Pantheons of DnD - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Chaosmancer Aug 26, 2014 23:28:33	So, I've been fiddling with a world for a homebrew game and I finally got around to reading the "Nonhuman Deities" section of the Player's Handbook. At first I was excited, I had never considered seperate pantheons for each of the races and my sourcebooks up until now were sparse on details each only depicting a single pantheon. Then I saw some wierd things. Like there being 5 elven deities listed but only one for Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes. They even have four sperate gods for giants. Then came a follow-up thought, if these are the non-human, then are all the other dieties technically human gods? The entire list of Forgotten Realm dieties is longer than the nonhuman list. I've since googled and seen that traditionally we have large pantheons of beings that are simply not readily available to the players or DMs, and I plan on picking and choosing from that to help build out pantheons (I've reflavored half-orcs and orcs into one race due to having a player who is uncomfortable with the assumed origin of all half-orcs but another player loving the half-orcs mechanically, and this looks like I'm going to have to just break orcs entirely which isn't too bad as you can only have so many hordes of evil humanoids anyways) but now I've realized I have a second issue, what to do with all these human dieties? I'm okay with some dieties being more tied to specific things (god of traveling, god of magic, evil god of tyranny) but I never realized until this book that I've been familiar with two seperate pantheons (Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, though mostly greyhawk it looks like) and now my impulse and simply to mix and match until I get the flavor... I guess what I'm trying to get to is that I'm curious what other people have done. Do you guys just copy and paste into your new worlds, mix and match, or completely recreate (which I would be fine doing if I didn't struggle so blasted much with finding good names)
#2 Atheosis Aug 26, 2014 23:58:56	Most gods in most settings are race-neutral. In other words they don't care about race. Racial gods can be seen as exceptions to this.
#3 Mechatarrasque Aug 27, 2014 9:21:45	I prefer more class based deities than racial gods, since gods in my campaigns get power from social engineering rather than souls. Gods may associate with races, but only to encourage the race to act in certain ways (or because "races" like dragons are high profile and may inspire others to act like them), and the gods might be indirect (Asmodeus' followers tend to portray him as the God of Security) or more like a warlock patron than a god to the race (Lolth gives power to the Drow who use it to spread strife and madness which feeds her). The 5e clerical domains definitely support the class based gods, and will do even better with some "evil" domains in the DMG. My current pantheon is: Bane, God of Professional Militaries, patron of battlemasters, Asmodeus, God of Tyranny and Slavery, patron of infernal fiend warlocks and devil bloodline sorcerers (refluffed dragon bloodline sorcerers) Zehir, God of Secrets and Darkness, patron of shadow monks, necromancer wizards, and gloompact warlocks (when I get around to building them) Besmara, the Anti-Travel Goddess (gets power from people being scared to travel), patron of rogues (or whatever will make the best pirates or highway robbers) Achaekek, God of Cold Blooded Murder and Assassination (doesn't like it when the murder is emotionally involved), patron of assassin rogues Lolth, Goddess of Strife and madness, patron of yugoloth and/or demonic fiend warlocks and spider demon bloodline sorcerers (when I get around to building them) Tiamat, Goddess of Greed, Pride, and Revenge, patron of rogues and Vengeance Oath Paladins Rovengag, God of Destruction and Monsters, patron of GOO warlocks and anyone trying to create new monsters (usually trasmuter wizards or anti-druids, when I get around to building them) Gruumish, God of Survival, patron of barbarians and druids Kord, God of Strength and Storms, patron of fighters and barbarians Desna, Goddess of Personal Transformation and Self Improvement, patron of pretty much every class Bahumet, God of Honor, patron of paladins who were called individually, not as part of an order Cayden Cailean, God of Liberty, patron of fighters, valor bards, rogues, and drunken master monks (if we ever get them) Morradin, God of Creatiion and Art, patron of illusionist and transmuter wizards and bards Sarenae, Goddess of Redemption and the Sun, patron of whatever class is closet to whirling dervish (maybe valor bard) and any class (except vengeance paladin or fiendish warlock) that is taken by a member of traditionally evil race who has a good alignment Eraskil, God of Nature and Borders, patron of rangers, Oath of Ancient paladins, and druids Iomedea, Goddess of Nobility, patron of paladins who are part of Orders of paladins Erathis, Goddess of Civilization, Education, and Trade, patron of bards and wizards There are also demons, devils, and angels that are patrons for classes, but too many to list here. You don't have to worship a deity or other patron to be a member of the class, but potentially your membership in the class could benefit them.
#4 ArkPanda Aug 27, 2014 9:40:43	Each race has had a full pantheon of gods (usually about half a dozen). Some of the monster races only have one or two. There is a lot of information available on the Internet, but the best single reference is a second edition supplement called Monster Mythology. I think any book that has a god for gelatinous cubes can be considered comprehensive.
#5 Illithidbix Aug 27, 2014 11:27:16	I personally prefer that there is smaller and "core pantheon" but with more detailed religions. Having a fair few "unknown gods" of strange and heathen people is cool though. I also think 4E hit on a very good idea by mostly explaining religions in terms of the core tenets of the faith. Even just 3 statements go along way to providing flavour for a faith that's lacking from just " Tenets that explain what a follower should be doing rather than just what they believe. Eg: Bane God of War and Conquest Alignment: 4E: Evil (Very much Lawful Evil in 5E) Bane commands his worshipers to: Never allow your fear to gain mastery over you, but drive it into the hearts of your foes. Punish insubordination and disorder. Hone your combat skills to perfection, whether you are a mighty general or a lone mercenary.
#6 SpedGuy Aug 27, 2014 20:21:21	According to Planescape lore, the racial dieties tend to go around and 'create' their patron races on many different worlds; and thus are worshiped on many worlds as a 'racial' pantheon. Humans don't have a patron set of Gods like that (there are conflicting messages, sometimes claiming that the Human projenitor God was destroyed; others claiming that humans are just super fickle and worship new things all the time on every world, no matter how they got there). I prefer to create my own Pantheon for my own settings rather than lean on existing ones, for example http://community.wizards.com/forum/homebrew-campaigns/threads/4129316 is a creation for a simple campaign for my son and his friends as a simple 'beginner's pantheon' for first time RPers. That being said, I do like many of the existing Gods in different campaign worlds. I have great memories of playing a cleric of Waukeen, and was happy to see her return in this edition. In campaign settings with Gods from many different worlds, I often work to have her included.
#7 MonsterEnvy Aug 28, 2014 23:59:47	Chaosmancer wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Chaosmancer

Aug 26, 2014 23:28:33

So, I've been fiddling with a world for a homebrew game and I finally got around to reading the "Nonhuman Deities" section of the Player's Handbook.

At first I was excited, I had never considered seperate pantheons for each of the races and my sourcebooks up until now were sparse on details each only depicting a single pantheon.

Then I saw some wierd things. Like there being 5 elven deities listed but only one for Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes. They even have four sperate gods for giants.

Then came a follow-up thought, if these are the non-human, then are all the other dieties technically human gods? The entire list of Forgotten Realm dieties is longer than the nonhuman list.

I've since googled and seen that traditionally we have large pantheons of beings that are simply not readily available to the players or DMs, and I plan on picking and choosing from that to help build out pantheons (I've reflavored half-orcs and orcs into one race due to having a player who is uncomfortable with the assumed origin of all half-orcs but another player loving the half-orcs mechanically, and this looks like I'm going to have to just break orcs entirely which isn't too bad as you can only have so many hordes of evil humanoids anyways) but now I've realized I have a second issue, what to do with all these human dieties?

I'm okay with some dieties being more tied to specific things (god of traveling, god of magic, evil god of tyranny) but I never realized until this book that I've been familiar with two seperate pantheons (Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, though mostly greyhawk it looks like) and now my impulse and simply to mix and match until I get the flavor...

I guess what I'm trying to get to is that I'm curious what other people have done. Do you guys just copy and paste into your new worlds, mix and match, or completely recreate (which I would be fine doing if I didn't struggle so blasted much with finding good names)

Atheosis

Aug 26, 2014 23:58:56

Most gods in most settings are race-neutral. In other words they don't care about race. Racial gods can be seen as exceptions to this.

Mechatarrasque

Aug 27, 2014 9:21:45

I prefer more class based deities than racial gods, since gods in my campaigns get power from social engineering rather than souls. Gods may associate with races, but only to encourage the race to act in certain ways (or because "races" like dragons are high profile and may inspire others to act like them), and the gods might be indirect (Asmodeus' followers tend to portray him as the God of Security) or more like a warlock patron than a god to the race (Lolth gives power to the Drow who use it to spread strife and madness which feeds her).

The 5e clerical domains definitely support the class based gods, and will do even better with some "evil" domains in the DMG.

My current pantheon is:

Bane, God of Professional Militaries, patron of battlemasters,

Asmodeus, God of Tyranny and Slavery, patron of infernal fiend warlocks and devil bloodline sorcerers (refluffed dragon bloodline sorcerers)

Zehir, God of Secrets and Darkness, patron of shadow monks, necromancer wizards, and gloompact warlocks (when I get around to building them)

Besmara, the Anti-Travel Goddess (gets power from people being scared to travel), patron of rogues (or whatever will make the best pirates or highway robbers)

Achaekek, God of Cold Blooded Murder and Assassination (doesn't like it when the murder is emotionally involved), patron of assassin rogues

Lolth, Goddess of Strife and madness, patron of yugoloth and/or demonic fiend warlocks and spider demon bloodline sorcerers (when I get around to building them)

Tiamat, Goddess of Greed, Pride, and Revenge, patron of rogues and Vengeance Oath Paladins

Rovengag, God of Destruction and Monsters, patron of GOO warlocks and anyone trying to create new monsters (usually trasmuter wizards or anti-druids, when I get around to building them)

Gruumish, God of Survival, patron of barbarians and druids

Kord, God of Strength and Storms, patron of fighters and barbarians

Desna, Goddess of Personal Transformation and Self Improvement, patron of pretty much every class

Bahumet, God of Honor, patron of paladins who were called individually, not as part of an order

Cayden Cailean, God of Liberty, patron of fighters, valor bards, rogues, and drunken master monks (if we ever get them)

Morradin, God of Creatiion and Art, patron of illusionist and transmuter wizards and bards

Sarenae, Goddess of Redemption and the Sun, patron of whatever class is closet to whirling dervish (maybe valor bard) and any class (except vengeance paladin or fiendish warlock) that is taken by a member of traditionally evil race who has a good alignment

Eraskil, God of Nature and Borders, patron of rangers, Oath of Ancient paladins, and druids

Iomedea, Goddess of Nobility, patron of paladins who are part of Orders of paladins

Erathis, Goddess of Civilization, Education, and Trade, patron of bards and wizards

There are also demons, devils, and angels that are patrons for classes, but too many to list here. You don't have to worship a deity or other patron to be a member of the class, but potentially your membership in the class could benefit them.

ArkPanda

Aug 27, 2014 9:40:43

Each race has had a full pantheon of gods (usually about half a dozen). Some of the monster races only have one or two. There is a lot of information available on the Internet, but the best single reference is a second edition supplement called Monster Mythology. I think any book that has a god for gelatinous cubes can be considered comprehensive.

Illithidbix

Aug 27, 2014 11:27:16

I personally prefer that there is smaller and "core pantheon" but with more detailed religions.

Having a fair few "unknown gods" of strange and heathen people is cool though.

I also think 4E hit on a very good idea by mostly explaining religions in terms of the core tenets of the faith. Even just 3 statements go along way to providing flavour for a faith that's lacking from just "

Tenets that explain what a follower *should be doing* rather than just what they believe.

Eg:

Bane
God of War and Conquest

Alignment: 4E: Evil (Very much Lawful Evil in 5E)

Bane commands his worshipers to:

Never allow your fear to gain mastery over you, but drive it into the hearts of your foes.

Punish insubordination and disorder.

Hone your combat skills to perfection, whether you are a mighty general or a lone mercenary.

SpedGuy

Aug 27, 2014 20:21:21

According to Planescape lore, the racial dieties tend to go around and 'create' their patron races on many different worlds; and thus are worshiped on many worlds as a 'racial' pantheon. Humans don't have a patron set of Gods like that (there are conflicting messages, sometimes claiming that the Human projenitor God was destroyed; others claiming that humans are just super fickle and worship new things all the time on every world, no matter how they got there).

I prefer to create my own Pantheon for my own settings rather than lean on existing ones, for example http://community.wizards.com/forum/homebrew-campaigns/threads/4129316 is a creation for a simple campaign for my son and his friends as a simple 'beginner's pantheon' for first time RPers.

That being said, I do like many of the existing Gods in different campaign worlds. I have great memories of playing a cleric of Waukeen, and was happy to see her return in this edition. In campaign settings with Gods from many different worlds, I often work to have her included.

MonsterEnvy

Aug 28, 2014 23:59:47

Chaosmancer wrote: