What are gods' abilities and powers?

The question is broad. Different cultures, religions, mythologies and fictional settings describe gods with different abilities. Below is a concise, organized summary of common types of divine abilities and powers as they appear across religions, myths and fiction.

Cosmic/Existence powers

• Creation: bringing matter, life, worlds or universes into existence.
• Destruction: unmaking matter, annihilating worlds or erasing beings.
• Reality alteration: changing the laws of physics, rewriting history, or altering reality itself.
• Omnipresence: being present everywhere at once (or spanning many realms).
• Omniscience: knowing all facts, events, thoughts, or possibilities (sometimes limited or partial).
• Omnipotence: unlimited power to do anything logically possible (often debated or qualified).

Mind and knowledge

• Prophecy: foreseeing or revealing future events.
• Divine communication: speaking with mortals, inspiration, or sending visions, dreams, and signs.
• Mind control or influence: reading or shaping thoughts, memory alteration.

Life, death and souls

• Immortality: not subject to aging or death.
• Resurrection: restoring the dead to life.
• Soul creation/manipulation: creating, guiding, judging, or consuming souls.
• Blessing/curse: bestowing long-term boons (fertility, luck) or afflictions.

Physical and energetic powers

• Shapechanging: assuming forms (human, animal, natural phenomena).
• Elemental control: commanding fire, water, air, earth, lightning, etc.
• Weather control: causing storms, droughts, earthquakes, tides.
• Energy projection: beams, blasts, auras or divine light.

Spatial and temporal control

• Time manipulation: speeding, slowing, rewinding or freezing time.
• Teleportation: instant travel across space, worlds, or dimensions.
• Dimensional travel: moving between planes (heaven, underworld, other realms).
• Spatial warping: creating pocket realms, shrinking/expanding space.

Law, order and authority

• Cosmic lawmaking: establishing moral or natural laws, fate or destiny.
• Judgment and justice: deciding souls’ fates, enforcing divine law.
• Sovereignty/command: issuing decrees followed by gods, spirits or mortals.

Nature and fertility

• Growth and fertility: fertility of land, animals and people; agricultural bounty.
• Healing and restoration: curing disease, mending bodies or lands.
• Animal and plant control: summoning or speaking with animals and plants.

Symbolic and cultural powers

• Patronage: protection and special care for cities, crafts, professions or peoples.
• Miracles and signs: performing events that defy normal explanation to inspire belief.
• Ritual empowerment: gaining influence through worship, sacrifices or temples.

Limits and conditions often found in stories

• Power tied to worship or belief: gods grow stronger with followers or wane when forgotten.
• Rules or bargains: gods bound by covenants, taboos, names or specific limitations.
• Internal hierarchy: gods with specialized domains and checks from other deities or cosmic forces.
• Moral/ethical restrictions: some gods cannot act outside certain principles.

In fiction vs. religion

• Fiction often grants gods explicit, narratively convenient powers (e.g., omnipotence or manifest avatars), or defines clear limits for plot tension.
• Religious descriptions vary: many traditions use metaphor, focusing on relationship, moral authority, or mystery rather than enumerating a catalog of “powers.”

If you had a specific tradition, myth, or fictional setting in mind (e.g., Greek gods, Norse Æsir, Hindu deities, Abrahamic God, or a particular book/game), tell me which one and I’ll list the abilities and important limits used there.