Deities and Demigods

Type: Sourcebook Company: Wizards Designer: Rich Redman, Skip Williams, James Wyatt Release: April 2002 Outline: A sourcebook outlining primarily Deities including the D&D Pantheon (Grey hawk), Olympian, Egyptian, and Norse. There is also a section on cults and creating your own pantheon. Contents: Primarily the sourcebook is a quick reference for information on Deities plus information for creating your own pantheon. The information is something that might be useful for a person new to the game that wants to create their own system of deities in their campaign. The rest of the sourcebook relies far too heavily on giving actual stats for powers rather than focusing on their religions, priests, and other important aspects of the deities.

I have not read or owned any of the previous incarnations of this text so I will not compare them. I will however compare it to On Hallowed Ground a second edition Planescape sourcebook. Of the powers that are covered they are comparable in religious information however Deities and Demigods included in depth stats and abilities on the powers something that On Hallowed Ground lacks. If you run a campaign that relies heavily on Deities battling each other or player characters that battle the Powers this information will be very useful. However Deities and Demigods does not have as many pantheons or powers focusing only on the general D&D (grey hawk), Greek, Egyptian, and Norse Deities.

Here are the chapter overviews and a few comments on them.

Chapter 1:  Deities in your Game A quick overview of how deities can fit into campaigns as passive, active and information on how the powers interact with their followers as well as other powers. Pretty simple stuff but it would be good for a player new to role-playing who desires to create a religious system of their own or quick reminders for an experienced gamer.

Chapter 2 Deities Defined How Deities Powers work and explanation of Divine Rank or how the Powers relate to each other. This gives a few charts on what spells or powers they can grant but primary focuses on stating out gods which again unless you play a campaign with heavy planar politics or player characters that fight the Powers they are of little use.

Chapter 3: D&D Pantheon (Grey Hawk) Chapter 4: Greek Pantheon Chapter 5 Egyptian Pantheon Chapter 6 Norse Pantheon Chapter 7: Other Religions Information on monotheistic religions and cults that may be involved in a campaign world.

Overall the product will be of little use in my campaigns because I am not a power gamer who has pc’s fight the gods (or their avatars) nor do I heavily use direct battles between powers against one another (that’s what followers are for). So if you want stats on the powers I believe this is the book for you otherwise I would skip the book and purchase something with better meat unless you are just dying for that extra sourcebook on gods that sits on your shelf looking cool.

Merits: Artwork is good, few paragraphs of information on religion/followers for each deity.

Flaws: Limited number of deities, too much space wasted on physical stats of deities, and only generalist information on creating your own pantheon.

The funniest thing I noticed:  In the Bahamut entry they actually state he can hold his breath forever but go on to state that it doesn’t really matter because he is a power and doesn’t need to breath anyway!  P.60