Deity Ranks: Quasideities, Lesser Deities, Greater Deities

[Yaarel]

What about nuetral and evil gods?

Arch-celestials are the powerful good spirits.
Arch-fiends are the powerful evil spirits.

I am unsure how to refer to the LN, NN, CN, with regard to the celestial-v-fiend division.

But I always saw the elemental forces as the main ethically Neutral forces anyway.

(Maybe Slaads and Modrons can be understood as aspects of elementals?)

 

[the Jester]

Things I've noticed in reguards to deity rank, all pervious demigod deities got a promoted to lesser deities because demigods are now closer to traditional demigods and can't grant spells to clerics.

Where's this from, now?

Greater Gods Avatars are basically Lesser Gods, that could have interesting angles if their Avatars are unique from each other.

And this?

Should cosmic powers like Archfiends, Solars and other Archcelestials, Archmentals, Archfey, Archsorrowsworn, Primus, Slaadi Lords be concider a fourth catogory of Quasideity?

Nope. I vastly prefer treating them as warlock patrons, personally. I think warlocks work pretty well to model "priests" of small gods, too (such as the god of a small village, a bridge, a specific hill, etc).

 

[the Jester]

That is a good point, but we haven't seen Vestiages statted up yet, if they can even be statted up, they might be slumbering vortexes of supernatural power unembodied that can only function in certain circumstances.

Yeah, actually, there are a number of vestiges detailed in Cure of Strahd. Or at least the abilities they grant are detailed. I don't think vestiges have ever been presented with stats, though I could be wrong.

 

[the Jester]

The question becomes "why." WHY do certain being gain power from worshipers, but not others? It's an arbitrary reasoning, one that (as far as I can tell) came about because of the Time of Troubles in the Realms (which only then limited the god's power to be based on worship).

I never really liked the worshipper requirement that came about from FR. It seemed to be a core concept of planescape as well. Lose your worshippers and end up as a floating corpse in the Astral.

I'm not sure if this is where it started, but a 1e-era Dragon Magazine had a fascinating article, I believe written by Gygax, about how gods received "mana" from their worshipers, which they spent to perform miracles and grant spells. So the more worshipers- as well as the higher level they were, with extra mana being received from paladins and clerics- the more powerful the god becomes. And the fewer worshipers, the fewer clerics and paladins the god can empower to spread the word.

 

[Yaarel]

There are high level celestials, and low level celestials.

There are high level fiends, and low level fiends.

There are high level feys, and low level feys.

There are high level shadows, and low level shadows.

There are high level elementals, and low level elementals.

There are high level material planers, and low level material planers.

It is as simple as that. It is the level that matters.

 

[gyor]

Yeah, actually, there are a number of vestiges detailed in Cure of Strahd. Or at least the abilities they grant are detailed. I don't think vestiges have ever been presented with stats, though I could be wrong.

I don't think they are embodied enough to be statted.

Would the nine trickster gods in ToA count as Vestiages as well.

 

[jasper]

I'm not sure if this is where it started, but a 1e-era Dragon Magazine had a fascinating article, I believe written by Gygax, about how gods received "mana" from their worshipers, which they spent to perform miracles and grant spells. So the more worshipers- as well as the higher level they were, with extra mana being received from paladins and clerics- the more powerful the god becomes. And the fewer worshipers, the fewer clerics and paladins the god can empower to spread the word.

BARF! The Gawds are not toys powered by their batteries( worshipers). I remember that article and it was one of silliest serious articles Dragon published.

 

[gyor]

BARF! The Gawds are not toys powered by their batteries( worshipers). I remember that article and it was one of silliest serious articles Dragon published.

Its more complex then that, they do get powerful from other sources such as their portolios, if they make their portifilios more ascendant, say a Goddess of Love making sure more people fall in love then ever, that too increases her power.

Still the idea of worship as manna (I prefer the term Ambrosia), for the Gods that feeds them and makes them more powerful makes sense, and has its sources in mythology (or at least a twist on mythological ideas). In some Mythologies humans were created to serve and feed the gods, so that the Gods didn't have to do that themselves.

So its not a long stretch that the worship itself becomes how the mortals feed the Gods and mortals provids verious services to support their God and improve their interests.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Where's this from, now?



And this?

DMG for both.

It's stated that Greater Gods don't dwell in the Planes traditionally like Lesser Gods do, instead they create Avatars of themselves that are about as powerful as Lesser Gods. However the destruction of their avatar has no real effect on the Greater God as they can create another one with time.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

https://youtu.be/W50q_rOmwoE

This lore you should know refers to this section of the DMG is in the third act.[video=youtube_share;W50q_rOmwoE]https://youtu.be/W50q_rOmwoE[/video]

41:09 is were he starts talking about Divine Ranks and Gods.