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

[Staffan]

In terms of proper Churches: The Silver Flame. Always nice to have a major faith actually HELP the people. Plus, they're one of the few churches in the setting who can actually back their dogma up with some observable evidence.

Some day I'd love to run an Eberron campaign set in Thrane where the issues of an Actually Lawful Good theocracy are explored, and how to reconcile the lofty religious tenets with the somewhat grubby craft of actually running a country.

 

[wingsandsword]

Some day I'd love to run an Eberron campaign set in Thrane where the issues of an Actually Lawful Good theocracy are explored, and how to reconcile the lofty religious tenets with the somewhat grubby craft of actually running a country.

Somehow I'm imagining essentially a D&D version of Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister. . .where a Lawful Good monarch who is very adamant about his beliefs has a very Lawful Neutral vizier who is pragmatic about running things but very good at bamboozling the monarch into thinking everything is as Good as he wants it to be.

 

[Staffan]

Somehow I'm imagining essentially a D&D version of Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister. . .where a Lawful Good monarch who is very adamant about his beliefs has a very Lawful Neutral vizier who is pragmatic about running things but very good at bamboozling the monarch into thinking everything is as Good as he wants it to be.

That's not quite what I was going for, but I like it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think this question is ill posed because I can't say that I've ever seen any D&D product that even remotely approaches 'religion' in a comprehensive and coherent way.

It depends on the setting. For example, Eberron almost always puts a ton of coherent thought and exploration in how its religions works (Church of the Silver Flame, Blood of Vol, etc) when compared to most other settings. The Dawn War Pantheon similarly has a lot more nuance and thought put into its religions than the typical D&D approach to religion.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Well, except for that time when they committed genocide against Shifters. They weren't very good or helpful then. (This is part of the reason why I prefer the other flavors of the Church of the Silver Flame, like the Ghaash'Kala Orcs and Shulassakar Serpent Cults to the main, faux-Catholic Church of the Silver Flame.)

To me, showing the way that sustained fear, loss, and trauma can push some people into extremism is an interesting facet, and not one explored much elsewhere.

 

[Laurefindel]

I love the FR pantheon; too bad it's not a polytheistic religion. That would rank #1 for me. In that vein, I like Eberron's Sovereign Host (along with the Dark Six which are not venerated but acknowledged as necessary boogeymen). We're still stuck with the "Cleric = choose any 1 god" paradigm, but I like that it takes actual faith to believe in a god (in the classical sense) without tangible proofs of their existence.

 

[Voadam]

I love the FR pantheon; too bad it's not a polytheistic religion.

Various FR sources have gone back and forth (sometimes in the same source even) on people (including clerics) venerating/worshiping/praying to various gods in a more polytheistic fashion as the occasion comes up or being more henotheistic in devotion to their one individual patron deity out of the pantheon.

I remember examples of non-umberlee clerics making token offerings to Umberlee before getting on boats heading out to sea as an example of a regular religious practice.

 

[cbwjm]

Various FR sources have gone back and forth (sometimes in the same source even) on people (including clerics) venerating/worshiping/praying to various gods in a more polytheistic fashion as the occasion comes up or being more henotheistic in devotion to their one individual patron deity out of the pantheon.

I remember examples of non-umberlee clerics making token offerings to Umberlee before getting on boats heading out to sea as an example of a regular religious practice.

I was going to say, the FR is a polytheistic religion, but it looks like the one in ancient Rome which had priests of specific temples (though my understanding was that this was more of a political position, I'm not well read on the subject though). It was the same in Ancient Egypt where you might be a priest of Amun but the other gods were still venerated. I believe that this is how FR pantheon is supposed to work, but they went and built up the followers of each god to an extreme so that they all have their own individual faiths rather than being a unified one. I'm pretty sure that even without a patron deity you wouldn't go to the wall of the faithless, so long as you venerated the gods, I'm pretty sure I saw something about that in 3e. A patron god was needed more for divine spell power.

This is why I like the Krynnish pantheon better, though they have separate churches still, they are organised in such a way that the head of each alignment follows the pantheon, so the chosen prophet of Paldine is head of the Holy Order of good gods, etc. Still maybe not perfect, but I like how they are a little more interconnected.

 

[Staffan]

Well, except for that time when they committed genocide against Shifters. They weren't very good or helpful then. (This is part of the reason why I prefer the other flavors of the Church of the Silver Flame, like the Ghaash'Kala Orcs and Shulassakar Serpent Cults to the main, faux-Catholic Church of the Silver Flame.)

To me, showing the way that sustained fear, loss, and trauma can push some people into extremism is an interesting facet, and not one explored much elsewhere.

As I recall, Keith has added some nuance here. I think it goes something like this: Lycanthropy is going out of control* in western Aundair (what today is the Eldeen Reaches), likely due to some Archfiend bound there getting somehat less securely bound. The Silver Flame sends templars to help. Along the way, a bunch of the locals like the cut of their jib and join up. The problem eventually gets fixed by reinforcing the bonds on the archfiend somehow, but by that point the joined-up locals (who don't have as thorough a basis in proper doctrine) have gotten a bit too enthusiastic and started persecuting shifters as well.

It's also a bit annoying that the Silver Flame in the eyes of many is primarily represented by its failures, such as the persecution of Shifters and that corrupt Cardinal that's the ambassador in Sharn.

* Apparently this was inspired by the changes to lycanthropy between 3.0 and 3.5, where only natural lycanthropes could spread it in 3.5 but afflicted ones could in 3.0.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

As I recall, Keith has added some nuance here. I think it goes something like this: Lycanthropy is going out of control* in western Aundair (what today is the Eldeen Reaches), likely due to some Archfiend bound there getting somehat less securely bound. The Silver Flame sends templars to help. Along the way, a bunch of the locals like the cut of their jib and join up. The problem eventually gets fixed by reinforcing the bonds on the archfiend somehow, but by that point the joined-up locals (who don't have as thorough a basis in proper doctrine) have gotten a bit too enthusiastic and started persecuting shifters as well.

It's also a bit annoying that the Silver Flame in the eyes of many is primarily represented by its failures, such as the persecution of Shifters and that corrupt Cardinal that's the ambassador in Sharn.

* Apparently this was inspired by the changes to lycanthropy between 3.0 and 3.5, where only natural lycanthropes could spread it in 3.5 but afflicted ones could in 3.0.

That and the fact that Eberron has TWELVE (used to be thirteen) moons. There is rarely a time when at least one of them ISN'T full.