The Karmic Messiah
So, after the Goddess of Catastrophe became a Material Nucleus, the guy carrying the Seed of Metatron was determined to prove that Metatron could be cajoled into increasing the "size" of that Seed, so as to turn it into a full Shard template. He started with arguments along the lines of, look what Matter just did, do you want to let Evil have something so powerful go unchallenged?, but got nowhere except into a meditative state which he maintained for three days while the PCs explored the Matter cosmos and figured some things out (like the spell which could get them home).
But here I revealed a bit of plot background, namely my concept of how First Ones fight. See, if these great Beings essentially tie up most of the QP in Reality, and everything the Demiurge would have if it were awake, then how exactly do they go about jockeying for position, taking over each others' territories, and so on? I decided that it was essentially a giant game of one-upmanship, and that the Seed of Spirit was about to make a try at scoring a point at Matter's expense. So I had the player contemplate the various Elements, and search for one that could be argued as being "pure" or "good" in some manner: the point being that if he succeeded, and managed to argue how even the Purity of Matter's own cosmos contained a smidgen of Good amidst the Ultimate Evil, then Metatron would have Its "score" and would reward the PC with a Shard template.
He did eventually find something, and argued its essential Goodness convincingly, so Matter howled in pain and fury as some of Its Quintessence went over to Spirit. The players thus learned that, even in the face of total destruction, the First Ones were continuing their great game- and they also gained valuable insight into how that game functioned. But the PC who had carried the Seed of Spirit was directed by that Seed to create a new Elemental avatar, using that one Good element, and as soon as he did so he got his Shard template. He became the Karmic Messiah.
Creating a Karmic Messiah
"Karmic Messiah" is an acquired template that can be applied to any deity of at least Divine Rank 4 which has a Good alignment. A Karmic Messiah resembles the deity's former manifestation, but has highly reflective, silvery, chrome-like skin. The deity also gain a pair of (similarly silvery) feathered wings, like most angels have. It uses all of the deity's abilities and statistics, except as noted below.
Size and Type: The deity gains the Good subtype if it did not have it already.
Hit Dice: The deity does not gain any extra HD, but its hit dice change to d100s for all current and future hit dice. The deity continues to gain maximum hit points per hit die, as standard for its Divine Rank.
Speed: The deity's speed values change to 10 times its original speeds (that is, the base speed values it had without divine or other templates). The character also gains a Fly speed of 6750 feet/round (equal to the speed of sound in a typical Material Plane at sea level) with Perfect maneuverability.
AC: The Karmic Messiah gains a +24 sacred bonus on AC.
Attack: The Karmic Messiah gains a +24 sacred bonus on all attack rolls.
Damage: All attacks made by the Karmic Messiah, whether natural attacks or by weapon, gain a +24 sacred bonus to damage. This even applies to spells which deal hit point damage, and the bonus applies to each target of any such spell the deity uses (for example, a Magic Missile spell would deal an extra 24 points of damage to each target, whether or not any target was hit with more than one missile, while a Fireball would simply deal an extra 24 points of damage to creatures in its area before Reflex saves are rolled). Finally, all of the Karmic Messiah's natural attack forms (if it has any) are treated as Epic and Good for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.
Special Attacks: A Karmic Messiah retains all special attacks it had before, and gains the following:
Abilities: Change as follows: STR +36, DEX +36, CON +48, INT +36, WIS +72, CHA +60.
Skills: The Karmic Messiah gains both Maven and Omnicompetent, if it did not already have them; all skills are raised to their maximum possible ranks by hit dice. Furthermore, the deity gains a +24 sacred bonus on all skills.
Challenge Rating: Same as the deity +53.
Level Adjustment: Same as the deity's Level Adjustment +80.
It was difficult coming up with a "chase ability" for this one, since the most obvious ones were clearly more appropriate to First Ones other than Spirit, but eventually I settled for two abilities which although not "chase"-like would still be considered cool. The Karmic Messiah was intended to be mainly defensive in nature, as befits the Ultimate Good it's supposed to be derived from, so I settled on the above- Specular and Holy Messiah with Karmic Beam for the effect (and given that it would have no appreciable effect in combat, since it's incapable of removing real hit dice or actually harming its target physically, this too fits the "defensive" profile in a way). I fudged a bit by adding the Mach 1 flight capability, but decided that if any of the Shard templates should offer the deity real movement at the speed of sound, it would be the one that gives the deity wings (whether or not it already had them, mind you- it would be possible for an already-winged deity to become four-winged this way). Given that the character who got this template was the party tank back when they were young gods just out to find their place in a big (central) cosmos, and that he ended up never using any powers except Specular, I think this one worked out rather well from a game perspective.
So, after the Goddess of Catastrophe became a Material Nucleus, the guy carrying the Seed of Metatron was determined to prove that Metatron could be cajoled into increasing the "size" of that Seed, so as to turn it into a full Shard template. He started with arguments along the lines of, look what Matter just did, do you want to let Evil have something so powerful go unchallenged?, but got nowhere except into a meditative state which he maintained for three days while the PCs explored the Matter cosmos and figured some things out (like the spell which could get them home).
But here I revealed a bit of plot background, namely my concept of how First Ones fight. See, if these great Beings essentially tie up most of the QP in Reality, and everything the Demiurge would have if it were awake, then how exactly do they go about jockeying for position, taking over each others' territories, and so on? I decided that it was essentially a giant game of one-upmanship, and that the Seed of Spirit was about to make a try at scoring a point at Matter's expense. So I had the player contemplate the various Elements, and search for one that could be argued as being "pure" or "good" in some manner: the point being that if he succeeded, and managed to argue how even the Purity of Matter's own cosmos contained a smidgen of Good amidst the Ultimate Evil, then Metatron would have Its "score" and would reward the PC with a Shard template.
He did eventually find something, and argued its essential Goodness convincingly, so Matter howled in pain and fury as some of Its Quintessence went over to Spirit. The players thus learned that, even in the face of total destruction, the First Ones were continuing their great game- and they also gained valuable insight into how that game functioned. But the PC who had carried the Seed of Spirit was directed by that Seed to create a new Elemental avatar, using that one Good element, and as soon as he did so he got his Shard template. He became the Karmic Messiah.
Creating a Karmic Messiah
"Karmic Messiah" is an acquired template that can be applied to any deity of at least Divine Rank 4 which has a Good alignment. A Karmic Messiah resembles the deity's former manifestation, but has highly reflective, silvery, chrome-like skin. The deity also gain a pair of (similarly silvery) feathered wings, like most angels have. It uses all of the deity's abilities and statistics, except as noted below.
Size and Type: The deity gains the Good subtype if it did not have it already.
Hit Dice: The deity does not gain any extra HD, but its hit dice change to d100s for all current and future hit dice. The deity continues to gain maximum hit points per hit die, as standard for its Divine Rank.
Speed: The deity's speed values change to 10 times its original speeds (that is, the base speed values it had without divine or other templates). The character also gains a Fly speed of 6750 feet/round (equal to the speed of sound in a typical Material Plane at sea level) with Perfect maneuverability.
AC: The Karmic Messiah gains a +24 sacred bonus on AC.
Attack: The Karmic Messiah gains a +24 sacred bonus on all attack rolls.
Damage: All attacks made by the Karmic Messiah, whether natural attacks or by weapon, gain a +24 sacred bonus to damage. This even applies to spells which deal hit point damage, and the bonus applies to each target of any such spell the deity uses (for example, a Magic Missile spell would deal an extra 24 points of damage to each target, whether or not any target was hit with more than one missile, while a Fireball would simply deal an extra 24 points of damage to creatures in its area before Reflex saves are rolled). Finally, all of the Karmic Messiah's natural attack forms (if it has any) are treated as Epic and Good for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.
Special Attacks: A Karmic Messiah retains all special attacks it had before, and gains the following:
- Karmic Beam (Ex): As a standard action, the Karmic Messiah may release a beam of judgement which assaults those struck by it with the force of their own guilt and misdeeds (perceived or otherwise). This beam actually removes the target's experience points, dealing "experience damage" of 1d1000 per four hit dice the Karmic Messiah has (minimum 1d1000). If a creature loses enough experience to place it at a lower level, it does not lose the actual level, but instead cannot gain a level or spend any XP to pay for actions that require an XP cost (such as creating magic items, or casting a Wish) until it gains enough experience to climb back above the minimum required to be at its present level. Experience damage is not a wound that can be healed; the only way to get the lost experience back is to gain it through the usual methods such as adventuring.
- Karmic Spellcharging (Ex): The Karmic Messiah gains a +24 sacred bonus on all checks against Spell Resistance.
- Specular (Su): The Karmic Messiah's reflective skin gives enemies of the deity an exact image of the attacks they direct at it, even to the point of causing them the same pain they inflict upon the Karmic Messiah. Whenever the Karmic Messiah takes hit point damage from an attack, the attacker suffers an amount and type of damage identical to what the Karmic Messiah suffered (after subtracting any resistances or Damage Reduction the Karmic Messiah applied to reduce the damage). Any resistances or Damage Reduction the attacker has does not apply to this reflected damage- only the Karmic Messiah's resistances and Damage Reduction apply. Whatever pain a creature deals the Karmic Messiah is returned upon the attacker exactly as the Karmic Messiah received it. The attacker is allowed a Fortitude save (DC equals half the Karmic Messiah's HD + the Karmic Messiah's CON modifier) for half damage, but no other resistance or immunity can protect against the damage reflected by this ability.
- Spell-Like Ability: At will- Quickened Unbinding. The Karmic Messiah is able to use Unbinding as a Swift action, once per round. Furthermore, unlike the normal spell, the Karmic Messiah's Unbinding can free creatures bound into service, giving them a chance to break the contract that binds them without suffering any backlash that would normally ensue. (Creatures which do not want to break the contract or leave the service are not required to do so.) Even control effects with a Permanent or Instantaneous duration, such as Monstrous Thrall or Mindrape can be undone by this Unbinding, though in any such cases the Karmic Messiah must pay any XP costs normally accrued by the effects which can normally end such permanent controls. If the permanent effect lists no spells, powers, or abilities which can negate it, then the Karmic Messiah must pay 100 XP per hit die of the victim being released, or 100 XP per caster level of the effect being Unbound, whichever cost is greater.
- Damage Reduction (Ex): The Karmic Messiah gains Damage Reduction 50/Epic and Evil. If the deity already had existing DR of the "/Epic and Evil" type, then that DR is increased by 50 instead.
- Electricity Absorption (Ex): The Karmic Messiah gains Electricity Absorption 500. The first 500 points of Electricity damage that hit the deity in a given round heal it instead of hurting it.
- Holy Messiah (Su): All beings with any Good alignment (whether Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic) instinctively recognize the Karmic Messiah as an enlightened being worthy of respect and admiration, and will not under any circumstances attack the Karmic Messiah (not even when Dominated or otherwise controlled by a non-Good-aligned entity). It is still possible for them to harm the Karmic Messiah through accidental causes (for example, blowing up a barrel of oil that the Karmic Messiah happens to be hiding behind), but they will never willingly cause harm to the deity and will in fact go out of their way to avoid doing so. Beings with equal or more Divine Ranks than the Karmic Messiah are immune to this effect, and may attack the deity normally.
- Spell Reflection (Ex): The Karmic Messiah gains SR equal to 34 + its hit dice. Furthermore, all spells used against the deity and which fail this check are reflected back at the caster, if the Karmic Messiah was the only target. If the Karmic Messiah was only one of several targets, then only the portion of the effect which targeted the Karmic Messiah is reflected back on the caster. In either case, the Karmic Messiah is unaffected by the reflected spell, just as with normal Spell Resistance.
Abilities: Change as follows: STR +36, DEX +36, CON +48, INT +36, WIS +72, CHA +60.
Skills: The Karmic Messiah gains both Maven and Omnicompetent, if it did not already have them; all skills are raised to their maximum possible ranks by hit dice. Furthermore, the deity gains a +24 sacred bonus on all skills.
Challenge Rating: Same as the deity +53.
Level Adjustment: Same as the deity's Level Adjustment +80.
It was difficult coming up with a "chase ability" for this one, since the most obvious ones were clearly more appropriate to First Ones other than Spirit, but eventually I settled for two abilities which although not "chase"-like would still be considered cool. The Karmic Messiah was intended to be mainly defensive in nature, as befits the Ultimate Good it's supposed to be derived from, so I settled on the above- Specular and Holy Messiah with Karmic Beam for the effect (and given that it would have no appreciable effect in combat, since it's incapable of removing real hit dice or actually harming its target physically, this too fits the "defensive" profile in a way). I fudged a bit by adding the Mach 1 flight capability, but decided that if any of the Shard templates should offer the deity real movement at the speed of sound, it would be the one that gives the deity wings (whether or not it already had them, mind you- it would be possible for an already-winged deity to become four-winged this way). Given that the character who got this template was the party tank back when they were young gods just out to find their place in a big (central) cosmos, and that he ended up never using any powers except Specular, I think this one worked out rather well from a game perspective.
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