Hi Rook!
Rook said:
While I was thinking about the current D&Dg rules, its use as an almost purely strategic game did occur to me. I agree that you could have fun with "I Win, You Lose" abilities and the attempts to get around that.
As one of the few people that has been involved in a lot of Divine Combat you always seek to 'stack the deck' in your favour. Almost never is Deity vs. Deity combat to the finish. One or the other will almost inevitably know after the opening round (or even before - divine reputation proceeds you) who is going to win (obviously factors can influence this).
The best method I have found is lulling deities into a false sense of security.
eg.
My characters only ever (permanent) divine kill (in over a decade of roleplaying a deity); vs. the Babylonian Devil God Druaga, was born out of necessity and good planning. Druaga, a hated nemesis for many years (in real time); centuries in game time (ever since our high-level character party had banished him years ago), was on the verge of becoming a Greater God because of certain fatalities within the hierarchy of the Babylonian Pantheon (at the hands of the alien psionicist wizard Doomstar). With the power he would gain (an Empire of millions) Druaga would crush my worship on the same planet (a few hundred thousand) which represented the bulk of my followers.
Both deities were effectively Warrior Gods. In a versus duel Druaga was clearly the stronger whereas my character had the better defense. I had shyed away from a personal confrontation in the past because I knew I would get creamed in an anti-magic battle - Druaga would almost certainly use anti-magic to avoid my weapons sharpness effect. The 'sting' occured when I managed to procure some Scale mail made from a Great Wyrm Red Dragon (if you remember in previous editions this was incredible stuff). This meant I had a good enough defense in anti-magic to give Druaga a chance of missing on something other than a '1'. On paper it looked as though Druaga would miss once per round on average - it had to be enough. If he scored more critical hits* I was dead, but I judged I at least had a 60% chance of success and went for it; assaulting his Great Fane under the Empires capital city.
Taking direct action against his followers gave him
carte blanche to intervene with everything at his disposal. Aided by a Solar (an ally, not a servant, boosted slightly by a few magic items) we entered the Great Fane cleaving through the perimeter defenses without pause. Reaching the Inner Sanctum we were sure this was where Druaga would make his stand; we saw the entire High Priest hierarchy and Guards along with Druaga's elite guard a full panoply of Pit Fiends (20) and Ice Devils/Gelugons (20) (all 2nd Ed. max. hp) behind which Druaga stood waiting. All hasted. The rest is history!
*In our campaign (before 3rd Ed.) a natural 20 meant double damage.
Without doubt, Sun Tzu summed it up best: "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles"
Rook said:
I think that the game that would result would be much more of a "storytelling" game, though, in which each side attempts to justify circumstance bonuses to the DM.
Thereby promoting roleplaying above combat.
Rook said:
You could see each adventure revolving around attempts by each diety to obtain various McGuffins of Power and such that would give them the certain edge against an opponent.
Absolutely! (see above)
The difference of Druaga hitting on a '5' instead of a '2' in an anti-magic shell made all the difference in what was a live or die situation anyway. The tiniest advantage made all the difference in a combat that still hung on a knife edge (or should that be sword edge
)
Rook said:
While this could certainly be fun, it would also be a major departure from the traditional D&D style. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing (I enjoy a number of diceless systems), I think that many players of D&D are going to find such a system unappealing.
Such high level machinations, used sparingly are very exciting (so much is at stake!)
As deities advance in power actual physical interaction becomes less and less likely. More and more, politics will play an increasingly important role and objectives are undertaken by servants and followers.
