Has anyone ever made their own deity for Pathfinder? How did it work out? What was their origin (Starstone? Ascendance?)? Portfolio? Church structure?
The reason I ask is because I'm mulling over the idea of creating a new deity for a game, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. The Starstone is the obvious choice, and a good one, but I wanted to see if anyone else had ideas or experiences with this.
I wish to nominate myself for dietyship. As my profile states I am the acting Patron Saint of Homosexual nerds and I feel it's time for an upgrade.
more on topic. I usually don't pick deities. I simplely pick the domains I want and worship the concept. The same can be done with deity creation. Just pick relevant domains and make a deity based on that.
for example
Travel&trickery = god of circus performers
I wish to nominate myself for dietyship. As my profile states I am the acting Patron Saint of Homosexual nerds and I feel it's time for an upgrade.
Can I be your High Priest? ;-P
The domain party sounds good, but I'm having trouble picking some to work with. I like some of the 3.5 domains, so those are options too (though they would need the Pathfinder upgrade).
I wish to nominate myself for dietyship. As my profile states I am the acting Patron Saint of Homosexual nerds and I feel it's time for an upgrade.Can I be your High Priest? ;-P
Support my cause and you shall prove yourself worthy. ;-)
The domain party sounds good, but I'm having trouble picking some to work with. I like some of the 3.5 domains, so those are options too (though they would need the Pathfinder upgrade).
You're making gods, not characters so I wouldnt worry too much about specific builds. Just pick a theme and build around it. No need to stat them up unless they'll be fighting the PC's, in which case you have bigger problems. ;-0
Alrighty then. Hmm, I've always been a fan of the minor Greek god Asclepius, god of medicine. His domains would probably be healing, magic, scalykind, plant, and either rune or knowledge. Holy symbol would be a rod with a serpent wrapped around it. Favored weapon would probably be a quarter staff. Kinda wondering if he should be true neutral or neutral good.
Alrighty then. Hmm, I've always been a fan of the minor Greek god Asclepius, god of medicine. His domains would probably be healing, magic, scalykind, plant, and either rune or knowledge. Holy symbol would be a rod with a serpent wrapped around it. Favored weapon would probably be a quarter staff. Kinda wondering if he should be true neutral or neutral good.
Because of the healing stuff I'd lean toward good.
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Alrighty then. Hmm, I've always been a fan of the minor Greek god Asclepius, god of medicine. His domains would probably be healing, magic, scalykind, plant, and either rune or knowledge. Holy symbol would be a rod with a serpent wrapped around it. Favored weapon would probably be a quarter staff. Kinda wondering if he should be true neutral or neutral good.
Making a diety neutral allows for the possibility of neutral evil clerics of that god, and, in the case of a god whose primary 'sphere of influence' is healing and medicine, that might not fit all interpretations of that sort of diety. (On the other hand, if he is neutral, he could well have a neutral evil sect of vivisectionists, resurrection men and necromancers, who the neutral good branch of the church consider to be horrific, or at least tacky, and yet must accept as something that their god allows.)
I'd skip Magic, entirely, and go with Healing, Knowledge, Plant and Scalykind for this diety. Add Good, if he's neutral good, and there's five Domains. (I'd try to keep homebrew deities to four-ish, the same as many other 'lesser' gods in the setting, although I wouldn't go as low as some of those dwarven, giantish and goblin demigods, with only three or even two Domains...)
Several deities have a 'holy animal,' such as Calistria and her wasps, without necessarily having the Animal domain, so adding Scalykind because his symbol includes a snake, isn't entirely necessary, unless you wish to more strongly associate him with snakes / serpents, perhaps adding a 'wise serpent' / Uktena motif to the fantasy-version of the deity you are designing.
I like the idea (and of a non-evil source for the Scalykind domain that a non-dragon / non-serpentfolk woould be inclined to worship), so I'm all for strapping on some Scalykind-friendly flavor. Indeed, Golarion isn't the first setting to have the concept of deities that have outlived their original followers and 'moved on with the times,' like Jergal, in the Forgotten Realms, whose original insectoid followers are long-dead, so it's entirely possible that this healing snake-god was once a Serpentfolk deity, and simply moved on to non-serpentfolk worshippers when his people fell from grace. (Perhaps the original mammalian slave-races of the serpentfolk remembered the rites of his clergy best of all, since they often sent their acolytes to tend to valuable slaves.)
Some sort of faith-based rituals involving brief exposure to snake venom, or even a few healing tricks involving venom, might suit this sort of hybrid snake/healing deity, and holy trance-states might be achieved by burning incense that includes 'the milk of the viper' to induce visions of the god, etc.
A faith-specific trait might give a follower a +1 to saves vs. snake venom and a +2 to handle animal checks vs. snakes, or something. 'Snake-handling' would be a pretty common rite, and being bitten during one of these rituals would be considered a sign of the god's disfavor, unless one goes into appropriately holy convulsions and has a vision, in which case it's a blessing!
Alrighty then. Hmm, I've always been a fan of the minor Greek god Asclepius, god of medicine. His domains would probably be healing, magic, scalykind, plant, and either rune or knowledge. Holy symbol would be a rod with a serpent wrapped around it. Favored weapon would probably be a quarter staff. Kinda wondering if he should be true neutral or neutral good.Making a diety neutral allows for the possibility of neutral evil clerics of that god, and, in the case of a god whose primary 'sphere of influence' is healing and medicine, that might not fit all interpretations of that sort of diety. (On the other hand, if he is neutral, he could well have a neutral evil sect of vivisectionists, resurrection men and necromancers, who the neutral good branch of the church consider to be horrific, or at least tacky, and yet must accept as something that their god allows.)
I'd skip Magic, entirely, and go with Healing, Knowledge, Plant and Scalykind for this diety. Add Good, if he's neutral good, and there's five Domains. (I'd try to keep homebrew deities to four-ish, the same as many other 'lesser' gods in the setting, although I wouldn't go as low as some of those dwarven, giantish and goblin demigods, with only three or even two Domains...)
Several deities have a 'holy animal,' such as Calistria and her wasps, without necessarily having the Animal domain, so adding Scalykind because his symbol includes a snake, isn't entirely necessary, unless you wish to more strongly associate him with snakes / serpents, perhaps adding a 'wise serpent' / Uktena motif to the fantasy-version of the deity you are designing.
I like the idea (and of a non-evil source for the Scalykind domain that a non-dragon / non-serpentfolk woould be inclined to worship), so I'm all for strapping on some Scalykind-friendly flavor. Indeed, Golarion isn't the first setting to have the concept of deities that have outlived their original followers and 'moved on with the times,' like Jergal, in the Forgotten...
Magic would be a pretty big part of this deity, that's gonna have to say. I am going for more of the "wise serpent" concept with this deity, so that's gonna stay. Think I'll settle on Scalykind, Magic, Healing, and Plant for his domains. I'm keeping the plants in there for the whole herbal-healing idea and to give alchemists someone to worship besides Norgorber.
Your idea of an ancient deity appeals to me for this guy more than a Starstone deity, I think I'll borrow that. The Wise Serpent will be a loa from the Mwangi Expanse. It was He that taught man how which plants to use for medicine and how to work with the spirits. The Wise Serpent's favored weapon is the sickle, used for combat and harvesting wild grasses and fruits. Many tales tell of other loa and spirits coming to the Wise Serpent for advice. The humble and clever heeded His words, but the arrogant and foolish did not.
I'm picturing something like the Magic: the Gathering card Lorescale Coatl, if you know what that looks like. Add some glowing, shifting runes along its body and there's my deity.
If it is to be Golarion deity: maybe he was one of Azlanti or non-Azlanti shaman in pre-Starfall times who stole/otherwise learned Serpentfolk medical lore? Or maybe post-Starfall shaman/survivor that helped save humanity by using shreds of serpentfolk lore?
And alignment just got me started thinking: Chaotic Neutral deity of medicine and healing. Does not actually cares for anyone, without real empathy or compassion, just obsessed with medical knowledge.
Worshippers of that deity are focused on advancing medical and biological sciences and healing common people is just a way of gaining their help, good will and resources for future research.
I like the idea (and of a non-evil source for the Scalykind domain that a non-dragon / non-serpentfolk woould be inclined to worship), so I'm all for strapping on some Scalykind-friendly flavor. Indeed, Golarion isn't the first setting to have the concept of deities that have outlived their original followers and 'moved on with the times,' like Jergal, in the Forgotten...
Seconded. I guess it never really occurred to me to have a good Scalykind Domain-granting deity for a non-scaly race to worship (aside from the Draconic one. Apsu, i think?). It's an interesting idea. i might have to borrow it.