So I was thinking about updating some gods from 3.X D&D and also making some of my own, and that got me curious about gods and domains. In D&D gods had a varying number of domains, from 3-6. In Deities and Demigods a god actually had to buy a Extra Domain salient ability to grant worshipers an extra domain.
However, in the list of sample deities in the Pathfinder core rulebook, the selection of domains is a lot more even. Each god has 5 domains. Is this a new standard for designing deities in general in Pathfinder? I have not seen any explicit guidelines for assigning domains to gods.
I was also wondering about grouping domains together. Are there any particular guidelines on this or broken combos I should be concerned about? I gather since one could play a cleric of a philosophy with any two domains that made sense, assignment of domains is mostly a flavor issue. Is that correct?
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However, in the list of sample deities in the Pathfinder core rulebook, the selection of domains is a lot more even. Each god has 5 domains. Is this a new standard for designing deities in general in Pathfinder? I have not seen any explicit guidelines for assigning domains to gods.
While it doesn't appear to be explicitly stated anywhere, all 'real gods' have five domains, and the various demon lords, archdevils, daemon horsemen and empyreal lords have only four domains (with the exceptions of Sarenrae, Lamashtu and Asmodeus, who are angels, demon lords and archdevils who 'made the big time' and are 'real gods' now).
In an earlier printing the demon lord of the Boggards (Gogunta) had five domains, and has since been reprinted with only four domains, further hammering home the notion that the 'little gods' only have four domains.
That being said, some of the elven, giantish, etc. gods have five domains, while others have four, and some of the regional / racial dieties only have three, or even two domains, so the hard and fast 'rule' seems to be that only the big guns have five domains, while the smaller fry can have four, three or two.
Officially, to have Domains in Golarion, you need to have a god, so cherry-picking a pair of domains isn't an option, but that's not a Pathfinder rule, and in a non-Golarion game you can adopt a philosophy and pick two normally.
Thanks for the clarification. It does a lot to cut down on the number of gods needed for a setting and also allows me as a GM to create more variety of NPCs and sects within the same general religious umbrella.