Domains for A God of Commerce?

[Palanan]

What domains would fit for a god of trade and barter? This is a minor god, focused on small-scale, everyday transactions among the ordinary folk.

Law and Community seem like natural choices, but I’d like two more domains and I’m not sure what others would fit. This particular god is very firm on honesty and plain dealings, and so tends toward neutral good, on the notion that honest exchange is the backbone of a community and thus a positive force.

But I’m not sold on the Good domain, and I’m not seeing much else that seems appropriate in the CRB. What would be some good options for the other two domains?

[Yanisa]

Definitively consider Travel. Traveling and trading go hand in hand. Trade is even a subdomain of Travel. Even on a small scale goods still need go from place to place, like a farmer going to a village center. (Or just a loval going to the market for really small scale traveling.)

Maybe Artifice? Crafting is an important part of creating trade goods.

And lastly... perhaps Glory with subdomains Honor and Chivalry could work for the honesty but the more "hubris" aspects of glory wouldn't fit.

[hamishspence]

In Complete Divine, Mouqol (TN, Greyhawk god of trade and negotiation, also called The Merchant God) gets Knowledge, Pact, Travel, Trickery (Pact is a new domain from that book- which has "making binding agreements with one's deity" as its theme.

In Faiths & Pantheons, Waukeen (TN, Faerun god of merchants and business) gets Knowledge, Travel, Protection and Trade (new domain, introduced in FRCS).

[daryen]

But I’m not sold on the Good domain, and I’m not seeing much else that seems appropriate in the CRB. What would be some good options for the other two domains?

I was under the impression that gods *must* have the domains corresponding to their alignments. Therefore, if a god has the domain of Lawful, but doesn't have either the Good or Evil domains, then that god is, literally by definition, Lawful Neutral. If you want your god to be Neutral Good, then that god, by definition, must have the Good domain and cannot have the Lawful domain.

Am I misunderstanding this? Do I have this totally wrong?

As to suggestions: I agree with Artifice, Travel/Trade works (but I am not sure about just Travel), Protection, and Knowledge are all available to go with your Community and Law.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Yanisa
Definitively consider Travel. Traveling and trading go hand in hand. Trade is even a subdomain of Travel.

Trade is thematically perfect, although the granted power and spells aren’t that impressive. Honor is almost exactly the same—great in name, less great in actual abilities. Still worth thinking on.

Artifice is a great domain, one of the best in terms of matching theme with granted powers; and it’s good enough that I’ll probably reserve it for the minor god of crafting instead.


Originally Posted by hamishspence
In Complete Divine, Mouqol (TN, Greyhawk god of trade and negotiation, also called The Merchant God) gets Knowledge, Pact, Travel, Trickery (Pact is a new domain from that book- which has "making binding agreements with one's deity" as its theme.

In Faiths & Pantheons, Waukeen (TN, Faerun god of merchants and business) gets Knowledge, Travel, Protection and Trade (new domain, introduced in FRCS).

All very interesting, but please keep in mind this is for Pathfinder.

That said, are there any guidelines on converting a 3.5 domain to a PF version? I know that 3.5 has a blizzard of domains, and Pathfinder seems pretty thin by comparison—but the domain powers in Pathfinder are generally heftier and more interesting. I can always import a 3.5 domain directly, but that seems like missing an opportunity to upgrade it to Pathfinder standard.


Originally Posted by daryen
I was under the impression that gods *must* have the domains corresponding to their alignments.

These are minor gods in my own setting, with some changes from how bog-standard deities work. These minor gods are very focused on their areas of concern, and less preoccupied with broader questions of moral philosophy. Thus they have four domains rather than five, dropping the alignment domains and generally staying neutral.

This particular minor god is an exception in that he’s trending good-ish, but even in his case I’m probably not going with the Good domain.

[Yanisa]

Trade is thematically perfect, although the granted power and spells aren’t that impressive. Honor is almost exactly the same—great in name, less great in actual abilities. Still worth thinking on.

Artifice is a great domain, one of the best in terms of matching theme with granted powers; and it’s good enough that I’ll probably reserve it for the minor god of crafting instead.

Curiously question: why do you worry about the power of (sub)domains? I get that you don't want to create a god with only poor options so no player want to worship him, but at the other side it seems weird to avoid thematically fitting domains just because they are weak (or weaker compared to others).

Or did you mean that the abilities don't fit the theme of the domain or god? Even that seems hard to achieve when you work within the limits of published content. Especially when you got a good fitting sub-domain but a poor main domain. My setting has a god of (good) dragons, but the sub domain dragon is granted trough the main domain Kobolds... and said god isn't a big fan of kobolds.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Yanisa
Curiously question: why do you worry about the power of (sub)domains? I get that you don't want to create a god with only poor options so no player want to worship him, but at the other side it seems weird to avoid thematically fitting domains just because they are weak (or weaker compared to others).

Well, I’m not really “worried” about the power in itself, just trying to flesh out my concepts with what seems appropriate to me.

In the case of Trade, there’s not much apart from the name that really fits; the granted power would be just as appropriate for a diplomat in a foreign court, or a playwright dealing with prima donna actors. The first domain spell in particular is a head-scratcher, since a floating disk doesn’t really say “economy” to me. (Sure, a floating disk could be useful in some mercantile fashion, but it’s a stretch.)

Likewise, Honor has an extremely situational benefit that doesn’t actually have much to do with honor, and the domain spells would be just as useful for a captain of the guard.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with either of these, and I appreciate the chance to look at them. They just don’t quite fit with what I have in mind.

[afroakuma]

• Artifice (Industry subdomain)
• Law (Loyalty subdomain)
• Rune (Language subdomain)
• Travel (Trade subdomain)

This covers a few bases: Industry represents enhancing the value of common labor and craftsmanship; Loyalty allows even low-level priests of this deity to help ensure that those involved in bargains do so free of magical coercion; Language ensures that trade can be conducted across borders and between different peoples while affording the protective tools to guard wares against theft; and Trade improves your ability to sniff out double-talk and fraud, to locate stolen goods, to transport goods and materials, and to swiftly move along travel corridors to find out if traders are being assailed by bandits and brigands. In short: to intervene against external forces damaging the common market, to help provide restitution to common folk so unfairly damaged, and to enforce the deity's basic values regarding fair and honest trade.

[Coidzor]

Curiously question: why do you worry about the power of (sub)domains? I get that you don't want to create a god with only poor options so no player want to worship him, but at the other side it seems weird to avoid thematically fitting domains just because they are weak (or weaker compared to others).

Or did you mean that the abilities don't fit the theme of the domain or god? Even that seems hard to achieve when you work within the limits of published content. Especially when you got a good fitting sub-domain but a poor main domain. My setting has a god of (good) dragons, but the sub domain dragon is granted trough the main domain Kobolds... and said god isn't a big fan of kobolds.

If you're a stickler for the way Pathfinder does things, minor gods get very few Domains they can grant, so it'd be easy to fill them up with garbage domains.

[Psyren]

What domains would fit for a god of trade and barter? This is a minor god, focused on small-scale, everyday transactions among the ordinary folk.

Law and Community seem like natural choices, but I’d like two more domains and I’m not sure what others would fit. This particular god is very firm on honesty and plain dealings, and so tends toward neutral good, on the notion that honest exchange is the backbone of a community and thus a positive force.

But I’m not sold on the Good domain, and I’m not seeing much else that seems appropriate in the CRB. What would be some good options for the other two domains?

Definitely not Good - a deity of Commerce would not have moral concerns, just that trade happens and people pay on time.

Abadar is a good place to start - Trade is a big concern of his, and he is LN. He has Travel and Protection, two domains that merchants would care about quite a bit, as trade cannot flourish if caravans can't get anywhere or they can be attacked with impunity.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by afroakuma
• Artifice (Industry subdomain)
• Law (Loyalty subdomain)
• Rune (Language subdomain)
• Travel (Trade subdomain)

This covers a few bases: Industry represents enhancing the value of common labor and craftsmanship; Loyalty allows even low-level priests of this deity to help ensure that those involved in bargains do so free of magical coercion; Language ensures that trade can be conducted across borders and between different peoples while affording the protective tools to guard wares against theft; and Trade improves your ability to sniff out double-talk and fraud, to locate stolen goods, to transport goods and materials, and to swiftly move along travel corridors to find out if traders are being assailed by bandits and brigands. In short: to intervene against external forces damaging the common market, to help provide restitution to common folk so unfairly damaged, and to enforce the deity's basic values regarding fair and honest trade.

This is an excellent package, nicely fitted to the concept.

I’m a little on the fence about Loyalty, since it seems somewhat situational—how often are people magically coerced into buying things? But it’s a great domain power nonetheless, and it should come in handy for general adventuring.


Originally Posted by Psyren
Definitely not Good - a deity of Commerce would not have moral concerns, just that trade happens and people pay on time.

This is for a minor deity with more specific concerns, so there are indeed moral aspects involved. I have a major deity of commerce who’s more along the lines you describe.


Originally Posted by Psyren
Abadar is a good place to start….

Yup, I’m aware of Abadar, although I’m trying to avoid borrowing too much.

[afroakuma]

I’m a little on the fence about Loyalty, since it seems somewhat situational—how often are people magically coerced into buying things?

Selling things is the larger problem, or being coerced into giving them away when they were intended to be sold.