Alzrius
The EN World kitten
It's common knowledge that D&D is a game that you don't really "win." That is, there is no game-determined endpoint; rather, there are instances that cause someone to stop playing a character, be it permanent death, retiring the character, or something else.
The closest thing that the game has to a forced endpoint is a character that hits the level-cap, something which can be awkward as different editions have had different views on exactly how many levels a character could gain. Probably the closest thing to a universal endpoint in the game is divine ascension, since that typically mandates that you retire the character.
What's interesting about a character undergoing divine ascension is that it's not typically thought of as a "win," since the character is still there, just in the form of an NPC. After all, there have been plenty of times in D&D when gods have been in trouble (usually showcased in the published settings, but still), and that could very well include your former PC-turned-god.
The exception here - one of the only exceptions in almost forty years of D&D history, seems to be characters in Basic D&D that - as laid down in the Immortals set, and again later in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set - become "double immortal," as I call it. That is, the characters become Hierarch Immortals (the highest tier of the Immortal ranks), and then give up their immortality to become a 1st-level mortal character, and then manage to become a Hierarch Immortal a second time.
At that point, the material indicates that the character is immediately brought through the Dimensional Vortex (e.g. the edge of the multiverse) to become one of the Old Ones (no relation to anything by Lovecraft), and so is beyond the scope of the game.
That, to me, seems to be about as clear of a "win" as you can get - not only has the character achieved the lofty goal of divine ascension, twice, but they've effectively transcended the entire game. There's no other instance in all of D&D that I can think of that has the character effectively moving beyond the game universe as part of hitting the end of their character progression (save for one: a twentieth level ascetic, from the 2E Legends & Lore book, which upon hitting twentieth level becomes one with Brahman, achieving enlightenment and oneness with the whole of the cosmos).
My question is, has anyone ever done that?
I've been on EN world, and other online D&D/RPG communities for quite a while now, and I've yet to hear of a single person whose character ever achieved this particular feat. So I'm asking outright, have you ever done this, or known (or even heard about) someone who has?
EDIT: Nuts. This should have had the OD&D/BECMI tag.
The closest thing that the game has to a forced endpoint is a character that hits the level-cap, something which can be awkward as different editions have had different views on exactly how many levels a character could gain. Probably the closest thing to a universal endpoint in the game is divine ascension, since that typically mandates that you retire the character.
What's interesting about a character undergoing divine ascension is that it's not typically thought of as a "win," since the character is still there, just in the form of an NPC. After all, there have been plenty of times in D&D when gods have been in trouble (usually showcased in the published settings, but still), and that could very well include your former PC-turned-god.
The exception here - one of the only exceptions in almost forty years of D&D history, seems to be characters in Basic D&D that - as laid down in the Immortals set, and again later in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set - become "double immortal," as I call it. That is, the characters become Hierarch Immortals (the highest tier of the Immortal ranks), and then give up their immortality to become a 1st-level mortal character, and then manage to become a Hierarch Immortal a second time.
At that point, the material indicates that the character is immediately brought through the Dimensional Vortex (e.g. the edge of the multiverse) to become one of the Old Ones (no relation to anything by Lovecraft), and so is beyond the scope of the game.
That, to me, seems to be about as clear of a "win" as you can get - not only has the character achieved the lofty goal of divine ascension, twice, but they've effectively transcended the entire game. There's no other instance in all of D&D that I can think of that has the character effectively moving beyond the game universe as part of hitting the end of their character progression (save for one: a twentieth level ascetic, from the 2E Legends & Lore book, which upon hitting twentieth level becomes one with Brahman, achieving enlightenment and oneness with the whole of the cosmos).
My question is, has anyone ever done that?
I've been on EN world, and other online D&D/RPG communities for quite a while now, and I've yet to hear of a single person whose character ever achieved this particular feat. So I'm asking outright, have you ever done this, or known (or even heard about) someone who has?
EDIT: Nuts. This should have had the OD&D/BECMI tag.
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