Deities; what's the sweet spot?

[Tanuki Tales]

I'm at the start of building a campaign setting for my off-line group to play around in and have already a ton of scribbled ideas and concepts for organizations, governing bodies, driving forces and such to work with. But sitting down to work on the deific forces of the setting, I find myself at a loss on exactly how many members each pantheon should have. It's easy to make a god who exists in its own pantheon alone or to just lump together all the monster gods into one pantheon because they're all monsters, but what's the good number for the average, PC culture pantheon?

And on that same train of thought, do you need to have all the alignments represented in each pantheon or can you get away with sole or major alignment dominance?

[arguskos]

I always felt that deities should reflect the culture they are the gods of. If the society is highly faithful, perhaps dozens and dozens of gods are appropriate. If the society is much more "grounded", perhaps only one or two gods is appropriate. It's so variable based on situation and context that no ground rules can be established with any relevance.

[Tanuki Tales]

I always felt that deities should reflect the culture they are the gods of. If the society is highly faithful, perhaps dozens and dozens of gods are appropriate. If the society is much more "grounded", perhaps only one or two gods is appropriate. It's so variable based on situation and context that no ground rules can be established with any relevance.

But doesn't that only apply to a system where the culture came first and the gods came second?

[RndmNumGen]

I tend to go with 1 Major gods(Though I'll go up to 3 if I want some special interaction between them), 5-7 Medium gods(One for each primary 'sphere' of life, so combat is one, faith is another, labor is a third, etc.) and as many Minor gods as I need for small things such as the God of Rivers or whatnot.

I've found that the Major god sort of holds the pantheon together and keeps the Medium and Minor gods in line(If you have an Evil or Crusader-type Major god, you'll need another Major or a group of Medium gods to balance out his power). The Medium gods are typically the ones that are worshiped by the populace at large, and Minor gods are given homage in certain situations but have few devoted followers.

[Yora]

I like to have a rather small number of deities, about a dozen or so, but each culture worshiping a different set of deities and refering to them by different names and having their own believes and rituals.

This works best with somewhat distant gods that rarely, if ever, talk directly to mortals.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The first thing you need to ask yourself is: Are gods an undeniable fact, in that if you become powerful enough you can go talk to one, or not? If not, than you can either decide that there are no gods, or you can leave that question open. I personally prefer the last of all the options, having the existence of gods plausible, and quite likely, but not provable. This leaves room for religions to deny the truth of other religions, rather than just having the followers of one god hate the followers of the other because they're gods hate each other.

Then you need to decide if the gods of multiple cultures interact, if they are proven to exist. If they do, you probably want only 1 large pantheon. If not, then go wild! Have some cultures go for ancestor-worship, some cultures worship a duality, where one god shows two different sides, some cultures have pantheons, some have one mystic god, some religions are personal, some are grand and bombastic and public and all-encompassing, some are intense, and some are more casual.

[B!shop]

I like to have a rather small number of deities, about a dozen or so, but each culture worshiping a different set of deities and refering to them by different names and having their own believes and rituals.

This works best with somewhat distant gods that rarely, if ever, talk directly to mortals.

I prefer too a small number of deities against larger pantheons.

In my next campaign I'm planning to have an even smaller pantheon of only 3 deities, with a number of churchs, cults and sects worshipping single aspects of one of the deities.
I'll have a (still in WIP on their main titles) god of creation, a god of change and a god of destruction. All of them have many aspects, some "good", some "neutral" and some "evil".
For example Calastri, the god of destruction, will have a church worshipping his war aspect, a cult focused on death-caring aspect (like Kelemvor in FR) and a small sect dedicated to the passing of time (the "destruction of the present").
This is good for plots and religious interaction also because this vague division overlaps the three gods (or at least their religious organizations) interestes in most of the events and actions: is building an object an act of creation, an act of destruction (of the raw materials) or an act of change (from raw to refined)?

Also, I don't like to differentiate the pantheons by race. It's ok for me that a single god can be considered the patron and protector of a race, but I see deities as universal, not single race only.

[Morph Bark]

But doesn't that only apply to a system where the culture came first and the gods came second?

If there are tons of gods rather than just a handful, if the culture comes second, people will have a lot more gods to look out for, potentially causing them to be more pious.

[Tanuki Tales]

So, from what I can grasp, you all don't make deific political maps like Greyhawk or Faerun or Eberron (though Eberron is arguable) have?

Edit: Or like OOTS somewhat has?

[akma]

I think the first thing you`ll need to decide is if you want to work by coolness or by need.
For exemple, if you make a pantheon of a plant race, if you go by need, you`ll need a god of rain, a god of earth, and a god of sun. If you go by coolness you just make up gods, and if you like them you find an excuse to put them in the setting (that`s my usual approach. If you find resonable justification to putting them in the setting it can work well).
If you go by need, go to each pantheon you want to make and think of what it needs: an elf pantheon will need a god of forests, a god of fighting, and a god of magic.

An idea: Pantheons based on job, not by race. For example, a pantheon of change, with gods responsible for agriculture, aging, time, movement, rust, rot, etc.

what's the good number for the average, PC culture pantheon?

Depands on how much conflict you want. It is my belief that it is better to have a few well thought of gods then many gods that don`t have much more then a name. Think of the conflicts you want to have, then make gods according to it. What gods do you think you must put?

And on that same train of thought, do you need to have all the alignments represented in each pantheon or can you get away with sole or major alignment dominance?

I completly cancelled alignments in all my campaign settings, including the one that don`t have gods becuse I don`t like alignments.
But sole or major alignment dominance sounds more logical to me. Lawfull evil gods teamed up with chaotic good gods needs a lot of justification in a world when people do evil for evil`s sake and good for good`s sake.

And here is some detail on gods and religions in my main campaign setting:

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Each god is a manifistation of something in the world. One god is the manifistation of how time effects things, one is the manifistation of emotions and personality, one is the personification of building and etc. When a god is killed, if it`s divine essence is destroyed completly and not gathered, it changes the world dramatically.

Not all of the gods are worshipped, and the gods are tended to be worshipped in a more narrow way. The god of how time effects things is mainly worshipped as the god of agriculture, but some worship him as the god of rot - they don`t know he is responsible for both. The gods are always called in the same name, becuse they want it to be that way.

The gods can`t interfere directly becuse their presence will destroy the world - if the god of how time effects things will entar a plane for a moment, everything will age thousands of years (I got a plane that is based on that).

But there is a lot of worship of beings that are not gods - animal spirit worship, a race who basically worship collosal versions of themseleves (it`s more complicated then it sounds), demon worshiping (homebrewed demons, each is unique and in CR of 20-25, which is the highest powered beings I make stats for in that particular setting).

Addition in editing: I forgot about this post:

So, from what I can grasp, you all don't make deific political maps like Greyhawk or Faerun or Eberron (though Eberron is arguable) have?

I don`t know what you mean exactly by a deific political map, but I`m sure I don`t have it. I dealt a lot with the interactions of current gods with killed/defeated gods, but not much with the interaction of current gods. For some I didn`t even invest much in their personality.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Since my gods are tied to the culture that follows them, I suppose I do. If you mean different geographical areas have different pantheons, aye.

[Zeta Kai]

I think that it depends on how complicated your races are. A race that is defined by 3 basic tenets should have 3 major gods. A race that is very simple & stereotypical can get away with only having 1 god, but a complex race with many traits should have a whole pantheon.

Think of elves: they're magical, they love nature, they use a bow & arrows, & they live for a long time. Those are their salient traits, so you could make 4 major gods for them: a magic god, a nature god, an archery/hunting god, & a history/time god. You could combine some if you think that certain tenets aren't that important (the nature god & the hunter god might be the same deity), or you could split them up into multiple gods covering smaller, more niche aspects of the race's character. You could even have a single ruling god that defines the race as a whole, like Corellon Larethian, with the other deities as subservient to the master-god. One thing to remember is to only make a god of important traits; a god of pointy ears is just silly, & should be omitted.

[Morph Bark]

a god of pointy ears is just silly, & should be omitted.

A god of pointy ears is just silly and should be omitted, unless you are dealing with gnomes, who do not have pointy ears anyway, thus making redundancifying the concept a bit redundantly.

Unless of course pointy ears have some sort of significance in your campaign setting, like every pointy-eared race being made that way so they could hear the whispers of gods and spirits, in which case the gnomes would most likely be too envious with their non-pointy-earedness and dive into their musty arcane tomes and shout indignantly that using arcane magic just makes you plain better than everyone else, especially pointy-earies.

[Zale]

a god of pointy ears is just silly, & should be omitted.

The mighty god of pointy ears will smite you for your blasphemy!

After all, silly does not mean harmless.

To actually contribute, I would say that you should have as many gods as you can make sense for.

You could start with things that are culturally important to the people. Harvesting if they are farmers, or a War god if they are a Proud Warrior Race..

There would also probably be gods of things that they don't like. Gods of death and pain would be worshiped to avoid what they bring.

[Ilorin Lorati]

(snip)
There would also probably be gods of things that they don't like. Gods of death and pain would be worshiped to avoid what they bring.

Going off of this, you could have a god of honorable death and a god of dishonorable death. Norse myth has this, Odin took the ones who died in battle or fulfilling their calling, and Hel took the ones who died in shame.

Generally, gods of "honorable" death also fill some other, larger niche. For instance, Odin was the leader of the Norse pantheon and his portfolio was the largest of the gods, having "war, battle, victory and death, but also wisdom, magic, poetry, prophecy, and the hunt." (Quote: Wikipedia)

Obviously, Odin was considered a "good guy" as far as gods went, and Hel was looked down upon.

[Inferno]

or a War god if they are a Proud Warrior Race

Also, take into consideration how the worshipers feel about the gods and their domains. War is an easy example, do your people worship a LG war god of honorable combat? a CE god of slaughter? something in the gray area?

[Owrtho]

Well, how I have deities work tends to depend on the setting. A key thing to note is how certain are people of the deities. As I generally go with there being some uncertainty, my preferred method tends to use the following things.

There are true gods, though they often aren't completely understood by their worshippers, and have different names and practices of worship depending on where you go (sometimes even having a single culture worship the same god under more than one name and not realize it). This can result in something akin to racial pantheons, where they are actually worshipping the same people, but under different names and aspects (and can have the side effect of a crusade to convert people to a god, ending up killing a large number of his followers because they refused to stop worshipping him and begin worshipping him under a different name).

There are spirits of locations or objects that can have power akin to a god. This may result in some cultures having gods outside the true gods, and possibly placing them in more prominent positions. Mainly as the spirit of the lake where you live, is likely to be more involved in your culture than some overarching deity. Even if it is actually much weaker, it may well have enough power within a limited range to seem more powerful to the people who live there (due to not having to spread its attention and power across the world).

There are imposters (arguably the spirits could fall under this as well). After all, what actually is a god, and what does it take to convince a culture that something is that. An individual with sufficient power could theoretically convince a small population that they are a god, or at least a prophet for a god and gain worshippers. Particularly if they are much more long lived than the average member of that group. I even came up with a type of monster once that fed on belief and worship so would find small backwater communities and convince them to worship some made up deity, using some of the power it gained from feeding to produce the occasional 'miracle' to back up the deception. Anyway, fake gods also allow for there to be some differences in cultural pantheons.

That said, what a given culture worships should be in part based on what's important to them. In a place with the various contributors to pantheons I mentioned above, a fairly simple culture may only worships a few aspects of the true gods, while ignoring many other things the gods represent. Whether they worship any spirits could be dependent on if there is any location or relic of vast importance to their culture. Any imposters would just be as it seemed to make sense, as that really is more based on gullibility than any real perceived importance of something in the culture.
A more complex culture may well worship a large number of aspects of the true gods, whether under different identities or unified.

Owrtho

[Dryad]

I think the basis lies in culture. People talk, people share ideas, and then people question. People then share more ideas, and little by little, Religion is born.
The religion should reflect the questions a people has, and so it should reflect the people's identity as a people. However, as soon as you get religion, you also get development of that religion, new questions being asked, and eventually, the religion being pot-holed into a sort of identity-creating aspect.

An example of this is Egyptian religion. Their lives were ruled by the sun, of course. The Sun God made sense. But so does the night. Questions asked by Egyptians were mostly to do with death; what was its meaning, how to understand it, and how to identify it? Egyptian religion answered those questions thoroughly.
Sumerian religion was more focussed on Life. How did things start, where did they start, what is fertility, what is the essence of existence?
Norse religion, however, seemed to be more concerned with fashion. Everyone was getting religious, so the Teutons also wanted a religion. It never really caught on; the whole 'worshipping' part simply didn't work out for most people, but the Norse used their religion mainly as a medium for story-telling, moral values and entertainment.
And so on, and so on.

Most humans in the history of our species probably weren't religious at all, so it makes sense that in a setting, religion doesn't have to play a role. Conviction to a cause or ideal can easily replace divine power, after all.

So the question 'what is the sweet spot for the amount of deities?' World wide: None. Zero. Per people: That depends on their culture and traditions.

[Yora]

Most humans in the history of our species probably weren't religious at all, so it makes sense that in a setting, religion doesn't have to play a role. Conviction to a cause or ideal can easily replace divine power, after all.

That depends on your definition of "religious". Scientists who specialized in that fields rather assume that truly non-religious people have been extremely rare in both the past and the present.

However, we're talking about fantasy worlds here, so there is no reason not to have settings in which religion plays no meaningful part.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

That depends on your definition of "religious". Scientists who specialized in that fields rather assume that truly non-religious people have been extremely rare in both the past and the present.

However, we're talking about fantasy worlds here, so there is no reason not to have settings in which religion plays no meaningful part.

I thought Dryad meant that religion did not necessarily play a huge impact in most peoples lives.

[Dryad]

I'm also saying that humans have existed for quite a long time; probably a lot longer than deities.
Yes; we're talking about a fantasy setting. You say that there's no reason not to include religions in a fantasy setting, but to be honest: There's no good reason to include them, either. Actually, the lack of a good reason to include religions is, in my opinion, the best reason not to include them at all.

[Raistlin82]

I'm a world-builder... so I like to do things in big scale first, and worry about the small details later.
But that doesn't mean that's what I always do, nor that it's what you should do.

In my setting, I went for a balanced approach.
I prepared 30 gods (which are a lot... you don't need that much), I decided the names and domains and vaguely the alignment. Then I fleshed out the two or three that I had in mind (I already had thought of my myth of creation).
And that was it.

When I started using that setting for my campaign... it was my PLAYERS that helped me flash out the deities.
For example, my Paladin had an idea for a homebrew Prestige Class that required him to follow a Water god, and I had a water goddess ready, so playing his character slowly brought out details about the personality of the goddess, her rules, her creed and teachings, etc...
Another player was a Druid, playing his character as very reckless and risking his neck way too many times. When called on this by the other players, he said that this is how the followers of the god of animals behave, because it's in his god's nature as well to leave like a wild animal, etc...

So, my suggestion is prepare a small draft, and the rest will come along the way.

[Lalaithion]

There are two options:
1) the gods created the world,
or,
2) the cultures created the gods.

1) if the gods created the world, then it makes no sense for them to represent things like "blacksmithing" or "rust" or "trees" or anything else. those things didn't exist yet. the gods must have chosen these things, and assuming your mythos is at all similar to the greek, norse, egyptian, chinese, native american, or mayan (ect, ect) mythologies, then the gods will fight each other. maybe there are two gods of trees, one who made pine trees, the other who made broadleaf. and they would fight, regardless of what their "alignment" was. Athena was the greek patron goddess of Athens, and Poseidon her mortal enemy, but no athenian sailor would set sail without a sacrifice to Poseidon.

If the gods created the world, then there is not a necessity for one side to be "evil." if there is an evil side... why? why was the world created if approx. half of the gods are evil? what makes them evil? most "evil" gods in works of fiction seem to help their followers a lot more than the good gods. For instance in the Belgariad, the evil god Torak is facing off against a mortal boy-king without a trace of divinity. Torak has had 7000 years of practice in sword fighting and magic. the boy-king Garion has only had 1 year of experience.

if you intend to do (1), be sure to build out a character for the gods, and the relationships between the gods before you even look at the creation of the world. avoid labels like "good" "evil" and "neutral". You may find that a god who is very pure of thought may end up a discriminatory arrogant SOB. you may find that a greedy and sly god will lead his people to victory, and his worshippers to wealth and glory. a god of death may take an interest in the lives of people, while a god of nature may have of cares for anyone but grasshoppers.

2) the cultures create the gods: this is much harder. you will end up with hundreds of names and versions of each god. maybe there is a high priest of the land, but there will be sects devoted to exiled gods and forbidden deities. take ancient egypt: there are around 11 gods of the sun.

and even if you avoid that loophole, through some universal holy scripture that is very clear... you still end up with a couple branches of the church. there is one particular religion that comes to mind where there are dozens of creeds coming from the same book. the names of these creeds are probably very familiar: baptist, methodist, presbyterian, catholic, anglican, orthodox...

but if you want to make it simple, base your pantheon after a couple things that your people revere, and make everything else spirits in the wind... real, and powerful, but local and nameless. maybe there is a spirit of the western wind: but he has no other name, and his wrath brings monsoons whether you pray or not. maybe the mountains have a deva, but he will freeze any traveler who dares attempt the peaks, regardless of who or how.

let there be three to six gods. make a god of fire, of iron, and of rain- these are the things that are important to your people, and let everything else have an unnamed spirit. let there be a sun, and a mood, and the stars all have names which are long forgotten. There is the god of the mountains to the west, of the sea to the east, of the swamps to the south and the tundra to the north. but the sun warms and dries the land that our people live on, and we prosper because of the sun god.

this spoiler is a creation story that i wrote. it is long, and inspired by the from crow indian mythology and the Anuilindale (tolkiens creation myth)

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There was One, Aunov; and He sang. He sang of mountains yet unrisen, of rivers yet unflowing. He sang of the sun, yet unlight, the stars yet unplaced. He sang of flowers yet unblossomed and the birds, yet unborn. And other voices rose to the song, being born out of the raw energy that had not yet been shaped. And as they heard the music, they set about, building that which He instructed in the song: and they built the world. But one of the many voices, Chalkar, sang softly a disharmony in the song: and the many did not build the world as He envisioned it. And then Aunov spoke to Chalkar, and He offered Chalkar the task of placing the stars.

And Chalkar accepted the duty that lay before him, and he was given the stars to hold in his hand. So he reached up into the heavens and placed one: the North Star, and the scattered the rest across the sky. But in his palm he kept three stars.

Aunov returned to the song, and the many shaped the plants and the animals to live on the world. And Chalkar saw the creatures that were being born and he birthed a monstrous creature that fought and killed the others. Aunov heard the screams of his beasts and created humans to fight off the monster. Then he spoke with Chalkar, offering him the task of speaking with these humans.

And Chalkar accepted the duty, and he spoke with the humans and gave them three of four gifts that set them apart from animals: he taught them how to farm, how to work metals, and how to write. But for himself he kept the secret of fire, and he hid it inside the clouds in the form of lightning and inside of mountains in the form of lava.

Aunov returned to the song, and the many guided the humans across the world, and Chalkar saw that they had discovered fire without the gift, and so Chalkar made the north a cold place to live so that the humans could not survive. Aunov felt the cold and spoke to Chalkar, offering him the task of ruling the many, even ruling Aunov Himself.

Chalkar, overwhelmed by power, accepted the task and began to sing the unmaking of the world. He called for the world to be covered in ice, and the world was. But the humans covered themselves with the skins of animals. He called for the ice to melt, and the world to be covered with water, and the world was. But the humans built a ship to save themselves and the animals they depend on. He angered, and called for the seas to be swept away and he brought the three stars he held in his palm against the world.

Two of the stars smashed against the world, and they destroyed much of the surviving humans. But one man, named Ovalkom, caught the third star in his hand, and its light blinded him, but he placed the star in the sky. Aunov stood and said to Chalkar, “You could not complete the task that this man has finished. You are unfit to rule.”

Chalkar grinned and said, “but he did not finish the task- there are two stars still missing from the sky!” and Chalkar pointed at the two holes where stars should be.

Ovalkom heard all this and he plucked the eyes from his head, and placed them in the two empty spots. Chalkar, furious at Ovalkom, descended into the world of men and killed him. But when Chalkar attempted to return to the land of the gods, he found that he was locked out- now a mortal man who would die in his time.

Aunov took the two newest stars and set them in motion around the world, and they became larger, and were named the sun and the moon. And Aunov sang one final chord in his song, declared the world finished, and slept.

If you intend to do (2), you will end up with interesting stories, best for worlds where the gods are distant.

if you do (1) you will have interesting characters, best for worlds where the gods are more present and active.

[Knaight]

There are a huge amount of options, each of which works for certain stories and themes, and doesn't for others. A few of them, which I think work well, are contained in the second spoiler. The first spoiler is largely a broader framework on setting.

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People: Regardless of which "World" is in use, people are a focus. Individuals always matter, and their stories are always told. They are a given, and it is in other things that variance is seen.

The Natural World: The Natural World doesn't focus on gods. It is about nature, and forces of nature, and how people interact with it. The motif of the frontier is often a big one, as is survival, the driving forces of stories within The Natural World are those of people trying to control nature, and those of people trying to survive it. The seasons likely matter heavily, weather is important, and concepts regarding nature and beauty are likely to appear.

The Human World: The Human World is about societies, and peoples place within them. The interaction of culture is big, as is the idea of individuals fitting within their culture. Added to this are optional motifs of development (which will be addressed further), often in regards to cultural or technological revolutions.

The Divine World: The Divine World is about a god or gods. The interaction between gods, as well as between gods and people are of paramount importance in The Divine World. Faith is critical, miracles an aspect of stories, and things like culture are largely ignored.

The Magical World: Gods are largely irrelevant in The Magical World. What is relevant is the magic in life. Magical beings abound, and the supernatural is mundane. The literary genre of Magical Realism is perhaps the best analog for this, but there is much more to it. In addition to Magical Realism is the reduced focus on religion, the Magical World better fits spirituality and individual interaction with the supernatural.

Merging: Most settings will have elements of more than one of these Worlds. Its about focus more than exclusivity.

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No Real God(s), No Belief in God(s): This tends to work best in far future science fiction, with a few options as to specifics. If you want to focus on science and technological development, or a magical equivalent, or on politics without religion, this is probably the best option. Use this with The Natural World or The Human World.

No (Or Ambiguously) Real Gods, Belief In Gods: This can work basically anywhere. As a rule, this works best when you want religion in a game, and religion is useful in characterization, with conflict between religions being more about who is right, than what god is best. Like No Gods, No Belief, this tends to encourage focus on people and cultures, and changes therein, but includes religion within it. Use this with The Human World.

No (Or Ambiguously) Real Gods, Belief In God: Much like the above, but with monotheism. There is one god that is believed in, but with ambiguity what faith is right is in question. Church schisms, heresy and similar can all play a major part in a setting with this, and if you want to focus on that, its probably the best option. If that is just one part, you can still manage it with polytheism. Use this with The Human World.

Unambiguously Real God, Belief In God: With an actual, interventionist god the church effectively has to take a smaller role as relates to conflicts of what is divine. However, a more powerful church usually works, conflicts about the justness of the one God work, and this adds in potential regarding how best to serve a known god, which can better take the forefront when the god is clearly real. Moreover, it better allows supernatural elements in general. Use this with worlds with elements of The Divine World, which may or may not have The Human World or The Natural World.

Two Unambiguously Real Gods, Belief In Gods: Stories about forms of dualism work extremely well with two gods, in some form of opposition. The most obvious of these is stories about good against evil, but there are certainly others. The framework of good and evil can work in a broad way, as good and evil in opposition functionally mirrors stuff like the attempt to preserve order against natural chaos, the attempt to keep a society free as it reverts to tyranny, the attempt to stay warm as the world gets cold, so on and so forth. Balance and change are the key to this. There is also the other dualism, where both sides are valid, and there is perhaps some mixing. In this, its less about following the right of the two gods, and more about following both right, with the extremes of either being bad, and the balance between these gods being a good thing. The Divine World is of paramount importance here.

Unambigously Real Gods, Belief in Gods: Here we have polytheism. Again, there are two main types, depending on the specifics. There is the matter of picking a god, adhering to a god, so on and so forth, and in opposition the influence of all gods. There are a few advantages to polytheism. One is diversity of religions, polytheism in both forms encourages a lot of smaller religions, none of which are incredibly influential over a large area. If telling stories about less unified societies, particularly smaller ones - lots of tiny kingdoms and such - polytheism works beautifully. In addition to that, Sword and Sorcery gets another benefit - in addition to the necessary chaotic world, cults are incredibly easy, and with those being key to the S&S aesthetic, polytheism is almost mandatory The Human World is the biggest here, with elements of The Divine World showing through.

Huge Quantity of Obviously Real Gods: The mundane, minor god fits here. A small city might have its own god, as might an oasis in a desert. Even smaller, a rock, or a cacti, or a tree might all have their own little god. This is the use of deities in The Magic World.

[Yitzi]

I'd say take every portfolio and/or domain you can possibly think of. Lump together whichever ones you think are appropriate, remove any that don't deserve a god in that pantheon for whatever reason, and then assign a god to each one that's left.

[gkathellar]

I have a formula I mostly follow.

• 0-1 overdeity that may or may not exist in comprehensible manner
• 1-3 greater deities that hold the universe together
• 3-7 intermediate deities to be old, vaguely amoral and govern fundamental facets of life
• 9+ lesser gods who hold sway over alignments/societies/terrestrial affairs relevant to the setting

[lightningcat]

I don't know that there is a "sweet spot". I've been in games where there are only 2 deities, while my current game has over a hundred. The trick that I've found is to cover the basic areas of influence and make sure that each deity has at least 2-3 paragraphs of information about them and the beliefs associated with them. Then just find out how much work you want to do for filling in the blank spots.

[Lalaithion]

The trick that I've found is to cover the basic areas of influence

I sometimes find that using a pantheon without all the areas covered is more fun. For instance, imagine that there is no god of nature (or forests or animals, ect, ect.)

Now extrapolate that to mean that in the wild parts of your world, the gods have little power, and you are on your own


Imagine that there is no god of magic; magic becomes a weapon against the gods

I'm not saying that it's not a good idea for creating a workable pantheon. I use it all the time. But it's just a first step for me. As I develop the gods I see what ones I really like, and I just use those. Or I eliminate one. Or you could come up with your own twist that I am too shotsighted to see.