Which deities and pantheons have you used in your D&D fantasy settings?

[Rod Staffwand]

Always custom-made. Always.

My original fantasy world had an extremely elaborate mythology to it. The gods and other associated beings were quite potent but were bound by complex laws, symbolism and superstitions. The "pantheon" consisted of 2 greater gods, 10+ lesser gods, 13 titans, the earth itself, and assorted other beings of great power. The behind the scenes interactions between all the elements were so baroque and complicated I vowed never to do anything like it again after the campaign ended.

In my last campaign world with gods in it, the gods were all dead (except for the BBEG one, naturally). Made things much simpler.

I tend to favor godless worlds nowadays. I've used all of the following to good effect:
1. No divine power source. Other casters get healing spells if needed for system balance.
2. Clerics of Light channel on the Positive Plane of Energy directly for their magic. Clerics of Darkness from the Negative Plane of Energy. No gods needed.
3. I did a short game in which the various 5E cleric orders (sun, storm, life, etc.) were merely highly specialized wizard orders. They gained their spells from their tomes of power, written in secret mystical languages that only they could understand, but there weren't any real mechanical changes.

 

[was]

In pre-published settings, I use the standard pantheon for the setting. My homebrew has 5 custom-made deities. Only 2 of which, are active in world affairs. Even when they are active, they have been banned from direct interference and must act through mortal worshippers.

 

[Voadam]

Pretty much what the title says

The questions in more details:

1- [See attached poll] Have you used deities from real-world pantheons, from D&D fictional pantheons, or your own custom deities?

Real World and Fictional Pantheons, but I don't create my own from scratch, though I have adapted others custom made ones.

2- If you have used real-world deities or pantheons in your D&D campaigns, which ones?

Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Indian (hindu), Babylonian, and Celtic have come up in the games I have run. I also played a cleric of the Great Spirit from the North American Indian pantheon in a 2e game.

3- Do you stick to one source per fantasy world (e.g. Greek deities only or FR deities), or do you mix deities from different sources (including possibly your custom)?

I run a big mashup campaign setting.

4- Do you allocate separate pantheons in your fantasy world, depending for instance on location or race (e.g. a Northern and a Southern pantheon, Dwarves worship the Norse pantheon, Elves have elven deities...)?

I use the ancient Mediterranean as my model, lots of different religions near each other. I consciously try to have multiple pantheons for various groups including non-humans.

So the elves of the south were basically the Ancient Egyptians with that pantheon while the continental ones are split between the D&D elven pantheon and the Erde pantheon while northern ones are followers of Vanir gods from the norse pantheons.

I had one game where different groups of hired orc thugs kept shouting how they worshipped One-Eye! For the first group it was Gruumsh. For the second it was Odin. For the third it was Balor. For a fourth it was going to be Vecna and a fifth would have been Talos.

5- Have you used non-deities-based religions in your fantasy world?

Yes, druidism being the big one. I have a lot of clerical orders that are basically non-deity based occult societies and as a world element philosophies are a big thing. I like the whole "will of heaven" and taoist and buddhist style of religion viewpoints.

I was a big fan of The Light theme in the Wheel of Time books and the color temples in the Books of Swords series.

 

[Voadam]

In my campaign I used a bunch of D&D pantheons.

From Ptolus I use Lothianism as the main religion of a large part of the setting.

The old gods are the Greyhawk ones. The New Gods are FR. The 4e are there as a syncretism of old and new. Golarion's are the eastern ones mostly absorbed into Lothianism and Scarred Lands are a past empire's that have been partially absorbed into Lothianism via saints. Spiros Blaak is mostly absorbed into the saints of Lothianism as well. Harrimast is in Freeport and Mythos cults and Dragon cults and fiend cults are fairly widespread with lots of history.

My dark gods of the sea document included stuff from Cerulean Seas and Elric and even Dragonlance.

 

[Ranes]

Pretty much what the title says

The questions in more details:

1- [See attached poll] Have you used deities from real-world pantheons, from D&D fictional pantheons, or your own custom deities?

Yes to all of the above.

2- If you have used real-world deities or pantheons in your D&D campaigns, which ones?

Mesopotamian: I can't remember which 3e-era issue of Dragon had the core pantheon in but they suited an idea for a campaign I had right down to the ground. And fortunately, one of my players was keen, too, and played a superb cleric. In that game, the Mesopotamian pantheon was only worshipped by humans. Other races had their own pantheons.

3- Do you stick to one source per fantasy world (e.g. Greek deities only or FR deities), or do you mix deities from different sources (including possibly your custom)?

Happy to mix it up, especially as I often come across an idea for a god or a write-up I haven't seen before while I'm in the middle of a campaign. If I think it has a use, I just introduce the god as being worshipped by people/monsters previously unknown to the PCs (when they journey to distant lands, for example) or introduce a new cult of a rediscovered member of an existing pantheon.

4- Do you allocate separate pantheons in your fantasy world, depending for instance on location or race (e.g. a Northern and a Southern pantheon, Dwarves worship the Norse pantheon, Elves have elven deities…)?

To a large degree, yes. The more metropolitan the culture or community, the more likely shrines and temples to different races' gods can be found in close proximity. But venture deep under the mountains and the gods a predominantly dwarves, derro, svifrneblin or duergar, and so on.

5- Have you used non-deities-based religions in your fantasy world?

No, although ironically, I used to prefer actually playing such cleric types, many years ago.

 

[NathanIW]

1 - all of the above, but it's been a long time since I used a premade campaign setting or pantheon.
2 - Ancient Sumerian is my favorite
3 - I mix
4 - No, I tend to have a variety in terms of followers and the only regional gods are the patrons of individual city states.
5 - Yes, I often have an esoteric branch of many religions that downplays or ignores the theistic side if their parent religion

 

[Lanefan]

1- Have you used deities from real-world pantheons, from D&D fictional pantheons, or your own custom deities?

Yes, yes and yes. All in the same campaigns, in fact.

2- If you have used real-world deities or pantheons in your D&D campaigns, which ones?

Norse, Celtic and Greek pantheons commonly; Roman and Egyptian less often; Aztec and some others rarely.

3- Do you stick to one source per fantasy world (e.g. Greek deities only or FR deities), or do you mix deities from different sources (including possibly your custom)?

The base pantheons stay roughly the same from world to world (the gods *are universal, after all) but each campaign has a few variants (usually local twistings of established pantheons).

4- Do you allocate separate pantheons in your fantasy world, depending for instance on location or race (e.g. a Northern and a Southern pantheon, Dwarves worship the Norse pantheon, Elves have elven deities...)?

Of course. Each kindred race (Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Hobbit) has its own pantheon. Humans have several, based on their root culture. Monsters have thier own deities as well. Crossbreeds (Part-Elves, Part-Orcs) have to find a deity from somewhere if they want one, they don't specifically have any of their own.

5- Have you used non-deities-based religions in your fantasy world?

Not really. In fact it could easily be argued I've gone the other way - Druids as written aren't really intended to have deities as such but I long ago changed that; they're Nature Clerics now and follow deities just like any other Clerics.

For my current campaign as an example the deity write-ups can be found here: www.friendsofgravity.com/games/decast/decast_pantheons_main.html

Lanefan

 

[Green1]

Former PCs from an old campaign I did way back are now deities in my games. I mix it in with some DnD deities and a few real world ones.

But.. I am kind of tempted to add Armok, god of Blood to the Dwarves to add a bit of Dwarf Fortress type mishap-ness to add character to my Dwarves and get rid of all the Lawful Good cliche the "stock" Dwarven god Moradin brings and have a bit of fun.

Also, an Old testament inspired YHWH god would be cool. A jealous, egotistical god that demands genocide and regularly levels cities and smites folks out of nowhere.