Would Cayden Cailean punish this action? [closed]

Question

my character has the background of gladiator and I want him to have this combat where he drinks alcohol, and the toss a little alcohol to the battlefield in Honor of the fallen.

Would this little spill of alcohol be considered "Waste of alcohol"?

Answer 1

You'd have to ask your DM

Questions about the morality of individual acts are up to your DM to adjudicate.

It would be bad for us to say "no, this would be fine with Cayden Cailean", because then you might show that response to your DM and tell them they had to allow it because this website said you could.

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Having said that, please note: most gods don't punish most actions. Cayden Cailean's stat block says:

Anathema: waste alcohol, be mean or standoffish when drunk, own a slave

but lots of people are mean when drunk, and lots of people own slaves, and Cayden Cailean does not individually smite those people. My prediction, which is not the same as an official rules reading, is that Cayden Cailean might or might not disapprove of pouring alcohol on the ground, but it's extremely unlikely that he would go to the effort of punishing you for it.

Answer 2

"Waste Alcohol" is vague

What kind of alcohol? What is considered wasting? Is giving wine to some mongrel goblin that can't appreciate the bouquet a waste (assuming one is bigoted towards goblins)? If anything other than drinking alcohol is considered waste, then using alcohol as an antiseptic would be wasteful, or using alcohol as fuel for a flame would be wasteful, so that seems unlikely. If burning alcohol is allowed as part of a ritual much like lighting a candle, then poring a small amount of alcohol out to honor the dead seems like a fair use.

The point is, this is strongly GM call territory. Indeed, any given church of Cayden might feel differently about edge cases, so it might ultimately just end up being a matter of how the PC feels about it, which in turn may be very circumstantial. Blowing up an entire keg of whiskey to sing the Big Bad's galleon may very well not be a waste - to the PC. The GM reserves the right, as always, to have Cayden take a strong position on the matter, but by and large, faith is what the adherent makes of it - how you show your dedication to your faith is mostly up to you, so long as it is earnest. And, as most convicted criminals that adhere to a faith demonstrate, the capacity for people to justify their deeds is infinite.

Unless you are a Cleric or Champion that gains a mechanical benefit from your faith, the rules are pretty lax. If you are, the GM can decide whether your justification flies with your deity and have the deity act appropriately. Ideally, you might make a Religion check to see if your character thinks this act might be a problem, and maybe a Diplomacy check to justify it later if they do it anyway.

Answer 3

"Waste alchohol" is not explicitly defined.

I would argue that any usage of alchohol with an expresed purpose is by definition -not- wasting it.

Wasting it for example would be to pour out a flask onto the ground, so that you can use the flask for some other purpose.

"Honoring the fallen," in a heartfelt and meaningful way, is not wasting it, even if that act of honoring is to pour it onto the ground.