Immortals Handbook - ASCENSION

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Dante dude!

So the Nosferatu is going to look human,

Inhuman might be more apropos.

though it will have definitive bat-like traits such as wings sprouting from it's back (or you might make it's arms into wings) and it's hair will have long since been worn away to smooth gray skin?

Well I prefer anaemic looking skin, yellowy, with notable purple veins. Although I suppose the colour depends how often it feeds.

If that the cas eit sounds interesting. Although I hope they'll have the ability to assume an alternate form identical to their mortal form and have both forms be considered their true form.

You love your humanoid forms.

Kindalike the way a ghaele has it's humanoid and it's globe of light form. You could also give them a form where they become a pool of blood, in addition to various swarm forms and gaseous form.

Absolutely, Hellsing has a number of interesting super-vampire traits that I may be paying homage to.

You could also give them the ability to use their own shadows as though they were a shadow demon familiar or maybe even give them the ability to assume some horrid demonic form, ect.

Well the winged form would be demonic of sorts - I'm thinking more looking like the original Nosferatu than Christopher Lee's Dracula for instance.

They could control blood, animating it, even if it is inside another individual, cause blood to ignite, ect.

They could maybe control their own blood like that, so if one of their thralls drinks it the Nosferatu can cause them to simply explode.

A plethora of bat, blood, rat, spider (webbing), and undead style abilities come to mind. Admittedly many of these could be spell-like abilities, though the possibilities are endless.

Just throwing out some ideas. Hope they help a bit.

I appreciate all the help I can get.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Thanks for the help poilbrun matey!

If you have any more questions Angel of Adventure, feel free to ask.

Hello again dante!

I love that rodent, its adorable all rubbing it's face like that.

It is overtly cute.

I hope krusty makes some epic bats, rats, spiders, and wolves to go with the Nosferatu....or something of the sort.

You mean like Dire Rats, Behemoth Bats, Teratoid Spiders and Legendary Wolves? Something like that?

Perhaps krusty can do a vampire/entomanothrope hybrid of some sort.

Funnily enough I have been considering an epic lycan to counter the nosferatu.

So many ideas ...so little time.

Science Portfolio - That's gonna be interesting...cant wait.

It certainly has the most interesting domain spells "Disect" is one of my favourites.

Although I haven't decided if these will be in Ascension or Grimoire yet.

 

[paradox42]

"Dissect" is spelled with two s's, BTW.

My own homebrew setting has a few science-related spells, as it's a world which is a sort of post-apocalyptic Dragonstar, for those who know what Dragonstar is (though with a radically different history than the Dragon Empire of course). And of course, on that note, Dragonstar is another good place to go for some technology-related spells, as are d20 Modern's FX rules and settings which use them heavily. Anyway, I'm always up for seeing more such spells, as a result.

 

[historian]

Hey U_K!

Funnily enough I have been considering an epic lycan to counter the nosferatu.

I had been wondering about as much. What would such a thing be linked to, cosmically speaking?

Absolutely, Hellsing has a number of interesting super-vampire traits that I may be paying homage to.

Coincidences are mounting. I just purchased episodes 3-6, but I've never seen them before. I was planning to ask you about Alucard after watching.

 

[Kalitharus]

For ideas on Werewolves, *the best* werewolf novel I have ever read is "The Hyde Effect"... it is a bloody and intense read from cover to cover. One hell of a story. It is written by Steve Vance.

The werewolf in the story is so powerful it seems as if it is an avatar of Daragor or something. It's wild.

 

[WarDragon]

The problem with rating it like that is that you cannot do a table which breaks down caster level/epic spell DC etc.

So if you want to go ahead and revise caster level thats okay - in fact I would go along with it.

I probably will.

I don't see what the problem is here. Clerics only get 2 domains.

The Bonus Domain Epic feat, and any number of PrCs that give extra domains notwithstanding, yes. I'm just saying that a published god converted to this system would have drastically reduced options, and that doesn't sit well with me for some reason.

Then all we need is a divine ability that makes a sorcerer into a wizard to redress the balance.

No, a divine ability that makes the sorcerer better at being a wizard than actual wizards. Seriously, that is the effect of Total Recall, in reverse. Something like this:

Spell Rearrangement
Prerequisites: Cha 70, ability to spontaneously cast 9th level arcane spells
Benefit: You can change your list of spells known each day as you desire.
Normal: You can only change one spell known every four class levels.

Does that really look like a balanced ability to you?

I am sure I have stated many times that I see the arcane spellcasting classes ultimately becoming one. Hence the reason for the Enlightenment/Ensorcelled Cosmic abilities.

I keep forgetting about that. Probably because there are no words of sufficient vitriol in the English language to express how strongly every fiber of my soul rebels against the concept.

To be honest I am not sure yet whether I want deities to be immune to anything unless they have the appropriate portfolios. So the Shield may or may not make it into the final build. One other idea was to make it a 'Shell' so that it would be like a prismatic sphere (as you say), but I still don't know how useful that is, storm/aura is better and with Uncanny *** Mastery you can pick and choose who gets targeted.

Perhaps the Shield effect could work against anyone striking the deity? Or do you already have one like that which I'm forgetting?

Funnily enough I have been considering an epic lycan to counter the nosferatu.

Just allow for Legendary Werethings. I personally find the power inflation of therianthropes (it's only a "lycan" if it's a wolf) in popular culture annoying, but I'm not sure why.... Honestly, they really shouldn't be any more powerful than the base creature. How the blazes does it make sense for a normal, not-particularly-muscular guy who gets bitten by a rat to suddenly be able to bench press a volkswagen? :\

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

...
To be honest I am not sure yet whether I want deities to be immune to anything unless they
have the appropriate portfolios. So the Shield may or may not make it into the final build. One other idea was to make it a 'Shell' so that it would be like a prismatic sphere (as you say), but I still don't know how useful that is, storm/aura is better and with Uncanny *** Mastery you can pick and choose who gets targeted.
...

<Snip>
I originally planned to post an idea for a [Shield] Effect, but in thinking about it, and comparing it with forcefield, the only conclusions I reached were: If it is similar to Force Field, it is superior to Force Field. (Scaling, uses an action probably VS. Not Scaling, no action required) and If it is similar to storm, it is inferior or equal to storm. (Use of actions, greater damage, possibly smaller area VS. no action, lowest damage, biggest area)

The only idea I came up with would be damage dice nullification. Perhaps instead of dealing damage, it cancels a similar [Effect] based on differences of damage dice. (I would rank its damage die prevention at 1/16 to start, so it nullifies the more persistant effects.) So basically, If I had an [Electicity Shield] and it would stop say, 8 dice of damage, and my foe throws an [Electric Ray] for 20 dice of damage, this effect would reduce the ray's effectiveness to 12 dice worth. The [Electicity Shield] would be worthless against a [Divine Ray] or a [Holy Storm], but would stop a deity with the Thunder portfolio, who you have said may deal half their electricity damage as divine damage. (Assuming the shield can nullify all their dice, which generally means to cancel their strongest, 1:1, HD:damage die, powers, you need to be 4-16x their HD...)

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi paradox dude!

"Dissect" is spelled with two s's, BTW.

Grrrr.

My own homebrew setting has a few science-related spells, as it's a world which is a sort of post-apocalyptic Dragonstar, for those who know what Dragonstar is (though with a radically different history than the Dragon Empire of course). And of course, on that note, Dragonstar is another good place to go for some technology-related spells, as are d20 Modern's FX rules and settings which use them heavily. Anyway, I'm always up for seeing more such spells, as a result.

I have a few issues with the d20 modern/future heavy weapons rules (primarily nukes). Does Dragonstar do anything to rectify those mistakes?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey U_K!

Hi historian mate!

I had been wondering about as much. What would such a thing be linked to, cosmically speaking?

Well there are a number of tangents to take. For instance it could simply be a were-[insert epic monster], or it could be an extension of an existing were-creature, or something new altogether that simply resembles a were-creature in passing.

I like the idea that cosmic were-creatures may be stuck between dimensions, so maybe immortal were-creatures could be stuck between two planes.

Coincidences are mounting. I just purchased episodes 3-6, but I've never seen them before. I was planning to ask you about Alucard after watching.

So someone finally took my advice and got Hellsing.

Ask away.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

For ideas on Werewolves, *the best* werewolf novel I have ever read is "The Hyde Effect"... it is a bloody and intense read from cover to cover. One hell of a story. It is written by Steve Vance.

The werewolf in the story is so powerful it seems as if it is an avatar of Daragor or something. It's wild.

What sort of feats of strength does this were-beast display? Or is it just all in the description?