D&D 5E (2024) Let's make 5e specific setting, starting with a pantheon

[Paul Farquhar]

does anyone else see the irony in creating a 'new' 5e pantheon entirely out of old gods?

I saw that irony, as well as trotting out the same old 1970s Christian polytheism model for region rather than doing something creative.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

does anyone else see the irony in creating a 'new' 5e pantheon entirely out of old gods?

I seem to remember 4E also used a lot of pre-existing gods, didn't it? If it works, it works.

I don't agree with the appraoch to making the gods linked to classes, though. Doesn't inspire me, not how I would do it.
I might use it as inspiration to have each class list 3 deities its members might find compelling or important to them, and each deity description might list 3 classes their domain portfolio or their tenets might be particular relevant to. But that probably comes after writing out the basics of your pantheon.

 

[aco175]

I would think that most people worship the gods they we raised on when a child. This might make a profession more useful than the PC class. I also see that as a fighter or something, praying to a god that does that thing might help today over worshipping the farmer god of your youth. But also, a lot of things can be read into whatever god you want such as the farmer god needing to be strong and as such fighter would also worship him.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I would think that most people worship the gods they we raised on when a child. This might make a profession more useful than the PC class. I also see that as a fighter or something, praying to a god that does that thing might help today over worshipping the farmer god of your youth. But also, a lot of things can be read into whatever god you want such as the farmer god needing to be strong and as such fighter would also worship him.

This is the sort of interpretation of polytheism that I find irritating in D&D. People do not select a god and worship them. They make a sacrifice to whatever god they judge most likely to grant them what boon they desire.

 

[aco175]

This is the sort of interpretation of polytheism that I find irritating in D&D. People do not select a god and worship them. They make a sacrifice to whatever god they judge most likely to grant them what boon they desire.

It is also a main reason why people take the background and feats when making a character. What can you do for me and do I get Perception and Investigation along with Magic Initiative feat.

Might be more a game thing.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This is the sort of interpretation of polytheism that I find irritating in D&D. People do not select a god and worship them. They make a sacrifice to whatever god they judge most likely to grant them what boon they desire.

Yeah, that would be also something I wish could be represented better in D&D.
I am not even sure that Clerics and Paladins should only worship one god, or that every god has their own Clerics and Paladins.

More fitting might be that Clerics and Paladins are priests related to gods that involve warfare, hunting, battle or protection and the like. The god of agriculture has priests that ensure that everyone observes the correct rites and maybe have some knowledge about agriculture - but they don't need to send warriors into battles or defend people, that's another god's portfolio and their priests might need to focus on war, punishing criminals or whatever. The Erathis temple is protected by Paladins of Bahamut or Apollo or whatever.

But I guess that's never how D&D did things, so a D&D 5 setting probably wouldn't either. Though one could provide more narrative support for Clerics or Paladins that serve the full pantheon and its followers and priests, instead of individual gods.

 

[Omand]

FR and Greyhawk basically did it

Eh, not really.

Both Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms do have deities that track over to classes, but both of them are much more than that.

I will not claim to be an expert on either world, since I primarily homebrew, but in the exploration I have done to steal ideas for my own work there are multiple deities per class in some cases in both worlds, and deities that do not correspond (easily) with any classes.

Just using Greyhawk as the example, there are multiple deities of death due to the overlapping pantheons; Wee Jas has a bit of overlap with Boccob and magic-user patronage, but Nerull is just there for death. And that is just the two best known deities of death. Pelor is supposed to be the diety of the common man according to all descriptions I have read. What class is he supposed to map to? How about Rao? What about Beory, the Oerth Mother? There are roughly 200 deities in the extended Greyhawk deity list (going back to 3E which consolidated all of 1E & 2E sources).

Anyways, derailing the purpose of the thread here. Just put me in the camp of believing that tracking directly to a class as form of pantheon building is likely not going to work out well and will limit innovation in a new work.

Cheers

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, that would be also something I wish could be represented better in D&D.
I am not even sure that Clerics and Paladins should only worship one god, or that every god has their own Clerics and Paladins.

It’s not a failure of D&D, it’s a failure of imagination. Eberron and Dark Sun deal with religion differently, and paladins are not tied to gods in the current edition. And the rules work fine.

I would like to see a setting inspired by His Dark Materials - monotheistic, and the church keeps god locked in a box so as to better control people.

 

[Tonguez]

This is the sort of interpretation of polytheism that I find irritating in D&D. People do not select a god and worship them. They make a sacrifice to whatever god they judge most likely to grant them what boon they desire.

While the existence of multiple deities was acknowledged, most historic polytheism did not involve worship of the whole Pantheon but rather people devoted themselves to a relatively small number of local gods - Household/Ancestral Spirits and their local Village or Trade Patron. Most of the time commoners never went beyond this unless they happened to attend a religious festival in the city.
Clergy were caretakers of Temples and officiated in dedications and festivals to the gods of that temple. Only the Royal Cults went beyond local gods to worship of the Greater gods and those tended to be Henotheistic rather than true Polytheist.

The normal practice for clergy was local cult devotion to their Temple not chopping and changing to worship lots of different gods - thats a feature of animism not polytheism.

Even today the practice of Ishta Deva/Ishata Devata in Hindu belief sees personal devotion to a favourite deity while acknowledging all Diety as aspect of the unified Brahman. (I'll stop there and apologise if this crosses the rules).