Let's Take A Look At Pathfinder 2's Deities & Domains!

There's a new Paizo blog up about the way deities and domains work in Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It shows how deities are described, with the example deity Shelyn, along with new domains and domain powers.

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Favoured weapons, edicts, and anathemas don't have mechanical effects for most characters, but provide strong roleplaying touchpoints. However, for clerics, a deity has alignment restrictions, bonus skills and spells, and more.

As for domains, there are 23 new domains (some of which were subdomains in PF1). New domains include Indulgence, Dreams, and Wealth, and come with basic and advanced powers accessed though Spell Points.

Read the whole thing here.

 

[Aldarc]

It is the possibility of zero gods that tends to be difficult.

Except it's not difficult at all. Pick domains appropriate for a monotheistic deity, or their entourage of saints and angels, and you are good to go. You are the only person I know who is intentionally making this a problem where none exists.

 

[Ancalagon]

It is my suggestion. It is a way to synthesize modern and classical spellcasting, in a way that makes sense and looks fun.

Ah. The way it was written it sounded a lot more like you were informing us what the system was - ie you obtained this from another post, a leak etc. :/

 

[Yaarel]

Except it's not difficult at all. Pick domains appropriate for a monotheistic deity, or their entourage of saints and angels, and you are good to go. You are the only person I know who is intentionally making this a problem where none exists.

But would rocks and flames need to become ‘saints’ in order for the official rules to make sense?

A religion that holds ‘love’ or the power of compassionate actions to be the sacred?

Daoism, with the Dao achieving a dynamic equalibrium between Yang and Yin?

Philosophical Buddhism and the no-thing-ness of Nirvana?

Animists who never worship anyone, and simply strive to be good neighbors, and hospitable to guests?

When understanding the sacred, it is often necessary to set aside the Indoeuropean ethnocentric assumption of a personification.

 

[Aldarc]

But would rocks and flames need to become ‘saints’ in order for the official rules to make sense?

Then you don't include those domains for your game. Why do you persistently insist on making a problem where either there is none or obvious (and relatively effortless) solutions exist?

What about a religion that holds ‘love’ or the power of compassionate actions to be the sacred?

What about Daoism, with the Dao achieving a dynamic equalibrium between Yang and Yin.

What about philosophical Buddhism and the no-thing-ness of Nirvana.

What about animists who never worship anyone, and simply strive to be good neighbors, and hospitable to guests?

When understanding the sacred, it is often necessary to eliminate the ethnocentric assumption of a personification.

Then you pick appropriate domain that encapsulates the spiritual philosophy in question or you create a homebrew one.

But here is the takeaway message for you, [MENTION=58172]Yaarel[/MENTION]: The existence of multiple domains does not preclude alternatives to polytheism for your games.

 

[Yaarel]

When the official rules instruct a player to pick a domain to represent a sacred tradition, it helps to be clear in the rules as written that this sacred tradition can be a philosophy or an abstract force or an animism (a neighborly relationship with the psychic presences of the features of nature).

On a separate concern, the clarity about the absence of polytheism, helps avoid misrepresenting reallife cultures. Such as: certain Native American nations, certain shamanic peoples in Eurasia, Australian Aborigines, certain African Animisms, even the animistic sensibilities of the Norse in Norway, the abstract monotheism of Judaism and Islam, the abstract philosophy of Buddhism, the sacred motions of Daoism, and so on. The assumption that all cultures worship an image of some kind, is incorrect, and leads to deep confusion about many other human cultures. All of these cultures have inspired D&D in various ways, and it helps to avoid misrepresenting them.

 

[Sunseeker]

Reading some of these posts sound a lot to me like: "Ugh, why didn't they account for my specific homebrew when making their game!"

Like, seriously folks?

 

[barasawa]

Having two radically different spell systems (Vancian and Spell Points) can be an issue with games since it complicates things.
Having both on a single character tends to get really messy, really fast. (Varies by player and GM)
That little apparent reveal in the Deities & Domains preview has me more than a bit worried.
I hope we're just misreading the info.

 

[CubicsRube]

Rather than granting additional spell options and a favoured weapon, I'd rather your choice of deity to grant you a boon. Either a minor benefit or a once per day effect.

Perhaps when your cleric gain in power, they can have a choice of further effects, in the style of class feats.

This then makes a choice of deity more impactful throughout the course of the clerics career.

To use examples, perhaps a cleric of Pelor would be able to cure a minor illness if they treat a person for a full day. It fhenatic, but often wouldnt come up much except for flavour. At advanced levels they might be able to opt for things like undead having a penalty to attack the cleric, as the radiance of pelor shining within the cleric repels them.

A cleric of chauntea on the other hand might be able to speed the growth of crops, and so welcomed in farming communities. Advanced features my be that they are able to grow a permanent barkskin.

I realise these arent golarion deities, but they are merely for illustrations.

 

[Wyvern]

Looking at their example deity, I can't help thinking that having glaive as a favored weapon is at odds with "never strike first".

 

[Sunseeker]

Rather than granting additional spell options and a favoured weapon, I'd rather your choice of deity to grant you a boon. Either a minor benefit or a once per day effect.

Perhaps when your cleric gain in power, they can have a choice of further effects, in the style of class feats..

Isn't that basically the traditional "domain power"?