D&D 5E Was Tempest an odd choice for PC-centric domain?

[DEFCON 1]

We now know what the seven domains are going to be in the PH for players to choose from when they make their PCs: Life, Light, Nature, Knowledge, Tempest, Trickery, War.

But what seems odd is that as I've gone through the various pantheons of the "fantasy settings" of the game (IE the non-real-world ancient pantheons like Greek, Norse, Egyptian)... it seems as though the Tempest (or "storm god") domain is one that does not appear for most PC-centric deities (or else doesn't also fall under another domain.)

Here are the gods of the various settings that could fall under the Tempest, storm, or weather portfolios:

Forgotten Realms: Talos (evil), Umberlee (evil)
Nerathian: Kord (neutral, but also falls under War domain)
Eberron: The Devourer (evil)
Greyhawk: Beory (good, but also falls under Nature domain), Procan (CN), Tlaloc (evil)
Dragonlance: Zeboim (evil)

So other than a campaign that uses Thor or Zeus as part of their pantheon... any established D&D setting will see the Tempest domain be probably the least used because most of the deities that fall under it are evil, and thus usually won't be worshipped by most PC clerics. And even the two deities listed above that aren't strictly evil... Kord and Beory... both of their portfolios include one of the other six domains the PH is going to have.

This strikes me as rather odd. That WotC would include a domain that, yes, is the focus of two of the most prominent and popular "real-world" deities (Thor and Zeus)... but which gets little to no play for any fantasy settings for good or neutral gods.

And what's odd is there are definitely gaps in the domain list as it stands in terms of primary portfolios for major greater deities. These portfolios will need to be covered by one of the other domains that might not really be a good fit. Magic and Civilization/Law will need to fall under Knowledge; Travel and Fortune will need to fall under Trickery; Honor, Justice, Duty and Protection will need to fall under Life I guess. Can't say I'm all that thrilled with either or those ideas.

Speaking personally, I know an earlier playtest packet included The Protector as a deity/domain and that I'm probably going to adapt those rules to my game. And as far as the Tempest domain is concerned... I suppose I'm going to have to wait to see what the PH suggests, because I'm pretty sure that if I run my campaign in the Realms... I'm not going to really want a Talos or Umberlee worshipper in the game. In the end, maybe it won't matter... but I just find it weird to think the game has been set up for a Talos cleric moreseo than one for Torm.

I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[FadedC]

The tempest domain is basically the storm battle priest from first essentials book. I think it's there mostly to give people who are already playing that class in 4e an easy conversion. Although it looks like a pretty cool domain on it's own. An interesting point about it's place in the established game worlds though.

 

[grimslade]

Who doesn't want to be a Stormlord? A battle priest of the Thunderer, sign me up. Rule of cool, baby!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

If you're not using the standard setting, you could assign any domain to any homebrewed deity. I think in the grand scheme of things, this is really minor.

I don't understand the concern with Kord and Beory.

 

[Agamon]

Blame Marvel. Thor is badass. As is his half-brother, Loki (Trickery domain).

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

If there is a gap here, I chalk it up to Forgotten Realms religion being incredibly dumb. I'd much rather have a storm domain than travel or "civilization," which might be important to various campaign worlds but don't really lend themselves to adventuring.

 

[Savage Wombat]

The "sky god" is an incredibly common archetype, and frequently the ruler of a real-world pantheon. (The influence of Sumeria may be involved.) I suspect "storms" is more interesting than "sky", so they conflated the two.

 

[Andor]

Doesn't the FR have more Gods than goblins?

Lessee... Looking at the wiki. I would say you could run a Tempest domain cleric as a priest of:
Akadi - Neutral
Istishia - Neutral
Silvanus - Neutral
Talos - Evil
Auril - ?
Bahamut - LG
Umberlee -
Shaudakul -
Ulutiu -
Valkur -

Azul -
Eha -

Presumably some of the 8 million gods of kara-tur...

Anhur - L
Isis -

Presumably some of the 10,000 gods of Zakharan...

Marthammor Duin - L

Aerdrie Faenya -

Stronmaus - G

Seela Perylroyl - G

And probably some more in the bottom of that page that I couldn't bother reading. Also ZombieRobotNinja has a point. Fr religion is incredibly dumb. It's like a titantic soap opera performed by leeches. For my money if you need worship to survive you're not a deity, but somewhere between a televangelist and a vampire.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you're not using the standard setting, you could assign any domain to any homebrewed deity. I think in the grand scheme of things, this is really minor.

I don't understand the concern with Kord and Beory.

If people made homebrew setting, sure... but when you have a series of campaign settings already in use and little of them actually use the Tempest domain for their primary deities and don't have domains for the primary deities they do... it just seems like an odd decision to me.

As far as Kord and Beory, it wasn't a concern... it was an acknowledgment that if the Tempest domain didn't exist, both of those deities had another domain in the game that would apply to them. So you wouldn't be leaving those two out to dry if Tempest was taken out and a different domain put in.

 

[Gilladian]

So are these the ONLY domains that will appear in the PH? I sure hope the DMG will have rules/guidance on how to create more domains, because I will need them ASAP for my campaign...