Becoming a devil

[The Insanity]

I need ideas for how could someone become a greater devil (around CR 12), preferably without involving any devils. If it helps, the characters that want to do it are half-devils and they want to become the same devil type as their fiendish parent.

[Oberon Kenobi]

Are you the GM? If so, I'd just write up an Incantation for it. Frame it as blood magic available to those descended from fiends, or whatever floats your boat. When they complete the Incantation's requirements, boom: they become devils. Treat their new ECL as whatever. No PAO shenanigans, Wish chicken, Devil contact or other arbitrary hoop jumping required.

[The Insanity]

I was more looking for something more complex/involving, that could be an entire adventure. Working on the incantation/ritual could involve more than just "research, research, poof, you're a devil", I guess. Maybe gathering some rare ingredients?

[Oberon Kenobi]

Sure. Heck, tracking down the Incantation itself in the first place could be an adventure, and that's before you start working on gathering whatever stuff you need. I'm pretty sure "rare and costly component" is one of the recommended requirements, so you can make that as adventure-driving as you want depending on what component you set as a price.

The open endedness of the Incantation rules is what makes them great for quests like this. They're deliberately designed to be more of a pain in the ass to research and use than spells, but in a way that they're more likely to create objectives than to just require throwing a bunch of gold at the problem.

[frogglesmash]

I was more looking for something more complex/involving, that could be an entire adventure. Working on the incantation/ritual could involve more than just "research, research, poof, you're a devil", I guess. Maybe gathering some rare ingredients?

Research doesn't have to be "research, research, poof" it can be a long and involved process where you have to track down various sources of information such as old tomes of forbidden lore, ancient liches in possession of foul, arcane secrets, and even summoning a devil or two to be interrogated directly. next you have to find all the various components of the ritual. These could be anything from the blood of 100 innocents (read infants/virgins), to the bones of a saint, or the soul of an angel or some combination of all or none of these ingredients. Finally they've got to perform some sort of sacrifice because no power is without cost. But of course that's not the end, after all there's no way the Lords of Hell would let you -a mere mortal- fast track your ascension through the infernal ranks. No, now you must prove your usefulness. At this point you're probably an imp, or if you're lucky a Kyton or Barbazu, and from this low point you must work your way to the top of the infernal hierarchy until finally you attain the form of pit fiend (or an ice devil/barbed devil if you want to cap them at CR 12)

Edit: Ninja'd, though I think mine's a little more evocative.

[The Insanity]

But he's not a "mere mortal". He's a 20th level character, powerful enough that skipping past the low ranks right into something better should be not only a possibility, but expected. Besides, I'm looking for an adventure, not a campaign, not to mention that we don't want the characters to serve devils. Somehow earning a favor from a Duke or even an Achdevil, on the other hand, could prove to be chellenging and fun.

[frogglesmash]

But he's not a "mere mortal". He's a 20th level character, powerful enough that skipping past the low ranks right into something better should be not only a possibility, but expected. Besides, I'm looking for an adventure, not a campaign, not to mention that we don't want the characters to serve devils. Somehow earning a favor from a Duke or even an Achdevil, on the other hand, could prove to be chellenging and fun.

I mean, it's pretty simple to tailor it to a higher level character/party, just increase the difficulty for finding the various resources, and cut out the last bit. Alternatively you could change the focus of the last from "become Pit Fiend" to "become Archdevil/demigod." That could actually be a more interesting way of gaining power than leveling up past 20 though you may want to consult your players on that one.

[5ColouredWalker]

Under Demons beastiary entry in the PFsrd, there's a section for becoming a Demon (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon). [Basically be really SE, do a couple of quests and sacrifices, and over the course of 2 years, you can become a demon with HD up to your HD [While keeping your levels.].] It appears under 'Transformation Ritual'.

Refluff, Change from SE to LE, and if desired reduce the time-frame, perhaps by adding a third task. Based on the tasks, you should be able to get 2-3 quests out of the base rules.

[frogglesmash]

Another idea is to use this fiendish transformation as a way of essentially restarting your game by having them become Devils via the most common path i.e. dying, going to hell, becoming a petitioner, and getting promoted to the exalted position of Lemure (without class levels) and then slowly working your way through the demonic ranks. Some things to consider, would be whether or not you wanted your characters to regain their former power or not, if so I'd suggest doing a sort of gestalt thing where they increase their "devil levils" on one side and regain their former class levels/feats/spells etc. on the other. Your players will probably really like this idea or really hate this. It probably doesn't need to be mentioned, but if even one of your players expresses distaste for this idea you should probably avoid it.

[The Insanity]

Under Demons beastiary entry in the PFsrd, there's a section for becoming a Demon (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon). [Basically be really SE, do a couple of quests and sacrifices, and over the course of 2 years, you can become a demon with HD up to your HD [While keeping your levels.].] It appears under 'Transformation Ritual'.

Refluff, Change from SE to LE, and if desired reduce the time-frame, perhaps by adding a third task. Based on the tasks, you should be able to get 2-3 quests out of the base rules.
I'll check it out. Sounds like the ticket.


Another idea is to use this fiendish transformation as a way of essentially restarting your game by having them become Devils via the most common path i.e. dying, going to hell, becoming a petitioner, and getting promoted to the exalted position of Lemure (without class levels) and then slowly working your way through the demonic ranks. Some things to consider, would be whether or not you wanted your characters to regain their former power or not, if so I'd suggest doing a sort of gestalt thing where they increase their "devil levils" on one side and regain their former class levels/feats/spells etc. on the other. Your players will probably really like this idea or really hate this. It probably doesn't need to be mentioned, but if even one of your players expresses distaste for this idea you should probably avoid it.
That's not something that neither me or anyone else in my group would go for. We're pretty happy and content playing our current campaign/characters.

[ranagrande]

One of the rituals from Savage Species should be able to do this too.

[noob]

Get psionic and arcane stuff.
Shape-change into the right type then use fusion on some creature with powers you think fitting with the devil theme without being one(while it is sleeping since when you sleep you are consentant) then shape-change into a devil the cast astral seed and kill yourself.
The GM will power attack you irl with a book.

[Flickerdart]

Step 1: Find a cerebremancer that knows planar binding, fusion and astral seed.
Step 2: Have him manifest astral seed on himself.
Step 2: Have him bind the right kind of devil, then fuse with the devil and with you.
Step 4: Have him manifest astral seed on the fused being.
Step 5: Have him put you in control of the fusion. Kill yourself.

Your old bodies all die. There are two astral seeds that now germinate - the original cerebremancer, and a fusion of the cerebremancer, the devil, and you, with you in control of the mind, and with the fused body (that is created by astral seed and not fusion so it persists indefinitely).