Players getting a divine rank

[danzibr]

So I've seen movies like Immortals and Wrath of the Titans Lately, and I thought it'd be cool for a player to get a divine rank (probably 0). In particular, the next time I DM I plan on having the entire campaign be player-centric (very possible if I just DM for my wife), and maybe end with one of the players ascending to, well, "godhood" probably isn't the right word, but... ya know.

So have any of you as players or DM's witnessed this happen?

For that matter, I don't have the Deities & Demigods book, but are there rules for being the offspring of a mortal and a god?

[RMS Oceanic]

The basic rules for Divinity are In the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/divineRanksPowers.htm). I think you can fluff it however you want to explain what they do or don't get.

[danzibr]

The basic rules for Divinity are In the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/divineRanksPowers.htm). I think you can fluff it however you want to explain what they do or don't get.
Yeah, I was just reading that. Divine rank 0 grants quite a bit of stuff, but divine rank 1 grants waaaay more (at least that's how I felt).

It'd probably be something like (I'm thinking as a DM here)... party gets to epic levels, save the world on some god's behalf, turns out one of the players was said god's child, ascends to divine rank 0, revamp character sheet.

[Alleran]

Once you hit Divine Rank 1, it's essentially game over. You have too much power and too much ability to break the game for it to be remotely balanced. I think DvR 0 has been (in the past) tentatively marked as worth about +6 LA or about 500k worth of WBL, but once you reach DvR 1, SDAs enter into play.

[Emperor Tippy]

Divine Rank 0 is fine to give to tier 4 or lower classes after about 15th level and tier 3 classes after about level 18-19.

Divine Rank 1 depends mostly on what SDA's you allow the character to have. Alter Reality is effectively unlimited casting of every single spell in the game for no material or XP cost as a standard action, while Supreme Initiative isn't that bad for level 20 or so play.

[Yorrin]

Divine Rank 1 depends mostly on what SDA's you allow the character to have..

This.

The way I would handle it is to assign SDAs thematically rather than letting players choose them. For example- the "elemental" SDAs are powerful, flavorful, and fun without (necessarily) being game breaking in the way Alter Reality would be. So give Divine Earth Mastery to the party Dwarf, for example.

[hamishspence]

The Dicefreaks Deity Rules (http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19) adjust things a bit- going out of their way to make sure that most of the "must take" abilities from Deities & Demigods are built into the basic deity statblock.

Maybe those might work for a divine campaign?

[Morithias]

According to my group, we calculated the Quasi-Deity (divine rank 0 with no ability enhancements) to be la +3

The reason for this is in the Dragonomicon. The class that turns a dragon into a quasi-deity gets more powerful abilities than the one that makes you a half-fiend so logically WOTC considers it to be weaker.

Once you get into what we call "Ascended quasi-deity" (+14,+14,+12+12,+10,+10 or whatever it was to your ability scores), we put that at la +9.

I once used the ECL calculator you can find online to calculate the LA of a divine rank 1...la +15 for a total of La +27 for being a divine rank 1 god.

[moritheil]

Divine Rank 0 is fine to give to tier 4 or lower classes after about 15th level and tier 3 classes after about level 18-19.

This seems to accord well with what I've seen. Only high level or epic games should involve divine rank 0.


Divine Rank 1 depends mostly on what SDA's you allow the character to have. Alter Reality is effectively unlimited casting of every single spell in the game for no material or XP cost as a standard action, while Supreme Initiative isn't that bad for level 20 or so play.

Yeah, don't give them Alter Reality. That was clearly intended as a justification of NPC deities doing whatever they please. I've actually never seen Divine Rank 1+ not break a game, but I suppose if you trust your players, you can try.

[Urpriest]

According to my group, we calculated the Quasi-Deity (divine rank 0 with no ability enhancements) to be la +3

The reason for this is in the Dragonomicon. The class that turns a dragon into a quasi-deity gets more powerful abilities than the one that makes you a half-fiend so logically WOTC considers it to be weaker.



IIRC the prereqs are much more stringent.

[Alleran]

IIRC the prereqs are much more stringent.
For the Dragon Ascendant?

Sort of, I suppose.

Race: Any true dragon.
BAB: +30.
Feats: Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Draconic Knowledge, Fast Healing.
Special: Must consume entire hoard (hoard must total at least 100,000gp and you can't eat just 100k worth, you have to eat it all).

It's the +30 BAB that really puts the class out of reach of anything except high epic (Iron Will can be picked up from an Otyugh Hole, and the other feats can be tagged along the way - even Fast Healing only needs CON 25 and the ability to take Epic feats). You'll need either 30 Dragon HD or some mix of Dragon HD and class HD to get the +30. Or abuse Dusk Giant/Barghest feeding via Shapechange, maybe.

[Soulean]

Rank 0 doesn't seem too crazy. It usually comes down to if the DM can handle it or not. When the PC gets rank 0 see what they take, look at each ability and ask yourself if you can reasonably challenge a player with it. Depending how they gain their rank you could even just give out abilities you choose based on the character.

Deities can be played however you want. The answer to a funky setting/creature is often 'a wizard did it'. Gods bend all the rules and this may be the only time you get to DM a char with divine rank. Almost certainly the only time the player will have a character like this so make sure its memorable and fun.