The ascension of a god

[steakburger]

I recently bought the book "Deities and Demigods," and it reallly intrigued me when I read about Imhotep, a mortal who ascended to the position of Demigod. I read a little more into it, and noticed that a mortal can become a proxy of a deity in exchange for an investment of that deities power, and he/she is given the rank of demi-god....but then the proxy is pretty much controlled by the deity itself. How can a mortal, such as Imhotep, advance to the ranks of the gods...by high level alone? How did he gain the divine rank of 1? And while I'm asking that, let me throw another question out there...how do deities advance their divine ranks? Is it just something that can't be done, and you're limited to creating a god and then sticking him/her with a divine rank forever?

If any of you know the answer of any of these questions...hell, if anyone could just take a stab at it, it would help me greatly. Thanks!

 

[Romnipotent]

worshippers
being deified by a Greater God
artifact that carries the power of a god that you become, but not fully.
the DM tells you "You have Divine Rank 0"
raising it.
get more worshippers, more deity favours, more planes of influence, and a pizza for the DM.

 

[steakburger]

Are there any specific rules as to how much you can raise your divine rank, or how much you have to do/be worshipped to raise it?

 

[SkidAce]

Try to find a used copy of the Primal Order...publ;ished by WotC before Magic the Gathering. Has rules for all the deity creating and advancing you could wish for.

Other than that....just use DM fiat on deity advancement.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Well in Imhoteps case, you have to die first and wait a while and you get to be a demigod. Then wait a couple more millenia and you can have full diety status. It takes a while to work your way up through the ranks to God hood.

 

[No Name]

Or you could be the child of a deity and a mortal.

Set the full Divine Rank 0 at level 20. As the character levels, gradually increase the divine powers. In other words, the character grows into it. A level 2 character with 1/epic damage reduction and max hit points can still be taken down by a couple of goblins.

And keep in mind that DR 0 characters can still be diseased and poisoned. The stat reduction from those does not fall under the ability damage or ability drain categories.

 

[Khairn]

As has already been mentioned, Primal Order is a wonderful resource for almost all things that are of a "divine rank".

The book provides rules and suggestions that include ascending into godhood, using your godly power, interacting with other gods who live on your block, and influencing the mortal slugs who helped made you what your are.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey there steakburger!

Are there any specific rules as to how much you can raise your divine rank, or how much you have to do/be worshipped to raise it?

Yes. I am working on just such a set of rules (see the link in my signature).

As regards Primal Order (which is a very good book), it has a method of equating worship with power, but it doesn't present rules on how to garner worship itself.

 

[Jdvn1]

I have a friend who made a 'deity class' in order to raise Divine Rank, but I'm not a fan of that method. The book, I believe, specifies that rank is based on number of followers, but that's all flavor text. It's all up to the GM.