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<blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 5718310" data-attributes="member: 3625"><p>If I were to have 'epic feats' as a class of uber feats then it would be logical to have 'immortal class' feats. They would all have to be fairly spectacular I guess, probably on par with the salient divine abilities from Deities & Demigods, even if some of them require a minimum divine rank.</p><p></p><p>So I was thinking of doing something like this for the progression of characters beyond 20th level.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Achieving Epic Status</p><p></p><p>A PC who has achieved 20th level is on the verge of becoming an epic-level mortal, beings who have risen above their adventuring brethren and excelled at the art. All great mortal heroes achieved epic level at one time or another. However, becoming epic status is is not simply a matter of earning enough experience to advance to 21st level; by tradition instituted by the gods, a mortal must take on for themselves a difficult quest or mission to prove their worth in order to achieve epic level.</p><p></p><p>There is no character level minimum for taking on an epic-level quest, though by convention only characters of at least 15th level should consider attempting such a monumental endeavor. A quest that's realistically achievable by a party of adventurers of less than 20th level is no epic quest at all.</p><p></p><p>There is no minimum number of full members who desire epic status (Companions) for a questing party, although by tradition no more than seven Companions can partake in a single quest and all of them be eligible for epic status. (Cohorts, followers, guides, and other assistants are not included in this number unless they are at least 15th level and accompany the party for more than half the duration of the quest.) A questing party of more than five must be willing to face fantastically difficult challenges to prove themselves collectively worthy of epic status. An epic-level quest need not be tackled alone, but each companion must carry their share of the burden. (Cohorts and followers, though they might be high-level themselves and active participants, are not required to share in the risk, and indeed are expected to stay in the background.)</p><p></p><p>An epic quest must involve the successful completion of at least one CR 21+ encounter per Companion in the party, and all Companions must be present and actively involved for the majority of the quest, although breaks and brief side-quests can be taken individually or as a group as the need requires. Companions slain along the way should be raised from the dead expeditiously, and should miss no significant portions of the great adventure to avoid disqualification. (This may mean that the party may need to turn aside from their primary mission for some time, perhaps days or even months, in order to arrange for the resurrection of their fallen comrade.)</p><p></p><p>There is no time limit on the completion of an epic quest, but no quest worthy of granting epic status should take less than a month or two from start to finish. It is not unheard of for some idealistic quests to take months or even years to accomplish.</p><p></p><p>From the time a quester starts on their quest to the moment they accompish their quest, the experience earned is delayed (given that they are maxed out at 20th character level). A character may advance up to 20th level while pursuing an epic-level quest, up to amount of experience points needed for 20th level--XP beyond that point is held in abeyance until the completion of the quest.</p><p></p><p>Henchmen and followers can earn experience during an epic quest, even to the point of achieving 20th level themselves--but unless they were present for the beginning of the great adventure and the great majority of the parts in between, they cannot become eligible for advancement to epic status with the successful completion of the current quest. They must go on their own quest (which may involve the occasional aid of their master, under the usual stipulations).</p><p></p><p>Questers also cannot receive significant or extensive aid from another epic, immortal, or divine being during the quest or in preparation for it. (There are limited exceptions, such as gifts of non-epic gear, modest amounts of treasure, the granting of spells, the assistance of servants loyal to the benefactor, and the like.) But the chief rule here is that the questers must be willing and able to do all the hard work themselves. No quester is allowed to achieve epic status with the intervention of a powerful epic-status mentor or deific parent; it just doesn't work that way.</p><p></p><p>The quest having been achieved, experience earned is applied to all qualified Companions, who are then advanced to 21st level or beyond (up to a maximum of 40th level) according to the experience points they earned during the quest.</p><p></p><p>In rare cases, a Companion may achieve epic status posthumously at the completion of the quest if their death was sufficiently heroic, even if it only indirectly served the purpose of completing the quest. For example: being slain in the defense of one's fellow questers at a critical moment; dying to preserve an entire city of innocents from total destruction; (in the case of evil characters); being killed in the accomplishment of some terrible ignominious deed that significantly furthered the interests of an evil deity.</p><p></p><p>Once achieved, not even divine decree can revoke epic status, even if obtained by trickery or deception. (Even godhood has been achieved by such means.) Negative levels sustained do not affect epic status. It is considered by most that epic status is a thing of destiny. If it is the fate of a mortal to ascend even to godhood, it cannot be stopped or reversed, if the powers of fate have willed it to be so.</p><p></p><p>Epic characters gain the following benefits:</p><p>* Epic characters retain the ability to raise an ability score by one point every fourth character level and to earn an additional character feat at every odd-numbered character level.</p><p>* Epic characters are able to gain levels in any class which they have not already "maxed out" (20th level for a core or base class, or 5th or 10th level for most prestige classes), up to a maximum of 40th character level.</p><p>* Any class an epic character had previously gained a level in prior to 21st level is considered a favored class. Characters who had previously taken the Eclectic feat (APG 158) may choose an additional class beyond these to be a favored class.</p><p>* Epic characters may continue to improve their trained skills beyond 20 ranks. Epic characters are not limited by their character level in the number of ranks allowed for a given skill.</p><p>* Epic characters are able to learn epic feats, create epic-level magic items, and take levels in epic prestige classes.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Achieving Immortal Status</p><p></p><p>Once a PC has reached 40th level, they must find some way to achieve immortal status. Ordinarily, mortals with epic status cannot progress past 40th level (and you must have epic status before you can even reach 40th level). Still, this metaphysical barrier can be surmounted, and the end result is the acquisition of a divine rank of zero. (For more information on divine rank, see /Deities and Demigods/ by Wizards of the Coast.)</p><p></p><p>The most common methods of achieving immortal status are as follows.</p><p></p><p>(1) Be born to a being of divine rank greater than zero. Having a deity as a grandparent or distant relative is not enough, and to have a deity for a parent grants one only the potential for divinity. The character must still progress through the epic levels of 21st-40th level. Beyond this, there is no additional barrier to advancing beyond 40th level. Once the character has earned enough XP to reach 41st level, he or she becomes immortal automatically and inherits a divine rank of zero.</p><p></p><p>(2) Petition a deity for divine status in exchange for the accomplishing some great quest or service on the deity's behalf. This is similar in nature to the quest for achieving epic level, but its scope, overall difficulty, and individual challenges are fittingly more broad and more severe. As quests of this nature may sometimes take decades or centuries to accomplish, the deity that is willing to entertain the deal will usually confer a divine rank of zero on the mortal from the start (usually by visitation by an avatar), lifting the natural barriers of old age and infirmity that may interfere with their new servant's obligations and activities--and also putting the adventurer on the hook to fulfill their part of the bargain.</p><p></p><p>(3) Be formally "adopted" by a deity into his or her divine family. Deities may have hundreds or thousands of adopted children whom they have chosen to embrace as their own. Every deity has their own ritual of deific adoption, but in most instances it is a solemn event taking place at a temple or holy site dedicated to the deity and which involves the deity in avatar form conferring the divine rank by touch.</p><p></p><p>A divine adoption cannot be under false pretenses, as a deity who finds themselves tricked into the unwitting adoption of a mortal they otherwise would not embrace can immediately disown that mortal, stripping the offender of divine rank on the spot (no matter the distance or their location on a different plane of existence) and imposing a permanent level drain for every character level possessed beyond 40th level. This kind of level drain is instantaneous and irreversible by any means except by direct intervention by a deity, whether the one offended or some other god or goddess.</p><p></p><p>(4) Drink a vial of nectar of a still-living plant from a garden or inner sanctum of a deity's extraplanar home. Deities are exceedingly fickle about whom they permit to enter their extraplanar territories, and it is virtually impossible to trespass upon the godly realm of a hostile god or goddess without an exceptionally powerful escort. This method will confer a divine rank of zero on the imbiber one round after the drink has been fully consumed.</p><p></p><p>(5) Eat a meal prepared with the meat of a Celestial, Fiendish, Axiomatic, or Anarchic animal native to the outer planes. The animal must be ritually slain, its meat blessed by a cleric of similar alignment to the animal's native plane, and the meal prepared in a special way which preserves the animal's divine essence. This method will confer a divine rank of zero on the consumer one round after the last bite of the meal has been eaten.</p><p></p><p>(6) Slay an avatar of a deity and successfully perform a certain epic spell involving yourself and the avatar's remains. This ritual (which must be started no later than one hour after the avatar's demise) captures the divine essence still lingering in the corpse and transfers it to you. The ritual takes an hour to perform and requires costly material components worth more than 200,000 gp. The divine rank of zero takes effect one minute after the completion of the ritual. It is also quite likely that the offended deity will desire to carry out swift vengeance.</p><p></p><p>Naturally, it is entirely at the deity's discretion what sort of service and expectations will be levied on the mortal and the conditions under which the mission will be held accomplished, and a particularly cruel or indifferent deity may decide to withhold some particularly gruesome details of the mortal's necessary work until after the deal has been struck. Many deities will also exactingly precise in the application and interpretation of the specific conditions that must be met for the new godling's term of service to be fulfilled.</p><p></p><p>However, this is one of the few instances where even a manipulative malevolent deity can be fairly trusted not to blatantly violate a contract. Though unknown to mortals, there are unspoken protocols among the gods concerning the handling and manipulation of divine essence. Granting mortals divine status is taken extremely seriously by the gods, as deities are loathe to the notion of raising up new gods and goddesses willy-nilly and would consider such a phenomenon a dire threat to their existing power base. It is not out of the question for even the benevolent deities to go to war against a deity who threatened to begin the proliferation of new godlings. Therefore, any agreements involving the sharing of divine essence carry significant penalties to a deity's prestige within the pantheon if those agreements are broken. This helps reinforce the seriousness of such agreements among the divine community, and few deities will readily enter into agreements concerning mortal ascension.</p><p></p><p>Immortal characters retain all epic-level benefits, change to the Outsider creature type (and gains the Native subtype unless granted divine status by one of the first three methods described above), and gain all benefits of having a divine rank of zero as per /Deities and Demigods/ by Wizards of the Coast.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Matthias, post: 5718310, member: 3625"] If I were to have 'epic feats' as a class of uber feats then it would be logical to have 'immortal class' feats. They would all have to be fairly spectacular I guess, probably on par with the salient divine abilities from Deities & Demigods, even if some of them require a minimum divine rank. So I was thinking of doing something like this for the progression of characters beyond 20th level. Achieving Epic Status A PC who has achieved 20th level is on the verge of becoming an epic-level mortal, beings who have risen above their adventuring brethren and excelled at the art. All great mortal heroes achieved epic level at one time or another. However, becoming epic status is is not simply a matter of earning enough experience to advance to 21st level; by tradition instituted by the gods, a mortal must take on for themselves a difficult quest or mission to prove their worth in order to achieve epic level. There is no character level minimum for taking on an epic-level quest, though by convention only characters of at least 15th level should consider attempting such a monumental endeavor. A quest that's realistically achievable by a party of adventurers of less than 20th level is no epic quest at all. There is no minimum number of full members who desire epic status (Companions) for a questing party, although by tradition no more than seven Companions can partake in a single quest and all of them be eligible for epic status. (Cohorts, followers, guides, and other assistants are not included in this number unless they are at least 15th level and accompany the party for more than half the duration of the quest.) A questing party of more than five must be willing to face fantastically difficult challenges to prove themselves collectively worthy of epic status. An epic-level quest need not be tackled alone, but each companion must carry their share of the burden. (Cohorts and followers, though they might be high-level themselves and active participants, are not required to share in the risk, and indeed are expected to stay in the background.) An epic quest must involve the successful completion of at least one CR 21+ encounter per Companion in the party, and all Companions must be present and actively involved for the majority of the quest, although breaks and brief side-quests can be taken individually or as a group as the need requires. Companions slain along the way should be raised from the dead expeditiously, and should miss no significant portions of the great adventure to avoid disqualification. (This may mean that the party may need to turn aside from their primary mission for some time, perhaps days or even months, in order to arrange for the resurrection of their fallen comrade.) There is no time limit on the completion of an epic quest, but no quest worthy of granting epic status should take less than a month or two from start to finish. It is not unheard of for some idealistic quests to take months or even years to accomplish. From the time a quester starts on their quest to the moment they accompish their quest, the experience earned is delayed (given that they are maxed out at 20th character level). A character may advance up to 20th level while pursuing an epic-level quest, up to amount of experience points needed for 20th level--XP beyond that point is held in abeyance until the completion of the quest. Henchmen and followers can earn experience during an epic quest, even to the point of achieving 20th level themselves--but unless they were present for the beginning of the great adventure and the great majority of the parts in between, they cannot become eligible for advancement to epic status with the successful completion of the current quest. They must go on their own quest (which may involve the occasional aid of their master, under the usual stipulations). Questers also cannot receive significant or extensive aid from another epic, immortal, or divine being during the quest or in preparation for it. (There are limited exceptions, such as gifts of non-epic gear, modest amounts of treasure, the granting of spells, the assistance of servants loyal to the benefactor, and the like.) But the chief rule here is that the questers must be willing and able to do all the hard work themselves. No quester is allowed to achieve epic status with the intervention of a powerful epic-status mentor or deific parent; it just doesn't work that way. The quest having been achieved, experience earned is applied to all qualified Companions, who are then advanced to 21st level or beyond (up to a maximum of 40th level) according to the experience points they earned during the quest. In rare cases, a Companion may achieve epic status posthumously at the completion of the quest if their death was sufficiently heroic, even if it only indirectly served the purpose of completing the quest. For example: being slain in the defense of one's fellow questers at a critical moment; dying to preserve an entire city of innocents from total destruction; (in the case of evil characters); being killed in the accomplishment of some terrible ignominious deed that significantly furthered the interests of an evil deity. Once achieved, not even divine decree can revoke epic status, even if obtained by trickery or deception. (Even godhood has been achieved by such means.) Negative levels sustained do not affect epic status. It is considered by most that epic status is a thing of destiny. If it is the fate of a mortal to ascend even to godhood, it cannot be stopped or reversed, if the powers of fate have willed it to be so. Epic characters gain the following benefits: * Epic characters retain the ability to raise an ability score by one point every fourth character level and to earn an additional character feat at every odd-numbered character level. * Epic characters are able to gain levels in any class which they have not already "maxed out" (20th level for a core or base class, or 5th or 10th level for most prestige classes), up to a maximum of 40th character level. * Any class an epic character had previously gained a level in prior to 21st level is considered a favored class. Characters who had previously taken the Eclectic feat (APG 158) may choose an additional class beyond these to be a favored class. * Epic characters may continue to improve their trained skills beyond 20 ranks. Epic characters are not limited by their character level in the number of ranks allowed for a given skill. * Epic characters are able to learn epic feats, create epic-level magic items, and take levels in epic prestige classes. Achieving Immortal Status Once a PC has reached 40th level, they must find some way to achieve immortal status. Ordinarily, mortals with epic status cannot progress past 40th level (and you must have epic status before you can even reach 40th level). Still, this metaphysical barrier can be surmounted, and the end result is the acquisition of a divine rank of zero. (For more information on divine rank, see /Deities and Demigods/ by Wizards of the Coast.) The most common methods of achieving immortal status are as follows. (1) Be born to a being of divine rank greater than zero. Having a deity as a grandparent or distant relative is not enough, and to have a deity for a parent grants one only the potential for divinity. The character must still progress through the epic levels of 21st-40th level. Beyond this, there is no additional barrier to advancing beyond 40th level. Once the character has earned enough XP to reach 41st level, he or she becomes immortal automatically and inherits a divine rank of zero. (2) Petition a deity for divine status in exchange for the accomplishing some great quest or service on the deity's behalf. This is similar in nature to the quest for achieving epic level, but its scope, overall difficulty, and individual challenges are fittingly more broad and more severe. As quests of this nature may sometimes take decades or centuries to accomplish, the deity that is willing to entertain the deal will usually confer a divine rank of zero on the mortal from the start (usually by visitation by an avatar), lifting the natural barriers of old age and infirmity that may interfere with their new servant's obligations and activities--and also putting the adventurer on the hook to fulfill their part of the bargain. (3) Be formally "adopted" by a deity into his or her divine family. Deities may have hundreds or thousands of adopted children whom they have chosen to embrace as their own. Every deity has their own ritual of deific adoption, but in most instances it is a solemn event taking place at a temple or holy site dedicated to the deity and which involves the deity in avatar form conferring the divine rank by touch. A divine adoption cannot be under false pretenses, as a deity who finds themselves tricked into the unwitting adoption of a mortal they otherwise would not embrace can immediately disown that mortal, stripping the offender of divine rank on the spot (no matter the distance or their location on a different plane of existence) and imposing a permanent level drain for every character level possessed beyond 40th level. This kind of level drain is instantaneous and irreversible by any means except by direct intervention by a deity, whether the one offended or some other god or goddess. (4) Drink a vial of nectar of a still-living plant from a garden or inner sanctum of a deity's extraplanar home. Deities are exceedingly fickle about whom they permit to enter their extraplanar territories, and it is virtually impossible to trespass upon the godly realm of a hostile god or goddess without an exceptionally powerful escort. This method will confer a divine rank of zero on the imbiber one round after the drink has been fully consumed. (5) Eat a meal prepared with the meat of a Celestial, Fiendish, Axiomatic, or Anarchic animal native to the outer planes. The animal must be ritually slain, its meat blessed by a cleric of similar alignment to the animal's native plane, and the meal prepared in a special way which preserves the animal's divine essence. This method will confer a divine rank of zero on the consumer one round after the last bite of the meal has been eaten. (6) Slay an avatar of a deity and successfully perform a certain epic spell involving yourself and the avatar's remains. This ritual (which must be started no later than one hour after the avatar's demise) captures the divine essence still lingering in the corpse and transfers it to you. The ritual takes an hour to perform and requires costly material components worth more than 200,000 gp. The divine rank of zero takes effect one minute after the completion of the ritual. It is also quite likely that the offended deity will desire to carry out swift vengeance. Naturally, it is entirely at the deity's discretion what sort of service and expectations will be levied on the mortal and the conditions under which the mission will be held accomplished, and a particularly cruel or indifferent deity may decide to withhold some particularly gruesome details of the mortal's necessary work until after the deal has been struck. Many deities will also exactingly precise in the application and interpretation of the specific conditions that must be met for the new godling's term of service to be fulfilled. However, this is one of the few instances where even a manipulative malevolent deity can be fairly trusted not to blatantly violate a contract. Though unknown to mortals, there are unspoken protocols among the gods concerning the handling and manipulation of divine essence. Granting mortals divine status is taken extremely seriously by the gods, as deities are loathe to the notion of raising up new gods and goddesses willy-nilly and would consider such a phenomenon a dire threat to their existing power base. It is not out of the question for even the benevolent deities to go to war against a deity who threatened to begin the proliferation of new godlings. Therefore, any agreements involving the sharing of divine essence carry significant penalties to a deity's prestige within the pantheon if those agreements are broken. This helps reinforce the seriousness of such agreements among the divine community, and few deities will readily enter into agreements concerning mortal ascension. Immortal characters retain all epic-level benefits, change to the Outsider creature type (and gains the Native subtype unless granted divine status by one of the first three methods described above), and gain all benefits of having a divine rank of zero as per /Deities and Demigods/ by Wizards of the Coast. [/QUOTE]
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