


The trickster god Anansi is an actual spider. Other gods also have animal companions. Some gods have animal features, like the crocodile-headed Nile god Sobek. These objects have symbolic meaning, but also are visually distinct.Īnimals are another great way to make deities stand out. Weapons are particularly popular, such as Thor's hammer and Zeus' lightning. The Aztec god Texcatlipoca is represented by an obsidian mirror. For example, the Greek lunar goddess of the hunt, Artemis, has her moon-shaped bow. Think about items or symbols that represent each god's power. I am not the DM and we do not run our campaign through dnd beyond, so I am just using the character builder and source books on here. I am having problems adding homebrew items to my character. Nature gods might have bodies formed from living trees or flowering plants. I am new to dnd beyond and homebrew, so I'm sorry if this seems a little mundane. Death gods could look skeletal, or they might appear as a bird to ferry the soul to the next world. Consider mythic archetypes, like a grey-bearded sky-father or a voluptuous fertility goddess. How a god or goddess looks should reflect their divine nature. To start, focus on a few memorable physical details.
#Homebrew dnd how to#
Gods are supposed to be awe-inspiring, overwhelming divine beings, so the question of how to describe and depict them is a challenging one. Consider what the relationship is between gods and mortals in your world, and what the gods might expect of player characters. If a god has personal relationships with a specific tribe, family or place, it creates a different dynamic than one with a distant god in some far-off place. Many cultures practice ancestor worship, where dead relatives continue helping their living family members. Siberian shamans entered ecstatic states, leaving their bodies to travel to their gods by contrast, oracles went into trances and allowed a god to enter them. Non-Indo-European pantheons and traditions can offer insights into how gods interact with mortals. Think about how your world has changed, and if the gods and myths have changed with it. Is their nature connected to their worship, and if not, what is their relationship with their worshippers? That same knowledge god could become associated with books after the culture adopts a writing system. However, as cultures change, so do their myths and the ways they worship. A god of knowledge in an oral culture might also be the god of poetry and song. Gods are understood through the cultures that worship them.
