Priests & Punishment
Priests are servants of their gods, and therefore can't just do anything they want whenever they want. The DM must keep an eye on the activities of priest characters (including clerics and druids), and if the priest violates some tenet or commandment of his god, the DM should see to it that the god punishes the priest.
It's easy to be unfair when doing this, though, so the DM also has to keep an eye on himself. It's all too easy to say, "You should have known that your god doesn't want you to wear red; I've said repeatedly that his favorite color is blue!" That's not justification for a punishment of the priest, unless the DM has explicitly stated that the god's priests must always wear blue or face divine consequences.
Minor Offenses
Minor offenses which the god punishes include such things as:
Making a joke about the god (and even then, it must offend the god; some gods have a sense of humor
Failing to perform all required priestly duties in a day (for example, "not having the time" to listen to the problems of one of the faithful and offer guidance and Becoming annoyed with the god's demands.
The god punishes such minor offenses by withholding some of the priest's spells on the following day.
Inappropriate Weapon and Armor Use
If a priest violates his order's restrictions on weapon and armor use, the god will punish him for it. There are two different types of violation of this restriction, and a different punishment for each.
If the priest deliberately violates the restriction because he wants to (for instance, if he puts on a set of metal armor when he isn't supposed to), this is a willful disobedience and makes the god very angry. He immediately does 2-12 (2d6) points of damage to the priest and takes away all the spells he granted to the priest today, and doesn't let the priest have any more for 1-6 (1d6) days. Even then, the priest must undergo rituals of purification and undertake an act of atonement if he's to have spells again.
If the priest violates the restriction for the best of reasons (for instance, if a gargoyle is strangling his friend, and he must use a forbidden weapon in order to be able to harm the creature), the god does 1-3 (1d3) points of damage to the priest (after the fight is done) and, if the priest does not undertake a ritual of purification at his earliest opportunity, will take away the priest's spells on the next day.
Betrayal of Goals
If the priest deliberately violates the goals of the god, then he's in real trouble. For instance, if a priest of the god of war advocates peace when war is in the offing, or if a priest of the god of love tells young lovers to wise up and forget about romance, then the god will definitely be offended.
The first time this happens, the god will give the priest an unmistakable warning. This could be a heart attack, costing 50% of the priest's current hit points. It could be a portentous destruction of a statue of the god while the priest is present. It could be an earthquake or other warning. The warning doesn't have to be immediately after the betrayal, but will be soon after.
The second time this happens, the god will appear to the priest. It doesn't have to be in person, right then; it might be in a dream, the night following the betrayal. The god will sternly ask the character his motives and order him to return to proper worship.
The third time this happens, the god will immediately reduce the character to 1 hit point and change his character class. The priest will become an ordinary fighter at an experience level two lower than the priest's level (minimum first level his normal hit point total and possessions will be unaffected. Until the character undergoes a severe ritual of atonement, the god will despise the character and plague him with little ills, diseases, and enemies. Once the character atones for the deed, the god forgives him . . . but the character will still be a fighter.
Sometimes, a god might deliberately confront the character with a test of the character's faith. For example: Part of the god's worship demands that anyone who tramples his sacred flowers be blinded. Then, the god befuddles the priest's wife or daughter, and that character stumbles across the sacred flowers where only the priest can see it. If he conceals the sin, he's punished. If, regretfully, he prepares to carry out the punishment, the god will be pleased. The god might interrupt the punishment, or wait until it has been carried out and then restore sight to the priest's loved one.
Divine Retributions
It could be that the priest will betray more than the god's usual dictates. The priest might turn on the god, betraying him utterly. This can happen when another deity, an enemy god, persuades the priest to serve him instead, and persuades the priest to steal some important artifact from the god or reveal some critical information about the god.
When this happens, the god will punish the priest (assuming he survives the betrayal, which most gods will).
The minimum punishment the priest can expect is the character class change described above.
A medium punishment the god will bestow is instant death.
A greater punishment from the god involves the ruin of the character. The god can kill or merely take away the character's family and loved ones, curse him with afflictions such as blindness and lameness, see to it that all his enemies find out about his weaknesses, give extra power and weapons to his enemies, force the priest's loved ones to betray him, and so on. This doesn't happen all at once, but every episode for the rest of the character's life introduces some new, horrible calamity until the character is mercifully killed or kills himself. In any case, the character is no longer a viable one to play and the player should dispose of him as quickly as possible.
At the ultimate level, the god performs the greater punishment above, and then tortures the character's spirit forever in the afterlife.
Note that this punishment isn't just for priests. If a non-priest betrays the god in the same fashion, the god will visit the same sort of punishment on the character.
Society's Punishments
Unless the priesthood is the State Religion, priests are not immune to the law for their deeds.
If, for example, the priest of the god of Justice and Revenge hears about some great injustice, wanders over to the offender's house and kills the offender, then he's guilty of murder. There's no question. He'll be arrested, tried, and (the efforts of his priesthood notwithstanding) probably convicted; the only thing that could save him would be a declaration from the god, which is usually not forthcoming.
Therefore, when priests decide to do something which is illegal in the culture, they should do so circumspectly. If they wish to accomplish the desires of their god when those wishes are illegal, they'll have to do so in a fashion which protects them.
When Priests Renounce Their Faith
It's possible for a priest to renounce his faith # to declare that he is no longer a priest of a particular god. When that happens, he has one of two choices.
He can stop belonging to the priest-class and start over as a rogue, wizard, or priest of another god, according to the rules for dual-class characters. Naturally, he loses all his granted powers.
If his priesthood had Good Combat Abilities, he can lose one experience level and become a fighter; if Medium Combat Abilities, he can lose two levels and become a fighter; if Poor Combat Abilities, he can start over as a fighter according to the rules for dual-class characters. He'll never again be a priest.
When Gods Bestow Spells
Another effect of the fact that priests are servants of their gods is this: The god doesn't have to give his priest the spells the priest wants.
In most situations, when the priest prays for his spells, he gets the ones he desires. But if the god and DM wish, he could get different spells on some occasions.
There are two usual causes for this to happen:
If the god is displeased with the priest for some minor infraction, he might give the priest spells which dictate the priests' actions for the day. A fighting-priest might emerge from his meditation with only healing spells on hand, for instance, a clear sign that the god wants him to act in a supporting role today.
Or, if the god knows of a specific opponent that the priest will be fighting today, he might give the priest spells appropriate to defeating that enemy.
In neither case will the god send a telegram explaining why he's done what he's done. The priest has to accept what the god hands him that day, and has to do so without knowing why.
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