D&D with Pharaonic Pantheon from D&Dg

[Klaus]

I have always loved all things Egyptian, so it comes as no surprise that I quite liked the spin to the Pharaonic Pantheon given in Deities & Demigods, with Horus ascended to head of the pantheon as Re-Horakthy, which pushes Set firmly into the An- side of "tagonist" (to borrow an expression from OotS).

So what would a D&D world look like if we simply replaced the core pantheon with the Pharaonic one? Mind you, I'm not aiming at making a fantasy Egypt a la Necropolis or Hamunaptra (no paralell to the Nile, for instance).

For instance, with Re-Horakthy being the patron of monks, they can easily become a religious order, for instance.

Your turn.

 

[Voadam]

Cults of Isis and Toth take on the roles that Mystra and Azuth have in FR or Wee Jass and Boccob in the PH.

Set is the BBEG.

Horus avenger = Heironeous.

Bast = Sharess and well, Bast.

Red wizards split off from dominant culture and can now enter the SRD as no longer being an FR specific group.

 

[William Ronald]

Green Ronin's Hamunaptra has done a great job with an Egyptian style setting.

As for a core rules game, possibly some of the deities such as Geb (god of the Earth) might see a strong cult among the dwarves. Bes might be very popular among dwarves.

Isis might be popular among elves, as she is in Hamunaptra , for her association with magic.

Also, an Egyptian style setting would likely feature light to medium armor at best. (Heat is a problem.) Possibly, most classes would need a feat to use heavy armor. Anyone in heavy armor should hope to have an endure elements spell handy to deal with heat exhaustion.

 

[Emirikol]

We use the Egyptian pantheon as part of our CONAN game..course in Hyboria the gods don't count for anything except to abuse the local populace...

Set is king of the pantheon in Hyboria (if you remember your Conan stories), which makes it a LOT more fun than having a bunch of crotch-slinging gods and wussy-waists. There's far too much of that in most gaming pantheons because the DM feels the need to have 487 gods so that the cleric has something to do or should I say..so the DM can come up with a plot device...

jh

 

[Klaus]

Green Ronin's Hamunaptra has done a great job with an Egyptian style setting.

As for a core rules game, possibly some of the deities such as Geb (god of the Earth) might see a strong cult among the dwarves. Bes might be very popular among dwarves.

Isis might be popular among elves, as she is in Hamunaptra , for her association with magic.

Also, an Egyptian style setting would likely feature light to medium armor at best. (Heat is a problem.) Possibly, most classes would need a feat to use heavy armor. Anyone in heavy armor should hope to have an endure elements spell handy to deal with heat exhaustion.

The Heat thing would only come into play if we stick to a fantastic Northern Africa, which is quite limiting.

Back in 2e I had an inkling of a campaign setting called Jera, where, to prevent a cataclysm, the world's greatest magicians performed a spell that prevented the world from spinning (don't ask). So half of the world was in perpetual night (and artic temperatures, while the other was in endless day (lots of deserts and volcanic activity). Where the two meet, a ring of tropical rainforest circles the world, in perpetual twilight (brighter near the day side, darker near the night side, with some temperate/arid vegetation accounting for the transition). The entire civilization had to move underground, and the gods were the Pharaonic Pantheon.

 

[BryonD]

My current setting features the Pharaonic Pantheon as the elven patheon, Asgard for dwarves and Olympian for humans. There is a north Africa equivalent elven kingdom, but the pantheon is not limited to there.

The original idea was a classic gods vs. Lovecraft horrors setting. (It was fun when a cleric PC had a vision from their god and could see that the diety was trembling. ). But I'm doing other things with the setting as well.

Currently the party is in the setting's amazon jungle basin dealing with the CN tribal elves (mainly Bast / Nephthys worshippers) against CE elves (Set followers) in league with Yuan-Ti. Throw in a bunch of orc tribes including Sobek worshipping cults led by were-crocs and you have lots of fun. Orcus is behind the current Yuan-ti uprising so there are lots of undead of all kinds. Some YT houses loathe the acceptance of undeath and others see it as a path to power, so there is in-fighting and politics to work with there. And of course Orcus is really just playing everybody for his own long term goals (though nobody knows that yet).

Maybe more info than anyone cares for. But the point is that you can have a lot of fun taking classic stuff and moving it outside its normal setting.

 

[tassander]

I have always loved all things Egyptian, so it comes as no surprise that I quite liked the spin to the Pharaonic Pantheon given in Deities & Demigods, with Horus ascended to head of the pantheon as Re-Horakthy, which pushes Set firmly into the An- side of "tagonist" (to borrow an expression from OotS).

So what would a D&D world look like if we simply replaced the core pantheon with the Pharaonic one? .

It would look a lot like Palladium Fantasy.