In my homebrew setting, anyone (or anything) that is worshipped by sentient beings receives divine power.
For example, when a dwarven civilisation began worshipping a smithing hammer as an icon of craftdwarfship, it slowly began accumulating divine power until it gained sentience and, in time, godhood. It is now the main god of craft, can aid anyone holding it in making whatever they (or it) desires, and can transform into any tool, etc. Gods can shape their form and abilities through worship, but they are also influenced by it against their will.
Most of the major deities made a divine concorde centuries ago, where they would divide the aspects of worship between them, and guide their followers to destroy any new divine beings threatening their power.
I feel that a system like this allows for more interesting situations than a traditional pantheon would have. Gods now need use their power to maintain control and faith, rather than only acting on morality. There are also a myriad of opportunities for backstabbing and other fun politics at a layer above nations.
My questions to @DnD are:
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Do you see any potential pitfalls in D&D a system like this might have?
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Do you have any good ideas, suggestions, or interesting aspects to your pantheons which might benefit a system like this?
Isn’t this an extension of what already exists in D&D (or earlier versions of D&D)? A god’s power is based on the number of worshippers, so this just adds the ability to create a god.
I don’t think there are any pitfalls, as GM it’s basically up to you to run the world you create in a way that’s fun and has enough internal consistency for your players.
Also the setup for politics won’t be too far from how the Greek gods were portrayed; flawed and very human.
I re-read through the 5e DM’s guide, and it just off-handedly mentions thats gods in a multiverse could have different levels of influence on a world, based on their worship. I suppose my system just takes that idea to the logical extreme, where worship defines a god rather than just give it influence.
More than just the ability to create a god, it would allow my PCs to destroy or become one (in the end-game), making a god as an enemy a more interesting proposition to me than just being able to reduce their influence for a while. One of my PCs is a paladin with a wish to become a famous hero, so if he becomes a local hero or icon, he could start the path to godhood, and perhaps find himself in more trouble if his deity finds out he is inadvertently taking their power away.
Yes, I’d think that’s a potential great arc for your paladin. Heroes ascending to godhood is a thing among folklore, see Guan Yu in Chinese mythology for one. Definitely can work well. Then have him tangle with godhood-politics. I think there were some interesting themes that were brought up in that area in Discworld (Sir Terry Pratchett is a master of mixing satire and pointed social commentary), and also Order of the Stick if you want something D&D themed.