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One of Hoar's dogma (Uphold true and fitting justice and maintain the spirit of law, not the letter of law) seems to point to the fact that to a devotee of hoar justice is more important than law and law must not be taken literally but to be interpreted according to the alleged spirit of that law.

I would like to have more details on this but I couldn't find much on my own. Are there official sources that expand on this? Are novels considered official? I could accept quotes from those too.

I'm mostly interested to the Hoar before the spellplague (that is, I play using the Forgotten Realms Campaign 3.x edition) but any information on this will do.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Your question "which side do you think is right" is opinion-based. Furthermore, alignment related questions tend to attract a lot of opinion based answer. Your question is likely to have a hard time based on those grounds, so I'd kindly suggest to rephrase it. I learned the hard way on one of my questions :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Nyakouai
    Commented Mar 19, 2019 at 13:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ You might be able to get a workable question about whether or not the cleric's stance is in agreement with Hoar's dogma but the question of "would an [insert alignment here] character do X" is probably never going to work here. See this meta topic. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carcer
    Commented Mar 19, 2019 at 13:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ May I suggest rephrasing this to something like Hoar's dogma says justice is above the law. Do official sources provide any further explanation of this aspect this god's dogma? \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Mar 19, 2019 at 13:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, but, on that last part — and how does this work for a LN character —, no; that will see the question remain on hold. Opinions on what lawful neutral means depend starkly on the individual. In fact, agreement on what any alignment means will be startlingly rare. You're better off asking that last part of the DM. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Mar 19, 2019 at 13:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ (Also, if you're going to ask only about Hoar's dogma, you may not care what edition of D&D it's from. If that's the case, consider tagging the question instead as dungeons-and-dragons and lore to broaden the sources answers can draw from.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Mar 19, 2019 at 13:52

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The AD&D 2e sourcebook Powers and Pantheons has 2-3 pages of lore about Hoar. 3e does not change that lore much, so this source could be useful for you to imagine how Hoar's faithful see the world. The following summary information is based on this sourcebook.

Hoar has two aspects. The first one is invoked by those seeking vengeance. Whenever someone guilty meets an unfortunate fate that is befitting the crime, Hoar is given credit. His more benign aspect is known in the North, where he is seen more as a god of poetic justice. Many bounty hunters and some assassins pay service to Hoar before a hunt.

This dual aspect is also reflected in his interactions with other powers. For example Beshaba is listed as an ally, as he seems to be happy to unleash bad luck on the deserving. Both Tyr and Shar try to influence him; Shar wants to turn him into a blind servant of bitter vengeance, while Tyr hopes to kindle his black humor and convert his dogma more towards poetic justice.

We note that this dogma can put vengeful justice above law. We can imagine a society which prefers laws and punishment to deter future crimes, and not necessarily to comfort the victims. In such a society, Hoar's followers could in principle go beyond laws if they deem a particular kind of punishment is actually more appropriate for a given crime. They will still need to be just, have a sense of fairness so that punishments fit the crime, but each punishment could be different depending on the offender and the way the crime was committed. (For example, let's imagine a murderer. The law might dictate capital punishment, with some "humane" means. A devotee of Hoar might want inflict pain before the punishment if the original crime was violent.)

Quoting from P&P, page 30:

No injustice is too large or too small for revenge to be sought and a fitting punishment meted out. Actions of this type have caused most town watches and Tyrists to brand priests of the Doombringer as vigilantes and raised the stature of the priesthood to that of champion of downtrodden and underdogs in the eyes of the common folk.

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