Back when Divine Power came out, the talk about the book was mostly about Hero of the Faith and Astral Seal. A couple of us looked at assigning Domains to the gods here at L4W, but those comments got overwhelmed in that thread by talk of mechanics. Was there another discussion elsewhere, or did the discussion get dropped entirely?
Links
For those with an interest, here is TwhoHeadsBarking's original post about Deities and Domains: Proposal: Divine Power
My list was never intended to be more than a suggestion, like the Channel Divinity feats. There's too much possibility of people seeing the gods differently than I do or having their characters worship an aspect of a god in a quasi-heretical mystery cult.
Personally, I want to see it done one way or another, because I want to use domain-related feats. I suggested in my post the "temple" concept, wherein each particular people worships the god their own way, attributing different domains. That would allow a great deal of flexibility to the combinations allowed without trying to add different gods.
But as it stands, I can't play a character with domains, because no god has them designated yet. So, I thought I'd try to stir up the discussion again.
Well, the greek archetypes we are using are more complex figures than most, but I do think we can assign domains to them.
No matter how you look at it, Hephaysto AKA Eeefaystos AKA Vulkar is not a god of Trickery or Undeath for example.
I think we can assign domains to 'mainstream' version of the gods.
I.E
Appolo (and his variations) is one of the most complex god and yet even in his case we can make rulings as to which domains are appropriate: he is mostly associated with the Sun, medecine, truth/prophecy and arts (specifically music, poetry etc).
Suggested Domain: Fate, Life, Sun
I think these are the best fit if we stick to 3 domains.
You may be want to argue that some weird cult of Apoli would have different domain but in a D&D meets greek myths context, you probably should worship an appropriate half-god or something of the sort.
Well, if we must dictate domains, then I put my full support behind mine, although I don't really care too much as long as Persephone ends up with Winter.
This is exactly the kinda stuff that's wanted for the new wiki, especially "backstories and/or myths/fables". If you haven't already check out the new wiki thread, Nobody has picked up the task of putting together the Pantheon section of the campaign setting yet, If any of you here are interested it'd be a great help
Avenging Light
Grasping Shards
Call Spirit Companion Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes
CD: Armour of Wrath
CD: Rubukle Undead
Raven's Claw
Thunder of Judgement The Lady's Aid
Invocation of Ice and Fire
For those interested, here's my original matching, now with responses to other people as well. Mostly to Tomalak, because he justified his choices.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
So, here’s how I would associate the DP domains to the Twelve Gods. When performing this matching, I had three goals in mind, listed in order of importance.
1) Every domain would be associated with at least one god. 2) Every god would get three domains. 3) The domains associated with a god wouldn’t all boost the same powers.
I managed to more-or-less succeed, although I did end up cheating on the first two.
I would like to reiterate that my matchings do follow the above restrictions, sort of. Athena currently has four domains and I had to add Hekate to get Undeath in, but as a result every domain is represented at least once. And Athena could drop one, I guess. This also means that not every god has every domain they could feasibly be associated with.
It's vital that every domain be represented. If someone wants to use a domain, there should already be a god ready to take them in.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Joven: Justice, Storm, Tyranny Reasoning: So, it’s a little weird having Justice and Tyranny in the same god. The way I see it, Tyranny is sort of like Justice taken too far. And someone had to take Justice, might as well give it to the boss.
Can't really change these. No one else has these domains, and everyone else has domains that fit them better. Which is sort of a shame. Destruction and Civilization are certainly not bad matches.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Juna: Life, Protection, Vengeance. Reasoning: Hera was the goddess of childbirth, so Life and Protection seem to fit for her. And she was always taking revenge against Zeus for his infidelity, so Vengeance fits nicely here. Well, technically she targeted the women/resulting children, so she should have the Petty Vengeance domain, but that will have to wait for Divine Power 2.
Childbirth still says Life and Protection to me. I think Vengeance fits better than Tyranny for the punishing aspect, because her actions were always in response to a betrayal. However, it's not really Justice, because she targeted the wrong person. Again, no Petty Vengeance domain, yet. Also, no one else has these domains.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Lauto: Earth, Death, Fate Reasoning: Why Earth? In Greek mythology, Hades was depicted as being beneath the earth. As a result, he had access to gemstones and precious metals, making him very wealthy. Yeah, it’s not a particularly strong match, and I could see it being changed. Death and Fate, however, fit like a glove. A gloomy, fatalistic glove.
I still think these are good. Trading Earth for Darkness makes him a little too gloomy in my opinion. Also, Darkness has connotations of secrecy and trickery, while Hades is more of an inevitable kind of guy. Winter belongs to Peresefa, as I describe below. I'm curious as to why Ozy gave him Civilization. I'd like to hear the reasoning.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Netari: Destruction, Sea, Wilderness Reasoning: Not sold on Wilderness, but it seems to be a decent enough fit.
It may be that the Atlanteans saw Neptune as a patron of science and learning. To bad they all drowned before they could write out their body of mythology. Daunton seems to be taking things from the Greek perspective. I suppose one could drop Wilderness for Civilization. It would have to be Wilderness, because no one else has Destruction or Sea.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Apoli: Arcana, Poison, Sun Reasoning: In addition to the arts (Arcana) and the sun, Apollo was also associated with plagues.
I could see giving Apoli Skill, and then swapping out Change for Arcana with Hekates. I'd like to keep Arcana in the main pantheon though. I still want to keep Poison here. Apollo's arrows were dipped in excruciating poison, which he used to murder the sons of some braggart woman. If Poison is an inappropriate domain for the god of doctors, then mass murder is an inappropriate activity for said god as well. However, every Greek god has their darker, petty side. Also, someone has to have Poison.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Peresefa: Hope, Torment, Winter Reasoning: Hope and Torment to represent her imprisonment, Winter for her ties to the seasons.
Persephone is pretty much defined by her trials in the mythology. The only things I remember her ever doing is being abducted and crying at a song. Oh, and there was that idiot mortal who tried to woo her away from her husband. Winter may be Lauto's "fault", but she is its keeper. And Lauto already has three domains that fit him better. I don't think Undeath fits her at all, frankly.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Vulkar: Creation, Earth, Skill Reasoning: Creation and Skill for the forge, Earth for volcanoes.
If I could give him a fourth, it would be Torment. In fact, I think my first draft gave him Torment instead of Skill. But that was my first draft, and there's only room for three.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Maros: Strength, Strife, War Reasoning: Pretty straight-forward. This one was easy.
Madness is a good one for him. If I were to give him four, the fourth would be Madness.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Merkari: Change, Luck, Trickery Reasoning: Again, this is self-explanatory.
I still think I nailed it. I don't think Strife or Arcana are particularly strong matches to him. Certainly not strong enough to bump off one of the three that's up there.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Mireva: Civilization, Knowledge, Skill, War Reasoning: Ok, yes, there are four domains, not three. But each one is so very Athena that I can’t bring myself to drop one of them. If one had to go, it would be Skill or War, because nobody else currently holds the other two.
I still would really hate to drop any of these. If I absolutely had to, I'd drop War, but then I'd also cry myself to sleep that night. Athena and Ares had this rivalry that I'd really hate to lose. Alternatively, if someone else picks up Civilization, then I would drop that. There would still be some sobbing though.
I still think this is perfect. Vengeance is a pretty good fourth domain for her, but, well, you know the deal.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Vena: Freedom, Love, Madness Reasoning: I’m not sold on Freedom, especially since she wouldn’t really be representing a version of Freedom different from Artemis, unlike how Athena and Ares represent different types of war. I was thinking Life, but Life and Love give similar benefits to their associated At-wills. Maybe Arcana? I dunno.
Yeah, still not wild about Freedom, although I think it's better than Life. Maybe she could lose a domain, and then Mireva could keep her four, and then it averages out to three domains per god.
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Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBarking
Hekates: Change, Darkness, Undeath Reasoning: Hey! How did she get here? Well, I needed someone to take the Undeath domain, and Lauto seems to be pretty much against that sort of thing. Hekates has enough of a cult following among the L4W players that she can count as a full god. Ditto with Darkness; it fits for her, but not really for others. Change for it’s more disruptive aspects, and because I wanted her to have a domain that wasn’t associated with spooky-badness.
Again, trading Change for Arcana could make sense. This would mean that none of the twelve gods share domains with Hekates. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Yeah, no Demeter. No Dionysus either. Some gods didn't make the cut into the major pantheon. "The Twelve Gods" has a better ring than "The Fourteen Gods" though. And I'm going to preemptively hush anyone who mentions that I have thirteen gods up there. That's a baker's dozen, and a dozen is twelve, so it still fits. Also, it would take a lot of shoehorning to get Undeath and Darkness into the main pantheon.
One thing I feel it important to note about the domains, is the nature of the 'evil' domains. While each of the traditional greek/roman gods had their darker, pettier sides, and thus qualify for one or more 'evil' domains. However, Divine Power suggests that the purpose of these domains is more for the use of NPCs. So while a god may have the right to a given domain, do we want to give those domains to the players? I personally am thinking that domains that are traditionally evil should be left out of the hands of players. Then again, the definition of 'evil' is someting we can work out here - after all, in Forgotten Realms, the only gods of the sea are evil, so Sea is a domain not available to players there.
I really loathe WotC's "no evil PCs" policy. We have evil PCs in L4W, so that line has already been crossed. If someone is going to play a tyrannical paladin of Joven, they aren't going to be stopped just because the Tyranny domain is unavailable.
I remember I made Murphy unaligned at first, because of that whole no evil PC stuff, but luckily the judges (Dunamin) helped me get over that hump and I realized I can play an evil PC who doesn't necessarily not work with others.
True. But if we allow 'evil' domains, perhaps we should consider doing four domains per god. Otherwise, you limit the interactions of the non-evil domains, and as we're trying to keep a small pantheon (I'd personally like to keep it to the main twelve, but that's just me) it means less options for divine characters.
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