A new pantheon

[CIDE]

This is related to a question I had earlier in regards to player characters and deities in a campaign.

Moving on a step though and trying to plan out my own world and campaign to throw into my group's rotation I hit a stumbling block. My initial idea of having the current pantheon essentially be a collection of immortal and very powerful (or outright ascended mortals) is at a stand still. Primarily because all the builds I've seen thus far doesn't give me as many options as I would have initially liked.

So, I ask if people know of other options for immortal, ascended, or god-like character builds?

I've already seen the Pun-Pun build and I'm already aware of Dragon Ascendant.

P.S. I've seen one Arcane spellcaster template (normally for sorcerers) where it made the person immortal but also forced them to require to constantly eat magic attacks. Anyone recall the name for this?

[gbprime]

One doesn't become a deity by leveling up in a class. Insanely powerful perhaps, but not a god. Its done by DM fiat instead. So if you're creating your pantheon, houserule something. And get creative.

In my campaign world, for example, the creator goddess is an unbelievably powerful spirit from Mechanus or Arcadia, the other greater gods were "invited" in to help her create the world and in return have a place to transplant worshippers from other worlds, while most of the lesser gods ascended from mortality somehow.

Drakken, Lord of Greed, slew the evil queen of dragons and stole her power. Kreig, God of War, led a prison break from Carceri (the first and only of its kind) and battled his way back to the Prime Material. Liari and Leander, Goddess of Knowledge and God of Secrets were siblings who discovered how to ascend to divinity thousands of years ago. Etc, etc.

The important thing is to be entertaining. Each sect should have a reason it attracts followers, even if it is dark and twisted , and each church should have a story or five. :smallbiggrin:

[navar100]

Have a racial god for Humans. No one but me ever had, though Races of Destiny at least mentioned the idea.

[gbprime]

Have a racial god for Humans. No one but me ever had, though Races of Destiny at least mentioned the idea.

My world has two. The original is a Water and Sky guy and brought humans to the world after helping in it's creation. Then an interloper Sun diety showed up and has been slowly stealing his patronage over time. Two good-aligned religions that hate each other. :smallbiggrin:

[CIDE]

The way this world is going to be set up is it was created. However, after that initial creation no one really saw the old gods. Nada, zilch, etc. Essentially it was a kind of dark ages in the sense that religion and technology were at an all time low.

Insert the new guys. Various races and classes ascending into the positions. Some for personal power, others to fix **** left in the void of the missing gods, etc.

Also, some may be demi-gods from the previous pantheon. Others I was thinking may have been creations or messengers that simply lost contact. Or even a lowly creature (by comparison) like a Valkyrie for a god of war.

One thing I was thinking of was that the original pantheon wasn't rooted as much as say the greek or norse in human notions, emotions, or themes. Such as the aforementioned god of war; they'd have no purpose for that. Or any themes at all. I'm thinking that would be something spawned purely from the new Pantheon.

Just for more fluff to add to it.

[gbprime]

One other bit of advice... you're playing to an audience here: your players. They want you to bring the coolness. And from a player point of view, there are two reasons to worship a deity. (1) they think the deity is cool. (2) they think the deity's DOMAINS are cool.

So blend cool stories with excellent cleric domain options and you'll cover both kinds of players.

[Malimar]

Have a racial god for Humans. No one but me ever had, though Races of Destiny at least mentioned the idea.

I usually treat Pelor as effectively the racial god for Humans.

[CIDE]

I usually treat Pelor as effectively the racial god for Humans.

This usually seems to be the trend in games I've seen. Even if Pelor wasn't explicitly written for that.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. Keep it coming.

[navar100]

One other bit of advice... you're playing to an audience here: your players. They want you to bring the coolness. And from a player point of view, there are two reasons to worship a deity. (1) they think the deity is cool. (2) they think the deity's DOMAINS are cool.

So blend cool stories with excellent cleric domain options and you'll cover both kinds of players.

:smallredface:
Guilty. When I first joined my gaming group, I wanted to play a cleric regardless, but the deity I chose had Family and Renewal domains I wanted to use. Renewal actually saved my character's life that first session. :smallamused:

[Aegis013]

One other bit of advice... you're playing to an audience here: your players. They want you to bring the coolness. And from a player point of view, there are two reasons to worship a deity. (1) they think the deity is cool. (2) they think the deity's DOMAINS are cool.

So blend cool stories with excellent cleric domain options and you'll cover both kinds of players.

I've got a silly idea.
The god of cleric domains. Dominion over cleric domains (cleric may pick any domains). (Maybe has a custom domain that blocks other clerics from casting domain spells or something, if we're homebrewing deities)