NEW Immortals Handbook - Ascension thread

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Even though they added that to the storyline, I will only ever consider novels up to the year 2000 to be cannon. Anything else I completely ignore.

WOTC is far to liberal with the random ascension and demise of various deities. God Death should only occur under extreme circumstances, never as a cheap marketing ploy.
 

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Upper_Krust said:
Sorry for being fairly absent of late, just had a really dreadful past few days, broke up with my girlfriend and I'm really deflated by the whole episode. I'll try not to let it distract me too much, been burying my head in Ascension, but having a lot of trouble concentrating. I'm sure many of you have went through similar experiences so no need to clutter this thread with any messages of sympathy...I'll be okay.

Sorry to hear it, UK. Keep your chin up!
 

Alzrius said:
Ltheb, if you're playing in the Realms, and making the transition to 4E, you should try and see if you can make the game be sort of the "cause" of the Spellplague, et al. E.g. they fight Cyric, but it's inconclusive and the PCs are (partly) responsible for him successfully killing Mystra, with Shar pulling the strings, etc.

Just a thought. ;)

I was thinking about it. :)
Heres what I have so far: (My players, stay out or be spoiled!)
[sblock]Algol, the Demon star, deep within the Ort Cloud, has had a mad revelation! If he absorbs all of the 'lesser' gods on all the worlds in the universe he will have enough power to consume the Demiurge when it awakens and rule the entire universe! But first, he needs a plan... The voices in his head told him to kidnap all the high-level mages from numerous worlds (faerun included) and replace them with Psuedonatural Dopplegangers. Then, gather all the great minds into one insane collective (a Cogent) to build Plutonium Golems like an assembly line. He will then use the army of Plutonium Golems to siege world after world, destroying the populace, and thusly, the deities on that world will be weakened, which is when he will strike and absorb them into his being effortlessly. A Cunning plan indeed; Those voices in his head sure are smart!
With his cosmic powers he has contacted Cyric, promising him candy and the souls of all Toril to rule over in exchange for a small 'favor': For Cyric to go about systematically slaying as many lesser gods as he can, and then allowing the newly created Un-Elementals to become tainted with Far Realm energies, which will likely result in even more chaos and dead gods!
The PCs will first need to unravel the mystery of why Elminster & Co have been sitting around drinking tea for the last few months instead of meddling in peoples affairs like they usually do. Then, gods will start dieing, with the weak/pointless ones first. The numerous Un-Elementals will begin destroying Toril. A couple of Abominations, long since sealed away or forgotten, will take this oh so perfect opportunity to break free once their imprisoning deities die. End Result: PCs go on wild goose chases while Cyric goes hunting. PCs will eventually figure out what's what and beat the crap out of Cyric, who, like the sniveling coward he is, blabs out his deal with Algol, figuring that since he couldn't kill all the gods, the deal is off. Too bad no one told him about Algol's Legion of Plutonium Golems, led by a Plutonium Colossus!
PCs must stop this new glow-in-the-dark army, and then, with the aid of Mystra's magic, (or their own) travel to the Ort Cloud, find Algols factory of horrors, defeat god knows what monsters that lie within, do battle with the Cogent, and then flee before our big, radioactive friend realizes that factories building an army of magical constructs are not supposed to explode.
If the PCs fail, Algol attacks the realms directly, and the resulting battle between Algol and Ao causes the spellplague; If not, Ltheb, back from his winter vacation at the Akashic Library, causes the Spellplague out of sheer boredom. :)[/sblock]
Nothing real serious... :) Just an excuse to crack open the bestiary, stat up Cyric, and roll out some epic level combats. :) No clue yet about how much Xp and Qp or anything like that. Ideally, the PCs walk out of the adventure greater gods (up from lesser) and should be intermediate after they mop up Cyric. (Who I'm only throwing together as an Intermediate god because 4 Lesser deities VS an Intermediate one plus minions seems like a fair but hard fight)
 

Hey Ltheb mate! :)

Ltheb Silverfrond said:
I was thinking about it. :)
Heres what I have so far: (My players, stay out or be spoiled!)
[sblock]Algol, the Demon star, deep within the Ort Cloud, has had a mad revelation! If he absorbs all of the 'lesser' gods on all the worlds in the universe he will have enough power to consume the Demiurge when it awakens and rule the entire universe! But first, he needs a plan... The voices in his head told him to kidnap all the high-level mages from numerous worlds (faerun included) and replace them with Psuedonatural Dopplegangers. Then, gather all the great minds into one insane collective (a Cogent) to build Plutonium Golems like an assembly line. He will then use the army of Plutonium Golems to siege world after world, destroying the populace, and thusly, the deities on that world will be weakened, which is when he will strike and absorb them into his being effortlessly. A Cunning plan indeed; Those voices in his head sure are smart!
With his cosmic powers he has contacted Cyric, promising him candy and the souls of all Toril to rule over in exchange for a small 'favor': For Cyric to go about systematically slaying as many lesser gods as he can, and then allowing the newly created Un-Elementals to become tainted with Far Realm energies, which will likely result in even more chaos and dead gods!
The PCs will first need to unravel the mystery of why Elminster & Co have been sitting around drinking tea for the last few months instead of meddling in peoples affairs like they usually do. Then, gods will start dieing, with the weak/pointless ones first. The numerous Un-Elementals will begin destroying Toril. A couple of Abominations, long since sealed away or forgotten, will take this oh so perfect opportunity to break free once their imprisoning deities die. End Result: PCs go on wild goose chases while Cyric goes hunting. PCs will eventually figure out what's what and beat the crap out of Cyric, who, like the sniveling coward he is, blabs out his deal with Algol, figuring that since he couldn't kill all the gods, the deal is off. Too bad no one told him about Algol's Legion of Plutonium Golems, led by a Plutonium Colossus!
PCs must stop this new glow-in-the-dark army, and then, with the aid of Mystra's magic, (or their own) travel to the Ort Cloud, find Algols factory of horrors, defeat god knows what monsters that lie within, do battle with the Cogent, and then flee before our big, radioactive friend realizes that factories building an army of magical constructs are not supposed to explode.
If the PCs fail, Algol attacks the realms directly, and the resulting battle between Algol and Ao causes the spellplague; If not, Ltheb, back from his winter vacation at the Akashic Library, causes the Spellplague out of sheer boredom. :)[/sblock]
Nothing real serious... :) Just an excuse to crack open the bestiary, stat up Cyric, and roll out some epic level combats. :) No clue yet about how much Xp and Qp or anything like that. Ideally, the PCs walk out of the adventure greater gods (up from lesser) and should be intermediate after they mop up Cyric. (Who I'm only throwing together as an Intermediate god because 4 Lesser deities VS an Intermediate one plus minions seems like a fair but hard fight)

Sounds like lots of fun. :D

I think the 4 Lesser vs. Intermediate + Minions should be a good challenge (going by v6)
 

Yea, when I threw Cyric together the other night, the numbers look like they worked out perfectly. :)

I still need to know what the other 2 players are going to play. My guess is one will play an older character; Dwarven fighter type with the Sword Portfolio.
Otherwise, I have:
Drow Monk (High Moblity/AC/Attack Spam type) Wisdom/Travel portfolios who throws spider-shaped scarabs of death as his Constitution Withering Effects. Low melee damage, but high AC and his artifacts gave him quirky defenses. (Abrogate, Thelemic Damage Induction, etc)
"Human" Sorcerer/Fire Elementalist/Red Dragon Disciple with the Double Fire Portfolio. He sets things on fire. Things, like, the Moon. Took a bunch of Metamagic Capacity feats, and his divine powers Augment his Fiery Effect. (He loves Telluric Effect!) His artifacts make his tactics more effective.
Neither took Cloaks of Resistance or similar items, because they wanted to play around with cosmic powers. :) So I'll have to keep the Save-or-Die effects to a minimum.

In other news, I noted there was a Typo in the Destruction (was it?) portfolio spell list; One of the inflict spells is inflict light 'wonds'. :)
 

Hey UK!

I've been lurking invisibly around these boards for a while now (I guess I must have the double secrets portfolio) but haven't posted until now.

I think you're doing a great job with Ascension. Coming up with a definitve set of rules for creating and using immortals in a campaign is quite a challenge. I think you're meeting that (epic) challenge with considerable success!

I have a question about withering (effect) which I'm sure will show me for the inexperienced blockhead that I am. My question is this: what's the best way to stand up to ability draining effects?

They seem awfully powerful to me. If my greater god of war, the mighty 'Bob, Causer of Conflict' gets hit by dexterity draining beams from greater god of skill 'Bill the Gymnastic Genius' he'll likely be immobilised within a few shots when his dexterity reaches zero. This doesn't seem right somehow. Please enlighten me.
 

The answer come from magic: There are a couple spells in the PHB and in the Spell Compendium that can protect you from some of the Effects. Deathward (PH) and Sheltered Vitality (SpC) come to mind. From what I have also seen while helping two people convert characters is that Alter Reality (to use said spells near instantly), Abrogate (to negate the draining effect), and Forcefield (Though I am not sure on this one) can go a long way towards saving your god from humiliation at the hands of 10 pts of Dexterity Damage.
 
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Thanks Ltheb!

I'll incorporate some of your suggestions into my designs. I guess spells like sheltered vitality could be built into equipment as well. 'Epic armor of vitality sheltering' or something like that.
 

Hi Ltheb mate! :)

Ltheb Silverfrond said:
Yea, when I threw Cyric together the other night, the numbers look like they worked out perfectly. :)

Yes I think a number of things threw my initial math off (Diminishing returns from multiple weaker foes and the character class imbalance), 3.5 can be a tad complex at times. ;)

I still need to know what the other 2 players are going to play. My guess is one will play an older character; Dwarven fighter type with the Sword Portfolio.

Well just remember you could change the Sword portfolio to an Axe portfolio or Hammer portfolio to better suit the dwarf (not sure if thats needed of course, just saying).

Otherwise, I have:
Drow Monk (High Moblity/AC/Attack Spam type) Wisdom/Travel portfolios who throws spider-shaped scarabs of death as his Constitution Withering Effects. Low melee damage, but high AC and his artifacts gave him quirky defenses. (Abrogate, Thelemic Damage Induction, etc)

Cool character...and oddly enough you just indirectly gave me an idea for a new monster power.

"Human" Sorcerer/Fire Elementalist/Red Dragon Disciple with the Double Fire Portfolio. He sets things on fire. Things, like, the Moon. Took a bunch of Metamagic Capacity feats, and his divine powers Augment his Fiery Effect. (He loves Telluric Effect!) His artifacts make his tactics more effective.

...and of course with the double fire portfolio you cannot block his fire damage.

Neither took Cloaks of Resistance or similar items, because they wanted to play around with cosmic powers. :) So I'll have to keep the Save-or-Die effects to a minimum.

Indeed.

In other news, I noted there was a Typo in the Destruction (was it?) portfolio spell list; One of the inflict spells is inflict light 'wonds'. :)

Thanks for that, and thanks to Alzrius (and others, some via email) for their continued help with the editing. I have been working on Ascension to take my mind off other things and the errata is one area thats easiest to keep my concentration on. Been really struggling these past few days but I hope past the worst of it now. :o
 

bigg2006 said:

Hi there bigg2006! :)

I've been lurking invisibly around these boards for a while now (I guess I must have the double secrets portfolio) but haven't posted until now.

Hehe! :D

Welcome to the boards then. ;)

I think you're doing a great job with Ascension. Coming up with a definitve set of rules for creating and using immortals in a campaign is quite a challenge. I think you're meeting that (epic) challenge with considerable success!

Thanks for the kind words although I suspect the considerable delays are outshining any considerable success. :o

I have a question about withering (effect) which I'm sure will show me for the inexperienced blockhead that I am. My question is this: what's the best way to stand up to ability draining effects?

They seem awfully powerful to me. If my greater god of war, the mighty 'Bob, Causer of Conflict' gets hit by dexterity draining beams from greater god of skill 'Bill the Gymnastic Genius' he'll likely be immobilised within a few shots when his dexterity reaches zero. This doesn't seem right somehow. Please enlighten me.

Well Ltheb has already sprang to the rescue (thanks mate). I definately think there is a problem with Ability Damage/Drain in epic level 3/3.5E. I have been meaning to change that formula (and the one for Energy Drain) to something more manageable. Square Root of Hit Die for instance.

Its notable that 4E purportedly doesn't have Ability Drain/Damage at all. Its not only tough to balance, but nasty to keep track of, so I can see why they are scrapping it from the new game.

Should be easy to come up with status effects that mimic ability damage without requiring a lot of math.

e.g. Immobilize = could represent a partial loss of Dexterity, but no need to recalculate Dexterity, just disallow the target from moving.

Other possible status effects might be weakness, sicken, feeblemind etc. They can all be redesigned to provide a less maths dependant side effect.
 

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