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

[DeviousQuail]

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.

I usually default to them as well due to my many hours spent on the virtual sword coast. Familiarity makes it easier to insert them into the world. There's also the benefit of a ton of gods on tap so everyone can find one they like.

 

[Aldarc]

They do do this though, it's something Ed Greenwood has mentioned, pretty sure it's in the books somewhere. A priest of Mystra will still make an offering to Umberlee for safe passage, for instance. Priests are dedicated and draw their power from a single god, but they still say appropriate prayers and make offerings to others.

I don't think that this necessarily plays out in practice that much though, which is why I don't think that D&D does religion particularly well. A lot about gods is filtered in play through the lens of clerics and paladins, who mostly devote themselves to a single deity. Even then, it can be lukewarm as there is not too much mechanical reinforcement of piety. Compare this, for example, with RuneQuest where using divine power requires progressing in a temple's cult and regaining divine power may likewise require that a person participates in their respective temple's cultic rituals and sacrifices.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

I don't think that this necessarily plays out in practice that much though, which is why I don't think that D&D does religion particularly well. A lot about gods is filtered in play through the lens of clerics and paladins, who mostly devote themselves to a single deity. Even then, it can be lukewarm as there is not too much mechanical reinforcement of piety. Compare this, for example, with RuneQuest where using divine power requires progressing in a temple's cult and regaining divine power may likewise require that a person participates in their respective temple's cultic rituals and sacrifices.

All that can be part of D&D, too. It certainly is in my game.

The role of religion depends on the DM. Sometimes, groups prefer in-game religion to be shallow. Others prefer it deep. Some prefer clerics that worship individual gods. In other worlds, cleric worship pantheons. In some settings, god don't exist at all and clerics tap into another power source completely.

Personally, I enjoy the freedom D&D provides over the RuneQuest model: create whatever is most fun for you.

 

[Stormonu]

Probably Greek for me. But in actual play either my homebrew (which is a Norse/Greek mix) or Greyhawk. The latter because that's the campaign world I'm using if things aren't in my homebrew.

I've actually tried to downplay religion in my games because of real-world concerns here in the Deep South. Only lately have I started exploring fantasy religions more than skin deep or as "power from some otherwise non-interactive deity/force".

 

[Coroc]

I use the settings default pantheon - of course I mod the settings like I always do but I do not see the need to e.g. take a god out of the FR pantheon and shoehorn it into the greyhawk pantheon. All of the big official settings have some more or less working pantheon.

The Krynn pantheon is probably the most structured, unless you count Athas with its four elements and Cosmos. With greyhawk and to a minor degree FR it is, that many deities have overlapping portfolios, or that some aspects are covered by to many deities and others not at all. But for the purposes of PC adventurers everything is there.

Eberron pantheon is different. I also like that one, although you (and your players) really have to understand the totally different approach that pantheon takes.

What I never use is some RL deities, I think when I was young, I used the ancient greek or norse pantheon once or twice, but unless for a historic reenactment style campaign, this does not make sense to me these days.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't think that this necessarily plays out in practice that much though, which is why I don't think that D&D does religion particularly well. A lot about gods is filtered in play through the lens of clerics and paladins, who mostly devote themselves to a single deity. Even then, it can be lukewarm as there is not too much mechanical reinforcement of piety. Compare this, for example, with RuneQuest where using divine power requires progressing in a temple's cult and regaining divine power may likewise require that a person participates in their respective temple's cultic rituals and sacrifices.

I think that's more to do with players growing up in societies where monotheism is the standard and projecting it onto the characters in worlds where they should be making offerings to the various gods when entering their domains.

 

[Aldarc]

All that can be part of D&D, too. It certainly is in my game.

Which is a nice way of saying that it isn't actually part of the game. To be honest, I find these sort of "you can do that in D&D too" explanations to be a weak non-answers. It's the "thoughts and prayers" equivalent for discussion of tabletop roleplaying mechanical support.

The role of religion depends on the DM. Sometimes, groups prefer in-game religion to be shallow. Others prefer it deep. Some prefer clerics that worship individual gods. In other worlds, cleric worship pantheons. In some settings, god don't exist at all and clerics tap into another power source completely.

Personally, I enjoy the freedom D&D provides over the RuneQuest model: create whatever is most fun for you.

Which is again a roundabout way of saying that D&D barely handles religion at all. It's paying lip service to the existence of religion without showing any understanding of it in any form. Maybe we should just acknowledge that D&D doesn't do religion well.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Which is a nice way of saying that it isn't actually part of the game. To be honest, I find these sort of "you can do that in D&D too" explanations to be a weak non-answers. It's the "thoughts and prayers" equivalent for discussion of tabletop roleplaying mechanical support.

Which is again a roundabout way of saying that D&D barely handles religion at all. It's paying lip service to the existence of religion without showing any understanding of it in any form. Maybe we should just acknowledge that D&D doesn't do religion well.

I see it the other way: D&D doesn't ram a particular vision of religion down the DM's throat, but instead grants him/her a wonderful, open canvas to paint on.

 

[Aldarc]

I see it the other way: D&D doesn't ram a particular vision of religion down the DM's throat, but instead grants him/her a wonderful, open canvas to paint on.

Which is again a nice way of saying that it doesn't do religion well from either the flavor or crunch perspective. "DIY" means that it doesn't do it all.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Which is again a nice way of saying that it doesn't do religion well from either the flavor or crunch perspective. "DIY" means that it doesn't do it all.

I disagree. The game does the heavy lifting by including the cleric class and providing well-balanced domains. The game provides all the mechanics, and allows the DM free to do the fun part.

Why would you want the tastes of the WotC designers dictating realities of your personal world?