D&D General Divine Power: Theros, Deities and Demigods, and the Power of Worship

[dave2008]

Well, weirdly the point I was round-about-getting-to seems to have been started by someone else this morning; re: the manifold issues of having the power of a deity being related to the number of worshipers.

It certainly seems to make sense at first, in a self-contained campaign world; there are echoes of it from the beginning (re: the presence of Iuz in Greyhawk), but then it seems to lead to the following issues:

A. As a starting issue, given that we know of the existence of the deities, and that their power is linked to the number/alignmnent/power(?) of their worshipers, why don't we see a LOT more divine intervention. Sure, occasionally you get demigods like Iuz make a direct play, but you would think that we'd see a lot more meddling (a la Theros, apparently).

B. Following on that, how do you justify the number of deities that traditionally are considered greater gods but have very few worshipers, either because of their subject matter (Hi, I'm the God of Secrets, Don't Talk About Me) or because they are evil and require human sacrifice, etc.?

C. And this gets to the subject matter of the other thread; basically, how can a deity present itself as differently powered on different campaign worlds? What is the true (outer plane) power of the deity?

Going to (C) I instinctively understand the appeal of it; to use an example, a deity might be a greater god in one realm and a lesser god or not even worshiped in another realm. But I tend to think of that in terms of avatars that manifest within the plane, and not as relates to the deity itself.

But as someone noted, it's probably a lot of theorycrafting that doesn't matter for most campaigns.

First I just want to say that is not how I handle deities. In my games deities power is primarily independent of worshipers. I deity exist and can gain power without worshipers. However, deities can gain additional power from worshipers. It is minor, but not insignificant within the "lifespan" of a deity. I can go into more detail, but that is the basic concept.

Now regarding dragon article and option C. I think you could look at it as avatars; however, I could also see it as a good can only so much power based on a particular planar or location bias. So the more worshipers a god has in an area / plane the more of its full power it can manifest. It can only manifest its full power on it home plane which acts as a nexus for the power of all of its worshipers. Not how I play, but it is how I understand that approach.

 

[Oofta]

I've been running my games as gods being powered by worshipers ever since I read Harry Harrison's Hammer and the Cross books.

So basically, old gods don't die they just fade away. Their ability to directly affect the mortal realm is tied to their worshipers. Basically every prayer, every song dedicated to a deity is actually a spell that sends a miniscule amount of power to the god. When a cleric casts a spell, they are just tapping in to that reservoir of built up magic.

Also explains why most lay clerics don't cast spells, there's only so much magic to go around.