D&D General The purpose of deity stats in D&D.

[Voadam]

But isn't that also part of several settings and real world mythologies, how some hero gained godhood by ursupring a god?

Can you think of a real world mythology where a mortal became a god by usurping a god?

Chronos usurped Uranos's big role and was overthrown in turn by Zeus but none of them were mortals.

Hercules became a god by being raised by the gods at his mortal death by the hydra poisoned shirt, not by killing another god. One myth says Hestia stood down so he could take her place among the Olympians but he did not wrest her place from her.

D&D mythology has a few places of deicide as ascension path and I guess you could go with the Highlander movie as a template, but I can't think of an actual myth off the top of my head that uses killing gods as an ascension model.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Can you think of a real world mythology where a mortal became a god by usurping a god?

Chronos usurped Uranos's big role and was overthrown in turn by Zeus but none of them were mortals.

Hercules became a god by being raised by the gods at his mortal death by the hydra poisoned shirt, not by killing another god. One myth says Hestia stood down so he could take her place among the Olympians but he did not wrest her place from her.

D&D mythology has a few places of deicide as ascension path and I guess you could go with the Highlander movie as a template, but I can't think of an actual myth off the top of my head that uses killing gods as an ascension model.

Gilgamesh and Imhotep. Likely a handful of others too.

Most don't 'ascend' while living though.

 

[Voadam]

Gilgamesh and Imhotep. Likely a handful of others too.

Most don't 'ascend' while living though.

Gilgamesh didn't even ascend though, he died not achieving immortality.

I am not aware of any myth about Imhotep ascending by defeating and usurping a god. Is there a specific one?

 

[cbwjm]

I don't think Imhotep usurped anyone, he was the creator (maybe) of the pyramid, an architect that became deified.

 

[dave2008]

I don't think Imhotep usurped anyone, he was the creator (maybe) of the pyramid, an architect that became deified.

As all architects should be!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Regardless of evidence of deicide, plenty of folks have been venerated as gods after their death historically, so there is at least a lot of that kind if evidence of mortals becoming deities.

 

[Steampunkette]

It is a thing. These "Other" gods are just monsters you can kill.

Not like the one Gygax's family and community worshipped. THAT one can't be killed. And putting 'him' into the game would've resulted with backlash from people who might actually be a danger to Gygax and his buds.

But the gods of foreign cultures and dead cultures? Fair game for the game.

Same reason you can find the stats for Bane, Kiaransalee, and Mystra but not Ao, who is so powerful game stats don't represent him at all.

Because what you exclude from your fantasy games is just as important as what you include for the whole "Art is Politics" thing.

 

[cranberry]

It is a thing. These "Other" gods are just monsters you can kill.

Not like the one Gygax's family and community worshipped. THAT one can't be killed. And putting 'him' into the game would've resulted with backlash from people who might actually be a danger to Gygax and his buds.

An article in Dragon magazine in the 80's gave "stats" to God and Satan. Every stat had either "Special" , "Unlimited" or "See below" listed next to it. Kind of pointless to give stats to beings who are supposed to be omnipotent.

 

[Alzrius]

An article in Dragon magazine in the 80's gave "stats" to God and Satan. Every stat had either "Special" , "Unlimited" or "See below" listed next to it. Kind of pointless to give stats to beings who are supposed to be omnipotent.

You got pretty much all of the salient details wrong. That article ("The Politics of Hell," by Alexander von Thorn) was from Dragon #28, which was the August, 1979 issue. God was not given stats. And as for "every stat" being effectively undefined, that's true for his movement and psionic capabilities, but that's it:

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Not like the one Gygax's family and community worshipped. THAT one can't be killed.

Sure he can. He'll be fine in three days though.

But yeah, I get your point. I don't think it is wrong to gamify or write fiction about mythological figures, but then it should be fair game to do so for all of them.

Also, if you do so, it would be nice if they were not completely misinterpreted. (D&D version of Mielikki is a nature goddess, like she is in the real Finnish mythology, so that's fine, but Loviatar is incorrectly made a goddess of pain in FR, whereas she's actually a goddess of disease.)