D&D 5E Everybody's got to have a Patron deity. Where did it come from?

[Recueillir]

In a universe where gods are real and you go to their plane when you die, you probably want to get on the good side of at least one.

 

[Yaarel]

A universe where a specific religion is objectively true, belongs a specific campaign setting. Not in the core rules for every campaign setting − and for every potential player.

 

[Yaarel]

Really, any cultural, philosophical, spiritual, or religious ideal belongs with the Background, as part of the Ideal, along with the Quirk, Bond, and Flaw.

Possibly, the Background section could add a ‘World View’ space to specifically call attention to a cultural or religious view.

Background should have a space for ‘Ideology’. This covers any kind of view from philosophical, religious, political, economic, whatever. Whatever ideas the campaign setting is about. In the Magic the Gathering setting, it would be the place to list ones color or colors: White, Black, Red, Green, Blue.

 

[Lanefan]

Really, any cultural, philosophical, spiritual, or religious ideal belongs with the Background, as part of the Ideal, along with the Quirk, Bond, and Flaw.

Unless you're playing a Cleric or Paladin (or Druid in games where Druids are divinely backed); in which case the religion/deity that said character is part of needs to be right up front.

Lanefan

 

[Yaarel]

The Cleric needs to be able to function smoothly in a campaign settings that emphasize other themes, that have little to do with polytheism.

A place in Background that describes ‘Ideology’, along with ‘Ideal’ and ‘Flaw’, can cover almost any kind of campaign setting. Modern philosophies, Dark Sun politics, Eberron dragonmarks, Fey courts, Wizard institutions, Magic colors, Warcraft war sides, Shadowhunter factions, whatever.

In my eyes, the fixation with polytheism dumbs down and distracts from more interesting campaign settings and themes.

 

[Lanefan]

The Cleric needs to be able to function smoothly in a campaign settings that emphasize other themes, that have little to do with polytheism.

A place in Background that describes ‘Ideology’, along with ‘Ideal’ and ‘Flaw’, can cover almost any kind of campaign setting. Modern philosophies, Dark Sun politics, Eberron dragonmarks, Fey courts, Wizard institutions, Magic colors, Warcraft war sides, Shadowhunter factions, whatever.

All of which are fine, but none of which can grant Cleric spells.

A setting that has no deities at all would, by extension, be a setting in which the Cleric class does not exist and the Paladin becomes instead a Knight or Cavalier without any of the divine-based powers. (and goddess knows what happens to Druids)

That said, the idea of M:tG colours as divine identifyers has some possibilities:

White - Good Clerics, valkyries, angels, etc.
Red - Neutral Clerics, divine elementals, etc.
Black - Evil Clerics, demons, devils, etc. (and note these W-R-B designations actually have some history in D&D)
Green - Druids, Nature Clerics, tree spirits, etc.
Blue - anything divinely based not covered above...or instead, maybe anti-divine effects? (Blue in M:tG is the colour of counter-magic and spell disruption...)

Lanefan

 

[Chaosmancer]

Background should have a space for ‘Ideology’. This covers any kind of view from philosophical, religious, political, economic, whatever. Whatever ideas the campaign setting is about. In the Magic the Gathering setting, it would be the place to list ones color or colors: White, Black, Red, Green, Blue.

Did you... did you just quote yourself?

The Cleric needs to be able to function smoothly in a campaign settings that emphasize other themes, that have little to do with polytheism.

A place in Background that describes ‘Ideology’, along with ‘Ideal’ and ‘Flaw’, can cover almost any kind of campaign setting. Modern philosophies, Dark Sun politics, Eberron dragonmarks, Fey courts, Wizard institutions, Magic colors, Warcraft war sides, Shadowhunter factions, whatever.

In my eyes, the fixation with polytheism dumbs down and distracts from more interesting campaign settings and themes.

Nitpick but these:

Dark Sun politics, Eberron dragonmarks, Fey courts, Wizard institutions, Magic colors, Warcraft war sides, Shadowhunter factions


are sides. An idealogy is far more complex than the faction you are aligned with. I may have to give you some credit for Magic the Gatherings colors... except I think those are even looser than factions or sides. They share a mechanical style, but I'm sure the ravenous undead have a different goal than the demons and the Elves have different goals than the huge beasts of the forest.

Plus, then you have things like the slivers which go across a lot of colors.


Also, I'm not sure I agree with your last sentence. The truth is that you are dealing with a game, and people aren't necessarily going to take things in the game world seriously. Really good players (or incredibly bad ones) might work towards a crisis of faith in a setting where the truth of the divine is unknown... but most are going to either treat it like fact or ignore it entirely. And either way they are as likely to burn the local church to the ground as to ask any questions.

 

[Yaarel]

For example, political factions and institutions, have values, worldviews, goals, agendas, policies, ambitions, allies, conflicts. ... Ideologies.

The other editions of D&D enable personal faith, community faith, philosophies, insight, and so on, to grant spells to Clerics.

 

[Yaarel]

In a campaign setting, ‘Divine magic’ can be as simple as ‘Positive Energy Plane’ magic − especially for healing spells − with zero need for any useless middlemen to obstruct the direct access.



The Cleric class is a mistake. No other class comes with so much Cosmological Conformity baggage.

 

[Chaosmancer]

For example, political factions and institutions, have values, worldviews, goals, agendas, policies, ambitions, allies, conflicts. ... Ideologies.

The other editions of D&D enable personal faith, community faith, philosophies, insight, and so on, to grant spells to Clerics.

But, political institutions are full of people with different values, worldviews, goals and agendas.


For example, there are major differences between a person who is a Fiscal Conservative, a Social Conservative, a War Hawk, or an anti-establishment conspiracy theorist. This does not mean that you cannot find all of these and more within a group as large and varied as "The Republican Party" nor does it mean that such an organization does not at times work at cross-purposes.

Ideology is too personal and too complex to be accurately defined by the group you decide to ally with, because you can have very different reasons for that alignment than they do