Core Religion Survivor, round one

[Angcuru]

Pelor - the only god proven to give you cancer from too much exposure.

Flarfhargnablahnanananomiconana is a close second because the name is so hard to pronounce by looking at it.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Garl, though really all of the non-human dieties suck. I've never understood why humans get 30 different dieties, and humanoids get like 3. I'd prefer basically all sentient creatures worship the same pantheon (who are without alignment, ala Al-Quadim).

Fave is Wee-Jas. She's the only god that actually feels like a god - a diverse portfolio that has personality, as opposed to some schmuck who just fills a required role (strength, learning, etc). Nerull is a weak comparison.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

My real vote is for Wastri, the hopping biggot.

BWAH?! Thats one of the coolest things IN Greyhawk.

 

[llamatron2000]

Fharlanghn has to go. He's the most blatant of the name pun deities, at least to me.

I mean....FAR LONG ONE?

God of travelling. Right. Lame. At least give him a better name and he'd be cool.

 

[hafrogman]

I'm going to have to put in another vote for abolishing racial dieties. I went with Correlon to start because he's pretty much pointless if you remove "elves" as a porfolio item.

If you remove races, other gods still have areas where they could be interesting.

Moradin- God of earth and the forge
Yondalla - Goddess of agriculture
Garl - God of mischief and laughter
Correlon - God of . . . ?

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

BWAH?! Thats one of the coolest things IN Greyhawk.

My vote is based on his 3.x treatment where they made him LN instead of keeping the LN(E). I have trouble with Paladins of Wastri existing (which is possible under 3.x rules). I've also experienced a Living Greyhawk player using a Paladin of Wastri to extol their own real life biggotry. Otherwise, the Hopping Prophet was an OK story pre-3E, but not my favorite by far.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Erythnul.

Khorne works in Warhammer, sort of, because he/it is a generic war god in a setting where generic gods and Lovecraftian horror are pretty much one and the same. Erythnul is neither as cool nor as appropriate in D&D; what role does he/it serve that, say, the more brutish demon princes do not?

The 'God of Slaughter' neither fits nor adds anything, except, of course, for sponsoring the villainous version of dungeonpunk, which is considerably cheesier and more absurd than its heroic counterpart (which ain't too hot to begin with, IMO).

 

[William Ronald]

This is easy.

Vecna Must Die!

He is a mysterious old wizard, long gone into realm of legend. Not a god.

I concur. Vecna, even more so than Lolth, is an example of the creep of power for some characters in the D&D universe.

As for the dumb name syndrome, the D&D game is replete with them. Ironically, one name mentioned on this thread --- Mielikki -- is a name drawn from the Finnish national epic the Kalevala.

Perhaps one thing that might help such deities as Corellon Larethian is to have them focus on something or being considered to be good at many things, but not necessarily the best. (A good model might be the Irish deity Lugh, who was a master in each and every art, but was not necessarily the best at everything. So, Corellon Larethian might be a good fighter and a good spellcaster, but others even in his own pantheon might be better than him in one of those areas.)

Garl is not too bad as a name, (okay, it sounds like Carl), but I do agree that gnomes could perhaps be better defined in a future edition of the game.

I really liked Roger Moore's Demihuman Deities articles, and ironically, one official campaign setting --- the Forgotten Realms --- uses them. Perhaps in the case of some deities in the PHB, we have too many things encompassed into one deity. In Moore's articles, there was a sense that others in the respective pantheons were perhaps more skilled or more focused on one.

Also, one of the problems with the PHB deities is that it does not seem so much like a pantheon in the traditional sense as a smorgasbjord of unconnected characters with little in the way of a common history.

 

[sjmiller]

So far in my campaign Kord has appeared before some of his followers and taken two PCs (people who were leaving the game) to be his servants. The party also found a goblet with the inscription "Olidammara bless this wine and all of those who drink it. Save us from dread Wee Jas kine and Vecna's little trinkets." The party loved this, especially the elf from wine country who is a follower of Olidammara. Vecna I view as, at most, a demigod with few worshipers.

A couple of the characters view Kord as the God of Kidnapping.

 

[Gothmog]

Corellon!

Die you androgynous bastard, die!

Runner up: Garl.

Amen Brother Pants, preach it!

Corellon has always annoyed me- the more perfect than perfect elf. Blah.

I can even handle Garl better than Corellon.

Stupid mega-elf.