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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9519550" data-attributes="member: 2209">So god stats for full gods have been in OD&D, 1e, 3.0, and 4e. 2e, 3.5, and 4e had variously stats for god avatars and divine aspects which were projections of gods into a material form that could be interacted with but not the underlying god itself (4e had both god stats and projected lower level aspect stats). 5e has had stats for demon lords and the full goddess Tiamat but generally mostly stayed away from statting gods besides suggested domains for their clerics, their general areas of interest, and alignments.The 50th anniversary OD&D celebration book included the OD&D original 3 book set, development notes and drafts and such and supplements I-III but specifically not Supplement IV Gods, Demigods, and Heroes.“The cultural appropriation of original D&D ranges from the bewildering (like naming every 6th-level cleric a ‘lama’) to the staggering; [the reference book] Gods, Demigods, and Heroes (not reprinted in this book) includes game statistics for sacred figures revered by more than a billion people around the world,” Also “Were players expected to fight Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism, kill him, and loot his ‘Plus 3 sword of demon slaying’?”<a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17177/od-d-supplement-iv-gods-demi-gods-heroes-0e?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">Gods, Demigods, and Heroes</a> included real-world myths alongside fictional ones (Conan and Elric, excised from the PDF and the original 2013 premium reprint) providing pantheons a DM could choose to use including stats for gods, heroes, and monsters that could be interacted with mechanically in the game if a DM chose to do so. While some players did hunt down gods for their loot in their home games as documented in letters to Dragon, I think the expectations were diametrically not in that direction.From the 1976 foreword to Gods, Demigods, and Heroes "What the authors have done in this volume is to attempt to set down guidelines that will enable you to incorporate a number of various mythologies into your game/campaign."I interpret this as the primary goal of providing a background of sample pre-done pantheons for gods that can be used in a DM's campaign and for their PC and NPC clerics to have options for patron deities.Also from that foreword "This volume is something else, also: our last attempt to reach the “Monty Hall” DM’s. Perhaps now some of the ‘giveaway’ campaigns will look as foolish as they truly are. This is our last attempt to delineate the absurdity of 40+ level characters. When Odin, the All-Father has only(?) 300 hit points, who can take a 44th-level Lord seriously?"So why provide stats besides for directly providing fights with PCs and loot to collect?I see it so that they have defined powers in the world that can be directly interacted with if a DM has a god show up for any reason. Odin could be always on his high throne manipulating things from afar or throwing his spear to determine a battles outcome and never need stats or he could be an old wanderer in a big floppy hat they meet at a river going under a pseudonym. Fizban the Fabulous can be a questgiver and pot stirrer who actually travels with the party. Vishnu could fight demons on screen or be always the supreme being aspect of many Hindu traditions and a DM not use the stats. A summoned god could fight another summoned god like on the 1e cover of Deities and Demigods. Options for different DMing styles and uses of gods in their campaigns.[ATTACH=full]387357[/ATTACH]The <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17392/world-of-greyhawk-fantasy-game-setting-1e?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">1e World of Greyhawk Campaign Setting boxed set</a> had stats for various hero-deities, quasi-deities, demigods, lesser gods, and greater gods. A number of them lived in the setting such as all the hero- and quasi-deities, Iuz the demigod who ruled his own empire, Farlanghan the god of roads who wandered the world, and Xagyg who rose from Archmage to Demigod status and left the world. This showed a progression of defined power stats and provided divine beings for potential roleplaying interactions with mechanics as needed.This matches things like Greek Mythology where nymphs and river spirits were lower end gods that heroes could interact with including the possibly of fighting or gaining some specific help from them and Ares could get hurt and defeated by a mortal epic warrior in the Iliad and sent running in fear.D&D has gone back and forth on the gods with them occasionally being omnipotent forces in their areas that only send a portion of themselves that can be interacted with as an avatar or aspect but the actual god/being is not limited by those mechanics. This allows different models of divinity, particularly if you want a more medieval monotheistic type of religious relationship model to gods in a polytheistic/henotheistic world.But for a lot of D&D there has been statted full gods that can be interacted with if a DM wants them to show up as more defined than a voice from a communion or miracles happening or not without a hard line between lesser divine beings with stats and unstatted gods.</blockquote>

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