D&D General Build the "Definitive Pantheon"

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Take any gods from across any dnd pantheon, but only 1 per slot. No "two gods of the sun" kind of thing. One pantheon to rule them all. Whose on your list?

Made up my own from scratch once many years ago. Made a master list of all the different "deity of X" or "deity of Y" I wanted to cover and one by one created a comprehensive pantheon. Unique names, personalities for them, relationships and rivalries among many of them, and yet able to fit as the same pantheon for most any sentient species. Greater gods, lesser gods, demigods... I was very happy with it and proud of it.

Problem was, I had the whole thing on a laptop along with a lot of other gaming files and it got stolen. Didn't have the files backed up. I tried to reconstitute some of it from memory but it was MONTHS of work, maybe even a year or more putting it together in the first place and it all faded away.

Not only did I get much better about having backups to computer files from then on (hard drives at the time were also reliable in that it was never a question of IF they'd crash but merely WHEN), but it kinda gutted me in terms of creativity for a number of years and I just went with default pantheons from published game worlds.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I really like the 4E pantheon as well and thought they did a really nice job with it. However, I did think there were some domains missing and some of the traditional demihuman deities that deserved to be included in the pantheon alongside the others that were. So when I prepped a new Nerath campaign I did some edits to it (added some, removed some, changed some around) and expanded the pantheon out to a full 18 gods (2 per alignment) with each of them a patron of a different species in the campaign setting.

BAHAMUT [Male, Lawful Good]: God of protection, courage and honor. Patron of metallic dragonborn.
MORADIN [Male, Lawful Good]: God of craft, earth, and community. Patron of dwarves.
PELOR [Male, Neutral Good]: God of the sun, love, time, and summer. Patron of aasimar.
YONDALLA [Female, Neutral Good]: Goddess of family, prosperity, and luck. Patron of halflings.
CORELLON [Pangender, Chaotic Good]: Deity of magic, art, beauty, and spring. Patron of high elves.
GARL [Male, Chaotic Good]: God of humor, revelry, and invention. Patron of gnomes.

ERATHIS [Female, Lawful Neutral]: Goddess of civilization, law, and commerce. Patron of humans.
IOUN [Female, Lawful Neutral]: Goddess of knowledge, study, and prophecy. Patron of warforged.
LLORA [Female, True Neutral]: Goddess of the wilderness and the sea. Patron of shifters.
RAVEN QUEEN [Female, True Neutral]: Goddess of death, fate, humility, and winter. Patron of shadar-kai.
SEHANINE [Female, Chaotic Neutral]: Goddess of the moon, the hunt, illusions and autumn. Patron of wood elves.
KORD [Male, Chaotic Neutral]: God of storms, strength, and competition. Patron of goliaths.

ASMODEUS [Male, Lawful Evil]: Archdevil god of pride, tyranny, and leadership. Patron of tieflings.
MAGLUBIYET [Male, Lawful Evil]: God of ambition, conquest, and strategy. Patron of goblinoids.
LOLTH [Female, Neutral Evil]: Goddess of lies, corruption and cunning. Patron of drow elves.
TIAMAT [Female, Neutral Evil]: Goddess of wealth, greed, and envy. Patron of chromatic dragonborn and kobolds.
GRUUMSH [Male, Chaotic Evil]: God of fury, slaughter, and instinct. Patron of orcs.
ZEHIR [Genderless, Chaotic Evil]: Deity of pestilence, murder, and endurance. Patron of yuan-ti.

civilisation, commerce and law does not feel very human to me either in dnd or real life

There are some I’d probably add, but yeah 4e knocked this out of the park.

I really like Mask from FR as a god of thieves and assassins and those who work in shadows, and I think a 4e style work up of him would be rad.

I like FR’s Helm a lot and I think they (bc imo a reworked Helm should be NB or femme, not a dude) would fill a niche not served fully by Bahamut.

Eberron’s The Traveller is excellent and could work as a twin of Mask, and have both be neutral with a complex relation to thievery, deceit, change, and maybe both assassins and “avengers” and revolutionaries.

I’d upgrade The Red Witch from 4e to a lesser god, as well as the Lady of The White Well, and make them sisters of The Raven Queen.

Finally I’d restructure the fey gods to more strongly reflect fey “courts” using times of day and aspects of the wild, with

The Three Courts of The Sun
Dawn; Melora, or introduce a Titania style fey goddess
Highsun: A lesser deity of light and summer vibes, all wrath and passion and light
Afternoon: I’ve had a better name for this but I can’t recall, Corellon rules here

The Three Moonlit Courts
Dusk: Oberon, Dusk is a court associated with early autumn and with the transition from day into night, and is very “let’s recline and watch the sunset and drink wine and be horny but in a lazy way”
Twilight: Also called the Vesper Court, ruled by The Raven Queen, the place in the Fey where the worlds of spirits are closest
Deep Night: Sehanine’s domain, a mysterious and scary place, but also the place where the night is a shield and a comfort as much as a source of terror.

The Three Wild Courts
The Hunter’s Court: A roaming and half-feral court ruled by The Red Witch, and by whoever she has chosen or who has earned the right to lead The Wild Hunt. Hyrsam often resides here but is not bound to any court.
The Court of The Sea: another court I have had a better name for that I forget, ruled by either Melora or a Mananan Mac Lyr type figure
Court of Mysteries: Ruled by The Lady of The White Well, is a court of oracles, fatespinners, witches, and the like.

And but somewhere in there maybe Llolth should be made the deity of a Great Faerie Court, maybe Deep Night with RQ taking Twilight, and Sehanine taking The Hunter’s Court. I could be convinced to leave RQ out of the Seldarine but I don’t wanna.

Anyway, the Seldarine would be opposed by the Fomorian deities and other dark deities that are related to the Fey but aren’t truly Fey.

I’d also possibly replace or rework Avandra, bringing a more Halfling-esque deity in that spot.

I’d also make most actually fully unsveagebly evil deities into soemthing else. Asmodeus can be the King of Hell without being a god. Meanwhile Bane works as a god, being a sort of Ares meets brutally mercilessly efficient massacre deity of war. Llolth becomes a god with godlike domain and such, and is sort of the darkest face of The Fey. No more “trapped in hell” weirdness.

Tiamat can also stay a deity but with aspects that people who aren’t psychotic would give reverence to, like righteous wrath, and ecstatic freedom, and unalloyed passion, and ambition/joy in exercising power given free riegn. All of which have very dangerous dark sides.

I’d look for something more interesting than Kord, also.

bane is the god of more modern style wars, Athene is strategy, ares is the god of battle, bane is the god of ww1 and ww2 he is mechanical savagery, industrial massacre he is total war and salt the earth the only reason he would oppose nukes is total annihilation mean no more wars full stop.

 

[Staffan]

My issue with Kord is he is the god of
Honorable Orderly Battle
and
Chaotic Destructive Storm

I don't see Kord as the god of "Honorable Orderly Battle". A legion or the like is too dull for Kord. He's more the god of fighting, of testing your own mettle against that of your opponent, than of war.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't see Kord as the god of "Honorable Orderly Battle". A legion or the like is too dull for Kord. He's more the god of fighting, of testing your own mettle against that of your opponent, than of war.

Bane is the War god.
Grummush is the Beatdown god
Kord is the "Fair fight" god.

The Storm god also being the Fair Fight god is weird to me if you aren't actually forced to make them the same.

That's the same with Melora. Making her be both Mother Nature and the Cruel Mistress of the Sea when you don't have to seems silly

 

[W'rkncacnter]

The God of Man being the God/dess of Adaption, Action Hereos, and Personal Growth

I nominate Vin Diesel

wouldn't he also be the god of Family., then?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Bane is the War god.
Grummush is the Beatdown god
Kord is the "Fair fight" god.

The Storm god also being the Fair Fight god is weird to me if you aren't actually forced to make them the same.

That's the same with Melora. Making her be both Mother Nature and the Cruel Mistress of the Sea when you don't have to seems silly

Melora is The Sea, not just one aspect of it, and I can’t recall anything in the 4e books that paints Kord as what you’re painting him as. Closest is being a patron of warriors in the context of striving to be the best, and so combat as sport, maybe?

But it’s a stretch to make that into “orderly” as such.

 

[DEFCON 1]

civilisation, commerce and law does not feel very human to me either in dnd or real life.

Okay. You do you.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Bane is the War god.
Grummush is the Beatdown god
Kord is the "Fair fight" god.

Kord is the good fight god, not the fair fight god. He wants a fight worthy of being fought. That doesn't mean you can't use below the belt tactics. It means fighting someone who is far beneath your strength is unacceptable, a form of weakness. Challenge foes that are worthy of you, don't go hunting down fights you know you can win.

That's the same with Melora. Making her be both Mother Nature and the Cruel Mistress of the Sea when you don't have to seems silly

But both things are mercurial, unreliable, horribly dangerous, and yet full of bounties and mystery. Artemis was the goddess of the wild, the hunt, the places far from civilization. She was also mercurial, vindictive, ruthless, and indiscriminate in her punishments.

They really aren't as far apart as you imply. Some deities of the wild (such as Dionysus) even actually did blend the two; dolphins were one of Dionysus' symbols.

 

[Staffan]

That's the same with Melora. Making her be both Mother Nature and the Cruel Mistress of the Sea when you don't have to seems silly

She is the god of Nature. Doesn't matter if said nature is on land or under the sea, it's all part of nature. The storm doesn't stop blowing just because it moves from the sea to land.

 

[Minigiant]

Melora is The Sea, not just one aspect of it, and I can’t recall anything in the 4e books that paints Kord as what you’re painting him as. Closest is being a patron of warriors in the context of striving to be the best, and so combat as sport, maybe?

But it’s a stretch to make that into “orderly” as such.

Kord is the good fight god, not the fair fight god. He wants a fight worthy of being fought. That doesn't mean you can't use below the belt tactics. It means fighting someone who is far beneath your strength is unacceptable, a form of weakness. Challenge foes that are worthy of you, don't go hunting down fights you know you can win.

Then who is the god of honorable, fair, challenge and fights?

But my core point is there is no need to give Kord or Melora 2 major portfolios while having ultra specific people like Torog, Zehir, and Lloth out here.

You would create a better pantheon by splitting some of the gods up and giving some of other (mostly evil) gods more general and common portfolios.

Part of the way D&D evil deities work is by them having a major aspect to draw in worshippers. There has to a base for push back either from the powerful enemies or the unreliable duality of the deities themselves.

Otherwise you have to pull a Matt Mercer and lock up all the powers because you nerfed all the evil powers too hard.

Dawn War Pantheon only works in an post post apocalypse world like Nentir Vale. It's a great pantheon. One of the best. But it doesn't work in a generic world. Without the War, the Dawn War Pantheon is too strong. AKA you'd have to beef up the evil gods, "Greek" up the pantheon, or free the primordials.