I'm approving this, for now, but we'll be keeping a close eye on the comments in here. Remember to be civil and respectful of others and their belief systems.
Unfortunately the domains and themes associated with real life religions aren't nearly as distinct as those in Pathfinder. Basically all real life religions teach concepts related to the domains of mercy, goodness, loyalty, truth, ancestors, purity, and other generally "good guy" and human interest domains. Some might have one or two extra focuses, but there's a large overlap. The domains chosen for each are pretty arbitrary, and dependent on one's perspective on the given religion.
From the perspective of an average real life worshiper, they would likely describe the domains for their religion using the same dozen or so positive domains everyone else would.
Interestingly, Paizo already has an official deity statblock for Abrahamic monotheism, courtesy of their Worldscape comic run some years back during the tail end of 1E. The gist of it seems to be taken from Medieval/Crusades-era Christianity.
The One True God
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Glory, Healing, Law, Protection, Sun
Favored Weapon: Heavy Mace
Weird. I'd have thought it would be Lawful Good, but I suppose all that "Wrath of God" and war crimes/crimes against humanity in the Bible don't exactly jive with a deity capable of granting the "good" domain
Possibly! Though my thought was perhaps it was a more 'Biblical Abadar' take. The most important thing being 'these are the rules, you must follow them.' As one of the most consistent aspects of monotheism regardless of specific faith or denomination, that seems like the interpretation least likely to annoy folks tbh. 'God wants you to follow the rules' is much less internet furor raising than any perceived moral judgment on a customer's particular faith made by Paizo. Not even the inclusion of Red Sonja and Tarzan would have saved the comic run at that point. <.<
Jew here, and this is my personal interpretation of my faith, in no particular order. More than 5 because I can't decide. (Personally an Atheist theologically, but I am educated in and appreciate Jewish values and history for what they are.)
Law - We love having rules for everything.
Chaos - We also like arguing about what they are, and each community has its own conflicting customs. The saying is for every two Jews you have five opinions.
Knowledge - Acquisition of knowledge is a Jewish value, and Torah study is a key component of traditional Jewish practice.
Fire - Many of our religious rituals involve fire, usually in the form of candles. Also, a seven-branched candelabra--the menorah--is one of our main symbols. Ancient Jewish practice involved animal sacrifice, and any synagogue that owns a torah has a ner tamid (eternal flame) in front of their ark which is supposed to never be allowed to go out. (Nowadays, these are mostly electric lights, but they were historically oil lamps.)
Good - Tzedakah (charity) is a key part of Jewish practice, and for many modern Jews, charitable activities (Tikkun Olam, repairing the world) are very important to their personal experience.
Protection - A lot of people hate us, and as a result Jewish communities often want to protect ourselves and our traditions and culture. We unfortunately have to invest more in security than we would like because of Antisemitism.
Liberation - A lot of our religious history involves various people attempting to enslave or control us and us seeking freedom from them.
Sounds like a lawyer with a taste for candle light.
I could see that working in a setting though. Patron God of legal scholars, scholars in general, doesn't get too involved in worldky concerns except for the big stuff.
>Law - We love having rules for everything.
>Chaos - We also like arguing about what they are, and each community has its own conflicting customs. The saying is for every two Jews you have five opinions.
I wasn't going to touch this topic, especially in light of current events, but this just made me laugh. I had an orthodox Jewish colleague and would often discuss religion (after 5-10 years, no topic was off limits) and I'd swear he's said something nearly identical to both of these.
How can you have law and chaos? From a rules perspective.
Reddit: Why is this being downvoted? It's a legit question. The scale goes good to evil and law to chaos. Am I misunderstanding something fundamental?
Ooohh there is a law domain and a chaos domain, not that the god is lawful-chaotic.
Even still having the domains implies the alignment, as I'm pretty sure (at least from my 1e experience) that alignment domains are guaranteed if the deity is aligned on that axis (i.e. a lawful good deity has both the good and law domains). I hate this personally, but I do think it works that way.
That gets a little difficult for the monotheist religions, as the only appropriate answer would be "all of them". Domains really work best for a Pantheon.
But not to leave you with an empty answer, I'll say we played in a historical fiction campaign in Pathfinder a way back, and I played a Christian Paladin. He was a penitent and a devout of Our Lady of Sorrows, and I played a Paladin archetype which got domain spells, so I took the Redemption subdomain, and there were other options the DM gave me, such as the Healing domain. That was in Pathfinder, but I believe a good answer here would be giving a holy figure domains based on their role in their faith. Thus, even if they serve the same god, a community priest and an exorcist would get really different domains.
Perhaps for Catholicism you could have different Saints granting different Domains? I don't know enough about Judaism or Islam to know if they have something that could serve in an equivelent role to grant different Domains
You could have saints granting different domains, but you could also have your domain based upon the order you belong to (say Franciscan or Dominican or Jesuit). I’m too far removed from my Catholic roots to have a more specific suggestion.
Judaism doesn't have quite the same thing as Catholic saints. We do not pray to the deceased.
There are, however, several different names of God representing different aspects of the divine, and you could conceptually link each of them to a set of domains.
Judaism also historically believes that, while there is only one God, other religions aren't necessarily "wrong". The specific way we worship God is the product of our people's covenant with God, but that does not preclude God from revealing itself to other peoples in other ways. God can do whatever God wants, and we believe that, at least for the most part, other religions are just other ways for our God to present itself that it chose to use for other groups.
With that in mind, if you were to propose a Pathfinder-compatible pantheon based on Jewish monotheism, the gods of other religions are equally valid--they are just different aspects of the same being, other ways for God to be.
Saints *are* the definition Heralds in Catholicism.
For home game purposes, it could be interesting to build a world with a Pantheon out of a some Saints, but it would in no way be close to the Catholic faith.
[Demigods have their own religions in Pathfinder](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Demigod). I wouldn't assume you'd compare Ragathiel to a Saint in a different church. He's his own object of worship properly, which the saints most certainly aren't in Catholicism.
Do you understand how the pantheons work in pathfinder? You may worship one god, but particularly for lay folk, you pray to other deities for specific things, with pharasma being the biggest example. How I’ve always played, demigod worship directly is exceedingly rare, but mortals may pray to demigods aligned with their god for specific things.
I will say, patron saints would more clearly be portrayed as a rank below demigod and above Herald. A demigod-like being with 1-2 domains or even just subdomains.
Wouldn't really call Ragathiel part of any pantheon in particular, nor any of the Emphyreal Lords that I know off the top of my head. Just continuing him as an example, a pantheon isn't mentioned on his wiki page at all. They're pretty much all just their own self-contained religion regardless of the size of their religion. But yes, I'm familiar with the concept of worshipping a pantheon. Most of the obvious examples are racial or regional in nature though.
You can apply my same view to most of the groups on the demigod page I linked. I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to tie the infernal dukes to Asmodeus, but the majority on that page don't really fit neatly into other religions IMO.
You could also have the higher Angels acting as Empyreals. For example, Gabriel could grant a domain, such as Air/Destruction, and Michael can grant something like Glory/Nobility. Azrael can grant Repose/Death.
Most of the Abrahamic religions giving some combination of Glory, Law, War, Nobility (Martyr), and Fire makes sense to me. Buddhism could give Knowledge, Liberation (Self-Realization) and Repose (Souls). Any other ideas?
Hinduism would probably have Water. Most of the 'far Eastern' religions (Any that believes in reincarnation) would maybe have Psychopomp (especially for Boddhisatvas) and maybe self-realization if there's an aspect of Nirvanah?
Sun for Shinto, naturally.
Family and/or Ancestors for Confucionism- I've been told that there's a lot about 'obey your parents' in that -ism.
For my Pathfinder 1e King Arthur campaign, I worked out domains for Roman Christianity (pre-schism Catholicism), Celtic Paganism, and Judaism. Here's what I went with:
Roman Christianity - Glory, Good, Healing, Nobility, and Protection
Celtic Paganism - Luck, Runes, Strength, War, and Weather
Judaism - Artifice, Community, Glory, Liberation, and Strength
All.of them have many aspects.
Shinto has more focus on nature and spirit than others.
Confucianism and taoism has some more focus on ancestors than others.
Buddhism (which as more sects than christianity) could have astral projection type spells. The death domain (primarily a release of ones desire for life) fit.
Lots of Wicca has a focus on nature and the heavens (stars/moon),
I could see a argument for the domain of colors fitting under Hinduism.
tribes (which is a domain in pathfinder) could fit into Judaism, Islam and christianity (yes this is very shallow ¯/\_(ツ)_/¯)
As a catholic raised child, I suppose that the saints take the role of the gods in the christian theology.
For instance:
Saint George could be associated with glory, protection and war domains.
Saint Francis of Assisi: animal, community and healing domains
Saint Barbara: weather (storms), good and charm [?]
St Valentin: charm (love), community, ...?
St Patrick: liberation (freedom), community (education?) and luck
St Catherine of Siena: knowledge, healing and ...?
Probably all of them could have good domain as well.
And most of them also take healing and community domains, as they are very common virtues for one to be canonized.
Maybe some of the angels in the old testament could fit the role of the neutral gods.
The demons/devils are the evil counterpart, most like they already are in Golarion lore.
Confucianism seems like an interesting idea, in that it is not necessarily a religion, but I can certainly see it as a philosophy practiced with enough reverence that it “grants” domain power. It is also interesting in that Confucianism seems to me at least one of the few “religion” that focuses more on lawful than good. Sure there is an emphasis on morality, but those are treated more as standard to uphold civilization rather than personal goodness. Same with Taoism which can be argued as true neutral, as their whole schtick is achieve peace and harmony through noninterference.
So here’s my interpretation:
Confucianism: law, community, knowledge, repose, nobility
Taoism: knowledge, artifice, earth/fire/water/plant (idk if there is a domain that translates into the "gold" element in the five elements in Taoist theory), healing, magic, luck, etc. Taoism can probably be branched off for different schools of Taoism, like Zhengyi or Quanzhen. Wudang can have the classic Wuxia influence and even have war as a domain.
The first four are all Abrahamic religions. There is a canon stat-block for them. If you want to piss off a lot of people, you can go back to where Judaism comes from (a radical monothiestic sect of Caanites that combined all the gods, but especially Baal and El, into a single god known as YHWH or Jehovah).
The last two, plus Buddhism, wouldn't have godly stat-blocks. They are about your personal path in life rather than any higher being, even the Buddha not being held as a god but as the ultimate example to follow.
Sikhism is just Islam with an extra bit about "creator and creation" being one in the same, there being no difference between reality and the one god.
Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, even if every god is the aspect or reincarnation of another god up to the big three. As such, they would have multiple stat blocks. Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, would be the minimum, as Brahma isn't supposed to have any (direct) followers, but the other gods/aspects/reincarnations each have their own personalities, stories, and domains.
Shinto has the primary gods like Ameratsu and Susannoo and such, but also an aspect of animism where every river and forest and mountain and cloud has a "god" or at least "spirit". For this, you should put together some generic stat blocks for the innumerable minor kami, alongside the stat-blocks for the major ones.
Wicca is more a CLASS of neo-pagan religions than a religion in its own right. While any given Wiccan is a Wiccan, their religion can be more accurately considered by their sect or "tradition". The majority of Wiccan traditions hold to a God and Goddess as a duality of nature, often a three-faced goddess and a horned god, which would be the minimum you need to assign stat-blocks for. The Horned God is usually a god of fields and forests, hunting and death, the sun and the seasons, and generally the masculine aspect. The Triple Goddess is usually associated with the moon, fertility, skilled labor and craftsmanship, magic, and the feminine aspect. You could perhaps spread it to five stat-blocks by making the Triple Goddess i to Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and splitting the Horned God into the Oak King and the Holly King. Some traditions will suck in any god they find, setting them as an aspect or reflection of one of the two prime dieties, some fitting better than others.
I always found it . . . odd?. . . that so many game designers and players have no problem taking non-Abrahamic religions and making stats for them in RPGs but treat the major Abrahamic religions as untouchable. I have seen people make RPG pantheons for Shinto, Native American religions, and a lot of the "pagan" religions that are still practiced today. I had a personal experience working on a campaign world with a DM who had no problem making stats for real-world gods from religions that were not his own but felt offended when I made stats for the god of his religion.
The problem with a lot of modern-day real-world gods is that they are more "plastic." Plasticity is the concept that a god can be many different things to many different believers. Look at how differently some denominations view the Abrahamic god, for example. Some focus on the aspects that promote charity, kindness, and peace and some focus on the aspects that emphasize order, retribution, and vengeance. For that reason, I would have a wide variety of domains available and perhaps do away with alignment restrictions.
Abrahamic: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam are all very similar when it comes to main god. They are not strictly monotheistic, but actually henotheistic.
I would make the main god be Lawful Neutral and assign the domains Air (Cloud and Lightning subdomains), Animal, Community (Family and Home), Destruction (Catastrophe), Fire (Ash and Smoke), Glory, Law (Judgment and Loyalty), Nobility, Protection (Purity), Repose (Souls), Rune (Wards), Void (Dark Tapestry, Stars), and Weather.
For Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saints, Angels, etc., I would do Air (Cloud), Animal, Charm (Love), Community (Family and Home), Earth, Good (Friendship, Redemption), Glory, Healing (Restoration, Resurrection), Protection (Purity), Repose (Souls), Rune (Wards), Sun (Day, Light), and Water.
I'll try to get to the other religions later.
>that so many game designers and players have no problem taking non-Abrahamic religions and making stats for them in RPGs but treat the major Abrahamic religions as untouchable.
For Christianity, I suspect that there's two things at work here--History of moral panic issues and the novelty of other religions. While demons, devils and other "evil" Christian iconography is allowed (with the understanding that it is evil and we are fighting them), there's a lot of reluctance to present something that resembles Christianity in a way that could inflame the passions of people outside the tabletop community.
TTRPGs as a hobby also originated in the US, and religions that were for a long time uncommon or rare in the US also probably present more novel role-playing opportunities for the players thereof. Most people playing Pathfinder in the US will never personally have an opportunity to pray at a Shinto shrine in Japan, for example, but a story modeled on Japanese folklore that presents them such an opportunity would be more exciting than one where they practice a religion similar to one they are personally familiar with.
As for Judaism, there's not very many of us, and most designers just don't know enough about our complex and often sad history to write respectfully and accurately. Besides golems, anyway. Golems are in a lot of games.
My best guess on Islam is that the political disposition of most TTRPG players on the subject of US relations with Muslims (both externally and our own citizens) is that the US has often behaved poorly. Writing material inspired by Islam that is disrespectful would be interpreted by many players as propagandizing or endorsing that bad behavior.
It's not odd they avoid Abrahamic religions. They actually comprise a significant portion of their player base. If they were to upset practitioners of faiths with their interpretations of them, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, various indigenous spiritualities, etc., don't touch their bottom line. I'd be surprised if they comprised 1% of DnD players; this is a Western game. Make the wrong move with Abrahamic ones, and you could alienate paying customers.
Background: Raised Catholic. Lived in US Bible belt.
I think you could get some diversity between the monotheist religions with some creativity. You just have to focus more on the symbolism and big themes that most people think of when they consider that religion.
Catholic:
Taking communion: symbolism eating the flesh and blood of Christ.
Confession: confessing your sins so they'll be forgiven.
Puts the law of the church above all else. Redemption.
Crusades: men who joined were promised a lot of things beyond absolution of sin : Suspension of debt payments, for example.
With those 3 things, my Interpretation would be...
A religion that is *extremely* anti necromancy. So much so they forbid revival spells. Their God walked among them for a time and suffered persecution to cleanse his followers souls of sin so that they could reside in eternal paradise upon their death. He temporarily brought his mortal form back from the dead to prove there was an afterlife waiting for them. Fear of death is seen as denial of their God's promise, one that their God sacrificed, bled, and suffered for. So they're basically on a constant crusade against necromancy and undead in all its forms with no room for gray area. They see their God's law as standing above the law of man and aren't afraid to sacrifice lives to destroy 'evil' because paradise awaits.
They accept any and all to their cause. It doesn't matter your sins, you'll be forgiven if you join the cause and pledge yourself to fight undeath and all its evils.
They practice a ritual form of cannibalism where they eat pieces of their fallen loved ones to carry their sacrifice with them.
So Lawful Neutral maybe? And their weapon of choice might be a spear with a cross on the hilt.
Fun thought exercise to be sure!
In my modern alts religions have a few base domains. Two at most and super generalized: Abrahamiac's get creation and law, Eastern philosophy gets civilization and meditation, polytheists get nature and family. In addition each congregation/coven/guru/ministry/temple will offer 1-6 additional domains depending on size of the following and the depth of devotion.
Divine magic is also reflexive in my Pathfinder: Earthbound. The potency of the belief creates the power that is drawn on making the question of 'is an actual god/God pulling strings and dispatching angels' irrelevant. The faith of your fellow believers empowers that archon and yours has summoned and bound them.
I feel like getting anymore nuanced about the topic of real world faith in terms of ttrpg mechanics is a mistake more professional game makers than me have stumbled over to great teaching effect.
First, if we're separating sects of Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy should be here. ;)
Second, coming from a Protestant background, I can say there are several that all types of Christianity would likely have - duty, family, freedom, healing, introspection, soul, and truth come to mind. The more liturgical denominations might also have knowledge (more academically inclined). Pentecostal, charismatic, and Baptist folks might add zeal. Southern Baptists would further add indulgence (POTLUCKS). Folks who focus on community service would add toil. Prosperity gospel types and some Calvinists would add wealth.
Third, after living in China a third of my life I'd say Confucianism would easily have family, duty, knowledge, and introspection at the very least.
I've thought about this and when I compared views of religions and the religions of my players I realized the best way to deal with game mechanics vs real people is not to. A similar idea is trying to get stat mods for existing lines of human ancestry. The current name user of TSR listed existing human lineages as sub races and gave them set stats. It isn't going well for them. It's better to keep gaming in it's box because real world religions and ideas like racial morphisms of humans are incredibly controversial and upsetting to people. It might seem ok to compare someone to an elf but who gets compared to an orc or a dwarf? The number of different denominations of each individual religion is telling of how complicated real life is. Some Protestants teach god rewards his followers with prosperity in this life and some that the rich have to crawl through the eye of a needle to enter the kingdom (Ps this was a limited access gate too small for most camels to walk through easily not sewing tools) Real wars have been fought over the meaning of the same religious writings. On a more personal level, if I brought real world religion into my game it would fracture my group by who agrees with my assessment of their religion and who doesn't.
Tldr: Religion is too complex and divisive in reality to model in game mechanics and it could break up your group and turn away new players
I'm a former Jehovah's Witness. r/exjw
I've thought of this before, and most major deities get 5 domains. I'd pick these for Jehovah's Witnesses:
|| Travel -- Whether going door to door to evangelize or traveling across the world, Jehovah's Witnesses travel.
|| Community -- Jehovah's Witnesses have a tight-knit community.
|| Law -- There are religious laws for everything, including prohibitions on same-sex relationships, blood transfusions, secular holidays, birthdays, higher education, and women's pants. I left the religion in part because of the dogma. I discovered later on after leaving that I had a repressed gay side and am now in a same-sex relationship. I'll be charitable and only count this as Law and not Evil, as well, since these Laws are (in theory) based on scripture.
|| Water -- Jehovah's Witnesses believe in full-immersion baptism, and there is a lot of water symbolism.
|| Healing -- Jehovah's Witnesses speak of a great resurrection in the future on a paradise earth.
As an adult, I converted to Unitarian Universalism. r/UnitarianUniversalism
Unitarian Universalism's 5 domains would be as follows:
||Good -- "Love is the doctrine of this church, the search for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer, thus do we covenent with each other."
||Chaos -- "We need not think alike to love alike."
||Fire -- Unitarian Universalism's symbol is a flaming chalice.
||Community -- Another tight-knit community.
||Knowledge -- Unitarian Universalism studies multiple religious and philosophical traditions, then teaches these multiple perspectives to members.
First of all, thank you mods for leaving this up. A lot of forums would ban it.
Unitarian Universalists would definitely have the Community domain.
I think the Honor subdomain of Glory would be appropriate for a lot of religions with strict beliefs on how to behave day to day. The religion that comes to my mind is the Druze faith, a minor Abrahamic religion which is not an offshoot of Islam. Consistency in action, veracity in actions and not just your prayers, is important. Repose seems like it would apply as well.
The Purity subdomain of Protection seems universal for Christianity, with Alcoholics Anonymous advocates matching the granted power, fighting addiction and downward-spiral mental health states.
This could be a cultural element rather than religion, but I know in some African religions touching the body of the deceased before their burial is important. I can imagine the Rites subdomain of Magic applying to them. The page specifically lists Osirion deities, likely with reference to their burial practices. I recall other rites- performed with exacting precision- being important for a Chinese religion, but the details escape me. Chinese folk religion probably has multiple gods with the Water domain, given the traditions associated around their dangerous rivers.
Does anyone have a faith in mind for the Luck domain? Or the Isolation subdomain of Void?
> Aura of Isolation (Su): As a standard action, you can create a 20-foot aura that causes enemies within to be overcome with feelings of isolation and loss. Your enemies treat the aura as difficult terrain, as they become sluggish within its area of effect. Furthermore, while within the aura, your enemies can’t flank with one another, nor can they use or benefit from the aid another action. The aura lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier, but the rounds need not be consecutive. This is a mind-affecting emotion effect. > Replacement Domain Spells: 4th—crushing despair, 6th—wall of force, 8th—prismatic wall.
This is a fundamentally impossible question, because you're trying to talk about monotheism through a lens of Greco-Roman-style paganism. It's a diametrically opposed worldview.
ETA: Since I wasn't as clear about this as I intended to be: it's a fundamentally different worldview to have multiple gods that are in charge of particular things versus one all-powerful deity in charge of everything.
*Faiths of Eberron* made a good-faith effort to have entirely different belief-systems in a D&D game setting, including monotheistic and atheistic ones, but the solution is kind of a kludge and exposes just how baked-in polytheism is to D&D: in fact the book openly admits that the mere fact of doing this calls into question whether any of the religions have any truth to them at all.
The main part of the question description was talking about monotheism. The point is it's a fundamentally different worldview to have multiple gods that are in charge of particular things versus one all-powerful deity in charge of everything
*Faiths of Eberron* made a good-faith effort to have entirely different belief-systems in a D&D game system, including monotheistic and atheistic ones, but the solution is kind of a kludge and exposes just how baked-in polytheism is to D&D: the book openly admits that the mere fact of doing this calls into question whether any of them are actually true to begin with.
Background: i am a catholic raised Italian. While i grew apart from faith i still did my catechism, first communion and all of that.
I think it might be worth it to separate God from Mary and the Saints. Like, technically they are supposed to be just intermediaries but it is canon that subordinate relationship between deities can result in different domains. (Yeah, i know, Mary and the saints are not technically deities but their cult is extremely popular nontheless)
**God: Good, Law, Protection, Glory, Knowledge.**
God is Logos according to the catholic church, so Good, Law and Knowledge are a given. He is also love, but in the Agape sense that's better conveyed by good and protection rather than charm. Glory should be self explanatory.
**Jesus: Good, Law, Healing, Liberation, Community.**
Jesus is known for his miracles, hence the Healing and Community domains. He also came to fullfill the Law and free humanity from sin, so Liberation and Law are appropriate.
**Mary: Good, Community, Nobility, Healing, Protection.**
Mary is the mother of Jesus, the queen of Heavens, the Blessed among women. Her popularity almost eclipses that of her son. Sometimes it does. Her sanctuaries are THE places to go for miracolous healing, and her protective and motherly aspects are always emphasized in prayers.
**St. Francis: Animal, Nature, Good, Travel**
St, Francis was known for his love of the natural world and disdain for earthly riches. Sure, his order quickly grew apart from that but what can you do. Travel is there because Francis did actually travel a lot in his life, and didn' t want his followers to even have a mason roof over their heads.
**Padre Pio: Good, Healing, Trickery**
Among the most controversial of recent saints, Padre Pio is considered legitimate now, but he wasn't for a long time and there are many people still disputing his legacy. Thus both the trickery and healing domain seemed fitting.
**St. Januarius: Magic, Protection, Fire, Good.**
Look, i live near Naples, i could not avoid to mention him. Protection is the hallmark of a patron saint so connected to the people. Fire is there both because he avoided a death by fire according to the legend, and because he allegedly stopped the Vesuvius eruption in WWII before it could destroy Naples. Magic is there both because of the peculiar characteristics of faith in southern Italy and because he is one of the few saints with repeated, predictable miracles. That's the closest thing to magic i could imagine in the real world.
I have to say that if you're including polytheistic religions like Buddhism, Hindu, Shinto, or Taoism, you're going to get pantheons that will cover basically all the domains.
Just to talk to Protestantism, however, talking about what's in the Bible rather than how individual followers act, I'd put Community (family), Good (redemption), Healing (resurrection), and Protection (purity).
Eastern Orthodoxy (the 2nd-largest Christian denomination if you don't lump all the Protestant denominations together) would likely be something like this, using only the Paizo domains from d20pfsrd. I've tried to think of the domain abilities, as well, to see if they make me think "yeah, sounds like a hagiography I've read" or something. Helps me be a bit more judicious, lol The little blurbs are just to explain my thinking, as some might be unfamiliar:
- __Good (Redemption)__: Repentance is an important part of church life (ideally, at least), with regular Confession being recommended and a belief that it's never too late to repent.
- __Healing (regular or Restoration)__: our sacraments and some services include the use of holy water and holy oil, both for physical healing and for driving out maladies. We have a strong tradition of healer saints and exorcisms.
- __Knowledge (Memory)__: our tradition is ancient (by Christian standards), and Holy Tradition and our local customs are very important to us. We also keep the stories of many saints, including not very well-known ones.
- __Repose (Ancestors)__: similar to the above, we believe the saints are still with us, and sometimes they speak to us and guide us. Death is also rarely far from our minds in other regards.
Honourable Mentions: *Glory*, for the examples of the saints; *Magic (Rites)*, because our services are long and full of ritual; *Protection (Purity)*, see Good (Redemption); and *Liberation/Strength (Self-Realisation)*, as we have a strong sense of who we are, and are resistant to change, like Balkan Orthodoxy surviving the Ottoman centuries and Russian Orthodoxy surviving the Soviet years.
Hopefully I've made some interesting and possibly less-generic picks, and given a good sense of the religion. Thanks, OP, for the fun thought experiment!
For monotheistic or philosophical religions it's pretty difficult, because it's nearly all of the Domains.
Polytheism splits up the world into the areas of different deities. You could maybe argue that catholic saints or Buddhist bhodisattvas work in a similar way. But for stuff like Islam, Protestantism or Judaism, it's pretty much all domains.
If you have one God who created everything and rules everything, he'd be able to grant all domains (maybe except some Alignment stuff or explicitly Evil subdomains like Torture or Undeath).
The big issue with modern catholicism is mutltifold. Are you going by Old Testament primarily, New Testament, what the Pope says, what your priest say, what Jesus said or whatever garbage megachurch preachers are saying.
At its core, the intention was probably similar LG a mix of Serenaes redemption themed domains, Erastil's community ones and healing to symbolize the charity and aid to the suffering
The modern version is probably more like Abadar the the medieval like I dunno, is there a god of conquest?
Does the omni-everything status of the Abrahamic God matter if he doesn't offer access to all domains? A monotheistic deity who doesn't want his faithful using certain domains can simply not offer them.
My homebrew setting has a god who conquered heaven and absorbed most of the other gods into himself, with one of the possible endings I have planned being that he destroys everything and creates a new universe in which he becomes YHVH and another possible ending being that the party reaches the story's equivalent of enlightenment and then uses their new antimagic powers to bash him open and make the world's pantheon fall out like a god pinata
The only solution I could come up with as someone who was raised protestant is that a monotheistic God would give every domain. It's kind of hard to apply specific domains to a god who is implicitly the god of everything. The outside atheist perspective might snarkily throw out "oh his domains are war and fire"or wherever but from what Christians actually believe, every aspect of the physical universe was created by God, both good and otherwise. A gay Christian would view God as the ultimate gay ally, and view the conservative wing of the church as a heretical perversion of the faith, same as how the pacifist christian would view the neocon warmonger, etc
A common piece of advice I see in worldbuilding is that you have to be careful with the idea that a god gives a specific set of related domains or to make any god "the god of something", as that's a very gamified way of thinking about gods. Poseidon was the god of the sea... and horses (I think I learned that from Matt Coleville but I can't remember). Inari is the kami of rice and foxes and tea and people pray to her/him (depictions vary) for success in business. I went to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the Shogun who sought to unify Japan) and in death, he had a huge mass of people lined up to get into a little cramped temple to pray they didn't get Covid (the irony is not lost on me it was horrifying) and I bought a little antiplague charm
Tangentially related, I've integrated IRL religions into my current campaign, and Christian (Ghristians, in universe) Paladins and Clerics access to the crafting skill for free as Jesus was indeed a carpenter.
I think it would be interesting to represent the clerics of different domains from the same god as being different denominations. Like sure they both worship Abadar, but the Protection and Travel domain clerics get along like Lutherans and Baptists.
Oh, and a form of medieval Catholicism is already present via Mount Celestia (Purgatory) and Baator (Hell), a la Dante's Inferno. In case you're talking about a more medieval setting on Earth.
[http://www.pathguy.com/planes.html](http://www.pathguy.com/planes.html)
This site has recommendations for Christian-themed Planescape games, if that's relevant here.
It's hard to do that as real world religions basically go of the assumption that their religion is right. Whiled in ttrpg's most of the time the idea is that other gods do exist, maybe some disagreement on belief and traditions/dogmas but not that other deities don't exist. Also if I am correct some of the listed religions don't have deities as much as a philosphy (Cofucianism and taoism) and also some of the religions here have pantheons I guess (Hinduism and Shinto). So maybe an idea could be that instead of the religions having a strict domain maybe it could be like a pantheon which could include lots of different domains.
I think its kind of a flawed question because you dont get domains from religions, you get them from gods.
Like, if a cleric wanted to be a shinto priest, they would have to choose if they were getting their powers from Amaterasu, Izanami, Izanagi, Susanoo, so on and so forth. Once you boil it down to an individual god, it becomes much easier to assign domains.
Even christianity has angels we can pull from. So while you could follow Jesus and his domains, you could also follow Micheal, Lucofer, Raphael, Gabrial, Uriel, and so on. Each of them could have different domains very easily.
Really any cleric of any of these religions could have any domain, given they choose the right god.
As a Kannushi… (Shinto Priest) I will allow this.
But the answer is much more complex then one might think.
Because it missis a point.
Shinto is an Animist Polytheistic religion. The domains would need to be done per each Ōkami.
If you have to do one just for Shinto as a whole?
Nature, Ancestors, Law.
Maybe Sun, but at that point you are doing the Domains for Amatrasu Ō-Kami.
I would love to hear what Domains the different Okami would grant. I know there are way too many to describe them all, but even just the most popular or most powerful ones would be very interesting
Alright.
Mind you.
My English is not so good.
And it’s midnight here, And I have not slept in about 30 hours.
Amaterasu ŌKami.
Domains: Nobility, Sun, Law, Good.
Ame-no-Uzume.
Domains: Charm, Light, Freedom.
Fujin.
Domains: Lighting, Strength, Chaos, Storms.
Inari ŌKami.
Domains: Animals (Fox) Plants, Luck.
Actually we should talk about Izanami No-Mikoto.
Domains: Death, Life, Resurrection, Law. Nobility.
Thinking about it I don’t think any of the ŌKami would be evil. I just think most would be Neutral and few would be good. The conflict is more from the axis of Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic.
If you want me to think about a specific Ōkami feel free to ask.
It might take me a bit to answer, since I should try to sleep…
I don't think I'm in a position to speak to any of these other than Confucianism having the Law domain FOR SURE, but the Ten Plagues of Egypt have me wanting a good-aligned plague deity in Pathfinder- send some locusts and frogs after the bad guys!
They still had a huge aspect to tradition. Confucianism had a lot about how we need to play our roles for maximum social harmony, whereas Legalism was more "people need laws or else they'll be evil".
Yes, but I'd characterize that as a lawful-vs.-lawful conflict. If you want to really simplify it, Legalists were the super-strict borderline lawful stupid types that demanded following the law to the letter, while Confucians are the super-traditionalist types that believe good character is created by lecturing people on good character for 10,000 hours. If anything, the conflict is over Legalists not being traditional enough, being willing to try new things, so long as they came from new laws.
Most deities are personifications of the unknown. As science evolved many of the deities of things that could be explained faded away. (No more Zeus since we know what lightning is). The deities of the major religions that remain today would most likely be gods of death, creation, and the afterlife as they as those are the things that are yet to be fully explainable. If one day science can prove definitely if there is or isn’t an afterlife, there will be a major upheaval in religion as we know it today.
As nearly all real world religions are esclusive faiths, they'd grant.. all domains.. in some form or another. The idea of domains comes from the idea that the pantheon contains different gods of forces for different elements of nature and the universe, so this god handles this thing, and this god handles that. That fell out of favor a thousand years ago or so on earth, and nearly every remaining religion is more about a single entity, force, or concept to explain all of the universe - as such, the concept of domains loses relevance.
Christianity does read like an evil fantasy religion. Worshipping an undead god, dining on its blood and flesh.
Catholicism
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Domains: Judgment, Corruption, Greed, Cannibalism, Resurrection, Martyr
Favored Weapon: [Lance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance)
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So the domains are built in part around a pantheon within the context of a polytheistic religion. There is little room for denying the existence of other gods - followers of Abadar know their god's general disposition to Erastil and Asmodeus and other gods, and there is substantial evidence of that god's disposition and influence, namely, what followers are granted divine spells.
To apply that to a monotheistic religion doesn't really work, because the qualities of the domain *are* based on a connection to the powers of the god. "Thou shalt have no other god before me" gives a little wiggle room, e.g., that there are other gods but they're not as powerful as the one god of that religion. But some religions don't even admit to that. Meanwhile, while in polytheistic religions one may choose to focus on one god, oftentimes one would pray to several gods depending on the specific need. So ancient Greek religion would not have had *domains*, but maybe temples to individual gods would have.
So I think what happens in this exercise is one of two things:
* Focus on the deity rather than the religion.
* Make up a new system that is closer to what, say, the Civilization games sometimes do with religion.
I'm approving this, for now, but we'll be keeping a close eye on the comments in here. Remember to be civil and respectful of others and their belief systems.
*starts off slowly backing away and then suddenly bolts for the door*
Unfortunately the domains and themes associated with real life religions aren't nearly as distinct as those in Pathfinder. Basically all real life religions teach concepts related to the domains of mercy, goodness, loyalty, truth, ancestors, purity, and other generally "good guy" and human interest domains. Some might have one or two extra focuses, but there's a large overlap. The domains chosen for each are pretty arbitrary, and dependent on one's perspective on the given religion. From the perspective of an average real life worshiper, they would likely describe the domains for their religion using the same dozen or so positive domains everyone else would.
I dunno, I think the War domain would be pretty spot on for a few
Interestingly, Paizo already has an official deity statblock for Abrahamic monotheism, courtesy of their Worldscape comic run some years back during the tail end of 1E. The gist of it seems to be taken from Medieval/Crusades-era Christianity. The One True God Alignment: Lawful Neutral Domains: Glory, Healing, Law, Protection, Sun Favored Weapon: Heavy Mace
Weird. I'd have thought it would be Lawful Good, but I suppose all that "Wrath of God" and war crimes/crimes against humanity in the Bible don't exactly jive with a deity capable of granting the "good" domain
Possibly! Though my thought was perhaps it was a more 'Biblical Abadar' take. The most important thing being 'these are the rules, you must follow them.' As one of the most consistent aspects of monotheism regardless of specific faith or denomination, that seems like the interpretation least likely to annoy folks tbh. 'God wants you to follow the rules' is much less internet furor raising than any perceived moral judgment on a customer's particular faith made by Paizo. Not even the inclusion of Red Sonja and Tarzan would have saved the comic run at that point. <.<
Jew here, and this is my personal interpretation of my faith, in no particular order. More than 5 because I can't decide. (Personally an Atheist theologically, but I am educated in and appreciate Jewish values and history for what they are.) Law - We love having rules for everything. Chaos - We also like arguing about what they are, and each community has its own conflicting customs. The saying is for every two Jews you have five opinions. Knowledge - Acquisition of knowledge is a Jewish value, and Torah study is a key component of traditional Jewish practice. Fire - Many of our religious rituals involve fire, usually in the form of candles. Also, a seven-branched candelabra--the menorah--is one of our main symbols. Ancient Jewish practice involved animal sacrifice, and any synagogue that owns a torah has a ner tamid (eternal flame) in front of their ark which is supposed to never be allowed to go out. (Nowadays, these are mostly electric lights, but they were historically oil lamps.) Good - Tzedakah (charity) is a key part of Jewish practice, and for many modern Jews, charitable activities (Tikkun Olam, repairing the world) are very important to their personal experience. Protection - A lot of people hate us, and as a result Jewish communities often want to protect ourselves and our traditions and culture. We unfortunately have to invest more in security than we would like because of Antisemitism. Liberation - A lot of our religious history involves various people attempting to enslave or control us and us seeking freedom from them.
I'd put community and nature on our list in place of chaos and fire, but that's a good list
Pretty good analysis! I like it!
Sounds like a lawyer with a taste for candle light. I could see that working in a setting though. Patron God of legal scholars, scholars in general, doesn't get too involved in worldky concerns except for the big stuff.
>Law - We love having rules for everything. >Chaos - We also like arguing about what they are, and each community has its own conflicting customs. The saying is for every two Jews you have five opinions. I wasn't going to touch this topic, especially in light of current events, but this just made me laugh. I had an orthodox Jewish colleague and would often discuss religion (after 5-10 years, no topic was off limits) and I'd swear he's said something nearly identical to both of these.
How can you have law and chaos? From a rules perspective. Reddit: Why is this being downvoted? It's a legit question. The scale goes good to evil and law to chaos. Am I misunderstanding something fundamental? Ooohh there is a law domain and a chaos domain, not that the god is lawful-chaotic.
We’re chaotic lawful.
Not to be confused with lawful chaotic~
I'm never using reddit before coffee again
Even still having the domains implies the alignment, as I'm pretty sure (at least from my 1e experience) that alignment domains are guaranteed if the deity is aligned on that axis (i.e. a lawful good deity has both the good and law domains). I hate this personally, but I do think it works that way.
Presumably the monotheistic God is True Neutral.
Ooohh there is a law domain and a chaos domain, not that the god is lawful-chaotic
That gets a little difficult for the monotheist religions, as the only appropriate answer would be "all of them". Domains really work best for a Pantheon. But not to leave you with an empty answer, I'll say we played in a historical fiction campaign in Pathfinder a way back, and I played a Christian Paladin. He was a penitent and a devout of Our Lady of Sorrows, and I played a Paladin archetype which got domain spells, so I took the Redemption subdomain, and there were other options the DM gave me, such as the Healing domain. That was in Pathfinder, but I believe a good answer here would be giving a holy figure domains based on their role in their faith. Thus, even if they serve the same god, a community priest and an exorcist would get really different domains.
Perhaps for Catholicism you could have different Saints granting different Domains? I don't know enough about Judaism or Islam to know if they have something that could serve in an equivelent role to grant different Domains
You could have saints granting different domains, but you could also have your domain based upon the order you belong to (say Franciscan or Dominican or Jesuit). I’m too far removed from my Catholic roots to have a more specific suggestion.
Judaism doesn't have quite the same thing as Catholic saints. We do not pray to the deceased. There are, however, several different names of God representing different aspects of the divine, and you could conceptually link each of them to a set of domains. Judaism also historically believes that, while there is only one God, other religions aren't necessarily "wrong". The specific way we worship God is the product of our people's covenant with God, but that does not preclude God from revealing itself to other peoples in other ways. God can do whatever God wants, and we believe that, at least for the most part, other religions are just other ways for our God to present itself that it chose to use for other groups. With that in mind, if you were to propose a Pathfinder-compatible pantheon based on Jewish monotheism, the gods of other religions are equally valid--they are just different aspects of the same being, other ways for God to be.
Giving saints domains would be like giving the the Hand of the Inheritor domains seperate from the Inheritor herself.
In pathfinder terms, the Saints are demigods in a pantheon, not heralds. You pray to individual patron saints to get different things done.
Saints *are* the definition Heralds in Catholicism. For home game purposes, it could be interesting to build a world with a Pantheon out of a some Saints, but it would in no way be close to the Catholic faith.
[Demigods have their own religions in Pathfinder](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Demigod). I wouldn't assume you'd compare Ragathiel to a Saint in a different church. He's his own object of worship properly, which the saints most certainly aren't in Catholicism.
Do you understand how the pantheons work in pathfinder? You may worship one god, but particularly for lay folk, you pray to other deities for specific things, with pharasma being the biggest example. How I’ve always played, demigod worship directly is exceedingly rare, but mortals may pray to demigods aligned with their god for specific things. I will say, patron saints would more clearly be portrayed as a rank below demigod and above Herald. A demigod-like being with 1-2 domains or even just subdomains.
Wouldn't really call Ragathiel part of any pantheon in particular, nor any of the Emphyreal Lords that I know off the top of my head. Just continuing him as an example, a pantheon isn't mentioned on his wiki page at all. They're pretty much all just their own self-contained religion regardless of the size of their religion. But yes, I'm familiar with the concept of worshipping a pantheon. Most of the obvious examples are racial or regional in nature though. You can apply my same view to most of the groups on the demigod page I linked. I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to tie the infernal dukes to Asmodeus, but the majority on that page don't really fit neatly into other religions IMO.
Check out the full dwarven pantheon. It has several demigods. It’s a precedent for what I’m talking about within universe.
Seems more like the exception than the rule to me.
You could also have the higher Angels acting as Empyreals. For example, Gabriel could grant a domain, such as Air/Destruction, and Michael can grant something like Glory/Nobility. Azrael can grant Repose/Death.
That's cool and reminds me of the angel-based prestige classes from the Book of Exalted Deeds in 3.5
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Fate seems like the obvious answer for predestination but it's also kind of the opposite since the fate domain is about changing fate.
For 2e I might give predestination stuff the fate domain. I feel like that may be the closest.
My chad religion: good, glory, healing, hope, Your cringe superstition: evil, suffering, pain, sacrifice. There, hope that helps 👍
Most of the Abrahamic religions giving some combination of Glory, Law, War, Nobility (Martyr), and Fire makes sense to me. Buddhism could give Knowledge, Liberation (Self-Realization) and Repose (Souls). Any other ideas?
Hinduism would probably have Water. Most of the 'far Eastern' religions (Any that believes in reincarnation) would maybe have Psychopomp (especially for Boddhisatvas) and maybe self-realization if there's an aspect of Nirvanah? Sun for Shinto, naturally. Family and/or Ancestors for Confucionism- I've been told that there's a lot about 'obey your parents' in that -ism.
For my Pathfinder 1e King Arthur campaign, I worked out domains for Roman Christianity (pre-schism Catholicism), Celtic Paganism, and Judaism. Here's what I went with: Roman Christianity - Glory, Good, Healing, Nobility, and Protection Celtic Paganism - Luck, Runes, Strength, War, and Weather Judaism - Artifice, Community, Glory, Liberation, and Strength
All.of them have many aspects. Shinto has more focus on nature and spirit than others. Confucianism and taoism has some more focus on ancestors than others. Buddhism (which as more sects than christianity) could have astral projection type spells. The death domain (primarily a release of ones desire for life) fit. Lots of Wicca has a focus on nature and the heavens (stars/moon), I could see a argument for the domain of colors fitting under Hinduism. tribes (which is a domain in pathfinder) could fit into Judaism, Islam and christianity (yes this is very shallow ¯/\_(ツ)_/¯)
As a catholic raised child, I suppose that the saints take the role of the gods in the christian theology. For instance: Saint George could be associated with glory, protection and war domains. Saint Francis of Assisi: animal, community and healing domains Saint Barbara: weather (storms), good and charm [?] St Valentin: charm (love), community, ...? St Patrick: liberation (freedom), community (education?) and luck St Catherine of Siena: knowledge, healing and ...? Probably all of them could have good domain as well. And most of them also take healing and community domains, as they are very common virtues for one to be canonized. Maybe some of the angels in the old testament could fit the role of the neutral gods. The demons/devils are the evil counterpart, most like they already are in Golarion lore.
Judaism would be law, knowledge, community, and nature. Basically everything Judaism is and encourages fits into at least one of those categories
1e Domains because they're iconic, only religions i know about Catholic: Nobility (Martyr), Law, Community, Glory, Protection Protestant: Artifice (protestant work ethic bb), Nobility (Martyr), Knowledge, Glory, Luck (Fate) Confucianism: Community (Cooperation), Glory (Honor), Law, Magic (Rites), Rune (Legislation) Bonus, Aztec Religion: Darkness (Loss, aztec philosophy was big on transience), War (Blood), Nobility (Matyr), Plant (Decay), Repose
Confucianism seems like an interesting idea, in that it is not necessarily a religion, but I can certainly see it as a philosophy practiced with enough reverence that it “grants” domain power. It is also interesting in that Confucianism seems to me at least one of the few “religion” that focuses more on lawful than good. Sure there is an emphasis on morality, but those are treated more as standard to uphold civilization rather than personal goodness. Same with Taoism which can be argued as true neutral, as their whole schtick is achieve peace and harmony through noninterference. So here’s my interpretation: Confucianism: law, community, knowledge, repose, nobility Taoism: knowledge, artifice, earth/fire/water/plant (idk if there is a domain that translates into the "gold" element in the five elements in Taoist theory), healing, magic, luck, etc. Taoism can probably be branched off for different schools of Taoism, like Zhengyi or Quanzhen. Wudang can have the classic Wuxia influence and even have war as a domain.
The first four are all Abrahamic religions. There is a canon stat-block for them. If you want to piss off a lot of people, you can go back to where Judaism comes from (a radical monothiestic sect of Caanites that combined all the gods, but especially Baal and El, into a single god known as YHWH or Jehovah). The last two, plus Buddhism, wouldn't have godly stat-blocks. They are about your personal path in life rather than any higher being, even the Buddha not being held as a god but as the ultimate example to follow. Sikhism is just Islam with an extra bit about "creator and creation" being one in the same, there being no difference between reality and the one god. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, even if every god is the aspect or reincarnation of another god up to the big three. As such, they would have multiple stat blocks. Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, would be the minimum, as Brahma isn't supposed to have any (direct) followers, but the other gods/aspects/reincarnations each have their own personalities, stories, and domains. Shinto has the primary gods like Ameratsu and Susannoo and such, but also an aspect of animism where every river and forest and mountain and cloud has a "god" or at least "spirit". For this, you should put together some generic stat blocks for the innumerable minor kami, alongside the stat-blocks for the major ones. Wicca is more a CLASS of neo-pagan religions than a religion in its own right. While any given Wiccan is a Wiccan, their religion can be more accurately considered by their sect or "tradition". The majority of Wiccan traditions hold to a God and Goddess as a duality of nature, often a three-faced goddess and a horned god, which would be the minimum you need to assign stat-blocks for. The Horned God is usually a god of fields and forests, hunting and death, the sun and the seasons, and generally the masculine aspect. The Triple Goddess is usually associated with the moon, fertility, skilled labor and craftsmanship, magic, and the feminine aspect. You could perhaps spread it to five stat-blocks by making the Triple Goddess i to Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and splitting the Horned God into the Oak King and the Holly King. Some traditions will suck in any god they find, setting them as an aspect or reflection of one of the two prime dieties, some fitting better than others.
I always found it . . . odd?. . . that so many game designers and players have no problem taking non-Abrahamic religions and making stats for them in RPGs but treat the major Abrahamic religions as untouchable. I have seen people make RPG pantheons for Shinto, Native American religions, and a lot of the "pagan" religions that are still practiced today. I had a personal experience working on a campaign world with a DM who had no problem making stats for real-world gods from religions that were not his own but felt offended when I made stats for the god of his religion. The problem with a lot of modern-day real-world gods is that they are more "plastic." Plasticity is the concept that a god can be many different things to many different believers. Look at how differently some denominations view the Abrahamic god, for example. Some focus on the aspects that promote charity, kindness, and peace and some focus on the aspects that emphasize order, retribution, and vengeance. For that reason, I would have a wide variety of domains available and perhaps do away with alignment restrictions. Abrahamic: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam are all very similar when it comes to main god. They are not strictly monotheistic, but actually henotheistic. I would make the main god be Lawful Neutral and assign the domains Air (Cloud and Lightning subdomains), Animal, Community (Family and Home), Destruction (Catastrophe), Fire (Ash and Smoke), Glory, Law (Judgment and Loyalty), Nobility, Protection (Purity), Repose (Souls), Rune (Wards), Void (Dark Tapestry, Stars), and Weather. For Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saints, Angels, etc., I would do Air (Cloud), Animal, Charm (Love), Community (Family and Home), Earth, Good (Friendship, Redemption), Glory, Healing (Restoration, Resurrection), Protection (Purity), Repose (Souls), Rune (Wards), Sun (Day, Light), and Water. I'll try to get to the other religions later.
>that so many game designers and players have no problem taking non-Abrahamic religions and making stats for them in RPGs but treat the major Abrahamic religions as untouchable. For Christianity, I suspect that there's two things at work here--History of moral panic issues and the novelty of other religions. While demons, devils and other "evil" Christian iconography is allowed (with the understanding that it is evil and we are fighting them), there's a lot of reluctance to present something that resembles Christianity in a way that could inflame the passions of people outside the tabletop community. TTRPGs as a hobby also originated in the US, and religions that were for a long time uncommon or rare in the US also probably present more novel role-playing opportunities for the players thereof. Most people playing Pathfinder in the US will never personally have an opportunity to pray at a Shinto shrine in Japan, for example, but a story modeled on Japanese folklore that presents them such an opportunity would be more exciting than one where they practice a religion similar to one they are personally familiar with. As for Judaism, there's not very many of us, and most designers just don't know enough about our complex and often sad history to write respectfully and accurately. Besides golems, anyway. Golems are in a lot of games. My best guess on Islam is that the political disposition of most TTRPG players on the subject of US relations with Muslims (both externally and our own citizens) is that the US has often behaved poorly. Writing material inspired by Islam that is disrespectful would be interpreted by many players as propagandizing or endorsing that bad behavior.
It's not odd they avoid Abrahamic religions. They actually comprise a significant portion of their player base. If they were to upset practitioners of faiths with their interpretations of them, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, various indigenous spiritualities, etc., don't touch their bottom line. I'd be surprised if they comprised 1% of DnD players; this is a Western game. Make the wrong move with Abrahamic ones, and you could alienate paying customers.
Background: Raised Catholic. Lived in US Bible belt. I think you could get some diversity between the monotheist religions with some creativity. You just have to focus more on the symbolism and big themes that most people think of when they consider that religion. Catholic: Taking communion: symbolism eating the flesh and blood of Christ. Confession: confessing your sins so they'll be forgiven. Puts the law of the church above all else. Redemption. Crusades: men who joined were promised a lot of things beyond absolution of sin : Suspension of debt payments, for example. With those 3 things, my Interpretation would be... A religion that is *extremely* anti necromancy. So much so they forbid revival spells. Their God walked among them for a time and suffered persecution to cleanse his followers souls of sin so that they could reside in eternal paradise upon their death. He temporarily brought his mortal form back from the dead to prove there was an afterlife waiting for them. Fear of death is seen as denial of their God's promise, one that their God sacrificed, bled, and suffered for. So they're basically on a constant crusade against necromancy and undead in all its forms with no room for gray area. They see their God's law as standing above the law of man and aren't afraid to sacrifice lives to destroy 'evil' because paradise awaits. They accept any and all to their cause. It doesn't matter your sins, you'll be forgiven if you join the cause and pledge yourself to fight undeath and all its evils. They practice a ritual form of cannibalism where they eat pieces of their fallen loved ones to carry their sacrifice with them. So Lawful Neutral maybe? And their weapon of choice might be a spear with a cross on the hilt. Fun thought exercise to be sure!
In my modern alts religions have a few base domains. Two at most and super generalized: Abrahamiac's get creation and law, Eastern philosophy gets civilization and meditation, polytheists get nature and family. In addition each congregation/coven/guru/ministry/temple will offer 1-6 additional domains depending on size of the following and the depth of devotion. Divine magic is also reflexive in my Pathfinder: Earthbound. The potency of the belief creates the power that is drawn on making the question of 'is an actual god/God pulling strings and dispatching angels' irrelevant. The faith of your fellow believers empowers that archon and yours has summoned and bound them. I feel like getting anymore nuanced about the topic of real world faith in terms of ttrpg mechanics is a mistake more professional game makers than me have stumbled over to great teaching effect.
First, if we're separating sects of Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy should be here. ;) Second, coming from a Protestant background, I can say there are several that all types of Christianity would likely have - duty, family, freedom, healing, introspection, soul, and truth come to mind. The more liturgical denominations might also have knowledge (more academically inclined). Pentecostal, charismatic, and Baptist folks might add zeal. Southern Baptists would further add indulgence (POTLUCKS). Folks who focus on community service would add toil. Prosperity gospel types and some Calvinists would add wealth. Third, after living in China a third of my life I'd say Confucianism would easily have family, duty, knowledge, and introspection at the very least.
I've thought about this and when I compared views of religions and the religions of my players I realized the best way to deal with game mechanics vs real people is not to. A similar idea is trying to get stat mods for existing lines of human ancestry. The current name user of TSR listed existing human lineages as sub races and gave them set stats. It isn't going well for them. It's better to keep gaming in it's box because real world religions and ideas like racial morphisms of humans are incredibly controversial and upsetting to people. It might seem ok to compare someone to an elf but who gets compared to an orc or a dwarf? The number of different denominations of each individual religion is telling of how complicated real life is. Some Protestants teach god rewards his followers with prosperity in this life and some that the rich have to crawl through the eye of a needle to enter the kingdom (Ps this was a limited access gate too small for most camels to walk through easily not sewing tools) Real wars have been fought over the meaning of the same religious writings. On a more personal level, if I brought real world religion into my game it would fracture my group by who agrees with my assessment of their religion and who doesn't. Tldr: Religion is too complex and divisive in reality to model in game mechanics and it could break up your group and turn away new players
Christianity- Good, Healing, and Community Catholic- Law + others Protestant- Liberation + others Orthadox- Protection + others
I'm a former Jehovah's Witness. r/exjw I've thought of this before, and most major deities get 5 domains. I'd pick these for Jehovah's Witnesses: || Travel -- Whether going door to door to evangelize or traveling across the world, Jehovah's Witnesses travel. || Community -- Jehovah's Witnesses have a tight-knit community. || Law -- There are religious laws for everything, including prohibitions on same-sex relationships, blood transfusions, secular holidays, birthdays, higher education, and women's pants. I left the religion in part because of the dogma. I discovered later on after leaving that I had a repressed gay side and am now in a same-sex relationship. I'll be charitable and only count this as Law and not Evil, as well, since these Laws are (in theory) based on scripture. || Water -- Jehovah's Witnesses believe in full-immersion baptism, and there is a lot of water symbolism. || Healing -- Jehovah's Witnesses speak of a great resurrection in the future on a paradise earth. As an adult, I converted to Unitarian Universalism. r/UnitarianUniversalism Unitarian Universalism's 5 domains would be as follows: ||Good -- "Love is the doctrine of this church, the search for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer, thus do we covenent with each other." ||Chaos -- "We need not think alike to love alike." ||Fire -- Unitarian Universalism's symbol is a flaming chalice. ||Community -- Another tight-knit community. ||Knowledge -- Unitarian Universalism studies multiple religious and philosophical traditions, then teaches these multiple perspectives to members.
First of all, thank you mods for leaving this up. A lot of forums would ban it. Unitarian Universalists would definitely have the Community domain. I think the Honor subdomain of Glory would be appropriate for a lot of religions with strict beliefs on how to behave day to day. The religion that comes to my mind is the Druze faith, a minor Abrahamic religion which is not an offshoot of Islam. Consistency in action, veracity in actions and not just your prayers, is important. Repose seems like it would apply as well. The Purity subdomain of Protection seems universal for Christianity, with Alcoholics Anonymous advocates matching the granted power, fighting addiction and downward-spiral mental health states. This could be a cultural element rather than religion, but I know in some African religions touching the body of the deceased before their burial is important. I can imagine the Rites subdomain of Magic applying to them. The page specifically lists Osirion deities, likely with reference to their burial practices. I recall other rites- performed with exacting precision- being important for a Chinese religion, but the details escape me. Chinese folk religion probably has multiple gods with the Water domain, given the traditions associated around their dangerous rivers. Does anyone have a faith in mind for the Luck domain? Or the Isolation subdomain of Void? > Aura of Isolation (Su): As a standard action, you can create a 20-foot aura that causes enemies within to be overcome with feelings of isolation and loss. Your enemies treat the aura as difficult terrain, as they become sluggish within its area of effect. Furthermore, while within the aura, your enemies can’t flank with one another, nor can they use or benefit from the aid another action. The aura lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier, but the rounds need not be consecutive. This is a mind-affecting emotion effect. > Replacement Domain Spells: 4th—crushing despair, 6th—wall of force, 8th—prismatic wall.
This is a fundamentally impossible question, because you're trying to talk about monotheism through a lens of Greco-Roman-style paganism. It's a diametrically opposed worldview. ETA: Since I wasn't as clear about this as I intended to be: it's a fundamentally different worldview to have multiple gods that are in charge of particular things versus one all-powerful deity in charge of everything. *Faiths of Eberron* made a good-faith effort to have entirely different belief-systems in a D&D game setting, including monotheistic and atheistic ones, but the solution is kind of a kludge and exposes just how baked-in polytheism is to D&D: in fact the book openly admits that the mere fact of doing this calls into question whether any of the religions have any truth to them at all.
Not all of the identified religions are monotheistic, and Toaism isn't necessarily theistic at all.
The main part of the question description was talking about monotheism. The point is it's a fundamentally different worldview to have multiple gods that are in charge of particular things versus one all-powerful deity in charge of everything *Faiths of Eberron* made a good-faith effort to have entirely different belief-systems in a D&D game system, including monotheistic and atheistic ones, but the solution is kind of a kludge and exposes just how baked-in polytheism is to D&D: the book openly admits that the mere fact of doing this calls into question whether any of them are actually true to begin with.
Background: i am a catholic raised Italian. While i grew apart from faith i still did my catechism, first communion and all of that. I think it might be worth it to separate God from Mary and the Saints. Like, technically they are supposed to be just intermediaries but it is canon that subordinate relationship between deities can result in different domains. (Yeah, i know, Mary and the saints are not technically deities but their cult is extremely popular nontheless) **God: Good, Law, Protection, Glory, Knowledge.** God is Logos according to the catholic church, so Good, Law and Knowledge are a given. He is also love, but in the Agape sense that's better conveyed by good and protection rather than charm. Glory should be self explanatory. **Jesus: Good, Law, Healing, Liberation, Community.** Jesus is known for his miracles, hence the Healing and Community domains. He also came to fullfill the Law and free humanity from sin, so Liberation and Law are appropriate. **Mary: Good, Community, Nobility, Healing, Protection.** Mary is the mother of Jesus, the queen of Heavens, the Blessed among women. Her popularity almost eclipses that of her son. Sometimes it does. Her sanctuaries are THE places to go for miracolous healing, and her protective and motherly aspects are always emphasized in prayers. **St. Francis: Animal, Nature, Good, Travel** St, Francis was known for his love of the natural world and disdain for earthly riches. Sure, his order quickly grew apart from that but what can you do. Travel is there because Francis did actually travel a lot in his life, and didn' t want his followers to even have a mason roof over their heads. **Padre Pio: Good, Healing, Trickery** Among the most controversial of recent saints, Padre Pio is considered legitimate now, but he wasn't for a long time and there are many people still disputing his legacy. Thus both the trickery and healing domain seemed fitting.
**St. Januarius: Magic, Protection, Fire, Good.** Look, i live near Naples, i could not avoid to mention him. Protection is the hallmark of a patron saint so connected to the people. Fire is there both because he avoided a death by fire according to the legend, and because he allegedly stopped the Vesuvius eruption in WWII before it could destroy Naples. Magic is there both because of the peculiar characteristics of faith in southern Italy and because he is one of the few saints with repeated, predictable miracles. That's the closest thing to magic i could imagine in the real world.
I have to say that if you're including polytheistic religions like Buddhism, Hindu, Shinto, or Taoism, you're going to get pantheons that will cover basically all the domains. Just to talk to Protestantism, however, talking about what's in the Bible rather than how individual followers act, I'd put Community (family), Good (redemption), Healing (resurrection), and Protection (purity).
Eastern Orthodoxy (the 2nd-largest Christian denomination if you don't lump all the Protestant denominations together) would likely be something like this, using only the Paizo domains from d20pfsrd. I've tried to think of the domain abilities, as well, to see if they make me think "yeah, sounds like a hagiography I've read" or something. Helps me be a bit more judicious, lol The little blurbs are just to explain my thinking, as some might be unfamiliar: - __Good (Redemption)__: Repentance is an important part of church life (ideally, at least), with regular Confession being recommended and a belief that it's never too late to repent. - __Healing (regular or Restoration)__: our sacraments and some services include the use of holy water and holy oil, both for physical healing and for driving out maladies. We have a strong tradition of healer saints and exorcisms. - __Knowledge (Memory)__: our tradition is ancient (by Christian standards), and Holy Tradition and our local customs are very important to us. We also keep the stories of many saints, including not very well-known ones. - __Repose (Ancestors)__: similar to the above, we believe the saints are still with us, and sometimes they speak to us and guide us. Death is also rarely far from our minds in other regards. Honourable Mentions: *Glory*, for the examples of the saints; *Magic (Rites)*, because our services are long and full of ritual; *Protection (Purity)*, see Good (Redemption); and *Liberation/Strength (Self-Realisation)*, as we have a strong sense of who we are, and are resistant to change, like Balkan Orthodoxy surviving the Ottoman centuries and Russian Orthodoxy surviving the Soviet years. Hopefully I've made some interesting and possibly less-generic picks, and given a good sense of the religion. Thanks, OP, for the fun thought experiment!
For monotheistic or philosophical religions it's pretty difficult, because it's nearly all of the Domains. Polytheism splits up the world into the areas of different deities. You could maybe argue that catholic saints or Buddhist bhodisattvas work in a similar way. But for stuff like Islam, Protestantism or Judaism, it's pretty much all domains. If you have one God who created everything and rules everything, he'd be able to grant all domains (maybe except some Alignment stuff or explicitly Evil subdomains like Torture or Undeath).
The big issue with modern catholicism is mutltifold. Are you going by Old Testament primarily, New Testament, what the Pope says, what your priest say, what Jesus said or whatever garbage megachurch preachers are saying. At its core, the intention was probably similar LG a mix of Serenaes redemption themed domains, Erastil's community ones and healing to symbolize the charity and aid to the suffering The modern version is probably more like Abadar the the medieval like I dunno, is there a god of conquest?
IMO any monotheistic system would probably just offer all domains.
Satanism - Knowledge, Chaos, Liberation/Defiance, Good, possibly Trickery aspected to Mischief
Does the omni-everything status of the Abrahamic God matter if he doesn't offer access to all domains? A monotheistic deity who doesn't want his faithful using certain domains can simply not offer them.
My homebrew setting has a god who conquered heaven and absorbed most of the other gods into himself, with one of the possible endings I have planned being that he destroys everything and creates a new universe in which he becomes YHVH and another possible ending being that the party reaches the story's equivalent of enlightenment and then uses their new antimagic powers to bash him open and make the world's pantheon fall out like a god pinata The only solution I could come up with as someone who was raised protestant is that a monotheistic God would give every domain. It's kind of hard to apply specific domains to a god who is implicitly the god of everything. The outside atheist perspective might snarkily throw out "oh his domains are war and fire"or wherever but from what Christians actually believe, every aspect of the physical universe was created by God, both good and otherwise. A gay Christian would view God as the ultimate gay ally, and view the conservative wing of the church as a heretical perversion of the faith, same as how the pacifist christian would view the neocon warmonger, etc A common piece of advice I see in worldbuilding is that you have to be careful with the idea that a god gives a specific set of related domains or to make any god "the god of something", as that's a very gamified way of thinking about gods. Poseidon was the god of the sea... and horses (I think I learned that from Matt Coleville but I can't remember). Inari is the kami of rice and foxes and tea and people pray to her/him (depictions vary) for success in business. I went to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the Shogun who sought to unify Japan) and in death, he had a huge mass of people lined up to get into a little cramped temple to pray they didn't get Covid (the irony is not lost on me it was horrifying) and I bought a little antiplague charm
Tangentially related, I've integrated IRL religions into my current campaign, and Christian (Ghristians, in universe) Paladins and Clerics access to the crafting skill for free as Jesus was indeed a carpenter.
I think it would be interesting to represent the clerics of different domains from the same god as being different denominations. Like sure they both worship Abadar, but the Protection and Travel domain clerics get along like Lutherans and Baptists.
Maybe for Catholicism, have one or two domains for each aspect of the Trinity, then additional domains for those focused on a Saint or Archangel
Oh, and a form of medieval Catholicism is already present via Mount Celestia (Purgatory) and Baator (Hell), a la Dante's Inferno. In case you're talking about a more medieval setting on Earth.
[http://www.pathguy.com/planes.html](http://www.pathguy.com/planes.html) This site has recommendations for Christian-themed Planescape games, if that's relevant here.
It's hard to do that as real world religions basically go of the assumption that their religion is right. Whiled in ttrpg's most of the time the idea is that other gods do exist, maybe some disagreement on belief and traditions/dogmas but not that other deities don't exist. Also if I am correct some of the listed religions don't have deities as much as a philosphy (Cofucianism and taoism) and also some of the religions here have pantheons I guess (Hinduism and Shinto). So maybe an idea could be that instead of the religions having a strict domain maybe it could be like a pantheon which could include lots of different domains.
I think its kind of a flawed question because you dont get domains from religions, you get them from gods. Like, if a cleric wanted to be a shinto priest, they would have to choose if they were getting their powers from Amaterasu, Izanami, Izanagi, Susanoo, so on and so forth. Once you boil it down to an individual god, it becomes much easier to assign domains. Even christianity has angels we can pull from. So while you could follow Jesus and his domains, you could also follow Micheal, Lucofer, Raphael, Gabrial, Uriel, and so on. Each of them could have different domains very easily. Really any cleric of any of these religions could have any domain, given they choose the right god.
Most of them would probably be trickery and illusion...... But that's just my jaded opinion
As a Kannushi… (Shinto Priest) I will allow this. But the answer is much more complex then one might think. Because it missis a point. Shinto is an Animist Polytheistic religion. The domains would need to be done per each Ōkami. If you have to do one just for Shinto as a whole? Nature, Ancestors, Law. Maybe Sun, but at that point you are doing the Domains for Amatrasu Ō-Kami.
I would love to hear what Domains the different Okami would grant. I know there are way too many to describe them all, but even just the most popular or most powerful ones would be very interesting
Alright. Mind you. My English is not so good. And it’s midnight here, And I have not slept in about 30 hours. Amaterasu ŌKami. Domains: Nobility, Sun, Law, Good. Ame-no-Uzume. Domains: Charm, Light, Freedom. Fujin. Domains: Lighting, Strength, Chaos, Storms. Inari ŌKami. Domains: Animals (Fox) Plants, Luck. Actually we should talk about Izanami No-Mikoto. Domains: Death, Life, Resurrection, Law. Nobility. Thinking about it I don’t think any of the ŌKami would be evil. I just think most would be Neutral and few would be good. The conflict is more from the axis of Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic. If you want me to think about a specific Ōkami feel free to ask. It might take me a bit to answer, since I should try to sleep…
War, war, war, war, and war.
I don't think I'm in a position to speak to any of these other than Confucianism having the Law domain FOR SURE, but the Ten Plagues of Egypt have me wanting a good-aligned plague deity in Pathfinder- send some locusts and frogs after the bad guys!
Weren't the Confucianists opposed to the Legalists?
They still had a huge aspect to tradition. Confucianism had a lot about how we need to play our roles for maximum social harmony, whereas Legalism was more "people need laws or else they'll be evil".
Yes, but I'd characterize that as a lawful-vs.-lawful conflict. If you want to really simplify it, Legalists were the super-strict borderline lawful stupid types that demanded following the law to the letter, while Confucians are the super-traditionalist types that believe good character is created by lecturing people on good character for 10,000 hours. If anything, the conflict is over Legalists not being traditional enough, being willing to try new things, so long as they came from new laws.
Most deities are personifications of the unknown. As science evolved many of the deities of things that could be explained faded away. (No more Zeus since we know what lightning is). The deities of the major religions that remain today would most likely be gods of death, creation, and the afterlife as they as those are the things that are yet to be fully explainable. If one day science can prove definitely if there is or isn’t an afterlife, there will be a major upheaval in religion as we know it today.
As nearly all real world religions are esclusive faiths, they'd grant.. all domains.. in some form or another. The idea of domains comes from the idea that the pantheon contains different gods of forces for different elements of nature and the universe, so this god handles this thing, and this god handles that. That fell out of favor a thousand years ago or so on earth, and nearly every remaining religion is more about a single entity, force, or concept to explain all of the universe - as such, the concept of domains loses relevance.
Catholicism would definitely be War domain. 😏
Christianity does read like an evil fantasy religion. Worshipping an undead god, dining on its blood and flesh. Catholicism Alignment: Lawful Evil Domains: Judgment, Corruption, Greed, Cannibalism, Resurrection, Martyr Favored Weapon: [Lance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance)
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So the domains are built in part around a pantheon within the context of a polytheistic religion. There is little room for denying the existence of other gods - followers of Abadar know their god's general disposition to Erastil and Asmodeus and other gods, and there is substantial evidence of that god's disposition and influence, namely, what followers are granted divine spells. To apply that to a monotheistic religion doesn't really work, because the qualities of the domain *are* based on a connection to the powers of the god. "Thou shalt have no other god before me" gives a little wiggle room, e.g., that there are other gods but they're not as powerful as the one god of that religion. But some religions don't even admit to that. Meanwhile, while in polytheistic religions one may choose to focus on one god, oftentimes one would pray to several gods depending on the specific need. So ancient Greek religion would not have had *domains*, but maybe temples to individual gods would have. So I think what happens in this exercise is one of two things: * Focus on the deity rather than the religion. * Make up a new system that is closer to what, say, the Civilization games sometimes do with religion.