D&D General The purpose of deity stats in D&D.

[Vaalingrade]

Oh, so you wanna fight that fight, do ya? Alright, then, let's go...

<throws gloves and stick to the ice and puts up the dukes>

~The evening prayer of Kord.

 

[AnotherGuy]

In the setting I’m currently developing, the main religions believe the gods both good and evil (Aeons and Archons) are fragments of the original “Overgod” Ennoea that was killed when the world was created.

Out of interest what was cause of Ennoea's destruction? Sacrifice to create the world?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Out of interest what was cause of Ennoea's destruction? Sacrifice to create the world?

Kind of the opposite, actually. The creation myth for this setting is a bit convoluted, but to put it in simple terms, two evil gods, Ahriman and Yaldabaoth, murdered Ennoea and used Their essence to create the world.

 

[dave2008]

I'm not aware of it having a real life source. I think it comes from fantasy fiction and was popularized in D&D by the cosmology of The Forgotten Realms. I'm trying to remember if the concept was included in Deities & Demigods.

I did a quick look through the introduction in Deities & Demigods (DDG) and I didn't see anything. I will look through the appendices, but I don't remember there being anything in the 1e DDG.

EDIT: I didn't find anything in the DDG appendices either

 

[dave2008]

Still find it super-weird that gods are beholden to alignment at all.

The 2024 5e DMG says they are not (and I think this was the same in 2014):

Home Plane and Alignment
Gods aren’t defined by mortal conceptions of alignment, and different mortal worshipers might interpret a god’s behavior and teachings through the lens of different alignments. That said, gods tend to live on the Outer Planes that most closely match their general alignment tendencies, so it’s safe to assume that the teachings of a god who resides in Pandemonium (a plane of rampant chaos and evil), encourage behavior that is Chaotic Evil, while a god who resides in Elysium (the plane of pure good) encourages Neutral Good behavior.

 

[Maxperson]

All one really has to do is make it impossible to assault a god under normal circumstances. Then if you want your high level party to fight a god, you can invoke those circumstances; for example, The Time of Troubles in the Forgotten Realms where the overdeity declared that the gods would temporarily be rendered vulnerable and have to prove their worth.

Alternately, the stats of a god is merely those of their avatar, and the real deal unassailable without the intercession of another god of equal or greater power, or an artifact of some kind.

That's how I treat the gods in my game.

I know in the AD&D game I've played in for many years, any deity or quasi-deity that is killed anywhere but their home plane cannot be permanently killed (I think this is spelled out in the rulebooks somewhere but I can't be sure without doing some digging). And of course, to assault a deity on their home base, where they can manipulate the surroundings to their will, and no doubt have a ton of Petitioners and servitors (including high level champions and powerful extraplanar beings) is virtual suicide under most circumstances anyways.

That was definitely true for any deity of lesser or higher power. I think it wavered for demigods and quasi-deities and in some editions it had to be on their home plane and in some they were just vulnerable that way because they were not full deities. I can't be sure about that without looking myself, though.

 

[Maxperson]

I did a quick look through the introduction in Deities & Demigods (DDG) and I didn't see anything. I will look through the appendices, but I don't remember there being anything in the 1e DDG.

EDIT: I didn't find anything in the DDG appendices either

It's in the 1e DDG on page 11 on the left hand side, second to the last paragraph and last paragraph.

 

[James Gasik]

That's how I treat the gods in my game.

That was definitely true for any deity of lesser or higher power. I think it wavered for demigods and quasi-deities and in some editions it had to be on their home plane and in some they were just vulnerable that way because they were not full deities. I can't be sure about that without looking myself, though.

Of course, this always made me wonder about those nutty deities who claimed the Prime Material as their home plane.

 

[Maxperson]

Of course, this always made me wonder about those nutty deities who claimed the Prime Material as their home plane.

I thought the same thing.

 

[dave2008]

It's in the 1e DDG on page 11 on the left hand side, second to the last paragraph and last paragraph.

Maybe your copy is different than mine, that paragraph doesn't have any such information in mine: