Li Shenron
Legend
If your idea is to have a small number of gods, it's definitely interesting. They are going to cover quite a large portfolio each, and this will probably give each of them more than one possible facet: there will be priests of the same god which argue/discuss about different aspects of their faith and which should be dominant for example.
I don't know if you intend to use the standard alignment system. Anyway, one thing you can already think about is in general if you are going to have evil gods and how many. There are different possibilities, all of which make for good settings, so it's up to your preferences. A few choices would be:
- more or less as many evil gods as there are good ones, the pantheon is roughly divided in two sides although the evil ones probably struggle also against themselves
- a single evil deity opposed to all the others and concentrating all evil matters (eventually there are minor evil deities at her service, but here I'm thinking only about the major gods)
- no evil deities, and evil worship is related to fiends and similar powerful beings
I mention this because it has an impact on the portfolios. For example, when you have to choose which deity rules over death, the typical options are to either make it an evil deity which hates life, or make it a good/neutral deity who protects the dead and preserve the normal lifecycle.
Well, if you want to compile a list of portfolios, I would start thinking about large and important matters for the people in the world, such as the following (and possible associated alignment):
Nature/Fertility/Prosperity/Earth - good
Wisdom/Justice - lawful good
Wealth/Crafts/Commerce - neutral
Beauty/Love/Arts - chaotic good
Family/Protection/Home - good
War/Conquest/Nobility/Rulership - lawful
Death - any evil or any neutral
Note that I haven't written Magic as a major group. Normally the deity of magic is always a major one, but just to suggest something different for once
I'll make it a minor deity, which the majority of people in the world won't worship since it doesn't affect their lives. This can be very different in your setting of course.
After that, you can write down a second list of minor portfolio entries which can be associated to the groups above. Whenever you find one that doesn't fit to the main groups above according to your taste, you can make it a minor deity. I'll try to show an example of associations as well (by no means a complete list), although each has obviously multiple choices! The ones with "none" will go into minor deities:
Animals - with nature
Darkness - none
Destruction - none
Disease - none
Duty - with justice
Healing - with family
Hunting - with war
Illusion - none
Knowledge - with wisdom
Lies - none
Luck - none
Magic - none
Murder - none
Plants - with nature
Sea - none
Secrets - none
Storm - none
Strength - with war
Travel - none
Theft - none
Tyranny - with war
Wind - none
The portfolios destined to minor deities can be grouped together e.g. in this way:
Darkness/Disease/Murder - an evil minor deity at the service of death (if evil)
Illusion/Lies/Theft - a chaotic minor deity about dishonorable methods of achieving your aims, whether good or evil
Destruction/Storm - a minor CE deity at the service of death (if evil)
Luck/Magic/Secrets - a neutral or CN minor deity, emphasising the wild nature of magic
Sea/Travel/Wind - a neutral deity in service of the god of wealth
Finally if you want elements to have a religious role, you could associates all elements to the deity of nature, or you could associate each element to a different major deity, or you could make specific minor deities for each element, or you could just assign elements to the rulers of elemental beings but not deities.
Similar approach can be used for seasons, maybe each season is associated to a different deity, or otherwise all to nature.
Note that when you choose your favourite associations, you also set a hint about culture in your setting.
For example, normally hunting is associated with nature to emphasise that it is a normal part of natural life; for a change, I associated it with war, and suddenly it becomes more related to civilized life and possibly opposed by nature worshippers.
By adding tyranny to war, I opened the possibility of slightly leaning the war god to LE: it can still be lawful and socially accepted, but people will argue about whether war brings tyranny as a consequence (often in a setting there are separate deities for LG war and LE war).
By associating healing with the deity of family and home I have indirectly taken it away from the nature deity, possibly suggesting that nature priests may consider healing ambiguous: perhaps they may always cure people which were hurt by weapons or other people, but they may be less willful to heal/resurrect people hurt by a more "natural" source, as it is considered to be part of normal natural lifecycle.
I don't know if you intend to use the standard alignment system. Anyway, one thing you can already think about is in general if you are going to have evil gods and how many. There are different possibilities, all of which make for good settings, so it's up to your preferences. A few choices would be:
- more or less as many evil gods as there are good ones, the pantheon is roughly divided in two sides although the evil ones probably struggle also against themselves
- a single evil deity opposed to all the others and concentrating all evil matters (eventually there are minor evil deities at her service, but here I'm thinking only about the major gods)
- no evil deities, and evil worship is related to fiends and similar powerful beings
I mention this because it has an impact on the portfolios. For example, when you have to choose which deity rules over death, the typical options are to either make it an evil deity which hates life, or make it a good/neutral deity who protects the dead and preserve the normal lifecycle.
Well, if you want to compile a list of portfolios, I would start thinking about large and important matters for the people in the world, such as the following (and possible associated alignment):
Nature/Fertility/Prosperity/Earth - good
Wisdom/Justice - lawful good
Wealth/Crafts/Commerce - neutral
Beauty/Love/Arts - chaotic good
Family/Protection/Home - good
War/Conquest/Nobility/Rulership - lawful
Death - any evil or any neutral
Note that I haven't written Magic as a major group. Normally the deity of magic is always a major one, but just to suggest something different for once
I'll make it a minor deity, which the majority of people in the world won't worship since it doesn't affect their lives. This can be very different in your setting of course.After that, you can write down a second list of minor portfolio entries which can be associated to the groups above. Whenever you find one that doesn't fit to the main groups above according to your taste, you can make it a minor deity. I'll try to show an example of associations as well (by no means a complete list), although each has obviously multiple choices! The ones with "none" will go into minor deities:
Animals - with nature
Darkness - none
Destruction - none
Disease - none
Duty - with justice
Healing - with family
Hunting - with war
Illusion - none
Knowledge - with wisdom
Lies - none
Luck - none
Magic - none
Murder - none
Plants - with nature
Sea - none
Secrets - none
Storm - none
Strength - with war
Travel - none
Theft - none
Tyranny - with war
Wind - none
The portfolios destined to minor deities can be grouped together e.g. in this way:
Darkness/Disease/Murder - an evil minor deity at the service of death (if evil)
Illusion/Lies/Theft - a chaotic minor deity about dishonorable methods of achieving your aims, whether good or evil
Destruction/Storm - a minor CE deity at the service of death (if evil)
Luck/Magic/Secrets - a neutral or CN minor deity, emphasising the wild nature of magic
Sea/Travel/Wind - a neutral deity in service of the god of wealth
Finally if you want elements to have a religious role, you could associates all elements to the deity of nature, or you could associate each element to a different major deity, or you could make specific minor deities for each element, or you could just assign elements to the rulers of elemental beings but not deities.
Similar approach can be used for seasons, maybe each season is associated to a different deity, or otherwise all to nature.
Note that when you choose your favourite associations, you also set a hint about culture in your setting.
For example, normally hunting is associated with nature to emphasise that it is a normal part of natural life; for a change, I associated it with war, and suddenly it becomes more related to civilized life and possibly opposed by nature worshippers.
By adding tyranny to war, I opened the possibility of slightly leaning the war god to LE: it can still be lawful and socially accepted, but people will argue about whether war brings tyranny as a consequence (often in a setting there are separate deities for LG war and LE war).
By associating healing with the deity of family and home I have indirectly taken it away from the nature deity, possibly suggesting that nature priests may consider healing ambiguous: perhaps they may always cure people which were hurt by weapons or other people, but they may be less willful to heal/resurrect people hurt by a more "natural" source, as it is considered to be part of normal natural lifecycle.
then, after altering each one to suit your campaign's needs, rename them and then you have your pantheon! i so want to do this. 
Another 'mystical number' is 12, so I will probably aim for one of these two numbers to denote the total number of the 'High Gods' in the pantheon. Number 12 is particularly interesting, since it allows for 12 'normal High Gods' and one (13th - another mystical number) renegade 'High God'. The 12 'normal High Gods' would be good, evil and neutral and some would have conflictual relations, but all would shun the 13th God. I am thinking that the 13th God could be a God of 'Perversion/Corruption'. Hmm, seems like an idea with at least some potential, but I have not yet fixed my mind on it yet. 
