Garnfellow
Explorer
I’m looking for help with some template designs. I’ve seen lots of people ask for this, but as far as I know no one has yet published one: a good quasi-deity template that models the divine rules in Deities and Demigods.
There are a couple of stumbling blocks that have probably steered people away. First, there’s the difficulty in assigning challenge rating or character level adjustments to such powerful templates. Second, there’s the inconsistency in WotC’s published versions of quasi-deities (partly due to the 3.5 revision).
To tackle the second problem first: the description of divine abilities lays out the basic abilities that are common to all deities. These include powerful spell resistance, maximum hit points for each HD, several immunities, and (of course!) immortality. But several published examples of quasi-deities often include common features that are not called out in the divine abilities section, such as possession of the Outsider creature type and the divine ability score array.
What I propose is that two separate templates are at work: a basic Quasi-Deity template that confers all of the abilities common to all divine creatures, as well as second template that stacks on top of the first and provides the outsider type and the divine ability score array. I call this the “Ascendant Quasi-Deity” template.
I did a close reading of the divine abilities section of the SRD. Any ability that was described as being possessed by ALL deities was included in the Quasi-Deity template; any ability that was described as being possessed by MOST deities AND was used in published examples of quasi-deities was included in the Ascendant Quasi-Deity template.
As far as challenge ratings and level adjustments, there are likely no easy answers. Any template that provides such dramatic changes without a corresponding increase in HD is going to be CR wonky. I plugged these abilities into the Grim Tales Creature CR calculator and got some pretty wild swings in the results. And as far as level adjustment? I’ve seen estimates of anything from +4 to +14. I’ve taken a wild stab at it, and would appreciate any insight.
So here are my draft versions for review and comment:
There are a couple of stumbling blocks that have probably steered people away. First, there’s the difficulty in assigning challenge rating or character level adjustments to such powerful templates. Second, there’s the inconsistency in WotC’s published versions of quasi-deities (partly due to the 3.5 revision).
To tackle the second problem first: the description of divine abilities lays out the basic abilities that are common to all deities. These include powerful spell resistance, maximum hit points for each HD, several immunities, and (of course!) immortality. But several published examples of quasi-deities often include common features that are not called out in the divine abilities section, such as possession of the Outsider creature type and the divine ability score array.
What I propose is that two separate templates are at work: a basic Quasi-Deity template that confers all of the abilities common to all divine creatures, as well as second template that stacks on top of the first and provides the outsider type and the divine ability score array. I call this the “Ascendant Quasi-Deity” template.
I did a close reading of the divine abilities section of the SRD. Any ability that was described as being possessed by ALL deities was included in the Quasi-Deity template; any ability that was described as being possessed by MOST deities AND was used in published examples of quasi-deities was included in the Ascendant Quasi-Deity template.
As far as challenge ratings and level adjustments, there are likely no easy answers. Any template that provides such dramatic changes without a corresponding increase in HD is going to be CR wonky. I plugged these abilities into the Grim Tales Creature CR calculator and got some pretty wild swings in the results. And as far as level adjustment? I’ve seen estimates of anything from +4 to +14. I’ve taken a wild stab at it, and would appreciate any insight.
So here are my draft versions for review and comment:
