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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 2011666" data-attributes="member: 13836">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.</blockquote>

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