Custom divine abilities, portfolios, etc.

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys apologies for the disappearing act these past few weeks. for some reason I stopped getting email notifications to updates on this forum and assumed the traffic had dried up.

Hey Azulan47!

I actually have a followup question to Eighth Sense; how do you handle the creature existing one minute into the future? Would a Fireball that is delayed 1 minute affect his present form (i.e. would you deal damage in the current round because it affects him a minute later)? Would the players require certain spells that allow them to precog his future location to accurately target the creature?

Nezkrul basically answered this (thanks amigo). To use this 'by the book' you would need to keep track of all the events - or at least the status quo on a round for round basis.

That said, I don't expect combat at that magnitude of fire-power to last very long so you likely won't have that many rounds to keep track of.

 

[Azulan47]

Seventh, Eighth, and beyond, senses must be handled with care since it requires the DM to record everyone's actions taken every round, and every round for minutes at a time, so you can go back and change your actions

difficult to adjudicate and apply to the game, so I usually don't allow anything beyond seventh sense to have a tangible effect on the game... essentially I make eighth sense act as permanent foresight but the bonus is +10 instead of +2, with twice as many rounds of replay allowed than for seventh sense.

Thank you very much for your response. Though it seems quite a pain to do, I guess that it is a fair and true way of handling those senses.

Hey guys apologies for the disappearing act these past few weeks. for some reason I stopped getting email notifications to updates on this forum and assumed the traffic had dried up.

Nezkrul basically answered this (thanks amigo). To use this 'by the book' you would need to keep track of all the events - or at least the status quo on a round for round basis.

That said, I don't expect combat at that magnitude of fire-power to last very long so you likely won't have that many rounds to keep track of.

And for you, oh Krusty one, a few additional questions to pick your omnific brain:
1) Gaining additional ability. Suppose a player wished to gain an ability such as telepathy. The character in question is a quasi-deity who wants to use his Wish ability to gain it. I feel like it is reasonable to do so, but I was wondering what your thoughts were.
2) Quintessence and planes. An interesting thing that was done in The Primal Order way back in the day was that gods gained primal by holding planes, among other such things. It seems plausible, even very probable, that the planes can be tapped in this manner for quintessence, though if I recall correctly sometimes a sidereal takes the form of a plane. In which case the unfortunate immortal much determine a way of placating the now irritated sidereal. If a plane is not a sidereal, how can it be used for quintessence, or quintessence be used on it, such as manipulating the laws of the plane governing magic, psionics, and so forth.
3) Handling templates and races. How would you go about pricing the acquisition of a template or a character changing his race through Divine abilities or the expenditure of quintessence. I feel like some of the templates gained as divine abilities are a little overpriced, but my players find me notorious for having "overpowered" campaigns.
4) Portfolios, an alternative. Not necessarily a question, but an alternative expansion on your portfolio system. I was discussing portfolios with one of my players as they have just recently entered the realm of immortals as quasi-deities and I happened upon an intriguing idea. I determined that many portfolios have multiple aspects that can fall under them, the easiest to determine being magic, for example. Instead of choosing a whole portfolio, an immortal would choose an aspect of a portfolio and gain all the benefits and disadvantages as normal, except with a more specific bent towards the aspect. A deity with the Magic - Creation portfolio would be reknown for his ability with creation spells (using the schools of magic as the aspects, of course), but otherwise undistinguished in other fields of magic. And, since each portfolio is now expanded, aspect can be chosen much more frequently, perhaps as divine ability slots and no longer limited to just two portfolios. I haven't had a chance to test this idea out (both having not entirely detailed all the aspects that I want to include in the campaign yet and not having started the campaign just yet), but I think it could work out quite well as adding a little more detail to the gods' different specializations.

Thanks all for dealing with my silly requests. I find the entirety of this project fascinating and love learning more.
Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hello again Azulan47!

And for you, oh Krusty one, a few additional questions to pick your omnific brain:
1) Gaining additional ability. Suppose a player wished to gain an ability such as telepathy. The character in question is a quasi-deity who wants to use his Wish ability to gain it. I feel like it is reasonable to do so, but I was wondering what your thoughts were.

I remember (way back) when we were playing regularly, that you could use a Permanency Spell to make spells of a certain level Permanent. I think (and this may have been a house rule) that it drained a point of Constitution. I don't recall the exact mitigating factors for Permanency in 3E but I always thought what we did was balanced.

2) Quintessence and planes. An interesting thing that was done in The Primal Order way back in the day was that gods gained primal by holding planes, among other such things. It seems plausible, even very probable, that the planes can be tapped in this manner for quintessence, though if I recall correctly sometimes a sidereal takes the form of a plane. In which case the unfortunate immortal much determine a way of placating the now irritated sidereal. If a plane is not a sidereal, how can it be used for quintessence, or quintessence be used on it, such as manipulating the laws of the plane governing magic, psionics, and so forth.

I have a similar mechanic in Ascension called Resonance whereby you can tap locations for Quintessence.

3) Handling templates and races. How would you go about pricing the acquisition of a template or a character changing his race through Divine abilities or the expenditure of quintessence. I feel like some of the templates gained as divine abilities are a little overpriced, but my players find me notorious for having "overpowered" campaigns.

What you have to remember is that players will look to these templates for specific advantages. So if the template always feels overpriced its to dissuade anyone from taking it purely for mechanical reasons.

4) Portfolios, an alternative. Not necessarily a question, but an alternative expansion on your portfolio system. I was discussing portfolios with one of my players as they have just recently entered the realm of immortals as quasi-deities and I happened upon an intriguing idea. I determined that many portfolios have multiple aspects that can fall under them, the easiest to determine being magic, for example. Instead of choosing a whole portfolio, an immortal would choose an aspect of a portfolio and gain all the benefits and disadvantages as normal, except with a more specific bent towards the aspect. A deity with the Magic - Creation portfolio would be reknown for his ability with creation spells (using the schools of magic as the aspects, of course), but otherwise undistinguished in other fields of magic. And, since each portfolio is now expanded, aspect can be chosen much more frequently, perhaps as divine ability slots and no longer limited to just two portfolios. I haven't had a chance to test this idea out (both having not entirely detailed all the aspects that I want to include in the campaign yet and not having started the campaign just yet), but I think it could work out quite well as adding a little more detail to the gods' different specializations.

Certainly people are free to create more specific templates using my originals as a guideline (assuming the DM okays it) even if that means cherry-picking certain powers from different portfolios (if it fits the new portfolio concept that is).

Thanks all for dealing with my silly requests. I find the entirety of this project fascinating and love learning more.

I love hearing about people having fun with the Immortals Handbook rules so no thanks necessary. I apologise for not having more work published on the subject.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Same to you. Have a great festive season.

 

[Beefermatic]

New Divine+ Abilities

Here are some interesting abilities from my campaign. Enjoy.

Divine Abilities:

Chaotic Body
Mad Certainty guides your actions
Prerequisites: Chaotic Neutral Alignment
Benefit: You add your Divine rank as a Divine Bonus to AC

Chaotic Mind
Mad Certainty guides your thoughts
Prerequisites: Chaotic Neutral Alignment
Benefit: You add your Cha modifier to your attack rolls.

Chaotic Soul
The touch of the Far Place has corrupted your very soul.
Prerequisites: Chaotic Neutral Alignment
Benefit: You add your Cha modifier to your Saving Throws

Chaotic Spirit
The depths of madness overwhelm your opponent's defenses
Prerequisites: Chaotic Neutral Alignment
Benefit: You add your Cha modifier to the DCs of any of your abilities

Kinetic Effect (Su):
Blast your foes with raw power.
Prerequisites: Str: 40
Benefit: Deal 1d6 slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage per hit dice of the Diety. The Effect is considered a natural attack, and thusly bypasses Damage Reduction equal to the Diety's own DR.

Prana Effect (Su):
Assault your foes with blinding spiritual power that grows with you as you grow stronger.
Prequisites: Monk Unarmed Strike: 2d10, Perfect Body, Perfect Mind, Perfect Self, Third Eye
Benefits: You deal 1d3 divine damage per hit dice of the Deity, and blind foes that fail a Fortitude save. Unlike the Divine Effect, this ability does not destroy magic barriers. As the Deity grows in power, so to does the power of the Effect grow. Sidereals deal d20s, Eternals deal d100s, Time Lords and above deal d1000s

Cosmic Abilities:

Bloody Effect (Su):
You bleed your foes dry.
Prerequisites: Mighty Rage, Blood Boil, Blood Strike
Benefits: Your deal 1d6 bleed damage per hit dice of the Deity, you also gain an amount of temporary hp equal to the damage done, temporary hp lasts for 24 hours, and all damage dealt is applied. Bleed damage repeats itself each round until a single point of magic healing, regeneration, fast healing occurs, or a DC 10 heal check is applied, creatures without blood are immune.

Ratification (Su)
You gain all of an opponent's Feats.
Benefits: You gain the Feats of all beings within your Divine Aura.

Cosmic Shields (Su)
You generate a force field powerful enough to block the blasts of Sidereals
Prerequisites: Force Field
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks 5,000 damage and regenerates 100 hp/ round.
Special: This ability can be taken multiple times, it's effects stack. This ability stacks with Force Field and other effects.

Unearthly Effect (Ex)
Your Effect Powers can stretch the span of space.
Prerequisites: Divine Aura, 70 Dex or Above, Uncanny "____" Effect
Benefit: Your Effect power ranges are equal to your Divine Aura. Line and Ray attacks have a range equal to your line of sight.
Special: With Cosmic Consciousness, it will allow Ray and Line Effect powers to reach across the universe.

Unearthly Reach (Ex)
Your reach extends into the heavens themselves.
Prerequisites: Dex 70 or above
Benefits: Your reach equals your divine aura

Transcendental Abilities:

Divine Ratification (Su)
You gain all of an opponent's Divine Abilities
Prerequisites: Wis 130, Alter Reality, Ratification
Benefits: Your gain the Divine Abilities of all beings within your Divine Aura.

Transcendental Shields (Su)
You generate a force field powerful enough to block the blasts of Eternals.
Prerequisites: Force Field, Cosmic Shields
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks 500,000 damage and regenerates 10,000 hp/ round.
Special: This ability can be taken multiple times, it's effects stack. This ability stacks with Force Field and other effects.

Omnific Abilities:

Cosmic Ratification (Su)
You gain all of an opponent's Comic Abilities
Prerequisites: Ratification, Divine Ratification
Benefits: Your gain the Cosmic Abilities of all beings within your Divine Aura.

Omnific Shields (Su)
You generate a force field powerful enough to block the blasts of Eternals.
Prerequisites: Force Field, Cosmic Shields, Transcendental Shields
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks 50,000,000 damage and regenerates 1,000,000 hp/ round.
Special: This ability can be taken multiple times, it's effects stack. This ability stacks with Force Field and other effects.

Metempiric Abilities:

Infinite Effect (Su)
You assault foes with the overwhelming power of Infinity
Benefit: The effect deals Infinite damage, annihilating any foe with no save allowed.
Special: This effect taken multiple times applies to a different effect (Greater, Superior, Perfect, Mastery, Uncanny)

Metempiric Effect (Su)
You assault foes with the rage of the Supreme Being itself.
Benefit: The effect causes d10,000 damage per hit dice of the deity, ignores and destroys any barrier, is not subject to Learned Ability Immunity, Learned Opponent Immunity, Sophism, Nebulous or other such abilities, and ignores displacement, cover, and other such effects.
Special: This effect taken multiple times applies to a different effect. (Greater, Superior, Perfect, Mastery, Uncanny)

Invincible Shields (Su)
You are surrounded by a barrier of immutable power.
Prerequisites: Force Field, Cosmic Shields, Transcendental Shields, Omnific Shields
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks all damage, and if somehow destroyed regenerates the following round.
Special: This ability counters 'Infinite Effect', and is undermined by 'Metempiric Effect'

Overwhelming Dominance (Su)
Beings must truly be able to match you in order to fight you.
Prerequisites: Infinite Charisma, Dominance, Greater Dominance, Superior Dominance
Beings with less hid dice than you automatically fail their saves against your attacks.

Overwhelming Toughness (Ex):
You are nearly invulnerable.
Prerequisites: Perfect Toughness, Divine Toughness, Cosmic Toughness, Transcendental Toughness, Omnific Toughness
Benefits: The Supernal gains Infinite Damage Reduction, uses d10,000s for base hit dice, and gains a ten-thousand x health multiplier.

Transcendental Nullification (Su)
You nullify all of an opponent's Transcendental Abilities
Prerequisites: Nullification, Divine Nullification, Cosmic Nullification, Infinite Charisma
Benefits: You Nullify all opponent's Transcendental Abilities within your Divine Aura

Transcendental Ratification (Su)
You gain all of an opponent's Transcendental Abilities
Prerequisites: Ratification, Divine Ratification, Cosmic Ratification, Infinite Wisdom
Benefits: Your gain the Transcendental Abilities of all beings within your Divine Aura.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Kinetic Effect (Su):
Blast your foes with raw power.
Prerequisites: Str: 40
Benefit: Deal 1d6 slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage per hit dice of the Diety. The Effect is considered a natural attack, and thusly bypasses Damage Reduction equal to the Diety's own DR.

Cool! That makes sense as an expansion of the existing Effects.

Prana Effect (Su):
Assault your foes with blinding spiritual power that grows with you as you grow stronger.
Prequisites: Monk Unarmed Strike: 2d10, Perfect Body, Perfect Mind, Perfect Self, Third Eye
Benefits: You deal 1d3 divine damage per hit dice of the Deity, and blind foes that fail a Fortitude save. Unlike the Divine Effect, this ability does not destroy magic barriers. As the Deity grows in power, so to does the power of the Effect grow. Sidereals deal d20s, Eternals deal d100s, Time Lords and above deal d1000s

I think the up-bracketing power is a little much. For Divine Effect, you have to take Cosmic Effect (or six purchases of Divine Effect) to upgrade to d20, and Transcendental to upgrade to d100s. Doing d1000s for a single Divine slot is overpowered.

Also, Time Lords and High Lords ARE Eternals, so that should probably say "Demiurges deal d100s".


Bloody Effect (Su):
You bleed your foes dry.
Prerequisites: Mighty Rage, Blood Boil, Blood Strike
Benefits: Your deal 1d6 bleed damage per hit dice of the Deity, you also gain an amount of temporary hp equal to the damage done, temporary hp lasts for 24 hours, and all damage dealt is applied. Bleed damage repeats itself each round until a single point of magic healing, regeneration, fast healing occurs, or a DC 10 heal check is applied, creatures without blood are immune.[/quote]

Cool. Bleed damage is a Pathfinder concept, do you use Ascension with PF core rules?

Given that bleed damage is trivial to heal, I think I'd make it d8 or maybe even d10-- Writhing Effect deals d6s of repeating damage you can't really get rid of.

Cosmic Shields (Su)
You generate a force field powerful enough to block the blasts of Sidereals
Prerequisites: Force Field
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks 5,000 damage and regenerates 100 hp/ round.
Special: This ability can be taken multiple times, it's effects stack. This ability stacks with Force Field and other effects.

Should this really be 100x stronger than the equivalent Divine Ability? Remember a Lesser Deity with way fewer HD could have this as an Esoteric, if they traded in one Artifact or something. (Even a Demigod technically could, for the cost of one Artifact. Though personally I wouldn't allow Demigods and below to have Cosmics at all.)

Omnific Shields (Su)
You generate a force field powerful enough to block the blasts of Eternals.
Prerequisites: Force Field, Cosmic Shields, Transcendental Shields
Benefits: You are surrounded in a personal defensive barrier akin to the Force Field ability, however it blocks 50,000,000 damage and regenerates 1,000,000 hp/ round.
Special: This ability can be taken multiple times, it's effects stack. This ability stacks with Force Field and other effects.

Remember, you can get infinite hit points as an Omnific. So I don't see the point (sorry).

Metempiric Abilities:

Cool, Metempiric write-ups!

Have you ever actually used these in a game?

Metempiric Effect (Su)
You assault foes with the rage of the Supreme Being itself.
Benefit: The effect causes d10,000 damage per hit dice of the deity, ignores and destroys any barrier, is not subject to Learned Ability Immunity, Learned Opponent Immunity, Sophism, Nebulous or other such abilities, and ignores displacement, cover, and other such effects.
Special: This effect taken multiple times applies to a different effect. (Greater, Superior, Perfect, Mastery, Uncanny)

Given that even a Time Lord has about a billion hp, d10,000 may not be that much at the level of somebody who can actually take Metempirics (even a High Lord can't, btw).

I like the immunity penetrating bit. Probably should just say "any barrier and any effect whatsoever that would prevent the damage", should also work on stuff like Thelemic Damage Reduction etc.

Overwhelming Toughness (Ex):
You are nearly invulnerable.
Prerequisites: Perfect Toughness, Divine Toughness, Cosmic Toughness, Transcendental Toughness, Omnific Toughness
Benefits: The Supernal gains Infinite Damage Reduction, uses d10,000s for base hit dice, and gains a ten-thousand x health multiplier.

Again, you can get infinite hp as an Omnific.

Also, you get d1000 hp as a Transcendental, so even if there wasn't the infinite option, d10,000s would be Omnific not Metempiric.

 

[Azulan47]

Various 1/day Abilities becoming at will

How exactly would you price an ability, such as a paladin's smiting ability or stunning fist attempts, advancing them from per day abilities to at will? If I use the Quivering Palm feats and Divine/Cosmic abilities as examples, that would place the at will frequency around a divine ability, correct?

 

[Beefermatic]

Again, you can get infinite hp as an Omnific.

Also, you get d1000 hp as a Transcendental, so even if there wasn't the infinite option, d10,000s would be Omnific not Metempiric.

Ah, I see, you're right, an ovesight on my part. Thank you.

I think the up-bracketing power is a little much. For Divine Effect, you have to take Cosmic Effect (or six purchases of Divine Effect) to upgrade to d20, and Transcendental to upgrade to d100s. Doing d1000s for a single Divine slot is overpowered.

Truthfully though, the amount of damage such an effect does is really trivial at that level, so who cares?

Ex: A 250hd Sidereal dealing 250d20 divine damage that doesn't even bust barriers, even with inner eye deals only 5000 Damage. That's like 1 magic missile, like a single one at that level. Lol.

Also, Time Lords and High Lords ARE Eternals, so that should probably say "Demiurges deal d100s".

Once again, who gives a crap? You still got the point.

Bloody Effect (Su):
You bleed your foes dry.
Prerequisites: Mighty Rage, Blood Boil, Blood Strike
Benefits: Your deal 1d6 bleed damage per hit dice of the Deity, you also gain an amount of temporary hp equal to the damage done, temporary hp lasts for 24 hours, and all damage dealt is applied. Bleed damage repeats itself each round until a single point of magic healing, regeneration, fast healing occurs, or a DC 10 heal check is applied, creatures without blood are immune.

Cool. Bleed damage is a Pathfinder concept, do you use Ascension with PF core rules?

Given that bleed damage is trivial to heal, I think I'd make it d8 or maybe even d10-- Writhing Effect deals d6s of repeating damage you can't really get rid of.

You make a good point, perhaps I'll drop it down to Divine Ability status.

Also, you're damned right I use the Ascension Rules with Pathfinder, here's the secret, Dnd 3.5 and Pathfinder... are the same thing. To me it's no different then adding Ebberon Rules.

Should this really be 100x stronger than the equivalent Divine Ability? Remember a Lesser Deity with way fewer HD could have this as an Esoteric, if they traded in one Artifact or something. (Even a Demigod technically could, for the cost of one Artifact. Though personally I wouldn't allow Demigods and below to have Cosmics at all.)

Remember, you can get infinite hit points as an Omnific. So I don't see the point (sorry).

It should in fact be 100x stronger because, once again it's about balancing. One's DR becomes pretty useless after about level 100. So why not make it still effective at later levels? No different here, if you, once again, look at the math, the damage threshold of the shields suck! It's not supposed to be a good ability. Riddle me this, Transcendental Toughness is an Esoteric only power, is this ability more powerful that that one? I think not.

As for the redundant Infinite health, this actually would block effects from contacting you at all. Moreover at those levels, redundancy wins the day. If a Time lord has Infinite Constitution, and Omnific Toughness, how can you Abbrogate their Infinite Health? See, you're fu*ked! Hahaha!

Cool, Metempiric write-ups!

Have you ever actually used these in a game?

Thanks! Yeah! Check out my posts for Actoshen, Reim, and The Annorath, those are enemies/ allies in my current campaign.

Given that even a Time Lord has about a billion hp, d10,000 may not be that much at the level of somebody who can actually take Metempirics (even a High Lord can't, btw).

Indeed, but I made it in the spirit of the other hp increasing Esoteric powers, and it also was a redundancy thing. I suppose it could be either or really. :/

I like the immunity penetrating bit. Probably should just say "any barrier and any effect whatsoever that would prevent the damage", should also work on stuff like Thelemic Damage Reduction etc.

I agree, the way I put it was clunky. Basically it just ignores damage prevention effects of all types.

Thanks for the feedback bud!

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Truthfully though, the amount of damage such an effect does is really trivial at that level, so who cares?

Ex: A 250hd Sidereal dealing 250d20 divine damage that doesn't even bust barriers, even with inner eye deals only 5000 Damage. That's like 1 magic missile, like a single one at that level. Lol.

I suppose so. But if you do that, you should make the same auto-upgrade apply to Divine/Cosmic/Transcendental Effect. It's just the inconsistency that bugs me.

Once again, who gives a crap? You still got the point.

Eh, sorry.

Also, you're damned right I use the Ascension Rules with Pathfinder, here's the secret, Dnd 3.5 and Pathfinder... are the same thing. To me it's no different then adding Ebberon Rules.

Do you incorporate the Pathfinder Mythic rules in any way?

It should in fact be 100x stronger because, once again it's about balancing.

I can sort of see that, but elsewhere (like in the Divine/Cosmic/Transcendental damage powers) it's supposed to be more like an x5 or x6 multiplier for going up a step (d3 --> d20 --> d100)

Riddle me this, Transcendental Toughness is an Esoteric only power, is this ability more powerful that that one? I think not.

Well, no, but we're discussing Cosmic Shields, right? So it's a Cosmic, and definitely should be dramatically weaker than a Transcendental ability.

Thanks! Yeah! Check out my posts for Actoshen, Reim, and The Annorath, those are enemies/ allies in my current campaign.

Ah, cool, I saw those but didn't realize you were necessarily currently using them...

 

[Nezkrul]

Object Portfolio "Crossbow"

One question though-

If I give the Revenge portfolio to a ranger, how does the Hatred prophet ability work? I assume it simply increases my favored enemy bonuses by my divine bonus, or gives me a favored enemy bonus against everyone equal to my divine bonus (non rangers) yes? [thanks for the answer Krust]

Here it is, please critique or comment
View attachment Crossbow p.rtf - The Crossbow Portfolio

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy Nezkrul matey!

I'm working on statting up an object portfolio for Crossbows. Will update as I develop it.

Good luck with that.

One question though-

Fire away amigo.

If I give the Revenge portfolio to a ranger, how does the Hatred prophet ability work? I assume it simply increases my favored enemy bonuses by my divine bonus, or gives me a favored enemy bonus against everyone equal to my divine bonus (non rangers) yes?

I'd say both.

Divine Favoured Enemy Bonus (against all enemies) stacking with any Favoured Enemy Bonus from Ranger Class/Prestige Classes.