2 gods Are better than 1

[DarkLord Of DForce]

Hmm, are you all sure about that? (Avenger with multiple Deities)

What about Page 16 of Divine Power - Serving Multiple Masters?

Thanks.

 

[jbear]

This is something I find fairly annoying about the character builder. Divine Power talks quite clearly about domains and the possibilty of worshipping several deities. "If you worship multiple deities with a common theme ... you gain access to all their domains." DP p.108. Not only that it goes so far as to say that, with your DMs permission, you can choose domains other than those related to your deity (albeit something that makes sense, obviously).

Yet there is no option in the CB to either worship multiple deities, related or otherwise, or alter your deities domains. Not even as a house rule. Which creates the rather annoying situation that when you want to add domain feats unrelated to your god, either you have to choose a domain appropriate god, select the desired feat and then change to the desired god; or open up the massive tab of hidden feats which slows the program down enormously and add it in that way.

With the amount of adjustments and corrections that WotC is taking the time and care to smoothen out the wrinkles in other areas, considering this is an option talked about the Divine source book itself, I think this should be a feature added to CB. In a world with so many gods that have such specific domains of influence, it should almost be the norm, and if not at least very common, both polytheistic religions and the worship of multiple gods by the common people, depending on the sphere of influence to which they are petitioning aid/comfort/protection.

Many real world religions worship one god, believing only one god exists. Religions that believe many gods exist... worship many gods. D&D is based in a world where not only is it believed that many gods exists, they DO exist. Monotheism seems almost like a strange idea for an individual or a society to follow taking that into account. It's somewhat like people in the same city or country picking a different football club to support: 'My god is better than your god, he's won all the track and field events at the Olympus Games three years straight! And he's hot! Gooooo Kord!!!!'

A Shinto-style of God worship makes a lot more sense to me in a d&d multiple-deity setting, but that is just me. I think there needs to be an option in the CB to represent this at the very least, in line with this very same idea discussed in Divine Power.

 

[ppaladin123]

If you are a changeling you can also take a feat that will allow you to take feats from any god's domain. It is a nice way to get "evil" benefits without worshiping an evil god and it is flavorful as well.

Of course the DM could have followers of said evil gods come looking for the bum who is stealing their divine power.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Tehg restrictions and responsibilities of worshipping even one god are nebulous enough in 4E that I do not want to consider the ramifications of worshipping a slew of them

Sounds like an open invitation to cheese.

 

[Jhaelen]

Tehg restrictions and responsibilities of worshipping even one god are nebulous enough in 4E that I do not want to consider the ramifications of worshipping a slew of them

Sounds like an open invitation to cheese.

Well, there aren't really any restrictions and responsibilities worth speaking of. I also don't have a problem allowing a player to take any combination of domain feats as long as she can come up with a reasonable rp explanation. In an Eberron campaign, I'd even encourage it.

The Channel Divinity feats are hardly ever worth it and there's only one domain feat I find problematic (Skill), but it's already cheesy without being combined with anything.

 

[jbear]

Totally agreed. Besides with the scarcity of feat slots (after gaining essential ones) it is difficult enough to take more than one domain feat as it is. And one mans cheese is another mans breakfast.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

A Shinto-style of God worship makes a lot more sense to me in a d&d multiple-deity setting, but that is just me. I think there needs to be an option in the CB to represent this at the very least, in line with this very same idea discussed in Divine Power.

Shintoism to me seems more primal - my understanding is that it is worship of the spirits around you that inhabit everyday natural locations and objects. Sure, there are elements more in line with "regualar gods" (such as their creation myth), but to me it strikes me more as "civilised shamanism".

That said, a more apt analogy would be the Greek patheon, where my understanding is that most people worshipped Gods as their activities fell within their perview, and where even the clergy typically did not dedicate themselves to any one Gold.

All that aside, I can understand how some might find that having the option of more than one divinity feat might be overpowered - myself, I have yet to see a cleric ever take one (in general, aside from a few like that for Tempest, they seem rather lackluster), even in my campaign where I have 2 divine characters and it is specifically open to take more than one (my games' pantheon only has 4 gods, so I've clustered the divinity feats under whichever of my gods best captures the portfolio of the WotC god providing the feat).

 

[Xyrlove Woodsoul]

Overall, it sounds like a dm discretionary-thing.

I had a problem with worshiping multiple gods at first, like someone stated, it seems like an open invitation to cheese, But, I don't find that there are a whole lot of advantages of worshiping multiple gods, because I don't think the CD feats are all that (some are, i guess), and you can only use 1 per encounter anyway (normally), but, then again, I never tried to make an optimized character who worshipped multiple gods.

In our campaign, we have our own pathenon being that we feel that the way it is in the settings is too restrictive, flavor wise (were not high on the settings either: Eberron seems too Arcade-like for us, and FR too PG-13- thus, we make, Forgotten Eberron . As a result, we make it more so, a matter of worshiping domains.

For example, we have a Paladin who is a paladin of change, luck, and winds, and Avandra seems to be the most appropriate for her. And, yet, besides that, Avandra doesn't fit her, at all. Avandra, actually, irritates the player.

The only thing I'm tried to figure out was, why not worship all the domains? To this, I usually expect a player to have a good story as to how and why they worship multiple domains. If they want to sound cheesy to the rest of the group, then so be it, because it's frowned upon, and that sucks a lot of the fun out of the player right there, being that everyone would think the player was being a cheese-ball.

As far as it not being an option on CB, we really don't use it. We like having at least some remnant of the past of pencil and paper, and an old, dirty, eraser-burned character sheet that is stained and falling apart. We like that (but it does suck when we make a mistake on the sheet)

 

[Argyle King]

There's really nothing (aside from your DM or certain classes which have specific rules) stopping you from worshipping any combination of gods you want in 4E.

 

[jbear]

Shintoism to me seems more primal - my understanding is that it is worship of the spirits around you that inhabit everyday natural locations and objects. Sure, there are elements more in line with "regualar gods" (such as their creation myth), but to me it strikes me more as "civilised shamanism".

That said, a more apt analogy would be the Greek patheon, where my understanding is that most people worshipped Gods as their activities fell within their perview, and where even the clergy typically did not dedicate themselves to any one Gold.

All that aside, I can understand how some might find that having the option of more than one divinity feat might be overpowered - myself, I have yet to see a cleric ever take one (in general, aside from a few like that for Tempest, they seem rather lackluster), even in my campaign where I have 2 divine characters and it is specifically open to take more than one (my games' pantheon only has 4 gods, so I've clustered the divinity feats under whichever of my gods best captures the portfolio of the WotC god providing the feat).

Shintoism certainly has a primal feel to it. Spirit worship etc. as the Japanese did not have anthropomorphic gods. However, what I am talking about, for lack of a better word, is something similar. The Greek pantheon is perhaps a more precise example. My point was that in a society that not only believes that many gods exist, but also has hard evidence to corroborate that belief, it seems more likely that the common folk would worship or pay homage to whichever god they believed could help them out with their situation. As opposed to picking one over the others, preaching their divinty's superiority to the rest of the world.

This very thing is talked about in Divine Power. I think the CB should support the idea better. Naught more, naught less.