The New 4th Edition God-Killing Rules

[nicholasgeorg]

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is where Scales of War is headed. Call me crazy, but I haven't seen mentioned anywhere on these boards the potential Bahamut cameo in Lost Mines of Karak...

 

[avin]

I'm currently working on a cosmology for Paizo wherein gods are very much the biggest things on the block

Shelyn stuff?

Is it for PF core or some suplement?

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Seriously though... in the art of Dragonlance book there's this picture of raistlin all tied up in the abyss while Tahkisis watches over him... She's pretty dang hot in that 80s pornqueen look Elmore does so well!

*nitpick* That's not by Elmore. It's by Clyde Caldwell.

 

[Scribble]

*nitpick* That's not by Elmore. It's by Clyde Caldwell.

I stand corrected... She's still hot... and 80s though.

 

[Shemeska]

Is it for PF core or some suplement?

"The Great Beyond: A Guide to the Multiverse"

 

[doctorhook]

There are dead gods, right? So presumably, this actually happened before.

It is trivially easy for humans to kill each other. Yet they rarely do so. It happens, but these people are usually punished by the society, unless the entire society supported the murder.

And that's probably the same for gods. Maybe Bahamut could try to kill Tiamat - or the other way around. But Bahamut - he would be setting a bad example and might fear the repercussions. Tiamat knows that Bahamut has allies that might come kill him. So they arrange with each other, and to solve their conflicts on the material world, among followers and angels.

But there is another problem - if gods actually first have to complete some kind of quest to commit a murder among each other, this is a lot of prepwork. If the only way to kill a human was to first travel half the world and buy a bazooka, how many murders would still happen? How many could hope to go unnoticed? Even if you "hire" someone else to do it - how likely is it he gets stopped?
How many epic heroes fail their quests? How many epic heroes even exist?

^ I'm with this guy. He's got it right.

 

[Phaezen]

There are dead gods, right? So presumably, this actually happened before.

It is trivially easy for humans to kill each other. Yet they rarely do so. It happens, but these people are usually punished by the society, unless the entire society supported the murder.

And that's probably the same for gods. Maybe Bahamut could try to kill Tiamat - or the other way around. But Bahamut - he would be setting a bad example and might fear the repercussions. Tiamat knows that Bahamut has allies that might come kill him. So they arrange with each other, and to solve their conflicts on the material world, among followers and angels.

But there is another problem - if gods actually first have to complete some kind of quest to commit a murder among each other, this is a lot of prepwork. If the only way to kill a human was to first travel half the world and buy a bazooka, how many murders would still happen? How many could hope to go unnoticed? Even if you "hire" someone else to do it - how likely is it he gets stopped?
How many epic heroes fail their quests? How many epic heroes even exist?

^ I'm with this guy. He's got it right.

This.

The God/s choosing and guiding a hero or group of heroes to kill another God/ other Gods is a fairly well established trope. Infact you can almost design a campaign around it

In my case it is a demon prince going after godhood.

Phaezen

 

[Scribble]

Yeah... Just because a god CAN do something doesn't mean it's automatic... I mean I see them kind of like kings... Yeah the king could get up, walk to the next kingdom over challange another king to a fight, kill him and take his stuff...

But that's a pain in the thronepillow...

Much easier just to get your followers to do all that stuff for you, while you sit and reap the rewards.

 

[ferratus]

Secondly, I'm OK with Tiamat being an antagonist that epic characters can kill if they're lucky, but if anybody starts equating her with Takhisis I'm going to scream. One's a big five headed super-dragon, the other's a greater god who happens to take the form of a big five headed super-dragon when she's slumming in the Temple of Neraka.

Yeah! Takhisis should only be killed by a single blow by a spear wielding adolescent elf!

 

[Logan_Bonner]

Out of curiosity, what was the grounds for saying that deity X is fightable versus deity Y not being fightable?

Our main concern is, "Who will people want to fight, who will make the most compelling battles, and who will best fit in books we're doing."

Tiamat's an easy one. If you like fighting dragons, here's the mother (in more ways than one). She's got five heads for five times the combat prowess. We're doing Draconomicon all about chromatics, and she's all sorts of chromatic.

We'll probably be avoiding good an lawful good deities, just because it's less likely you'll fight them. Who really wants to put Pelor in his place in their game? Seems awfully boring. Now who wants to fight Bane or Tiamat or Torog? Those are more in the "big D&D monster who wants to kill you" mode. We might put out stats for non-evil, non-chaotic evil gods in books they really fit in, like Corellon in a book about the Feywild or the Raven Queen in a book about the Shadowfell or whatever, but it's still less likely.

There aren't many deities who are just too tough to take on. Especially with the evil/CE deities, we wanted ones that looked like you might be able to take them down.