Immortals Handbook - ASCENSION

[paradox42]

Hey, I seem to be first on the block for once.

Initial thoughts:
-Opposed Portfolios eh? One being can't have both, I presume?
-The first rules for making our own abilities- woo hoo!
-You built in a system of "flaws" for getting extra powers- very interesting. It does have obvious mythic potential, though in practice systems like this often turn into balance nightmares. Limites are definitely a Good Thing.
-Good beginning on the feat packages. The blanks need filling in of course, but what's there is a good base and shows a decent variety.
-Wow, the Mercury Golems have a built-in Omnific ability?
-Super-Ultimate Amidah coming in Bestiary Volume 2! Potentially scary to contemplate...
-It's probably a good idea to detail what happens when one power cancels out another, like Infinite Strength cancelling out Infinite Constitution for damage-dealing purposes. Do you go back to what the entities in question would have without the cancelled-out abilities?

I'll add more to this list with edits as they come to me. Thanks for the update! Great to see it!

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Great stuff U_K!
(as always)
A few cool things I noted:
- The change of the magic item modifiers for omnific abilities. (Yea, they are worth more than +800 )
- The note about [Effect] Mulitpliers. (though you never specify any limit to how many you can have, so a Telluric Quantum Vampiric Astro Blast would be possible, and confusing)
- Lord of Necessity. (The Omega template just sounds scary.)
- Anti-Matter [Effect] (While not described in too much detail, this = awesome)
- Omega [Effect] (It sounds a bit strong, but it is cool )
Cool stuff. Next update sounds cool. (Perhaps we will know what Mantic Frenzy does then)

 

[Servitor of Wrath]

(looks through trans and omni abilities)

Antimatter Effect: Nice.
Astro Effect: *goes looking for that irritating nexus dragon who erased my cousin last week*
Cosmic Inspiration: Nice. What's the action changing your ability takes?
Cosmic Nescience: I'm guessing you meant "cosmic" and not "transcendental."
Cosmic Presence: Nice.
Dead Zone: Nice!
Digestio: ...
Divine Nullification: Poor greater deities...*sniff*
Edifying Presence: Go to Sigil/Union/other uber-metropolis, set your aura to CN, and watch the DM cry!
Equilibrim: Nice!
Evil Eye: Bwahaha!
Intrinsic: I'm the god of rose smells and happiness...OR AM I?!?!
Interdimensional: Plus Perfect Defense...*shudder*
Invincibility: Very nice!
Learned Weapon Immunity: I can think of a not-too-tough way to get around this (Jarlaxle, I'm looking at youuu!). Dead Zone, however, would complicate that a bit. And by "complicate" I mean "render null and void."
Lord of Individuality: Nice!
Lord of Shadows: Nice!
Lord of the Flesh: Don't know, but I'll guess that it will also be Nice!
Multidimensional: If you lose your other manifestation can you get it back?
Ninth Sense: ...
Omega Effect: Owww!
Paradox: This looks like a must-have for all eternals.
Perfect Attack: *takes another look at the description of Teluric Effect* *wince*
Perfect Defense: Plus Interdimensional...*shudder*
Polymath: People running Polymathic characters may want to keep several sheets on hand.
Quivering Aura: You'll be making heavy use of the "clean" aspect of Prestidigitation.
Rectify: ...
Sophism: Nice!
Sunstruck: Looks cool.
Superluminal: And yet you can still only take a 5-ft step.
Supremacy: ...
Transattack Period: *looks at Telluric Effect and Perfect Attack again* *melts*
Transcendental Architect: The One Ring...TO RULE THEM ALL! Uh...the Two Rings...Three...Four...
Transcorporeality: Hire a sidreal rust monster, mayhaps?
Transdimensional: Is there an upper limit to this? (my head explodes at Alpha-Titanic)
Transgenic: ...
Transilient F/R/W: Nice.
(a few more): ...
Transtemporal: Will you be going into more detail on this?
Transversal: ...
Ultima Effect: Sounds interesting.
Unearthly Manyshot: ...
Unearthly Power Attack/Combat Expertise: Nice!

**********

Absolute: Get attacked by every immortal in existence...
Akashic Effect: When I saw this, my face literally went .
Cosmic Nullification: Nice!
Indissoluble:
Infinite Ability: But of course!
Learned Opponent Immunity: Oh, now that's just cruel! I love it!
Lord of Necessity: A step up from the Amidah!? Okay, U_K, after all these template teasers you *have* to release the EBv2 first thing after Grimoire!
Oblivion: ...
Omneity: Sounds delicious.
Omnidimensional: Pop off to a demiplane running at super-time...
Omnispective: Since Infinite Wisdom would give you infinite Spot and Listen checks, I don't know why one would take this.
Omnific Architect: *is crushed to death under The Infinite Rings to Rule Them All*
Omnific Toughness: I'm guessing this is undead-and-construct-only?
Omniparity: And the more splatbooks the DM obtains...
Omnipersonal: *starts thinking about Omnipersonal/Omnidimensional/AoE combos*
Omnipresent: Nice!
Omniversal: *looks at above, cries*
Tenth Sense: Eh?! This promises to be verrry interesting.
Transpiration: Nice!
Transnescience: Nice!
Transpresence: Nice!
Undimensional: With Perfect Defense up, Quicken Attack becomes a necessity.
23-25: ...

 

[Fieari]

You know, you could use these rules to create Pun Pun legitamately. I wonder what Pun Pun's CR is -actually- equal to?

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

You know, you could use these rules to create Pun Pun legitamately. I wonder what Pun Pun's CR is -actually- equal to?

Heh, Pun Pun... He only works in any setting that *isn't* FR (Or in any game where the DM is a squid) Reason: Read text of Sarruhk(Sp?) Alter form power - It is a learned ability*. (So even if you shapechange/polymorph into one, you don't get it) (The RAW says you do, but anyone who slavishly follows the RAW deserves to have his or her PCs play Pun-Pun)
I would Estimate (Since we set Omnific at 10x ECL) his ECL to be 60x or 70x (or 1,000,000x or 10,000,000, order of operations here matters.) The rest of the powers he can get from the ability can't all be used at once, but I would say they contribute about a +20, just from the immunities he can get. (Basically everything, except against raw damage) And It is doubtful, ability scores asside, that he can get high-ranked divine abilities with the power. And technically his stats are not infinite, they are just really, really, high. (Since the power incapacitates him, he has to stop to use all the abilities he is wracking up)
EDIT - * A quick glance of the Sarrukh found no evidence of this, however I recall reading this. Perhaps it was in the fluff text. Nontheless, anyone who trys to pull a Pun Pun in my game gets a Roundhouse kick to the head from a certain Old One name Chuck Norris.

 

[Servitor of Wrath]

Or in any game where the DM is a squid

*lightbulb* Perchance did you once offer me a squid on the WotC epic boards?

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

*lightbulb* Perchance did you once offer me a squid on the WotC epic boards?

Not that I recall, (My memory is a bit fuzzy at times) but the squid thing was an inside joke on the WoTC boards - That any DM allowing obviously broken material in a game must be a Squid.
I do post on the boards, but not too frequently.
EDIT - I found that instance I was refering to with the Sarrukh - P 59 of Serpent Kingdoms says it was an ability imbued apon them via (epic)magic. (Since you can't shapechange into a "dragon who cast haste on itself", you can't get their manipulate form ability)

 

[Fieari]

I don't know, I was just imagining a campaign in which the deity players have to deal with this sniveling little upstart of a kobold psionist as he steadily gains more and more power... I'd limit Pun-Pun to non-godly abilities at first, but then, through the normal means of obtaining quintessence and going through the rituals, starts gaining divine ranks... starts slaughtering his way though pantheons, gaining more power as he does so, and the players have to deal with it.

Okay, maybe not Pun Pun exactly, but something of the sort would be pretty cool, I think.

On the other hand, Pun Pun himself has a set source of power (the existance of the Sarrukh which might be negatable by some cosmic or transcendant abilities?), an iconic artifact (the psi-crystal), the weight of racial prejudice against him giving him an axe to grind, and the kind of overwhelming power that makes him a credible threat...

And now I'm imagining the fear of the other gods, diplomatic measures going on between once enemies, the despair of being crushed anyway, epic adventures into the cosmic realms, hunting down a nexus dragon, pleading for assistance, failing to obtain it and having to deal with the temporal consequences of facing such a beast, searching for an artifact of note, all the while running from the wrath of the pursuing kobold, who's smart enough to know you're on to him... and wants you dead.

The easiest way I see to stat out Pun Pun for actual play purposes is to give him Omniparity (infinite gestalt!) as well as a couple of custom Ominific abilities that grant +1200 to each ability score instead of flat out infinite (to simulate the fact that Pun Pun's scores are ARBITRARILY high, not actually infinitely so unless you use the infinite-actions-in-one-round trick, which has honestly not been sufficiently explained to me, only referenced by people on the CharOp boards) and then another custom Omnific ability that grants all mortal (non-deific or higher) abilities held by any monster.

Then as the campaign goes on, keep raising Pun Pun's HD... adding the lower divine templates as you go. The above omnific abilities, while frightening, aren't unbeatable, but as Pun Pun gets stronger... you've gotta watch out more and more.

 

[Eversius]

Quick question, UK, about the orders of magnitude of the cosmos.

Is it Microverse (theoretically) < Universe < Multiverse < Macroverse/Super-universe (Pleroma (Glad you included that name, by the way!)) < Omniverse < Metaverse (Beyond the records)?

 

[Phantom Llama]

Is it me, or is Absolute + Omnipresent completely broken?

Also, the Omega template alone demands that you release the Bestiary Vol. 2 at the earliest opportunity.