Barbaric Code of Honour and Religious Allegiance ?

[Nyarly]

Hello, it says that a character with a Barbaric Code of Honour will

* grudingly respect genuine piety but despise venal priests and the typical trappings of civilized 'religion'.

Can a character with such a Code of Honour uphold an Allegiance to an organized religion, one where most of its members probably have a Civilized Code of Honour (well, if they have one at all) ?

My character is Nina (female Brythunian Thief 3 / Temptress 2), a former slave girl turned adventuress, who worships the Shemitic Pantheon (mainly Ishtar) and might be ethical enough to have a Code of Honour. Currently she neither has a Code of Honour nor pledged Allegiance to the cult of Ishtar.

The Civilized Code of Honour is unsuited for her rather lawless lifestyle. I.e. the thing with respecting nobility, legitimate authority, obeying laws, co-operating with lawful authorities; she only adheres to this (sometimes) when it suits her needs and to avoid trouble, not as an act of conviction.

Of the three Codes of Honour presented in the core rulebook the Barbaric Code of Honour has the largest overlap with her beliefs and behaviour. From her travels and experiences she has some insight into the ethics of all three codes.

Or is there a Code of Honour that is better suited for her ? I think there were more Codes like for Thieves and Pirates in the earlier edition(s) of the game, but the current rule book says that there shouldn't be such codes ... although reasonable variant Codes of Honour might be permitted.

 

[kintire]

I don't see why not. There is nothing inconsistant in having an allegiance to an organisation while opposing certain individual members of that organisation, especially if you believe they are serving the group poorly. As for the typical traappings of civilised religion, you could drop that without weakening the code much.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

I agree with Kintire. Maybe you could make up your own Code of Honor and get your GM's approval?

 

[Clovenhoof]

Sure. But, when you calculate your Will Save, don't forget that the Will bonuses from CoH and Faith are both Morale bonuses, and do not stack. Only the +3 from CoH applies (while the character has it), because it overlaps with the +2 from Faith.

 

[DooMJake]

Are you sure that they are supposed to not stack?

My thought was that they should because they come from different sources (the code from myself; the faithbonus from my god(s))

 

[Phobos]

I agree with DooMJake, CoH and Faith bonuses do not stack, I had search it in my rulebook and can´t find any about that. Is this something that in D&D 3.5 do not stack or similar?

 

[Clovenhoof]

It's not the _source_ of the bonus that counts, but the TYPE.
Code of Honour as well as Faith both provide a MORALE bonus, as is clearly written in the respective descriptions. Thus they do not stack. Really. Definitely. Look it up in the book.

Bonuses of the same type not stacking is a core D20 mechanic. For example, in D&D, Helmets and Cloaks and Rings, if enchanted as armour item, all provide Deflection bonus, so wearing a +2 helmet and +3 ring and +4 cloak and casting Shield of Faith on top for +3 gives you a total of +4 AC and not +12, because only the single highest bonus counts.
ONLY Dodge bonuses stack.

In Conan, you don't get a lot of bonuses anyway so the question of stacking or overlapping seldom arises. But CoH and Faith is one such instance.

 

[Nyarly]

Thanks so far for the advice.

I'm also convinced that those two morale bonuses don't stack. For Nina it is moot anyway, since the Shemitic Pantheon doesn't have Faith as a benefit of worship.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

Conan is a D20 system and all rules should be assumed to be the same as the core d20 system except where specifically noted. That being the case, morale bonuses do not stack unless the rule book specifically states that they do.

 

[Korppis]

Conan is stated to be playable system as itself withouth need to own 3.5ed rulebooks. Therefor if something isn't mentioned in Conan rulebook it doesn't exist. That includes rules about stacking of bonuses.

 

[Clovenhoof]

The SRD has been available for free (download) ever since. Yes, it's rather poor form that some D20 rules aren't printed in the Conan core book. But they are nevertheless necessary.
Look at it that way: if bonuses of the same type were supposed to stack, why would they even bother _naming_ the bonuses?

That said, of course if your group agrees on infinitely stacking bonuses, go ahead. Personally I consider that twinking, and if a player kept nagging about how they were supposed to stack because there's a sentence missing in the core book, I wouldn't want to have them in my group.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

The GM is of course free to interpret the rules however he wishes, and within his game his ruling is final. I would have no problem playing in a game where those bonuses stack, but any player in my game would also have to accept my interpretation of the rules. My interpretation is that where the rulebook does not directly contradict the d20 srd the d20 srd shall be used. While it is a stand alone system, it is also a d20 based system. A quick scan through the many spelling errors reveals the somewhat sloppy editing job Mongoose, many things have also been left out.

And of course the GM is also free to create his own rules outside of and contradictory to what is present in the rulebook or the d20 srd. I myself am a chronic tinkerer (I can't stop myself) who is running an E6 version of Conan with gestalting feat rules. I don't think I've run straight by the book in about 9 years outside of a round-robin game with multiple DMs. That probably comes from my starting with 1st ed. AD&D, every table had unique house rules back in the day and most people who started back then seem to have kept their habits of changing the rules to suit their tastes. I think it's a good habit.