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D&D 5E What's your favourite pantheon?
- Thread starter TheAlkaizer
- Start date
WayOfTheFourElements
Hero
Absolutely. She's amazing.
Voadam
Legend
I wasn't trying to say anything about 5e exclusively original content versus other editions of D&D or try to disprove anything about trends, I was answering in good faith the question you asked.
Which I guess you had also already answered yourself when you agreed about Eberron and the Book of the Righteous (which has a 5e version as well).
Overall I see D&D religion as generally equivalent to that shown in a Conan story or comic, there are polytheistic gods and people curse using their names (Crom!) and things are named after them (Derketa's Apples from Red Nails), but you do not expect to see Conan praying or going to a temple other than to invade it and most actual priests are NPCs and most religious ceremonies are done either offscreen or by NPCs.
D&D has been all over the place though and if you want official in-depth flavor stuff on churches and religious practices for specific henotheistic D&D polytheism I would suggest checking out the 2e FR god books Faiths & Avatars and Powers & Pantheons.
Stormonu
Legend
Absolutely not. I live by the idiom "If it has stats, we can kill it". Pretty much anything past CR 18 I don't bother to use stats for, it just sort of does what it needs to. By that point it's pretty much a force of nature. (I only plan games to about 9th level, haven't had one get past about 14th - just not my taste).
I 100% agree with this, and not just religion.
D&D is my tool kit, if they did too much, it would limit my choices.
Voadam
Legend
For the OP
The Dawn War was a mix of GH, FR, some new faces on other gods (Zehir for serpent Set) and wholly new ones (Torog).
3e's PH pantheon was explicitly all GH as the default
Avandra - New
Bahamut - GH/FR
Correlon - GH/FR
Erathis - New
Ioun - New
Kord - GH
Melora - New
Moradin - GH/FR
Pelor - GH
Raven Queen - New
Sehanine - FR (I don't think she was in the original elven pantheon I think it was a later FR dragon article that introduced her but I could be misrembering)
Asmodeus - GH/FR
Bane - FR
Gruumsh - GH/FR
Lolth - GH/FR
Tiamat - GH/FR
Torog - New
Vecna - GH
Zehir - New
The Dawn War was a mix of GH, FR, some new faces on other gods (Zehir for serpent Set) and wholly new ones (Torog).
3e's PH pantheon was explicitly all GH as the default
Avandra - New
Bahamut - GH/FR
Correlon - GH/FR
Erathis - New
Ioun - New
Kord - GH
Melora - New
Moradin - GH/FR
Pelor - GH
Raven Queen - New
Sehanine - FR (I don't think she was in the original elven pantheon I think it was a later FR dragon article that introduced her but I could be misrembering)
Asmodeus - GH/FR
Bane - FR
Gruumsh - GH/FR
Lolth - GH/FR
Tiamat - GH/FR
Torog - New
Vecna - GH
Zehir - New
Ath-kethin
Elder Thing
My favorite D&D Pantheon has always been the Al-Qadim gods, both in the deities themselves and the way the setting handled gods and religions in the first place. It was an approach that was unique at the time and wasn't really replicated again until Eberron came out.
MechaTarrasque
Hero
My home brew is a mix of the Dawn War and Golorian/PF pantheons. The defining trait for gods is that they get power when humanoids/fey/monstrosities, etc. engage in certain behaviors. Things that don't involve behavior, like storms and death, are just for branding. Souls are of interest to angels, devils, demons, etc., but only indirectly to gods, in that gods offer power to those kind of beings to be their servants.
Here they are:
Raven Queen: god of fatalism (includes belief that everything is fated). Branding includes death and winter. Minions include celestial versions of winter eladrin and skein witches (Tome of Beasts). Hangs out in the Outlands (home of N celestials).
St. Cuthbert: god of proceduralism (if we follow the rules everything will be all right). Minions include celestial sphinxes. Hangs out in Mechanus (home of modrons and their clockwork minions). St. Cuthbert was a mortal who became a god after the previous god of proceduralism, Amoth, died in the fall of Arcadia.
Gruumish: god of "toughness" and "machismo" (and the appropriate feminine version for amazons). Minions include Astral Dreadnoughts. Hangs out in Archeron (half the souls there become fiendish orcs who also work for Gruumish). There are also other members of the orc pantheon.
Bane: god of harsh discipline. Minions include Ashen Rider Archons. Hangs out in Archeron (half the souls there become fiendish hobgoblins who also work for Bane). There are also other members of the goblin pantheon.
Tiamat: god of greed and vanity (also claims vengeance, but this is disputed by other gods). Branding includes dragons. Minions are Abishai devils. Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home of LE fiends of 10th level or higher CR, although Tiamat keeps lower level Abishai there as well)
Sekolah: god of hunting intelligent beings for food. Branding includes sharks. MInions are Orthon devils. Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home to LE fiends for 10th level or higher CR).
Asmodeus: god of tyranny. Branding includes fire and security. Minions are Pit Fiends (also keeps a court of LE celestials that clerics can summon with planar ally). Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home to LE fiends for 10th level or higher CR).
The Duergar pantheon (I can't usually remember any names): gods of hegemony. Minions include the fiends from Mythic Odyssey of Theros. Hangs out in Gehenna (home of LE fiends with 9th level or lower CR, staging area for the armies of the 9 Hells).
Vecna: god of doing evil to keep secrets or to find out secrets. Branding includes undead (creating undead actually empowers Orcus, even if the undead aren't CE, but Vecna sees no reason anyone needs to know that). Minions include hydroloths and arcanaloths. Hangs out in Carceni (home of NE fiends, I moved it so the central parts of the Lower Planes would be defined by having a Pitlike structure). Vecna was a lich who managed to acquire Thrazidun's godhood after the gods exiled his consciousness into the Far Realm after he opened the first portal there.
Zehir: god of assassination. Branding includes darkness, snakes, and poison. Minions include fiendish half-shadow dragon Yuan Ti (he is a god and can give his minions 2 templates). Hangs out in Carceni (home of the NE fiends). The other Yuan Ti gods sleep in the depths of Carceni.
No gods hang out in the Grey Wastes (home of CE fiends of CR 9 or less).
Lolth and the Dark Seldarine: gods of strife. Branding varies by god (Lolth uses spiders). Minions include Yuchol demons and Reaver constructs; Eilistraee's minions of celestial versions of fall eladrin. Most members of the Dark Seldarine hang out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher)/Eilistraee (goddess of bringing strife to evil) lives in Ysgard (home to celestial versions of NPC classes)
Vaprak: god of bullying. Minions include Dire Trolls. Hangs out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher).
Laogzed: god of killing to defend your territory. Minions include Herzou demons. Hangs out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher).
No gods hang out in Pandemonium, although it used to be Thrazidun's home until the other gods exiled his consciousness into the Far Realm after he opened the first portal there. Mortals whose souls go there become manes demons. Mortals who are exiled there (remarkable number of items that allow this can be found in the universe) who listen to the winds that whisper become Red Slaadi, who try to infect martials, spell casters, or gishes to be reincarnated as Blue, Green, or Grey Slaadi.
Kord: god of athletic training and competion. Branding includes storms. Minions include celestial versions of air and water elemental myrmidons. Hangs out in Limbo (home of CN celestials).
Corellon and the Seldarine: gods of art. MInions include celestial versions of the spring eladrin (Corellon) and summer eladrin (other members of the Seladrine). Hang out in Ysgard (home of celestial versions of NPC classes).
Cayden Cailean: god of folk heroes. Branding includes alcohol. Instead of creating minions grants boons to heroes who come to Arborea (home of CG celestials). CC became a god when the Raven Queen convinced the God of Drunkeness that a god with that portfolio was going to step up and become a serious god, so the God arranged to lose a drinking contest with Cayden. After an epic bender, Cayden did step up and become the god of folk heroes.
Desna: goddess of self improvement and transformation. Branding includes travel and druidism (although druids are not required to worship her, she did create the magic that enables druids to be druids). Minions include guardinals with levels of life or nature cleric instead of ancestral guardian barbarian (includes guardianals normally found on Bytopia). Hangs out in the Beast Lands (home of celestial versions of awakened beasts and NG celestials of CR 9 or less). Celestial versions of awakened beasts with levels of ancestral guardian barbarian are guardianals. Desna was a GOO who became a god around the time that Jubbilex went from a GOO to a demon lord.
Sarenrae: goddess of redemption. Branding includes the sun. Minions include celestial sunbirds (planeshift) and firebirds (tome of beasts). Hangs out in the Beast Lands (home of celestial versions of awakened beasts and NG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Garl Glittergold and the gnome pantheon: gods of subtle acts of goodness. All the Coatls died in the retaking of Arcadia, but the gnome gods caused their agathion minions to pretend to become coatls (which is why chaotic clerics can summon them). The gnome gods hang out in Bytopia (I moved it so that the main good realms would be dominated by mountains, also the home of NG celestials, including the most powerful guardianals, of CR 10 or higher).
Yolanda: god of agriculture (other members of the halfling pantheon have different roles). Minions include hollyphants and plant-looking celestials. Hangs out in Elysium (home of LG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Eristil: god of family. Branding includes nature and rangers. Minions include unicorns. Hangs out in Elysium (home of LG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Bahumet: god of honor. Branding includes dragons. Minions include ki-rin. Hangs out on Mt. Celestia (home of LG celestials level 10 or higher).
Moradin and the dwarf pantheon: gods of quality workmanship (or workpersonship). Minions include celestial versions of the earth and fire elemental myrimidons. Helped retake Arcadia after demons conquered it after Amoth and Aroden made a deal with some demon lords to put off an Endwar that ended up corrupting the plane. Arcadia is now the home of LN celestials.
Iomedea: goddess of organized crusades (not a fan of one-person crusades). Branding includes paladins. Minions include the more powerful archons from the M:tG books. After Aroden's death, got his godhood (changed the focus) and was the field leader in reclaiming Arcadia. Arcadia is now the home of LN celestials.
Here they are:
Raven Queen: god of fatalism (includes belief that everything is fated). Branding includes death and winter. Minions include celestial versions of winter eladrin and skein witches (Tome of Beasts). Hangs out in the Outlands (home of N celestials).
St. Cuthbert: god of proceduralism (if we follow the rules everything will be all right). Minions include celestial sphinxes. Hangs out in Mechanus (home of modrons and their clockwork minions). St. Cuthbert was a mortal who became a god after the previous god of proceduralism, Amoth, died in the fall of Arcadia.
Gruumish: god of "toughness" and "machismo" (and the appropriate feminine version for amazons). Minions include Astral Dreadnoughts. Hangs out in Archeron (half the souls there become fiendish orcs who also work for Gruumish). There are also other members of the orc pantheon.
Bane: god of harsh discipline. Minions include Ashen Rider Archons. Hangs out in Archeron (half the souls there become fiendish hobgoblins who also work for Bane). There are also other members of the goblin pantheon.
Tiamat: god of greed and vanity (also claims vengeance, but this is disputed by other gods). Branding includes dragons. Minions are Abishai devils. Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home of LE fiends of 10th level or higher CR, although Tiamat keeps lower level Abishai there as well)
Sekolah: god of hunting intelligent beings for food. Branding includes sharks. MInions are Orthon devils. Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home to LE fiends for 10th level or higher CR).
Asmodeus: god of tyranny. Branding includes fire and security. Minions are Pit Fiends (also keeps a court of LE celestials that clerics can summon with planar ally). Hangs out in the 9 Hells (home to LE fiends for 10th level or higher CR).
The Duergar pantheon (I can't usually remember any names): gods of hegemony. Minions include the fiends from Mythic Odyssey of Theros. Hangs out in Gehenna (home of LE fiends with 9th level or lower CR, staging area for the armies of the 9 Hells).
Vecna: god of doing evil to keep secrets or to find out secrets. Branding includes undead (creating undead actually empowers Orcus, even if the undead aren't CE, but Vecna sees no reason anyone needs to know that). Minions include hydroloths and arcanaloths. Hangs out in Carceni (home of NE fiends, I moved it so the central parts of the Lower Planes would be defined by having a Pitlike structure). Vecna was a lich who managed to acquire Thrazidun's godhood after the gods exiled his consciousness into the Far Realm after he opened the first portal there.
Zehir: god of assassination. Branding includes darkness, snakes, and poison. Minions include fiendish half-shadow dragon Yuan Ti (he is a god and can give his minions 2 templates). Hangs out in Carceni (home of the NE fiends). The other Yuan Ti gods sleep in the depths of Carceni.
No gods hang out in the Grey Wastes (home of CE fiends of CR 9 or less).
Lolth and the Dark Seldarine: gods of strife. Branding varies by god (Lolth uses spiders). Minions include Yuchol demons and Reaver constructs; Eilistraee's minions of celestial versions of fall eladrin. Most members of the Dark Seldarine hang out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher)/Eilistraee (goddess of bringing strife to evil) lives in Ysgard (home to celestial versions of NPC classes)
Vaprak: god of bullying. Minions include Dire Trolls. Hangs out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher).
Laogzed: god of killing to defend your territory. Minions include Herzou demons. Hangs out in the Abyss (home of CE fiends and Slaadi of CR 10 or higher).
No gods hang out in Pandemonium, although it used to be Thrazidun's home until the other gods exiled his consciousness into the Far Realm after he opened the first portal there. Mortals whose souls go there become manes demons. Mortals who are exiled there (remarkable number of items that allow this can be found in the universe) who listen to the winds that whisper become Red Slaadi, who try to infect martials, spell casters, or gishes to be reincarnated as Blue, Green, or Grey Slaadi.
Kord: god of athletic training and competion. Branding includes storms. Minions include celestial versions of air and water elemental myrmidons. Hangs out in Limbo (home of CN celestials).
Corellon and the Seldarine: gods of art. MInions include celestial versions of the spring eladrin (Corellon) and summer eladrin (other members of the Seladrine). Hang out in Ysgard (home of celestial versions of NPC classes).
Cayden Cailean: god of folk heroes. Branding includes alcohol. Instead of creating minions grants boons to heroes who come to Arborea (home of CG celestials). CC became a god when the Raven Queen convinced the God of Drunkeness that a god with that portfolio was going to step up and become a serious god, so the God arranged to lose a drinking contest with Cayden. After an epic bender, Cayden did step up and become the god of folk heroes.
Desna: goddess of self improvement and transformation. Branding includes travel and druidism (although druids are not required to worship her, she did create the magic that enables druids to be druids). Minions include guardinals with levels of life or nature cleric instead of ancestral guardian barbarian (includes guardianals normally found on Bytopia). Hangs out in the Beast Lands (home of celestial versions of awakened beasts and NG celestials of CR 9 or less). Celestial versions of awakened beasts with levels of ancestral guardian barbarian are guardianals. Desna was a GOO who became a god around the time that Jubbilex went from a GOO to a demon lord.
Sarenrae: goddess of redemption. Branding includes the sun. Minions include celestial sunbirds (planeshift) and firebirds (tome of beasts). Hangs out in the Beast Lands (home of celestial versions of awakened beasts and NG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Garl Glittergold and the gnome pantheon: gods of subtle acts of goodness. All the Coatls died in the retaking of Arcadia, but the gnome gods caused their agathion minions to pretend to become coatls (which is why chaotic clerics can summon them). The gnome gods hang out in Bytopia (I moved it so that the main good realms would be dominated by mountains, also the home of NG celestials, including the most powerful guardianals, of CR 10 or higher).
Yolanda: god of agriculture (other members of the halfling pantheon have different roles). Minions include hollyphants and plant-looking celestials. Hangs out in Elysium (home of LG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Eristil: god of family. Branding includes nature and rangers. Minions include unicorns. Hangs out in Elysium (home of LG celestials of CR 9 or less).
Bahumet: god of honor. Branding includes dragons. Minions include ki-rin. Hangs out on Mt. Celestia (home of LG celestials level 10 or higher).
Moradin and the dwarf pantheon: gods of quality workmanship (or workpersonship). Minions include celestial versions of the earth and fire elemental myrimidons. Helped retake Arcadia after demons conquered it after Amoth and Aroden made a deal with some demon lords to put off an Endwar that ended up corrupting the plane. Arcadia is now the home of LN celestials.
Iomedea: goddess of organized crusades (not a fan of one-person crusades). Branding includes paladins. Minions include the more powerful archons from the M:tG books. After Aroden's death, got his godhood (changed the focus) and was the field leader in reclaiming Arcadia. Arcadia is now the home of LN celestials.
jmartkdr2
Hero
I'm gonna chime in and say the Guild Wars pantheon (at least form GW1) was pretty cool.
For DnD: as a dm, I just add gods as needed/wanted. As a player if I'm going to play a character of faith I'll ask the dm how much I'm allowed to flesh out my own god hoping for "however you like", because I find building a whole church and religion both fun and pretty easy, while also being essential to playing a person of the cloth. Most dm's I play with allow this, although they always have the right to add/edit/veto whatever I come up with.
For DnD: as a dm, I just add gods as needed/wanted. As a player if I'm going to play a character of faith I'll ask the dm how much I'm allowed to flesh out my own god hoping for "however you like", because I find building a whole church and religion both fun and pretty easy, while also being essential to playing a person of the cloth. Most dm's I play with allow this, although they always have the right to add/edit/veto whatever I come up with.
JohnSnow
Hero
As a setting default, I personally love how religion/gods are handled in either Eberron or Wolfgang Baur's Midgard.
As far as actual pantheons, I can make the above approaches work with any pantheon, and I have favorite gods in all of them.
I find it striking how much love there is for the Forgotten Realms pantheon and the Dawn War pantheon given the similarity in how they were built, i.e. pull gods from various fictional and real world myths and either rename them or just use them as-is. And then create a couple new ones for the heck of it. Don't believe me?
Dawn War
Avandra = Tyche, renamed
Bane = Mars, renamed
Erathis = Athena, renamed
Kord = Thor
Pelor = Pelor (Greyhawk)
Sehanine = Artemis/Mielikki, renamed with an Elven flair
Forgotten Realms
Tyr = Norse
Ilmater = Finnish
Mielikki = Finnish
Loviatar = Finnish
Oghma = Finnish
Shar = Hel, renamed
Silvanus = Celtic
Tempus = Ares, renamed
Sune = Aphrodite, renamed
Milil = Apollo, renamed
Chauntea = Demeter/Ceres, renamed
Tymora = Tyche, renamed
And so on. As an aside, I'm pretty sure Ed just plucked the Finnish gods straight from Deities & Demigods.
As far as actual pantheons, I can make the above approaches work with any pantheon, and I have favorite gods in all of them.
I find it striking how much love there is for the Forgotten Realms pantheon and the Dawn War pantheon given the similarity in how they were built, i.e. pull gods from various fictional and real world myths and either rename them or just use them as-is. And then create a couple new ones for the heck of it. Don't believe me?
Dawn War
Avandra = Tyche, renamed
Bane = Mars, renamed
Erathis = Athena, renamed
Kord = Thor
Pelor = Pelor (Greyhawk)
Sehanine = Artemis/Mielikki, renamed with an Elven flair
Forgotten Realms
Tyr = Norse
Ilmater = Finnish
Mielikki = Finnish
Loviatar = Finnish
Oghma = Finnish
Shar = Hel, renamed
Silvanus = Celtic
Tempus = Ares, renamed
Sune = Aphrodite, renamed
Milil = Apollo, renamed
Chauntea = Demeter/Ceres, renamed
Tymora = Tyche, renamed
And so on. As an aside, I'm pretty sure Ed just plucked the Finnish gods straight from Deities & Demigods.
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