New cleric, strictness to clergy favouritism

[avian_chaos]

Just how strict do clerics have to be to their clergy favoured equipment? Do ALL clerics of Kithairien wear leather and wield a spear? No one wears light blue full plate, and uses a halberd while under haste from the travel domain? There are so few gods that I like the sound of, and they all have equipment biases I am not terribly fond of(I like martial weapons, but not gods that are pure warlike).  Does it matter terribly if my cleric's equipment strays from the norm? Thanks

[Dorganath]

The equipment (clothing and weaponry) for clercy are "favored"...meaning by convention and dogma, these are the items that clergy should be using. For Kithairien, the leather and spear makes sense given the dogma, domains and governance of the deity. Clerics should strive to be symbolic of that which they represent. A cleric of Kithairien (a.k.a. The Runner) wearing full plate and wielding a halberd just doesn't make sense...for one, have you ever seen anyone really run in full plate? It just doesn't happen.
  Having said that, exceptions can and have been made if there is a good, solid RP reason for doing so. We generally ask that this be explained and approved when you submit a character. It's not one of those hard and fast rules but rather more of a strong preference.
  And having said that, please keep in mind that your cleric does not need to be, nor should he really be, a one-man do-everything kind of build. Layonara is built around groups, not around the solo character, so if your armor/weapon preferences stem from a mindset of survivability and dealing maximum damage, then I urge you to reconsider this line of thinking. As a cleric, your character's first duty is to its deity and dogma.

[avian_chaos]

I could say that a hasted cleric in plate mail runs as fast as a ranger in leather with longstrider, but I see what you mean.

I like role playing for 2 reasons - taking on a different persona of course, but I also like the challenge of studying a system to create an effective rounded character. Min-maxing I dislike, I will rarely if ever have any stat below 10, but I do like creating characters that can handle any situation. Unfortunately, this usually means choosing very specific domains and equipment for clerics, testing out many different fighter builds for effectiveness, and trying to get the best out of shifting and casting for druids.

This usually means I will have to build backstory and character information with a specific build in mind, and when playing with pencil and paper this usually turns out fine.

Maybe I'll have to try a new challenge - creating a character with enough flaws to need help but not so much that I get sick of playing a character who is helpless solo ^^

Thanks for your help

[miltonyorkcastle]

you'll quickly learn, avian, that you will be doing very little soloing OR a lot of dying.  you solo, you die.  at least when trying to face down things appropriately challenging for a character of your level.  as Dorg said, this place is designed around group interaction.  you won't get far on your own.

[darkstorme]

Milton's right - none of the encounters are really scaled for the soloing adventurer.  Conceivably, you could keep doing the Red Light Goblin group ad infinitum, but killing 120 000 goblins to level up would get old, and you'd get banhammered for camping.  Best to find a party - it's more fun that way anyway!

w/r to the clerical equipment - you're metagaming, really.  Let's say, for example, that a Cardinal hates the colour red - absolutely despises it.  He's still going to wear the vestements, because it's part of his faith.  Similarly, no matter how much distaste you or your character may feel w/r to being inadequately armoured, a cleric is still going to follow the tenets of his/her faith.

[feniox]

darkstorme - 5/10/2006  12:04 PM
w/r to the clerical equipment - you're metagaming, really.  Let's say, for example, that a Cardinal hates the colour red - absolutely despises it.  He's still going to wear the vestements, because it's part of his faith.  Similarly, no matter how much distaste you or your character may feel w/r to being inadequately armoured, a cleric is still going to follow the tenets of his/her faith.

I agree with this, although I know it's not always easy to have your character run around in a colour that you hate as a player

With regards to weapons, for a short period I had a cleric of Baraeon Ca'duz (favoured weapon shortsword) but my character would always fight with a longsword. My RP reason was that he was a fighter before a cleric but was forced into the clergy (all in his bio). In order to keep in the spirit of things I always made sure I had both, and though it never got used, during the short time I had him on the server there was always a shortsword of equal quality to his longsword in his inventory, even though it was only collecting dust.