Immortals Handbook Epic Bestiary (now available)

[paradox42]

Perhaps a good thing for being 'beyond thought' would make you impossible to describe or perceive - you cannot be contained in the minds of men or their writings. You have no true name, you have no absolute definition. It would be a pure and untrumpable occultation.

If Algol is supposed to be the Thought master, then this ability is perfect. It's exactly what Azathoth (in Lovecraft's original writings) is supposed to be, and Algol is to be favorably compared with Azathoth, yes? Plus, it's a pretty cool ability in its own right- no Divinations can ever touch you, people forget you were ever there after you're gone, except perhaps for a feeling of vague disquiet with their memory loss, and when you're present their minds literally break under the strain of trying to process your presence.

The ability just needs a name- how about Transconception? In other words, beyond all concept? Too esoteric?

 

[Anabstercorian]

Transcognizant - beyond cognition

Transnominal - beyond naming

Transcoherent - beyond sanity

Transdefinitive - Beyond definition

Translogul - beyond thoughts and words

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey U_K!

Hiya mate!

This has got me thinking of the Infinity Gems.

Its a similar sort of predicament.

Perhaps Transpose could make it impossible to willfully harm/manipulate the wielder being that the wielder is beyond thought?

It's a tough one.

Another idea might be to make the being almost impossible to detect/perceive.

I say almost, because to still operate within a universe you would have to abide by some of its laws.

Perhaps attacks would only have a 1 in 20 chance of affecting the being. Sort of like the Nexus Dragon's interdimensional power cranked up to 95%.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Pssthpok matey!

Thought making you immune to magic is a good idea. I suppose you already have abilities that make you immune to effects that call for specific saves?

I initially called them Transdimensional Fortitude, Reflexes, Will.

But I changed the names to Transilient Fortitude, etc.

If not, Matter could be immune to Fort save-effects and non-magical damage.

I pondered that.

The six abilities would initially correspond to 3 defensive (based on saves) 3 attacking (based on saves).

Like Matter/Transmute required a Fort save, Spirit meant you were unaffected by Fortitude attacks.

But I wasn't sure if I wanted powers that would juts cancel each other out. Too safe a universe.

Thought could be immune to Will save-effects and magical damage.

I want the powers to be individual abilities, rather than composite abilities.

Entropy could be immune to damage but not save-effects, since such a being would be able to control its concentration of energy/heat.
Well, that's my 2 cp. Good luck.

I appreciate the feedback guys. Its easy to get stuck and bogged down on points.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey dude!

Ah, I misunderstood the thematics. I was working from the 'controls all' rather than 'beyond' theme. I'll swing through for another round of ideas in a moment.

Well there is no hard and fast rule. The Transcendental powers are generally set up to take you 'beyond' the norm.

Edit: Perhaps a good thing for being 'beyond thought' would make you impossible to describe or perceive - you cannot be contained in the minds of men or their writings. You have no true name, you have no absolute definition. It would be a pure and untrumpable occultation.

Possibly. That would fit with the Interdimensional notion. Perhaps making Thought 95% divorced from reality when it so chooses.

Although how then to differentiate the 'Matter' power? Perhaps by making it akin to Transdimensional (the Nexus Dragon Power) where you can call upon ever increasing amounts of matter...although I am not totally convinced by that.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Fieari mate!

This one, I'm a big big fan of. Since we're not talking about embodying entropy, but rather transcending it, this is perfect I think. An upgraded superstring.

By the way, on the subject of superstring, you mentioned in this thread that having a weaker being defeat something with superstring would mean that it becomes dormant in some fashion instead of dead. Are you going to spell that out in Ascention? And I'd only support this ability here if this condition applied to it as well...

Obviously if something can't be beaten 'in any way' then its just irelevant and boring. So even though these beings cannot be permanently killed they can still be temporarily defeated.

The abilities Evil Eye and Inner Eye are fantastic, and even if you don't keep them attributed to fate, I really hope you keep the abilities in general.

Of course. Most of these were abilities before I tied them to individual beings.

I rather like the concept of instead choosing what they roll / what you roll though, which doesn't seem to clunky as most of the time you really will just say "lowest" or "highest". But choosing the number means flexibility in situations where you want more precice control over situations...

I agree, its a nice touch.

Yeah, this one doesn't work well, being at once too weak and too powerful, and not really trascending matter. It could work as an ability (not tied to Matter specifically)... but you might want to consider putting limits on it. Range, duration, saving throws... possibly xp expenditure?

Being immune to HP damage is an interesting concept, although I'm thinking this too might do well with some limits. I feel like some things that do damage still should... let something get through. Perhaps umbral (permanent) damage still gets through? That way, a combination of that and ability damage to constitution could still cause HP death, so that the stat doesn't become meaningless (and thus boring)...

Exactly. My Satan/Sin is obviously based upon Tharizdun in a way. So I always harken back to my Gord the Rogue novels when Tharizdun was immune to all weapons except Gord's sword "Courflamme" which was a sword of cosmic balance.

How to convert that into something mechanically feasible is another matter (no pun intended) but I should be able to rustle somethig up.

Possibly Damage Reduction Infinite/External.

You can not be harmed by Matter from your universe, only by matter from outside your universe.

Nifty. Robes of the Almighty anyone?

It will be a slight change from that. More akin to divine power/spirit than all power.

Heh. In my games, there's a location where anyone can do this, but of course, usually it's the master of the place that makes use of it. I have the players make will saves of their own in a "contest of wills" to allow their action to take place. If the disparity is big enough, I let this ability completely rewrite reality, down to the ability to unmake things.

The only thing that keeps my players from abusing this is knowing that there's someone more powerful out there that can do it to them, and only his good will keeps them from being unwritten. If the players were given this as a one-way ability, I can't imagine them using anything else. The entire rest of the game fades away, replaced only by will saves. I'm not happy with this. There's gotta be something that keeps this from destroying the entire rest of the game.

That's jsut for if you choose to keep this as an ability at all. As far as thought goes, probably not the best ability.

I have a variation on this power which the Lipika have, but its a much better mechanic.

I like the immunity to magic concept. Or perhaps selective immunity to magic? Or... the ability to convert any spell cast within the divine radius into any other spell of equal level or lower, with any valid target? Too much?

The Magic Immunity has potential. Although you sort of have Chaos/Magic/Thought all rolled into one, a bit like having Fate/Life/Space as one.

Unreality has potential (1 in 20 chance of being affected by anything).

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

If Algol is supposed to be the Thought master, then this ability is perfect. It's exactly what Azathoth (in Lovecraft's original writings) is supposed to be, and Algol is to be favorably compared with Azathoth, yes? Plus, it's a pretty cool ability in its own right- no Divinations can ever touch you, people forget you were ever there after you're gone, except perhaps for a feeling of vague disquiet with their memory loss, and when you're present their minds literally break under the strain of trying to process your presence.

The ability just needs a name- how about Transconception? In other words, beyond all concept? Too esoteric?

Algol is sort of Azothoth, but I see it more as the gateway to the Far Realm rather than the Far Realm itself.

Algol would be the Old One who embodies Limbo. Limbo would be the Outer Plane where the borders to the Far Realm were weakest.

...if any of that makes sense?

 

[historian]

Hey U_K!

Possibly Damage Reduction Infinite/External.

You can not be harmed by Matter from your universe, only by matter from outside your universe.

That's pretty cool.

 

[Fieari]

Don't forget that DR doesn't work against spells or supernatural abilities...

 

[Alzrius]

Don't forget that DR doesn't work against spells or supernatural abilities...

It doesn't even work against energy damage. Someone with just that level of damage reduction could still be hurt by flaming oil unless they have some other form of protection.