The High Blood is not in fact a god, but a Badlands dwarf who was affected by the ambient magic of his homeland in a way unlike any of his kin. Where his kin normally exhibit a natural anathema to magic, he showed true mastery of the arcane arts in addition to a racial resistance to them. The High Blood was cast out from his tribe as an abomination, left tied to a stone to serve as food for whatever predator wandered by first. Even then the High Blood's powers were extraordinary for he surpassed his kin in every way imaginable. The priests and psionicists of the tribe managed with difficulty to subdue him long enough to tie him to the stone, but he managed to survive and escape. What happened in the following years is known only to the High Blood himself, but he managed to survive for centuries and even amass a group of followers. After 2000 years the High Blood is still alive and a very powerful sorcerer, having shown no signs of aging past his prime. His followers, the core of the Scions of the High Blood, are the largest single tribe or organization the Badlands dwarves have ever known (the unorganized native religion is still more common/popular).
The High Blood himself cannot grant spells to his followers, but at some point in his wanderings he made an ally of a cadre of spirits and through some pact they grant divine powers to his worshipers. The High Blood is an extremely potent sorcerer who has had thousands of years to lay his plans. Even so the ultimate goals of the High Blood are unclear, it is possible he desires godhood, or possibly to unite his people and create a new empire in the Badlands, if so it is strange he has not yet acted on his desires. Whatever his intents the High Blood is cautious, possibly waiting now only for the recent activity of long sealed Bale Liches to ebb before moving to action. Even so he is confident enough to have turned down an offer of patronage from Enyalius, the god of conquest, and seems unwilling to bind himself to any power (save the aforementioned spirits).
The High Blood is a Lv 21~24 Badlands dwarf sorcerer (possibly sorcerer 6/paladin 2/Abjurant Champion 5/eldritch knight 10+) with the following racial traits in addition to the norm for his race:
- +6 Str, +4 Dex, +10 Con, +4 Int, +6 Wis, +10 Cha; this replaces the standard Badlands dwarf racial modifiers.
- Speed: 60-ft
- Lacks the Magebane Blood ability
- Has +6 hp per HD.
- SR is 25 + Class Levels; unlike normal for Badlands dwarves this SR applies universally and may be voluntarily lowered.
- +6 Luck bonus to AC, attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws.
- Universal energy resistance 10.
- DR 15/epic
- Fast Healing 10
- Spell-like Abilities (Caster Level 20): At will Greater Arcane Sight; 3/day Haste, See Invisibility, Greater Dispel Magic; 1/day Polymorph, True Seeing, Blasphemy.
- Control Magic: Arcane magic used near the High Blood has a tendency to go wrong in his favor. Whenever any arcane spell is cast within 100-ft of the High Blood the caster must make an opposed CL check or the High Blood is treated as the caster if he chooses. If the High Blood fails the CL check or chooses not to take control of the spell its caster instead suffers 1d4 ability damage to the ability score of choice.
- CR + a lot.
- LA: -
If you can't tell I got most of it from the Paragon creature template just toned down a bit. Then I upgraded the spell-likes slightly and added Control Magic as something thematically appropriate. The spirits the High Blood is allied with would be CR 17~19 creatures most likely, with an array of spell-like abilities, druid (or spirit shaman) casting, and other abilities based upon what they are spirits of. I see them as likely spirits of war, battle, and destruction; possibly famine or plague as well. I still need to flesh out the details of his pact with these spirits.
Re: Dwarf, Badlands
Peanut Half-Dragon Necromancer by Kurien.
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