What if I told you, much like #TTRPG warlock patrons not needing to be evil, clerics don’t automatically have to be religious?

I said what I said. Ayep. There is no requirement for a cleric to serve a deity, or maintain any kind of pious relationship or behavior at all in 5e.

That’s intentional.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 16, 2020

Do you subtract divine intervention from them then? It specifically refers to an appeal to your deity to intervene. Nope. Sidebar in Xanathar’s covers that nit pick.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 17, 2020

Thoros is the absolute perfect example.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 16, 2020

Kashaw from Critical Role campaign 1 is also a great example.

He’s empowered by a divine being, but holy SHIT does he not want to be. Doesn’t matter. He was chosen, the power given, and that’s that. He can avoid doing her will as much as he wants, his spells still work.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 16, 2020

The last 2 clerics I played weren’t religious. One was a social climber who found the church’s framework useful. The gods gave THEM power because they too, were useful.
The other was a reluctant acolyte. One of my favorite villain templates is the high priest of a good deity doing terrible things, but is still legitimately a powerful high priest of that good deity.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 16, 2020

Nice explanation of how they don’t work, but then how do they work? Just asking for a friend 🙂 They work exactly as written in their entry in the Player’s Handbook. Pact struck, character is now a warlock, done.

Anything more is up to us playing the game to play around with.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) February 16, 2020