Dungeon Master: Limited Gods

In D&D, typically it is a given that the gods exist (the way the cleric and paladin classes are written in 5^th edition don't help, either) and are very powerful (9^th level cleric spell anyone?). However, depending on the world, the gods can have various degrees of influence and have various limits. Personally, I like to run games where the gods exhibit these kinds of limitations, and for this reason I will discuss various ways to achieve this effect. Each type can also be applied to individual gods in order to create some variety.

What a Cleric/Paladin Is

In some games I have played you could be a cleric or paladin that wasn't worshipping a god but instead an ideal. Allowing this allows doubt to be cast on the power or even existence of the gods in the world (if you want a D&D game where the gods aren't present, this is an easy way to have that). The definition used will have effects through the entire campaign.

Benefit

When dealing with unreliable gods, the players' actions are put into focus and they cannot rely on divine intervention. It also allows for different world and stories to be told and different characters to be created. As with everything else, this becomes a Dungeon Master choice and I have played in some very good games of D&D where divine intervention could and did occur quite often. However, it is important to factor this into the world itself as it can and probably will have story and game complications (at the very least they'll need an opposing god to bring things to a level playing field and cancel out their divine help).

A World with Doubted Gods

Originally, the reason I even wrote this article is this topic. One type of world I enjoy is where the players are never quite sure if the gods their characters believe in exist. This can be used to great effect in worlds with multiple cultures and multiple pantheons of gods. However, how can we create this effect? The below are elements that can be used individual or combined in order to try and create this effect but they can also be used as ways to create unique settings or gods instead.

Unreliable Power

One way to create a world with unreliable gods is to make their powers to help in situations unreliable. This means that players cannot rely on divine help, though they can expect it randomly to remind them they are in good or bad favour with one (or at the very least unnaturally lucky). In such a case there are gods that exist, but not all worshipped gods may as some may be an artifact of random chance. Since the gods' power is unreliable, it still allows for divine intervention for certain situations where it makes sense to in the story being told. It can also create doubt, both in the power of the gods as well as their existence, if played correctly. When looking at this topic, it is also important to define exactly how their power is unreliable. Is it that sometimes they can influence events, and sometimes they can't? Is there a special set of rules the gods follow that the inhabitants of the world don't know? Can the gods' attempts at interfering backfire (they try to bring rain but instead cause a fire) or is it that the magnitude of their attempt changes (rain turns into a flood by accident or too little rain falls for the crops, even though it falls)?

Weak Power

If the gods are distant and have very little power in the world, it once again means that the players cannot rely on the gods to make things right and instead need to take matters into their own hands. They also can't rely very heavily on their power because there really isn't anything to rely on. Instead, they have to rely on the other things a god may possess such as knowledge, wisdom, teachings, etc. The downside (or upside, depending on your view) is that with this approach there is no room left for big acts by the gods. They can subtle influence small situations, overtime adding up, but they cannot create massive intervention. As a result, the responsibility falls into the hands of the players. It is also important to understand that the difference from the previous section is that here, we limit the magnitude of the gods power instead of their reliability.

Uninterested in Mortal Matters, Incomprehensible or Extremely Powerful

Of course, the gods could be incredibly powerful but their interactions are hard for the mere mortal player characters to grasp. Instead of coming in physical forms, they may influence dreams or bend luck to push the world to the direction they wish. In this case, we still have divine intervention but the method used is incredibly important. It has to be abstract and difficult or impossible to interpret as the work of a being. This can also be easily combined with the other elements, as a god can actively choose to do very little (Weak Power) or doing small tasks for a single being could be like trying to write on a grain of rice with a can of spray paint for them (Unreliable Power).

Conclusion

It's easy to see that there are different types of gods that can be created for a D&D world. I hope that at the very least, as always, the above got people thing about this element of a D&D world. There are so many different elements that make up a good setting for D&D, including gods, and there are multiple different techniques that can be used. If there are any that I didn't mention above, feel free to share.