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Welknair
2011-04-05, 06:22 PM
Deities and Demigods is a neat book. Who doesn't love mechanical support for gods? However, it bothered me that they didn't give rules for how to get from mortal (or idea) to Deity. As such I have created two "Paths" that allow for this type of progression. Paths work much like Prestige Classes, but there is always something special you need to do to progress through them. If you follow my Magitech system, you may remember me referencing this concept.


PATHS ARE NOT PRESTIGE CLASSES! They are a side concept that work a bit like them. You must do something special to advance in them, based upon the path. Currently I am the only one who has made such a thing. I have three others that go along with my Magitech system. You advance in this particular Path by accomplishing deeds, gaining worshipers, fighting other gods, or something similar. Due to it's strength (It's making you a friggin GOD), I do not specify theses conditions. It's up to the DM to decide what these requirements are and I expect them to vary greatly from gameworld to gameworld.

Also note that I take no credit for any of the powers featured here. They are all taken straight from the SRD page on Divine Ranks. I just arranged them into twenty convenient levels.

And without further adieu...


Deity Rising

http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Zeus--greek-mythology-687267_1024_768.jpg

Deities come and go, and they do this in more ways than one. Some gods may come into being fully-formed, some may have once been mortal, some may have once been just ideas in the heads of some village boy. It matters not, for now they are gods. However, some gods slowly come to power instead of being given it in an instantaneous flash.

This progression comes in two parts: From Divine Rank - to Divine Rank 0, and then from 0 to 1. It is up to individual DMs to choose how one progresses through these paths, whether it be by gaining worshipers, pleasing existing gods, accomplishing great deeds, simply advancing in level, or whatever else they want.

Divine Rank Nil to 0
Level
Special Features1 Outsider HD, Class Levels2 Domain, Deific Immunities3 Ability Score Increase, Increased Speed4 Lesser Deific Resistances5 ASI, Domain, Damage Reduction 10/Magic6 Maximum Health7 ASI, Immortality8 Domain, Existence9 ASI, Greater Deific Resistances10 Damage Reduction 10/Epic, Quasi-deity

Outsider HD: Each level you gain in this path awards you a single Outsider HD with the usual benefits thereof.

Class Levels: Each level you gain in this path similarly awards you one level in a class of your choice. You may not choose Prestige Classes unless you fulfill the criteria. You gain feats and ability score increases at the usual rate when gaining class levels in this manner.

Domain: You choose the first of your three domains at the second level of this Path. You do not gain the Granted Power of these domains, but you can utilize their spells. You may cast domain spells who's levels do not exceed your level in this path. You may cast up to Path Level Squared spell levels worth of Domain Spells per day. For example, you'd be able to cast four spell levels when you first get this ability. You could choose to cast four first level spells, two seconds, one second and two first, or however you want to break that down. Eight hours of rest regenerates your daily allotment. You gain a second domain at level five and a third at level eight. The caster level for these spells is equal to your level in this path, plus your divine rank if it ever gets above 0. DCs are Cha based and you similarly add your Divine Rank to those.

Deific Immunities: As a Deity Rising, there are many things that don't affect you as they would a Mortal. At second level you gain immunity to transmutation, energy drain, ability drain, ability damage and mind-affecting effects.

Ability Score Increase (ASI): At third, fifth, seventh, and ninth level you gain a bonus to all of your stats. Roll 1d6 for each ability score and add this amount as a permanent increase to that score.

Increased Speed: Gods move quickly. Your base land speed changes as dictated on page 26 of Deities and Demigods when you reach 3rd level. Medium size bipedal Deities Rising increase their base land speed to 60ft.

Lesser Deific Resistances: Starting at 4th level, you become resistant to magic and energy damage. You gain SR 16 and Fire Resist 3.

Damage Reduction: At 5th level you gain DR 10/Magic. At tenth level your Damage Reduction from this path increases to 10/Epic.

Maximum Health: At 6th level you gain maximum hit points for each hit die. Adjust your maximum hit points accordingly.

Immortality: You become Immortal at 7th level. It's up to the DM to decide exactly what this means, but usually this entails that you no longer age, cannot die of old age. You do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe.

Existence: "I LIVE!" If you didn't previously have a body, you gain one now. Your stats are determined by rolling 7d6, dropping the lowest the die for each. Note that this takes into account the first three ASIs. If you previously had a body but lost it (I.E. you were killed) you regain your previous body with all of it's levels.

Greater Deific Resistances: At ninth level your Resistances get an increase. Your Spell Resistance rises to 32 and your Fire Resistance rises to 5. If and when your divine rank rises above 0, add your divine rank to these numbers.

Quasi-deity: You are now officially considered a god. Other gods consider you such. Whether this is a benefit or a detriment is up to you. You may notice that you already have a small following... You now have a full Divine Rank 0. Congrats.

Divine Rank 0 to 1
Level
Special Features1 Outsider HD, Class Levels, Domain Powers, Portfolio Sense2 Greater Deific Immunities3 I Do Not Fail4 Increased Senses, Communication5 Divine Boon, Damage Reduction 15/Epic6 Deific Travel7 Divine Aura8 Godly Realm, Grant Spells, Spontaneous Cleric Casting9 Create Magic Items, Automatic Actions10 Salient Divine Ability, Natural Armor Bonus, Demigod
Outsider HD: Each level you gain in this path awards you a single Outsider HD with the usual benefits thereof.

Class Levels: Each level you gain in this path similarly awards you one level in a class of your choice. You may not choose Prestige Classes unless you fulfill the criteria. You gain feats and ability score increases at the usual rate when gaining class levels in this manner.

Domain Powers: You gain access to all of the Granted Powers of your domains. You can use each of these powers a number of times per day equal to your divine rank (Minimum 1). If it would normally be usable a greater number of times per day than this, the deity gets the greater number of uses. If the power is based on a cleric's level, a deity with no cleric levels has an effective cleric level of it's divine rank. You may also now cast your Domain spells an unlimited number of times per day as spell-like abilities.

Portfolio Sense: You are now innately connected to your Portfolio. You automatically sense any event tied to your portfolio that involves one thousand or more people.

Greater Deific Immunities: Starting at the second level of this path, you become immune to electricity, cold, and acid damage as well as disease, poison, stunning, sleep, paralysis, death effects, and disintegration.

I Do Not Fail: Beginning at third level, you no longer fail automatically on a roll of 1 for saves or attack rolls.

Increased Senses: Your senses now extend out to a radius of one mile. You can see, hear, touch, and smell at this distance. But no long-range tasting. That'd be weird. This radius increases to to Divine Rank X 1 Mile if your divine rank ever surpasses 1. As a standard action you may perceive everything within a radius of one mile of your worshipers, holy sites, or other objects or locales sacred to you, as well as on any location where your name was spoken or an event related to your portfolio occurred within the last hour. This power can cross planes and penetrate any barrier except for a divine shield or an area otherwise blocked by a deity of equal or higher rank. This power is not fooled by misdirection, nondetection or similar spells. You may have up to two remote sensing locations at a time. This number and the radius in which you sense increase with your Divine Rank. You may expend a standard action to block the sensing of deities of equal or lower rank than you within 1 mile of yourself, an event related to your portfolio, or a holy site. You may block up to two locations at a time as well as a third centered around yourself. This lasts for one hour, or Divine Rank hours if you ever get above Divine Rank 1. The radius for the blocking similarly increases with Divine Rank.

Communication: You understand, speak and read all languages, including nonverbal ones. As a standard action you may send a message to any of your worshipers or to someone within 1 mile of a site sacred to you (Or Divine Rank miles, if above 1). You can choose for this message to be telepathic or auditory. You may choose to instead send an omen or sign somehow to relating to your portfolio. This omen may not have any mechanical effect. (God of lightning could make a lightning bolt visible in the distance despite a clear day, but could not actually smite something with said bolt).

Divine Boon: You add one or your Divine Rank to all attack rolls, saves, and checks. You get a corresponding bonus to your AC in the form of an untyped bonus that is effective against touch attacks and incorporeal touch attacks.

Damage Reduction: Your Damage Reduction increases to 15/Epic

Deific Travel: Beginning at 6th level you may use Teleport Without Error at will as a spell-like ability using a caster level of 20. The only difference is that you may only transport yourself and up to 100 pounds of nonliving matter (Or 100 pounds per rank).

Divine Aura: You may choose to extend a Divine Aura with a radius of 10 feet as a free action. Mortals and deities with lower rank must succeed on a Will Save with a DC of 10+Cha Modifier+Divine Rank or be subject to an effect of your choosing. You may choose for your aura to daze those affected, frighten them (Incurring a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks, along with the want to flee immediately), or you may instill a feeling of resolve in them (Allies get +4 on attack rolls, saves and checks whereas foes recieve a -4 on these). You may exclude your worshipers, beings of your alignment, or both from these effects.

Godly Realm: You may designate an area which you own to be your Godly Realm. You have a limited amount of control over his area. See Page 29 of Deities and Demigods for more on this subject as I feel no need to retype all of it. You are treated as being Divine Rank 1 for this ability.

Grant Spells: You may now withhold spells from worshipers. Up till this point Clerics could worship you and receive spells as if you were a deity, but it is not till now that they are actually deriving their power from you. As a free action you may strip one of your worshipers of all divine casting, or temporarily suspend their casting abilities.

Spontaneous Cleric Casting: You no longer prepare Cleric Spells. Instead you may cast all Cleric spells spontaneously, as a Sorcerer does. Hopefully you have at least a couple of Cleric levels by this point.

Create Magic Items: Starting at ninth level, you can make magic items that relate to your portfolio without needing to possess the the usual feat, though you do still need to meet all of the other perquisites. The maximum market price of an item that you make in this fashion is 4,500gp. This amount escalates with your Divine Rank.

Automatic Actions: You can accomplish any action tied to your portfolio which has a DC of 15 or less as a free action. You may now also take up to two free actions per round. Both of these increase with Divine Rank.

Natural Armor Bonus: You gain a bonus to your Natural Armor equal to your Divine Rank +13.

Salient Divine Ability: You get one Salient Divine Ability of your choosing for which you qualify for.

Demigod: You now have Divine Rank 1 and are a full god. Further progression simply yields additional Salient Divine Abilities and an escalation of previously described abilities.

Design Note:
DMs may choose to rule with the SRD, saying that you don't get the Outsider HD since you weren't "Always a god". I personally dislike this, but it's up to you. Taking out the Outsider HD is pretty easy. In addition you don't get the Natural Armor Bonus at 10th level of the second path.

So... Yeah. It doesn't add anything. The end result is exactly as if you had made something into a Divine Rank 1 god. But this allows for characters to go through a process to get there. Oh, and I added the Ability Score Increases to accommodate for the high values found in the examples. Thanks to Roukon for the idea of simply adding more D6s.

Thoughts? Horrible? Wonderful? What in the nine hells is this?

LOTRfan
2011-04-05, 06:24 PM
Wow, this is a lot better than the Epic Destiny!

EDIT: Isn't this overpowered for all but epic campaigns? 4d6 bonus to all stats?

Also, damage reduction/+4? Is this for 3.0?

Welknair
2011-04-05, 06:30 PM
Wow, this is a lot better than the Epic Destiny!

EDIT: Isn't this overpowered for all but epic campaigns? 4d6 bonus to all stats?

Also, damage reduction/+4? Is this for 3.0?

This is not a prestige class. This is exactly the same stuff from Deities and Demigods. It's an "A to B" homebrew. And yes, this is quite overpowered for anything except fighting other gods. Each level in these paths also yields an Outsider HD as well as a normal Class level in addition to it's other bonuses. CR-wise, I think that's around +4 a level of this. Not to mention once you get Hand of Death at 10th level of the second path...

This was not a project to balance gods. This was a project to allow a progression from mortal or idea to god.

Edit: Okay, I'll add a clarification as to what exactly this is.

Editedit: I could have sworn that I saw of Aguskos' but it's gone now...

LOTRfan
2011-04-05, 06:33 PM
This is not a prestige class. This is exactly the same stuff from Deities and Demigods. It's an "A to B" homebrew. And yes, this is quite overpowered for anything except fighting other gods. Each level in these paths also yields an Outsider HD as well as a normal Class level in addition to it's other bonuses. CR-wise, I think that's around +4 a level of this. Not to mention once you get Hand of Death at 10th level of the second path...

This was not a project to balance gods. This was a project to allow a progression from mortal or idea to god.

Edit: Okay, I'll add a clarification as to what exactly this is.

Editedit: I could have sworn that I saw of Aguskos' but it's gone now...

Okay, my mistake. I should've read the blurb at the top...

Welknair
2011-04-05, 06:38 PM
Woops! Just noticed some of the stuff got changed going into 3.5e. That's what I get for going off the book I guess... Fixing it now.

Think I got everything. Sorry 'bout that.

So, any thoughts or suggestions? Is this absolutely useless?

Tacitus
2011-04-07, 01:24 AM
Unless you really intend to bring back DR measured by the Enhancement Bonus on weapons, 3.5 DR does not use DR X/+5 (or any other +X for that matter). I couldn't say what to change it to, as DR X/Magic is lame, but going from something like DR X/ Adamantine and Alignment to DR X/Epic might be a step down, so that wouldn't be recommended.

Honestly, its a little blade. Yeah, you get big numbers and immunities, but no active benefits. I'd much rather see something cool and Deity-like than just +1 Existing Class Features and some casting. Mini-Salient Abilities maybe, that become actual ones when you get into DvR1+, and have the mini-Salients as prerequisites.

Dante & Vergil
2011-04-09, 06:18 PM
I love this kind of stuff, and I wish more people would do stuff like this all the time.