4th Edition and the Immortals Handbook

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Alzrius mate!

Woot! Thanks U_K! Once you come out with the 4E IH books, there'll be little other recourse for people interested in the OGL versions that hadn't bought them already.

On that point, I'll give my OGC to the OGL wiki after my first 4th Edition book is released. No point giving it to them now, when I'm still selling 3E material.

I have received an email from Mark (who's running the OGL wiki) and I'll email him back just to clarify.

 

[Alzrius]

No worries U_K. The wiki is being built rather slowly at the moment, so there's no chance of your OGC going up in the next day or two.

 

[dante58701]

Hopefully someone will make it a downloadable PDF too. That's really the only think I don't like about wiki's, they can't be downloaded, so when the site goes down, all your material that is based on it is completely useless.

 

[Zoatebix]

"Witch" as a gender-neutral term worked quite well in both Arcana Unearthed/Evolved and The Mountain Witch.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Is 4E Character Advancement too fast?

Hey all!

Been doing some brainstorming for a future 4E Immortal Adventure, and it dawned on me that perhaps I should try and slow down the advancement a tad.

Going by WotC's adventure series, It takes you nine adventures to get from 1st-level to 30th-level.

Obviously this isn't a 4E only 'problem', check out the Paizo Adventures in Dungeon magazine which take you from 1st to 20th in the space of a single campaign adventure.

But thinking about it, when planning my own adventures. It actually looks like there is a very small window of opportunity for using immortals as interesting NPCs.

For instance, the BBEG I am planning for this adventure is a Greater God (albeit a relatively weak one). So in later adventures, I'll obviously be 'upping the ante'. Which sort of means by the second and third adventures (in a possible series of six lets say) the PCs (Quasi-deities and Demi-deities respectively) would be battling beings as powerful as Greater Gods many times, even filling the role of henchmen.

Perhaps its just the adventure format that is vexing me. Should a group of Quasi-deities be able to storm the palace of a greater god and defeat them, even though this greater god can call upon numerous Lesser Gods, Demigods and Quasi-deities? I'm sort of 'divvy'ing up the Gods 'human' resources to make the most interesting encounters, whereas if he just attacks the PCs with his five most powerful henchmen from the start the heroes have absolutely no chance.

 

[Alzrius]

I still think a solution (or at least a partial one) is to reintegrate the intermediate deity tier. Stretching out the available divine strata could only help with this sort of problem.

 

[Zoatebix]

Perhaps its just the adventure format that is vexing me... I'm sort of 'divvy'ing up the Gods 'human' resources to make the most interesting encounters, whereas if he just attacks the PCs with his five most powerful henchmen from the start the heroes have absolutely no chance.

Ah, the age-old Sorting Algorithm of Evil problem

If playing with 4e's pace of advancement is something you find interesting (and the GSL isn't too onerous about that kind of thing) go for it! I do think Alzrius is on to something, though.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya Alzrius mate!

I still think a solution (or at least a partial one) is to reintegrate the intermediate deity tier. Stretching out the available divine strata could only help with this sort of problem.

Not so sure of that. But if you want to still use that term you can always swop things as follows...

31-35: Quasi-deity becomes Demi-deity
36-40: Demi-deity becomes Lesser deity
41-45: Lesser deity becomes Intermediate Deity
46-50: Greater deity remains the same

Hey Zoatebix dude!

Ah, the age-old Sorting Algorithm of Evil problem

Thanks for the link - fun read.

If playing with 4e's pace of advancement is something you find interesting (and the GSL isn't too onerous about that kind of thing) go for it!

Well I had this idea that with EXP becoming QP after 30th, you could impose the publicity modifiers to any gained QP. That would drammatically slow down advancement.

Secondly, as a byproduct, it would mean gods would be truly immortal until you eradicated their QP (and brought them back to 'mortal'* - whereupon they could be slain).

*With perhaps a single caveat (weapon) that could destroy the immortal.

Alternatives (to slaying the BBEG) could then be imprisonment, forced pact (not to interfere with a certain planet for a millenia or something like that) and so on.

I do think Alzrius is on to something, though.

Perhaps.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

U_K!

...

Well I had this idea that with EXP becoming QP after 30th, you could impose the publicity modifiers to any gained QP. That would drammatically slow down advancement.

Secondly, as a byproduct, it would mean gods would be truly immortal until you eradicated their QP (and brought them back to 'mortal'* - whereupon they could be slain).

*With perhaps a single caveat (weapon) that could destroy the immortal.

Alternatives (to slaying the BBEG) could then be imprisonment, forced pact (not to interfere with a certain planet for a millenia or something like that) and so on...

Sounds interesting. XP drain seems a bit against the grain when it comes to 4E, but the Idea is kind of cool.

One idea I was kicking around after reading your post was some sort of divine surge mechanic. It would be a power gained by every deity at 31st level (or whatever level is appropo to be officially a god) that let you, when you die, spend an action point and not be permanently slain. This use is still subject to the one action point per encounter restriction, but it promotes a more cinimatic play style and a less 'neener-neener' style of play. (The villain can be 'slain' on site of his master scheme without jeopardizing later campaigne arcs, but if the players decide to actually go kill him once and for all, they can do so without him miraculously surviving again, plus now the villain is going to finally fight 'all out' in one epic battle)

 

[beej]

Hey U_K!

31-35: Quasi-deity becomes Demi-deity
36-40: Demi-deity becomes Lesser deity
41-45: Lesser deity becomes Intermediate Deity
46-50: Greater deity remains the same

I must say, I like what I see here. You could turn that demigod epic destiny into the quasi-diety, if you will.

In any case, I'm really excited over the 4e Immortals' Handbook. I got into the IH series a bit too late (two months before 4e released!), and I want to put that into the 4e game somehow. (raises hand) I can playtest, if you ever need any.