Minor Gods Make Convenient NPCs

[riprock]

I've used gods as NPCs. It worked pretty well except they tended to be just a touch too important to the setting. If you throw down the central deity of the pantheon, a lot of characters might start worshipping that deity even though you don't want it to be a big part of the story. Like all DMs, I've ruthlessly used party characters' families as plot hooks.

Small gods work well -- the smaller the better. The ascended spirits of dead ancestral heroes provide a nice sort of "Macbeth"/"Hamlet"/"Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi" atmosphere. "I am dead and cannot return in the body from the Elysian Fields. You must carry out my work, because you are my grand-daughter..."

Think about all the problems of plausible NPC patrons. They can't know that they can trust the party, the party can lose track of them, etc.

Gods, godlings, and ascended spirits of dead ancestors solve these problems. They can always find the party. The party can always find them. Further if they are dead ancestors without a big cult or lots of followers, it makes sense that they would need to hand out their quests to low-level adventurers.

 

[Wolf72]

Kind of like divine rank 0/hero/quasi-dieties ... they still need to collect mundane (powerful) items and allies.

I could see them being powerful patrons, at the same time having to be careful not to upset a rival (even of similar alignment ... another N war hero diety taking worshippers from tempus might tick him off enough to have his followers take the interloper out)

 

[Tonguez]

Animism is the main beleif system IMC and thus 'spirits' are often encountered as NPCs. Indeed I have a whole chain of Islands each with its own resident Celestial Merrow-Magi (ie Aquatic Ogre-Magi) usually as guardian but occasionally as Tyrant ruler.
Other NPC spirits encountered have been a Feindish dire eel (worshipped by gnomes), a Magama Paraelemental volcano god, an abberation created using a Half-Fiend Aquatic Otyugh Scorcerer (he also had a half-human daughter who is also an important NPC), a celestial heron, the King of the Mountain (Earth Elemental), various Fey, a Hag, half-fiend/Half-dragon trolls, weather spirits, half-dragons, genius loci island guardians and similar.
Spirits also make a convinient way of controlling magic items. IMC only spirits can endow masterwork items with 'special powers' and they also give other boons. In an early adventure the PCs helped a celestial heron who awarded them by gifting one of her feathers as a feather token. Besides various weapons the Lightning god gifted one of the PCs with the ability to call lightning, whilst another holds a magical fishhook of fish summoning. The PCs also possess a 'calabash of the winds' gifted to them by the Ocean-mother herself and a ship specially built for them by the 'spirits of the forest', which is occupied by a spider-spirit who is able to mend any damage to the ship or crew (by spinning a magical 'healing' web)

 

[riprock]

Animism is the main beleif system IMC and thus 'spirits' are often encountered as NPCs. ...Spirits also make a convinient way of controlling magic items. IMC only spirits can endow masterwork items with 'special powers' and they also give other boons.

That sounds pretty cool. It would be a neat contrast for a geographic contrast -- suppose the party could sail a ship between a Greek-type area with Olympian gods, an Arab-type area with djin, and several areas with totem spirits.... E.g. Slavic spirits, South Pacific spirits, African spirits...