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This is a list of deities of Dungeons & Dragons, including all of the 3.5 edition gods and powers of the "Core Setting" for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) roleplaying game. Religion is a key element of the D&D game, since it is required to support both the cleric class and the behavioural aspects of the ethical alignment system – 'role playing', one of three fundamentals. The pantheons employed in D&D provide a useful framework for creating fantasy characters, as well as governments and even worlds. [1] [2] : 275–292 Dungeons and Dragons may be useful in teaching classical mythology. [3] D&D draws inspiration from a variety of mythologies, but takes great liberty in adapting them for the purpose of the game. [4] Because the Core Setting of 3rd Edition is based on the World of Greyhawk, the Greyhawk gods list contains many of the deities listed here, and many more.
The first official publication to detail god-like beings for use in the Dungeons & Dragons game was Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes , published in 1976 as the fourth supplement for the original edition. [5] This work was superseded by the Deities & Demigods source book, which was first published in 1980. [6] The first printing included the Cthulhu Mythos, but both this and the Melnibonéan mythos were removed by the third printing because of potential copyright issues. In 1985, the book was renamed Legends & Lore due to concerns about bad publicity.[ citation needed ] The Babylonian, Finnish, nonhuman, and Sumerian content were removed to allow room for expansion of the remaining mythoi. [7]
In 1992, Monster Mythology was published as a sourcebook for the second edition of Dungeons & Dragons. This work re-introduced detailed information on the deities of several non-human pantheons. [7] The Faerûnian pantheon for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting was more fully detailed in 1996–1998 with the publication of Faiths & Avatars , Powers & Pantheons and Demihuman Deities . [7]
The deities are grouped into three categories:
Before third edition, there was no Core Setting, so the distinctions above are not as clear-cut. For the most part, materials which did not specify a setting were assumed to be at least compatible with the World of Greyhawk if not outright parts of the canon. As such, those prior materials are covered in the setting-specific lists of deities.
The book Monster Mythology , however, was considered to be canon for core materials for the gods of non-human races in second edition.
Deities in Dungeons & Dragons have a great variety of moral outlooks and motives, [8] which have to be considered by cleric player characters. [9] In some editions of the game, deities were given statistics, allowing mighty player characters to kill a god like a powerful monster. [5] [10] For gaming purposes, they are also differentiated by a number of standardized characteristics:
Each deity has a divine rank, which determines how much power the entity has, from lowest to highest:
Every deity has certain aspects of existence over which it has dominion, power, and control. Collectively, these aspects represent a deity's portfolio.
Each deity that can grant spells has multiple domains that give clerics access to extra spells and abilities from that domain. Which domains are associated with a deity is largely a function of the deity's portfolio.
Many deities are arranged in pantheons, which are often led by Greater deities which are their direct superiors. The individual deities in a pantheon may not be forced to obey their superiors, although they typically respect and fear the superior deity.
Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976) included 10 pantheons of gods:
The original edition of Deities & Demigods contained 17 pantheons of gods. [12] Later printings removed the Cthulhu and Melnibonéan sections due to copyright concerns.
Legends & Lore was expanded and fully revised from the 1st Edition AD&D volume, and rewritten to be used with the 2nd Edition rules. [11] : 104 This edition had pared-down content in comparison to the original; the sections on Babylonian, Finnish, Sumerian and non-humanoid deities were wholly excised. [13] The Central American mythos was changed to the Aztec mythos, while the Nehwon mythos was retained. [13]
The book Monster Mythology (1992) included over 100 deities for nonhumans.
There are over 100 deities in the Greyhawk setting, and when creating Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Wizards of the Coast selected a subset to become iconic deities. They selected and altered deities to correspond to "iconic" aspects of core D&D. Most core deities are human deities; except for the chief gods of the demihuman races. Certain aspects of the deities were altered to make them more generic – for example: the "Core" Heironeous favors the longsword (in order to make the favored weapon of the "God of Chivalry" more traditionally knight-like), as contrasted with the original "Greyhawk" Heironeous, who favors the battleaxe.
The designation of "greater" vs. "intermediate" comes from Legends & Lore (1990). It is not used in any edition of the Player's Handbook, but it is used in Deities and Demigods (2002) and various v3.5 Edition materials.
Although not listed in the Players Handbook, these deities are listed as part of the default D&D pantheon in new works and as such are regarded as additions to the default pantheon. Although some of these originally come from the Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or Eberron campaign settings, each one is mentioned at some point in a non-setting-specific source. The name in brackets next to each one specifies the source they are mentioned in.
Greater deities
Intermediate deities
Lesser deities
The third edition version of Deities & Demigods contains only four pantheons:
The third edition version of the book also discusses in detail how one would go about the creation of their own pantheon, as well as individual gods, for use in Dungeons & Dragons.
These three alternative faiths were described in the third edition Deities and Demigods book.
The Faith of the Sun is a fictional, monotheistic religion presented in and constructed according to the guidelines given for monotheistic religions in 3rd Edition Deities and Demigods. Being monotheistic, it of course consists of only one deity (though said deity is described as having two aspects; a creator one and a destroyer one):
Following the Light is a fictional dualistic religion presented in and constructed according to the guidelines given for dualistic religions in 3rd Edition Deities and Demigods. Being dualistic, it consists of two, polar-opposite deities:
The faith of Dennari is a fictional mystery cult, presented in and constructed according to the guidelines given for mystery cults in 3rd Edition Deities & Demigods . It worships a single deity of the same name:
Similar to monster powers, these are not true deities but very powerful extraplanar beings. These however do not even profess to be gods (though many still have designs on godhood).
The single unifying feature of all demon lords (also called demon princes) is the inherent control over part of the infinite layers of The Abyss. Only the first 666 layers of The Abyss are generally known, and of those only a small fraction of the princes of those layers are a part of the D&D cosmology.
The celestial paragons are powerful unique outsiders of the Upper Planes. They are to the celestials as the archdevils are to the devils and the demon lords are to demons.
The celestial paragons of the archons are known collectively as the Celestial Hebdomad. They rule the layers of the Plane of Mount Celestia.
The celestial paragons of the eladrins are collectively known as The Court of Stars. They hail from the Plane of Arborea.
The celestial paragons of the guardinals are collectively known as Talisid and the Five Companions. They hail from the plane of Elysium.
Archomentals are powerful exemplary beings of the Elemental Planes and the rulers of the elementals. [31] Although they are not truly rulers of their planes, archomentals like to consider themselves as much and often grant themselves regal titles like Prince or Princess. They are compared in the source material to the archfiends or celestial paragons, and are considered to be the elemental equivalent of such beings.
The evil archomentals are collectively known as the Princes of Elemental Evil. At their introduction in Fiend Folio (1981) reviewer Ed Greenwood considered them "worthy additions to any campaign". [32] The five most famous are:
The good archomentals are collectively known as the Elemental Princes of Good. The four most famous are:
Three other archomentals are first mentioned in Manual of the Planes (TSR, 1987).
The Slaad Lords are the de facto rulers of the Slaadi race and the plane of Limbo. Although true to their chaotic nature they often do not appear anything like other Slaadi.
Primus is the leader of the modrons and is the epitome of order, and possesses god-like powers in the game. [33] Artist Tony DiTerlizzi became fascinated by Primus and the other modrons when he got the challenge to redesign them from their first edition appearance for the Planescape campaign setting. [34] Reviewer Scott Haring found the process successful as the "once-silly Modrons" were "given a new background and purpose that makes a lot more sense". [35]
"Titans are closer to the well spring of life and thus experience more pronounced emotion including Deity-like fits of rage. In ages past some rebelled against the deities themselves..." [36]
The Lady of Pain is an enigmatic being who oversees the city of Sigil in the plane of the Outlands. Almost nothing is known about her; her origin, her race, her motives and her level of power are all obscure, although she is sometimes shown to have absolutely immense power. The Lady of Pain refuses to tolerate anyone who worships her, killing those who do so. Again; virtually nothing is known about her, apart from the fact that she has the power to slay gods who displease her.
These entities are outside the boundary of life, death, and undeath. They are untouchable by even the most powerful deities although they can be summoned and used by the weakest mortal through pact magic and binding. Binders are often feared and hunted down by "Witch Slayers." The list of vestiges that can be bonded with include:
Vestiges were introduced in D&D: Tome of Magic supplement by Matthew Sernett, Ari Marmell, David Noonan, Robert J. Schwalb. Wizards of the Coast, March 2006.
The supplement Dragon Magic , by Rodney Thompson and Owen Stephens published in September 2006, introduces this vestige:
Wizards of the Coast created these vestiges online:
These are the deities for the non-Greyhawk default campaign setting of 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons (informally referred to as the "points of light" setting). The list includes long-time D&D establishments from Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms, as well as several original gods. Although some gods are patrons of specific races, they are worshipped by all, and racial pantheons do not exist in this edition. Many lesser gods from previous editions (such as the Seldarine or most members of the dwarven pantheon) now have the status of Exarch, a demipower in service to a greater god.
These are the deities for the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which mostly are printed in the Appendix section of the 5th Edition Players Handbook (2014). These include the deities from the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Eberron, and the deities derived from historical pantheons such as the Celtic deities and Norse deities. [40] The historical deities have been removed from their historical aspect as to better serve the needs of the game. [41] The 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide (2014) later provided the "Dawn War Deities" as a sample pantheon, an updated version of the main pantheon of 4th Edition. These updates included readjusting some of the alignments, because 5th Edition returned to the previous schema of nine alignments, as well as adding suggested cleric domains of the available domains from the PHB and DMG. [42] [43]
The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015) then gave a more detailed overview of all the deities from the Forgotten Realm, including nonhuman deities. [44] A more detailed and expanded overview of nonhuman deties was printed in the Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018). [45] The sourcebook Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020), which is the official adaptation of the Exandria setting from the web series Critical Role for 5th Edition, [46] uses a variation of the Dawn War pantheon. [47] [48] This setting divides the pantheon into the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods; [49] [50] it also adds Raei, the Everlight, to the Prime Deity side of the pantheon – this god is adapted from the Pathfinder god Sarenrae. [51] [50] Additionally, this setting introduces other potential divine sources outside of the pantheon such as the Luxon. [48] [50]
The drow or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of elves connected to the subterranean Underdark in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have traditionally been portrayed as generally evil and connected to the evil spider goddess Lolth. However, later editions of Dungeons & Dragons have moved away from this portrayal and preassigned alignment. More recent publications have explored drow societies unconnected to Lolth.
Vecna is a fictional character appearing in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Vecna has been named one of the greatest villains in the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.
Deities & Demigods, alternatively known as Legends & Lore, is a reference book for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game (D&D). The book provides descriptions and game statistics of gods and legendary creatures from various sources in mythology and fiction, and allows dungeon masters to incorporate aspects of religions and mythos into their D&D campaigns.
In the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, an Outer Plane is one of a number of general types of planes of existence. They can also be referred to as godly planes, spiritual planes, or divine planes. The Outer Planes are home to beings such as deities and their servants such as demons, celestials and devils. Each Outer Plane is usually the physical manifestation of a particular moral and ethical alignment and the entities that dwell there often embody the traits related to that alignment.
A devil, also referred to as a baatezu, is a group of fictional creatures in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) roleplaying game typically presented as formidable opponents for advanced players. Devils are characterized by their Lawful Evil alignment and are depicted as originating from the Nine Hells of Baator. They follow a strict and hierarchical structure, progressing through various forms as they rise in rank. At the top of this hierarchy are the Archdevils, also known as the Lords of the Nine, who govern different regions within Baator. Devils are often portrayed as seeing the various worlds in the D&D universe as tools to be exploited for their objectives, such as participating in the Blood War—a centuries-long conflict against demons.
Mystra is a fictional goddess in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
The planes of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game constitute the multiverse in which the game takes place. Each plane is a universe with its own rules with regard to gravity, geography, magic and morality. There have been various official cosmologies over the course of the different editions of the game; these cosmologies describe the structure of the standard Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.
In the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, alignment is a categorization of the ethical and moral perspective of player characters, non-player characters, and creatures.
Birthright is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting that was first released by TSR in 1995. It is based on the continent of Cerilia on the world of Aebrynis, in which the players take on the role of the divinely-empowered rulers, with emphasis on the political rulership level of gameplay. The setting revolves around the concept of bloodlines: divine power gained by heroes and passed on to their descendants. Characters with a bloodline create an aura of command known as Regency, which is measured in the game using regency points or RP. Using regency, characters acquire a domain composed of provinces and holdings. The development of these domains is as much a part of the game as development of the characters. The game uses three-month domain turns to model actions of rulers over nations in much the same way as Dungeons & Dragons uses combat rounds to simulate time to model the characters' actions in battle. In 1996, Birthright won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1995.
Tiamat is a supremely strong and powerful 5-headed draconic goddess in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The name is taken from Tiamat, a goddess in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. She is the queen and mother of evil dragons and a member of the default pantheon of Dungeons & Dragons gods. Her symbol is a five-headed dragon.
Moradin is the chief deity in the dwarven pantheon in the Dungeons & Dragons game and is a member of the default D&D pantheon. In 3rd edition, Moradin's domains are Creation, Earth, Good, Law, and Protection. The 5th Edition Players Handbook include Knowledge as a suggested domain. His titles include Soul Forger, Dwarffather, the All-Father, and the Creator. He created the first dwarves out of earthen materials and tutored them in dwarven ways.
The paladin is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and is a divine spellcaster.
The cleric is one of the standard playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Clerics are versatile figures, both capable in combat and skilled in the use of divine magic, a form of theurgy or thaumaturgy. Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative magics available to them. With divinely-granted abilities over life or death, they are also able to repel or control undead creatures. Clerics also have specific 'domains' which usually align with the character's alignment and the god that cleric serves. Whether the cleric repels or controls undead is dependent on the cleric's alignment. It is the only class to be included in every edition of Dungeons & Dragons without a name change.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, Tharizdun is the god of Eternal Darkness, Decay, Entropy, Malign Knowledge, Insanity, and Cold. He originated in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting but has since also appeared in other settings.
In the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game, Bahamut is a powerful draconic deity, who has the same name as Bahamut from Arabic mythology.
The legion of fictional deities in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game covers an extensive range of spheres of influence, allowing players to customize the spiritual beliefs and powers of their characters, and as well as giving Dungeon Masters a long list of gods from which to design evil temples and minions. Although the Greyhawk campaign world, when it was merely a home game, started with no specific gods, the value of having deities available for both players and game plot purposes was quickly realized. The number of deities has varied with each version of the campaign world that has been published, but for many years numbered a few dozen. It has only been since 1999 that the number of gods increased dramatically to almost 200, due to the volume of newly published material that was subsequently integrated into the campaign world.
Monster Mythology, published by TSR in 1992, is a sourcebook about non-human deities that can be used in fantasy role-playing games using the second edition rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D).
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Corellon Larethian is the leader of the elven pantheon, and the deity of Magic, Music, Arts, Crafts, Poetry, and Warfare. Corellon is also considered a member of the default D&D pantheon. Corellon is the creator and preserver of the elven race, and governs those things held in the highest esteem among elves. Corellon's symbol was originally a crescent moon; in the 4th edition Corellon's symbol is a silver star on a blue field.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters. Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are smaller and more tolerant of other races, nature, and magic. Depending on the setting and subrace, they are often skilled with illusion magic or engineering. Gnomes are small humanoids, standing 3–3.5 feet (91–107 cm) tall.
early facets of both Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons 4E could still be seen during the first campaign. For instance, the world of Exandria uses a variant version of the Dawn War pantheon of gods from Dungeons & Dragons 4E