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That is from just one Deity - Desna.

Desna has 4 primary domains (dreams, moon, luck, travel) and 2 alternate domains (star, void).

Expanded Domain Initiate pulls from the two alternate domains. Advanced Domain can pull from any of the domains that you have the first spell from - either primary domain or alternate domain.

Gotcha. So a cleric could theoretically have access to a total of 6 domains. Thanks for pointing that out.

That may or may not be a rationale for the core deities of the Inner Sea setting. I haven't heard one way or the other.

That wouldn't affect homebrew that you are creating. You can use that guidance yourself if you want. Or ignore it if you would rather.

Right. I was looking for a rule-of-thumb for guiding how to allocate domains to deities. So far, I think I have come up with 3 guidelines:

Guideline 1: "each full deity must have 4 primary domains, with 2 alternate domains."

Guideline 2: "don't have any 2 deities share more than 2 domains."

Guideline 3: "make sure every domain is assigned to at least 1 deity."

Cloistered Cleric also gets another one for free at level 1. So that could be up to 11 of the 1st level Domain Spells.

However, a lot of the time, the Cleric is going to want to take other class feats as well. Such as the Advanced Domain feat. Or maybe even Maker of Miracles to get a second 10th level spell slot.

With Advanced Domain and Expanded Domain Initiate, a Cloistered Cleric of Desna could fill all of their class feats with just Domain spell feats.

1st: Domain Initiate
2nd: Domain Initiate
4th: Expanded Domain Initiate
6th: Domain Initiate
8th: Domain Initiate
10th: Expanded Domain Initiate
12th - 20th: Advanced Domain x5

They would have 11 focus spells to cast, and 3 focus points to cast them with.

And they would still be missing one of the Advanced Domain spells from one of the 6 domains and alternate domains that Desna has.

Isn't each Cleric restricted to each 1 deity? Wouldn't that mean that each cleric would have a maximum of 4 different Domains?

Also, I have heard that the rationale for have 4 domains per deity is:
"don't have any 2 deities share more than 2 domains."

To clarify: The confusion on the number of domains is a side-tangent detail that I noticed.

I am not aware of any enforced number of domains or any reason for any particular number cap to be needed.

A Deity entry with 17 domain options would still not result in a more powerful Cleric character. They would get one Domain spell per feat slot that they spend on Domain Initiate or Advanced Domain.

A Deity entry with 17 domain options means that Clerics of that deity have more options to choose from when they get those feats, but they still only get one spell for each one.

Okay, so is the domain option limited by the Cleric class? The way the Cleric levels work, if I am reading the rules correctly, the Cleric Feat of "Domain Initiate", which appears at Lvl 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20, allows a selection of a different domain each time, and gaining its domain spell.

Now each deity has 4 domains. There are 37 domains total. 20 Core Deities.

If this is consistently chosen, then a Cleric can have a total of 4 different domains.

How does that math work out? Was there a deliberate rationale, or mechanism, to try to spread out the Domains?

Not sure where you are counting 5 domains.

Cayden Cailean has 4. Desna has 4 and 2 alternates for a total of 6.

If this is homebrew already, pick how many you want. Having more domains gives more options when choosing domain spells. But each domain spell costs a feat, so it isn't going to increase the power of any character - just their flexibility of build choice.

Apologies, you are right. I just got mixed up.

Let me rephrase. Why stick to 4 domains? Is there a mechanical reason, to make sure that all domains were distributed among all 9 domains? (Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil).

Hello. This is a question in terms of game design.

I am trying to homebrew using Pathfinder 2e, and I am trying to figure out a good mechanical system for determining how many domains per deity.

EDIT: I am curious, why do full-fledged deities have specifically "4" domains? Why not three domains, or five domains?

Is it tradition?

EDIT: Why stick to 4 domains? Is there a mechanical reason?

I heard that it was to make sure that all domains were distributed among all 9 domains? (Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil).