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Uthrac wrote:

My next character will be a farmer with a pig under his arm who worships his toe jam.

Other than the toe jam, I actually made that character... course, the pig was his wife who got turned into a pig and he was trying to learn enough magic to turn her back... but that's neither here nor there.

For what it's worth, you can, as far as I can tell, worship a dead god as long as you also worship a god that gives spells.

For example, many followers of Cyric worshipped one of the dead three gods. There's a cult of Helm I think that's given power by Bane now, etc...

Effectively, you have your official by the rules deity and you're 'what I tell people' deity.

bgibbons wrote:

For example, saying a prayer to and making a small sacrifice to Umberlee is considered normal and unobjectionable in Faerun. Indeed, it would not surprise me to see modules which would penalize a PC for not doing so. However, such actions are clearly acts of worship to an evil deity.

I seem to recall a Living City module in which, if the PCs weren't properly respectful to Umberlee during a sea voyage, they received a lovely curse or some such.

kenobi65 wrote:

I seem to recall a Living City module in which, if the PCs weren't properly respectful to Umberlee during a sea voyage, they received a lovely curse or some such.

Not being respectful isn't the same as worshiping. My Nealander Island Rogue is plenty respectful of Umberlee, but he sure as heck doesn't worship her. Being respectful of super powerful entities with the ability to destroy you is only good sense really.

1 : to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
2 : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

Sounds like worship to me.

OK, I think arguments about what is worship are not necessary. While some of us may have been casual about our choice of wording, in the Forgotten Realms divine casters pick a specific deity, which for the history of FR has been referred to as their patron deity, to celebrate, pray to and advocate the worship of to lay worshippers. While 4E backed off of the concept that divine power coming directly from the deity for each and every prayer (for the stated reason by R&D to explain why priests of good gods can go bad without being turned off immediately by the good god), that does not mean the power still does not come from them, just not so responsive to each prayer.

Nothing stops any character from giving a prayer or offering to other deities, and it is common for ordinary folks to do so in relevant situations. PCs in 4E are by definition not ordinary.

Although not discussed much in the new FRCG, in realms lore and cosmology, when you die, your soul goes first to the Shadowfell (where undead are picked off) and then to the Fugue Plane. If you have been a faithful follower of your patron deity, he, she, or it retrieves your soul and takes the souls of its faithful followers to its dominion to live in appropriate style. If not, then bad things happen to you on the Fugue Plane.

I don't know if this will ever come up in LFR, but I suppose it could be relevant in an Epic adventure. It should be relevant though to those players who are interested in roleplaying characters immersed in the setting. Deities in the Realms are fairly active and choice of a patron deity should be focused on the tenets of that faith aligning with the character's beliefs. Those of us who are veterans of LC recall meeting many a deity in the course of adventuring. That will not be as likely in LFR, but I would not rule it out for Epic Tier.

What a Living Campaign always has difficulty is with the situation where a player plays the character at odds with their faith. The designers expect the DM will add appropriate reactions from NPCs (priests, paladins and lay worshippers) to transgressions but "control loop" is hard to sustain in this type of campaign. Mostly that situation is rare though.

Keith