How many Gods do you have? how many are to many? What are they the Gods of? Do you have different levels of gods? Do they each have there own plane of existence?
If you ask 10 people this question, you're going to get 12 answers. The right amount of gods will differ depending on the setting and what you want the world to feel like. If you want to see a list of gods, look at gods of the multiverse in the basic rules. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide provides more information about the forgotten realms pantheon and the Dungeon Master's Guide's Gods of Your World can help you flesh out individual gods. Typically, gods do not each inhabit one of the twelve planes of existence, opting instead to either share such a plane with like minded gods or creating their own demiplane.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Astromancer is right that this is very much a "season to taste" sort of thing. Sometimes a small list of gods is more than enough - sometimes each race needs it's own deity of any concept it holds even slightly important (resulting in list of around 30-40 deities for each major race) - and sometimes a setting doesn't have any gods, just a handful of religions.
My two favorite settings to use are pretty different on their approach, so I'll answer each question specifically for the two of them:
How many Gods? Scarred Lands: 8, plus a venerated non-god, and various demigods. Mystara: Zero, technically. There are no "real Gods", just regular people that ascended to immortality and have god-adjacent powers while not calling for worship (though some religions do venerate certain immortals).
How many are too many? Clearly, I have a presence for smaller numbers - though there are quite a few immortals in Mystara (I'd say around 30, but I'm not going to go count).
What are they gods of? Scarrend Lands: the suggested domains listed for each god are: magic and trickery; death and dominion (setting specific domain of rulership); light and war; tempest and trickery; justice and knowledge; life and light; liberty (setting specific domain opposed to rulership) and nature; death and war - and the venerated non-god's worshipers are typically Druids instead of Clerics.
Mystara: each immortal is as different in what they care about and what they can do as adventurer characters are, since that is what they began life as and what shaped their attitudes and personality upon becoming immortal.
Do you have different levels of gods? Scarred Lands: Yes - there are the 8 major gods, and numerous demigods and lesser powers like fiendish lords and powerful genies. Mystara: In the original iteration of the Immortal rules, a high-level adventurer character would become a 1st level immortal upon completion of a quest to do so, and could then gain the whole range of levels (36) over again gaining more and more power as an immortal - with a few tiers of categorization along the way.
Do they each have their own plane of existence? Scarred Lands: The major deities do, but demigods and the like live within those rather than having their own. Mystara: no, but they do have their own domains within the non-material planes, and even a city where immortals meet up to discuss important things.
i had thought about doing a world religion side based on Dragons .... With three top tier dragons Platinum (Life/Creation), Obsidian (Death/Destruction) and Crystal (Balance, {the most powerful of all}) These three would be so powerful they wouldn't even have clergy ... the next tear I would treat as Full gods (Cleric/Paladin) and they would be Golden (Lawful Good) Copper (Nut Good) Silver (Ch Good) and White( Law Nut ) These four dragons would all serve the platinum dragon. There would also be a Red (Lawful Evil) Green (Nut Evil) Blue (Ch Evil) and White (Ch Nut) .... All of those dragons would be the major deities and be the embodiment of the alignments. There would then also be a tier of dragons who live on the earthy plane who serve these dragons For example .... A Brass Dragon would serve a Gold Dragon and a Orange Dragon would Serve a Red dragon ... The Dragonborn and Lizardfolk ( i know they are normally unconnected from dragons) would be viewed as special races .... The Brass or Orange dragon would serve as patrons for a Warlock....
Has anyone tried basing there gods on alignments and not on like domains yet? Is that a bad idea? I know this would require changing a lot about dragons ... but we have had 2 campaigns in our world so far and not a single dragon has showed up and my players are now pressing about regions... as one of them wants to be a paladin and one wants to be warlock in the new campaign.
Alignments are fine, but having a domain associated with a given god helps inform the player of where that god fits. If you're creating a reason for not having dragons, you could simply say that they don't exist in that part of the world, or are giant sleeping worms. Also, unless the warlock has a celestial patron, patrons usually not divine.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
okay here is my rough draft of my Dragon Pantheon based on alignments ...
The Two main dragons Exist in a Yin and Yang style, light and dark, duality.The Platinum Dragon will represent Life and Creation. The Obsidian Dragon will represent Death and Destruction.
The other 8 dragon gods will represent the 8 possible alignments (its assumed everyone starts at true neutral and through their choices will fall into 1 of the 8 other alignment choices. Each dragon will ultimately be given a name and relationship status to other dragons.
For example The Gold Dragon .... Altin .... will have a mild disgust for the Silver dragon (in an annoying little brother way), a mutual respect for the Blue Dragon (in a worthy adversary way) and a strong desire to destroy the Red Dragon (in a danger to the world way)
Thoughts and feed back? I know i've changed the alignment of normal D&D dragons so save your breathe ... if you want to make suggestions for changes to colors or concepts im open to it.
I have a very small pantheon that I introduce to the players throughout the course of the campaign, but usually I have a player who wants to support a certain god - I just add that god to the pantheon and call it a day
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Personally, I model mine after 4e's Nentir Vale's dieties. Basically, you have a handful of major gods that serve as heads of their own pantheons of minor gods that, honestly, aren't relevant to detail out most of the time. Always struck me as funny, in a real way. The Norse didn't just pick one god, they prayed to all the gods they thought existed. This way, you deal with pantheons at once, and align yourself with their ideals and goals, rather than individuals.
Most of these gods are universal between settings (especially the non-human gods like Bahamut, Grumph, Corelleon and Moradin). Each major god has its own signature cleric Domain -- Moradin has Forge, Bahamut has Protection, Yolonda has Fortune, etc. I mapped out relationships, home planes, and more. Most of the gods live in planets circling within the "heavens" - also known as the Astral, which you can actually build a giant airship and fly into, sort of like Spell Jammer could visit different planes that way. Most of these planes are about the size of, say... we'll go with New Zealand. Or Hawaii. Corelleon / Lolth and the Raven Queen hang out in the feywild and shadowfell respectively, and two gods that are sealed within the Material Plane itself.
Note that I cap PCs at level 10 (as well as other mortal NPCs), but gods are technically possible to kill and absorb their essences.
Has anyone tried basing there gods on alignments and not on like domains yet? Is that a bad idea? I know this would require changing a lot about dragons ... but we have had 2 campaigns in our world so far and not a single dragon has showed up and my players are now pressing about regions... as one of them wants to be a paladin and one wants to be warlock in the new campaign.
The entire dragonlance setting's gods are based on alignment. Primarily between Good, Neutral and Evil, admittedly, but its a thing.
Also, have you considered checking out the Forgotten Realms dragon pantheon? They have a wide variety of dragon gods that can be mined for inspiration.
How many Gods do you have? 12 core deities, and 62 gods that serve them.
How many are too many? When a God doesn't have a purpose to serve, they shouldn't be there.
What are they the Gods of? My 12 core deities make their own 'pantheons', which are the pantheons of Life, Wealth, Fate, Peace, Night, Magic, Choice, Power, Light, Death, Intellect, and Wisdom in no particular order. Within each of those are Gods who represent aspects of those things. As an example, born of the Deity of Death are the Gods of Justice, Autumn, Lifetaking, Disease, and Grief; whereas born of the Deity of Life are the Gods of Spring, Healers, Blood, and the Womb/Children.
Do you have different levels of gods? Yes. The 12 Mother Deities (which have a hierarchy even among them, the Mothers of Fate and Choice created the world), and the Gods who serve beneath them.
Do they each have there own plane of existence? No. The Mother Deities each do, and certain Gods do when they retain enough followers, which grants them increased power. This is actual part of the storyline for one of my campaigns waiting in the wings, where the God of the Fey (who serves the Mother of Fate) is trying to trick souls to pledge themselves to him, so that he can increase the power of the Feywild and ascend to the place of a Deity.
In general I have more Gods than most might because the Gods of my world are very active in the world. They like to take the form of mortals and interact with them, and have petty squabbles with each other that lead to plot involvement. Additionally, all races in my world are tied to certain deities or Gods as their creators.
How many Gods do you have? how many are to many? What are they the Gods of? Do you have different levels of gods? Do they each have there own plane of existence?
If you ask 10 people this question, you're going to get 12 answers. The right amount of gods will differ depending on the setting and what you want the world to feel like. If you want to see a list of gods, look at gods of the multiverse in the basic rules. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide provides more information about the forgotten realms pantheon and the Dungeon Master's Guide's Gods of Your World can help you flesh out individual gods. Typically, gods do not each inhabit one of the twelve planes of existence, opting instead to either share such a plane with like minded gods or creating their own demiplane.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Astromancer is right that this is very much a "season to taste" sort of thing. Sometimes a small list of gods is more than enough - sometimes each race needs it's own deity of any concept it holds even slightly important (resulting in list of around 30-40 deities for each major race) - and sometimes a setting doesn't have any gods, just a handful of religions.
My two favorite settings to use are pretty different on their approach, so I'll answer each question specifically for the two of them:
How many Gods? Scarred Lands: 8, plus a venerated non-god, and various demigods. Mystara: Zero, technically. There are no "real Gods", just regular people that ascended to immortality and have god-adjacent powers while not calling for worship (though some religions do venerate certain immortals).
How many are too many? Clearly, I have a presence for smaller numbers - though there are quite a few immortals in Mystara (I'd say around 30, but I'm not going to go count).
What are they gods of? Scarrend Lands: the suggested domains listed for each god are: magic and trickery; death and dominion (setting specific domain of rulership); light and war; tempest and trickery; justice and knowledge; life and light; liberty (setting specific domain opposed to rulership) and nature; death and war - and the venerated non-god's worshipers are typically Druids instead of Clerics.
Mystara: each immortal is as different in what they care about and what they can do as adventurer characters are, since that is what they began life as and what shaped their attitudes and personality upon becoming immortal.
Do you have different levels of gods? Scarred Lands: Yes - there are the 8 major gods, and numerous demigods and lesser powers like fiendish lords and powerful genies. Mystara: In the original iteration of the Immortal rules, a high-level adventurer character would become a 1st level immortal upon completion of a quest to do so, and could then gain the whole range of levels (36) over again gaining more and more power as an immortal - with a few tiers of categorization along the way.
Do they each have their own plane of existence? Scarred Lands: The major deities do, but demigods and the like live within those rather than having their own. Mystara: no, but they do have their own domains within the non-material planes, and even a city where immortals meet up to discuss important things.
i had thought about doing a world religion side based on Dragons .... With three top tier dragons Platinum (Life/Creation), Obsidian (Death/Destruction) and Crystal (Balance, {the most powerful of all}) These three would be so powerful they wouldn't even have clergy ... the next tear I would treat as Full gods (Cleric/Paladin) and they would be Golden (Lawful Good) Copper (Nut Good) Silver (Ch Good) and White( Law Nut ) These four dragons would all serve the platinum dragon. There would also be a Red (Lawful Evil) Green (Nut Evil) Blue (Ch Evil) and White (Ch Nut) .... All of those dragons would be the major deities and be the embodiment of the alignments. There would then also be a tier of dragons who live on the earthy plane who serve these dragons For example .... A Brass Dragon would serve a Gold Dragon and a Orange Dragon would Serve a Red dragon ... The Dragonborn and Lizardfolk ( i know they are normally unconnected from dragons) would be viewed as special races .... The Brass or Orange dragon would serve as patrons for a Warlock....
Has anyone tried basing there gods on alignments and not on like domains yet? Is that a bad idea? I know this would require changing a lot about dragons ... but we have had 2 campaigns in our world so far and not a single dragon has showed up and my players are now pressing about regions... as one of them wants to be a paladin and one wants to be warlock in the new campaign.
Alignments are fine, but having a domain associated with a given god helps inform the player of where that god fits. If you're creating a reason for not having dragons, you could simply say that they don't exist in that part of the world, or are giant sleeping worms. Also, unless the warlock has a celestial patron, patrons usually not divine.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
okay here is my rough draft of my Dragon Pantheon based on alignments ...
The Two main dragons Exist in a Yin and Yang style, light and dark, duality.The Platinum Dragon will represent Life and Creation. The Obsidian Dragon will represent Death and Destruction.
The other 8 dragon gods will represent the 8 possible alignments (its assumed everyone starts at true neutral and through their choices will fall into 1 of the 8 other alignment choices. Each dragon will ultimately be given a name and relationship status to other dragons.
For example The Gold Dragon .... Altin .... will have a mild disgust for the Silver dragon (in an annoying little brother way), a mutual respect for the Blue Dragon (in a worthy adversary way) and a strong desire to destroy the Red Dragon (in a danger to the world way)
Thoughts and feed back? I know i've changed the alignment of normal D&D dragons so save your breathe ... if you want to make suggestions for changes to colors or concepts im open to it.
I have a very small pantheon that I introduce to the players throughout the course of the campaign, but usually I have a player who wants to support a certain god - I just add that god to the pantheon and call it a day
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Personally, I model mine after 4e's Nentir Vale's dieties. Basically, you have a handful of major gods that serve as heads of their own pantheons of minor gods that, honestly, aren't relevant to detail out most of the time. Always struck me as funny, in a real way. The Norse didn't just pick one god, they prayed to all the gods they thought existed. This way, you deal with pantheons at once, and align yourself with their ideals and goals, rather than individuals.
Most of these gods are universal between settings (especially the non-human gods like Bahamut, Grumph, Corelleon and Moradin). Each major god has its own signature cleric Domain -- Moradin has Forge, Bahamut has Protection, Yolonda has Fortune, etc. I mapped out relationships, home planes, and more. Most of the gods live in planets circling within the "heavens" - also known as the Astral, which you can actually build a giant airship and fly into, sort of like Spell Jammer could visit different planes that way. Most of these planes are about the size of, say... we'll go with New Zealand. Or Hawaii. Corelleon / Lolth and the Raven Queen hang out in the feywild and shadowfell respectively, and two gods that are sealed within the Material Plane itself.
Note that I cap PCs at level 10 (as well as other mortal NPCs), but gods are technically possible to kill and absorb their essences.
How many Gods do you have? 12 core deities, and 62 gods that serve them.
How many are too many? When a God doesn't have a purpose to serve, they shouldn't be there.
What are they the Gods of? My 12 core deities make their own 'pantheons', which are the pantheons of Life, Wealth, Fate, Peace, Night, Magic, Choice, Power, Light, Death, Intellect, and Wisdom in no particular order. Within each of those are Gods who represent aspects of those things. As an example, born of the Deity of Death are the Gods of Justice, Autumn, Lifetaking, Disease, and Grief; whereas born of the Deity of Life are the Gods of Spring, Healers, Blood, and the Womb/Children.
Do you have different levels of gods? Yes. The 12 Mother Deities (which have a hierarchy even among them, the Mothers of Fate and Choice created the world), and the Gods who serve beneath them.
Do they each have there own plane of existence? No. The Mother Deities each do, and certain Gods do when they retain enough followers, which grants them increased power. This is actual part of the storyline for one of my campaigns waiting in the wings, where the God of the Fey (who serves the Mother of Fate) is trying to trick souls to pledge themselves to him, so that he can increase the power of the Feywild and ascend to the place of a Deity.
In general I have more Gods than most might because the Gods of my world are very active in the world. They like to take the form of mortals and interact with them, and have petty squabbles with each other that lead to plot involvement. Additionally, all races in my world are tied to certain deities or Gods as their creators.