how to kill a deity

[questionmark693]

How do you do it? Assuming we use the deities and demigods supplement to stat one, and only one, that is our goal to kill. They have portfolio sense, which allows them to sense weeks in advance anything that affects their portfolio. The god of that portfolio dying affects that portfolio. So they can go to literally any lengths, being a deity, to avoid you killing them.

This thread was inspired by a signature I saw earlier on a post I'd started about something unrelated....if the owner of that signature shows up, hi!

[Captnq]

You talk them to death. Get them really depressed, then watch them commit suicide.

[questionmark693]

Unless they foresee that. Then they get some contingent (custom) spells of antidepressant ready. Or some other ridiculous or not ridiculous thing prepared for that eventuality. I mean..any plan is foreseen with time to spare, regardless of when you create it. Barring divine rank 0 I think.

[Phelix-Mu]

Honestly, while Portfolio Sense is a big deal, it's hardly the only problem.

1.) Divinely Morphic: Most gods live on planes with this trait. This means that, if you go to where the god lives, they can literally drop a mountain on you with a thought. Have line of sight? Not any more. This is doubly problematic if the god gets extra free actions. I can't think of a reason why reshaping their plane isn't a viable free action. Good luck getting a god to come to you, since they can send avatars to do pretty much anything they seriously need to do.

2.) Minions: Does the god have no spellcasting? That's why they keep these solars about. And planetars. And petitioners with class levels. And high-level npcs working for their priesthood. Pretty much any god is going to have a slew of challenging stuff that they can put between their assassin and themselves.

3.) Unlimited wealth: Consider most gods to have this. If they have free actions, look, they just tossed out a stack of explosive runes scrolls, a dispelling item, then dived behind that adamantine golem for cover. I dunno. There is stuff that you can do with unlimited wealth and huge action economy. Even worse, some gods can craft ludicrously powerful stuff on demand, including rings of +50 UMD that let them use this new staff of whoops, you're dead that they just conjured out of nothing.

[Yael]

Are we talking about what? Credit does not belong to me.

[questionmark693]

Exactly! But I see people talking about it occasionally in their epic campaigns, that being the only feasible quest thats left for such high powered games....but even at level 100 gestalt, I can't see it happening.

EDIT: I can't open that link for some reason..sorry

[Phelix-Mu]

It's to Tippy explaining how, by combining Illithid Savant, ice assassins, and epic spellcasting, it is really not that hard to kill a god. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a method using just epic spellcasting.

Except that it's not very practical, and if that kind of TO is on the table in an actual game, then the DM could easily have the god match you step-for-paranoid-step.

[Yael]

The annulus maybe? The rod of asmodeus? Never read them, but I know that they are damn overpowered (the annulus versus psionic deities, I think.)

[questionmark693]

Managed to get the link to work, I really like that trick, I'e never seen it before. But what stops the deity from seeing you plan to kill them just because you're in a dead magic zone? I'm away from my books, but do their portfolio sense require magic to work?

[Seclora]

Alright, short answer is, talk to your DM. Killing a god takes creativity, and many, many weeks of playing. It's going to take a whole campaign to do it properly.


Longer, sillier, more entertaining answer is that you spend the entire campaign killing him/her/it.
First thing you do is become the sort of person who can reliably for surviving the first thousand or so parties of clerics, paladins, favored souls, and other assorted pre-deceased mortals that are virtually every god's preferred means of getting things done(even the evil ones). Then, you resolve the issue of your own mortality, start setting up contingencies against direct intervention, and pick up Epic Leadership so that you can send your useless peons to go harass his useless peons.
By this point, you should be beyond the realm of mortal concerns. Nothing short of a minor apocalypse should even be on your radar, and you can afford to spend years at a time building custom magic items that your nations of reasonably well-paid, fairly content serfs are paying for every time your polite, well-mannered tax collectors drop in to say howdy.
Now you go and talk to all of your chosen target's enemies, preferably other deities who are at least respectful of your intentions and abilities, and talk to them about pooling resources. Promise them as little as possible. Also consider ascending to godhood yourself, it'll improve your odds immensely. Get your new 'friends' to sponsor you, sacrifice a large number of followers(not yours, obviously), or whatever your DM rules it taking to achieve divinity.

Now spend a few thousand years figuring out all of his contingencies, abilities, the predilictions of his followers, and if possible, secret mystic weaknesses. If weaknesses are found, say his power comes from that gnarly hammer of his,
exploit them. Otherwise, just plan accordingly. If you want to be really clever, trick a couple of his followers, and followers friends, into doing something pants-on-head-retarded that will distract him while you maneuver your vast legion of faithful peasants and post-peasant souls into position to take on his army of foolish post-mortals. Maybe you have your servants focus on breaking his church down to mere cultists, diminishing his power accordingly. Maybe you're feeling creative and you build large slabs of magically hardened Orichalum over every way out of his divine realm and use them as foci for an anti-divinity field you brewed up. If you're super confident, and really think you're up to it, walk right in and beat him to death with his own Wizzy(Worked for Xykon).