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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marc17" data-source="post: 9849197" data-attributes="member: 7054182">The last campaign I ran started with discussing this with the players as the entire setting was being built from scratch. We had to resolutions: 1) it would be more of a polytheistic setting where there gods represented aspects of nature (ie their domains) and 2) to get Raised, Resurrected, or otherwise come back from the dead, it required more than just the spell and needed 'credit' built up by either the recipient or caster with an appropriate god.This meant all the gods were the same for everybody. The elven god of death would probably look like an elf and have symbolism in their imagery and shrines that elves associate with death, while the human god of death would be the same one but probably look like a human and have human death symbolism. On top of that their alignments varied between avatars and while an evil assassin might ask the evil avatar of the god of death for aid in killing somebody, their good target might be asking the neutral avatar of the same god to not die. The differences in these avatars were typically noted in the symbolisms and offerings of their appearance and shrines. It was all sort of wishy washy to the point that clerics usually had their favorite but tried not to worry about it too much. While there were clerics dedicated to individual gods, there were others that dealt with the entire pantheon. Temples were the same. Most large cities would have a pantheon that might be dedicated to one or more of the gods, but then all or most of them would have some representation usually in small shrines there also. There were antagonisms and rivalries between gods, but generally there was no enemy, and this extended to worship also. They were part of the Natural Order. Trying to kill one would be an attack on the Natural Order and an attempt to break it. The one thing that held for all of them is, that they did not like being disrespected. I didn't have any mechanics for it, but let the players know this and that it might make a difference in something later. So, doing something like destroying a shrine dedicated to an evil avatar of this or that god, better be done respectfully (asking forgiveness or making sacrifice first, appealing to another avatar of same god, etc.) or there might be consequences.Although there were no real mechanics, and such divine intervention was never invoked, the PCs were pretty cautious not to offend any of them. They did their share of hunting down and killing evil clerics doing evil things, but also would attempt to make amends with their god. Once dedicating the killing of a cleric of the god of death to his own god. The second resolution also came into play as there was a cleric of the god of murder who was murdering entire villages of people and dedicating it to his god, so he could have the power to cast Raise Dead, which he would do to gain political power from such action in return. The villages were usually small powerless fey creatures and elves, or other people not represented by the local kingdoms. The players made sure to put an end to that once they ran across each other and then ended up with a scroll of Raise Dead from him. The casting cost due the god was paid at the scribing of the scroll like any material component, but they knew what he'd done to create it. They kept it to use for a good cause in hopes of doing some good with it (but still had it unused by end of the game).After seven years I'm sort of used to that style and make keep if for my next campaign.</blockquote>

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