Princess Of Canada |
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Hi,
I was just wondering who is everyone's favourite god or goddess!
Personally I have a strong predilection towards Sarenrae aka the Dawn Flower.
I like to play clerics and paladins and I think the rules for her followers align with my gaming style.
I especially like her for Paladins because the code for playing one doesn't require you to be lawful stupid. If you can't redeem them by word redeem them by the blade
Tarik Blackhands |
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I'm a personal fan of Kurgess (it more or less demands you play as a finely mustachioed gentleman boxer which I love), Erastil (I always picture him as the Gran Turino Clint Eastwood of the gods and one of these days I'll make a grumpy, gold-hearted paladin of his).
Evil wise, I enjoy Zon-Kuthon on the Hellraiser level and on interpreting him as providing some structure and support to those mentally and emotionally broken rather than being strictly the evil BDSM you usually associate with him.
And there's also Groetus for being the Moon from Majora's Mask and being a RP gold mine with everything ranging from Sailor Groetus vigilantes to the half mad CG cleric/inq/warpriest trying to stop all those yahoos from ending the world before Big G is all ready.
189birds |
@Tarik: I love that interpretation of Zon-Kuthon tbh...
My fav god is probably Shelyn, because I love the whole song bird aesthetic and the culture of worshipping love, beauty, and art. I feel like I am more easy alignable towards Calistria's beauty, though, and the facet of independence in sexuality as vengeance is real cool. Also...bees.
Hannibull Rektor |
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In Pathfinder?
Shelyn... just Shelyn. Why? If you want my half-joking answer, I would ask if you have ever seen a picture of her. If you want my more serious answer, it is because she supports things I personally like: art, music, and beauty... and also because she is hot.
Sarenrae is a close second because I am all about redemption and healing up until evil needs it's face smashed in, just like she is. "I will bring you peace... but it's going to hurt."
Zelgadas Greyward |
vil wise, I enjoy Zon-Kuthon on the Hellraiser level and on interpreting him as providing some structure and support to those mentally and emotionally broken rather than being strictly the evil BDSM you usually associate with him.
Zon Kuthon is one of my favorites as well. When I ran Curse of the Crimson Throne, my players liked Laori so well, they based an entire new sect of his worship around her philosophy and made her the High Priestess. Everyone liked it so well, I left it as an established part of my table's version of the world. My Iron Gods party is 75% Laori-sect Kuthonites.
Anyway...
Calistria is probably my personal favorite deity in Golarion. She was the goddess that made me sit up and pay attention to Pathfinder as a campaign setting. I wasn't used to D&D settings having gods that made actual sense from an IRL perspective, but Golarion is actually really good about that.
Others in my Top Five would be Iomedae, Shelyn, Pharasma.
Princess Of Canada |
In Pathfinder?
Shelyn... just Shelyn. Why? If you want my half-joking answer, I would ask if you have ever seen a picture of her. If you want my more serious answer, it is because she supports things I personally like: art, music, and beauty... and also because she is hot.
Sarenrae is a close second because I am all about redemption and healing up until evil needs it's face smashed in, just like she is. "I will bring you peace... but it's going to hurt."
I agree with you on that one - no falling for the "Help me, help me Anakin." - Sentor Palpatine
Princess Of Canada |
Tarik Blackhands wrote:vil wise, I enjoy Zon-Kuthon on the Hellraiser level and on interpreting him as providing some structure and support to those mentally and emotionally broken rather than being strictly the evil BDSM you usually associate with him.Zon Kuthon is one of my favorites as well. When I ran Curse of the Crimson Throne, my players liked Laori so well, they based an entire new sect of his worship around her philosophy and made her the High Priestess. Everyone liked it so well, I left it as an established part of my table's version of the world. My Iron Gods party is 75% Laori-sect Kuthonites.
Anyway...
Calistria is probably my personal favorite deity in Golarion. She was the goddess that made me sit up and pay attention to Pathfinder as a campaign setting. I wasn't used to D&D settings having gods that made actual sense from an IRL perspective, but Golarion is actually really good about that.
Others in my Top Five would be Iomedae, Shelyn, Pharasma.
I really enjoy Pathfinder's take on gods as well - there are still some gods that make you for a very fine line but nothing like worshiping the old gods of 3.5 e.g. Pelor.
Cavall |
I think honestly Abadar. I like the idea of playing more lawful characters and I love the flavour of knowing there's actually a god of trying to make a city mean something more than a collection of buildings.
If I have to pick a more chaotic God it would be Besmara.
Fact is besmara just has a fun flavour built around her and her personal archetypes are really cool for playing.
AM DIFFERENT BARBARIAN |
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AM NOT "AM BARBARIAN," BUT AM DIFFERENT BARBARIAN, AND BARBARIAN AM SAY "AM BARBARIAN" AM BEST GOD, BECAUSE "AM BARBARIAN" AM BEST BARBARIAN EVER.
"AM BARBARIAN" SHOW BARBARIANS HOW SMASH CASTIES, TALKYMEN, AND NOT-BARBARIANS LIKE PANCAKE. SHOW BARBARIANS HOW COOK PANCAKE FROM SMASH. "AM BARBARIAN" AM ALSO ONLY BARBARIAN AM HAVE "EH-JOO-KAY-SHUN." SO, "AM BARBARIAN" AM BEST GOD.
SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
Desna. I'm a big champion of free will, and so is Desna. Who doesn't want to fight slavers and liberate captives? I also believe in Luck and CrazyRandomHappenstance. I'm also a night owl. I'm kind of a homebody, so the Travel domain is kind of a waste on me, but I tend to have a very loose definition of "home"--especially back when I lived in a bar district in walking distance of a few other bar districts and band venues.
Only Her weapon is a bit crazy and impractical and dare I say silly. She has my favorite domains (Luck and Travel), so I don't feel like I'm power gaming when I choose Her as my PC's patron deity. I had a CG half-orc inquisitor of Desna for a while (he was eaten by an owlbear).
I have 5E Neutral Good Hill Dwarf Life Cleric of Desna that wields a battle axe with butterfly-shaped blades. My spiritual guardians and insect plague spells manifest as butterflies, naturally.
Zelgadas Greyward |
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Cayden Cailean! Get drunk, free slaves, get even more drunk to celebrate freeing slaves! What's not to love?
Heh. You know, it's funny, but I actually have ended up casting Cayden Cailean - or his worshipers at any rate - as a reoccuring villain for my Kuthonites.
Mostly because, as much as smiting Chaotic Evil is, sometimes it's fun to change up and make the Chaos well-meaning but stupid - and no one does well-meaning but stupid better than Cayden Cailean.
I think my favorite was when my Kuthonite party had to go deal with a group of CC worshipers attacking a temple in Nidal. The CC worshipers had heard about a dark ritual, got drunk, grabbed their gear, and went to stop it. And they did - which was bad, because the ritual was keeping a Starspawn of Cthuhlu sealed up. So out it popped during their celebratory drinking and started driving them insane. Thus, my party had to deal with a bunch of drunk and insane CC worshipers - all PC level and equipped - before finding and killing the Starspawn once and for all. And THEN they had to raise the dead clerics and re-consecrate (or redesecrate?) the temple.
Fun times.
Davia D |
While my characters are most likely to follow Desna or Sarenrae, my favorite goddess is probably Pharasma.
Pharasma is a death deity who isn't evil- a concept common in mythology but rare in RPGs- and plants it at the center of existence. A big player who's role is key to the cosmos (if she did somehow fall the Psychopomps could make make do for awhile, but it'd be something else until one of them became the new Queen of Soul Sorting). She really feels Vital and Neutral, in a way that most gods don't.
Though to go outside and one that's in myth, Sekhmet is always a favorite. Just how she works in Egyptian/Osirion myth. Sekhmet is a non-evil goddess of slaughter, who was something of an anti-humanity weapon of mass destruction until she was convinced to have a drink and sleep it off. What a cool heavy hitter!
Also? I dig Unity/Casandalee ^^ AI gods for the win!
UnArcaneElection |
Lawful Good favorite: Not a great fan of these overall, but Torag gets the nod for having broadened his horizons from just Dwarves to others.
Neutral Good and overall favorite: Shelyn. Her portfolio isn't exactly my thing, but she's no wallflower, and able to hold her own, and for justice at that. Too bad about that suggestive photo of herself that she posted back in her youth, but she's really grown up since then, and not only shown herself to be incorruptible, but is slowly uncorrupting the thing that was supposed to corrupt her.
Neutral Good least favorite: Sarenrae. She's supposed to be all about redemption, but seems to do a really bad job of it, and her worshippers are among the greater number of slaveholders.
Chaotic Good favorite: Desna. She's an alien entity that ISN'T implacably hostile -- not only that, she actually seems to have had a bit of success at the redemption thing.
Chaotic Good favorite close runner-up: Milani -- revolution and freedom, but without having to (or being expected to) get drunk.
Lawful Neutral favorite: Irori. He got where he is under his own power, and he seems to be more decent than his nominal alignment indicates.
True Neutral favorite: Nethys gets the nod for getting where he is under his own power.
True Neutral least favorite: Pharasma. I hate overdeities on Earth, too. Edit: She gets to judge EVERYTHING, including herself? Something seems fishy here.
Chaotic Neutral favorite: Would have to be one of the less evil Lovecraftian entities, but not sure which. Or maybe Groetus (though information thereon is awfully scant) -- somebody's got to clean up Pharasma's mess.
Chaotic Neutral least favorite: Besmara -- how is this not Evil? Reminds me of a lot of Chaotic Neutral AD&D 1st Edition players.
Chaotic Neutral tie for least favorite: Gorum -- how is this not Evil? Reminds me of a lot of Chaotic Neutral AD&D 1st Edition players.
Lawful Evil: None (still shopping around).
Neutral Evil favorite: Urgathoa -- as gross as her practices are, she definitely gets points for sticking it to Pharasma while attaining her own divinity, rather than letting herself be led like a lamb to the slaughter.
Chaotic Evil favorite: Rovagug -- he was just trying to defend his habitat from destruction.
Davia D |
I'll add, I don't view Pharasma as an overdeity. She's strong, knows a lot, and is in an important role, but she's not invincible, definitely doesn't know everything, and definitely doesn't run stuff on the whole.
Pharasma isn't like Ao or similar- the "I'm ruler of the gods and I'm in charge." Pharasma is "I am in charge of souls. It's an important job but I don't have time for much else. I don't even know why Aroden died!". Nor do I think her death would end the multiverse or flow of souls or something- it'd probably involve someone new stepping up.
Chaotic Neutral favorite: Would have to be one of the less evil Lovecraftian entities, but not sure which. Or maybe Groetus (though information thereon is awfully scant) -- somebody's got to clean up Pharasma's mess.
I do like the idea of classifying 'souls' as 'Pharasma's mess' ^^
Chaotic Evil favorite: Rovagug -- he was just trying to defend his habitat from destruction.
He was! The other gods were jerks about it.
Razoack |
LG - Apsu - A being that truly cares about life, to the point where he has no Oracles.
LN - Irori - The ideal of self perfection through discipline.
LE - Zon-Kuthon. just.... is there any other?
NG - Shelyn - Just the idea of beauty in the world, so much so that she has no enemies (bar Rovagug)
N - Pharasma - The ideal that death is not evil
NE - Ymeri - ALL HAIL THE FIRELORD
CG - Cernunnos - No idea why. Just do.
CN - Sun Wukong - Because it's a god of drinking and partying that isn't Cayden Cailean.
CE - Nocticula
Cole Deschain |
Well, Simpsons did it, but to reiterate:
Desna
Pharasma
Shelyn
Ng.
Also quite fond of- Ashava, Black Butterfly, Tolc, Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth
Quentin Coldwater |
I think all the Golarion deities have their own bit of cheese and blandness to them, but my first love was Gozreh. Don't know why, but I like nature-themed characters in general and the duality is pretty nice. Uncaring on his better days, destructive on his worst. Lots of good hippie tropes, and as a True Neutral deity, one of the few I feel are capable of genuinely being interesting to play as either Good or Evil.
VRMH |
Razmir, a self-made God of Luxury. Who's unfairly treated by the press.
Sivanah, 'cause Who the F is Sivanah?
Werner von Brigh.
SOLDIER-1st |
I have a number of favorite gods.
I like Sarenrae and Ragathiel for their whole redemption theme (Sarenrae for redeeming others, and Ragathiel for redeeming oneself). (I ship them so much)
I like Arqueros for his protection aspect.
I like Korada for being chill. Chilling is my favorite.
I like Irori/Nethys for the whole personal ascension thing.
I like Pharasma for her neutrality/focus and power.
I like Moloch, Dalenydra, and Vildeis for roughly the same reason. They do their jobs. Moloch fell pretty much because Asmodeus gave him a job to do, and he did it really REALLY well. And as far as an archdevil goes, he's the closest to being LN. Dalenydra heals people. Exclusively. To the point that people won't attack her followers because they can trust that all they'll do is heal people. I think that's super cool. And Vildeis saw evil once and was like "NOPE. Not gonna tolerate that." and gouged her own eyes out. While that's crazy, that's the devoted kinda crazy that I can respect, even if I'm definitely going to keep a healthy distance from it.
I also like Lissala because apparently I have a thing for LE deities that seem more like LN deities.
And then there's the Arshea, Lymnieris, Falayna trio because while I'm not much for debauchery (thus removing Calistra and Nocticula), I am very much for strong women and positive sexuality.
Mangenorn |
Evil wise, I enjoy Zon-Kuthon on the Hellraiser level and on interpreting him as providing some structure and support to those mentally and emotionally broken rather than being strictly the evil BDSM you usually associate with him.
I like that interpretation, actually. I've always found him a bit too emo for my taste, but... you make a good argument.
And there's also Groetus for being the Moon from Majora's Mask and being a RP gold mine with everything ranging from Sailor Groetus vigilantes to the half mad CG cleric/inq/warpriest trying to stop all those yahoos from ending the world before Big G is all ready.
I must say I find Groteus annoyingly superfluous, next to Rovagug as the apocalypse deity from big 20. Not that they're the only two apocalypse deities. Golarion is oversupplied with apocalypse deities.
Back on topic, I have already done a per alignment list on a similar topic. I'll just give highlights here:
1) Nethys - Wizard power! I play Wizards almost exclusively, so Nethys is simply the natural choice.
2) Lamashtu - from GM perspective, when one needs to inject the creepy horror vibe, Lamashtu is there to provide.
Lathiira |
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My favorite is Pharasma. Nonevil death deities I like. The fact that prophecy is broken and it is part of her portfolio is intriguing? How do you have a deity over something that doesn't work?
That's for the female side. For gods: Groetus. He doesn't care much, he's here for the end of the world. I still like an idea I had that makes him the universe's answer to Rovagug's imprisonment, an entropic lord with a much more laid-back approach vs. Rovagug's rage.
Tarik Blackhands |
Reading up thread, I'm honestly a bit surprised at all the support ole Pinhead is getting which sorta brings me to a question. Most of my interpretation mostly stems from me trying to extrapolate why he has the Loss subdomain (I mostly took it in the direction that ZK also takes in those damaged by the loss of friends/comrades/family/lovers/etc and helps them overcome that pain. Not forget it, but to turn it into strength) but it was mentioned there was a sect that sort of might be related to that interpretation. Anyone have any details on them (Lairo sect that is)?
Also preemptive apology for a minor derail.
DM Beckett |
Hi,
I was just wondering who is everyone's favourite god or goddess!
For me, it's hard to say, and this is a bit of a loaded question.
I also enjoy playing mainly divine characters, generally with a focus on "divine/holy warrior" rather than "priest". But, to me, mechanics are just as important, if not more important than fluff. When I say that, I mean I'm all for fluff, BUT, if the mechanics don't actually back that fluff up, to me, the fluff is less important. Flavor, that is unsupported by the realty of the game, is pretty weak flavor, no matter how pretty it might look on the page.
Fluff/Flavor/Self-wankery, that's the absolute, hands-down easiest thing in the universe to come up with. That's basically the one and only thing I don't need or want Paizo to do for me. Who can't come up with a great backstory for an 8 Str, Dex, & Con Wizard that is a fervent follower of Gorum?
So, with all that being said, there are a few deities I like, and a few that I really want to like, but their mechanics kinds of well, suck.
I do agree that Sarenrae tends to be a really good deity to go with, based on both my playstyle, many of the aspects of crunch+fluff, and a pretty decent amount of workable possible options. I can play a character that is a pacifist or a crusader. A character that hits fast and hard, and then asks questions later, or one that goes out of their way to seek to redeem all but those deemed irredeemable. I can build a battle cleric or a white mage cleric with relative ease. I can look down on followers of Shelyn for being too goody-goody and loosing sight of actual good which has nothing to do with "beauty", or I can look down at Iomedae for being too high strung and militant, and loosing sight of actual good when they go too far, "for the greater good and stuff".
I really want to like a few deities like Gorum, GROTEUS, and Zon-Kuthon, they have either some really good Fluff OR some really good Crunch, but at the end of the day, they all tend to lack those things combined to make Captain Planet actually show up.
Zon-Kuthon, for example, is stuck with a really, really s$@+ty weapon that really should just be a simple weapon, but "FLUFF", and a pretty overall terrible set of Domains, but has an amazing background that just seeps "play me". Pretty much of any deity-specific options in Pathfinder/Golarion specific play, Zon-Kuthon really just needs to be a Cleric Class unto itself. But, instead, we get something that looks amazing on paper, and just doesn't live up to the hype.
Groteus, likewise, has so much pure awesome going for him (and by that I mean his followers), except well, mechanically he sucks, and that pretty much ends the story. <Iconic Aladdin quote goes here> The fact that, in Golarion at least, prophecy is broken, and even the closest "Uber Deity" of the deities has to grab her backside to make sure she doesn't soil herself when he inches in closer is icing on the cake.
In the end, despite his faith being much more in the fluff and less so in the crunch group, I'd have to go with Ragathiel as my #1. Yes, there are some, . . . inconsistencies/oddities with the fluff+/vs crunch in Chronicles of the Righteous. But, a lot of the potential and the fluff we do get is just that straight up badass.