government facilities to rescue an asset, Disruption of exploration forces, covering the tracks of one of the factions or evil deity cults, I have plenty of idea's.... even if the dev's wont make the quest lines I will do my best. Weave a story maybe between two rival evil factions and throw in a twist of a hero party tracking you along the way.. Why is it so far away!!!

[mo0shak3]

People who use these forums, and enjoy playing NO, will have to get used to constant disappointment from people who expected something closer to D&D.

I've been noticing between threads that a lot of people haven't grasped that this is taken from 4E. I personally enjoy every edition of D&D and several other systems so I don't have any negative feelings towards it.

Evil Deities would be great to have and someone earlier in the thread mentioned that it would conflict if you sent someone who primarily worships one evil deity to fight their minions when it seems to be those gods more often than not encourage their followers to fight each other.

[blackblades505]

There is no reason not to include them

The problem is poeple thinking this is a D&D game. It's just an action MMO with a D&D background.

So how will it make a difference if my character follows bane and heals you? Roleplay? Although i have to say if that's the attitude the developers have taken expect a major flop. This game will never compete on a technical level with some of the other MMO's coming out.

At the end of the day, D&D has always been about choice. NWN was always about choice! YOU COULD BE EVIL in NWN there was many options at certain points.

Its like - Lets take everything that makes a D&D game appealing...throw it out the window, along with choice and try to compete on a technical level with other games. (think Elder Scrolls online)

[aragoh]

I do not now if anyone has mentioned it yet, but if you listen to the NOC podcast posted in the main msg board around here then you will hear them talk about adding in things like evil gods for people to worship for RP purposes, they just have not added them in yet but it is planned.

[harekaze]

Technically a DM could restrict characters to only worshiping good deities? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I just thought the DM has control over what is allowed in the campaign.

[bardbarian]

It would be nice to have more of the Faerun Pantheons present in the game, at least for flavor and RP. And more variety in dialogue in the quests. I can only stand to play the same cleric build with the same god having the same conversations with the same NPCs before it gets really, really old. It would be nice to be able to play a cleric of Asmodeus seizing the opportunities present in a city still rising from its ashes.

I'd like to see deities have more of a role in the game too. As it stands, it feels like it doesn't matter what god your character follows or their alignment. Every one prays at the same place with the same benefits and wears the same holy symbols, armor, etc.

[noolidnerd]

Since they were so Hush-hush about about pvp I thought they might be adding evil deities later and use Good-versus-Evil as the basis for battleground-type instances. Like you pick "Harpers" or "Blackguard" side in the character creation.

[prootwaddle]

Technically a DM could restrict characters to only worshiping good deities? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I just thought the DM has control over what is allowed in the campaign.

In the context of this D&D4 MMO the game is the DM.

[thelickingtoad]

It doesn't even have a D&D background; instead it has a D&D4 background.

4E *is* D&D. You may not like the edition, but that doesn't negate the fact that Fourth Edition is, in fact, a true edition of Dungeons & Dragons. And yes, 4E encourages players to choose good or neutral deities. After all, the base game assumes the PCs are heroes. The evil deities still are there, and the DM can choose to allow their worship, but the game doesn't assume they're available.

That's not a 4E thing, by the way. I don't know any DMs who allow the worship of evil deities outside special campaigns or in special circumstances. From the AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook:

"Third, some people choose to play evil alignments. Although there is no specific prohibition against this, there are several reasons why it is not a good idea. First, the AD&D game is a game of heroic fantasy. What is heroic about being a villain? if an evilly aligned group plays its alignment correctly, it is as much a battle for the characters to work together as it is to take on the outside world. Neutral evil individuals would be paranoid (with some justification) that the others would betray them for profit or self-aggrandizement. Chaotic evil characters would try to get someone else to take all the risks so that they could become (or remain) strong and take over. Although lawful evil characters might have some code of conduct that governed their party, each member would look for ways to twist the rules to his own favor. A group of players who play a harmonious group of evil characters simply are not playing their alignments correctly. By its nature, evil alignments call fro disharmony and squabbling, which destroys the fun."

It should also be noted that 4E did, in fact, include fairly expansive rules for playing evil campaigns, with the Heroes of Shadow supplement (which reintroduced the Blackguard class, the Necromancer and Nethermancer Mage schools, and so on) and the Menzoberranzan supplement, which focused entirely on drow society.

That said, I do think evil gods should be there, as not all people who worship them need be evil. And since alignment is a nonissue anyway (FINALLY), it would simply mean that they came from a bad area (perhaps a citizen of Thay or Netheril) or even that they are somehow attached to that patron, despite their protests and attempts to get away. I don't necessarily believe that those need to be available for launch, especially since I"m unsure what exactly your choice of deity actually does mechanically. But I'd like to see them eventually.

But, with the Thayans, the Netherese, the orcs, the demons rising from the Chasm, the Ashmadai and maybe even the Dead Rats, there's going to be plenty of evil to fight, and little, if any, capital-G Good things to take on. (Though, I must say, getting involved in the dustup between the Sons of Alagondar and the Harpers would be fun.)