deity rank?

[rossik]

from wikipedia:
Tharizdun still has a degree of his original multiverse-threatening power: he is officially a Divine Rank 11 (out of 20) deity, as of Dragon #294.


what is this rank? i mean, its about followers and powers of the god, or "status"?

what is suppose to be a rank 20 god?

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Deity ranking is basically used to provide a hierarchy of power. Since Deities in D&D are generally abstract in terms of stats, Rank just is an indication of where they fall. A rank 1 deity would be like Hercules. A rank 20 god would be pretty much omnipotent, like The Lady of Pain.

In some rules sets, like the ones presented in Deities and Demigods, Divine Rank provides more mechanical benefits. The Immortal's Handbook also has details on divine rank. (Perhaps Upper_Krust will show up and explain better than I can)

 

[Pell-Mell]

The Divine Ranking system is available in the SRD.

 

[Wik]

It's really just a rough degree of power. A god that can't grant spells is rank 0 (demigod). A rank of 20 is usually the king of the gods. 11 means the god is roughly middle of the road.

 

[Alzrius]

Just to be clear, there's a lot of incorrect answers floating around here.

A rank 20 god would be pretty much omnipotent, like The Lady of Pain.

Oi, Ltheb, you know better. The Lady of Pain is, by the D&Dg system, beyond a rank 20 deity; likewise, rank 20 deities are very powerful greater gods, but not omnipotent.

A god that can't grant spells is rank 0 (demigod).

A rank 0 deity is a quasi-deity (aka a hero-deity), though they can't grant spells. Creatures with no divine rank ("--" as opposed to "0") aren't gods in any sense.

A rank 1-5 deity is a demigod.

A rank 6-10 deity is a lesser god.

A rank 11-15 deity is an intermediate god.

A rank 16-20 deity is a greater god.

A rank 21+ deity is an overgod (and beyond stats in Deities and Demigods).

As Ltheb mentioned, Upper_Krust's work (though his company, Eternity Publishing, and specifically through The Immortal's Handbook: Ascension, due out in a few weeks) redefines the scale of divine ranks, making it much larger and much more inclusive.

For an example of a god that uses Upper_Krust's system, check out the stats I made for Death itself (divine rank 48).

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

...
Oi, Ltheb, you know better. The Lady of Pain is, by the D&Dg system, beyond a rank 20 deity; likewise, rank 20 deities are very powerful greater gods, but not omnipotent.
...

Bah, I'm not getting into that old argument. I just used The Lady as an example of the upper end of a 1-20 scale. As to her true rank, I have no idea; I am not very knowledgeable in planescape.

But yea, Alzrius is spot on.

 

[Pelwrath]

Ranking questions

In the above system, were would the Lords of the 9 Hells and the Abyssal lords rank? The book of Vile drakness describes Orcus after his resurection/rebirth as approaching godhood as he has/is developing a following on the PMP.
Thta being the case, would Orcus be a 1-5 and if so, Were would Asmodeaus rank? Lower or higher? Also, can't all the above grant spells? Gnoll shamans/clerics of Yenoughu, etc.?

 

[Alzrius]

In the above system, were would the Lords of the 9 Hells and the Abyssal lords rank? The book of Vile drakness describes Orcus after his resurection/rebirth as approaching godhood as he has/is developing a following on the PMP.
Thta being the case, would Orcus be a 1-5 and if so, Were would Asmodeaus rank? Lower or higher? Also, can't all the above grant spells? Gnoll shamans/clerics of Yenoughu, etc.?

All of the planar lords (Lords of the Nine, Abyssal Lords, etc.) were divine rank 0 in the D&Dg system; being divine rank 0 is also "approaching godhood." (Though I suspect that that phrase is a nod to previous editions more than anything else).

Strictly speaking, none of the aforementioned beings can grant spells. However, the BoVD dances around the restriction by saying that they all represent Evil in certain aspects. Hence, those who worship them are getting their spells from Evil itself, as defined through that evil planar lord, affecting what domains they get.

 

[Aus_Snow]

In the above system, were would the Lords of the 9 Hells and the Abyssal lords rank? The book of Vile drakness describes Orcus after his resurection/rebirth as approaching godhood as he has/is developing a following on the PMP.
Thta being the case, would Orcus be a 1-5 and if so, Were would Asmodeaus rank? Lower or higher? Also, can't all the above grant spells? Gnoll shamans/clerics of Yenoughu, etc.?

You might want to check out the free PDFs from Dicefreaks, if this kind of thing interests you, particularly in an epic crunchy kinda way. So far, that means The Gates of Hell (actually 9 PDFs), though others are apparently in the works. Horrors of the Abyss is to be next, IIRC, followed by A Light from On High. Not sure where they're headed though, what with 4e around the corner and stuff. Regardless, it's worth a look, and they have plenty of other material to do with epic D&D, rules variants, setting stuff and so on.

Or yeah, for a pretty radically different approach (but also cool) there's the forementioned book(s) from Eternity Publishing.