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reorith
2007-01-09, 04:48 AM
according to the friendly srd,
a cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral.

does that mean a cleric can't be true neutral unless his alignment matches his deity's or does it mean a cleric can't pick ng, ne, ln, or cn unless it matches his deity?

Valairn
2007-01-09, 04:54 AM
I take it to read that a cleric can only be true neutral if his diety is true neutral.

Journey
2007-01-09, 07:33 AM
I take it to mean that no component of the cleric's alignment may be neutral unless his deity's is as well. For example, neither a NG cleric nor a LN cleric may serve a LG deity, however either of those clerics could serve a true neutral deity.

Lord Iames Osari
2007-01-09, 07:59 AM
I've always interpreted it to mean that a cleric couldn't be TN unless his deity was, because the way Journey interprets it conflicts with the statement that clerics can be one step away from their deities' alignments.

Journey
2007-01-09, 08:36 AM
In the 3.5e PHB it explicitly states that the neutrality restriction specifically applies only to true-neutral. My interpretation I guess is more of a house-rule than an exact interpretation of the RAW.

pestilenceawaits
2007-01-09, 09:07 AM
I take it to read that a cleric can only be true neutral if his diety is true neutral.

This is how I read it as well.

Gurgeh
2007-01-09, 09:17 AM
It's because they no longer call the middle alignment 'True Neutral' - they just call it 'Neutral' now, which as this topic amply demonstrates can lead to some confusion.

MrNexx
2007-01-09, 09:32 AM
It's because they no longer call the middle alignment 'True Neutral' - they just call it 'Neutral' now, which as this topic amply demonstrates can lead to some confusion.

They could've kept their standard nomenclature and called it Neutral Neutral.

Double Neutral?

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-01-09, 01:49 PM
My interpretation is you cannot be N unless your diety is likewise. So basically if you're a cleric of a N diety your alignment restrictions are exactly like that of a druid.

Captain van der Decken
2007-01-09, 02:12 PM
Wait, you can't be true neutral even if your deity is lawful or chaotic neutral? Why? That doesn't really make sense.

Fax Celestis
2007-01-09, 02:37 PM
...because you're supposed to share the beliefs of your deity, and being True Neutral means that you don't. Unless your deity is also True Neutral, in which case you are united in your indecision.

Devils_Advocate
2007-01-09, 05:31 PM
They could've kept their standard nomenclature and called it Neutral Neutral.

Double Neutral?
The problem with those is that they sound silly.

Really, they should have come up with different terms for the middle alignments on the different axes. Then they wouldn't have to say "neither good nor evil" or "neither lawful nor chaotic" when they wanted to be specific. Having the same name for both is just needlessly confusing -- never mind also giving the same name to the combination of the two! "Balanced" strikes me as a good term for between Lawful and Chaotic, and "Neutral" could be left for between Good and Evil.

So, for example: "A cleric may not be balanced neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also balanced neutral."

Much clearer.