Favorite pantheon of deities for a game world?

[TrexPushups]

Which deities sets are your favorite to have in your game world?

I am trying to pick a good set for my own campaign setting.

[Naanomi]

I invariably end up creating pantheons of my own; while I enjoy the existing campaign settings and their cosmology, Gods are such a big part of world building that I want to rely on my own to fit my themes/story needs

[Shining Wrath]

Anything other than Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk isn't really big enough to stand alone.

I like the Greco-Roman pantheon for pure flavor reasons.

[M Placeholder]

Which deities sets are your favorite to have in your game world?

I am trying to pick a good set for my own campaign setting.

Do you even need a set of deities in your world? Remember, two of the best settings, Dark Sun and Eberron (according to one interpretation of divinity) have no gods.

If you've decided you do, ask what sort of gods are there, and how they react with different cultures and races. Is it one pantheon for everyone, or do different areas have different pantheons (Like on Toril)? How hard is it to get in touch with a god? Have they walked the earth?

Questions like that will help you pick a set of powers for your setting.

[TrexPushups]

Do you even need a set of deities in your world? Remember, two of the best settings, Dark Sun and Eberron (according to one interpretation of divinity) have no gods.

If you've decided you do, ask what sort of gods are there, and how they react with different cultures and races. Is it one pantheon for everyone, or do different areas have different pantheons (Like on Toril)? How hard is it to get in touch with a god? Have they walked the earth?

Questions like that will help you pick a set of powers for your setting.

I know the setting needs some churches with empowered clerics.

My starting city will be Blind Crab Bay a town built over the ruined city of Sontark famous for their giant crab exports kept fresh by gentle repose thus requiring the crabs eyes be cover with linen to keep the copper pieces from falling off and ending the spells.

So I need a clericical org willing to cast that spell on the crabs for mercantile purposes.

[Mr.Moron]

I don't have a favorite but I generally prefer a setting with just 1 God, or perhaps a small handful (1-3) all with really broad roles. I've never been able to get into the usual approach with a gaggle of gods for every little aspect of existence. It winds up just feeling like a bunch of kids trying to get you to join their club at college, at least to me.

The setting for my current game has just a single god that's more abstract/absent than anything. The nitty gritting of running the natural systems of the world left to specific element beings. These beings while extremely powerful and in some cases even worshiped by some people, aren't gods in any true sense. Their control over the forces they're custodians of is not absolute, they are physical beings that exist as living bodies, and each only has influence over a defined geographic area.

[themaque]

I use my own gods, but If I where going to fall back to published gods I think the Forgotten Realms gods are well rounded and have something for everyone.

For character, you can't beat the Norse Mythology in my opinion. Never could get into the Greek gods, but I love the road pictures of Thor, Loki, and Odin wandering the earth getting into trouble.

Thanks to the popularity of Marvel Cinema people will know roughly who or what you are talking about! (Yes, I know they are DRASTICALLY altered, but if it inspires someone and get's them asking questions it's all good.)

[DanyBallon]

I use a customs pantheons for my game world. These are composed of deities from Toril, Oerth, Golarion, the Norse and Celtic pantheons and home made deities. I have a nature/green faith pantheon, a more martial one whorshipped by the conquering nation, and different races have their own as well. The world of Greyhawk being a big insperation owh the différents deities are worshipped through out the world on how portfolio overlaps and how the interact with each others.

[DanyBallon]

Greyhawk isn't really big enough to stand alone.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by that? It's one of the setting with the most numerous number of deities :smallconfused:

[Rowan Wolf]

I know the setting needs some churches with empowered clerics.

My starting city will be Blind Crab Bay a town built over the ruined city of Sontark famous for their giant crab exports kept fresh by gentle repose thus requiring the crabs eyes be cover with linen to keep the copper pieces from falling off and ending the spells.

So I need a clericical org willing to cast that spell on the crabs for mercantile purposes.

Would it have to clerics after all it is a ritual (and on the wizards list as well), it could very well be a cabal of warlocks in league with a great old one in the sea using the to spread it's influence.

[TrexPushups]

Do you even need a set of deities in your world? Remember, two of the best settings, Dark Sun and Eberron (according to one interpretation of divinity) have no gods.

If you've decided you do, ask what sort of gods are there, and how they react with different cultures and races. Is it one pantheon for everyone, or do different areas have different pantheons (Like on Toril)? How hard is it to get in touch with a god? Have they walked the earth?

Questions like that will help you pick a set of powers for your setting.


Would it have to clerics after all it is a ritual (and on the wizards list as well), it could very well be a cabal of warlocks in league with a great old one in the sea using the to spread it's influence.

I didn't notice it was on the wizard list!

That is great as I can have a retired adventurer wizard who make his apprentices work the rituals or get kicked out. Heck I could even combine this into a one-armed retired half-Orc eldritch knight as the founder of the company.

[M Placeholder]

I know the setting needs some churches with empowered clerics.

My starting city will be Blind Crab Bay a town built over the ruined city of Sontark famous for their giant crab exports kept fresh by gentle repose thus requiring the crabs eyes be cover with linen to keep the copper pieces from falling off and ending the spells.

So I need a clericical org willing to cast that spell on the crabs for mercantile purposes.

Could Druids, Wizards or any other type of spellslinger do that?

Having said that, a Cathedral made entirely out of Crab shells would be a pretty Funky place, and Blind Crab bay is a great name. Have them worship the sea itself, and get divine power from that. A number of clerics with the Tempest Domain would fit the bill nicely.

[mephnick]

I don't use gods, but I always really enjoyed the Golarion gods. They're flavourful.

[TrexPushups]

Could Druids, Wizards or any other type of spellslinger do that?

Having said that, a Cathedral made entirely out of Crab shells would be a pretty Funky place, and Blind Crab bay is a great name. Have them worship the sea itself, and get divine power from that. A number of clerics with the Tempest Domain would fit the bill nicely.

I was totally planning on letting characters get discount crab shell shields if they join the blind crab trading consortium and adventuring guild.

[Jurai]

I like the Dragonlance deities. Sure, there's only 19 (21 if you read the ridiculously out-of-date appendix in the back of the 5e PHB, since Takhisis is dead as dirt and Paladine is a mortal now, though with the ascension of Mina (The Amber & Whatever trilogy), there's 20, though she doesn't have worshipers, so really, it's 19.), but those 19 are darn flavorful. You've got a minotaur-ish deity of vengeance and fire and volcanoes, a monk deity, a book-keeper deity, an accountant deity...

[TrollCapAmerica]

I tend to favor real world mythology since there's.more material to pull from and too many created pantheons are word salad names with little development

Also Odin because Odin is awesome

[Naanomi]

Monotheisms are hard for me to use in fantasy setting; make the one God too strong and he has to be a super hands-off kinda guy (which makes you wonder why clerics are empowered at all); too weak and he doesn't seem to cover all the roles I want filled cosmologically.

You also have to find a way to have evil and good clerics (or in general to meet a classic fantasy feel you do) and thus the monotheistic power ends up either a weird sort of neutral that doesn't care how his powers are used, or worshipped in 'aspects' or 'Saints' which turns into a defacto polytheism.

[mephnick]

I invariably end up creating pantheons of my own; while I enjoy the existing campaign settings and their cosmology, Gods are such a big part of world building that I want to rely on my own to fit my themes/story needs

I'd do this if I thought I could get the players to give a crap about them.

It's hard enough to get them to read a one paragraph summary of the nation they're in.

[TrexPushups]

I'd do this if I thought I could get the players to give a crap about them.

It's hard enough to get them to read a one paragraph summary of the nation they're in.

That is an absurdly strong point. I will get rid of the standard fantasy gods as no one seems to pay attention and use either Norse or Greek gods as people will at least already have some idea about which God is which.

[TrexPushups]

I'd do this if I thought I could get the players to give a crap about them.

It's hard enough to get them to read a one paragraph summary of the nation they're in.


That is an absurdly strong point. I will get rid of the standard fantasy gods as no one seems to pay attention and use either Norse or Greek gods as people will at least already have some idea about which God is which.

On further reflection I will just crib a couple of names and introduce extras as needed.

So blind crab proceeds go to the esoteric order of Dagon.

Crom will be given a name check as well.

[Envyus]

Greyhawk and Non Human plantheon.

[Rallicus]

Greyhawk isn't really big enough to stand alone..

Dude, what.

Greyhawk has so many deities it's not even funny. There's deities for every human race, every demihuman race, every monster race, every vaguely explained race that some module-writer got to be cannon. Somehow there's deities from Earth (Olman worship Aztec gods), there's quasi-deities, hero-deities (nothin' like worshipping the original DnD PCs), etc etc.

Everyone knows about Pelor, but did you know that there's like 3-4 other gods of the sun in Greyhawk as well?

http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Greyhawk_deities

Anyway, to answer the question: I use Greyhawk deities. Obviously.

[supergoji18]

The Olympians and the Norse gods are probably my favorite ones. That said, you could always just pull gods from various settings to create one pantheon. That's what I would do.

[Yorrin]

I use my own pantheon, but until I got it fleshed out I used Greyhawk for many years. It's just such a diverse group of gods, and many of them are wonderfully iconic. Plus the major ones translate well into other settings, which is nice if I want to do something a little off the beaten path.