Now, a little bit of background here. This is a homebrew setting that uses the FR deities. They're mostly as expected, albeit without the Time of Troubles baggage but carrying their own changes on account of an apocalyptic war with an Elder Evil being millenia ago that led to the complete genocide of the gnomes (who fill a role in the setting similar to Morrowind's Dwemer) who served their deity-beating God-King.

Anyway, not all deities came out of this war unscathed. Torm, the God of Paladins and honour and chivalry and all that cool stuff, sort of went insane during the war when his most powerful servant, an epic Solar by the name of Zariel was dominated by the God-King and turned against him. Zariel was summarily banished to Hell where she went on to become ruler of Avernus until recently when she was deposed by Bel

Anyway, for some stupid reason, Torm really lost his shit over this. I'm sure that Mastermind jerkass would have a field day, but he fell, and fell hard. However, the gods retreated from the world after sealing away the God-King, so Torm's church continued on as if nothing had happened, remaining a force for goodness and justice and all those nice things.

Now, however, the gods are starting to regain their influence in the world. This has resulted in Torm's church adapting to a far more militant and vicious regime as the maddened deity whispers in his priest's ears. Indeed, my PC was given a ton of shit by one of Torm's paladins who was utterly incensed at her having a reformed erinyes cohort and an eladrin familiar. We didn't really know for sure what was going on until I got an audience with Mystra after passing one of the tests required for us to eventually challenge the God-King and asked her directly, whereupon she spilled the whole sordid story.

I managed to convince crazy Torm paladin that his god was betraying everything his church stood for, and made a few speeches to the general congregation encouraging them to hold tight to Torm's original doctrine and not let the militant clerics change things.

Why is this all relevant? Well, the fallen planetar and his pals were all servants of Torm, as evidenced by their talk of the Hateful Fury as he is now known, and discussing a heretic that they very much want to kill. So naturally the PCs plus erinyes cohort all buffed ourselves and then teleported on top of them.

First Alicia attempted to reason with them, asking for them to surrender and promising they'd be treated mercifully and fairly. The planetar spat out that he'd never again bend knee to one such as she, prompting the half-dragon rogue/wizard to shrug and say, "Okay. Then burn," before blasting them with a cone of fire (like cone of cold but hot).

Battle was joined, but proved embarrassingly short for the planetar. He managed to get off a Power Word: Stun on the erinyes after she charged him, swearing to Alicia that she'd be next... only to have her 5-foot step closer and unload a hasted full attack backed by divine might and a ton of spells pumped into arcane strike.

Rather than do the sensible thing when he died like a bitch, the gang of four aasimar promptly flipped the fuck out and attacked us, proving to actually be a threat with their high attack rolls and insanely high melee damage. The paladin/kensai follower of Helm managed to lay heavily into one of them, his full attack culminating with the aasimar having his heart ripped out and ribcage shattered... yet still he fought on with unrelenting fury!

At this point I literally exclaimed "Oh fuck! They're frenzied berserkers!" Even when we set ourselves to disarming them they still pressed on with their bare fists, managing to inflict an embarrassing number of bruises while racking up more damage from the half-dragon's spells.

Soon enough they were obviously in a horrific state, three of them with wounds that would've killed them several times over while one was limited to numerous bruises and welts from when the erinyes and I attempted to KO him with subdual. I'd just cast Fly on the paladin/kensai after the rogue/wizard suggested we just get out of their reach until they calm down when as one the quartet abruptly stopped and collapsed, three dead and one unconscious.

We're now planning to head home and interrogate our prisoner (although restraining a frenzied berserker is going to be a bitch when he wakes up) but the party is torn on what to do with Torm.

The rogue/wizard and Alicia are both of the opinion that we've put up with this shit for long enough, and it's time to denounce and ruin his church in the exact same way we'd treat a temple of Bane or Shar popping up in the middle of the city. The paladin/kensai on the other hand things we should avoid causing too much trouble lest we just make Torm angry, despite the fact that it's pretty clear he's way past that stage. Admittedly I too had held some faint hope of Torm somehow coming around if his followers could be kept on the side of justice, but now that he's actively sending out high CR outsiders and death squads of frenzied berserkers to kill heretics I think we need to come down on him just as hard as we do on every other loser evil deity out there.

All this and we still haven't even dealt with those vrocks that the devil warned my familiar about! I love this game.

Your GM is one twisted, inventive guy.

Wait...you're proposing starting a war with the entire church of Torm?

Words escape me.

>>2777356

No more than we're at war with the churches of Shar, Cyric, Bane, Malar, Auril, and pretty much every other evil deity you could name.

Torm right now is basically a villain with good publicity - the average joe thinks "Oh, he's that god of paladins and honour, right? Great guy!" while in his churches the clerics spout endless diatribe about dominating others and surrendering to your fury to destroy your enemies.

I'm saying we need to make it very clear to everyone that Torm is no better than any of those other evil deities. There's still a lot of people following Torm who haven't yet got the memo about the new doctrine (it's basically filtering from the clerics and paladins downwards), and every earnest prayer to Torm from a person who still believes in honour and righteousness is a prayer that's being stolen from any of the other deities who actually do embody those concepts - like Tyr and Ilmater and so on.

So let me check my scorecard.

You're already at odds with the Nine Hells. You have demon problems elseware since you mentioned vrocks. Now you're picking fight with a fallen god that sends out squads of fallen angels and frenzied berserkers?

Do you have a death wish?

>>2777392

Well, the IC response is that I'm a stalwart servant of justice who won't allow evil to go unanswered despite the risks.

From a more metagamey perspective, those guys drop awesome loot.

I like that enchantment on the bow. That's some ninja shit right there.

You're doing the right thing to work against a corrupted church. I don't think it's the wise thing to do, but it's the right thing.

>>2777420

What was the loot then?

Once again, Alicia is like the paragon of what it means to be a Paladin.

If Torm's fallen, how does the pantheon look? Is he in conflict with other gods related to evil and rage? Have other gods been changed or corrupted?

>>2777437

Well, we haven't had time to identify it, but there's 5 magic greatswords there. Bound to be something cool or at least expensively sellable.

>>2777447

I don't know, to be honest. We don't actually have that much conflict with evil gods. Cyric once tried to recruit my druid/wizard/mystic theurge (character I played until she was killed by four dozen shocker lizards and replaced by Alicia) and Shar apparently wants Alicia dead/suffering but that was just a comment from a cultist who we fought after he sacrificed a bunch of villagers and hasn't been backed up by any direct action.

I've made a few comments to various worshippers of Torm that if they really like the tyranny/rage shit then they should look up Bane or Malar, but we've yet to get any perspective from those deities or their representatives directly.

If any other gods have changed dramatically we don't know about it yet.

How does that bit about Zariel matter at all? Is Hell involved into that or is it unrelated?

>If any other gods have changed dramatically we don't know about it yet.

OP here, slight amendment to that. Talos has been vaguely alluded to now being Chaotic Neutral rather than Chaotic Evil.

We haven't gotten anything directly but when we had to pass the trial of the storm (tests set by the gods to prove our readiness to face the elder evil BBEG) we fought a whole bunch of chaotic creatures but none of them were evil, and Alicia received a blessing during it.

>>2777508

I just included that because I thought it was a cool background detail. Torm definitely hates the shit out of devils, though, no doubt about that - his psycho harassment paladin really got riled up by the erinyes cohort's continued existence.

Thinking about it, I'm thinking there's likely a lot of bitterness and disbelief that she could reform when Torm's own most favoured servant went on to become a Lord of the Nine.

>>2777531

All those little details make me think that your game is very planar oriented. Is your dm a big JUST AS PLANNED type?

>>2777555

The hilarious thing is that it started out as a very low magic game. But yeah, the planes have played an increasingly major role in things - they're our best source of powerful antagonists primarily on account of the Prime Material having been a low magic setting for so long.

As for whether the DM plans everything or wings it, I really couldn't say. He certainly does a good job of stringing things together, though.

Wait wait. Let me get this straight. In your GM's backstory, THE GOD OF PALADINS FELL.

The
God
Of
Paladins
Fell

>>2777586

I do have to wonder if that's some sort of parody of falling paladins.

>>2777586
/tg/ - Watch for falling paladins!

>>2777586

That's got to be worth +5 DM-penis ego.

>>2777586

DMs.

They make the impossible happen.

Calling it now.

Alicia will end up becoming a new God of paladins.

>>2777604
I was laughing my fucking brains out for a few seconds there. Just imaging everyone in the D&D world going about their business, looking up and suddenly running for shelter as thousands of paladins rain down from the sky.

>>2777586

Fallen paladin gods and hot erinyes sex? I don't know if I want...I just don't know.

>>2777617

Funnily enough, even before we found out the sordid truth Alicia had a vague dislike for Torm even though she respected his credo.

Considering paladins by their very nature are devoted servants to their chosen deity, it seems really cheeky for another god to step up and be all "I'm the god of paladins!"

>>2777644

But don't you worship Mystra, the Goddess of wizards and magic? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?

>>2777668
Isn't Mystra nicer about it than most gods of Magic who are all, "WHAT ARE YOU FAGS DOING BOTHERING ME WHEN I'M FUCKING READING WHAT THE SHIT?"

>>2777668

Well, wizard is pretty religion-neutral. Sure a wizard might worship any deity he likes, but he's not defined by it - no matter who he worships, he's still a wizard. And like it or not, he is using Mystra's power whenever he casts any spell (at least on the Prime).

But paladins (and clerics) are defined by their choice of deity. Without their deity, they aren't a paladin anymore. That's why it feels weird for a third party to horn in on things.

>>2777687
She should be, she's an ascended DM's girlfriend

>>2777687

Plus Mystra has great tits.

>>2777692

Well yeah, but paladins are special and narrowly fitted into a single ideal.

>>2777694

I will say this, thank fuck the Chosen of Mystra do not exist in this setting.

If Alicia knew her goddess was getting railed by a wrinkly old dude like Elminster she'd fall so fast. Or at least start looking for a new deity.

>>2777718
Are you ABSOLUTELY SURE your character isn't a huge dyke? She has a fucking harem, for shit's sake. An awesome harem.

Of awesome.

>>2777718

So getting railed by a man isn't cool for Alicia. Are you sure you're not a dyke?

>>2777729
>>2777730

Dyke-mind.

>>2777730
He was a girl half the time he did it.

>>2777730

She'd be just as affronted if she knew Mystra spent her weekends eating out the Simbul.

It's hard to respect a deity who acts as a Mary Sue's bedwarmer.

>>2777736

I thought only Khelben fucked girl-Elminster????

>>2777745
Okay, this is true.

>>2777746
ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG

>>2777762

”Maybe…” said the girl. ”but before we start, there’s something you should know.”

Khelben chuckled and rubbed her right breast. ”And what’s that, my lovely dove?”

She pushed herself up to a half-sitting position, pushing his probing hand away gently. ”Well” she said and reached behind her neck. There was an unusual sound and suddenly…

…suddenly the girl Liana’s head and form deformed. Her head with its golden plume of hair slumped forward, empty and lifeless with hollow sockets. Her breasts became saggy, empty sacks. Her curves deformed, as if something beneath them pushed to the surface. Elminster’s white-haired and white-bearded head grinned at Khelben from above the elf girl’s deformed shoulders.

”Surprise!” he said,

Khelben blacked out.

>>2777778

Stop, please. Don't ruin this.

>>2777746
EVERYBODY fucked him/her. Then Mordenkainen did a line of coke off her ass and portal'd back to Sigil to use his "portal key" on The Lady of Pain's "doorway."

>>2777795

Keep that Mary Sue LoP out of this thread, dammit.

On topic!

What are you planning on doing if the church of Torm resists?

>>2777798

On topic is nice. I deeply regret providing any impetus to this horrifying diversion which only proves that Elminster ruins anything he touches.

Anyway, it really depends how they resist. I'm happy enough to publicly debate them and prove to everyone just how stupid their new doctrine is. If they actually get violent then I'll come down on them like the fist of an angry god.

>>2777798
"If a god stands in your path of doing what is what is right, cut him down."

>>2777826

Have the pally pat a cleric or pally of aforementioned church on the shoulder and channel a SMITE EVIL.

SMITE A BITCH does not lie.

>>2777986

In full view of a large crowd.

On a holy day of the church.

>>2778018

While with as many holy powers on as possible to drive home the point.

>>2777586
Words cannot describe how hard I lol'ed.

>The
>God
>Of
>Paladins
>Fell

SHIT JUST GOT REAL.

But in seriousness, just because the God of Paladins fell doesn't mean that all Paladins will fall. They can still continue to maintain their powers through devotion to the principles that their god maintained before he fell. As was said of the Paladin class description, they need not be devoted to a god, as devotion towards an ideal can also be a source of their divine power.

>>2779381

In FR, a paladin can be devoted to another God anyway. Torm's the 'God' of the concept of paladins, kind of how Mystra's the goddess of magic and Shar's the Goddess of being an emo goth bitch.

>>2777586

<3

>>2777586

Shit, your game is so hardcore that the GOD OF PALADINS fell?! I'm not sure if your DM is shitty, hilarious or insane. Maybe all of them.

>>2779381
what the fuck, is blizzard behind this shit?

>>2779784

That's 4th edition. This is 3.5, completely unrelated.

Pic is Relevant

>>2780395
Is she... dual-wielding katanas?

>>2780395
>I'm an animu faggot please rape my face.

>>2780754
>ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US

>>2780395
FUCK YEAH ALICIA

>>2780737

She uses a two bladed sword as I recall. It's an arcane strike whoring setup. Dunno why she has the katanas there.

>>2780754

Watch out, even talking to someone who posts anime pictures will give you aminu-aids.

>>2780908

The touhou character generator doesn't have two-bladed swords, so that was the best way of encapsulating her dual wieldan style. Likewise there's nothing closely resembling a spear, so the erinyes had to make do with that half-moon on a stick thing.

>>2782122
Then we should get a real drawfag to do a proper rendering.

>>2782932

We really should, yes.

Preferably with lawful hot lesbianism.

>>2777586

EVERY PALADIN FALLS. NO EXCEPTIONS, FINAL DESTINATION.

>>2777586
Were they in a colony?

>>2783008


Mine hasn't fallen yet.

Blinded, raped beaten, mind controlled, forced to perform evil, atoned and still standing tall and defeating evil.

>forced to perform evil, atoned

That just means you fell and then got up again.

>>2784076
>forced

You only fall if you voluntarily preform evil.

>>2783962

lol haste trinkets and 1 second mana burn ftw

then i can watch you melee my pws until you die from the damage :D

>>2784102
...What?

>>2784102

Wrong thread, dicknuts.

>>2784083
If you lose your paladin special abilities, you fell.

>>2784124
If that were true, then DMs wouldn't try so hard to set up Paladins to fall.

>>2784143
DMs that alway try and set up the party paladin are horrible players with no business sitting behind the screen.

That doesn't change the fact that a paladin with no paladin abilities is a fallen paladin. An atoning paladin fell the same way a blackguard did. The difference is, one doesn't want to stay "Fallen" anymore.

>>2784197
Bullshit. "Falling" from being mind controlled is more about disarming the Paladin until they break out of it. After you're done you can just hit up the nearest church and grab an atonement. You don't even need to go on the quest because the gods know that you didn't fuck up your code, someone else did.

SUDDENLY, THE GODDAMN GREY GUARD CLASS

NOW CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING OTHER THAN VIOLATING AN ABSTRACT CODE

>>2784249

So... has Alicia fucked the erinyes yet?

Or the fairy? Or the deva? Or her sister?

>>2784281

Incest would make a paladin fall, you freak.

>>2784281
No. No, Alicia hasn't banged anyone yet. She is unlikely to do so in the future, due to being the only decent Paladin ever.

Unless her sister suddenly becomes a raging homo or the Eladrin spikes their drinks.

>>2784287

>>2784287
I don't see why.

If it was rape, yes.

>>2784299
>>2784291
>>2784287
>>2784281

If I remember correctly, female-on-female rape is still legal.

>>2784352
As far as I remember, "sexual assault" is a huge grey area, abused regularly for the purposes of ZOMG LAWSUIT.

>>2784360

Gauntlet.jpg

CALIFORNIA NEEDS TORT REFORM, BADLY

>>2777336
There's a clear solution here: find the heretic, and you save the Church.

>>2784383

She doesn't want to save the church, she wants to destroy it.

>>2784383
>>2784390

The GOD of that church is being heretical.

>>2784390
FUCK YEAH

>>2784394

Exalted?

OP here with an update after today's session.

I interrogated the surviving aasimar, although he wasn't that helpful. He confirmed their main goal was to kill the PCs, send the erinyes cohort back to hell, and drive the paladin of Torm (the one I mentioned earlier who used to harass me until I convinced him Torm had betrayed his ideals) into mindless rage and hate. About the only other useful piece of info he had was that the planetars immediate superior was a legendary solar - the erinyes recognised the solar's name as being someone who had battled the forces of hell in the distant past but nothing more meaningful than that.

I was kind of annoyed at the whole situation and perhaps taunted him more than I should have. Thanks to a nearly epic intimidation roll he was mostly cowed even as I decried the worthlessness of their berserk rage and mocked the planetar for posing as a cute serving wench, but then when I said that Torm was a pathetic shadow of his former self and only deserving of pity, that's when he flew into another frenzy and proceeded to roll a 20 on his strength check, easily shattering the manacles that bound him (what did I say earlier, restraining a frenzied berserker is a bitch and a half. We need to get some masterwork adamantine manacles or something).

Luckily I had a Voice of the Dragon spell running and shared with my familiar, and she got him to immediately calm down with a Suggestion. After that we left him with the erinyes who wanted to try talking him into reforming.

We spoke to our commander after that, and while he doesn't like the turn Torm has taken he's leery of coming down hard on the church lest ir provoke a religious war within the city. The paladin/kensai still wants to leave the situation alone, hoping that Torm will suddenly calm down and go back to normal once we kill the elder evil that provoked his fall.

Naturally I'm not happy to let evil fester in the meantime (and think it's an absurdly naive hope to think Torm will go back to his old ways with anything short of someone telling him to clench his teeth and then punching the emo right out of him) so will probably be preaching the truth outside his temple the next day in game. Hopefully it won't provoke a riot, but if the clerics make a scene it'll only reflect badly on them considering how insane one got the last time I debated one.

Also in an amusing twist, despite our resident paladin/kensai's tendancy to give Torm a chance, the church of Helm (which he belongs to) responded to the news of Torm's fall with the immediate observation that they'd probably be able to poach a lot of his followers.

Oh lawd.

Again, your GM is one awesome guy.

>>2784500
>>2784499

I wish I was having as much fun as you, OP.

Then again, my group had a downtime session just the other night because two of our players were missing, and i instigated a shadow war between a mind flayer cell, some drow informants and their bodyguards, and some cultists of Vecna.

>>2784500

Hahahaha. Nice to see Helm's church is looking out for number one.

>>2784529

That sounds pretty neat in a 'just as planned' fashion.

Sadly I'm not really afforded the chance to do such awesome sneakery in this game. While it's certainly fun playing a paladin and never compromising on what's right and just, it does cut down on a lot of avenues for amusing mischief.

>>2784544

Unfortunately for me, the Mind flayer cell sent Duergar minions, which SLAUGHTERED the drow, the single priest of Vecna, and, according to witnesses, were teleorting and sliding all around the battlefield.

The upshot of this is that the drow are sending reinforcements to the city, and I was paid 25 grand by the mind flayer. I did, after all, rat out the location of the drow informants, just as I was hired to do.

>>2784566

In the defense of the drow, my party DID kill an avatar of Lolth in the Demonweb Pits a few months back, so they were stretched thin.

I just hope the mind flayers will have a harder time taking over the city with more drow working for the same reason.

>>2784228
Your paladin fell. Get the fuck over it, you whiny bitch.

>>2784575

If a pally is tricked or mind-controlled into performing an evil act, the atonement isn't even the XP cost version.

Asmodeus does not approve of this topic.

>>2784584
If you must atone, you fell. Period.

Get

Over

It

>>2784594
No, you're wrong. Get over it.

>>2784594
>>2784603

SO HOW 'BOUT THEM GREYGUARDS?

>>2784609
They're all right. But if they fall, they fall forever.

>>2784500

>clench his teeth and then punching the emo right out of him

>>2784575
>>2784594
Don't you have troll topics to be shitting up the board with? For fucks sake.

>>2784500
>(and think it's an absurdly naive hope to think Torm will go back to his old ways with anything short of someone telling him to clench his teeth and then punching the emo right out of him)

Oh lawd, I have a pun for that.

[Torm enters] "Hey Tyr, let's... what are all the rest of you doing here?"
Mystra: "You have a problem, Torm. We can help."
Torm: "What the hell are you talking about?"
Lathander: "You can't keep living like this."
Torm: "I'll do what I want! You don't control me!"
[Narrator: "Divine Intervention will return after these messages."]

>>2784681

Helm: ARE YOU *punch* WILLING *punch* TO BET *punch* ON IT?

...
*slap, slap, punch*

>>2784681

FUCK YES HELM WILL SMACK A BITCH.

>>2784499
>>2784500
For when you have to speak to the public, hire an Evangelist.

It's a Complete Divine prestige class to the cleric, so it'll cost an arm and a leg, but, if you get one for a religion you support, he'll convert every damn person in the audience to that religion.