D&D General The Generic Deities of D&D

[dave2008]

Yeah, I don't remember the specifics, but I do recall that a god got mana both from actual worshipers and from creatures of its alignment. It was a sort of two-channel affair. Although maybe that second channel was only open to higher status deities. It's been a while.

From Deities and their faithful (dragon #97):
"Various and sundry statistics are given for deities, but let us make a basic assumption. Their power comes from those who believe in them; without followers, any deity is consigned to operations on some other plane of existence, without the means to touch upon the Prime Material. Such deities have no immediate interest to us, since they do not fall within the current scope of the game. Thus, we are interested only in deities with followers dwelling on the Prime Material Plane of the campaign. These faithful give the various deities power. Of course, this idea is not new. It has been put forth often by others, whether seriously or as a device of literature. It serves as an excellent game device as well.

So. . . each deity draws strength and power from those mortals who believe. The power gained is determined thus:
1,000 believers = 1 hit point
1,000 of same alignment = 1 power point

Hit points apply only on the plane on which the believers dwell. All faithful on all planes then combine to determine the strength of the deity on the “home” plane inhabited. For example, a neutral good deity will be weak on planes where evil rules, for there will be few, if any, followers of that deity in such a place.

Power points are the stuff from which all deities of the same alignment draw to use their spell-like powers, issue and enforce commands, and perform other abilities they may have. "

It goes on fore several more paragraphs (and to another page), but this seemed to be the relevant bit for this discussion.

 

[Mirtek]

I'm mildly curious about which article this was and when it was written.

Saying gods need worship to gain power was one of the things that changed in 2nd edition Forgotten Realms via the Time of Troubles, in-universe it was one of Ao's changes to make gods more responsive to their worshippers (although apparently the elemental gods were exempt from this somehow)

Given that plotline was in 1989, and the realms originally came as a published D&D setting in 1987 without that rule, it puts a relatively narrow window on when that change in D&D's setting presumptions would have changed.

Yet all planescape sources elevated Ao's new rules from a Toril-specific thing to an universal rule

 

[Hoffmand]

Yet all planescape sources elevated Ao's new rules from a Toril-specific thing to an universal rule

I ignore the whole concept of Ao. Just yuck. To each his own.

 

[Voadam]

Keep religion fluid. Have conflicting accounts. Avoid an overarching cosmology.

I would suggest there is a tendency – perhaps a temptation – for DMs to invent a myth cycle which describes the beginning of their world, to detail the role and functions of their deities within it: to invent a cosmology, and then engage in a kind of mythopoeia. This then comes to describe the metaphysical reality of the game world. I submit that this is a mistake.

. . .

Deities fragment, syncretize, recombine and die. Mortals may be deified, and deities may be historicized. Mythological figures are very fluid.

. . .

D&D tends to have much clearer boundaries, and has less fluid figures. So I would suggest blurring boundaries and liquifying your deities.

This is easy to do in D&D because there is so much lore from different sources, different authors, and editions which can be mixed and matched.

Is one-eyed Talos the cruel stormlord head of the Gods of Fury in the Realms really the one-eyed Orc leader Gruumsh in disguise?

Is Odin really in charge of most of the pantheons in the Realms, not only one-eyed Gruumsh and Talos, but also All-father Moradin of the bearded norse-ish dwarven pantheon, and the elvish warrior wizard Correlon Lorethain?

Is Bane an Ares like cruel war god as shown in 4e Dawn War pantheon, the major God of Tyranny, or was he an ascended warlord always grasping at power? You could have different cultures or sects each viewing him differently. If you go beyond D&D you could equate him with Chardun from the Scarred Lands or Asmodeus.

Is Asmodeus the fallen angel who murdered the human god to gain his deific power (4e Dawn War), a LE dragon half of the universe from primal times recovering from being struck down by the good coatl half (2e Guide to Hell), the first god created by the now absent Creator as the god of fire (Green Ronin), A LE god from the beginning times who struck his CG brother down as the first act of betrayal (Pathfinder), Just the strongest devil (1e)?

 

[Winterthorn]

In the days of third edition I ran a 3 year campaign in Kenzer & Co's Kingdoms of Kalamar. A great campaign setting indeed IMHO. It handled deities as follows:

No personal name for a given god, e.g. Knight of the Gods (LG), The Peacemaker (NG), Raconteur (CG).
A different name for the same god per human culture (other than the name used in Common as above).
A different name for the same god per racial culture.
No gender, although often the same gender assumed in many mortal references.
No race, that means the same god is known by every mortal race differently, so if they manifest, they can do so in a manner according to their audience at their whim.

An example of one the 43 deities:

"NAME(S): THE RIFTMASTER, aka THE GATEKEEPER, SORCERER SUPREME, THE FLOWMASTER
REGIONAL NAMES (HUMAN): Emnon (Brandobian), Djahn (Dejy), Tykhor (Fhokki), Hokalas (Kalamaran), Bealai (Reanaarese), Ehnovam (Svimohzish)
RACIAL NAMES (HUMANOID): Lugad (Dwarven), Halobrendar (Elven), Halit (Gnomish), Boerin (Halfling), Ganlinaraz-Krok (Hobgoblin), Eraurk (Orc)
SPHERES OF INFLUENCE: The Riftmaster is the god of magic.
ALIGNMENT: Neutral.
APPEARANCE: The Riftmaster appears as a cloaked skeletal figure. The Sorcerer Supreme is a fearsome sight for nonworshippers."

So pretty generic; this pantheon is quite portable in design, perhaps with some minor tweaking of names, to other worlds if desired.

 

[Bohandas]

I absolutely love the mess!

I like that there are overlappings, inconsistencies, duplicates, asymmetries, vacancies, different versions of the same deity... all this stuff contributes to never really knowing the truth and therefore making religion a myth.

Altgkugh the problem is that it's explicitly not supposed to be (except in Eberron)

Is Asmodeus the fallen angel who murdered the human god to gain his deific power (4e Dawn War), a LE dragon half of the universe from primal times recovering from being struck down by the good coatl half (2e Guide to Hell), the first god created by the now absent Creator as the god of fire (Green Ronin), A LE god from the beginning times who struck his CG brother down as the first act of betrayal (Pathfinder), Just the strongest devil (1e)?

You left out the one where he's a corrupt archon who tricked the gods into signing the plane of Baator over to him (3.5e Fiendish Codex 2)

 

[Voadam]

You left out the one where he's a corrupt archon who tricked the gods into signing the plane of Baator over to him (3.5e Fiendish Codex 2)

And the one where he took over and displaced Satan (early Dragon articles).

Or where he is Satan's enforcer (In Nomine). Lots of options.

 

[Hoffmand]

Asmodeus requires multiple histories written to make him interesting.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Asmodeus requires multiple histories written to make him interesting.

Not really. You could do a single one and make it interesting

 

[Hoffmand]

Not really. You could do a single one and make it interesting

Nah. Not fun that way. Keep them guessing. Make them all interesting.