Evil/Good vs Infiltration

[Blue_Wyrm]

Unless a character is a divine caster, he basically pays respect (at least in theory) to all deities of the faerunian pantheon on one occasion or the other. Only divine casters (such as in PaganKing's example) are generally devoted to only a single deity.

I can hardly see someone praying to Cyric for mercy when he knows there's an assassin on his tail... but then you're right in the general idea that we're supposed to give at least lip service to most deities when we want their favor when we're concerned with doing something related to their domain.

[Kendaric]

I can hardly see someone praying to Cyric for mercy when he knows there's an assassin on his tail... but then you're right in the general idea that we're supposed to give at least lip service to most deities when we want their favor when we're concerned with doing something related to their domain.

That's why I said 'many deities' rather than 'all deities'
It's mainly deities that represent destructive forces of nature or simple misfortune that get invoked by common folk to keep such things at bay.
It all depends on the deity's portfolio and the favor you want of course... I'd expect, for example, even a chaotic good rogue to try to gain the favor of Mask before attempting a burglary or failing to do that at least 'donate' a part of his haul to appease Mask.

The poor sod in your example, however, would probably just make Cyric roll on the floor laughing...

[GodBeastX]

Yes, you are all right, you give service to a diety, HOWEVER your diety selection is one you venerate. So, if someone comes up to me and says "I WORSHIP TALOS!" He is obviously not worshipping to keep lightning bolts from zapping his ass, he's doing it to get the power to zap people with lightning bolts.

I have trouble believing many sailors have Umberlee as their patron diety. I'd think they would have a good diety as patron and go to umberlee temple for safety.

[Kendaric]

I have trouble believing many sailors have Umberlee as their patron diety. I'd think they would have a good diety as patron and go to umberlee temple for safety.

That's actually what I meant in the above examples... just like most hunters wouldn't have Malar as their patron deity, but they still pray to him before a hunt.
But even if you have an evil patron deity, you don't have to be evil or even be close to the deity's alignment unless you're a divine caster of some sort.