5e needs a Faiths and Avatars style book

[gyor]

No god is actually new. All the Seldarine deities that have been added were pulled out of some dragon mags issues, or gods that had been killed or merged in the ancient history of the Multiverse and that have now returned (like Zandilar), they're not really new.

In any case, a single book detailing all the human gods and all the non human gods, including the dozens of new gods, would probably end up with a mere SCAG-like entry for each deity, with little to no room to dedicate to details. It would make it worth to newbies, that's for sure (which is why I'm hoping that this book will be published), but not to people who have access to (or are willing to grab) the super in-depth lore of the old books (not to mention that you can get all three on the DMGuild for far less than $50, and the lore in all 3 is mostly up to date, because the Sundering did nothing but restore all the gods that had been lost along the way, including the merged ones).

Honestly, thinking about that, the sheer amount of deities that need to be included, and the knowledge that WotC will never dedicate more than 1 book to this topic, kinda defeats the original point of having this book, to begin with. It would end up being a repetition of the SCAG and MToF sections about gods, with a few other gods getting a small writeup in addition to the ones that have already received one. It could never include the kind of info that you suggest in the op, or a detailed insight into how the clergies work (such things would be quite amazing to read in a book, but WotC isn't going to include them, realistically speaking).

Perhaps the word obscure would have been better then new, although some are new to the Forgotten Realms.

 

[gyor]

No god is actually new. All the Seldarine deities that have been added were pulled out of some dragon mags issues, or gods that had been killed or merged in the ancient history of the Multiverse and that have now returned (like Zandilar), they're not really new.

In any case, a single book detailing all the human gods and all the non human gods, including the dozens of new gods, would probably end up with a mere SCAG-like entry for each deity, with little to no room to dedicate to details. It would make it worth to newbies, that's for sure (which is why I'm hoping that this book will be published), but not to people who have access to (or are willing to grab) the super in-depth lore of the old books (not to mention that you can get all three on the DMGuild for far less than $50, and the lore in all 3 is mostly up to date, because the Sundering did nothing but restore all the gods that had been lost along the way, including the merged ones).

Honestly, thinking about that, the sheer amount of deities that need to be included, and the knowledge that WotC will never dedicate more than 1 book to this topic, kinda defeats the original point of having this book, to begin with. It would end up being a repetition of the SCAG and MToF sections about gods, with a few other gods getting a small writeup in addition to the ones that have already received one. It could never include the kind of info that you suggest in the op, or a detailed insight into how the clergies work (such things would be quite amazing to read in a book, but WotC isn't going to include them, realistically speaking).

Well they could at least have AL include blurbs for the ones that don't already have them for new players.

 

[Satyrn]

Well they could at least have AL include blurbs for the ones that don't already have them for new players.

This raises a thought. It might be easier to get AL to produce a sort of handout like this, rather than WotC publishing a book with it. I say handbook, but I'm easily picturing something where the info on each god covers at least half a page (even for the obscure ones), with the far more popular gods getting a whole page.

Because it's such a setting specific thing - AL's setting, even - it looks to me like something that would make more sense as an AL product sort of akin to how AL produces their own adventures.

 

[gyor]

This raises a thought. It might be easier to get AL to produce a sort of handout like this, rather than WotC publishing a book with it. I say handbook, but I'm easily picturing something where the info on each god covers at least half a page (even for the obscure ones), with the far more popular gods getting a whole page.

Because it's such a setting specific thing - AL's setting, even - it looks to me like something that would make more sense as an AL product sort of akin to how AL produces their own adventures.

That might be a possibility, perhaps we should suggest it to them.

 

[Satyrn]

That might be a possibility, perhaps we should suggest it to them.

You'll never get it if you don't.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

By the way a list of FR gods not mentioned yet in a 5e source book, Velsharoon, Nobanion, Shakdrul, Hathor, Geb, Ishtar, Inanna and other dead (formerily dead Untherite Gods), Enlil, Fzoul & Obould (these two might be more quasideities), Garagos. Finder Wyvenspur, Shallia, Maztican and Celestial Buracracy Pantheons, Ubtao is mentioned, but in a AL deity legal source, the Gods of the Derro are in the same position.

It's not a 3-4 gods, it's a couple dozen new ones, but others could use having their lore updated to the current date for the Sundering. And who knows how many new Gods are coming.

So are we talking about a book covering only the faiths of the Forgotten Realms setting? How many gods do you think that it should include?

Outside of which domains the clerics of each god get to pick from, what 5e mechanical details do you think the book should contain?

This raises a thought. It might be easier to get AL to produce a sort of handout like this, rather than WotC publishing a book with it. I say handbook, but I'm easily picturing something where the info on each god covers at least half a page (even for the obscure ones), with the far more popular gods getting a whole page.

Because it's such a setting specific thing - AL's setting, even - it looks to me like something that would make more sense as an AL product sort of akin to how AL produces their own adventures.

How do deities work in AL? Is there a list of allowed ones, or can a character pick any from the setting, choosing an appropriate domain.

 

[Satyrn]

How do deities work in AL? Is there a list of allowed ones, or can a character pick any from the setting, choosing an appropriate domain.

I don't know exactly, but earlier conversations here (and probably with gyor - this is an important topic for him) have informed me that there is a sort of allowed list, but I can't remember the details. I think it limits it to the Forgotten Realms and racial gods mentioned in any 5e book.

 

[gyor]

I don't know exactly, but earlier conversations here (and probably with gyor - this is an important topic for him) have informed me that there is a sort of allowed list, but I can't remember the details. I think it limits it to the Forgotten Realms and racial gods mentioned in any 5e book.

According to AL rules only the Gods mentioned in VGTM, SCAG, XGTE, the FR and Monster God lists in the PHB (but not the other ones), and the Gods listed in the Elves, Gnome/Halfling, and Dwarf sections of MTOFs are legal.

The other Gods in the PHB and the Gods mentioned in MTOGs beastiary section, such as the Derro gods, aren't.

 

[gyor]

So are we talking about a book covering only the faiths of the Forgotten Realms setting? How many gods do you think that it should include?

Outside of which domains the clerics of each god get to pick from, what 5e mechanical details do you think the book should contain?


How do deities work in AL? Is there a list of allowed ones, or can a character pick any from the setting, choosing an appropriate domain.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?641048-Building-a-complete-list-of-AL-legal-FR-gods

I built a list of all AL legal, some of the details for the Gods haven't been added yet, but the list for now has all the AL legal Gods.





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[Chaosmancer]

Exactly. It has been done before, and without stat blocks and crunch there is no point in republishing what has already been done with "5e" stencilled onto the cover. There is no-one in the world who cannot use Google if they are all that interested.

I've tried googling this sort of information. There is rarely enough for me to feel satisfied that I "get" the deity and the temple structures around them.

Sure, I can easily find that Corellon is the god of the elves, rules over war, magic, beauty, and singing, and once put put Gruumsh's eye in a battle. However, I've got no idea what his priests wear, are there holy days like commemorating the battle with Gruumsh? What do they do on that day? What is an appropriate offering to Corellon? What do his temples look like? Are there multiple levels of hierarchy in the temple?

All that information is stuff that gets made up, and since I grew up in the Bible Belt it ends up looking like a lot of different flavors of Christian because when I'm on the spot and thinking "What does the church look like" I think of... well Churches.

It's the least popular class amongst the groups I play in, with the total number of PC clerics = zero.

Counter Anecdote: I've never been in a 5e game that didn't include at least one cleric at some point. From that perspective they are far more popular than Fighters and Wizards.




Personally, I would really like some of this sort of information to be made available, but I wonder since it would be too massive for a book if it could be something added to DnD Beyond or something. It would just be incredibly useful to have a compilation of all these deities and detailed suggestions for how the Temple structures work.