Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 falloftheraven Dec 11, 2014 17:31:59	I have read through the new dungeons master guide, players handbook and mosnter manual, and i havent been able to tell if there is a assumed pantheon of gods or not. I did see the list of varius pantheons in the back of the players handbook, but couldnt tell if any are assumed "standard" setting.   just wanted to get all of your opinions on which if any are the defualt, and how modifing the gods list would effect the lore.
#2 Jenks Dec 11, 2014 17:48:41	There are no assumed gods, only that gods are assumed.    What that confusing sentence means, they give you some base ideas to go off of with the domains, but they don't give a base god list. However, it assumes that the world does have divine beings of some sort.
#3 falloftheraven Dec 11, 2014 17:50:06	well thats a set back then, I was hoping to find a "defualt" to help with the world builing and lore stuff.
#4 Zardnaar Dec 11, 2014 17:52:11	falloftheraven wrote:
#5 Jenks Dec 11, 2014 17:56:33	Then use the 4e list they give you in the DMG. That list is composed of the base gods from 4e, all of them.
#6 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 11, 2014 21:43:55	Yeah, if you are building a world and don't want to make your own pantheon, you can just pick any of the pantheons they give you. They can't give you a default, as the default setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D campaign settings and worlds.
#7 MonsterEnvy Dec 12, 2014 1:24:20	The PHB and the DMG several base god lists between them.   The Greyhawk one was the default before 3e while the one given in the DMG was the default 4e one. You have several to pick from. Just choose one learn about the gods and then do your worldbuilding and lore.
#8 Grazel Dec 12, 2014 1:37:00	The closest to a default would be the Faerun gods (Forgotten Realms) as FR is being considered the default campaign setting for 5e. But if you want to use a default pantheon for world building use the Dawn War pantheon in the DMG as it fits the base set of domains for clerics. and fits the DMG suggestions for creating a basic pantheon.
#9 Emerikol Dec 12, 2014 10:38:16	If you really want to get into Gods in your campaign world, try and find "The Book of the Righteous" by Green Ronin.   Even though it is 3e, it will give you lots of ideas on how to build a pantheon for your world.   It has a lot of samples too.
#10 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 12, 2014 14:55:06	Grazel wrote:
#11 Grazel Dec 12, 2014 17:31:54	While they are using the multiverse they've also stated that FR is the default setting for the adventures as can be seen in HotDQ and RoT which both take place on the Sword Coast with Harpers and Zhentarim references. Default doesn't mean exclusive and even in that interview you can see there's a focus on FR and while other settings may get fleshed out further in the future for now it's almost entirely FR. Also FR was never cut off from the other campaign settings and had crossovers a lot (even into Athas as the Abyssal Plague books showed) so it makes a good default starting point. Also the majority of that interview was on the novels and fiction side of D&D not the game mechanics.
#12 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 12, 2014 17:36:13	Grazel wrote:
#13 Mecheon Dec 12, 2014 17:46:14	My favourite panthenon is Elder Scroll's panthenon   Y'know, the ones where the Khajit (the cat people) call the 'god' of destruction "Little Kitten", as nothing is more destructive than a kitten. They call all gods cats. And also worship the moon, as it has something to do with their ridiculously powerful drugs they use for religious experiences   Then you've got Dunmer and AlmSiVi and, well, that's a whoooole kettle of fish. Seriously
#14 MNBlockHead Dec 13, 2014 0:06:50	I look at the list of gods as a reference to understand how once can look at a historical pantheon, or make up your own, in D & D terms. A big part of the joy of being a DM, for me, is world building. I don't get to play often, usually a very long session every month or so. Most of my D & D hobby time is spent working on my world. A big part of that was creating religions for the various cultures of my campaign world. Some, the Dwarven pantheons are canonical D&D, but most are derived from my playing a history parlor game.  E.g., what if the Etruscans were not conquered and absorbed by the Romans? I've particularly enjoyed working with the Old Norse pantheon and have spend a lot of time reading on Old Norse and Germanic religion and the old norse calendar.   What the tables in the appendix of the Player's Guide helps with is by cross referencing goods in my campaign's pantheons with those in the Guide, I can assign alignment and domains (light, life, death, tempest, etc.), which allows me to build NPCs and allows players to build characters that follow the game's mechanics but within my environment.    I do the same with calendars, magic items, monsters, etc. It is rare that I just use these as-is. Rather, I see them as examples to work from.
#15 BRJN Dec 15, 2014 9:34:59	I typically wind up with Thor as a demi-god in my pantheons, because I read through the 1980s-era Beta Ray Bill / Surtur Saga in the comic books and really enjoyed how the Norse gods were portrayed. I like Torog (4e) as a demi-god but not a full-fledged god.   I also typically have a 'god of the Elves', 'god of the Dwarves', 'god of the Orcs &c just so any random Cleric NPC has somebody to pray to by default.   Bane (LE god of Tyranny and Power) is an effective 'enemy empowerer' deity, better than Gruumsh (CE god of Orcs) imho.  Gods of Insanity are hard to handle, because their followers are self-destructive.  There is no way to operate a godly plan that requires decades / centuries of steps that build upon previous progress.   A plot line for high-level characters can involve locating a dead god or forgotten god or sleeping / inactive god.  (Pick any god you like, from a different base pantheon.)  Demigodhood after L20 being the prize to be gained.   Possibly the worst goddess ever: Mystra, goddess of Magic.  This supposedly powerful being who empowers her followers with all the Divination spells (both arcane and divine) has TWICE not seen it coming when another god set out to kill her !
#16 Hebitsuikaza Dec 15, 2014 10:20:18	It should be noted that there seem to be some gods attached to D&D that appear in Forgotten Realms, GrayHawk and, I believe, Ebberron. They may or may not appear in Mystara too.   Lloth, Gruumish, Maglibiyet, Corellon, Garl Glittergold, Moradin, Bahamut, Tiamat...   I am pretty sure some of these are in Dragonlance too. And, of course, they are all in Planescape.   So I guess it would be incorrect to say that there are no default assumed deities... you can get rid of the racial ones, in fact.... it is probably be better if one does that and instead they just have their own interpretations of the same deities other races worship so that the deities origins can seem considerably more fantastical than just being high level mortals.
#17 LuisCarlos17f Dec 15, 2014 10:32:50	I would rather the pantheon from Greyhawk... but Greyhawk and FR had got many gods... What about multiverse settings like Ravenloft, Planescape or Spelljammer? What if anybody misses the inmortal from Mystara, or another pantheons from real world like the Sumerian? Maybe a DM wants to create a D&D version of Kratos, the god of war from Playstation videogames, or Xena's universe when a mortal could kick the same Ares.   In my setting there is a religious conflict between the clerics, the favored souls, the psionic ardents and the binders(vestige warlocks).
#18 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 15, 2014 14:00:04	Yes, racial pantheons are a shared default.  In most classic D&D settings Moradin is the head god of the dwarves, for instance.  Dragonlance, Mystara, and Birthright stand out as exceptions. But they still exist within the same cosmology. The default racial pantheons just don't hold sway on those worlds.   So the easy defaults to apply are the various non-human races. Human pantheons are where every setting is different. Also, in some settings (Dragonlance is a great example) humans and non-humans share the same pantheon. Dwarves particularly venerate Reorx, for instance, but so do humans.
#19 Grazel Dec 15, 2014 19:08:25	BRJN wrote:
#20 Chaosmancer Dec 19, 2014 21:43:45	I ran across a similiar realization when I got the player's handbook and it sparked a long homebrew (still not fleshed out very well and game date is fast approaching)   I would pick a default, and then mix and match as you see fit. Turns out a few google searchs and wikipedia pages will reveal many, many, many dieties not listed in the book, so there is more than enough material to get lost in. There are entire pantheons for each race, which stunned me as no books I have ever owned has even hinted at that until 5e, and even 5e was pathetically tiny and I had to turn to the internet to begin my work.   Worth it though, as messing with the pantheons has allowed me to lay a broad base of flavor for each individual race
#21 Orethalion Dec 20, 2014 11:29:26	Mecheon wrote:
#22 Zardnaar Dec 20, 2014 11:45:42	Hebitsuikaza wrote:
#23 Mecheon Dec 20, 2014 16:53:12	Orethalion wrote:
#24 draegn Dec 21, 2014 9:35:40	We enjoy that having varient humans makes it easier to explain multiple pantheons that exist in different regions of our game world.
#25 Brock_Landers Dec 21, 2014 10:05:52	There is no assumed pantheon, that is why things like Deities & Demigods, Manual of the Planes, Fiendish Codices and what-not exist, transcend edition.
(Reply to #22) Azzy1974	Zardnaar wrote:
#27 JohnLynch Dec 21, 2014 17:48:38	In my world the worship of gods is limited to one continent. Other continents have different faiths, such as the Blessed Kingdom which commune with devas as they seek to ascend to a higher state of being: http://nat20games.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/aasimar/#more-216
#28 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 22, 2014 15:35:28	Chaosmancer wrote:
#29 guachi Dec 22, 2014 15:49:36	Someone mentioned Mystara (aka The Known World) setting. It doesn't have gods; it has immortals. Most of them were ordinary mortals who ascended to immortality. It gives it somewhat of an earth like feel in that it's actual people who are being venerated for their actions similar to Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, John smith, etc.
#30 Orethalion Dec 22, 2014 15:56:22	Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
#31 Orethalion Dec 22, 2014 15:58:14	guachi wrote:
#32 Illithidbix Dec 22, 2014 17:00:56	falloftheraven wrote:
#33 Sword_of_Spirit Dec 23, 2014 20:46:56	guachi wrote:
#34 Qmark Dec 29, 2014 23:52:58	In the end, Domains ended up being more important than Deities. The part that makes the cleric work is domains themselves.   Deities are just decoration for those domains, and don't really need to exist at all.