D&D General Do you use D&D style list of gods in your games?

[Clint_L]

Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that, just like in the real world, folks are prone to acribing specific areas of influence to the various entities that they choose to worship. These vary by culture, but there are lots of harvest gods and so forth.

No, in the sense that there is no one god of anything, and in fact gods are just whatever people choose to worship. Because this is D&D world, some of those things turn out to be actual, powerful entitites with their own agendas, who may even think of themselves as the God or the Harvest, or whatnot. But there's no cosmic order that requires them or anything.

As I mentioned in another thread, in my world faith-based magic comes from the faith and the training, not the source of the faith.

Example: I still use lots of the traditional D&D Gods. Bahamat and Tiamat, for example. But they are really just powerful entities that have carved out a niche for themselves. And they don't have an alignment, they have goals and motives. I am more sympathetic to Tiamat.

 

[Umbran]

If you have something like this, where the gods are "person-like" and have names and domains or spheres of interest, in most of your games over the past 20 years or so, that's a Yes.

If you don't have gods at all, or you let your players pick their religions, or your gods are disembodied forces, that's a No.

So, having a name, domain, and sphere of interest has NOTHING to do with being "person like". You can be a force that nobody has ever personally physically seen, that has a name and a domain. A god can meddle in the affairs of mortals without being much like a mortal at all...

 

[Pedantic]

Often I would historically, but lately I've leaned more toward mystery cults of very specific gods that I introduce when they become relevant.

 

[el-remmen]

I vote yes, but I think of that kind of categorization as the application of mortal understanding to an ultimately unknowable divine mystery.

So while I have a list of "The 13 Gods" I also have these notes

The 13 Gods vs. the Under Gods

A relatively more recent and in some places, more popular, way to see the gods is to consider the 13 Gods as the supreme gods, with all the other extraplanar beings who do not directly serve one of the 13 Gods, being considered "Under Gods." This term refers both to these beings' position relative to the 13 Gods, but also their degree of power. Generally speaking, Under Gods do not support clerics, nor do they bind the oaths of paladins -- though there have been exceptions. Some followers of the Under Gods believe their patron god to deserve reverence as either a 14th god or more often as a replacement for one fo the existing thirteen. Others do not acknowledge the designation at all and have different explanations for the supremacy of this set of gods when there are so many others. Ancient and disavowed scriptures even suggest that the gods that make up the supreme 13 were not all always the current ones.

The 13 Gods are widely considered the creators of the world, using the collision of Law and Chaos to give the world shape and set it in motions. From this perspective, other beings who do not submit to the 13 Gods are seeking to disrupt or conquer the world originally made perfect by the equal contributions of Law and Chaos.

Even by this perspective, the Cosmic Alignment of the gods shape the relationships of the 13 Gods and color the religious stories about them and their followers.

Syncretic Forms
While the 13 Gods are often spoken of as having traditional familial relationships, theologians and others who plumb the religious mysteries understand that these relationships are as complex and unknowable as the gods themselves. According to mortal understanding of the divine realms, no god can be destroyed, not even by another god. But at times, when in conflict or accord, two or more gods can merge into new wholly forms. These syncretic forms are considered by some traditions to be independent divine beings that are simultaneously of and apart from the gods that comprise the form. This melding of gods is not always a positive thing, as sometimes dark forms, enraged by conflict, or whose instincts go unchecked by a tempering force when too much of accord, emerge to found destructive religious movements and customs.

Some syncretic cults abandon the comprising god forms altogether, declaring the combined form a superior and evolved way to approach the divine.

These syncretic forms are controversial among various churches dedicated to the 13 Gods. Some orders eschew all syncretic forms as heretical and forbidden from worship on their grounds or in their services (no better than the Under Gods), while others might welcome clerics of some syncretic forms into their church hierarchy. Most common is the middle ground, where these forms serve as a focus for prayer and ceremony, but the order remains dedicated to a specific god, while giving respect to the others who joined up with their gods for some cause or as a result of some celestial event.

The most common way that syncretic forms are encountered are as patron spirits of the fiendish, celestial, or primal sort for warlocks and the focus of niche cultic activity, especially those forms with darker aspects.
:
The entries for the 13 Gods included in this chapter list 1 to 3 of the most common syncretic forms for each of the gods. These (plus others) are also listed in a table at the end of the chapter.

Note that it says "destructive religious movements and customs," so it is not necessarily the gods themselves, but those that follow them that cause the most influence on the world through their beliefs and actions.

And then here is an example of a god entry:

Almathea (Goddess of Hearth & Home)
Symbol: :A burning hearth, a blue lotus, or a sacred rattle
Cosmic Alignment: Law
Colors: Red and Brown
Portfolio: domesticity, home, childrearing, motherhood, bounty, protection
Sacred Animal: Cow
Sacred Weapon: None
Syncretic Aspects: Dreya the Dark Mother (Almathea + Byrrhus + Cyrene), Hymna the River Goddess (Almathea + Undine)
Domains: Life, Light
Sacred Oaths: Devotion, The Union

Almathea has many different forms depending on the stories and murals, but is most often depicted as a matronly figure, carrying a basket, and one or more children. One common sacred form for her statues and visions of the goddess is as a cow or a cow-headed woman. She is called wife of Zenithos, the mother of
Byrrhus and Nyra, and the sister of Cyrene, Lyssara and Orostos.

Almathea is one of the most popular gods in the Republic of Makrinos, and the Mother's Milk Festival each spring is a highly anticipated Feast Day in most rural towns and villages. The halfling god Rhianwen is widely accepted as just another name for Almathea.

And here is the explanation of the entry categories. ..

God Entry Explanations

Symbol
This is the most common symbols used to represent the god in question. They can be encountered as amulets and charms worn by clerics and worshipers, statues, paintings, or motiffs in clothing or jewelry. Most gods have 2 to 3 symbols listed as different sects may prefer one symbol to another, or some symbols are easier to recreate in some forms over another.

Cosmic Alignment
This indicates if the god is aligned with Law or Chaos, or one of the few who stand firm in the Neutral stance.

Colors
These colors are often associated with the god, appearing in the clothing and decor of priests and temples, or as features to interpret in divine omens.

Portfolio
These are the items, events, facets, and feelings over which the listed god is thought to have dominion. This list is not exhaustive, but represents the most common elements of their portfolio. Different churches, sects, or even individuals might prioritize some aspects of a portfolio over others, or even include related ones not listed here. Nevertheless, everything listed here are the kinds of things that worshippers will pray to the deity about to gain their favor.

Sacred Animal
The 13 Gods (and many Under Gods) have a particular animal associated with them, and are often depicted as animals or animal/humanoid hybrid in both stories and art. Celestial or Discordant versions of the beasts are frequently messengers to deliver omens. These animals are sacred to the followers of the 13 Gods (to varying degrees) with different strains of the faith protecting and/or ritualistically hunting and/or sacrificing examples of the holy beast.

Sacred Weapon
This is the weapon (if any) that the god is most frequently depicted wielding in art and stories. It is also the form of weapon most frequently favored by clerics and paladins dedicated to that god. The spell spiritual weapon always takes the form of this weapon when cast. Typically, a cleric gains specialization in their god's sacred weapon.

Syncretic Forms
As formerly described, there are countless divine manifestations that are made up of two or more gods joined through syncresis. This category lists a couple of the most common syncretic form venerated in Makrinos.

Domains
There are the Domains available to a cleric of the specific god when choosing their subclass.

Sacred Oaths
If this god supports paladins, the kinds of oaths they bind are listed here.

 

[TwoSix]

So, having a name, domain, and sphere of interest has NOTHING to do with being "person like". You can be a force that nobody has ever personally physically seen, that has a name and a domain. A god can meddle in the affairs of mortals without being much like a mortal at all...

This is all true. But I asked about people using systems where all of those elements were present.

People who are using one but not the other are welcome to explain their votes in the comments.

 

[CleverNickName]

In most cases, when I invent a pantheon I'll create a D&D style list of about a dozen gods, then write a paragraph of info for each. Sort of like the 3E PHB does. Then I'll add more detail and stuff as needed, as the campaign progresses.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

The main setting of my fantasy game is French and Italian coded, so rather than gods I have a lot of patron saints.

San Maciste is the CN patron saint of bodybuilders, positive masculinity, manual laborers, industrial saboteurs and slaves, for instance, who is contrasted with San Ctesibo who is the LG patron saint of hydraulic engineering, sewer workers, dwarves and fungiculture. Rather than a singular "god", the people worship a supernatural legislative body called the "Libertine Host", and the spirits of saints are supposed to effectively argue procedure in heaven and then hand down the law to elected officials.


From an in-world religious studies perspective, most religions fall under the categoric of "deific", "heroic" or "animistic". A deific religion has a small number of eternally supernatural beings or spirits, a heroic religion (like the above saint-worshipers, though they refer to themselves as "Tyranomachs") who worship mortals who gained or amassed supernatural power and are believed to intercede in worldy affairs, and animistic religions, which profess that non-living (or non-carbon based) objects have a consciousness, will and the ability to affect the world around them.

 

[SkidAce]

I answered yes. Every "religion/philosophy/force" has a list.

But in many cases, unless characters want a specific patron god, they can follow the "pantheon" as a whole. Like Eberron ish.

 

[bedir than]

If I create a new setting for the game, I also create bespoke religions (though, admittedly, pretty shallowly) and/or let those playing clerics, druids, etc... define those things. If they want to worship Moradin or whatever, I don't usually mind, but generally speaking the "god list" is not the one from the PHB.

If I am running a game set in the Realms, though, we assume those gods are applicable.

I'm similar to this, with my current world having five pantheons and one spiritual philosophy. Some of the gods appear in multiple pantheons. I think the most gods I have in a pantheon is twelve.

 

[SkidAce]

I'm similar to this, with my current world having five pantheons and one spiritual philosophy. Some of the gods appear in multiple pantheons. I think the most gods I have in a pantheon is twelve.

My numbers are about the same.