Best D&D Patron Deities?

[White Blade]

What are your favorite patron deities from the established D&D settings and why?

[KorvinStarmast]

Which established D&D setting?

[Quertus]

What are your favorite patron deities from the established D&D setting and why?

From any… published setting?

Mystra is OP, and has strong brand recognition, so I imagine she’ll be popular. Her commandments of “as ye harm no art (ie, no magic), do as ye will” is rather… boring.

Out of canon deities, I guess I’ve had the most fun playing followers (not necessarily Clerics) of… Azuth, Thor, Odin, Loki, Selûne, Tymora, AO, the Lady of Pain, Vecna, and Blibdoolpoolp.

2e Forgotten Realms had “Faiths and Avatars”, the best resource for understanding a fantasy religion I’ve seen. On the down side, ye must talketh in yon olden words.

But the best? Probably anything I can take Heretic of the Faith on, and picture how Tzeentch has benefited from corrupting the mortal’s comprehension of their own religion? Preferably to Madness, because that’s both fun and fitting.

Usually, though, my characters follow non-canon religions.

[White Blade]

Which established D&D setting?

Ah, any of them. I’ll go back and put in the requisite plural sorry.

[Pex]

Torm, to do what is Right and Just because they are Fundamental Truths. He is not a jealous deity. He does not proselytize nor resent other gods exist and have their following. I know about Bane. There's a story there, but I'm talking about the general topic of other faiths existing. His followers truly Believe. They choose Torm.

I have a healthy respect for Ilmater. The deity of martyrdom. His philosophy is unique in all the Pantheons even among deities of Peace. My barbarian was a worshipper. Might not make sense at first, but it does. Resistant to almost everything he can withstand the pain inflicted upon him. He puts himself in harms way to suffer the attacks of enemies so that others don't have to. As a mighty warrior hero he brings joy and happiness to the people saving the day to make their lives brighter. He's even a showman of sorts to entertain in feats of strength and physique.

Wee Jas is a cool name.

I give honorable mention to Mask. Despite what is official lore, I am biased in his favor for how he has been portrayed by many DMs in different campaigns even when not a Forgotten Realms game but he is there. In every conflict of Cosmic Good and Evil, however that particular campaign depicts it, every DM puts Mask on Team Good Guys. He and his followers help in the Mask way, but they do help and are Honest True allies in the fight. No doubt and no problem it's in Mask's own interest. It's easier for Mask and his followers to do what they do in a world where the Good Guys dominate than an Evil one. Team Good Guys will incarcerate those who get caught or force to pay a fine or otherwise harass business because of illegality, but they can exist and live freely in the shadows as their desire. If Team Evil takes over they don't tolerate dissent. The thieves and brigands of Mask would be hunted down and executed. The followers of Mask would be in hiding out of fear not want or cost of doing business.

[Satinavian]

I'll nominate Evening Glory and Blood of Vol for both having an interesting take on combining undead creation and existing in and positively contributing to a living society. With Blood of Vol i mean the religion, not the person Vol.

[Psyren]

As someone with a finance background, I have a soft spot for deities of commerce like Waukeen and Abadar. It gives me a great way to take a typically treasure-motivated adventurer and add a layer to it - not just desiring wealth for their own sake, but working to safeguard civilization and the routes of trade and commerce on which it depends to function. And it can be fun to nickel-and-dime the party for healing services, divinations and the like

As far as "evil" deities, one of my favorites is Malar. He represents the vicious side of nature - survival of the fittest, thrill of the hunt, and all that. But his dogma contains quite a bit of nuance - his church helps feed the hungry in rural areas, participates in safeguarding nature (including a focus on protecting predators, as they are a necessary part of an ecosystem), and they refrain from harming children or mothers. Granted, this is usually so more "prey" will be plentiful later, but there's still more than enough there to allow me to play an edgier-side-of-neutral character in an otherwise heroic party.

As far as neutral/knowledge deities, I enjoy Jergal/Pharasma as the very fussy "annoyed bureaucrat" side of death. I particularly enjoy their approach to necromancy - they both despise undead, but they also teach their followers how to make use of these tools when it is truly necessary to do so. I think Wee Jas occupies a similar orbit, but I'm not as familiar with Greyhawk, Lastly, I'm also a fan of Deneir since he's obsessed with writing everything down - I'm usually the note-taker in my games, so I can relate. Deneir is the kind of deity I could see moderating wikipedia or running archive.org.

[Inevitability]

I love Eberron's Becoming God. A bunch of warforged get together and conclude that they have souls, those souls come from a creator god, and just as their own souls have somehow been incarnated in warforged bodies, if the right body is available, their god's soul will come to inhabit it. To this end, they roam the Mournland and greater world, looking for magic items that deserve to be incorporated in their god's body. There's a little piece on them in Faiths of Eberron and I think it's heartwarming.

Of course, it's Eberron, so there's better-than-even odds that whatever they worship ends up being a quori nightmare or rakshasa overlord, but that's up to the DM to decide!

[MrStabby]

I have a soft spot for gods like Chauntea. The kind of god you would worship before you became an adventurer. And honestly, there is something I love about the idea of high level play where Chauntea can have as her champion a high level fighter or something that can cut a bloody path through an entire kingdom or grapple dragons out of the sky. It scratches an itch in a way that a god like Torm or Helm wouldn't.

[Kane0]

My shortlist is Bahamut/Tiamat, Gruumsh, Kelemvor, Kord, Moradin, Mystra, Pelor and Umberlee.

[KorvinStarmast]

As deities: they all more or less stink.

The deities made up for the game pale in comparison to the ones adapted from various RL pantheons, which we may not discuss due to forum rules.

As regards warlock patrons?
1. Bahamut
2. Tiamat
3. Asmodeus
4. Silvanus or one of the Fey Kings or Queens
5. Orcus

[Psyren]

The deities made up for the game pale in comparison to the ones adapted from various RL pantheons, which we may not discuss due to forum rules.

We actually can discuss explicitly fictional/D&D versions of mythological figures. The Giant even specifically greenlit the Deities & Demigods version of Thor as an example of this. That means that entities like the Mulhorandi Pantheon from Forgotten Realms are in bounds, as they are all fictional variations of their respective source material.

[Velaryon]

I've always been partial to Shaundakul, who seems like a fairly chill god who doesn't really bother anyone (as much as any of the deities in Faerun can be, anyway). The whole Windride holiday is kinda neat to me too, since it can just rain clerics in any random place. It's a fun, flavorful way to either bring in an NPC cleric, introduce a new cleric PC, or discover an interesting plot hook. Plus, at least in 3.5, his clerics get teleport!

[Inevitability]

Also it's not quite D&D, but I'm a huge fan of LudicSavant's deity... modernizations? Adaptations? Expansions? Anyway they're great, here's a link to one with more in the sig.

[KorvinStarmast]

One of the things that 5e got right as regards deities is this: gods don't have hit points.

(As much as I like OD&D and AD&D, I never liked the decision for deities to have HP even though I understand why that was done).

[Psyren]

I've always been partial to Shaundakul, who seems like a fairly chill god who doesn't really bother anyone (as much as any of the deities in Faerun can be, anyway). The whole Windride holiday is kinda neat to me too, since it can just rain clerics in any random place. It's a fun, flavorful way to either bring in an NPC cleric, introduce a new cleric PC, or discover an interesting plot hook. Plus, at least in 3.5, his clerics get teleport!

I really like him too as a wandering-old-man Gandalf/Fizban type - but man 5e did him dirty. No Travel domain, no Chaos, no Protection, not even Air (Tempest is more Talos/Umberlee/Akadi's thing.) In fact, I don't think he's even in SCAG!

[White Blade]

One of the things that 5e got right as regards deities is this: gods don't have hit points.

(As much as I like OD&D and AD&D, I never liked the decision for deities to have HP even though I understand why that was done).

I think if the gods have hit points is pretty dependent on the cosmology and understanding of the gods, and I think does have hit points makes at least as much sense for D&D as not.

[2D8HP]

I’m partial to Tyche the goddess of luck from Greek mythology and the Forgotten realms, and her daughter Tymora, the goddess of good luck.

I imagine their holy symbols being dice!

[Azuresun]

As someone with a finance background, I have a soft spot for deities of commerce like Waukeen and Abadar. It gives me a great way to take a typically treasure-motivated adventurer and add a layer to it - not just desiring wealth for their own sake, but working to safeguard civilization and the routes of trade and commerce on which it depends to function.

I have a soft spot for gods like Chauntea. The kind of god you would worship before you became an adventurer. And honestly, there is something I love about the idea of high level play where Chauntea can have as her champion a high level fighter or something that can cut a bloody path through an entire kingdom or grapple dragons out of the sky. It scratches an itch in a way that a god like Torm or Helm wouldn't.

Funny thing, I've had a lot of fun playing both a cleric of Waukeen (goddess of wealth and trade) and a paladin of Chauntea (goddess of agriculture). There's some rich possibilities in choosing a god you don't associate with adventuring and then thinking about why one of their followers would become an adventurer.

As well as that, I really like Eberron's take on religion and how, like the rest of the setting, it seems custom-made to give you interesting character hooks.

--The Blood of Vol is...a bit confused in how it's been presented over editions, but I love the notion of an agnostic faith that can still empower people with "divine" magic just from the strength of humanistic conviction.

--The Dark Six started out as fairly generic Gods of Evil, but Keith Baker's blog really changed my mind about them and how embodying the wilder, more uncivilised side of human nature doesn't make them bad guys, and how we've all had times where we want to step outside the boundaries of civilised behaviour and do the right thing that the law forbids. The Mockery can be the helper of the battered wife who sneaks posion into her husband's drink. The Fury can be a patron of those who have been failed by the system and who seek righteous vengeance against those who think themselves above the law. The Shadow is the patron of the visionary who could do SO much good if they weren't being shut down by a calcified and chummy academic system.

--The Silver Flame, for managing to resist the worn-out, tiresome un-twist of "they're actually an evil patriarchal bunch of zealots who oppress the cool magical protagonists out of envy and sexual frustration" that religions like this typically fall to. Not that it's stopped some writers from doing that anyway, but I love that by and large, the Silver Flame is a genuine force for good, it's just that people disagree on what sort of good it should be. Sometimes, it's more unexpected to play a trope straight.

[Bohandas]

Olidammara, Murlynd, and Zagyg

[Mordante]

Disclaimer, I use deities as I see fit. I don't exactly follow the rules.

I really like Mask, "Lord of Shadows". I have played an unseen seer with an affinity for Mask. In my games I also like to involve the Fey, in my games the Fey are inspired a lot by the Dresden Files.

For Warlocks my favorite patron is Mephistopheles. I see now that Mephistopheles is not in 5th?? How can that be?

One day I would like to involve Atropus in one of my games. Not sure if it will happen.

[Khedrac]

Personally I have a soft spot for Diamond as a patron, not that there is anything special about him

Alphaks makes a great enemy deity for most parties, regardless of alignment.

Honourable mention to Ka because a dinosaur deity is just fun!
Yes, these are Mystaran immortals, but they function as gods for the setting so they qualify.

[Quertus]

Seems I missed the real answer to the question of “best canon deity”: Ilsensine. Because that (probably) makes you an Illithid, decidedly superior species, and top of the food chain (alongside dragons (who make comparatively terrible young adult adventurers)).

I never liked the decision for deities to have HP even though I understand why that was done

Is that because

As deities: they all more or less stink.

Or do you have some other reason?

[thorr-kan]

I've always like St. Cuthbert. Late 3E found me infatuated with Wee Jas (Vanity AND magic AND necormancy? Yeah, baby!) Vecna makes a great badguy. I have some half-formed head-canon floating around that these three are part of the first foursome of humans to ascend to divinity. In effect, they are the first human deities in a pantheon-ecosphere of draconic, giantish, and elder evilish deities. Of all the other D&D 3E deities, I pegged Auril from the FR as my number four.

Separately, I like the philosophical religions of Eberron:
The Silver Flame
The Blood of Vol
The Path of Light
The Path of Inspiration
The Cults of the Dragon Below
The Undying Court

I think you could steal those wholesale and paste them into a homebrew setting easily enough.

[wilphe]

Mielikki - Yes your Druid can wear metal armour

Waukeen, Nobanion, Red Knight, Savras

[Velaryon]

I really like him too as a wandering-old-man Gandalf/Fizban type - but man 5e did him dirty. No Travel domain, no Chaos, no Protection, not even Air (Tempest is more Talos/Umberlee/Akadi's thing.) In fact, I don't think he's even in SCAG!

Oh wow, I didn't even realize. In all honesty, I don't even read the 5e lore. I came to the conclusion like a decade and a half ago that I'll enjoy my D&D better if I use WotC's game rules but not their lore. So when I buy sourcebooks I read the character options, magic items, etc. and skip over the fluff sections. My campaigns are a mixture of homebrew and 2e/3e lore.

[Spore]

No one mentions Asmodeus? No only did he give us tieflings, but also contracts, a layered hell, he fights back infinity hordes of demons with a finite number of devils which should be impossible.
No, in Golarion (you recall it started as a 3.5 setting) he has also started a tyrannical theocracy in Cheliax, and his clerics and paladins ally themselves just enough with LN or LG deities to be considered socially acceptable in other countries as well (Godclaw).

Also Bhaal, just because Baldur's Gate is an awesome game, and the whole essence thing. Also murdering gods is almost a Faerunian pastime now, so of course the murder god is cool.

In the realm of more sensible deities, I started to like the Seldarine and especially Corellon since his special thing seems to be perfect gender fluidity. Not only because it does play with real world issues, but also because so many religions play with the "male and female were one entity before some sort of sundering" belief. Lathander is a bit of a boring goodie-twoshoes deity, but I enjoy Sune. Not because of horny teenage boys choosing to play their clerics, but because love is a goal worth fighting for and defending it.

[Yora]

Having left behind generic Fantasyland for more exotic shores some years ago, I think the coolest deities are the more obscure ones.

Leira as a goddess of illusion and deception having been announced presumably dead 33 years ago only made her more interesting. A small fringe cult of illusionists who aren't sure if their goddess does even exist is great.

Wee Jas as a fancy goddess of non-evil necromancers is also fun to have around as a snaller religions.

I also remain comvinced that Ghaunadaur is the same entity as Juiblex. A dark god that is more alien and more reclusive than after pointless death and destruction makes for interesting antagonist priests.
Same things basically apply to Shar, but she's much more mainstream.

[P. G. Macer]

From official settings, I’m partial to Bahamut, Eilistraee, Heironeous, Tamara (though as of 5e she’s technically no longer a deity), The Raven Queen (Also no longer a deity in 5e, except in Exandria), and Zinzerena. From what little I’ve heard about the Greyhawk goddess Mayaheine, her values seem cool.

I don’t usually play in official settings, though, so I’m probably not as familiar with canon deities as some other people here.

[Psyren]

They could probably merge the Raven Queen with Wee Jas without too many complaints.

I too find the Leira conundrum interesting.