The Politician

This is an ambitious priest. He wants to have political power within the community, within the temple, or both. This doesn't mean he's bad; he may be acquiring power because he believes he can wield it better than others and make the world a better place. But he goes out of his way to gather favors, advise powerful people (and to do so well!), to acquire treasure so that he can build great temples and influence the masses, etc.

The Politician has a weakness, though. Regardless of his motivations, he sometimes blinds himself to the truth so that he can continue acquiring power and influence. If two cities or countries are on the verge of war, and that war would benefit him and his power base, he might advocate that war be declared, and blind himself to the suffering this will cause among the people who have to do the fighting. If a woman comes to him with the classic dilemma where she is being told by her family to marry one man when she loves another, the Politician will first consider the influence he might gain from these respective matches first, and considers the lovers' and families' feelings second. He may not even realize this . . . but his advice will always be tinged with self-interest.

This is also a challenging role to play, especially if the character really is good at heart and is just concealing from himself the harm of his course of action. Eventually, the DM should confront him with the results of his selfishness: Perhaps one of his plans or pieces of advice results in tragedy, and the accusations of the PCs or NPCs who see through his motives convince him that he's been on the wrong path. When this happens, the Politician might wish to change to another personality type. On the other hand, sometimes the Politician is never caught at it, or never admits his culpability to himself, and just continues rising up the ladder of power and influence.

The Politician is best suited to lawful and neutral alignments (lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful evil, neutral good, true neutral, neutral evil). If he's Good, he'll probably eventually understand the damage he has done and can do. If he's Neutral, he won't go out of his way to harm people, but will not be truly touched by it when harm does occur. If he's Evil, this harm is merely another benefit of the job.

In combat situations, the Politician is like any other priest of his specific priest-class. However, if there's an important person around to impress, he may fight more vigorously or risk himself to save that person.

In role-playing situations, the Politician is continually ferreting out rumors and news, analyzing information, learning the personalities of important people, and looking at all situations and adventures in terms of the power and prestige they can bring him.

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