In many D&D campaign settings, they list a plethora of gods which are promptly ignored in most games. (I think there are 80+ in Greyhawk and the Realms?)
Dragonlance trimmed down this list to 21. And promptly ignored most of them. I think there are basically 5 relevant?
— Merric Blackman (@MerricB) August 29, 2021
Bigger lists give you options on which to focus, but it’s rare that you can make significant more than a few.
In my Greyhawk game, Boccob, Iuz, St Cuthbert, and Xan-Yae get most of the attention, with some games including Hextor, Heironeous, and Pelor. While it is nice to have different deities giving different mechanical options, I feel that it is far more significant when they and their followers impact the campaign through their actions.
— Merric Blackman (@MerricB) August 30, 2021
My character may worship Pelor and gain a bonus to healing, but without my role-playing him as a devout servant of Pelor who talks about the god, and with church officials interacting with the party, it’s just numbers. If you want the deities of your D&D campaign to be significant, you have to work at it!
— Merric Blackman (@MerricB) August 30, 2021