D&D General What D&D Religion Is Your Favorite, And Why?

[JAMUMU]

St Cuthbert finds his way into every fantasy game I run. So that's what I tell strangers.

But really it's whatever evil diety is behind Kyuss and the Sons of Kyuss. Undead brainworms reanimating your corpse for a better tomorrow. That's my religion, fam.

 

[R_J_K75]

The only one I'd say is close is the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.

It's probably the best single-book campaign sourcebook I've ever seen. Even when you're not playing 3.0, it's still the best one-book description and guide to Faerun, and the best campaign setting book I've seen done.

You are correct, that was jam packed full of information and updated the setting (brought back Bane iirc) without drastically changing the setting overly much like 4E did or severely truncating the Faerunian Pantheon.

 

[Voadam]

I can't recall any WotC book 3E forward that even comes close to the level of detail of those books, and to me that's sad.

For god books, no. The 3e god books were a huge step down from the amazing bar of the 2e ones.

The 3e dragon articles on individual gods were OK but I am not really a fan of SKR's style of god writeups for D&D or pathfinder. Just too much making each deities' religious tie ins be specialized fantasy medieval catholicisms.

The only one I'd say is close is the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.

The Grand History of the Realms from the 3.5 era is also quite impressive on the level of detail it provides for the history of the realms and tying in points from a lot of products. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Redwizard007]

I think this is an excellent point, but I'm thinking of it from another direction. A god may have multiple religions to worship them. I'm playing in a campaign right now and different sects worshipping the same god have VERY different approaches for how they admire/fear/ritualize their faith in the god. Same god, but different interpretations by flawed mortals, and the god doesn't seem to favor one group any more than the other.

I did this in a homebrew once. 4 gods total. 1 each of L/C/G/E, but there were a half dozen or more distinct religions, as well as splinter sects and cults, for each entity. It was marvelous.

 

[Jasperak]

Wee Jas.

I like how her portfolio is a mix of things that really shouldn't go together but do: Law, Death, Magic, and Vanity.

My last 5e character was a Monk with the Magic Initiate feat (I think--the one where you get a few low level spells) and worshiped her. I have fond memories of Bruce Leeroy Jenkins hunting down undead abominations and punching them back into death. All for the love of a goddess. He also wrote haiku about the lawful order of the universe.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Let's not forget The Book of the Righteous! It was published during the 3.x era as an example of a pantheon not tied to any D&D campaign. It could be used as is, or as a spring board to craft your own. Excellent supplement!

 

[cbwjm]

I quite like the holy orders of the stars from Dragonlance.

 

[R_J_K75]

The Grand History of the Realms from the 3.5 era is also quite impressive on the level of detail it provides for the history of the realms and tying in points from a lot of products. I enjoyed it a lot.

Don't "crucify" (pun intended) me if Im wrong but think that was Brian R James and George Krashos who used to run the FR Timeline website that wrote that book. That book is a keeper for sure. Nowadays I dont run or wan't to play in a history heavy game, but there was so much info in that book it reminded me of reading "Empires of the Shining Sea". IIRC that was the last FR book published for 3.x. If you don't own it you should!

 

[Voadam]

Don't "crucify" (pun intended) me if Im wrong but think that was Brian R James and George Krashos who used to run the FR Timeline website that wrote that book. That book is a keeper for sure. Nowadays I dont run or wan't to play in a history heavy game, but there was so much info in that book it reminded me of reading "Empires of the Shining Sea". IIRC that was the last FR book published for 3.x. If you don't own it you should!

Empires of the Shining Seas was the last of the 2e FR boxed sets. Did you mean that or were you thinking of a different 3.x book? Or did you mean Grand History as the last 3.x FR book?

 

[R_J_K75]

Empires of the Shining Seas was the last of the 2e FR boxed sets. Did you mean that or were you thinking of a different 3.x book? Or did you mean Grand History as the last 3.x FR book?

I may be out of my depths here but iirc "Cloak and Dagger" was the last 2E FR book. Grand History of the Realms was the last 3rd edition FR book to come out.