Deities and Demigods ~ Thank You God!

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Another voice of dissent here.

I too am disappointed in this book. Pages and pages of godly stats and powers followed by pages and pages of rules to explain these stats and powers. I would have rather seen information on the churches, they're relationships with other churches, dogma, priestly duties, etc... But instead its an ubermunchkin monster manual. In 20 years of playing D&D I've never run across a situation where I needed a god's stats. The only things I found useful in this book were the new domains and the chapter on pantheon building. Thankfully, I still have a copy of On Hallowed Ground; IMO a far better divine sourcebook. Instead of "Tools not Rules", D&DG is "Some tools, smothered in Rules."

I have never found a situation where I needed the stats for a god either. But since the new edition seems to be geared towards power gaming, ie Epic level stuff, I suppose it's too be expected. In a few months I will be reading posts about how great the last session was where the PC's slew some gods and advanced to 45th level...maybe I'm just old fashioned and set in my ways. I'm not the target audience anymore. Oh well...

 

[Nightfall]

Funny I don't forsee ANY of my gamers getting CLOSE to fiftheen level when I start using hags with epic spell casting abilties. But then I'm a little crazy to begin with.

Btw, I saw the book in my gaming store and I agree with Malt, I think this book rates an 8, which is something I feel about the FRCS. It's an 8 book but I'll hold off getting it until I get a few more things. But still, D&Dmg looks great, feels great and should be considered a good purchase for those wanting to understand D&D 3rd edition gods.

 

[Crothian]

I like it. Especially since the book does what is was supposed to do: Define the Gods. Will my PCs ever be facing down the gods? They better hope not. I doubt I'll ever get to use their stats, but what I wiull use is their magical abilities. THis will allow me to determine if the Miracle is granted. IMC gods will not grant Miracles that are outside their own powers.

The church and dogma stuff is easy to do. One friend with a masters in Classic studis and another who is an expert or Norse. I never had any difficult getting the mortal worshipping the gods right. The hard part was always decideing what a god could do. IMC gods can't do everything.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

Anyone up for posting a review of Deities & Demigods yet!?

 

[Nightfall]

I would Krusty mate...but I had to stop myself so I could order a copy of Secrets and Societies. I DID see the book. It's VERY nice.

 

[TomServo]

I like it. Especially since the book does what is was supposed to do: Define the Gods. Will my PCs ever be facing down the gods? They better hope not. I doubt I'll ever get to use their stats, but what I wiull use is their magical abilities. THis will allow me to determine if the Miracle is granted. IMC gods will not grant Miracles that are outside their own powers.

The church and dogma stuff is easy to do. One friend with a masters in Classic studis and another who is an expert or Norse. I never had any difficult getting the mortal worshipping the gods right. The hard part was always decideing what a god could do. IMC gods can't do everything.

I don't need a whole new subsection of rules to define exactly what kind of Miracles a god will or will not grant. That would be based on the church's dogma, and the god's ethos and sphere of influence (info sorely lacking in this book). i.e a god of pestilence would not be inclined to allow his priests to use miracle to stop a plague, a god of undead wouldn't let his priests bring people back from the dead with a Miracle..etc. A few basic rules based on whether the god in question was a greater, intermediate, lesser, or demi power would have been plenty.

And I don't know about anyone else, but I don't have, or know anyone who has a masters in Classical Mythology. Information on the churches practices and such would have been far more useful than fully statted deities.

 

[Axiomatic Unicorn]

Fun book with REALLY good art.

If you want something other than God Stats, don't buy it. That is what it was before and that is what it is now.
I don't know if I will ever use it in game, but it is fun to read.

Oddly, by the book, many Deities can not cast spells that they can grant. Though they do appear to all have the Alter Reality ability (in a brief search I did not notice any without it) that makes the lack of spell ability really a mechanical irrelevancy.

 

[Darkness]

You're quite obviously not on the Greyhawk mailing list.

Me neither, LOL. So tell me: What does someone who is on the list know about Heironeous' new (?) weapon?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

expected. In a few months I will be reading posts about how great the last session was where the PC's slew some gods and advanced to 45th level...maybe I'm just old fashioned and set in my ways. I'm not the target audience anymore. Oh well...

Not if the gods are played correctly will some little piddly mortals be killing one.

Seriously.

They are bad-assed.

 

[The Serge]

Well, I must agree: the art is phenomenal. The best to date for sure.

And again, I must agree: Some more information on the followers, churches, responsibilitites, traditions, beliefs, dogma, and practices ot the religious orders would have been very nice - bordering on required. I do enjoy creating my own material for sure, but being able to read through the ideas presented in those sections would have undoubtably fueled my creative energy there. Now I do it from scratch.

Overall rating (so far, I still have to read the last chapter and appendix): 8.87 ... definately worth the cash. The artwork alone boosts the score.

Malt.

I have found reason to use stats for deities... their avatars. Currently, the party I've been playing with just reached 17th level and they're at a point now when they will probably start calling in favors from their gods. Greater Aspect of the Avatar is a little too general for me; knowing how to create stats for Avatars (which is how I'll use the info in DDG) is helpful.

Furthermore, my group has foiled the plans of at least one rival church to such a degree that they've drawn the attention of the god itself (minor attention, to be sure, but this is still very dangerous). In the event that the party eventually winds up in one of the three temples this god uses, there is a slim chance that they may have to battle an avatar (at which point they'll probably be over 20th level).

Of course, to each his/her own. I've always enjoyed comparing statistics (even those with which I disagree) between creatures of similar might and I'll have a hoot comparing this newest incarnation of gods with 1ed and 2ed information.