Twenty plus one

[DanMcS]

I think my favorite bit about the gods from Worlds and Monsters is that to fight the primordials, "The gods banded together in small groups, and each group set out to destroy one of the mighty primordials."

Adventuring parties going out to fight a monster were a fundamental part of the creation of the world.

 

[I'm A Banana]

They specifically said in R&C that they're trimming out a lot of the domains pointless for adventurers (e.g. no god of agriculture), so I'm thinking athletics, farming, winter, snakes, etc. might not get specific mentions. Definitely not as domains (if those even exist in 4e).

Domains? No, but the areas of control were specifically rolled into adventurer-worthy gods.

So there *is* a god of Agriculture. Same with athletics, winter, snakes, etc. It's just that these gods are ALSO the gods of adventuring stuff. So the god of Agriculture is also the god of healing, the god of athletics is also the god of storms, the god of winter is also the god of death, the god of snakes is also the god of darkness, etc.

And this is a point that makes me very happy.

 

[Shroomy]

If the PoL is not going to be developed into a full-fledged setting, then I don't see the need for all those ancillary gods in the PHB (or even assigning them such ancillary roles).

 

[tuffnoogies]

There needs to be a Tymora-like god(dess) of good fortune. Maybe that'll be tacked onto Avandra's portfolio?

 

[I'm A Banana]

If the PoL is not going to be developed into a full-fledged setting, then I don't see the need for all those ancillary gods in the PHB (or even assigning them such ancillary roles).

The ancillary roles help it make sense when you find a temple to the god of Swords in a little farming village (oh! he's the god of sword AND plowshares!). It's useful to have applications for the wider world in these gods, and if it's just a random word-mention in a list of things the deity is associated with, you don't loose anything, while gaining quite a bit.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Races and Classes says they resulted from an affair between Sehanine and Obad-Hai, and Avandra was very interested in them. If, as speculated above, Obad-Hai is out, that will obviously get tweaked a bit.

I hope Obad-Hai is out, just a god I never like (the name I guess) but no great shakes to me.
Now we are obviously going for adult themes in 4E if they replace Obad-Hai with Melora in the relationship above

 

[Callikah]

hmmm a chained god imprisoned by the others, sounds alot like a certain god in a series of novels by the name of erikson to me, i hope they dont make that god abit to much like that one or i sense a lawsuit

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey DanMcS!

I think my favorite bit about the gods from Worlds and Monsters is that to fight the primordials, "The gods banded together in small groups, and each group set out to destroy one of the mighty primordials."

Adventuring parties going out to fight a monster were a fundamental part of the creation of the world.

Didn't they also say that there are now only Demigods, Lesser Gods and Greater Gods...?

I wonder who on that list are the Greater Gods now that there is no Intermediate Rank?

Also presumably the Elder Elemental God is a Primordial?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

hmmm a chained god imprisoned by the others, sounds alot like a certain god in a series of novels by the name of erikson to me, i hope they dont make that god abit to much like that one or i sense a lawsuit

not really possible because most inspiration for gods comes from earlier non copyrighted sources like mythology.

 

[DanMcS]

Didn't they also say that there are now only Demigods, Lesser Gods and Greater Gods...?

I wonder who on that list are the Greater Gods now that there is no Intermediate Rank?

Also presumably the Elder Elemental God is a Primordial?

I didn't see anything about divine rank in Worlds and Monsters, though it's possible I've forgotten.

The bit on the Elder Elemental Eye describes him as a god (whose name is "only spoken in panicked whispers") who found a shard of utter evil, plummetted into the Elemental Chaos, created the Abyss with his crash-landing, and was later chained by the gods in a secret place known only to them. But definitely a god, or at least he used to be- the Primordials are presented as a separate class of beings.

Isn't this the same as the backstory for Tharizdun from the Temple of Elemental Evil in earlier editions? It's pretty close.