>Further, I would suggest that Theists should not be able to use feats *from
>any source* when they devote, as I feel this *looks* like an artificial
>game construct for *balance*. When you devote you should give up all magic
>not native to your deity. Otherwise I cannot see why someone cannot use
>Talents, which come from within.
I can see how it might look that way, but it's al internally consistent. The devotee must concentrate in theism, and this is why he can't use talents, not because the god says no.
In fact, there is another way to concentrate. From MOLAD and other supplements, there is the idea of Diety Specific Concentration. See, with normal theist concentration, for instance, an initiate can still become an initiate of other cults, for instance. Because Initiation does not stop them from doing it, and since they're concentrated in theism, they aren't stopped from picking up more theism. Using the alternate form of concentration, the character could not initiate in another god, because that's precisely the restriction of that form of concentration.
So the question becomes just how broad "diety specific" goes. If you interperet it narrowly, then using this for devotion gets you down to even less abilities, you'll lose the common magic feats. But if it's "only abilities that the diety approves of" then you could, perchance, retain those common magic talents.
This assumes that, using this option that the narrator allows the broad definition. In this case, the "problem" is that there's probably no downside to doing it this way for devotees. But for an initiate there is a question. Do I go with diety specific, and lose the ability to get other dieties abilities, or do I go with theism, and lose the common magic talents and such.
This is getting to be a really perennial issue. The question is something like why, then, would a character take flesh man, if he was intending to become an advancing initiate, or devotee? Well, they probably would not learn Flesh Man abilities to start in these cases. Probably too busy getting ready for initiation to take the time to learn them. For those who aren't as sure, the choice is simply not to concentrate then. If, indeed a character then ended up thinking about devoting, then it's all the more interesting because he has to consider what he might lose in the process of concentrating.
Here's a cool idea. Simply take five feats that won't go away for your character who you're making a devotee. And then say that he once knew five flesh man talents, but had to give them up in order take the time to devote to his god.
Keep in mind that one can make up common magic abilities. So if you like the Run Up Hill ability from Flesh Man (not sure that's one of em, but..) just take a Run Up Hill Feat that he got from some hill daimone near home. Flesh Man is just for color to explain one source of common magic. If it doesn't suit the character, then get something else? And then keep in mind that most Orlanthi simply probably do get their abilities from Flesh Man, and just don't concentrate.
Mike
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