(3.5) Custom Gods

[theoneorange]

What basic information should I have written down for my Gods; and how many Gods should a campaign have?

[Norfire]

What basic information should I have written down for my Gods; and how many Gods should a campaign have?

Well for information it should cover basic beliefs and laws, anything a devout follower would know. As for how many its up to you. A few core gods is enough and you can add in lesser gods as inspiration hits. I like to make gods I can really have players get into with good lore and a solid concept.

[Forrestfire]

Depends on the sort of campaign. Is it set in an established world? Then you probably want to stick to a few extra gods at most, or notify the players. Is the world one where the gods are like the Greek Gods, with a pantheon and various other Divine nasties? Then maybe 10-12ish.

Maybe it's a setting with only two or three gods, each opposing the other. Maybe it's a setting with no (active and visible) gods at all, and a set of religions that sprung up in their absence (like Eberron, for instance). Maybe it's a setting with no "real" gods, merely powerful (or not-so-powerful) outsiders, with their clerics drawing power from the ideal instead of the being.

In any case, in 3.5, the basic information for your gods should probably include what sort of portfolio they have, what domains they grant to clerics, their favored weapon, alignment... Maybe write up their backstories and relations to other gods, what sort of organizations they foster in the Material Plane for the players to interact with, what sort of servants they have... Oh, and what sort of practices their clerics might follow.

Example writups might look like:

Paladin McGoodytwoshoes

Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: Goodness, Lawfulness, Paladins, Righteous Crusades, Smiting
Domains: Good, Law, Protection, Destruction, Strength
Servants: Paladin McGoodytwoshoes has several orders of Lawful Good clerics, monks, and paladins, who fight evil wherever they find it and launch crusades against the Bad Guys whenever needed.
Relations to other gods: Paladin McGoodytwoshoes is the half-brother and sworn enemy of Badguy McPuppyeater.
Cleric Practices: Divine followers of Paladin McGoodytwoshoes help those in need, fight evil, and are generally nice people.

Badguy McPuppyeater

Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Puppy-eating, Dog-kicking, Evilness, Murder, Jerks
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Destruction, Death
Servants: Badguy McPuppyeater is venerated by many Villains, who draw their dark powers from him for use in vile rituals. They are often the same sorts of Bad Guys that have crusades launched against them, and each time they meet, they ritually sacrifice and eat a puppy in the name of their god.
Relations to other gods: Badguy McPuppyeater is the half-brother of Paladin McGoodytwoshoes, but couldn't care less, as his main motivations are furthering destruction and chaos, as opposed to dealing with his sibling.
Cleric Practices: Divine followers of Badguy McPuppyeater lie, cheat, murder, steal, and generally cause chaos wherever they go. They kick any dogs they see, and destroy any puppies, in addition to being generic Bad Guys.

Smartguy McGoawayImbusy

Alignment: True Neutral
Portfolio: Learning, Libraries, Magic, Wizardry
Domains: Magic, Knowledge, Meditation, Planning
Servants: Smartguy McGoawayImbusy is generally worshipped by wizards, knowledge-seekers, teachers, and the like. His people build schools and other places of learning, seeking to stay out of conflicts and amass more knowledge to share.
Relations to other gods: Smartguy McGoawayImbusy mostly relates to other gods by telling them to stop bothering him, but occasionally sells or buys especially secret information regarding them, and secretly instigates some of the battles between Badguy McPuppyeater and Paladin McGoodytwoshoes' followers.
Cleric Practices: Divine followers of Smartguy McGoawayImbusy never pass up a chance to learn something new, often traveling to find a new secret or other piece of information. In addition, they believe that knowledge should be shared once its fully understood, and congregate together with other followers often to do so.

[Malimar]

I think around 9 deities is ideal. Any more than that, and your players' eyes start to glaze over and they stop caring. Any fewer, and you don't have all the alignments covered.

As for what information you should have: the deity's portfolio, alignment, favored weapon, holy symbol, domains, the nature of their mortal worshippers, some basic worship procedures, how they feel about other deities, and perhaps what plane they live on.

[Azoth]

If you ever plan on directly having PCs meet the gods, or have that as a possibility...stat them up when they start getting high enough level.

Nothing worse than PCs coming face to face with a diety and deciding at that moment to try and curb stomp them to take stuff and gain xp.

[Shining Wrath]

What basic information should I have written down for my Gods; and how many Gods should a campaign have?

Alignment; domains; granted spells for any non-standard domains; about one paragraph about what followers believe and are expected to do; about half a paragraph about what the god does ("god of storms that occur only at night so they don't interfere with picnics").

Have you ever played a cleric or seen one played? Aside from shouting the name of the deity as they crush some poor schmuck's skull, how often do the teachings of a god come up?

Look in the player's handbook for, e.g., Pelor. You actually need less than that.

EDIT: You could consider letting the players help create your pantheon. Is there a god of dance? A god of the forge?

A god of pizza?

A halfling gourmand who worships the god of Pizza, Marinaraous, could amuse.

[BWR]

You should have the gods you want to have. No more, no less. If you think that two or three is enough, fine. If you want to have a hundred or more hanging around (I'm looking at you, Mystaran Immortals), all vying for attention, fine.

I'd say the most important thing to do is build from the top down. What is the purpose of the gods in your game? How interventionist are they? Can they be slain by mortals? Can mortals ascend? How humanlike are they? Are they embodiments of concepts and purveyors of domains or are they more like politicians with competing views? How do they relate to eachother?
You can always start small and add more later as you feel the need.

[Red Fel]

I would recommend checking Deities & Demigods for exactly what you might want with regard to any deity's statblocks. It includes, as others have mentioned, alignment, domains, portfolios, concerns, salient divine abilities, appearances in mortal form, and general practices of the clergy. Note that I do not recommend using Deities and Demigods to stat your deities (the PC arms race can overwhelm them fairly quickly).

I would also advise including a series of Knowledge (religion) checks for each deity, so that the players have an opportunity to learn about them. (Note that a Cleric of that deity should probably have a major bonus to this check, but not a guaranteed success - deities are elusive and enigmatic, after all!) For example:

Shiny McHolypants
DC 5: Shiny McHolypants is a god of goodness.
DC 10: Shiny McHolypants is a warrior-god of justice and protection. His temples can be found in many capital cities.
DC 15: The clergy of Shiny McHolypants is divided into two sections: the Penitent, a group of Clerics who take vows of poverty and preach virtue unto the masses, and the Punishers, a group of Paladins who venture forth to slay evil.
DC 20: Shiny McHolypants is known to visit the Prime Material plane once every ten years, in search of great heroes to join his entourage.
DC 50: Do you know Bahamut? This dude is totally Bahamut. In disguise.

As for how many deities, that would depend on the setting. If you have a very in-depth and expansive setting, with many major set pieces, that would merit a larger pantheon; but a smaller, more combat-oriented setting doesn't require a lot - a few Good ones, a few Evil, a neutral, and you're done.

When including deities, think about what matters in your world. Consider, for example, that the major races in core D&D - Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, Halflings, even Kobolds and Drow - have their own patron deities. Consider that various ethos also get their own deities - there is Boccob for the impartial pursuit of magic, Kord for the pursuit of strength, Olidammara for the pursuit of objects in other people's pockets, there's Hieroneous and Hextor for the eternal but orderly war of Good and Evil, Bahamut and Tiamat for dragons, and so forth. Basically, your pantheon should encompass the most substantial parts of your world - you can give gods to major races, major nations, even major concepts (like War, Compassion, Fire). Whatever matters in your setting.

[Shining Wrath]

I would recommend checking Deities & Demigods for exactly what you might want with regard to any deity's statblocks. It includes, as others have mentioned, alignment, domains, portfolios, concerns, salient divine abilities, appearances in mortal form, and general practices of the clergy. Note that I do not recommend using Deities and Demigods to stat your deities (the PC arms race can overwhelm them fairly quickly).

I would also advise including a series of Knowledge (religion) checks for each deity, so that the players have an opportunity to learn about them. (Note that a Cleric of that deity should probably have a major bonus to this check, but not a guaranteed success - deities are elusive and enigmatic, after all!) For example:

Shiny McHolypants
DC 5: Shiny McHolypants is a god of goodness.
DC 10: Shiny McHolypants is a warrior-god of justice and protection. His temples can be found in many capital cities.
DC 15: The clergy of Shiny McHolypants is divided into two sections: the Penitent, a group of Clerics who take vows of poverty and preach virtue unto the masses, and the Punishers, a group of Paladins who venture forth to slay evil.
DC 20: Shiny McHolypants is known to visit the Prime Material plane once every ten years, in search of great heroes to join his entourage.
DC 50: Do you know Bahamut? This dude is totally Bahamut. In disguise.

As for how many deities, that would depend on the setting. If you have a very in-depth and expansive setting, with many major set pieces, that would merit a larger pantheon; but a smaller, more combat-oriented setting doesn't require a lot - a few Good ones, a few Evil, a neutral, and you're done.

When including deities, think about what matters in your world. Consider, for example, that the major races in core D&D - Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, Halflings, even Kobolds and Drow - have their own patron deities. Consider that various ethos also get their own deities - there is Boccob for the impartial pursuit of magic, Kord for the pursuit of strength, Olidammara for the pursuit of objects in other people's pockets, there's Hieroneous and Hextor for the eternal but orderly war of Good and Evil, Bahamut and Tiamat for dragons, and so forth. Basically, your pantheon should encompass the most substantial parts of your world - you can give gods to major races, major nations, even major concepts (like War, Compassion, Fire). Whatever matters in your setting.

Speaking of Deities and Demigods: there are lots of pre-existing pantheons just waiting for you to port them into your campaign. You can rename "Apollo" "ScienceLight WithabowDude" or whatever. You don't have to invent the god of X; use Google, change the name, add holy symbols and what have you.