Faiths & Pantheons

[negativtoo]

ahem.....

First-off, this is a setting specific resource, e.g. the definite write up on the pantheons and deities of Faerun. No more, no less. I would honestly be surprised if it had more than an incidental use for settings like Eberron, Kalamar, Scarred Lands or the Wilderlands. As do the gods books from those settings for the FR.... To expect anything else is utterly naive, sorry to say, but no reason to bash a publication.

Second, the book is a 224 pages, full-colour hard cover, with very little space wasted, and more importantly, without any relevant information being left out. While 33,- USD may not be cheap, I see few, if any rulebooks with these qualities around on the D20 market at a lesser price.

Third, while some higher beings may by now (2 years after the initial publication ) have been overhauled, I don't see that as a reason for this books being called "obsolete". For one, there are numerous campaigns which do not follow the WOtC meta-plot slavishly... Also, Lolth usually is very much an NPC deity, meaning, whatever the/any PCs may hear or believe to know about her is just hearsay - as a GM I hardly ever stick 100% to the official portfolio and stats (of all things, why do gods need binding stats anyway most of the time ?), and I know quite a number of players/GMs who do likewise. Accurate numbers may be interesting for the statistically minded fan, but are hardly essential. So how exactly does the refurbishing of Lolth, occuring of all things in an as yet unfinished series of novels make this book which deals with several dozen deities obsolete ? JFYI - for many players/campaigns/plots Lolth or even the entire Drow pantheon is simply irrelevant... But they might just like the information on the church of Kossuth, the intricacies of the Mulhorandi pantheon or...whatever ?

BTW, if the fact that Lolth may have changed some of her aspects makes this book "obsolete" stands unchallenged, then how do we have to judge the FR-supplements from the second edition ? "Obsolete" ? Out-dated ?

Sorry, maybe you have an axe to grind with WotC or this particular prodcut, but as a factual reviews your bashing is "obsolete" and irrelevant...

 

[Yair]

Faiths and Pantheons is a 3E book aiming to be a definitive source on deities and their followers in the Forgotten Realms. It is 223 pages long, and includes information on all the gods of the forgotten realms, many prestige classes, and a few other goodies. This expands on the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (FRCS), and I assume the reader is familiar with it. Although a 3E product, virtually everything is 3.5E compliant and I will ignore the conversion issues in this review.

FaP opens with an 8 page introduction that skims over the theology of Toril to dive into a brisk description of the divine rank mechanics (from deities and demigods, now available through the RSRD). I found the short discussion on Ao’s omnipotence, immigrant deities, and merging pantheons unsatisfying, and the decision to include full divine stats on the gods unnecessary. As a gaming aid, I doubt I will need a god’s statistics, but at least this book (unlike deities and demigods) uses the Epic Level Handbook rules to create reasonable foes for epic characters. I think a more through discussion of theology would have been more useful (for example, just the sidebar on demon-worshipping gave me some ideas).
Chapter two describes in detail the 30 major deities of Faerun over 78 pages. Each deity receives about 1.5 pages of background material, including the dogma and cleric-relevant-statistics (domains, alignment, weapon, etc.) found in the FRCS, but also general information about the deity, it’s history and relations, and its church/faith, including sects, common attire, allies and enemies, common endeavors, and so on. If found it very useful. Oh, each deity also gets a character write-up (taking another 1 to 2 pages) – which I found not in the least useful. Those in need of such mechanics, however, will be delighted to see the Epic Level rules implemented. The deities lack CR, but range in power considerably (examples include Tyr at Paladin 20/Cleric 20/Divine Rank 18 and Uthgar at Barbarian 20/Ranger 20/Divine Rank 6).
Chapter three describes 89 other deities over 62 pages – that’s an average of 0.69 pages/deity. Obviously, there is less here but by eliminating the (useless, for me) character write ups the book still manages to provide good, useful, information that adds much more to the deity then the one line they get in the FRCS. I should note that some of the art is abysmal (the drow pantheon in particular I found appalling).
The next chapter has 30 pages, and describes three places of worship – one of Malar, one of Shar, and one of Tempus. Each has some excellent description of the local ceremonies and goings-on, a map and detailed description, NPCs (often with added little crunch bits), and advice on fitting the site into your campaign. I find this to be an excellent way to present these places, and the locales themselves are reasonable (though not amazing).
Then comes the fifth chapter with 96 pages dedicated to 20 prestige classes. These are all cleric-oriented (though a few players of other classes may find some appealing). Generally I think they are useful and fitting. I particularly liked the elemental archon (a path to elemental transcendence), heartwarder (a cha-boosted sorceress of Sune is very… appealing), and the stormlord (casually walking through a severe storm has its charm). The chapter also includes a Chosen of Bane template, which I found disappointing. Nothing against the template per-se, but I just think a better elucidation of what a Chosen is and general guidelines to help DMs design chosen for all deities would have been much more useful, and are sorely missing.
The book closes with the appendix, using the last 10 pages. It includes a few feats (largely included in the Complete series), an extensive listing of salient divine abilities, a new domain (repose, including two new spells), a list of monster deities (26 of them), and a table summarizing the Faerunian pantheon.

Most of this material is, by its nature, tied down to the FR setting. With just a little work, however, it is very applicable to any generic setting and is very likely to fit into your campaign. Want an idea for a architecture or dressing style for your sun-god worshippers? Flip over to Lathander’s entry. Want a strom-god cleric? Take a look at the stormlord prestige class. For an FR-specific book, I think it is fairly salvagable for another campaign.
In between the NPCs and deities, the book also includes a few new magic items, weapon/armor special abiltiies, detailed mounts, and other goodies. That's a good thing, helping to make the individuals, well, individuals, and adding flavour and cruch to the work. Good show.

FaP has good content, providing useful information on both the gods and their mortal followers that can enrich any FR campaign, and a host of prestige classes that would make good PCs or NPCs. The information on the three places of worship is also excellent, the authors have truly tried to make the places useful for the DM and it shows, and the new magic items can be useful.
Unfortunately, it also spends a lot of space detailing the gods themselves which I found added very little to the useful content of the work, while at the same time failing to accommodate epic gaming with a basic things such as CR. It also leaves unanswered many questions about the divine and its relation to Toril, such as the nature of Chosen, myths, divine essence, divine intervention, and so on. It is not at all clear to me why I need to go to Magic of Faerun to learn Toril’s creation myth, or why there is no serious religious faith given, even as an example, instead of shallow beliefs and practices.
In conclusion, while the book does provide good material for gaming, I found it rather shallow and mechanistic. It is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it is just not very impressive. It presents serviceable ideas on the faiths, serviceable locales, and serviceable prestige classes – but nothing that truly impressed me. And I found its approach too mechanical at times (such as giving full write-ups on the deities, or writing a Chosen template instead of general guidelines). If I could, I would give it a 3.5 rating. As it stands, I give it a score of 3 – it has some good quality material, but nothing too spectacular and not without flaws or omissions.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Faiths and Pantheons is a collection of the major deities of Faerun, detailing about 30 of the major gods and even takes the opportunity to detail some of the minor gods. $32.95 is the cover price, which is pretty good considering the rising price of RPG books in recent years.

The book is 223 pages, and published by Wizards of the Coast, written Eric L Boyd and Erik Mona (with contributions from Richard Baker, Letitia Boyd, Eric Haddock, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, and Julia Martin). The color artwork really makes the book come alive, and each deity has either a portrait or, at the very least, their symbol. Not every picture was outstanding but the art was certainly good enough to keep me interested.

What makes Faiths and Pantheons so wonderful is not necessarily description of the deities as gamers know these deities rather well by now, but rather some of the unexpected items inside. The details of the deities are, in a way, less descriptive than prior books but instead takes the opportunity to go in a different direction, entirely. Faiths and Pantheons is exceptional because there is a wealth of secondary information that the GM can use to really bring some rich entertainment and realism to their campaign.

Any book of religion in a fantasy world is going to be a complex topic. Living in a monotheistic society such as modern day North America, it is sometimes difficult to imagine holidays, ceremonies, followers and the kind of establishment that the churches in a fantasy world maintain. Faiths and Pantheons covers this rather well, actually, even though I would have liked to see more of how religion in Forgotten Realms interacts with the every day person. But that is obviously a personal thing I would like to have seen.

For those gamers who are interested in ‘crunchy bits,’ Faiths and Pantheons has something for them, too. The fourth chapter is where the prestige classes can be found. Usually prestige classes make me nervous as I am afraid of something that is overbalanced or broken, as is sometimes the case. This is definitely not the case for Faiths and Pantheons. In fact, some of the prestige classes are really interesting, such as the undead-fighting Doomguide (priests of Kelemvor); the Forrest Master (making Druids even more enticing); the Nightcloak which are devotees to hatred, jealousy and evil in the service of Shar; and the Stormlord which is the embodiment of destructive power. Of course, this is not to say that all the prestige classes ‘wowed’ me but the ones that caught my attention far outweighed the ones that did not.

What is of most interest to me is that the book does a great job of describing the followers of the deities. Since followers are the ones that characters will more likely have interaction, this makes for an extremely useful piece. I have always been interested in the ways in which the churches work and the way followers conduct themselves in relation to their deity. In a way this is what sets the book apart more than other deity books from Forgotten Realms, even the ones that were around for 2E. In many ways Faiths and Pantheons does a much better job of detailing the pantheon than any prior book, as it encompasses more topics.

Overall, Faiths and Pantheons is well written and well researched, putting the major deities of Faerun all in one place for the game master and players. Honestly, anyone who is in a Forgotten Realms campaign would really benefit of having this book nearby. Even though I don’t play in Forgotten Realms (yet have a strong familiarity with them) I still found the book very well done.

I give Faiths and Pantheons 4 out of 5 stars.

 

[Arnwyn]

QUOTE: "I have always been interested in the ways in which the churches work and the way followers conduct themselves in relation to their deity. In a way this is what sets the book apart more than other deity books from Forgotten Realms, even the ones that were around for 2E. In many ways Faiths and Pantheons does a much better job of detailing the pantheon than any prior book, as it encompasses more topics."

Wow. I couldn't possibly disagree more. The 2e Faiths & Avatars books blew this one out of the water in every way, including what you say above.

 

[Li Shenron]

What this book is and what is not

Faith & Pantheons is the most complete 3rd edition reference about religions in the Forgotten Realms setting. Its purpose is to provide information for players and DM alike, whenever religion is involved in adventures and campaigns. About half of the book is free-form information and the other half concerns more numeric characters material and, to a lesser extent, monsters and equipment.

This book gives material and support for at least the following tasks:

• to give PCs and NPCs a much deeper definition of their faith, with both roleplay and adventuring benefits
• to give PCs and NPCs some more tactical options, mostly in the form of prestige classes
• to provide stats for encounters with deities or avatars
• to provide adventure seeds based around religious sites or organizations

After having used this book for a couple of years, my personal opinion is that it succeeds quite well, with some failures in the prestige classes, several of which lack attractiveness or consistencies. I have however not tried to run any epic encounters with gods or avatars, about which I am not able to express an opinion in this review.

{Disclaimer: in this review I have purposefully listed ALL deities which are described in this book, despite their sheer number, i order to allow a reader looking for his favourite deity of Faerun to check whether it was included in the book or not}


Rules compliancy

The book is officially 3.0 compliant. As it mostly contains setting information, the majority of it can be used in any ruleset. To fully use the book in 3.5, a DM would need to do only minor adjustments to prestige classes (skills and feats) and possibly to deity and avatars stats.

There seem to be occasional editing errors in the prestige classes chapter, probably due to the process of refining the classes therein without always double-checking what was written before.
{I did not check if the deity and avatar stats are correct}

Several PrCls are quite powerful, granting full or near-full spellcasting advancement and a special ability an nearly every level, although many of the latter are only of minor use. The power of these classes is often balanced with strict requirements, some of which seems to be tossed in just for this purpose, and with the fact that a PrCl from this book is typically designed for a follower of a specific FR deity.

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting sourcebook is explicitly required to fully use Faiths & Pantheons. However, this is almost only in the form of a few feats or clerical domains. As such, it is possible to use the large majority of F&P without FRCS, with little adjustment.

There are 32 playtesters mentioned in the openings of the book. The number is not small if one considers that most of the book is rather roleplay material which doesn't need a mechanical playtest.


Setting adaptivity

This book is intended to be used in the Forgotten Realms, and is the definitive resource of religion for that setting. The deities described here are very well interconnected to each other, either friendly or unfriendly, which is clearly an added value to the whole but also makes it slightly difficult to "pick" them separately to incorporate into another existing setting.
If the DM is instead willing to adopt the whole set of deities in this book in a homebrew setting, or eventually only a subset (such as a single lesser pantheon), it should be extremely easy to do so.
Alternatively, a more freeminded DM may simply allow a PC to play a worshipper or cleric of one of these deities liberally, if there seems no problem in mixing with existing deities.


Editing notes

Faith & Pantheons is of good editing standard, and writing style. The probably only part where it gathers some inconsistencies and incomplete explanations is the prestige classes chapter, as it seems more editorial control would have helped.

The overall organization is simple and therefore solid. The editor has chosen to present some material (such as magic items) as spread throughout the book instead of gathering it into a single chapter, probably because it is of limited amount.

The artwork of Faith & Pantheons is good but not top-notch in my personal opinion, slightly less inspired than the one in the main FR sourcebook.

Content walkthrough

The book starts with an introduction (8 pages) about what does it mean to be a deity in D&D and how pantheons work. The divine rank system is explained through a list of divine features which depend on the deity's rank, but here a summary table would have been very useful. While these features are going to very rarely come up in the game, unless the DM regularly runs divine encounters, some of them are very useful for explaining what are the possible levels of interaction between mortals and gods: for example it is mentioned how a deity can sense events related to its portfolio, or how some gods use all animals of a kind as familiars at the same time. In campaigns where religion is often a motivation for adventures, these can become very useful ideas.

Chapter 1: Major deities of Faerûn (78 pages)

30 Faerûnian deities are described in this chapter: Azuth, Bane, Chauntea, Cyric, Eilistraee, Gond, Helm, Ilmater, Kelemvor, Kossuth, Lathander, Lolth, Malar, Mask, Mielikki, Mystra, Oghma, Selune, Shar, Shaundakul, Silvanus, Sune, Talos, Tempus, Torm, Tymora, Tyr, Umberlee, Uthgar and Waukeen.
Each of these deities is given two or three pages of information, half of which covers topics such as the deity's nature and interests, its history and dogma, activities of the church and followers in general, and relationships with other faiths. This information, although not abundant, is very useful for players to flesh out their characters (not necessarily clerics) around a faith, as well as for a DM who runs adventures or NPC with a religious theme.
The other half of each deity's entry provides full "game stats" for the deity itself and for a sample avatar. Unless the DM is running a very high level campaign (epic to say the least), this sort of information may be instead utterly useless; nevertheless, some of these can be occasionally used by the DM as a basis for adjudicating Miracles or similar powerful divine manifestations.

Chapter 2: Other deities of Faerûn (62 pages)

Here are shorter descriptions for 29 less common Faerûnian deities, followed by separate pantheons for some nonhuman races. The full list of the first includes: Akadi, Auril, Beshaba, Deneir, Eldath, Finder Wyvernspur, Garagos, Gargauth, Grumbar, Gwaerom Windstrom, Hoar, Istishia, Jergal, Lliira, Loviatar, Lurue, Milil, Nobanion, Red Knight, Savras, Sharess, Shiallia, Siamorphe, Talona, Tiamat, Ubtao, Ulutiu, Valkur and Velsharoon. Each of these are given from half a page to a single page of descriptive information and no stats, which makes them still useful for characters and adventures but not for epic combat encounters.
The other pantheons described here are:

• Drow pantheon: Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvatarm and Vhaeraun (Lolth and Eilistraee were described in chapter 1)
• Dwarven pantheon: Abbathor, Berronar Truesilver, Clangeddin Silverbeard, Deep Duerra, Dugmaren Brightmantle, Dumathoin, Gorm Gulthyn, Haela Brightaxe, Laduguer, Marthammor Duin, Moradin, Sharindlar, Thard Harr and Vergadain
• Elven pantheon: Aerdrie Faenya, Angharradh, Corellon Larethian, Deep Sashelas, Erevan Ilesere, Fenmarel Mestarine, Hanali Celanil, Labelas Enoreth, Millifane Rallathil, Sehanine Moonbow, Shevarash and Solonor Thelandira
• Gnome pantheon: Baervan Wildwanderer, Baravar Cloakshadow, Callarduran Smoothhands, Flandal Steelskin, Gaerdal Ironhand, Garl Glittergold, Segojan Earthcaller and Urdlen
• Halfling pantheon: Arvoreen, Brandobaris, Cyrrollalee, Sheela Peryroyl, Urogalan and Yondalla
• Mulhorandi pantheon: Anhur, Geb, Hathor, Horus-Re, Isis, Nephthys, Osiris, Sebek, Set and Thoth
• Orc pantheon: Bahgtru, Gruumsh, Ilneval, Luthic, Shargaas and Yurtrus

Chapter 3: Places of worship (30 pages)

This chapter features three adventure locations in the form of a lively and well-defended abbey, a sinister and more spartan cultist temple, and an open ceremonial site under the sky.
Each of these are extremely well supported with information such as: detailed description with small maps of the areas, history of the temple, services provided to visitors, private activities and ceremonies, internal hierarchy and important personalities (2-4 full-statted NPCs each).
The books provides nice suggestions about how to adapt or modify each temple to different faiths, and a few example adventure seeds. Overall this is a very good chapter for a DM.

Chapter 4: Champions of faith (32 pages)

The last chapter is entirely devoted to prestige classes and as such is useful for both players and DMs. Designed around strong concepts, they usually require around 5 levels in divine classes and almost all are also exclusive to worshippers of specific deities (while this last restriction is very harsh, it could obviously be modified or simply ignored if the DM runs a different setting).
It is slightly irritating to read "most of the members are clerics" in the description, when effectively ALL members MUST have cleric levels to qualify for nearly all of them.
On the average, these PrCl are quite powerful (almost all grant full spellcasting advancement) but also have costly requirements, which are unfortunately often only designed as a cost with not much relevance. On the other hand, many also carry some roleplay requirement to make the class more interesting.
While some seem to me well thought-out (Auspician, Forest Master, Waveservant), there are some others which seem to be hollow (Dreadmaster, Strifeleader) or have no clear target (Goldeye, Nightcloak).

• Arachne: intended for Drow priestesses of Lolth, this class grants special abilities related to spiders such as poison immunity, freedom of movement on webs or shapechanging into spiders, plus both a spider familiar and a spider mount
• Auspician: a manipulator of luck, the Auspician gains occasional or shifting bonuses to different types of rolls, and expands the Luck domain ability to affect others as well
• Doomguide: while introduced as clerics who support mortals against their fear of death, these are effectively Kelemvor's elite group to eradicate undeath from Toril; they are masters of fighting and turning undead
• Dreadmaster: a cleric of Bane with enhanced leadership, and enhanced fear spells
• Dweomerkeeper: for multiclassed arcane/divine casters; these are scholars who study a little bit of "everything magic" and gain limited special abilities
• Elemental Archon: a cultists of an elemental deity which rules mephit underlings and slowly transforms into an elemental creature
• Forest Master: a mighty protector of ancient trees and forests who becomes ever more similar to plants; among other things, she gains natural armor, plant type, strength and constitution increases, and fast healing
• Goldeye: a Waukeen priest who gathers small abilities related to trade and valuable goods
• Heartwarder: an extremely charismatic spellcaster who becomes one with the feys
• Horned Harbringer: a follower of the former deity of the dead who has become in touch with a special artifact and thereupon developes necromantic abilities; this class doesn't require and doesn't grant spellcasting, but grants (or improves) undead rebuking and creating, with the purpose of creating a small undead army
• Nightcloak: a devoted of Shar who learns an array of diverse abilities related only the deity's taste for shadows, darkness and deceit
• Ocular Adept: a deranged servant of beholders and The Great Mother
• Silverstar: a cultist of Selune (slightly) more dedicated on the powers of the moon
• Stormlord: a favored by Talos who delights with storms and lightning
• Strifeleader: an agent of deceit and strife and minor divine illusionist
• Sword Dancer: an elven "holy liberator"-type who emphasizes mobile combat and can attune with a sword of choice
• Techsmith: the arcane or divine crafter of a magical construct companion, and expert in facing golems or constructs in battle
• Waveservant: this water-focused priest gathers many dread abilities similar to several underwater creatures
• Wearer of Purple: member of the evil Cult of the Dragon, she befriends (and later command) evil dragons and improves her magic abilities
• Windwalker: essentially an air- and travel-focused caster who gradually develops flight capabilities
• Chosen of Bane: this is not a PrCl, but rather an example of "chosen by a god" template, not very suited for a PC

Appendix (10 pages)

The last part of the book contains material which was needed in previous chapters and published in other books (besides the FRCS), plus a 2-pages list of the Faerunian deities with basic information (good to photocopy and lend out to players as a quick reference).


Conclusions

Overall my own three gripes with this book are the excessive space dedicated to deity statistics, the inclusion of deities from real-life religions (the Mulhorandi, not an issue with the book but rather with the setting), and the design of prestige classes. While the first two are quite a matter of personal taste or gaming style, the third is more general and serious problem.
This is one of the 3ed books where the authors have used the idea that "wasted feats" make for good requirements to balance strong prestige class features, instead of taking more care in balancing them directly. The worst example is possibly the overuse of required proficiency in the deity's favored weapon (often exotic), for classes that really have nothing to do with combat.
Sometimes these prestige classes give the feeling that the authors haven't taken a second thoughts on how different base classes can work with them. The Heartwarder for example is the only PrCl to require any divine/arcane spellcasting, and grants full spellcasting advancement plus a neat +5 Charisma inherent bonus, an extremely powerful choice for any Sorcerer for example.
There are also occasional errors in the classes, such as a requirement feat which later is granted by the class itself, or other nonsense such as missing in the class skill lists nearly all the ones required to qualify.
Overall these problems mean that Chapter 4 is immediately useful for NPCs, while some minor modifications should be considered before allowing these classes to PC.

This book is by no means a book for only clerics and paladins. Except for most of the prestige classes, every other information is useful for any character who follows a faith. But because each character is usually dedicated to a single deity, the DM is definitely going to use a much larger part of this book overall.

As already mentioned, despite the fact that this book is Faerun-specific, a lot of generic information and good ideas can be quite easily ported to any other setting. Actually, the book is not strictly a must-have for a FR campaign, considering that the basic and most important information of major deities was already provided by the FRCS book.

4

Li Shenron