Immortals Handbook - ASCENSION

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Hi, Upper Krust, congratulations for your new forums. I'll visit all (job allowing)!

Thanks!

I would ask you something ....

In my adventure a high level paladin character has been transformed into a solar of HD = Lvls for reward by his goddess.
Now demigod he grows up as an outsider.
The same thing is possible using your divine ability for became an outsider and one/two cosmic ability (es.: became planetar - became solar)?

Thats certainly possible, a Solar is just a quasi-deity really.

A good-aligned outsider with 22+ Hit Dice could become a Solar, yes.

In your books an avatar is only an exstension of the divine character or it can be a separated being that he can use like a familiar, friend, serf, etc?
The divine character can sense what the avatar sees, hears, etc regardless of distance?
A god can bestow avatar state on a being?

A god can sense anything the avatar senses but the deity has to specifially state it is looking out of the Avatars eyes (etc.) to actually be doing so.

A god can bestow Avatar state on a being, but that being is then not an individual and does not advance by HD/Levels.

More likely is that the god will bestow divine status upon a mortal making it the gods proxy.

I have already begun the contdown for the 0.8 version of your book!

I appreciate the interest. I should have v0.8 ready by Midnight on Thursday.

 

[Phantom Llama]

It doesn't bother Galactus that he is 28 feet tall. I don't see why you are so desperate to have a medium sized time lord...?!

It's a matter of style. Being super humongous just doesn't fit some character concepts.

Besides, it doesn't bother Galactus that he's wearing that hat either. He's not the discerning sidereal's first stop for fashion advice.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

I think it depends on the being in question. Example: A Greater Deity who was once a mortal ascends to become a Timelord. He may still have emotional ties to the mortals he knew. Being Macro-Whatever will make it hard to interact with them.
I can't believe no one suggested Polymorph... (Or did they and I missed it)
I think a size-alter ability would be cool, but really broken, since they just get exponentially tougher to kill.
U_K
So Ascension is slated for Thursday? Any ideas as to what is covered?
Oh, the Cover is nearly done? Any chance you will post it on your site, or do we need to get the book

 

[Zoatebix]

I can't believe no one suggested Polymorph... (Or did they and I missed it)

Speaking of which, Rich Burlew's ideas on Polymorph are hella simpler to adjudicate than the core rules: http://www.giantitp.com/Func0012.html

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

I think it depends on the being in question. Example: A Greater Deity who was once a mortal ascends to become a Timelord. He may still have emotional ties to the mortals he knew. Being Macro-Whatever will make it hard to interact with them.

The problem with this approach is that most Time Lords are over a trillion years old, they are not likely to still associate with the same adventurers they hung about with when they were 5th-level characters - but of course when you start playing at Time Lord, or rapidly increase in power up to time lord then you lose all of this.

Galactus interacts with the Silver Surfer, but he doesn't shrink himself down to do so.

I can't believe no one suggested Polymorph... (Or did they and I missed it) I think a size-alter ability would be cool, but really broken, since they just get exponentially tougher to kill.

You can't polymorph to reduce your size smaller than Large if you are an Elder One.

U_K
So Ascension is slated for Thursday? Any ideas as to what is covered?

At point of writing I have 195 divine, 96 cosmic and 45 transcendental powers, although not all the write ups are finished. Fingers crossed I can get all these done properly for Thursday night.

Oh, the Cover is nearly done? Any chance you will post it on your site, or do we need to get the book

The cover is almost done, I might get it finished tomorrow, but knowing my luck I won't. There is about 10-12 hours to be done. I have the background painted so its just the two main protagonists to go. But I am a tad worried about the Seraphim, I really want it to look gold this time, not just yellow. So I need to make sure my research is accurate.

It really does look great - I can't wait to show it to you all! I'm pretty excited.

 

[WarDragon]

Is the feat Mantic Frenzy finally going to tell us what it does?

 

[dante58701]

The reasoning for it is this. In our campaigns we have beings on par with time lords, but most of them were at one time mortal and still keep in touch with their mortal roots. One has a shop where he pimps out cars, another works as a janitor in a highschool, another is a rich man living in russia, another is a military officer. And they are quite secretive about their true natures. Mind you these arent avatars. These are the actual entitities remaining hidden in forms quite similar to their mortal forms. And they, at times, do battle with entities that are equally powerful...and they dont always win, hence the recreating of the omniverse again and again. They preexist the current omniverse many times over and have been forced to recreate it many times over. They are the keepers of omniversal balance and one of them, the most powerful, is in fact the manifestation of the omniverse itself.

Besides Silver Surfer sets prescedence for this ability in his very existance. There was an issue where he killed Galactus and absorbed all of his power, not part of it, and he remained size medium. In fact, he could even assume smaller sizes as evidenced by later issues. I think Galactus's size was a matter of personal choice. I dont think he was forced into it. In fact, I do believe there was even an issue where he assumed a human form or human size for a brief period. Though why he did this is lost to me. If anyone could find these issues it might resolve the current issue at hand.

I used to read Silver Surfer avidly in the 80's. My mom would by me issues whenever I got the flu or whenever the holidays rolled around. So Im a bit of a fan myself. One thing is certain those comics rocked.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey WarDragon matey!

Is the feat Mantic Frenzy finally going to tell us what it does?

Its so secret even I don't know it.

Only joking, I'll type it up tonight.

Incidently, I had a minor problem with the Bestiary Cover, ostensibly I was unable to mix a gold for the Seraphim that was acceptably good. So the Seraphim is not completed and I'll need to go into the city centre tomorrow to get some gold acrylic paint. The chances of me doing all that and getting the painting finished tomorrow are slim to none, so basically it won't be finished until Friday. Which begs the question how much time will I have to work on Ascension tomorrow, probably not much. But I swear this will be the last 'slow' update.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey dante mate!

The reasoning for it is this. In our campaigns we have beings on par with time lords, but most of them were at one time mortal and still keep in touch with their mortal roots. One has a shop where he pimps out cars, another works as a janitor in a highschool, another is a rich man living in russia, another is a military officer. And they are quite secretive about their true natures. Mind you these arent avatars. These are the actual entitities remaining hidden in forms quite similar to their mortal forms. And they, at times, do battle with entities that are equally powerful...and they dont always win, hence the recreating of the omniverse again and again. They preexist the current omniverse many times over and have been forced to recreate it many times over. They are the keepers of omniversal balance and one of them, the most powerful, is in fact the manifestation of the omniverse itself.

I enjoy the notion of a Hong Kong Phooey Time Lord.

If anyone could break the minimum size restrictions it would be a time lord, since they could have the bulk of their being outside the universe and the part of them you see would be medium (or whatever) sized.

Besides Silver Surfer sets prescedence for this ability in his very existance. There was an issue where he killed Galactus and absorbed all of his power, not part of it, and he remained size medium.

Possibly, but the editor and writer must have missed it.

In fact, he could even assume smaller sizes as evidenced by later issues. I think Galactus's size was a matter of personal choice. I dont think he was forced into it. In fact, I do believe there was even an issue where he assumed a human form or human size for a brief period. Though why he did this is lost to me. If anyone could find these issues it might resolve the current issue at hand.

Galactus was recently reduced to Medium Size when he lost his power, he was also Medium size before he gained his power.

I used to read Silver Surfer avidly in the 80's. My mom would by me issues whenever I got the flu or whenever the holidays rolled around. So Im a bit of a fan myself. One thing is certain those comics rocked.

Absolutely...and your moms pretty cool too for buying you the issues.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

U_K!
Boredom + Free time = This:
I decided I would do an ad-hoc review of the cosmic abilities listed briefly in Ascension. Perhaps it will help with the editing process. (This is such a huge project, no wonder it takes so long. I see new cool stuff each time I look at it)
Most of this is based purly on the descriptions of the powers, their name, and your thematic basis in Ascesion and the Bestiary. In the event I am grossly wrong about something, Oh well, the next update will work all those things out, I hope.
Oh, one thing I hope works out - I hope there are plenty of Stackable Epic/Divine/Cosmic powers for all your crazy-deadly dragons to take.
Power Number: Review
1 - Cool. 1 per foe? One Per time taken?
2 - Nice.
3 - Anything trump this or is it the peak of Crit powers?
4 - Anti-Matter? Yummy
5 - I would guess this is good for the Villain, cause of those pesky Holy Word Spells
6 - Nice. Does this include Artifacts? Does it stack?
7 - Define "Aspect" I assume theres a maximum here?
8 - I Make things go boom.
9 - I don't have a clue what this does.
10 - This sounds cool. How does it work with ability scores?
11 - I always wanted the ability to throw time paradoxes at people.
12 - BAMPH. This hurts. Alot. Makes Paladins Ultra-Strong.
13 - If there are long creation times to artifacts, every mage should take this.
14 - Cool
15 - I hope this is "more powerful" 'cause divine effect is "weak"
16 - A must have for adventurers, so-so for deities who don't already have it.
17 - A Save? This sounds cheap with Cosmic Power #2...
18 - Adventurer Deities of rank 6 or higher better have picked this up... I would
19 - Well, that just sounds pleasent. You really like rogues don't you
20 - Big boost for the spindly wizard.
21 - However this works, you may want to look into Oriental Adventures' Karmic Strike feat or the PHBII's Robilar's Gambit feat. Lotta abusive synergy with those 2 alone...
22 - I guess this is like a lifedrain power? Everything in aura = hurt?
23 - If this keeps progressing Ill take the Omnific one.
24 - Nice. I assume you have to make all choices for it, or One Deity uses this to make all his followers give him all their feats.
25 - Limit/Save? This sounds really cool, but also really hard to beat - Who wouldn't use it.
26 - Mechanics are probobly needed for me to judge this. Flavor sounds good though.
27 - Heh, "as Seventh-Sense, plus 1."
28 - Really strong. I assume DC = Attack roll or something right?
29 - All of them? Even the ones the evil villain mage just made? Kinda spoils his surprise, huh?
30 - Unless magic can't compete with divine power (My guess is this is eventually true) This seems a tad strong. Does it just mean he doesn't expend them, or what?
31 - Take this 30+ times and RULE THE UNIVERSE HAHAHA!... Or waste 600 divine ability slots. Silly Highlord.
32 - Lol This seems strongly Influenced by DBZ... Sweet.
33 - Mmm Hey is this % based like some of the Neutronium Golem powers? If so, there better by a counter to this, or it is better than any amount of d1000s endgame.
34 - This is probobly really complex but mostly a flavorful power.
35 - Does this increase the max inherent bonus or something? or just give an inordinately large number of statups?
36 - See # 35
37 - Nice.
38 - Cool.
39 - Timeframe? like a cooldown of 24 hours like a certain set of Robes these seem to be based on... (Or are the robes just a +36 item )
40 - OHH OHH Can I use this with Power # 33!?! BAMPH Insta-kill
41 - Nice. Should be some counter, or artifact weapons become moot.
42 - Nice.
43 - This is evil, but cool. I assume you are using the Epic attack bonus progression rule right? So this power is actually really good. (Makes the nexus dragon look alot less scary)
44 - Mmmm This sounds fun.
45 - If I were the deities friend, I would just say I'm secretly his enemy. This would anger other PCS. Better have a will save or something.
46 - Against the same opponent right? Does this stack? So I get 2 every round if I take it twice?
47 - Depends on what is doubled. As long as you can't use this with #25 its fine. (And very very powerful if you can)
48 - This is kind of odd, but I guess it works if that form has fireball and is an Ice creature. (Or is there something I don't see?)
49 - ROCK THE PLANET!!!
50 - Sounds cool. Sounds Vague. Sounds like a 50% miss, similar to another monster I know...
51 - Well, that foe won't feel very special once you are done with him.
52 - A Mage must-have.
53 - This sounds like cheese Do I have to hit it's AC?
54 - Fine.
55 - OMG PAIN.
56 - Hehehe, A divine scouter. Are you sure you don't have Frieza as a sample cosmic deity?
57 - I guess anyone who hits you is screwed...
58 - Fine. Seems kinda weak for a Cosmic power though...
59 - This just sounds annoying. If I were the cosmology's "legion of doom" I would make everyone take this.
60 - As long as its only limited to the divine tier this is fine.
61 - Yummy.
62 - Hope "friendly fire" isn't on with this one
63 - You could just ditch #57 for this, since they almost do the same thing I guess. (Just explain it differently flavor-wise)
64 - Does this work with #33?!? Ill be a timelord inside 5 minutes...
65 - Cool. Doc Brown needs this.
66 - This is mean. Funny, and really strong. But mean. I like.
67 - Oh does this apply to artifacts? So for example, can an ECL 1440 person, who normally gets +518 items, get better items? Not that I have any thing to gain or whatever. I just really like the Idea of +1000 black hole armor sitting on my mantle.
68 - Rogue Feat. Gotchya. Any mechanical benifit? Sounds like the powers Demilichs and Akaliches have. Perhaps it should work that way. (And Ill kill any rogues I see immediatly if it does)
69 - If two gods have this, and one punches the other, is the universe annihilated?
70 - Sounds like I can use Automatic Metamagic to do something naughty. What does Spell Reflection have to do with this?
71 - YAY! Any way to stop this?
72 - Oh, wait, Quadrupled? Scythe time!
73 - Monks with this become infinitly cool.
74 - Okay... This sounds... Confusing. Ill take it with Incorporeal Traits and (If available) Transcendental Reflexes. Game.
75 - The super sword of smiting. Yay.
76 - This sounds confusing. With you, that means its probobly good.
77 - DM better be careful so that PCs don't defeat a Time Lord at checkers or something. Any final saving throw on behalf of the victem?
78 - Does this stack? I hope so.
79 - 6 times and...
80 - Yea, that is pretty underhanded. Like I said. You really know what rogues want.
81 - As if Quantum [Effect] wasn't? Sounds like a really, really annoying version of Quantum [Effect]. It has so much die rolling, the DM dies from insanity!
82 - Dose it have to be Hit point? Why not [whatever it normally does] (XP, Quintessence, Levels... )

Oh I thought you might like to know - Made my first NPC for my Homebrew lowmagic setting with Ascension - An ancient Evil Mummy lord named Malignus. (Cleric 20, Quasi-deity, deludes adventurers into thinking he's a demilich, reverse metagaming) ECL 37, CR 31. (Hes a little short on magic items... only one hes got is a Scarab of Wisdom )
Divine powers: Learned Spell Immunity , Nescient, Apocrypha, and took some extra feats.
I'd say he worked out really nicely. Fills a good niche - The ultra-deadly niche