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Deities in D&D: Gods as Tulpas versus Gods as Progenitors
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8850673" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Something that always struck me about deities in D&D is that even though we're told that there are pantheons of gods, and most people worship the pantheon as a whole, praying to whichever god is appropriate for what you want- you pray to the god of war for protection in battle, and the god of nature for a good harvest- player characters seem to be urged to choose a specific patron god.</p><p></p><p>At one point, the Forgotten Realms setting actually stated every character should have a patron deity, or risk not being able to return to life if slain. </p><p></p><p>Certainly, Clerics have always been pushed towards selecting a deity to provide their Domain (even in editions where you could get more than one, when nothing should really stop you from taking two Domains of different gods in the pantheon). </p><p></p><p>Some heroes in fiction and myth do have patron deities, who help (or don't) in varying degrees- Elric has Arioch (though maybe their relationship is more like a Warlock patron). Conan has Crom (who doesn't seem to do much, but then again, Conan isn't much for prayer).</p><p></p><p>But even in 2e, where the idea of worshipping a pantheon, a concept, or even a philosophy was stated as possible (and, in fact, you could get 2nd level spells just from faith alone, even if your god was out of reach, or might not even exist!), the settings still seemed to push the patron deity concept.</p><p></p><p>Goldmoon isn't a priestess of the gods, or even the gods of good, but of Mishakal in particular. You'd probably be hard pressed to find any Cleric of the Faerunian pantheon in the Realms (and even Paladins, Rangers, and Druids in the Realms tend to worship one deity or another in particular).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8850673, member: 6877472"] Something that always struck me about deities in D&D is that even though we're told that there are pantheons of gods, and most people worship the pantheon as a whole, praying to whichever god is appropriate for what you want- you pray to the god of war for protection in battle, and the god of nature for a good harvest- player characters seem to be urged to choose a specific patron god. At one point, the Forgotten Realms setting actually stated every character should have a patron deity, or risk not being able to return to life if slain. Certainly, Clerics have always been pushed towards selecting a deity to provide their Domain (even in editions where you could get more than one, when nothing should really stop you from taking two Domains of different gods in the pantheon). Some heroes in fiction and myth do have patron deities, who help (or don't) in varying degrees- Elric has Arioch (though maybe their relationship is more like a Warlock patron). Conan has Crom (who doesn't seem to do much, but then again, Conan isn't much for prayer). But even in 2e, where the idea of worshipping a pantheon, a concept, or even a philosophy was stated as possible (and, in fact, you could get 2nd level spells just from faith alone, even if your god was out of reach, or might not even exist!), the settings still seemed to push the patron deity concept. Goldmoon isn't a priestess of the gods, or even the gods of good, but of Mishakal in particular. You'd probably be hard pressed to find any Cleric of the Faerunian pantheon in the Realms (and even Paladins, Rangers, and Druids in the Realms tend to worship one deity or another in particular). [/QUOTE]
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