D&D General Can There Be Non-Problematic Fertility Deities?

[Reynard]

Nope. If that were the case it wouldn't be a common experience of successfully running dnd entirely without dungeons of any kind, very much including for brand new DMs.

Again, if this were true, why is every published adventure full of them?

 

[Fifinjir]

I think the relative (though I should say not absolute) dearth of fertility deities in D&D (and D&D-likes) conpared to their abundance in real life is simply because making children and rearing families is not generally the sort of things that comes up a lot for adventurers. From a pure worldbuilding/verisimilitude perspective it makes total sense for there to be fertility deities who have priests that go around and bless people to be more fecund and have healthy children, but a "Fertility Domain Cleric" who can do things like cast Enhance Virility or Purify Womb isn't very useful in a dungeon. I'm sure a creative game designer can come up with some creative spells that could make the concept work but it's not as straightforward as the "the god of storms has blessed you with the powet to shoot lightning at goblins" or "the god of war has given you the ability to hit things really good".

So in 3E, IIRC, there was a source book that made it so the Commoner class would have a chance of pulling out a chicken when trying to pull something else out of their backpack. It was meant to be a funny inconvenience. Instead it gave an infinite source of chickens. “Pull Infinite Chickens out of the Aether” is my pick for a Fertility Domain ability.

 

[Remathilis]

Again, if this were true, why is every published adventure full of them?

Because they're easy to publish, one size fits all, and structured to allow choices without providing infinite options.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The games do not lack fertility deities, I think people don't know which deities are fertility deities. Most pantheons have at least one, and there are many pantheons.

The deities presented in the core rules are very much skewed towards adventuring clerics, so there are lots of gods of healing and smiting, but not so many for growing wheat.

There is nothing “problematic” about fertility deities, they just aren’t very interesting to adventurers.

 

[humble minion]

There is nothing “problematic” about fertility deities, they just aren’t very interesting to adventurers.

And that's also true for the spell list, clerical and otherwise.

You have a zillion ways to electrocute, fry, freeze, or dissolve someone, and probably 8-10 ways to fix them afterwards, but there's no 'enhance fertility' spell, or 'ease childbirth' spell. And no 'contraception' spell either. And of course there's a zillion other common household and hygiene-related spells that probably SHOULD exist if you're thinking of the sort of matter that preoccupied people in pre-modern societies. Empty Chamberpot. Delouse Bedding. Plough Field. Though I suppsse Unseen Servant could do a lot of that stuff.

I'm sure in an actual internally consistent D&D WORLD, someone would have invented these spells somehow, or a family/fertility/healing/whoever deity would have granted them. But at the end of the day it's a matter of page count, and D&D is a game of monster slaying, and even if Chauntea or someone is granting them, they didn't make it into the books.

Love gods have the same problem. Almost every real-world culture has one (we don't talk about the Aztec pantheon, those guys have problems...) but what spells do you give a Love domain cleric? Charm Person is the first on anyone's list, but that's ... not unproblematic at a glance, even though by strict rules as written it doesn't imply consent issues. The Peace domain cleric had the same problem. I love peace, that's why my powers make my friends much better at fighting!

 

[Alzrius]

So in 3E, IIRC, there was a source book that made it so the Commoner class would have a chance of pulling out a chicken when trying to pull something else out of their backpack. It was meant to be a funny inconvenience. Instead it gave an infinite source of chickens. “Pull Infinite Chickens out of the Aether” is my pick for a Fertility Domain ability.

I'm curious now, what sourcebook was that from?

 

[Reynard]

Because they're easy to publish, one size fits all, and structured to allow choices without providing infinite options.

But no one uses them?

 

[Remathilis]

But no one uses them?

I do. But not all the time. I have adventures where you need to navigate social encounters, solve murder mysteries, even Ye Olde Shopping Expedition. That is true of nearly every RPG I've played too. What is a moon-sized space station with a powerful superweapon attached but a high tech dungeon?

Anyway, my point is dungeon style play is a lot easier to design and sell because it artificially limits player options to a controllable level. A scenario where the PCs can do anything or go anywhere isn't an adventure, it's a sandbox. It's not a module, it's a setting supplement.

Now, back to D&D fertility rites.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Again, if this were true, why is every published adventure full of them?

Seriously!?

You cannot possibly think that there being dungeons in official adventures for a game whose classic mode is dungeons proves that the game cannot be successfully played sans dungeon.

Look at the dnd community beyond enworld. The game as it is played right now is quite often played without ever spelunking for loot. It requires no adjustment to do so.

 

[the Jester]

I'm curious now, what sourcebook was that from?

I've never seen it, so I'm guessing it was some third party book of dubious quality.