CR of a deity?

[Esprit15]

A friend of mine is running an epic game and is at a loss of how to balance a fight against a deity. How much does a divine rank of 0 increase CR, versus actually gaining Salient Divine Abilities?

[InvisibleBison]

According to Deities and Demigods, a divine rank of 0 doesn't actually change a creature's CR at all.

[Doctor Despair]

Once you get to the point you're introducing divine ranks, the CR system isn't really useful anymore. You'll just have to look at where the stats of the creature compare to those of your party and decide how likely or possible it is for the party to beat it.

[NOhara24]

Once you get to the point you're introducing divine ranks, the CR system isn't really useful anymore. You'll just have to look at where the stats of the creature compare to those of your party and decide how likely or possible it is for the party to beat it.


The above is correct. The CR system at its best is based on subjective judgement and has plenty of instances of being flat out wrong. The SRD says the following concerning Divine Rank 0:

Creatures of this rank are sometimes called quasi-deities or hero deities. Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category. These entities cannot grant spells, but are immortal and usually have one or more ability scores that are far above the norm for their species. They may have some worshipers. Ordinary mortals do not have a divine rank of 0. They lack a divine rank altogether.

So they're immortal and stronger/faster/prettier etc. than regular people. In that regard, it would be better to find templates that only bring higher ability scores to the table and see how much the LA is increased in those templates and try to balance accordingly if you're set on trying to balance things around CR.