Action function similar to prayer.

[Pool]

In a what, why and how fashion.


What: A function on a Cleric Amulet that allows players an acceptance or refusal screen that will give the same effect as a prayer. This function would be labeled 'Action on behalf of patron', and it can be issued by triggering it on a Cleric's amulet and clicking on the person in question.

Why: I feel that prayers, while still valuable to a Cleric and should be sought regardless, seem to be the only way to boost their connection with their deity via the amulets. The Cleric Expectations page says that Clerics are to spread their faith and live in accordance to their deity's dogma. Promoting said deity's dogma would be something that'd be counted spreading their faith.

For example, I have a Cleric of Chauntea, and when giving people things on behalf of the deity such as curse removals or enchantments, the character hands them seeds and asks them to plant them as well as tend for them, which promotes Chauntea's teachings of allowing living things to flourish. I believe promoting the dogma by having people take action in accordance of it should be as valued as a prayer.

This could be useful for Clerics that do similar things, such as Mystrylites promoting the local Wizard circle to work towards improvising a spell that'll emulate sunlight to kill a vampire instantly while indoors or at night in exchange for withering cures, or Hoarites pushing their party to treat their attack on a group of bandits as revenge for all the wrongdoings they've done to a village when said party asks for temperaments placed on their weapons and armor.  Or maybe Shaundakulians raising adventurers from the dead, so that the people in question and their adventuring parties can travel to places they've never been before, and blaze trails where nobody has ever set foot in.

How:
The function would be triggered by the Cleric's amulet, and would act much like the pray function. A message would appear on the corner of the screen, baring a message such as "Soand Soooo has placed you on a task to fulfill on behalf of their deity. Do you accept?", which can be accepted or declined. Acceptance would give the same points for a prayer when it comes to the amulet, only the accepting party wouldn't drop into the praying animation, nor would they be inclined to say a prayer by a yellow message.

[Howlando]

It is great to assign tasks but why does it need some kind of mechanical element?

Many people, myself included at times, feels that these cleric amulets already encourages RP-for-the-sake-of-amulet powers rather than RP for the sake of itself, which is unfortunate.

[Pigadig]

They could always cancel out of the prayer animation instead to just plant the seed?

[Pool]

It's not a necessary mechanical element. The server would be fine without it, but it just seems like something that'd be nice to have.

Prayers give amulet powers, so doing something as valuable as prayers could warrant reward. Spell slots are always nifty.

I wouldn't be too worried about people who'd do it for the sake of amulet powers, because people who're doing things just for the sake of mechanical benefit and mechanical benefit alone are probably not playing their class or character as they should. I think it would be an easy line to see between and figure out who's exploiting it.

[Pentaxius]

I don't think we need a mechanical implementation for this - having a PC agree to perform a task in the name of your patron is a first step towards the process of conversion.

[Ebok]

They can always offer a prayer too...

[PlayaCharacter]

It seems to me that an act of devotion ought to be accompanied by a prayer anyway, rendering such a function redundant. "Let us kneel before the power of Atom, so that we may feel his Glow and be Divided."

As for the amulets themselves, I noticed a dramatic improvement in cleric role-play shortly after they were introduced. Since then, the gods have played a much larger role in almost all of my character's lives, and one of them even converted. If there's a touch of RP-for-the-sake-of-jewelry, that's still an improvement over the previous status quo, which frankly included a lot of uninspired buffbot characters whose only distinction from wizards was the use of armor.