All hail the God-Emperor!

[Kaeso]

This thread is inspired by a currently active thread, but since its contents are rather different, so I think it's better to create this new thread than to hijack and derail an existing one.

I'm currently DMing a very high-magic campaign, in which I intend to play the Tippyverse straight and take all the ridiculous results it could lead to seriously. I want the most prominent empire in the game to be run by an emperor who is basically considered to be a living deity. I want to make him powerful and intimidating, something a PC cannot even hope to match until epic levels, if ever. He's supposed to be mere part of the scenery, but a part of the scenery that I don't want my player to forget.

I want him to be a level 20 cleric and posses at least the following traits:

-The ability to communicate without speaking
-The ability to utterly destroy low-to-mid level characters without speaking or moving
-The ability to fly at will
-The ability to radiate an imposing or intimidating aura
-The ability to summon creatures faster than a full round action

I'm planning to fix the "at will flight' issue with Animal Devotion (it can grant 2 minute flight/turn undead use, among other things), but I'm not sure how to do the other things. Could you perhaps recommend me some good feat, spells and/or general builds for the above purposes?

EDIT: Oh yeah, it would be nice if he had any way to become immortal without pure DM fiat.

[Alleran]

For immortality, be an Elan.


-The ability to communicate without speaking
-The ability to radiate an imposing or intimidating aura
These can be done with the Arcane feats in Dragon #359. Voice of the Mage, Ears of the Mage and Presence of the Mage. You'll need a fairly high arcane spellcaster level to do it, however. If you're willing to try a Mystic Theurge build instead of a straight Cleric 20, that would help with the prereqs. Alternately, you could go with Alternative Source Spell or a similar feat to let your divine spellcasting count as arcane (which might qualify you for the feats, with some wrangling).

[Ardantis]

Love the idea! Feels like Warhammer 40k in DnD form.

WELL let's see...

You need a form of telepathy. Mindspy, the presitige class come to mind. It might not be worth losing casting, though, so that's at your discretion. Might be easier to find a spell solution.

Utterly destroying mid-low level characters without moving or speaking is easy- Still Spell and Silent Spell. You've got the slots to still and silent your 7th level spells and below, including Disintegrate. Any character in the low levels and any in the mid levels with a poor Fort save die instantly without you moving or speaking.

Fly at will is a tough one. Animal Devotion is a better solution than anything that comes off the top of my head.

The aura thing I think is a feat. I'm pretty sure that Draconic Aura is a Draconic feat, unsure of the prerequisites. Either way, draconic feats aren't the best, but you should have plenty of feats to play with.

Speed summoning? I have no idea. This was all off the top of my head, mostly core solutions (yay SRD!) Someone else would have to give that to you.

Love the idea!

EDIT: To get Disintegrate on the cleric spell list, you need the Destruction Domain (and it's a lvl 7 spell, not lvl 6 like on Wiz/Sorc list)

[Xervous]

level 20 cleric

persist fly and other goodies

[Andezzar]

Love the idea! Feels like Warhammer 40k 30k in DnD form.I fixed that for you. In the 41st millennium the Emperor is just a corpse rotting on his throne. Now where do I get my Power sorry Clockwork Armor?

Speed summoning? I have no idea. This was all off the top of my head, mostly core solutions (yay SRD!) Someone else would have to give that to you.Rapid Summoning ACF if you go conjurer instead of cleric. Deities do not have to be divine casters. For the cleric there is the rapid spell feat (reduces 1 round casting to a standard action, CD p. 84) which could be fuelled by DMM.

[SilverLeaf167]

-The ability to communicate without speaking
-The ability to utterly destroy low-to-mid level characters without speaking or moving
-The ability to fly at will
-The ability to radiate an imposing or intimidating aura
-The ability to summon creatures faster than a full round action

EDIT: Oh yeah, it would be nice if he had any way to become immortal without pure DM fiat.
- If you have two feats (or a Totemist dip) to spend, you can get Shape Soulmeld (Shedu Crown) and Open Least Chakra for free telepathy, a cool crown and bull rush immunity.
- You can use Still Silent Destruction in a 9th level spell slot, or lower if you get some metamagic reduction. A Still Silent Implosion (allowing you to kill a whole bunch of people) is a level 11 spell without reduction, but you really should get some in any case.
- The Stormrage spell (Spell Compendium) allows you to fly and fire lightning from your eyes at will, but is only 1 minute/level. You can persist it though, and it really fits the epic theme as well.
- The Frightful Presence feat (Draconomicon) might help with that... I'm sure there's a spell for it somewhere, too.
- The Rapid Spell metamagic feat (Complete Divine) allows you to turn full-round spells into standard actions.

Hope I helped. :smallwink:

[Valwyn]

Phoenix cloak? Add a speed boosting item and never take it off.

Refluffed metamagic rods as rings/bracelets/etc could help you kill stuff without moving.

Does the aura need to have in game effects or is it just for show? A permanencied/item of Aura of Alignment might work (maybe the aura only works as long as he is on the throne, or holds his scepter or something). Draconomicon has Frightful Presence as a feat (Cha 15, Intimidate 9). You could also graft a Frightful Crest from Races of the Dragon (28.000 gp and give up 6 HP).

Complete Mage has the Rapid Spell metamagic (+1 level). You could combine it with DMM: Quicken. Or make up an ACF to get faster summons as a wizard (give up armor/weapons/TU uses/slots).

What domains is God taking? Is he getting more than two?

[kardar233]

Yeah, you definitely want to get in on some Persistomancy for the GOD-EMPEROR OF MANKIND!. I suggest Spelldancer plus DMM (for Evocation/Necromancy spells).

Shedu Crown is your best bet for easy Telepathy.
You could go with Invisible Persistent (blasting metamagics) Stormrage, but I'd personally drop Invisible, refluff it as giant golden rays of glorious divine energy, and have the guy shout "REJECTED" when he does. Big damn cookie if anyone gets this.
Persist Fly if you're not using Stormrage.
Opalescent Glare can give you a Evil-killing gaze attack that fears the targets even if they save. Brilliant Emanation can Blind Evil creatures.

The BoED version of Crown of Glory (unfortunately superseded by the one in SpC) makes all creatures of 8HD or less to save or stop what they're doing, look at you, hear you telepathically, and treat anything you say as a Suggestion.

[AuraTwilight]

I just realized this guy is basically building the Lady of Pain Lite.

[Gavinfoxx]

Are you using my handbooks? Please use my handbooks:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9NJIs751Af3i0IEIJwCkIp9H9YFiZYZ7u-wmYVaheI/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zilT4WGOyHM0AfpG4-GmD2FkgDg1HZ9HC1cTleQHds/edit

[Mnemnosyne]

Are you married to Cleric on this one? Because I think some other classes might work better for this, since more shenanigans are possible.

Right off the bat I'm thinking a Dread Necromancer base, with Rainbow Servant followup. With Versatile Spellcaster, Heighten Spell, and Sanctum Spell at level 1, the Dread Necromancer qualifies to enter this class at level 2. Take 10 levels of Rainbow Servant, making you level 11 with full spontaneous access to the entire cleric list. Spontaneous access to that many spells is a really solid core to your concept, as opposed to having to memorize specific spells each day.

If we add 7 levels of Mage of the Arcane Order on top of that, you can now use the spellpool to gain access to all PHB sorcerer/wizard spells.

Alternately, throw in 8 levels of Dweomerkeeper, to get those three uses of Supernatural Spell per day. Since you're limiting the character to 20 levels, no point going all the way for the capstone since that would come in at 21st level. That leaves one level to work with...however, to qualify, you need to have the Magic domain. The way to do this for most characters would be to pick up one level of Contemplative for the bonus domain. Alternately, if the God-Emperor is a dragonwrought kobold, he's a dragon, which means that if he's reached his old age category he auto-qualifies for epic feats. Pick up the Bonus Domain epic feat.

In either case, you've got at least one free level to work with, and since we're casting arcane spells now, we can pick up a Mindbender dip for Telepathy and Mindsight, which covers the 'speak without speaking' requirement. If you go Mage of the Arcane Order, you've got the Charm Person requirement fulfilled with the spellpool; if you go Dweomerkeeper, you've got to gain access to it via a feat or something. Could use the Half-Fey template and buy off the LA, to gain it as an at-will SLA, which counts for the class.

As Silverleaf noted, the Rapid Spell metamagic can allow you to reduce casting time for summons to a standard action.

If using Dweomerkeeper, Mantle of Spells lets us switch spells around between Arcane and Divine as needed. That means you can take Arcane Thesis on Implosion. You can now cast silent, stilled implosion out of a normal 9th level spell slot, allowing you to implode people at will.
For Extra Cheese: If you want to get cheesy with it, use the Irresistible Spell feat from Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide (which is an official Wizards of the Coast licensed product, so it's technically part of RAW as I understand it), to totally remove the saving throw. That's a +4 level metamagic, so we need to mitigate the cost through adding +0 metamagic effects that turn into -1 with Arcane Thesis. We add Invisible Spell, Sanctum Spell, and another Kingdoms of Kalamar feat: Miser with Magic. Now, as long as the God-Emperor can always succeed on a simple DC28 spellcraft check, he can cast rapid, stilled, silent, irresistible implosion a number of times per day equal to her Int modifier, without ever using up a spell slot in the process. At least twice per day she can even put this through Dweomerkeeper's Supernatural Spell ability, thus removing any spell resistance as well. The God-Emperor might also take Arcane Thesis on Mordenkainen's Disjunction (which is in the Magic domain, so he has it already). Thus, if he wants to obliterate someone, he might cast a rapid, silent, stilled, quickened, invisible, sanctum, miser with magic, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, then follow it up with a rapid, silent, stilled, irresistible, invisible, sanctum, miser with magic, supernatural implosion to kill the target outright, with no saving throw, no spell resistance, and MDJ probably took care of any resistance to death effects the target(s) might have, unless they're innately immune.
As others have noted, picking up one level of Spelldancer, despite the feat tax, is a better choice for persisting and otherwise enhancing buffs with metamagic than using Divine Metamagic. A spelldancer can actually persist an infinite number of spells, as long as she has something that removes fatigue and constitution damage - trying to spelldance too much just triggers a save vs. taking some damage and becoming fatigued; the spell still works, and is still modified by the metamagic feats you were altering it with. Accept that you'll fail the save, then cure the damage and remove the fatigue.

Another really useful thing to keep in mind, and it really fits the God-Emperor lore, too (well, sort of). Consumptive Field. Now, each day the God-Emperor has people fed to him and killed, which increases his caster level. Each day he repeats the process before the previous effect runs out, so each day he increases his caster level by half again. If we start at 20, that goes to 30, 45, 67, 101, 151, 227, 341, 512, 768, 1153... At 20 days into this process, he could be at CL 44,336. In order to maintain this caster level he'd have to have thousands 'fed' to him regularly. Granted, he could do this with lower life forms, since all it requires is a death, so he could use rats or something too.

[Douglas]

Another really useful thing to keep in mind, and it really fits the God-Emperor lore, too (well, sort of). Consumptive Field. Now, each day the God-Emperor has people fed to him and killed, which increases his caster level. Each day he repeats the process before the previous effect runs out, so each day he increases his caster level by half again. If we start at 20, that goes to 30, 45, 67, 101, 151, 227, 341, 512, 768, 1153... At 20 days into this process, he could be at CL 44,336. In order to maintain this caster level he'd have to have thousands 'fed' to him regularly. Granted, he could do this with lower life forms, since all it requires is a death, so he could use rats or something too.
It doesn't quite work that way. The bonus doesn't stack with itself.

Start at 20, get +10 making it 30.
Start at 30, get +15 - but that +15 doesn't stack with the +10 and the actual base is still 20, so the total is only 35.
35, get +17, total 37.
37, get +18, total 38.
38, get +19, total 39.
39, get +19, total 39.

Consumptive Field stacking will always stop at 1 short of doubling the original caster level.

[Amechra]

If you want to grab some arcane spells, look up Adoration of the Frightful, from Dragon Magic.

Any creature under a fear effect within the radius of the spell's aura is automatically friendly.

You can have a persistent Spread of Contentment up so that anyone who fails a save against his almighty presence has to make another Will Save or instantly become Helpful.

EDIT: I forgot that Adoration of the Frightful is Cleric 3, so you'll get it.

[Kaeso]

Thanks for all of the replies, guys :smallbiggrin:! There have been quite a few useful replies, and I'll try to respond to a few of them in order to progress the discussion.

@Alleran: Elans are abberations, aren't they? I don't mean to sound picky, but my setting is predominantly human (but monsterous races aren't uncommon), so I'd rather have the God-Emperor be something humanoid, even if only in form.

@Ardantis: Silent & Stilled Disintegration, I love it! I can already imagine the Emperor just staring at somebody with a contemptful look, only to have him reduced to ash with just a thought, then turning around and walking away. I'll remember that. It does mean I need to take the Destruction domain one way or another.

@Silverleaf: Persisted stormrage sounds pretty cool, but isn't the ammount of lightning bolts that can be used with that spell limited? It's a really cool idea though, it has at will flight and lightning bolts do have a godly feel to them.

@AuraTwillight: Yeah, you could say that :smallwink:. The difference is that my Emperor is statted and, as we all know: if it's statted, somebody will try to kill it. No exceptions.

@Mnemnosyne: I'm not married to the Cleric class per se, but I would prefer something with a divine, godly feel to it. I'd preferably avoid wizards due to the fact that they need a spellbook, and being bound by a physical object is not something I'd consider fitting of a Holy Emperor that rules with an iron fist and is hailed as a living god. The Dread Necromancer trick with Rainbow Servant cheese is pretty cool. At first the undead theme of the class didn't really seem fitting but now that I think about it, his mastery over life and death could inspire reverence in the people. On top of that having an undead dragon in your entourage always helps with Public Relations:smallwink:.

Your build is really... cheesy. This isn't Cheddar but Camembert: high quality cheese. I like it. :smallamused:
I also like the combo with Mage of the Arcane Order. Perhaps it could be refluffed as the spell pool being powered by his followers, allowing him to draw arcane powers from it. If they'd stop worshipping he'd be unable to access that arcane spell pool, but still be a very powerful force to contend with due to his cleric and dread necromancer spells.

@Amechra: Adoration of the Frightful... nice. It's a low level spell so it can easily be persisted, and the Emperor should have a high enough wisdom score to make it hard for the average commoner to save against it. However, this does raise the problem of MAD. While I could give the Emperor all 18's through DM fiat cheese, it's kind of odd that he now needs both cha and wis to cast.

Thanks again guys, you've been really helpful and this new build has given me some awesome ideas.

EDIT: The Necropolitan template makes one undead (and thus immortal) without having any LA, right? If so, I just smack that on the build described in the posts above and I'm good.

[Douglas]

@Alleran: Elans are abberations, aren't they? I don't mean to sound picky, but my setting is predominantly human (but monsterous races aren't uncommon), so I'd rather have the God-Emperor be something humanoid, even if only in form.
Technically yes, but they look just like humans. Their fluff is that they used to be humans, and got sort of rebuilt with a secret psionic ritual.

[Nameless Ghost]

Technically yes, but they look just like humans. Their fluff is that they used to be humans, and got sort of rebuilt with a secret psionic ritual.
Which actually fits quite nicely with the God Emprah fluff in itself.

[Kaeso]

Technically yes, but they look just like humans. Their fluff is that they used to be humans, and got sort of rebuilt with a secret psionic ritual.

Psionic ritual. Sounds nice, but sadly I have no idea how psionics work.

[Douglas]

Psionic ritual. Sounds nice, but sadly I have no idea how psionics work.
In this case, neither does anyone else. It is purely, completely, and entirely a fluff detail. You can use the race and completely ignore the entire rest of the psionics rules set.

[Runestar]

At this point, I think you can basically just have the cleric use miracle as a plot-hook to let him access whatever ability he wants. At-will abilities such as flight and telepathy aren't that game-breaking that they will upset game balance if hand-waved in.