Deity Power Levels

On another topic, there was a dispute on Saturday about worshippers of Greater and Lesser deities in D&D. Specifically, in the old editions, Lesser Gods could only grant spells up to 5th level, while in 3rd Edition, the god's status makes no difference to the power level of the related Clerics.

From a game balance point of view, different power levels really sucked. Unless you were going to let priests of weak gods pick up other abilities in lieu of the extremely powerful spells they're missing out on, there is no reason to choose anything other than a Greater God to worship. And, indeed, this was almost inevitably the outcome in 2nd Edition - no one ever played a Cleric of a Lesser God.

From a setting logic point of view, it's quite easy to justify almost any decision, if you build it into the setting from the start. How's about this one, for instance - powerful as even 9th level spells are, they are puny compared to the power of even the weakest of gods. Consequently, even a Lesser God can grant 9th level spells. It works, it answers the question, and it doesn't screw over Clerics of Lesser Gods.

Of course, from a setting point of view, restricting Lesser Gods to 5th level spells can also be justified. In fact, the term Lesser God pretty much justifies it all by itself. It's just the balance thing (and related power-gamer implications) that sucks.

By the way, the justification for it in my current setting runs as follows: spells and granted powers are not actually granted by the gods themselves, but rather by archangel intercessors. And the same archangels grants spells for the weakest of the gods as do for the most powerful. So, there's no difference between Greater and Lesser Gods.

So, why have the distinction at all? Why not just have gods, and let everything sort itself out?

Well, firstly, the distinction is now to do with the individual power level of the gods themselves. Lesser Gods have Divine Rank 1 - 5 (I think), while Greater Gods are up in the teens. Therefore, the actual stats of the Greater Gods are much more impressive than those of Lesser Gods (in the Deities & Demigods = Epic Level Monster Manual view of the universe).

The other justification, and the one used in my current setting, is that the distinction applies to the breadth and importance of the god's portfolio. So, the Greater Gods handle things like death, the weather, agriculture, and the like, matters that are of great importance to everyone living in the world. The Lesser Gods handle matters like individual communities, messengers, cities, and so forth. Matters that are either not of crucial importance, or are of great importance, but only to a small number of people.