I've noticed that Divine Power has re-introduced the concept of Domains for deities, with a separate feat associated with each domain. Domains are listed for all the Player's Handbook gods, with each god typically receiving 3 domains. However, the book doesn't include a list for forgotten realms deities.
Is there a list of domains for each of the forgotten realms gods? Or can characters only take these domain powers if they select a deity from the player's handbook such as Bahamut?
I'm currently trying to put together an Avenger for LFR, and the domain feats look like they are very nice for Avengers, due to the way they turn at-wills into basic attacks.
The article is now out and is generally pretty similar I think to previous domains (some seem to have swapped around a bit). Gives a nice range of domains for Good and Evil deities as well, which is quite useful.
Quit using the same stuff between core Corellon and FR Corellon, WotC, they're not the same frakking god. Wilderness doesn't make any sense for the CORE one, let alone the FR one. War? Protection? (Oh hey look what this funny 3.x book has for him!) Something that makes a bit more sense like Creation? Sigh. (Also lawl at the impliance that suddenly Corellon isn't interested in music. Uh, no.)
Angharradh's don't make that much sense either, but then neither does she.
Makes me wish I ran 4e FR so I could houserule it. :P
...Wait am I reading that sidebar wrong or are they trying to imply now that Selune was both Sehanine and Hanali? I dearly hope I'm reading it wrong.
[trying to ignore forum changes for now. it's all so different.]
Hmm...I'm not sure about some of the FR domains as listed in the article. It's just one take I guess, and certainly easily changed in home campaigns if desired. A few domain listings seem minorly different from what I had been thinking...the kind where you say, "Oh, that's a different take but I get it. That's pretty cool/interesting." A few others just seem downright odd or ill-fitting, IMHO.
[oh no, where are all the emoticons!]
Some things I disliked:
- The biggest example of my shock is the Trickery domain. Oghma has Trickery over the options of Creation, Freedom, and Fate (e.g., divination)?? I like the mention that namers are witty, but isn't that encompassed by Skill? Trickery seems to clash with truth in more than just name. Similarly, Sune has Trickery over Freedom (to follow one's heart) and Protection (of tenderness and beauty)?? ([how do I hide a rant now?] Rant: I can't believe Ilmater got Freedom over Oghma, Selune, and Sune! Blargh! And Tempurans need Skill to strategize and kick butt, not noble ideals of Protection...that's what armor is for! Blargh!)
- I regrettably feel the need to mention that, imho, not all of the fluff was up to par or fully developed. I have to say, it felt like a draft of a really good article to come. (Ouch...I'm sorry if that sounds mean. I don't at all mean any offense.)
- While mistakes happen, there was kind of a glaring gaffe with Selune. The Aspects sidebar mentions Sehanine as Selune's more moon-y aspect.....uhhh.....was that supposed to be more arcane aspect? (I'm not sure how much more lunar you can get with Selune.) And yes, Nai_calus, Hanali is an aspect of Sune, not Selune.
- I don't like that Silvanus' vengefulness was downplayed; I thought that was most of what made him interesting, even to the point of giving him Vengeance over Storm.
To end on some positive notes:
- The listing of Undeath under Shar is jarring at first glance, but the idea that its a secret of hers is an interesting twist. Not sure that I entirely like it yet...but I do think it's woven in as opposed to shoe-horned in. (IOW, she's still playing big baddy of everything, but at least she's keeping it a secret here.)
- I am happy that Asmodeus and Bane are presented as clearly distinct entities (that was one of my big worries in regards to domains) and Mielikki with Freedom and Wilderness actually makes her stand on her own now, imho.
- I like the Starsinger artwork. (Errmm...I presume it's a Starsinger of Sehanine, a.k.a., "eladrin cleric of Selune.")
- I really like the sidebar topics that were chosen. They were relevant and useful asides, which I don't always feel is the case.
Overall, I'm glad to have the article, but what did y'all think?
What are the odds that they will add entries for all of the allowed beings of worship for divine characters in LFR in the final version? While not providing descriptions or specific channel divinity feats for lesser known beings makes sense, some additional rows on the table would be nice.
And yes, Nai_calus, Hanali is an aspect of Sune, not Selune.
Ah, it was an error. Good. I thought I was going senile.
I missed Winter with Silvanus. Otherwise it looks nice but some domains have a lot of overlap .
One thing I was missing was a sidebar explaing how to deal with Exarchs. I assume Exarchs don't get domains, and that you are jsut out of luck if you worship them, but still.
Gomez
Yeah, knew about the Hanali = Sune thing(And still think it's stupid), I was just making sure I was reading the sidebar right and it was really trying to claim that Hanali = Selune.
I've gotta say I'm not happy with how sloppy the article is on lore, and of course with the continual laziness with anything relating to either version of Corellon. (At least Divine Power presented an actually usable version of the Chosen power for Corellon, as opposed to the inexplicably awful and also non-working version in FRPG. Dearly hope LFR will use the DP version from now on for when it ever gets to Epic and there are Corellites who want to use it.)
Yeah domains and CD for Exarches would be nice, but probably not going to happen. As a fan of Erevan Ilesere, this does not make me happy.
I mostly ignored all the lore (a habit I've got into involving FR Gods as a general rule) and was more interested in the domains. Now I've had a good read of the article I wasn't happy with some of the domains they gave, but ultimately it isn't too hard to modify and provides some guidelines. Shar getting undeath though gets a major rolleyes from me. Is she really doing EVERYTHING these days now?
Edit: I was also disappointed to see the lack of the "Stupidity" domain, of which more than a few of the Gods surely have.
Well, the article confirmed my fear that they would just totally ignore the exarchs. At least they could have added a line about the exarchs granting a single one of the domains of their superiors or something like that.
About Tempus and the skill domain I think it was done for game balance reasons. Skill is one of the best domains and since Tempus already has one of the best channel divinity feats it seems as if they didn't want to increase the population of Tempus worshippers in LFR even more 
For LFR I also miss a clarification if this article is supposed to replace the equivalency list in the CCG as far as domains are concerned or if LFR players are now allowed to pick from both options
Wow, I totally blanked on this article. 
(God that's a weak embarassed smilie).
Give me a minute guys and I'll edit with my impressions. Hopefully things won't be too bad.
EDIT: Okay, not bad. Only two real complaints: Oghma - Trickery, and Shar - Undeath. I can't help but feel Shar got Undeath simply so they could fit it in. It's not too bad, but I don't think I'll personally acknowledge it. And Trickery for Oghma is lame. Other than that, not too bad, nor too great.
And why is the D&D Insider logo not under my profile?
Quit using the same stuff between core Corellon and FR Corellon, WotC, they're not the same frakking god. Wilderness doesn't make any sense for the CORE one, let alone the FR one. War? Protection? (Oh hey look what this funny 3.x book has for him!) Something that makes a bit more sense like Creation? Sigh. (Also lawl at the impliance that suddenly Corellon isn't interested in music. Uh, no.
I have very little knowledge of the the elven gods, core or not, but as Corellon is heavily related to the Feywild I'd expect him to have the wilderness domain available.
I have very little knowledge of the the elven gods, core or not, but as Corellon is heavily related to the Feywild I'd expect him to have the wilderness domain available.
Except the Feywild is a new thing that's been retconned in as the plane of faerie, and Corellon's only real connection to it is that Eladrin live there. Corellon's been around since 1e, and while the Seldarine has always had good relations with the fey gods and the fey... Yeah no not really working except in the 'lulz tree-hugging elves' sense. Which is, if that's why they're using it, incredibly lame.
Corellon's a god of elves, music, magic, arts and crafts, warfare and similar things, none of which have anything explicit to do with the Feywild and thus nothing explicitly to do with the Wilderness domain. Protection? Yes, sure, one of Corellon's titles is the Protector. War? Also sure, he is a martial deity as well. Creation? Obviously. Wilderness of all things? Er... Not really. Sort of, if you beat it to make it fit. But there's far better choices.
Buuuut they just grabbed the same things they gave the core pantheon's Corellon, who has some vaguely similar traits(Association with they fey, strong association with Eladrin, appreciation of beauty), and re-used them for FR Corellon. Derp. (For the record, I don't think they got core Corellon's domains right either and think that at least one of them, probably Wilderness, needs to be replaced with Hope or Life since he's, you know, the god of Spring and all.)
I have very little knowledge of the the elven gods, core or not, but as Corellon is heavily related to the Feywild I'd expect him to have the wilderness domain available.
Except the Feywild is a new thing that's been retconned in as the plane of faerie, and Corellon's only real connection to it is that Eladrin live there. Corellon's been around since 1e, and while the Seldarine has always had good relations with the fey gods and the fey... Yeah no not really working except in the 'lulz tree-hugging elves' sense. Which is, if that's why they're using it, incredibly lame.
Corellon's a god of elves, music, magic, arts and crafts, warfare and similar things, none of which have anything explicit to do with the Feywild and thus nothing explicitly to do with the Wilderness domain. Protection? Yes, sure, one of Corellon's titles is the Protector. War? Also sure, he is a martial deity as well. Creation? Obviously. Wilderness of all things? Er... Not really. Sort of, if you beat it to make it fit. But there's far better choices.
Buuuut they just grabbed the same things they gave the core pantheon's Corellon, who has some vaguely similar traits(Association with they fey, strong association with Eladrin, appreciation of beauty), and re-used them for FR Corellon. Derp. (For the record, I don't think they got core Corellon's domains right either and think that at least one of them, probably Wilderness, needs to be replaced with Hope or Life since he's, you know, the god of Spring and all.)
Oh, I know that Corellon goes back to 1e; I did play way back when. But elves - in my perception and perhaps faulty memory - have always been associated with nature. The Gray Box certainly didn't suggest otherwise, borrowing as heavily as it did on Tolkien's concept of them. Heck, BG2 had 'em still living in trees! 
I'm just saying that I don't see any major problem with wilderness being related to a god whose father of the elves.
The problem is that, especially with the doofy retcons, Corellon is more a god of the Eladrin, who are the old sun and moon elves, who were the least tree hug-y of the FR elves.
The further problem is that it ignores Corellon's actual thematic elements and what he stands for as a god beyond just 'lawl god of elvez' completely in favour of a lame stereotype.
The even further problem is this in light of 4e's emphasis on less racial pantheons and everyone being open to every race. Corellon as a god for humans, halfingings, dwarves and what have you should not have this ridiculous narrow 'lawl elves like nature so let's give their traditional god the nature-y domain!' focus.
Yeah, he's the god of the elves. Elves stereotypically like trees. Arvandor is a forest. But that is NOT at all what Corellon is actually *about*, and thus the domain assignment utterly and totally fails.
I was hoping they would have the exarchs in there as well. Hoar has always been my favorite Realms deity so i was kinda dissappointed they didnt have him in there. I was also kinda peeved hes now an exarch of Bane but i already bitched about that in another thread so ill keep quiet about it. Well i dont see any reason why exarchs cant have domains. I havnt read anything that says they cant. They still have worshippers so it would make sense to me that they would have domains as well. I could definatly see Hoar having the Justice and Vengence domains, or maybe just Vengence if you wanted to limit exarchs to just one domain since theyre basically demi gods.
I also thought some of the domains they had listed didnt fit with the gods as we know them. I thought Tymora should have trickery not Oghma, Ilmater should have Torment. Thats the ones that really come to mind but i'm sure id think of more if i looked at it again. I have a feeling theres goona be alot of house rulings on this.
Ok Mirtek...how did you get that lovely Avatar?
I love how they gave Selune, Corellon, and Sseth the Arcana Domain. Maybe Shar blocked Selune becoming the New Realms God of Magic?
Interesting article to me.:D
Ok Mirtek...how did you get that lovely Avatar?
I just inserted the direct link to the picture from there and hope that WotC doesn't mind.
@WotC guys: I'll remove it immediately if that's not OK.
May Cyric Bless thee Mirtek!:evilgrin:
I just inserted the direct link to the picture from there and hope that WotC doesn't mind.
@WotC guys: I'll remove it immediately if that's not OK.
I am hoping this kind of behaviour is acceptable too. Not least because I ended up recreating my avatar (with Eilistraee and Sehanine Moonbow backups) with images from the (freely available) Faiths and Pantheons Art Gallery. If it isn't I will revert to something "sanctioned", but considering some of the ones I have seen that people have uploaded it shouldn't be too bad, I would have thought.
Even if all three of the deities in question (my ones) no longer technically exist.
I matched up domains with all the exarchs. Wasnt sure where to post it, seemed to fit here. I did my best to match up domains to what they were the god of without overlaping domains from the Gods they are exarchs of. this is what i came up with:
EXARCHS DOMAIN
Abbathor MadnessArvoreen WarBaervan Wildwanderer FreedomBahgtru WarBaravar Cloakshadow ProtectionBrandobaris TrickeryCallarduran Smoothhands EarthClangeddin Silverbeard WarCyrrollalee ProtectionDeep Sashelas SeaDugmaren Brightmantle KnowledgeErevan Ilesere ChangeFenmarel Mestarine WildernessFzoul Chembryl StrifeGaragos DestructionHoar VengeanceHruggek StrengthJergal KnowledgeLabelas Enoreth LifeLliira LoveMaglubiyet StrengthMalar DestructionMarthammor Duin WildernessMilil CreationObould WarThe Red Knight SkillSharess LoveShargaas DarknessShevarash VengeanceShiallia HopeSiamorphe SkillSolonor Thelandira LifeThard Harr WildernessUthgar WildernessValkur SeaVaprak StrifeVergadain Luck
I'd have probably given Arvoreen war.
I'd have probably given Arvoreen war.
You're right i was just going with what they had in the Realms Campaign Guide where they list his sphere as Vigilance which i equated with Justice, but after reading up on Arvoreen i'd say you are absolutely right. Consider it changed.
Hoar should have Fate and Justice as well.
Hoar should have Fate and Justice as well.
Greater gods get 3 domains, Hoar is an Exarch, he gets one!
That was a typo in the FRCG. Hoar is a greater god!