Roleplaying those pesky Stormlords...

[Sun Wukong]

"Stormlords often live as brigands, indulging their per-
sonal desires for wealth, food, luxury items, and wanton
behavior as they crave random, spectacular acts of violence.
They often pose as lunatics, in order to spread the word of
Talos, and otherwise adopt disguises in order to scout out
rich prizes to strike at."
Complete Divine, page 65.

My opinion, if the above is not your cup of tea, do not play a Stormlord of Talos. There are other sky related deities and domains you can make use off, not to mention how you could have a 'Cleric or Favored Soul/Bard/Storm Singer' with clerical spellcasting progression and for all intents and purposes be 'close enough' to a Stormlord without the Stormlord baggage.

[NegInfinity]

"Stormlords often live as brigands, indulging their per-
sonal desires for wealth, food, luxury items, and wanton
behavior as they crave random, spectacular acts of violence.
They often pose as lunatics, in order to spread the word of
Talos, and otherwise adopt disguises in order to scout out
rich prizes to strike at."
Complete Divine, page 65.

My opinion, if the above is not your cup of tea, do not play a Stormlord of Talos. There are other sky related deities and domains you can make use off, not to mention how you could have a 'Cleric or Favored Soul/Bard/Storm Singer' with clerical spellcasting progression and for all intents and purposes be 'close enough' to a Stormlord without the Stormlord baggage.

If you're referring to recently locked thread, then in 2014 there was one DM who was acting... strange towards stormlords specifically. That's what I heard - back then - from another stormlord character.

I'm uncertain which DM that was, but I'm certain they' re no longer active right now.

So, the question was valid.

[Sun Wukong]

Well, if you want to go back on the memory lane in 2014...

You might recall groups of do-gooders being at the throats of evil-doers and evil-doers being at the throats of do-gooders, out of character, here on the forums. The complaint was that Paladins were not being 'Paladin' enough, Red Wizards were not being 'Red Wizard' enough, and so on, and so on, and so on... Fists and Pirates, etc... Orcs and elves... etc... Ugh... so much pointless drama.

Generally speaking, the playerbase was at each others throats, and demanding the DMs to enforce character sheet based RP... For example be a real Paladin and not some 'Grey Guard' thing. Have your character follow your deity's actual dogma, instead of just picking a deity for the domains and then doing whatever you fancy. If you are a Red Wizard, you are a Red Wizard, so get some pro-slavery and magic supremacy sentiments going on. If you have to play a grey-orc, then be a proper orc. If you are a Stormlord of Talos, then you ARE a Stormlord of TALOS.

Basically, some people complained about the bad role-play of others, until others in turn complained about the bad role-play of the first group of complainers. And whenever there is enough complaining - the DMs start to feel that they have to do something - and then come in arbitary punishments and blind ban-hammer swinning. Thus everything appears to get, and in some cases become, more and more corrupted. A situation where any and all interactions are done at a point of suspicion.

As for the discussion in that locked topic - by his or her own words - he or she wanted to be a Stormlord for 'mechanical reasons' and not because he or she wanted to 'role-play' a Stormlord of TALOS as they are known to be in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.


And personally, I do like the Stormlord PRC, even in its nerfed form. I have encountered many brilliantly role-played Stormlords on the server, but to actually role-playing a Stormlord - a divinely infused worshipper of Talos - is just not my cup of tea. I mean - - - I think I have created more abandoned 'Stormlord' characters than the rest of the server combined!


Thus, this thread. If you want to be a Stormlord, without being a Stormlord of TALOS, you could go for the Stormsinger PRC. It allows divine spellcasting progression. There are new domains, and old domains have been changed, so being a 'Priest of the Sky' is not so difficult as it used to be. There are new Divine PRCs, so you can make a 'Stormlord' by casting Storm Avatar on some highly multiclassed Spirit Shaman or Druid build. You can even have 26 BAB on a build that has caster levle of 30!


You can create a character that doesn't have the baggage that comes from following TALOS, and being his Stormlord.

[NegInfinity]

You might recall groups of do-gooders being at the throats of evil-doers and evil-doers being at the throats of do-gooders, out of character, here on the forums.

Sure. I was part of one of the evil factions, and remember it well.

Here's the thing. The stormlord character in question was one that was doing everything right (heck the char almost started a war once), pretty much the gold standard of crazed warrior of talos, and the incident with DM involved a DM actively trying to make the character dead. Like demanding that character take roleplay towards that direction. Which was definitely overstepping bounds, Talos or not.

BGTSCC history is not all flowery and there were dark spots in there. I also met very amazing players who left the server due to large conflicts. Taht incident is one of the dark spots. So, the possible scenario is that the other poster has run into that DM, given that they said 2..3 years ago.

The good news is that this particular DM is now gone, so they have nothing to worry about.

[Sun Wukong]

Now I am just stringing an image together from what is said on these forums, but from your statement, and the statements said on the other thread.

While starting a war would be a gold standard achievement for any follower of Talos... simply for the sake of destruction it brings --- a Stormlord of Talos --- is still not just any other priest of Talos.

"Stormlords often live as brigands, indulging their per-
sonal desires for wealth, food, luxury items, and wanton
behavior as they crave random, spectacular acts of violence.
They often pose as lunatics, in order to spread the word of
Talos, and otherwise adopt disguises in order to scout out
rich prizes to strike at."

So here was the issue. I wasn't sacrificing 'intelligent beings' or randomly destroying stuff while openly praying to a god that could have gotten my character in trouble around BG.
I was sitting around and talking to other PC's; about in game things, and in character of course. Seemed like a bit of a rock and a hard place when I was confronted about it however. One side says you are not playing a stormlord correctly and the other is getting my character removed from all in character circles I was a part of because I was forced to choose talos as my diety.... I never acted out of character IMO and to go around randomly praying to Talos and killing things on a routine sacrificial basis would have been altering/breaking the rp I had built around my character.

So we have a Stormlord of Talos, played by player who was forced to pick Talos as their deity, who then has the character indulge upon the personal desire to gossip around a campfire? I think I could make the argument that while this character never acted out of character, it never acted 'in character' as far as being a Stormlord of Talos was considered.

Oh and, I do recall the days when few Stormlords of Ilmater were the villains of the week on this server...



So yeah, the server has an interesting history for sure.

[NegInfinity]

Now I am just stringing an image together from what is said on these forums, but from your statement, and the statements said on the other thread.

While starting a war would be a gold standard achievement for any follower of Talos... simply for the sake of destruction it brings --- a Stormlord of Talos --- is still

Sigh.

I'm done here.

All I wanted to said, that there WAS a troublesome dm that had issue with stormlords in the past and was overstepping bounds very far. That DM is now gone.

That is all.

[Sun Wukong]

All I am saying that if a Paladin of Ilmater goes around burning orphanages to cure poverty, they are not exactly a Paladin of Ilmater. If a cleric of Bane goes around preaching about the importance of individual freedom and how it is the only protection against Tyranny, they are not really a cleric of Bane.

And... I think I can remember this one player in particular. I could be mistaken, because it has been years and there have been several horrible Stormlords of Talos over the years as well. Most of which were my own.

But if we have a Stormlord of Talos that is sipping tea with their pinky up around a campfire 24/7, with 0 ranks invested in bluff and diplomacy, who generally acts more compasionate than the entirety of the Radiant Heart combined, and refuses to even whisper the name of Talos let alone act like a proper Stormlord of Talos, then that character is not really a Stormlord of Talos.

And whoever this DM is, I do not know. I might personally have something against him or her myself. But in this case, with the information given, I cannot blame him or her for trying to make a Stormlord of Talos act like a Stormlord of Talos.

I mean whats next, a Grey-Orc Paladin of Sune that goes around breaking beautiful things because that is what that Grey Orc in particular claims to find beautiful?