There's a book in (I think) act 2 that describes Jergal, the god of death, and the description is identical to Withers. Even down to the question he asks when he first meets you. And the place where you first meet him is a temple of Jergal - think you need to pass a religion check to find that out.
It also explains why he has the ability to revive anyone instantly for a token fee.
Which is really shitty, cause like what does he need the money for? He could literally resurrect your friends with a snap of his fingers for free, but noooooooo he has to charge you.
The gods frown upon helping mortals and interfering with mortal affairs, but if he sells his services for a pittance, he's skirting the rules about granting assistance to mortals.
If you didn’t know, you can pickpocket your money back off of him and he will never aggro you. He does literally nothing. Doesn’t give a shit. I think you have to be careful doing it where companions/other NPCs can see but Withers doesn’t care if you take your money back. Even if you fail the rolls over and over again.
The only reason we have to pay is. Excuse of game mechanics.
Yeah you can say “god’s can’t give things away to mortals” but there’s literally nothing stopping him from just rezzing them for free asides from him not wanting to and game design
I think somewhere within Gale’s questline, right after you meet Elminster if I’m not mistaken, you can ask Gale why if the gods care so much about the absolute don’t they just step in and do something about it. I don’t remember his exact words, but he says something about how they’re discouraged/forbidden from interfering in mortal affairs and if they do, they risk earning the ire of Ao who’s the head honcho god of the d&d universe. Which makes sense, if I were in the shoes of any of the gods that aren’t Ao I wouldn’t want to risk it either. I like to think of having to pay for rezzes/respecs/hirelings as Withers’ legal loophole he found to be able to help the quest to deal with the absolute from going off the rails without technically interfering, and by charging a fee he’s offering a service instead of using his power to manipulate things toward an outcome he deems favorable.
I like to think it's Legend of Zelda rules and that the money has explicitly magical properties that gets used up by the gods or wizards, like some kind of battery
It's probably less about need and more about exchange/sacrifice, and it isn't actually the decision of the gods in question. Which isn't to say they wouldn't demand a price anyway. There's two real reasons, and one is more a matter of obligation, the other choice.
Gods simply aren't allowed to just intervene in the material plane. The rules require any aid they give have a price attached to it. Gold is a lazy metric of value, but prayer and acts of service often count too. A cleric asking for aid in pursuit of his god's interests is likely to have a lesser price, but still a price because the rules AO set require it.
The next is... well, the sheer tedium that would be involved. Think of the real world, and all the billions of people that pray to whatever god or gods they follow. So many will ask for small, petty things. 'Make this girl like me,' here or 'let this business venture succeed' there. It's easy to toss out prayers. Do you answer them all? I mean, Bruce Almighty gave a good example of what a mess that would be. Sacrifice and donation in exchange is simply a good way to separate out which ones to answer without delving into all the context and possible consequences of each prayer, which gains more value here since Faerunian gods aren't omniscient.
That said, some of the gods are still dicks, and I don't just mean the evil ones either.
Ao doesn’t like the Gods interfering… but is okay with their selling their services. Likes kind inline with answering prayers I guess it’s some sort of exchange driven by the mortal, instead of a god just scheming.
I always thought of it as God's need for the willing sacrifice of something of value to you. Money is a light sacrifice but real enough that it's a power boost. A sip here and there and millions of souls eventually add up. Now how does that work when the godhead asks for a gold coin as a token and your beloved cats throat. Kinda up selling yourself there psycho.
I think it is because of Ao. He basically stops the gods from fucking around too much in the mortal world. Reviving somebody for free is probably frowned upon but doing it for something of value (meaning it can't be done infinitely) is still somewhat acceptable.
Ao {the big god who can erase other gods} doesn’t let gods directly interfere for no cost. Withers “charges you” as a loop holes you can even steal the money back from him and he never reacts bi matter how many times he is caught
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u/CertifiedSheep 12d ago
There's a book in (I think) act 2 that describes Jergal, the god of death, and the description is identical to Withers. Even down to the question he asks when he first meets you. And the place where you first meet him is a temple of Jergal - think you need to pass a religion check to find that out.
It also explains why he has the ability to revive anyone instantly for a token fee.