D&D General Who would you pick as the most iconic deities in the D&D game?

[Epic Meepo]

Let's say you're making a world-agnostic pantheon of deities, and you want to include all the big name deities of D&D. What deities would you include in that pantheon?

If I had to answer my own question, I'd probably start with the patron deities of the five longest-running playable nonhuman species:

1) Corellon Larethian (representing elves and half-elves)
2) Garl Glittergold (representing gnomes)
3) Gruumsh (representing orcs and half-orcs)
4) Moradin (representing dwarves)
5) Yondalla (representing halflings)

I would also include at least one dragon-themed deity on the list, possibly:

6) Bahamut
7) Tiamat

Bahamut might be a stretch. He's not nearly as iconic as Tiamat.

To the above, I'd probably add at least two fiends who have ascended to godhood:

8) Lolth
9) Asmodeus

Orcus was temporarily a deity, so he could arguably be added to the list. Demogorgon would be on the list if he were an actual deity, but I don't think he ever was.

I'd probably also include two evil deities who've shown up in multiple settings throughout the D&D multiverse:

10) The Elder Elemental Eye (though I don't know which of its proper names I'd use, if any)
11) Vecna

Too make it an even dozen, I'm inclined to add Annam All-Father, progenitor of giants and titans, but I'm not sure he's sufficiently iconic. Also, he's mostly retired from the world, having been more-or-less replaced by his even less-iconic offspring. The most powerful of these are Haitea and Stronmaus, neither of whom gets mentioned very often.

That's my answer off the top of my head, but I'm not 100% committed to it. What would your choices be?

 

[commandercrud]

Ka the Preserver

 

[Vaalingrade]

Vecna, Lloth and, as much as it pains me, Mystra are the ones people will recognize.

Then Bahamut, Tiamat, and Orcus, who is obviously the god of orcs

 

[Epic Meepo]

Ka the Preserver

Interesting choice. Does Ka make an appearance anywhere outside the Mystara setting?

 

[Zardnaar]

Lolth, Tiamat, Selune, Shar, Lathendar/Pelor, Elf and Dwarf pantheon heads, Bhaal.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Now that Baldurs Gate 3 has put a light on them, Shar and Selune totally. Probably also the Dead 3.

 

[Zardnaar]

Now that Baldurs Gate 3 has put a light, Shar and Selune totally. Probably also the Dead 3.

All the prominent ones featured are probably up there.

Context BG3 has sold more than all the D&Ds put together. Shadowhearts the most popular romance option by far as well.

So Selune/Shar, Dead 3 below them and then Lathander.

 

[GuyBoy]

Tharizdun. For all will be nothing!
Seriously, Tharizdun is great as a “terror beyond terror” in any game, and particularly in this anniversary year.

I like the ones mentioned in the OP of course, and (as a regular ranger player) have always had a soft spot for Ehlonna of the Forests.

 

[overgeeked]

Iconic D&D deities?

In the whole of D&D, I'd say you've got three, maybe four.

Lolth. Bahamut. Tiamat. And maybe Tharizdun.

Maybe only because Tharizdun is really a generic "world-ending deity." He's pulled almost straight from H. P. Lovecraft so I wouldn't consider him to be "iconic" to D&D.

Those other three though? Definitely iconic D&D deities.

The rest of the D&D pantheons? Incredibly generic stereotype gods and goddesses.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd say the OP nails it, except that Kurtulmak has to be there alongside Garl Glittergold. Those two are linked together and are only prominent because of their shared myth.

Correlon/Gruumsh started off the same way (hitting the big time with the Half-Orc Point of View article in Dragon magazine), although they've gotten more of their own identities over time, especially Gruumsh branching out quite a bit in 4E. (Saying he's just an orc god is really going backwards pretty dramatically.)