Can an evil character worship a good deity?

Question

I am making a bard character, that will be a complete diva, throwing glitter everywhere, hitting on anything that moves, I poured an insane amount of points into charisma, and have chosen the most useless rituals I could find for him, like Dancing lights or Fastidiousness.

The catch is that, although he will be very charming and a goofball, I also want him to be evil, egocentric, hedonistic, possibly even slightly mad (I am debating whether later on I will have him go crazy when he gets even slightly dirty). But he is a performer above all, and he is all about beauty and grace, so I was thinking of making him worship Sune. He technically wouldn't be breaking her commandments, as dead bodies and blood are a form of art for him, as is pain and suffering, so he believes he is creating beauty. I have read on a forum that in DnD things like "evil" and "good" are absolutes, so even if he believes he's doing good, if he really isn't, then, well... he isn't.

I won't have him killing people that often for no reason, he will be more of a trickster of sorts, like Loki in original Norse mythology, doing things to please himself no matter what the cost, and if blood makes him happy that moment, that's what he'll do. I made him sneaky enough, or hopefully charming enough, to stop my companions from suspecting anything.

So, can an evil character like him worship a good deity like Sune? In general, can evil characters worship good deities, no matter the setting?

Answer 1

Pretty much all rules dictating deity worship are gone in 4e, replaced with DM discretion and recommended threats of story-based consequences for unpopular actions or beliefs within a subculture.

Additionally, there is nothing in the rules preventing a character from worshipping multiple deities, cherry picking which parts of each that appeal to them. The PHB openly states, “Most people revere more than one deity” (PHB pg 20), but most people are under the impression that, because the online tools only allow you to select a single Deity, that players can only worship one. This is point-blank untrue, and furthermore, wouldn't make much sense within a provably polytheistic society.

So your character could worship Sune because she embodies the ideals of Beauty and Trickery, and another evil deity of your choosing that embodies torment and madness. The two would combine nicely in your concept.

Another twist I've used before successfully is a character who believes that she worships one deity, but who is in fact interacting with another entity entirely.

Perhaps the most well-known iteration of this kind of story arc is Pelor the Burning Hate, but it doesn't have to be a universe-wide deception by the deity, it could just as easily be a case of an individual or single temple being fooled by a fraudulent impersonation of their intended deity.

In this case, such a character could honestly believe that they are worshipping Sune, but their prayers are being intercepted and answered by Cyric, the Prince of Lies, who is attempting to gain enough influence to break free of the prison that Sune helped build for him.

His alignment could have aided in the slow corruption of your PC, and the illusions afforded him by the trickery domain would be neatly augmented by the madness and strife slowly creeping into your PC's demeanor.

It's up to your DM how to adjudicate things such as feats, paragon paths, or epic destinies which require one to worship Sune, but thankfully there's only one of each, and none of them are stellar picks.

Answer 2

Depends on the setting.

In Eberron, this isn't a problem since the gods are basically absent and faith is faith.

In a setting like Forgotten Realms, this could be a problem. From a traditional standpoint, gods in D&D don't like it when people who are too far outside their own alignment worship them. Sune might not be the best choice since your character seems to run counter to her dogma:

Beauty is more than skin deep. It issues from the core of one's being and reveals one's true face to the world, fair or foul. Believe in romance, as true love will win over all. Follow your heart to your true destination. Love none more than yourself except Sune, and lose yourself in love of the Lady Firehair. Perform a loving act each day, and seek to awaken love in others. Respond to love at least once in a day. Encourage beauty wherever you find it. Acquire beautiful items of all sorts, and encourage, sponsor, and protect those who create them. Keep your own body as comely as possible and as attractively displayed as situations warrant. Let hairstyle and clothing best suit your personal appearance, striving to stir and delight others who look upon you. Moreover, hide not away, but always seek to present yourself to those around you in a pleasing variety of garbs and activities so as to move them with love and desire. Love those who respond to your appearance, and let warm friendship and admiration flower where love cannot or dares not.

Expect yourself to be challenged by other followers of Sune if you are going around killing people in her name. Do it enough and you can expect her to get very, very angry about it and possibly smite you.

All of this is of course dependent on the DM. Some DMs are okay with this sort of thing. Other DMs ban evil characters so it really all depends on them.