From e6 to divine power

[GM1010011010]

I will soon be running the finale of a campaign that lasted a year and a half, which itself was the second arc of another campaign that ran 10 years ago. This means I want the closing scene to be as memorable as can be.

I will unwrap most of the plot threads in the scenes reaching to the conclusion which can be summarized as follow: The players face a lich that's been succesful in summoning Pandorym's body and is about to reunite it with its mind. Completely outpowered they use a divine conduit plot item to bring an almost forgotten god in for help. This succesfully awakens Pandorym who proceeds to slay/devour him. In the process parts of the divine energy is scattered and the players have to take it for themselves in order to fend off Pandorym before he devours them and other gods.

The game runs using both the e6 framework and gestalt, so the players are powerful but I will definitely not run Pandorym as written in the elder evils book. I want the players to feel more powerful without resorting to epic rules or divine rules which I find to be silly, plus it would feel like playing completely new characters for them which would probably complicate an epic fight.

With all of that being said, how could I make the player feel like demi-god-ish entities fighting an elder evil about to crush all divine beings while not striding too far away from the current ruleset and powers they have. I am open to anything, even using a simpler different ruleset, as long as the players grasp their new power level easily and an epic fight can be had without diving into books for new rules all the time.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[Albions_Angel]

Not hugely familiar with e6 (though I understand the principle).

You could have them watch the elder evil defeat the gods, but the defeat is because the gods are either inflexible in their thinking or they dont have McGuffin X. Then have a last ditch effort for the players to utilize a weakness the gods didnt spot, or find McGuffin X, which make the elder evil mortal and killable. Final showdown with now weakened monster, still tough but totally possible.

Or have them get blessed somehow to be resistant to some attacks, meanwhile showcasing the elder evil destroying whole armies?

EDIT: Just remembered Age of Mythology, where your main hero dies at the end and is resurrected as an actual demigod. You could have something similar happen to your players. They try and kill it, and fail. I assume you know their characters pretty well by now, so behind the scenes, you could stat up "normal" gestalt characters. As in they have class levels beyond level 6. Now they have been brought back to kill the elder evil as fully fledged demigods. Yes, they are playing different characters, but the essence is still the same.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'd recommend not going the "new system" route, or even "drastically different characters" bit-- the sudden shift in mechanics will inevitably be distracting and throw you back to first-session "wait, how does this one ability work?" disruptions.

[emulord]

Gestalt makes this harder, but I'd just level them up to 20 in hit dice, BaB, Saves, Spells/day, Boost their stats by up to +4 to each.

Don't give them extra spells known or class features since they didnt earn the power fairly through experience.

What I'd have Pandorm do is eat those bonus HD from the players but it doesn't even notice the mortal's presence while it is trying to devour divine essence. This gives a nice risk/reward since Pandorm will prioritize the most boosted character. Also, since it'll take so long for Pandorm to eat all their HD away, the players have time to figure out how to kill it.

[Dread_Head]

The Mythic rules from Pathfinder would work quite well for this. Their characters could stay as they are with the addition of 1+ mythic tiers and the abilities they grant. If you choose appropriate paths for each character and write note cards with their mythic abilities on them then there shouldn't be too much checking of books required.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mythicAdventures/mythicHeroes.html

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Use crazy terrain conditions that they would have to weaponize. Maybe the plane starts to break down as all these epic entities appear? Maybe it gains the Morphic trait? Or maybe it only gains the Morphic trait for them. That's a good, useful approximation of divine power. And maybe have random outsider's appear every few rounds in random locations?
This would make the fight both complex and memorable!

Otherwise, allow the divine power to grant each player a boon of their choice, that they can change or recast once per round as a free action, and that must be a cleric spell of level 7 or less as CL20. Encourage them not to choose attack spells. Voila!

[noce]

Give each of them the half-celestial template.
It has fluff, it has crunch and it's a simple solution.