D&D General The Generic Deities of D&D

[Aldarc]

But then humans would have to be good at something (unless the god is completely incompetent) and that would totally screw up race in D&D. Hmmm, on second thought would be a good thing; bring on the God of Laser Beams.

God of Ubiquitous Mediocrity

 

[MechaTarrasque]

More like X-men with 3-5 Wolverines and no Prof X or Cyclops.
Everything I read about the Dawn War reads like a bunch of loners who team up only for survival who attack or ignore each other once the Primordials are taken down and Big Asmo does what he does.


That's not the problem. Humans are good at stuff.

The problem is the way D&D treats deities is that that their creation race follows the lead of their patron. And neither TSR nor WOTC want to lock humans out into a single culture or racial war. So the Human god would have to do nothing.

Most races have a class they are particularly good at (admittedly in 5e "particularly" isn't as strong as it was in previous editions). I don't see one for humans. If you had the human creator god somehow related to a class (like hunting to ranger or fertility to sorcerer) then it would be weird that humans are just "average" good at that or you would need to change humans to make them better. I think TSR and WotC were trying to avoid that.

[As an aside, I think the fertility god/sorcerer combo is the best one. It puffs up the ego a bit, but doesn't imply any virtue like studiousness or piety (or even industriousness) that might limit characters. Plus, all those half-elves, half-orcs, tieflings, aasimar, and genasai tend to look like humans were one of the ancestors, and "my grandpa was a dragon" is the stereotypical sorcerer origin.]

That being said, there have certainly been enough instances where part of race A ends up following some other god/demon lord/archdevil than the one that created them that you could justify a complicated history for humans that no single patron is running the show. Being able to do that while not offending a bunch of people or being "over the top" pro-human seems likely to be difficult. [Of course, the origin story humans tell themselves should be "over the top" pro-human].

Edit: in hindsight, it would be easy to change all the races so that there are "secret histories", so, for example, Moradin tells his clerics that he created the dwarves, but he might just be the latest guy running the show, and a 1,000 years ago, when he took over, his guys broke a bunch of statues and destroyed a bunch of scrolls saying that the last "God of Dwarves" created them.

Elves live a long time, so that is why the drow origin involves other deities than Lolth (someone alive might actually remember what happened.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

God of Ubiquitous Mediocrity

Undoubtedly a TN god.....
I would be curious what his/her/its's favorite domain is.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Couldalways be the God of Community and Team Work?

Is this a cunning scheme to bring back the Warlord?

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

But then humans would have to be good at something (unless the god is completely incompetent) and that would totally screw up race in D&D. Hmmm, on second thought would be a good thing; bring on the God of Laser Beams.

Going by a trope that seems almost omnipresent, not only in fantasy, but in sci-fi as well, it is something that could apply to reality as well, and people IRL wouldn't find offensive, and potentially even flattering, I have am idea for a patron god of humanity.

Rillo, God of Sexuality, Fertility, and Physical Love.

perfect.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Uhh you sure.

The Stereotype to me was always Human Fighter, Elf Wizard, Halfling Rogue, Dwarf Cleric.

I'm thinking of 3.5 icons (Tordek was the Dwarf Fighter alongside Redgar, but I only remember Jozan for the cleric) and the old arcade games (no idea what their names were, I just remember the guy yelling sticks to snakes)

It was only in more recent DnD works that I started seeing Dwarf Clerics becoming more prominent.

I find it extremely distasteful. It's a retroactive justification for why ancient deities behave like newborn evangelist cults, and it grossly diminishes their majesty. Beings that require and demand worship are, practically by definition, not worthy of it.

And then it justifies garbage like the Wall of the Faithless which makes the "Good" alignment utterly meaningless.

Now, this, I'll disagree with you on, but for different reasons.

First of all, I do not apply the "faith powers the gods" to old real-world religions. Because I don't care about old real world religions in regards to how I veiw my fantasy world. They are useful for inspiration, but I do not want to ascribe mechanics to them, that just gets messy,

Now, the second point. Why do the Deities care about their worshipers? Why would they bless a Temple erected in their name? The "Faith powers the Gods" position provides an answer, because the gods gain a benefit from the people worshiping them.

I picture it somewhat like a King and his subjects. The subjects empower the king, without them he has no army, no taxes, no food, ect. Is he still a King without his subjects? Maybe, but he would be a weak king. Now, does that mean that he should demand worship? Not necessarily, to probably misquote a great line "A king does not need to declare himself a king." A proper king does not comman by demands and threats, he commands by the mere fact that he is a king.

The Gods should be the same. Yes, they gain benefits from your worship, the harder and more fervently you pray, the more you empower your chosen diety, but that is just the natural course of existence. The Gods do not demand you pray to them, because that would be unbecoming of them.

This also has a stealth benefit. It allows for the rise of new gods. In my homebrew I actually have a war leader who ascended to godhood. She swore an oath of Vengeance against Bane, for the war that killed her family. And led a crusade that ended with her fighting the God in one on one combat. She was defeated, but rose again as a deity, because of the faith of her followers.

But, without some sort of reason for the Gods to care about mortals... why would they?

Edit: It seems your bigger problem is with dieties fighting each other. I mostly removed that by doing two things

1) No Evil gods. Being an Evil god doesn't make sense to me. Especially considering we have Archdevils, Demon Princes, and Great Old Ones to fill that space. Why have a God of Brutal Murder when Yeenoghu is right there as a powerful extraplanar force of slaughter? What purpose does it serve to have both?

Corollary to 1) The gods work together. They aren't like, the best friend squad, but they have an alliance. Why? Because infinite demons are pouring out of a whole in the world, one of the more powerful beings in existance sacrificed that power to make a sub-reality that is corrupting souls and forming its own power block, and things many times more powerful than them are pressing into the veil of reality to try and devour them all. In fighting is stupid, it will get everyone killed.

I actually took this a bit far, to a degree. Asmodeus is really good at making people question if he is evil (like a devil should) and the story of Tharizdun is part of that. Tharizdun was a powerful god, immensely so. He went to fight a Great Old One solo. Drove it off, but it infected him, turned him mad, and filled with a desire to destroy everything. The gods fought him and imprisoned him, but this freaked them out. Fighting the Great Old Ones could lead to them becoming corrupted too, how could they win.

So, the next time a Great Old One showed up, they were hesitant, debating how to handle it. Then Asmodeus showed up, and beat and imprisoned it (this was canon in 3.5, can't remember the name of the GOO though. Had a horn and forever regenerated). And he was fine. Stating tht his only goal in creating Baator was to make souls strong enough to stand up to the corruption of the Abberrations, so reality wasn't destroyed.

Even Warhammer has the racial gods actively fight the chaos gods. The 4eDawn War gods at least can claim to be holding the demons and Titans back.

I've read a few fanfics that include the Warhammer Fantasy gods, seems like a fascinating lore to dive into.

Going by a trope that seems almost omnipresent, not only in fantasy, but in sci-fi as well, it is something that could apply to reality as well, and people IRL wouldn't find offensive, and potentially even flattering, I have am idea for a patron god of humanity.

Rillo, God of Sexuality, Fertility, and Physical Love.

perfect.

It really would be perfect

 

[Aldarc]

There are a few settings out there that have a "God of Humans."

Iron Kingdoms: Menoth is the Patron God of Humanity, but most humans have since abandoned worship of Menoth in favor of the weirdly kinda quasi-Buddhist/Christian teachings of Morrow (and Thamar) that teach that divine ascension is possible through moral virtue. Menoth and his followers are not too happy about it, and Menoth mostly exists to represent the popular imagination of a wrathful Biblical god.

Golarion: Aroden, a human who ascended to godhood, largely served this function before he died, though he kinda represents human manifest destiny. By the time of Starfinder, his protégé Iomedae (valor, honor, etc.) takes up the mantle of patron god of humanity. But both of these are ascended mortals.

 

[Minigiant]

Most races have a class they are particularly good at (admittedly in 5e "particularly" isn't as strong as it was in previous editions). I don't see one for humans. If you had the human creator god somehow related to a class (like hunting to ranger or fertility to sorcerer) then it would be weird that humans are just "average" good at that or you would need to change humans to make them better. I think TSR and WotC were trying to avoid that.

[As an aside, I think the fertility god/sorcerer combo is the best one. It puffs up the ego a bit, but doesn't imply any virtue like studiousness or piety (or even industriousness) that might limit characters. Plus, all those half-elves, half-orcs, tieflings, aasimar, and genasai tend to look like humans were one of the ancestors, and "my grandpa was a dragon" is the stereotypical sorcerer origin.]

That being said, there have certainly been enough instances where part of race A ends up following some other god/demon lord/archdevil than the one that created them that you could justify a complicated history for humans that no single patron is running the show. Being able to do that while not offending a bunch of people or being "over the top" pro-human seems likely to be difficult. [Of course, the origin story humans tell themselves should be "over the top" pro-human].

Edit: in hindsight, it would be easy to change all the races so that there are "secret histories", so, for example, Moradin tells his clerics that he created the dwarves, but he might just be the latest guy running the show, and a 1,000 years ago, when he took over, his guys broke a bunch of statues and destroyed a bunch of scrolls saying that the last "God of Dwarves" created them.

Elves live a long time, so that is why the drow origin involves other deities than Lolth (someone alive might actually remember what happened.

I think it is more the other way around.

Elves, dwarves, orcs, and the rest were all associated with a class or pair of classes. And their gods and racial pantheons were made to represent these common PCs and NPCs.

Bu humans was always the "can be anything" race. So outside of getting a whole pantheon and you couldn't get a god of humanity for D&D.

Outside of copiying SIGMAR or THE GOD EMPRAH OF MANKIND!

 

[wingsandsword]

I think it is more the other way around.

Elves, dwarves, orcs, and the rest were all associated with a class or pair of classes. And their gods and racial pantheons were made to represent these common PCs and NPCs.

Bu humans was always the "can be anything" race. So outside of getting a whole pantheon and you couldn't get a god of humanity for D&D.

Outside of copiying SIGMAR or THE GOD EMPRAH OF MANKIND!

I honestly think an attempt at creating a single "Racial Deity of Humanity" would wind up being, to use the TV Tropes term, a "Crystal Dragon Jesus". . .a fantasy pastiche of Abrahamic religion, as the single real-world predominant deity that is worshiped and most D&D players are most familiar with. . .a Lawful Good deity that is a patron of humanity, seen by his worshipers as the god of Creation, and possibly associated with things like the sun, skies, justice, protection and mercy with a church that clearly takes inspiration from the medieval and renaissance Catholic, Orthodox, and possibly Anglican denominations, especially since the D&D cleric is pretty blatantly inspired by medieval crusaders.

I'm basically thinking a kinder, gentler, more "warm and fuzzy" version of St. Cuthbert.

 

[Lanefan]

PHB says 8th level Cleric for dwarven npcs. This was changed in Unearthed Arcana so dwarves PCs could be clerics, 13th level was possible for single classed dwarven clerics with 18 WIS.

Probably because most DMs had already by then opened up the NPC-only class-race combos to PCs anyway.

I know I had, particularly for Clerics, in that any race or culture that supports its own deities should in theory be able to have Clerics to said deities.