(Mongoose) Book of Immortals - Out Now!

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate.

Would you delete your post Kolja. I'm asking.

Personally I'm really looking forward to Mongoose Book of Immortals (and will definately be buying it), I'm only surprised there are not more epic/immortal centric products on the market or in the pipeline.

 

[Macbeth]

So, can Immortals grant spells? Could one theortically use Immortals in place of gods?

It looks cool, even if Immortals can't be the equivalent of gods.

 

[Man-thing]

Granting spells

According to p. 18

Even a relatively young immortals can, with the right gifts, empower clerics and various champions...

so it seems but I'll look in further.

It reminds me of the gold box a great deal.

 

[Eremite]

It looks like I might be buying my first Mongoose product! OK, strictly speaking, second, but Conan was different.

Reading this makes me realise, once again, how much WotC dropped the proverbial ball with the Deities & Demigods and Epic Level Handbook products.

Upper Krust,

How long before your IH hits the stands (or RPGNow)?

 

[skalvar]

According to p. 18

Even a relatively young immortals can, with the right gifts, empower clerics and various champions...

so it seems but I'll look in further.

It reminds me of the gold box a great deal.

Empowering a cleric (in the classical sense) is a bit difficult. On the other hand, you could always just give the erstwhile cleric the ability to cast a bunch of spells and call it even. Or make an Immortal Attribute to allow you to empower a cleric by investing Aura in him.

I'm glad it reminds you of the gold box. I have to give a big thanks to John Corradin at Days of Knights in Newark, Delaware for that. He express shipped me a gold box when I discovered mine vanished during my move.

Oh, and to clear one thing up: you can start in on the path to immortalty as early as 14th level. Some of the feats become avaiable at 1st. You could also just tweak the challenge levels and DCs of the challenges down to make them more possible for low level characters. There's a built in mechanism for preventing a low level Immortal from completely overwhelming his mortal companions. It strains a bit between first and sixth level but it's not too bad after that.

Good luck and good gaming!
Shannon Kalvar

 

[skalvar]

So, can Immortals grant spells? Could one theortically use Immortals in place of gods?

It looks cool, even if Immortals can't be the equivalent of gods.

You could do this in theory but as written the Covenant system assumes the Immortals swear their alligence to various gods and greater powers. You could easily use the Immortals as the gods' hands in the world. Having them completely replace gods was beyond my original scope of work.

They can grant spell-casting ability but not in the traditional sense that gods do. If there was interest in seeing something like that I could throw together some Immortal Attributes for that purpose and post them.

Good luck and good gaming!
Shannon Kalvar

 

[Sonofapreacherman]

Would you delete your post Kolja. I'm asking.

Only because it is you Craig.

If you are not offended, then how can I be? I just get a knee jerk reaction to this sort of thing.

I apologize for any offense my original comment may have caused. Those who know me, know that I don't react this way normally.

 

[Crothian]

Does the book also inlcude monsters and other challenges for such powerful characters?

 

[skalvar]

Edited by request of Upper Krust (writer of the highly anticipated Immortal's Handbook).

My original comments were indeed less polite than my final/previous one, made knowing they were inappropriate.

I sincerely hope for Craig's sake (Upper Krust), that these two books bear no resemblance to each other, because Craig's project far preceded this one from Mongoose.

Well, given I wrote the Mongoose book, I can assure you nothing was taken from the other project. In fact, I didn't even know about it until I read this thread.

It appears we may share some sources but that's a good thing. Mythology and the historical study of religion should inform any book about immortality. After all the quest for eternal life/godhood is one of the oldest recorded symbolic impulses. An author would be foolish to ignore thousands of years of great backstory.

Good luck and good gaming!
Shannon Kalvar

 

[skalvar]

Does the book also inlcude monsters and other challenges for such powerful characters?

Monsters? Not so much. By the time you achieve a few steps along the path anything other than another Immortal is more a nuisance than a threat. If you need monsters you can give Immortality to most creatures (even outsiders if they can pass the Challenge of Free Will) and move on from there.

Challenges? Sure. Seventeen unique challenge structures bending standard D20 structures as far as I could without breaking them. Why fight a monster when you can be crucified on a tree and have to interact with the gods for seven days and nights? Or hold open the gates of hell as the legions of the damned pour forth? Or wrestle with death in an epic struggle for the life of someone you love rather than just throwing a spell and calling it a day? Or...

You get the idea.

In terms of Immortal activity I had to cut the relatively elaborate game of Immortal politics out for space reasons but a quick synopsis of it would read something like:

Immortals bound to wellsprings have to defend them or risk losing powers if their enemies manage to interfere with the wellspring/tap
Immortals in covenant relationships have a LOT of responsibilities and enemies who would rather see them fail at them.
Immortals pretty much have a lot of other Immortal enemies from the get-go, since any world with history will have a number of Immortals already on various stages of the path. People on the same path with you will generally help you (for a price) while those on other paths may have to destroy you in order to transcend the mortal coil completely.

Does that help to explain some of what you'll find?

Good luck and good gaming!
Shannon Kalvar