D&D 5E Atheism/Agnosticism in 5e?

[Snapdragyn]

Hopefully without getting into a debate on the distinctions between the two....

[EDIT: The words 'alatrism' - refusing to worship a god, and 'maltheism' - questioning whether a being is worthy of worship regardless of its divine status have been introduced later in the thread. These are clearly better terms for what I'm asking about here, & avoid the definitional debates I'd hoped to avoid. Please consider the remainder of this post accordingly! ]

Do we yet know if it's possible (RAW - every table will differ, of course) for a character to refuse to worship any deity in 5e?

I'm working on a warlock character, & I think he might be of the 'these beings are indeed powerful, but not truly 'gods' in the way that word is commonly used' bent - if permitted.

With the looser rules, is this just more likely to fall into an individual DM question?

 

[Charles Wright]

I would say that it's up to the individual GM.

I would personally be OK with your explanation for a Warlock character. I would have some problems if it were a divine-based class as I think it might get a little difficult to use your powers if you tell your "god" that you don't believe he truly is one.

 

[mach1.9pants]

The Warlock definitely doesn't have to be with a Deity. Patron's are The Fiend (pit fiend, balor, archdevil or demon lord), The Great Old oNe (Cthulhu basically) and The Archfey (nymph, hag or Prince of Frost) in the Alpha

Clerics are specifically called out as following Gods. But so easy to change to an ideal or universal concept IMO

 

[GX.Sigma]

I don't think there's ever been anything in the game that says every character has to worship a deity. Actually, it's one of my pet peeves that so many character sheets have a line for "deity," because not everyone has one!

I'm working on a warlock character, & I think he might be of the 'these beings are indeed powerful, but not truly 'gods' in the way that word is commonly used' bent

That is how it is described in the book. The warlock's patrons are not gods.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Clarifications:

- I mean he believes THE gods - Helm, Moradin, Mystara, etc. - are not truly 'gods', but very (very, very, keep going) powerful beings.

- No confusion that his patron clearly isn't a god; I was talking about THE gods of the Forgotten Realm.

- I've typically played that every character follows a deity (or pantheon), even if they don't serve in the same way a 'divine' class might.

It's specifically mentioned in 3.5 that even a cleric doesn't have to follow a god. Lacking that in 5e (at least in Basic), I'm wondering if the intention is that theism is universal in the default game setting?

 

[GX.Sigma]

It's specifically mentioned in 3.5 that even a cleric doesn't have to follow a god. Lacking that in 5e (at least in Basic), I'm wondering if the intention is that theism is universal in the default game setting?

Yeah, that's weird, considering that in the playtest (including the Alpha), it explicitly said clerics could be devoted to a philosophy instead of a god. Maybe this is just a Basic thing, and it's elaborated more in the PHB.

- I've typically played that every character follows a deity (or pantheon), even if they don't serve in the same way a 'divine' class might.

It's interesting that you consider that a standard assumption, because I've never played in a game where that was the case, and I never knew anyone did that (until now). I mean, it's not like there's a step in character creation that says "Every D&D character chooses a deity to worship; pick one from this list!"

 

[drjones]

One thing that was kind of muddled in the D&D adaptation of pantheism is that many pantheists didn't necessarily worship a particular god or any at all, they were just part of the world and the reason things like seasons and thunderstorms happened. You might want to sacrifice to one or the other in hopes of some favor, but that did not mean you were a follower of that deity in the modern sense.

I'd say in D&D world it is perfectly reasonable to be agnostic, sure clerics can perform miracles at the drop of a hat but so can wizards and warlocks so who knows if the gods exists or are what they seem. Atheism would be pretty weird.. although as I type that I am envisioning a monastic order that is founded on a philosophy that all gods are actually malign extra-planar beings manipulating the lives of mortals and must be cast down one by one to free the world. Hmm, Order of the Empty Sky?

 

[variant]

I don't think there's ever been anything in the game that says every character has to worship a deity. Actually, it's one of my pet peeves that so many character sheets have a line for "deity," because not everyone has one!

That is how it is described in the book. The warlock's patrons are not gods.

Most character sheets have a line for hair as well and not everyone has hair.

 

[doctorhook]

I think this is question of setting rather than system. In FR, nobody's an atheist, because everybody knows the gods interact with the world directly and frequently, and the price of non-belief is oblivio. In Eberron, religion is mostly cultural, but even bad people get spells from good deities, so people worship all kinds of things (or nothing at all).

 

[1of3]

The connection between religion and believe only really arose in the modern age, when science offered an alternative explanation for the world. Without that believe and creed wasn't necessary in the same way. In many of the world it still isn't.

So if you go with a more accurate depiction even a cleric might treat the gods as "nothing but powerful beings".