New Design and Development: Pantheon

[Warbringer]

Usually because whenever I hear the name "Seth", I think a guy who's got tattoos and wants to crash on my couch, or someone who makes really funny tv shows.

Your couch, or your Seti? (ok settee, but what do you expect in a pun)

 

[Li Shenron]

I would hope that Tiamat becomes the major goddess she should be. She has more cache in the D&D tradition and more traction than nearly any other evil personage. Make her the goddess of avarice, evil dragons, hatred, etc. and turn her into the greater goddess she should be. I never quite understood how, though dragons have been the iconic creature of the game, their gods have been (outside of Io who people really liked) crap.

Hopefully 4e will give the Dragonqueen some props.



Sundragon

I like to treat Tiamat as Waukeen's hidden side

 

[Ripzerai]

Some of the ancient greeks, assuming I understand Herodotus correctly, were of the opinion that all people worshipped variations of the same deities, so the Greeks might call the chief god Zeus and the Egyptians Ra.

(Serapis is the Hellenistic fusion of Zeus and Osiris, actually; Ra was associated with Helios or Apollo).

Anyway, the Greeks were wroooooong. Blasphemous, arrogant Greeks! The great sun god has nothing in common with their hen-pecked god of clouds!

Like the heretics who claim that mighty Hextor is an aspect of the false god Bane! The faithful of Hextor will destroy the idols of the Northern abomination! Even the Banites' alliance with the cultists of Abbathor will not save them.

I don't understand the desire for ultra-simplified pantheons, really. I like the idea that different cultures (and elves certainly have a different culture than humans) would have different pantheons. More gods are better than less gods. That way, you can have inter-pantheonic wars and alliances - more intrigue, more plot hooks, more divine realms in the Outer Planes to visit, and more player choice! It's win-win, and also win-win-win. It is made of elemental win. The DM and players can select their favorites from a larger list, and ignore the others. More choices makes for better games!

I guess more personally, I thought Monster Mythology was one of the very best supplements for 2e - Carl Sargent was a talented mythmaker, at his best when he wasn't leaning on Roger E. Moore's earlier creations.

I definitely liked that so many 3e supplements would introduce new deities to the game. No one had to use them all, but lots of them were interesting, and many of them came from racial pantheons. If there's an artificial ceiling on how many "core" deities can exist, I shall be very disappointed.

 

[Wanderer20]

Zehir?

I think 4E dev played too much Heroes of Might and Magic V (though the character is a nice one...)

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

I guess more personally, I thought Monster Mythology was one of the very best supplements for 2e - Carl Sargent was a talented mythmaker, at his best when he wasn't leaning on Roger E. Moore's earlier creations.

While the rest is fashioned from win as well, I'd like to cast my specific support for this thought right here.