The New Core Pantheon

[Dacileva]

-Something blue! Does this mean a god of incarnum is in?

Nah. It'll be Raxivort.

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

So, who do you think will make the jump into the D&D Core Pantheon?

Couldn't care less. I don't think we've ever used the gods in the core rules.

The group I play with made up our own gods which we use in all our game worlds except Forgotten Realms - presumably because the gods of FR are so important to the world or something, while at the same time being the most bland, generic and uninteresting deities one could imagine. Maybe we can kill off all the old gods in FR and introduce our own awesome pantheon when 4e comes, as some sort of cataclysmic event. I'd like that.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

There should never have even been a "core" pantheon. Making the Greyhawk gods "core" in 3E was one of the dumbest ploys ever, not to mention the most transparent. "Hello? Marketing? I've got this great idea how to increase Greyhawk product sales..." Please. If 4E has a core pantheon, and it will, it won't be a marketing ploy. It'll just be stupid.

 

[Klaus]

There should never have even been a "core" pantheon. Making the Greyhawk gods "core" in 3E was one of the dumbest ploys ever, not to mention the most transparent. "Hello? Marketing? I've got this great idea how to increase Greyhawk product sales..." Please. If 4E has a core pantheon, and it will, it won't be a marketing ploy. It'll just be stupid.

The core pantheon wasn't a ploy to sell Greyhawk stuff. It was an example pantheon that could (and was) used by DMs all over the place, it provided a baseline through which to present deity-related stuff, like items, classes and locations.

It's much better to have Pelor than to have "Sun God".

 

[Treebore]

Plus could you tell me what Greyhawk product sales were boosted? I only saw two in 7 years. Eberron and Faerun would have been much better choices for that kind of marketing.

 

[Dykstrav]

It's much better to have Pelor than to have "Sun God".

I totally agree with this. It's better to have some sort of core pantheon, I think, than to present various spells/prestige classes/magic items as being attached to "a prominent god of the sun and healing in your campaign."

I'd like to see a brief tidbit about a core pantheon in the core rulebooks, including a bit about why deities choose to be involved with adventurers and clerics in the context of the setting.

Then let's have a Legends and Lore type of supplement that details several different pantheons from different campaign settings and real-world mythological cycles. I don't think it needs to have full stats for the deities, but it should have a decent half-page writeup for each like in Complete Divine.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I think that the core pantheon should consist of a table of parts of names. You roll for deity miscibility and get a god's name that covers the domains your cleric wants. Presto! Backfill your pantheon.

 

[Klaus]

I think that the core pantheon should consist of a table of parts of names. You roll for deity miscibility and get a god's name that covers the domains your cleric wants. Presto! Backfill your pantheon.

"deity miscibility" reminds me of the 1e table of what happens when you drink more than one potion...

Ah, good times...

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

Make up your own damn pantheon. Why should the designers do all the work for us? If you're using a pre-published setting, fine; if you aren't, make up your own gods. Exercise a bit of right brain.

 

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