Immortals Handbook (aka The Worship Points System)

Hi all!

For those new to this thread: The Immortals Handbook is a 272 page d20 rulebook/supplement that details every aspect of roleplaying immortal/deity characters and campaigns.

Current Schedule/Release/Price: I am currently in talks with publishers regarding the release.

The writing is currently progressing nicely and is on course to be finished before the end of March.

Following that, the plan is to release the work (initially) in unillustrated .pdf format (hopefully) at the start of April. For (approx.) $10. Subsequent illustrated .pdfs and the likelihood of a 'hard copy' version have been discussed and I am confident will happen sometime in the near future.

Poll regarding the work: Incidently I will soon be starting a poll to ask whether the majority are favourable towards initially releasing the product as an unillustrated .pdf. (many already commented in the previous thread; that was their preference). As soon as I have the poll ready I will post a link here.

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5132

Regarding the name change: The Immortals Handbook is now the title of the document formerly known as the Worship Points System. The reason for the change (I always intimated that the WPS was only a temporary title or subheading at best) was primarily to avoid any confusion with 'd20 System' and convey, somewhat more clearly, the nature of the work.

Here is the updated synopsis - incidently taken verbatim from the work itself.

Introduction.

Characters above 20th-level

Faith (Chapter 1): The first chapter details how to determine faith, both explaining and quantifying faith with worship points. This chapter also outlines divine ascension; flux and regression and how to easily monitor; expand and limit a faith.

Divinity (Chapter 2): identifies the traits of immortality and the different types of deities. Also determines the 10 Divinity Templates (from Quasi-deity to Time Lord) with examples of each, as well as the creation of, and rules for governing Avatars.

- The list of divinity templates is: Quasi-deity; Hero-deity; Demigod; Lesser God; Intermediate God; Greater God; Elder God; Overgod; Entity and Time Lord.

Portfolios (Chapter 3): outlines the concept of divine portfolios and details 40 Portfolio Templates (from Arts to Wisdom). Also includes rules for creating Disciples, based on portfolios.

- The list of portfolio templates is: Arts; Chaos; Charity; Crafts; Darkness; Death; Disease; Entropy; Evil; Fear; Fire; Good; Knowledge; Labour; Law; Life; Love; Luck; Madness; Magic; Moon; Mountain; Nature; Peace; Revenge; Science; Sea; Secrets; Skill; Sky; Stoicism; Strength; Sun; Thievery; Thunder; Time; War; Wealth; Winter and Wisdom.

Powers (Chapter 4): defines and describes dozens of immortal powers, both common and esoteric, that may be gained by expending worship points.

- Common powers include: Auras; Breath Weapons and Spell Resistance (generally scalable powers) etc.
- Esoteric powers include: Equilibrium; Rejuvenation; Severity (generally infinite* powers) etc.

*

Feats (Chapter 5): lists a multitude of new feats and introduces some new concepts such as Metamartial Feats, Metamorals as well as discussing how to extrapolate feats.

- New feats include: Eminence; Hollow Spell (Metamagic) and Vehemence.
- Metamartial Feats include: Fatal Attack; Quicken Attack and Retributive Strike.

Pantheons (Chapter 6): explores and explains the purpose of Pantheons in general, the relationships and rules within and between pantheons. Also discusses the cosmogony of the campaign and how that is a factor.

Prestige Classes (Chapter 7): introduces a number of powerful new prestige classes, available to both mortal and immortal characters alike.

- New prestige classes include: Baba; Chronomancer and Necrolater.

Magic (Chapter 8): describes the magic of the gods, including some new types of magic as well as many powerful new True Dweomer spells.

- New magic types include: Body Investment; Ley Lines and Sacrifices.
- New true dweomer spells include: Alter Ego; Exodus and Testament.

Realms (Chapter 9): discusses the creation and maintainance of the realms of the divine. Includes three sample realms of previously discussed immortals.

Campaigns (Chapter 10): provides a wealth of campaign and adventure ideas, advice on running immortal campaigns including the subject of divine intervention and how to avoid “deus ex machina” moments.

“Beginnings End” (Chapter 11): a short introductory adventure for players to embark upon.

Magic Items (Chapter 12): outlines rules for creating artifacts and contains many new armor and weapon abilities as well as a plethora of sample artifacts. Also provides rules for creating Soul Objects (living artifacts) and Remnants (dead artifacts).

- New armour special abilities include: Bleeding; Glazed and Invincible.
- New weapon special abilities include: Doom; Ending and Reaving.
- New artifacts include: Power Potions; the Tongue of the Banshee and the Herald of Everwinter.

Monsters (Chapter 13): unleashes a host of new creatures and templates capable of challenging the entire spectrum of divinity to accomodate immortal campaigns.

- New monsters include: Diluvial; Infinitaur and Nosferatu (true vampires).
- New templates include: Chthonian; Messiah and Pseudo-Brain.

Challenge Ratings (Appendix 1): Includes the necessary reworking of the Challenge Ratings above 20.

Character Conversion (Appendix 2): A simple formula to convert characters from previous incarnations of the game.

Deity Conversion Manual (Appendix 3): A quick set of rules so that you can easily convert any deity from previous incarnations of the game.

Optional Armor System (Appendix 4): Outlines rules for converting armor from deflecting attacks (adding to Armor Class) to absorbing damage (similar, in effect, to damage reduction).

The Rainbow Killers (Appendix 5): Details a powerful party of divine mercenaries with which to frighten the players.

Uber Mortals (Appendix 6): Descriptions of three powerful individuals to antagonise and interfere in immortal ventures.

Index

Character Sheets

Comments and opinions are always appreciated.

Incidently the old thread can be found here:

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=230

For those who posted questions to the old thread that I have not yet answered, don't worry I'll reply to those shortly (well, soonish).

Great to see a more up-to-date Table of Contents!

However, I have just a little question : do you handle some kind of Epic Level Rules? I think that you said before that you would, but it isn't present in the new table of contents... I suppose it is somewhere in the book, you wouldn't let us advance beyond 20th level without telling us how to do it, would you?

Hi poilbrun mate!

poilbrun said:

Great to see a more up-to-date Table of Contents!

Click to expand...

I could say "this is the final layout"...but where have we heard that before!

poilbrun said:

However, I have just a little question : do you handle some kind of Epic Level Rules? I think that you said before that you would, but it isn't present in the new table of contents... I suppose it is somewhere in the book, you wouldn't let us advance beyond 20th level without telling us how to do it, would you?

Click to expand...

Yes. These are included just before Chapter One now (previously they were in chapter two). Thats why they don't appear within chapter descriptions.

I'll amend the above list to include them. I also omitted, in my haste, mentioning the character sheets at the back of the work too.

Thanks a lot for the update!

I'm writing a campaign right now that will lead my players from level 10 to about level 25-30, and after that, godhood (I should have your book by that time. I hope! ). However, while designing the (mortal) archvillain (Nec15/Acm5/Bargainer10), the chief servant of Mephistopheles on Faerûn, I came across a little difficulty : I don't know how much wealth to give him. I took a look at the Character Wealth by Level table, but it ends at level 20 and I can't find the logic behind the progression (Ea, if you're there, have fun!). Have you created something the like? If you have, would it be a major spoiler to tell me how much wealth he should have at level 30? If you haven't created such a table, could you give me some guidelines? Right now, I think about 3.660.000 gp... Here is the logic behind it :

Level 2 : 900
Level 3 : 2.700 (+1800)
Level 4 : 5.400 (+2700)
Level 5 : 9.000 (+3600)
Level 6 : 13.000 (+4000)
Level 7 : 19.000 (+6000)
Level 8 : 27.000 (+8000)
Level 9 : 36.000 (+9000)
Level 10 : 49.000 (+13000)
Level 11 : 66.000 (+17000)
Level 12 : 88.000 (+22000)
Level 13 : 110.000 (+22000)
Level 14 : 150.000 (+30000)
Level 15 : 200.000 (+50000)
Level 16 : 260.000 (+60000)
Level 17 : 340.000 (+80000)
Level 18 : 440.000 (+100000)
Level 19 : 580.000 (+140000)
Level 20 : 760.000 (+180000)

I have then considered that you gained 20k more gp at each level. Thus :

Level 21 : 960.000 (+200000)
Level 22 : 1.180.000 (+220000)
Level 23 : 1.420.000 (+240000)
Level 24 : 1.680.000 (+260000)
Level 25 : 1.960.000 (+280000)
Level 26 : 2.260.000 (+300000)
Level 27 : 2.580.000 (+320000)
Level 28 : 2.920.000 (+340000)
Level 29 : 3.280.000 (+360000)
Level 30 : 3.660.000 (+380000)

I reckon that I must be a bit of, because, normally, the progression shouldn't be that linear. But, hey, if you hadn't thought about this, maybe it will give some idea to those reading this thread!

I like the content listing of the book, Krusty, it makes me want the book even more than before.

Can we pre-order? I would do so right now!

Hey mate!

poilbrun said:

Thanks a lot for the update!

Click to expand...

No problem, you know that!

poilbrun said:

I'm writing a campaign right now that will lead my players from level 10 to about level 25-30, and after that, godhood

Click to expand...

Nice!

poilbrun said:

(I should have your book by that time. I hope! ).

Click to expand...

I hope so too!

poilbrun said:

However, while designing the (mortal) archvillain (Nec15/Acm5/Bargainer10), the chief servant of Mephistopheles on Faerûn, I came across a little difficulty : I don't know how much wealth to give him. I took a look at the Character Wealth by Level table, but it ends at level 20 and I can't find the logic behind the progression (Ea, if you're there, have fun!). Have you created something the like? If you have, would it be a major spoiler to tell me how much wealth he should have at level 30? If you haven't created such a table, could you give me some guidelines? Right now, I think about 3.660.000 gp... Here is the logic behind it :

I have then considered that you gained 20k more gp at each level. Thus :

Level 21 : 960.000 (+200000)
Level 22 : 1.180.000 (+220000)
Level 23 : 1.420.000 (+240000)
Level 24 : 1.680.000 (+260000)
Level 25 : 1.960.000 (+280000)
Level 26 : 2.260.000 (+300000)
Level 27 : 2.580.000 (+320000)
Level 28 : 2.920.000 (+340000)
Level 29 : 3.280.000 (+360000)
Level 30 : 3.660.000 (+380000)

I reckon that I must be a bit off, because, normally, the progression shouldn't be that linear. But, hey, if you hadn't thought about this, maybe it will give some idea to those reading this thread!

Click to expand...

If you can find a link to one of the old Gencon Epic Level Threads from 18 months ago they had the 'official' wealth tables going up to (at least) 35th-level as I recall.

From what I can remember the level 35 character they described had over 8 million in wealth. So your prediction is not the same as the epic rules.

But I fully agree that the progression of that table makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

For the Immortals Handbook (almost typed the Worship Points System there! ) I suggest the following for the sake of brevity:

Level x Level x Level x 100

eg. 20 x 20 x 20 x 100 = 800,000

So Odin would have 409.6 million gp.

Hey Buddha mate!

Buddha the DM said:

I like the content listing of the book, Krusty, it makes me want the book even more than before.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, hopefully this content listing will stick!

Hey there Andor!

Originally posted by Andor of the Blade
Can we pre-order? I would do so right now!

Click to expand...

I appreciate the love mate!

Since its first being released in .pdf format there is no need to preorder, but thanks for the interest and stay tuned for a poll thread I will be starting in a while to ask which is the most popular format for the Immortals Handbook.

Upper_Krust said:

For the Immortals Handbook (almost typed the Worship Points System there! ) I suggest the following for the sake of brevity:

Level x Level x Level x 100

eg. 20 x 20 x 20 x 100 = 800,000

So Odin would have 409.6 million gp.

Click to expand...

I don't think it would work... It is near enough at the very first levels, but from level 4 to level 19 it is quite far from the actual value. Level 20 is quite near from the actual valour, but from level 21 upwards, it is less than what I thought, which already seems to be too low. See this thread for calculations by people who are more at ease with numbers than I am...

Hi there! I have another question (yet again! ) :

How will the change in CR calculation modify the XP table? Let's take an example to explain the question, it will be easier :
With the current system, a party of level 40 characters defeats a CR 40 monster. They gain 12,000 XP (300*40 ; 300*level being the amount of XP you gain for defeating a monster with a CR equal to your level). With your system, a monster that has a CR 40 will have a lower CR, but will still be as dangerous for a group of level 40 characters, but if the XP table remains as it is, the characters will gain less XP since the monster's CR is lower than the party average level...

This question is more of a "did you think about this?" question than a "I need the answer for tonight's game" question, but I believe it was worth asking! You may already have answered to this question in the thread explaining the change in CR calculation, but as it was on the old boards, I couldn't find it, so please discard the question if it is irrelevant...