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View Full Version : How do epic chars and gods level up past a certain point?



randomhero00
2010-11-24, 06:02 PM
I mean gods tend to be like fighter 20/monk 20/cleric 20 or something. What are they leveling up on that gives them a challenge? How can there be enough epic creatures to go around for all the gods and epic people to fight? There's a near unlimited amount of creatures below 20, but very few epic (as far as I know).

Just kind of a funny thought I had...

Godskook
2010-11-24, 06:03 PM
*PCs* level up on a strict xp diet.

Everyone else levels at the speed of plot. Except dragons, but dragons are cool like that.

Remmirath
2010-11-24, 06:26 PM
For gods? Mostly other gods, I reckon. PCs tend to just wind up fighting tougher and tougher monsters (and sometimes more and more at a time), then gods, then whatever came before the gods of that world, et cetera... you can keep it going pretty far if you like.

In my experience, the tougher epic creatures tend to wind up being found on various different planes or remote planets the PCs somehow end up on, or things like that.

randomhero00
2010-11-24, 06:29 PM
For gods? Mostly other gods, I reckon. PCs tend to just wind up fighting tougher and tougher monsters (and sometimes more and more at a time), then gods, then whatever came before the gods of that world, et cetera... you can keep it going pretty far if you like.

In my experience, the tougher epic creatures tend to wind up being found on various different planes or remote planets the PCs somehow end up on, or things like that.

Seems like they'd have killed each other off and there'd barely be any left. Leaving a power vacuum lower levels can't breach.

Remmirath
2010-11-24, 06:46 PM
Seems like they'd have killed each other off and there'd barely be any left. Leaving a power vacuum lower levels can't breach.

Nah, because when there aren't enough, new gods start coming in and taking over (sometimes being the PCs). The cycle repeats - adventurers all end up moving up on the ladder steadily, and then you can assume that so do the monsters, down to the lowliest kobold, but they still don't start out high level so there are still 1st levels around. Or at least, you can rationalise it that way. :smallwink:

If you've got a game that's been solidly epic for a while and looks as though it's going to continue to be, there's also not much motivation to make it so that low level PCs would have anything to do (unless, I suppose, you're planning on running a low level game in the same world without anything monumental enough happening to change that. Then you'd have a motivation). Having everything gear up towards some manner of apocalypse at the end of a highly epic campaign is pretty common, in my experience.

Callista
2010-11-24, 07:00 PM
XP doesn't just come from combat... well, actually, when I've run games, it hasn't come primarily from combat at all; most of the XP I give are story and quest bonuses. I know that's technically a house rule, but so many people do it anyhow to avoid having to calculate XP all the time that it might as well be as mainstream as non-evil poison users. I really hate all the picky XP-calculating, and if I want the PCs to face something higher-level, then I want to be able to level them up and not worry about, oh, they have to fight sixty more orcs for that level. Yecch.

So, I would assume that people who are very epic or who don't fight a lot of battles would level up on RP and quest awards--maybe if Corellon manages to keep a nation of elves safe against the machinations of Lolth by inspiring his clerics to defend the nation properly and find allies among nearby human settlements, he gets XP for it.

KillianHawkeye
2010-11-24, 09:29 PM
You don't even have to kill your enemy to earn combat XP. You simply have to defeat it.

bloodtide
2010-11-24, 10:41 PM
In my world, Epic folks and Gods are well aware of this problem.

And the simple solution is, to not to do it.

For example, if even one God want around and started killing other gods, you'd run out of gods quick. Even if you start with 100 gods, a big fight or two even just once a year can easily kill five of them. And your not gonna get five newborn gods a year, so within a couple years you'd have no gods. And that is just if it's a 'random god' doing the killing.

When it's the god of Death, War, Destruction(or even Life, Peace, and Preservation) they can easily take out the 99 other gods no problem. They could destroy the gods, the planet, the plane and all of existence.

But wait...if they were to do that....then what you they do? If you really did blow up the mulitverse...what would you do next? Sit around?

So gods and epic folks take a more laid back view of live that has much less death, destruction and change. They simply agree not to change much...

Jothki
2010-11-24, 10:46 PM
Why else would lower level monsters be roaming around everywhere, if not because the gods need challenging adventurers to fight?

Remmirath
2010-11-25, 12:55 AM
XP doesn't just come from combat... well, actually, when I've run games, it hasn't come primarily from combat at all; most of the XP I give are story and quest bonuses. I know that's technically a house rule, but so many people do it anyhow to avoid having to calculate XP all the time that it might as well be as mainstream as non-evil poison users.

Proof of that, I suppose - I completely forgot that wasn't in the official rules, I've been doing it so long. Yeah, I'd certainly agree that story/quest XP is a huge part of it, as that should scale to fit the challenge.

I have an extra-strong hatred of the CR system, so I just assign everything a set XP value that seems right. It's much less aggravating, and now that I think about it, might lead to higher XP gain. Or it might not. I'm not really sure on that.

Aron Times
2010-11-25, 01:14 AM
Deities don't operate on the same rules as mortals. They gain power through belief, i.e. the acquisition of new followers. Belief is the currency of the gods, and the more people believe in a god, the more powerful he becomes.

Basically, they level up by granting spells to divine classes who then spread the word about their deity.