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Message: <blockquote data-quote="knasser" data-source="post: 4678215" data-attributes="member: 65151">I think 4e is doing deities / religion extremely well for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has a compelling creation story filled with struggle and which still has repercussions in the "current" setting. The gods overthrew the titans uh, primordials. There's a feel of lurking chaos because of that meaning the gods aren't all-powerful super-beings. They had to fight to establish the world.Secondly, there is a feeling of change to them, and change makes things more real. E.g. the Raven Queen was taken as a consort by the former god of death (iirc) and eventually overthrew him. Orcus has slain minor deities before and might do so again. Thus the gods aren't some static feature in the background.Thirdly, the power-levels are more compressed. Okay, no-one is going to beat Vecna in a fight, but it's now possible to have that sinister old man you meet on the road turn out to be Vecna (or his aspect) later on to give players the feeling that the gods are present and real. Not saying that encounters with gods aren't major events in a PC's lives - the point is that they are - but it's better than the DM trying to convey some vast spiritual omnipresent being booming at them from the heavens. This to me is a very good thing.Fourth, and this is a really big one, the deities aren't some incarnation of a particular aspect of nature. People don't pray to Bane because he is some distilled essence of battle, they pray because he is a great commander, tyrant and warlord himself and they pray to him as appropriate. There's no reason a warrior might not pray to Kord before battle instead if that suits his personality, or to Bahamut simply to enable him to achieve a glorious and honourable victory. People pray according to which deity they think will be inclined to aid them, not according to some checklist of portfolios.Fifth, there is no nonsense about gods needing followers. The gods exist anyway and whilst some may desire followers, others care less. This enables greater flexibilty in the roles of adherents. For example, Bane may desire great temples raised to his honour. But the Raven Queen's priests may merely set up simpler shrines which they use as a basis for their minor religious duties such as funeral rites, etc. And because the deities power is not dependent on followers, this is fine and not unbalancing. You don't need an equivalent sized church of the Raven Queen to show that she is as powerful as Bane. (Though I didn't pick the perfect example as Bane likely has a couple of levels on her).As to Melora explaining precipitation to her priests, I kind of like that. It doesn't cost her anything - she's still just as powerful and her followers know that she can still influence the rain if she wishes. And it fits, imo, that her priests should have a slightly better knowledge of the way the natural world works than others would.Yeah, 4e - the rules are crap for role-playing, but a lot of the setting material is excellent for it.</blockquote>

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