D&D 5E What's your favourite pantheon?

[TheAlkaizer]

I was reading a bit on the Greyhawk thread yesterday and talked about it with a friend today. It kind of made me realize how convoluted and mixed the different pantheons of D&D got. What we both took for granted were the default pantheon were really different. There's also deities from my 3rd edition days that I kind of took of granted while I skimmed over 5E appendix. However, I was surprised to see many deities had disappeared and new one appeared.

So, I know we have a mix of older and newer players on the board. What's your favourite pantheon? Or what part of what pantheon do you incorporate in your games, and why?

Personally, I've used the Dawn War Pantheon for many years because of its simplicity. But I'm now rereading material of the 3rd edition and it made me realize how many gods were from Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms.

 

[aco175]

The first one I got into was the FR setting since this is what I was DMing when I was into expanding modules and designing stuff my my games. With 3e and 4e, the core pantheon mixed with the older ones from FR and was fine. At one point I was making my own and realized the players did not care like I did and just stayed with the core. Now, with 5e we went back to FR and have played several campaigns circling around Phandalin.

Although the gods do not play a big part of the campaigns. There have been arcs with a cleric of one god or another, but nothing where the gods themselves come to play.

 

[Marandahir]

Homebrew, then Dawn War pantheon, then Eberron's.

If we're talking non D&D franchises, The Elder Scrolls pantheon is really deep and confusing and messed up and beautiful.

 

[Zardnaar]

I normally let the players pick. Using the Greyhawk one because it's easier due to running a 3E adventure although I borrowed the Raven Queen.

 

[Shiroiken]

It should really be based on setting. The Greyhawk gods from the various setting books have been convoluted from the beginning, probably because Gygax didn't really care all that much about it. The Realms, however, has very distinct and organized pantheons. When we ran Thule, I loved the concept of the Forest Gods, which were animism. We're going to run Midgard next, and the DM is looking into the details about the masked gods (apparently they often hide their true nature to confuse other gods or something). A homebrew idea I have would break tradition, having a pantheon for non-humans (all intelligent races except humans) while the humans worship a single over-god; divine conflict would be expected during the campaign, as most humans won't accept the non-human pantheon, while non-humans feel the humans are trying to oust their gods.

IMO it really depends on the players. Most players IME don't really care that much about the details of any deity, just the RP requirements and mechanics. Storyteller and Actor players may try to incorporate the gods into their background and personality, but mostly if the character should have a religious aspect. I've learned not to focus on the deities unless a player is interested or if the campaign is going to have a heavy divine component.

 

[univoxs]

I enjoy the idea of old Spelljammer. It allowed for multiple Pantheons and if you left your gods sphere you could no longer commune with them. My favorite Pantheon, if you could define it that way, is Vampire Dark Ages. I almost wrote an essay just now on why but I'm gonna hold back. As far as a Pantheon in the traditional sense, I think I really do prefer PF1e.

Edit: Malazaan Book of the Fallen. Now there is a hell of a pantheon.

 

[J-H]

Faerun, because I can actually keep track of it thanks to having played Baldur's Gate II. Greyhawk is all confusing and stuff, mostly because I haven't used it.

 

[cbwjm]

I use my own pantheon with no names just archetypes like the Soul-Forger, Earthmother, and Tyrant. I think I have around 15 or 16 gods in total.

For pantheons in DnD, I like the classic earth pantheons (specifically the Greek, Norse, and Egyptian the most but I do love seeing the interpretation of various other real world divinities) and the dragonlance pantheon the most.

I don't really know much about Greyhawk or Eberron pantheons/religions as I'm not too fond of the settings. Forgotten Realms feels really bloated and I actually prefer the smaller Arcane Age pantheon for the human gods. The Dawn war pantheon was another good one as it was relatively small and easy to get understand what they were about without having too many deities filling out the pantheon for every niche.

 

[grodog]

So, I know we have a mix of older and newer players on the board. What's your favourite pantheon? Or what part of what pantheon do you incorporate in your games, and why?

I use homebrew and Greyhawk gods in my Mendenein and Greyhawk settings of my Greyhawk campaign, and a variety of gods from other pantheons are invovled in the other Prime Material Planes that are "nearby" from a planar perspective. I've enjoyed playing with other homebrews, as well as Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Russian, Celtic, Welsh, and Irish/Gaelic mythologies over the years. I can't say that I really have a single favorite, but I do rather enjoy the generational and cthonic aspects of the Greek myths, as well as the Fimbulwinter and Ragnarok lore from the Norse.

It should really be based on setting. The Greyhawk gods from the various setting books have been convoluted from the beginning, probably because Gygax didn't really care all that much about it.

I don't know that I'd characterize it quite that way, exactly: while Gygax certainly put some design thought into the overall structure and nature of the pantheons of Greyhawk, he also treated them with more than a touch of his usual wordplay and humor (Heironeous = Erroneus, among others ).

Allan.

 

[billd91]

I really like Greyhawk’s, but it could use a little tighter definition. I like that different deities are associated with different cultures. Plus, they have an alewife goddess, and every pantheon should have one of those.