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I'm taking a slightly different approach for me with a new character in my next campaign. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Str - 10
Con - 12
Dex - 18
Int - 8
Wis - 18
Cha - 12

Cleric - 1
Warrior of the Wild Feat
Trained skills - Religion(4), Heal(9), Perception(11), Diplomacy(6), Insight(9)

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Well known throughout many different circles in the city of Aspera, Ozymandias Greenholme Stoneleaf (more commonly Oz) is reputed to be either a seer or a madman, depending on who you talk to. Since his tenth year, the elf has been subject to occasional episodes, variously described as visions or fits. A few of the more enterprising members of the hierarchy of the Church of Ithius tried to use Oz's visions for personal gain, attempting to direct or induce the episodes. It proved wholly unsuccessful until the a feastday which coincided with a solar eclipse; in full view of dozens of senior bishops, cardinals, nobles and others , Ozymandias predicted the death of the Emperor, a split in the Empire, civil war, and the eventual downfall of the church.

This was not a popular vision, though many thought it simply part of the entertainment. During the uproar following the Emperor's death, a few enterprising clerics released Oz from his enforced cloistering, and directed him to flee the capital, before he found his way into the hands of those who would use his gift (or curse) for more nefarious ends.

After a few years of wandering the wilderness, Oz found his way to Aspera, hoping to find tolerance (such as it is) among it's people. He's found if not tolerance, at least acceptance among the Order of the Inverted Pyramid, though he has done his best to keep his visions to himself. Only a close few know that he can see more than most, and fewer still have shared in those visions.

It is Oz's most fervent hope to free himself of this curse, and he works closely with several scholars attempting to learn what he can do to end the torment. His personal belief in a power greater than himself, one that will reward him with removal of his second sight is all that sustains him.
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The above is the campaign fluff; as you can tell we're not using the gods from the PHB. Essentially, I'm looking to play him as someone who basically appears to others as mad much of the time. He hears voices, some of which warn him of impending danger (the high perception) or when someone is lying (the high insight). His wandering in the wild justifies the Warrior of the Wild quite easily, and I think his somewhat lacking intelligence can be attributed to a complete lack of education.

What I'm struggling with is the heal skill, and the cleric powers in general. He doesn't worship a specific god, so I have a few thoughts.

1 - His powers are a result or side effect of his visions
2 - The voices tell him how to do it
3 - He is somewhat of a precogniscent, which allows him to 'heal' and 'buff' by anticipating potential future harm and actions.

I'm reaching somewhat here, but I'm trying to get a good feel for how to handle a character that I'm envisioning as wanting nothing more than to get rid of what is in effect granting his powers. I realize 4ed clerics don't need to worship as such, their power comes from their faith. How can I fluff that power in a guy who wants nothing more than to rid himself of that otherworldly je ne sais quoi in order to become 'normal'?

As moral questions tend to come up in our campaigns, I'm trying to think about how to approach those as well. The campaign has sort of a late Roman Empire sense to it (from what I've gathered) and slavery is common, and widely accepted. Citizenship is only granted to humans, for example. This is bound to raise questions.

Having been essentially a slave, I could see that he would be opposed to it, but as to thorny issues like what to do with prisoners, whether intimidation and/or torture is a acceptable, murder, thievery, etc... You know, the stuff adventurers do to MM races without a thought, but quibble about when applying it to PC races. :D

I'm leaning towards either a pragmatic approach (end justifies the means) which fits so long as the ends is getting the voices out of his head, but otherwise completely unconcerned.

Thoughts? Comments? Gifts of cash?

You know that a Cleric no longer directly gets his powers through a deity, but instead takes vows and goes through a ritual of ordination (sometimes they are just bestowed by the deity) to be able to access and nurture their powers.

Who is to say he wasn't bestowed powers from a Deity but never knew which deity it was? I wouldn't doubt The Raven Queen might do this, just as a harbinger of inevitability (have him tell lots of doom and gloom). Sehanine might do it just to see what might happen, to keep people off guard (also has strong ties to Elves). Ioun might do it to make a Prophet but it wasn't received well.

And its possible someone might have ordained him, thinking it to be a good outlet for the madness and mayhap make him productive/good/whatever.

What would be funny is that magic holy symbols take on the aspect of the god that you follow. Whenever you pull it out or its worn, it looks like a multicolor glob or some momento he can't quite remember what it is.

edit: I was on a tangent there. Anyways, him being on an inevitable quest might be good to progress the game if there isn't anything inparticular happening. Its a good theme. Just don't have him suicidal or chemically dependent. What would also be funny is if your DM and you talk and every few games the voices try to bargin with your character, saying they will leave if he does X. Then the voices berate him because he doesn't do it right or he didn't do it in time or something.

DM_SB wrote:

You know that a Cleric no longer directly gets his powers through a deity, but instead takes vows and goes through a ritual of ordination (sometimes they are just bestowed by the deity) to be able to access and nurture their powers.

Yeah, I was aware of that. I'm (along with my dm) going to go a further step, and ignore the vows aspect completely. Oz is going to be completely separate from any gods (at least to his knowledge)

DM_SB wrote:

Who is to say he wasn't bestowed powers from a Deity but never knew which deity it was? I wouldn't doubt The Raven Queen might do this, just as a harbinger of inevitability (have him tell lots of doom and gloom). Sehanine might do it just to see what might happen, to keep people off guard (also has strong ties to Elves). Ioun might do it to make a Prophet but it wasn't received well.

We're using a homebrew campaign, without the regular gods from the PHB. I'm actually thinking that he may get his powers from fate, or the universe, or time, or something along that lines. Something a little more esoteric than a diety.

DM_SB wrote:

And its possible someone might have ordained him, thinking it to be a good outlet for the madness and mayhap make him productive/good/whatever.

What would be funny is that magic holy symbols take on the aspect of the god that you follow. Whenever you pull it out or its worn, it looks like a multicolor glob or some momento he can't quite remember what it is.

That's a neat idea... I'll have to think on that some more.

DM_SB wrote:

edit: I was on a tangent there. Anyways, him being on an inevitable quest might be good to progress the game if there isn't anything inparticular happening. Its a good theme. Just don't have him suicidal or chemically dependent. What would also be funny is if your DM and you talk and every few games the voices try to bargin with your character, saying they will leave if he does X. Then the voices berate him because he doesn't do it right or he didn't do it in time or something.

I'm thinking of a more adversarial relationship between him and the voices. And I'm not picturing him really being able to communicate with the voices. He hears them, they don't necessarily hear him (at least not to start).

Thanks for the feedback!

Some interesting stuff from our first session...

Murder mystery type session, where the corpse we were asked to investigate looked like she had her face melted off. Ozzy leans down and licks the corpse's face, much to the disgust of the party.

"Not melted," he says. "Cooked human doesn't taste like that." There was an immediate uncomfortable silence.

Later on we tracked the clues to an insane asylum. Oz stated flat out he wouldn't go in there with 'the crazies'. He said it might be catching.

He's turning out to be supremely fun; especially in a party with a boisterous and mouthy dragonborn warlock, and a homicidal human rogue whose is at best socially maladjusted.

Our poor human fighter who's become the face of the party is having a hard time keeping everything in line, and only the papers we were issued by the republic to investigate the matter has kept us from being on the wrong side of the guards.

In this city in the campaign, only human males can vote, and only humans can be citizens. So half the party is effectively on the outside looking in.

BadOmen