D&D General Religion in D&D: Your Take

[The Soloist]

My take as a GM has always been Order vs Chaos. 95% of cleric players I have met never defined or asked me to define their god and religion beyond what special abilities their Domains would give them.

I developed a religion, once, for a campaign which included a Paladin and a Cleric who specifically asked for more details. The Paladin was great with it. She played well within the limitations imposed by the scripture. The cleric player tried to abuse his power to do sick things, such as forcing himself on a female peasant. That didn't go well with his god and the two female players at the table (one of which was his wife, and yes they divorced a few years later).

 

[pukunui]

What do you mean by fleshed out? It seems pretty clear and robust in Theros, what else needs to be fleshed out?

Nothing. I just meant maybe it would be reprinted in full in the new DMG.

 

[Shiroiken]

In my Greyhawk, the average person is typically dedicated to a religion/church, but there are quite a few who give worship to whomever fits their current needs. Given that some priests can actually channel divine energy, particularly the healing kind, it only makes sense that most people would want to be close to that kind of power. Churches do not give away this benefit for free, although being a member of that specific church would provide a discount.

Interesting to note that several religions/churches are not dedicated to just one deity. For example, the Church of All Seasons contains the four Oeridian season deities, plus their father. The dwarven church worships the entire dwarven pantheon, plus Ull (who is suspected of being of dwarven origin). Many elven and gnomish churches include Ehlonna into their pantheon as well.

 

[Raiztt]

I encourage/play a low magic setting, and typically cap PCs at around 12th level. I run religions in such a way that the gods are distant enough that atheism is possible. Cleric magic is only different from wizard magic by how they attain it, not where it comes from. In other words, Gods do not directly give clerics (or paladins) magic, they simply access magic a different way than other casters.

I typically have pantheons of gods, where common people worship them/give offerings when they had need to do so - for example, donations to a roadside shrine of Fharlanghn before going on a long trip.

 

[dave2008]

Nothing. I just meant maybe it would be reprinted in full in the new DMG.

That would be pretty great - but I don't think we will get it in the DMG.

 

[Chaltab]

I generally use the Dawn War pantheon as central to my take on religion in my campaigns.

The gods are active in the world through agents and angels, but they seldom interfere directly because there's both cold and hot wars that span the cosmos. Any time they expend a great deal of power somewhere, that power isn't available for use somewhere else, which is why it's up to mortals.

This also means that the churches and religious practitioners are generally left alone and you can get corrupt clerics of good gods or benevolent faithful of evil gods. As long as that person isn't acting in a way detrimental to the god's larger goals then they aren't directly reprimanded. It also allows for differing interpretations within sincere believers. One of the big conflicts is the different myths about the Raven Queen, with some of her followers taking a more harsh 'have no pity or mercy' take while others emphasizing understanding that death is just the transition into a new stage of life.

 

[Maxperson]

Ok, so there is nothing about FR that prevents taking the same approach. Thank you for the verification!

Yep. I run the FR and the Spellplague and Sundering simply never happened and never will. If I wanted, I could do the same for the Time of Troubles and run FR like Eberron. I'd never do that, but I could.

 

[Maxperson]

No dragon dumb religion is better for campaigns..

Dragon smart religion ends with the party dead and broken.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Maxperson]

I know the Forgotten Realms at least follows the "worship a single deity exclusively" model (or at least, it did). I always had the impression this was so in other campaign settings, but I couldn't tell you why.

It does and it doesn't. You need to have at least one god you follow so that you don't end up in the wall, but most people pay homage to various gods at various appropriate times. You may follow Tempus, but you're still going to mutter a prayer to Umberlee and ask her not to drown you as you sail somewhere. Or a small prayer to Tymora to lend you luck when you are gambling. And then a prayer to Tempus for the person who just won all your money to die horribly in battle.

I think the reason you have that impression is that players are just bad at doing that and just pick one god. NPCs don't have that problem.

 

[Maxperson]

It may be my lack of setting knowledge, but I don't see why FR couldn't have the same interesting religion and faith dynamics that you get in Eberron. I mean, it is not like even in FR the gods have personally presented themselves to all people, or that everyone agrees on the existence of gods or the importance of gods. I could be wrong, but I would imagine the vast majority of people in FR are dealing with faith, not concrete knowledge of the existence of gods. Then even those who do have such first hand knowledge not only need to contend with those who don't have such experience, but also those that do with equally concrete knowledge of a differing god with a differing cult.

Yep, I just don't see how that necessarily lessons anything really. I mean it can if you want to, but it is hardly a requirement of the setting IMO.

They can and do. After the Time of Troubles when Oghma disappeared, his church split into multiple factions. As I said upthread, the idea of active gods and multiple interpretations of the religion are not mutually exclusive things.

If your god just wants you to go forth and beat things up, he's not going to care how or why you go forth and beat up those things. There will be multiple interpretations of things and beliefs on how to get it done, which means different churches for that god.