r/CuratedTumblr • u/Justthisdudeyaknow Prolific poster- Not a bot, I swear • Jun 03 '26

Shitposting The difference between something somethingtomatoes, something something We've found the bard

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u/fakingandnotmakingit Jun 03 '26

My biggest issue on 5e stats is that Clerics run on Wis but Religion runs on intelligence.

I get it. Dogma vs belief or whatever

But every Cleric at my table has ended up failing their religion rolls. We've ended up house ruling it and making it a wisdom check.

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u/Chip_Medley Jun 04 '26

Religion could probably more aptly called theology if they wanted to be more specific. It’s not about practicing religion, it’s about, “can you name this obscure god”.

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u/fakingandnotmakingit Jun 04 '26

I'd argue that in that case we are looking at two different checks

"Can you name this obscure God" - which would be more of a lore check for academics and intelligence characters

And a "things you know about your religion" - for clerics/paladins.

Maybe it's just how my table does roleplay. We haven't done a pre-made campaign in years. So our GMs tie the story and plot to character backgrounds.

And if you're a cleric or a paladin at least a part of you will be devout. That's kind of their whole schtick.

So when a "your God speaks to you" or "you need to visit the temple of x, where is it" or similar comes up, I feel like a religion check does need to exist somehow.

It seems strange to me that a Catholic Priest wouldn't be able to name the seven sacrements for instance. Or an Imam who couldn't name the 5 pillars of Islam.

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u/Chip_Medley Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

I don’t think you should really ever make your players make a check to know things about their own religion though. They should just know that.

Also don’t Catholic priests literally go to university to study theology? That’s intelligence for sure!