D&D 5E Why the heck does D&D have Hecate as Chaotic Evil

[Ruin Explorer]

The worst thing my generation ever did and we murdered hundreds -- from tuna to mayonnaise to paper towels -- none of which you can fine at all on the shelves anymore, so brutal was our regime.

Millennial should probably be the Destroyer God in a new D&D pantheon. His priests/avatar could have an ability called "Cancel" which did literally nothing to make the target less able to communicate, but instead caused them to be filled with immense hubris and self-righteousness and to declare themselves an iconoclast.

 

[Parmandur]

Millennial should probably be the Destroyer God in a new D&D pantheon. His priests/avatar could have an ability called "Cancel" which did literally nothing to make the target less able to communicate, but instead caused them to be filled with immense hubris and self-righteousness and to declare themselves an iconoclast.

Well, try this on for size:

 

[Eltab]

Millennial should probably be the Destroyer God in a new D&D pantheon. His priests/avatar could have an ability called "Cancel" which did literally nothing to make the target less able to communicate, but instead caused them to be filled with immense hubris and self-righteousness and to declare themselves an iconoclast.

From a certain point of view ...

"Cancel" has a high chance of boomeranging. The power becomes 'Target: Self' or 'Target: Allies in a zone' and causes the originally-intended target to gain the effects of the spells Invisibility and Silence

... says the Grognard
(a pagan priest of the old gods)

 

[RealAlHazred]

The disclaimer at the start of the Deities section states that they're not going for 100% historical accuracy, but to create complete pantheons based loosely on the deities in question. So, gods are going to be shifted around, sometimes quite substantially...

See, this is bunk. If you want to use a deity, use the deity; if you just need a name, make up a new name for them and do what you want. If I put Jesus Christ into my game and made him Chaotic Evil, some people would get outraged, others would rise to my defense, and the vast majority would think I'm some edgelord idiot; because you can't just use the name. It's a known deity.

If, on the other hand, I made a deity Jibbers Crabst and made him Chaotic Evil, nobody would care. You'd get that there's probably a joke in there, or a reference (and you'd be right), but nobody would be protesting, and I would avoid giving offense to people who might otherwise be interested in my product.

 

[Parmandur]

If I put Jesus Christ into my game and made him Chaotic Evil, some people would get outraged, others would rise to my defense, and the vast majority would think I'm some edgelord idiot

And all would have a point!

Crystal Dragon Jesus is definitely the way to go.

 

[RealAlHazred]

And all would have a point!

Absolutely.

I've long wanted a better treatment of religions in D&D terms. I thought David Schwartz did a fantastic job with three pantheons: the Mesopotamian pantheon ("Mesopotamian Mythos," Dragon #329, March 2005), Aztec pantheon ("Aztec Mythos I," Dragon #352, February 2007 to "Aztec Mythos IV," Dragon #358, August 2007), and the Finnish pantheon ("Kalevala Mythos," Targum #4, Winter 2008).

But this goes all the way back to AD&D 1E. I remember an article in Dragon #110, "For Better or Norse: II" by Carl Sargent, which re-examined Niord, Frey, Freya, and Loki. Mr. Sargent gave them alignments of Lawful Good (Niord), Neutral Good (Frey), Chaotic Good (Freya) and Chaotic Neutral (Loki).

What would a better alignment representation of Kali be?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

How so?

Would the D&D police come around to your house and torch your documents and wipe your HDD, then force you to tape all future D&D sessions

Aaaah, so that's how Critical Role came into being. I was wondering...

 

[jgsugden]

This is one of those Dr. Faulkner things ... you can't win, so don't play.

I much prefer to use my own pantheons. I recently rediscovered this the hard way.

Recently, I rebooted my entire campaign world when I moved and started with new players. I decided to make my setting more accessible, so I dropped out my homebrew Gods and replaced them with Gods from the Dawn War and Greyhawk pantheons. However, these were primarily just ways to use familiar names on reskinned versions of my Gods. As a result, some of the Gods don't perfectly match the ideas of some of the players as to how a God should be. For example, my Melora is a Goddess of Natural Forces, but not of Nature (as in plants or animals). So, she is responsible for Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Forest Fires, Tsunamis, Heat Waves, Storms, etc... but not of cats and ferns. When I had a homebrew name associated to this deity, it was no problem, but because so many players knew Melora (from Critical Role, etc...) they've struggled to understand what she stands for in my setting. To that end, I feel like I made a big mistake in using well known God names in my setting and wish I'd stayed with the homebrew pantheon names I built over 4 decades.

My advice to new DMs is to start using an established setting and experiment a bit, but to then spend a little time building your own setting and making your own Gods. Having a setting free of baggage is liberating.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

What would a better alignment representation of Kali be?

Well I hate the alignment system and don't use it. But if were to do so... Lawful Good. She literally sprang into being to fight demons and save the gods.

 

[Minigiant]

I played a one shot where the DM used Lore Oympus Greeek Gods for her game.

So Hecate was a CN Underworld god there.