i need to give minor godlike powers to my players, but I'm out of ideas

[King of Nowhere]

short story, the party and one npc got minor godlike powers which mostly I have yet to define.

Long story: 700 years ago the high priest of vecna decided to refluff his religion, turn down the evilness and try to appeal the general public as a evil god of knowledge. he managed to gain acceptance and a wide following.
all the while, though, he was planning a betrayal. Using his good public relations he was allowed to build a great cathedral in one of the major cities, and underneath it a large stronghold. Inside, he secretly prepared a device and a ritual that would suck out the soul of everyone in the city, extract the tiny bit of divine essence that is inside every sapient being, and ascend to godhood.
today his plan was finally ready. he sponsored a great fair in the city to have the largest number of victims, and he even arranged a sports event to keep the pcs, the only people capable of stopping him, away. However, a minor incident put off his timing, so when he sprung up the ritual (which acted slowly) the pcs were actually in a position to stop him. he could not get help, as any ally of his would have his soul drained like anyone else, and even golems got shut down. so the party could find him alone and stop him.
during the fight, the ritual got out of control, and the divine energy of roughly 50 thousand souls escaped and blasted everyone in the room, giving them the status of very minor deity.

the party got
- +6 divine bonus to all stats (reward for figthing particularly well)
- agelessness (pure fluff, but one player wanted so badly to be ageless (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?568084-How-to-achieve-immortality))
- immunity to soul binding and similar effects (actually quite important, in my high level campaign death and resurrections are quite common)

the vecna dude got
- +2 to all stats (lesser bonus as he lost)
- can ignore enemy antimagic fields, but he's still vilnerable to his own (basically, i don't want the next fight to be a race to put him in antimagic. this is how this fight went, and it was rather anticlimatic - even with contingencies and adamantium hats. But i also don't want him to abuse antimagic by casting from inside one)

Besides from that, I wanted to give everyone else some cool power, that may or may not be useful in combat. possibly related to their personality, though most of the party don't have much personality, unfortunately.

- the barbarian is an orc, and he became a messiah among his race. i was thinking of something like "wherever an orc struggles, he's wiith him" that would let him "scry" on any figthing orc and get him some mild buffs and teleport there if he wishes
- the cleric's main goal is to be as hard to kill as possible. he's already sporting 50 AC and great saving throws, was thinking something like "once per day he can completely ignore any effect", like one of the uses of wish

though i'm not really happy about either of those.

I looked at the deities and demigods manual, but nothing i saw interested me.

Ideally, I would like for the vecna dude (who, as a cleric with +17 to wisdom, was already the most powerful individual around) to become nigh invincible, with the party being the only ones remaining that can hold their own against him. But I'd rather not give too crazy power boosts, rather reduce exploitable weaknesses (like the antimagic field) both for him and the party

though I'm not sure what I am really llooking for, I'll gladly take any suggestion.

[ngilop]

Take a look at pathfinder's mythic rules (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/mythic/) for some ideas.

[Bronk]

You could let them pick a power they already have, then allow that power to work as if a deity was using it, like telepathy working out to 500 feet.

You could make a list of templates that they would get for free, maybe up to a few LA that offer interesting new powers and some supernatural abilities, like half-celestial, half-fey, radiant, etc. At higher levels where advancement might slow down a bit it feels neat to get new things, even if a lot of them are low level and won't get used much.

You could pick a few of the weaker salient divine abilities and let them use them a few times a day (auto roll a twenty on an attack, that kind of thing).

[Endril_69]

Ngilop beat me to it. You could also give them access to epic feats. Or give them some of the abilities from Deities and Demigods without the divine ranks.

[Endril_69]

I also like the templates idea, and saint is another good one.

[Selion]

I second pathfinder mythic rules. There are things unbalanced, but if you wave properly the ban hammer you'll have a smooth transition from mortality to divinity

[Arbane]

Check out Godbound ("Exalted, if its rules were based on Basic D&D instead of Vampire"), give them each a Word or two?

[Segev]

The orc messiah could just gain the ability to grant spells to orc clerics who pray to him, and with it knowledge of what they’re praying for and the ability to cast Dream on any of his clerics to communicate with them.

The cleric gains the power to cast Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection without the expensive material components by substituting a few drops of his own blood, tears, or other thematic thing suitable to his narrative (pick something specific). He also can cast Astral Projection at will (on himself only) and always counts as being under its effect. He’s literally going personally to afterlives to escort those he brings back back to their bodies.

He also is constantly Astral projecting. He doesn’t have a body that is vulnerable; and his silver cords tie him to everybody he’s brought back to life. This means he can re-project if his Astral body is killed, and even severing a cord only kills the person he’s tied to, not him. All cords must be severed and/or all he’s brought back to life must be dead to kill him permanently.

[King of Nowhere]

wow, didn't think i'd get so may good suggestions so fast. I'll check them now

EDIT: since templates were suggested, is there some collections of them somewhere?

[Coventry]

Let them have clerics of their own … such as:

"Select up to ten willing humanoids with levels in only NPC classes (commoner, warrior, adept, aristocrat, expert, etc) and no racial HD. For each subject, you may use your divine power to become their divine patron and switch one level of that NPC's classes over to 1 level of cleric. This is your flock, guide them and help them grow or not, as you so choose. You may, but are not required to, reveal your alignment or identity to each subject. You will hear their prayers, and will be able to grant spells to them."

Having ten first level clerics is not much of a mechanical benefit for your players, unless they really invest time into helping their chosen ones along.

[Quertus]

Is the party just two characters?

Give the Cleric free counter spell, 1/round. That should help him "be the only one who can defeat the Cleric of Verca".

Give the Barbarian free Iron Heart Surge 1/round. Same reason.

Or, for added fun, switch them. Or give both to both.

[Quarian Rex]

Options from the Horrifically Overpowered Feats (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=horrifically+overpowered+feats ++&x=19&y=16&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=) line of books might be in order. There are some gems in there and there are usually so few opportunities to appropriately add such things to an actual game. Also, take a look at the [Gift] and [Knack] feats from Grod the Giant's Chopping Down the Christmas Tree (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357810-Chopping-Down-the-Christmas-Tree-Low-Magic-Item-Rules).

[King of Nowhere]

Is the party just two characters?



no, they are 5, but the others never developed enough personalities that I can get something tailored specifically for them :(

[The Kool]

Firstly, if you want to begin to include followers, consider granting them the leadership feat for free. The followers represent the devoted, and I would recommend leaving the cohort off. This could give you a good way to track how many people worship them (and extend the totals into the Epic Leadership chart as well).

A big question to ask here is "minor" vs "divine". I recommend strongly against straight numbers boosts, as your party seems to have that down. One idea is Legendary Resistance from 5e, where the character gets to choose to succeed on a failed saving throw 3/day. Oops, rolled a 3 on that save vs Disintegrate? Nah, let's just say you saved. Another might be the ability to alter fortune by forcing an opponent to reroll or even fail a roll they just made. 'Minor' divine abilities might line up with things like shapeshifting, perhaps if there's a druid they gain the ability to wildshape at will, gaining the Shapechanger subtype. An arcane caster may gain Minor Creation or something similar as an at-will SLA. A melee brute might gain fast healing, a defensive caster could gain the ability to counterspell as an immediate action (not to be underestimated), I can rattle off more ideas if you like I just need an idea of which direction you want to take things and who your targets are.

[martixy]

You could look at Epic Destinies.

[Bronk]

I like the idea of epic destinies too... I would suggest that in this case you make them all free, but place all the milestones so that they match up with your story, and especially hold off on the capstone until whenever it is your campaign ends. Usually their final destiny is to leave the game world, even if it is in a cool way, so if you want to include that at all you'd want to time it yourself to coincide with the last game, should it ever come, and not be tied to specific levels.

[ericgrau]

Here's divine rank 0 for actual quasi-deitihood/divine heroness: http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/divineRanksPowers.htm

Even though only about 1/3rd of the listed powers apply to divine rank 0, it's still pretty nutso and probably too much for you. But it gives some ideas.

You might also provide a list and let your players pick from the list. Most of the above abilities are passive though, and not very interesting to pick from. So you might pick/adjust a few yourself and give them to all players. Then get more interesting abilities for individual players.

Who's in the party besides the barbarian and cleric? Or is that it?

[King of Nowhere]

Who's in the party besides the barbarian and cleric? Or is that it?

there is a wizard. not much personality or skill, she's the kind of casual gamer that likes to play but doesn't want to have to think too much about it. she prefers blasting, though we're trying to move her to save or die, especially now that a free +6 to int will raise her saving throw dc considerably. she's often worried about her personal safety, even after i gave her stuff to make her feel safer.

then there is a rogue. his only major attempt at developing a personality consisted in trying to steal from the rest of the party, almost shattering the group. anyway, the campaign is mostly fighting between high level characters, and the rogue is suffering a bit because everyone has AC around 40 and he has a hard time hitting. that +6 dex should alleviate this, at least. And I'd rather not give more passive mechaniccal buffs besides the +6

and finally there is a druid. he mostly summon elementals and cast firestorm. his animal companion is so weak, it became a joke; in the end i turned it into a clown who would create a hideous laughter effect every time it tries to be useful and fails, which is every time. again, no personality annd very little skill.

overall, the party performs adequately only because the barbarian is directing them.

now, you may wonder why i don't ditch such obviously disfunctional players. the reason is that they are a family, and all friends of mine. we used to do tabletop gaming, and i tried to bring them into D&D. the barbarian (elder son) took to it really well, and he found another group for the two of us, so it was worth it. As for the rest, by the time I realized they are not gooing to become functional, I already had an engaging campaign, so I'm going to finish it. they all say they are having fun, anyway, and that's the important part.

[The Kool]

they all say they are having fun, anyway, and that's the important part.

Clearly, high-optimization is not their level of play. And that's okay. I like to theorize about high-op but dislike actually playing in such games. Sounds like y'all are having a blast, keep it up for sure

[ericgrau]

there is a wizard. not much personality or skill, she's the kind of casual gamer that likes to play but doesn't want to have to think too much about it. she prefers blasting, though we're trying to move her to save or die, especially now that a free +6 to int will raise her saving throw dc considerably. she's often worried about her personal safety, even after i gave her stuff to make her feel safer.

then there is a rogue. his only major attempt at developing a personality consisted in trying to steal from the rest of the party, almost shattering the group. anyway, the campaign is mostly fighting between high level characters, and the rogue is suffering a bit because everyone has AC around 40 and he has a hard time hitting. that +6 dex should alleviate this, at least. And I'd rather not give more passive mechaniccal buffs besides the +6

and finally there is a druid. he mostly summon elementals and cast firestorm. his animal companion is so weak, it became a joke; in the end i turned it into a clown who would create a hideous laughter effect every time it tries to be useful and fails, which is every time. again, no personality annd very little skill.

overall, the party performs adequately only because the barbarian is directing them.

now, you may wonder why i don't ditch such obviously disfunctional players. the reason is that they are a family, and all friends of mine. we used to do tabletop gaming, and i tried to bring them into D&D. the barbarian (elder son) took to it really well, and he found another group for the two of us, so it was worth it. As for the rest, by the time I realized they are not gooing to become functional, I already had an engaging campaign, so I'm going to finish it. they all say they are having fun, anyway, and that's the important part.

Eh a lot of SoD is worse than blasting anyway. Maybe with the +3 it'll be ok. What's really nice is battlefield control. Mass SoL is ok, but so is mass blasting. Mass save partial or mass SR no is alright. Mass buffs like haste are nice too. Black tentacles combos nicely with fireball, so you might point him towards that to help him transition. If he has (greater) spell focus evocation or etc., then resilient sphere is a nice SoL that (1) foes are rarely immune to (unlike many other spells) and (2) targets the lowest save on average. Likewise wall of force is awesome BFC, one of the best.

As long as you guys get along well enough to play a game and have fun that's all that matters. If not, you discuss how to improve the situation before giving up on the group.

Anyhoo (parenthesis are mostly notes to myself, but feel free to correct):


Barbarian (orc messiah teleports to struggling orc?): Scry and die makes it hard to control CR. Either you railroad it or the enemy dies easy or he dies easy. Hmm, how about a super version of leadership giving him an orc army. But probably no cohort. And give the army something nice. Like an extra PC class level, some +1s, or something. He can stat them out and direct them to plot tasks, and/or use them for special plans. Especially if those plans are for the good of orcs, as they love the player but aren't slaves.
Cleric (hard to kill / ignore any effect 1/day): SR against evil equal to character level + 10. That would round out his defenses nicely. Note that selective SR is much better than non-selective SR. To make it even stronger would be to make it work against all enemies (but not allies). The last piece missing to make him really "untouchable" would be dimension door or similar 3/day. A swift action short range teleport similar to anklets of translocation would be even better.
Rogue (steals from party too much, no personality): At will invisibility (as the spell) that only works on enemies, a +10 sleight of hand, and an ability to always take a 10 on sleight of hand, hide and move silently. Usually you can anyway IMO, but this makes it crystal clear. There, now he can pickpocket foes that fail their listen checks... and it only works on foes. Even those that pass listen will have trouble finding him. They must beat the DC by 20 to find his exact square. But if they hear him they may cover their possessions and start looking for him. I believe pickpocketing only works on unsecured objects. As with the spell, attacking breaks the effect until he spends a standard action reactivating. Also helps him scout ahead, and perhaps weaken foes at the same time. For example sneak a weapon out of the scabbard while none of the monster's friends are looking. Please tell him to not attack without the party while shouting "sneak attack!", or I just killed him.
Wizard (casual blaster worried about personal safety): This is a tough one. Maybe a permanent fire shield? Which she can switch between cold and fire at will. Perhaps also let her auto pass saves against her own spells of the appropriate energy, so she can fireball herself using the chill shield. Hmm, maybe someone else will have a better idea. It also depends whether she stays with her current direction or switches. You don't want to force her to do anything. On that note an effect that does damage + BFC could be nice too, if you and her want both. Like giving all her area damage spells the explosive spell feat for free.
Druid (likes summoning elementals and firestorms, joke clown companion, no personality): My first thought was to buff the companion into an egotistical monster, trying to make up for past embarassments. Perhaps made into an elemental. Maybe not. That and/or buff his summoned elementals. Make them 1-2 sizes larger I think. Give him free augment summoning if he doesn't already have it. I'd also give him +2-4 caster level and +2-4 save DC to his elemental spells. That means fire, cold, electricity, sonic, air/weather, water, earth (like earthquake), etc. Note that people tend to underestimate numerical bonuses. That said, 2 sizes and +4 is appropriate to match the strong suggestions I gave for everyone else. But if you tone it down for them then likewise give this guy 1 size and +2s, which is still decent unlike what you might think.


EDIT: Come to think of it all of these are on the strong side. Welp, it's easier to adjust down than it is to adjust up. And get suggestions from as many people as possible and pick what you like (or what you think the players would like).

[Segev]

there is a wizard. not much personality or skill, she's the kind of casual gamer that likes to play but doesn't want to have to think too much about it. she prefers blasting, though we're trying to move her to save or die, especially now that a free +6 to int will raise her saving throw dc considerably. she's often worried about her personal safety, even after i gave her stuff to make her feel safer.Give her some metamagic feats she can apply on the fly, and a number of bonus spell levels per day she can use to pay for them.

Make the list yourself, unless she shows interest in developing it. I suggest rider effects, like Fell Drain, and make-math-easier ones like Maximize, unless she really enjoys the dice-counting (in which case, go for Empower). Enlarge is a good one for a blaster if she ever has trouble with range, but that likely doesn't come up.

I also would suggest Energy Substitution (any energy type) and Invisible Spell, both on any spell she wants to use it on. Though don't let Invisible Spell make summons invisible.

Introduce her to invisible fog, invisible solid fog, and invisible stinking cloud, and watch her have loads of fun with battlefield control. (Invisible fog may only matter if she has trouble with foes who see invisible things, though.)


then there is a rogue. his only major attempt at developing a personality consisted in trying to steal from the rest of the party, almost shattering the group. anyway, the campaign is mostly fighting between high level characters, and the rogue is suffering a bit because everyone has AC around 40 and he has a hard time hitting. that +6 dex should alleviate this, at least. And I'd rather not give more passive mechaniccal buffs besides the +6When he's invisible, he's also inaudible (unless he wants to be heard), unsmellable, and doesn't appear on Blindsense, Blindsight, or Tremorsense. Give him a wand of invisibility and let him go to town. He'll especially appreciate it if the wizard gets invisible fog, because it will make those foes with ability to see invisible things still not see him because they'll see the fog in which he's hiding.

Being invisible when attacking makes foes flat-footed, which should help his to-hit. There are magic items and spells which make it possible to sneak attack constructs and undead; check out the Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium for examples (or people who have the books on hand or better memories than I do can look up the things and recommend them for you).


and finally there is a druid. he mostly summon elementals and cast firestorm. his animal companion is so weak, it became a joke; in the end i turned it into a clown who would create a hideous laughter effect every time it tries to be useful and fails, which is every time. again, no personality annd very little skill.That's odd; usually, animal companions are very powerful.

Depending on just how behind he is, maybe just give his animal companion and any elementals he summons the Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) template?

Does he want a better animal companion, or is he more interested in the elemental summoning, or does he really like blasting?


overall, the party performs adequately only because the barbarian is directing them.

now, you may wonder why i don't ditch such obviously disfunctional players. the reason is that they are a family, and all friends of mine. we used to do tabletop gaming, and i tried to bring them into D&D. the barbarian (elder son) took to it really well, and he found another group for the two of us, so it was worth it. As for the rest, by the time I realized they are not gooing to become functional, I already had an engaging campaign, so I'm going to finish it. they all say they are having fun, anyway, and that's the important part.
Hey, if you're all having fun, they're not dysfunctional players.

[ericgrau]

That's odd; usually, animal companions are very powerful.
Eh, not if you don't optimize well. It sounds like over half the players don't know what they're doing. It's easy to do ok with a druid but it takes some understanding to do well. I've seen many a mediocre (but not bad) druid. Even among experienced players who simply don't have enough real life time to research a lot of tweaking. Rookies do even worse.

Pointing him to the right druid animal companion buffs can help. The thing is if he's summoning elementals instead of animals then a lot of the mass buffs don't synergize well between his companion and his summons. Maybe an ability could work around that. Then if he also wild shapes into an elemental, he could get a theme going and perhaps mass buff everything. I see elemental wild shape is level 16, so maybe give him early access.

[Segev]

Also, on the subject of the druid, if you want to go a more "godlike feel" than "godlike power," you could increase his connection to nature and the elements. Druids have spells for this kind of thing, but let him have speak with animals, speak with plants, speak with stones, and animate objects and animate trees triggered by asking them to do him favors. Maybe his ability to "hear" animals extends well past his line of sight, enabling him to hear prayer-like desires and hopes from them, and really understand their motivations (rather than having to guess from behavior).

[King of Nowhere]

Also, on the subject of the druid, if you want to go a more "godlike feel" than "godlike power," you could increase his connection to nature and the elements. Druids have spells for this kind of thing, but let him have speak with animals, speak with plants, speak with stones, and animate objects and animate trees triggered by asking them to do him favors. Maybe his ability to "hear" animals extends well past his line of sight, enabling him to hear prayer-like desires and hopes from them, and really understand their motivations (rather than having to guess from behavior).

I like that idea. something like, he talk to plants and animals as if they were people, and has superior power over them. not particularly broken in battle, but fits the "godlike feel" because there is no other way to do it (speak with animals and similar spells are much more limited in scope and duration)





Pointing him to the right druid animal companion buffs can help. The thing is if he's summoning elementals instead of animals then a lot of the mass buffs don't synergize well between his companion and his summons. Maybe an ability could work around that. Then if he also wild shapes into an elemental, he could get a theme going and perhaps mass buff everything. I see elemental wild shape is level 16, so maybe give him early access.

speaking of buffs, what are they? I mean, I look into the druid spell list, and all I can find is animal growth, barkskin, and greater magic fang. plus the various +4 to a stat. all together they help, but even affter casting a ton of spells on it, the animal companion doesn't come nowhere near close to a mildly optimized greatsword warrior. unless the flashraker/venomfire combo is used.

to further hurt animal companions, my table has several differences over most campaigns
- the world is high magic, and everyone is well above wbl. this helps everyone be more powerful, but the only items an animal companions could get (that i know of) have the same effects of the buffs.
- as the opening post imply, the focus of the campaign is fighting other high levels npcs, instead of the monsters that are more common otherwise. And high level npcs are much better at ignoring a big critter compared to most monsters
- AC for humanoids is 80% magic items, and high wealth means everybody (at least, everybody that's strong enough to be a legitimate enemy) has an AC around 40. For all the buffs you pile on them, I've never seen an animal companion capable of reliably hit 40. When they do, they don't deal all that much damage.
- as half the players still have troubles with the basic rules, the optimization level is kept fairly low. this means no reach+trip builds, which would be good on an animal companion.

to sum it up, the environment of my campaign is particularly unfriendly towards animal companions that go for straight damage, and the battlefield control tactics that would make use of their size and reah are too high op for my table.

[ericgrau]

speaking of buffs, what are they? I mean, I look into the druid spell list, and all I can find is animal growth, barkskin, and greater magic fang. plus the various +4 to a stat. all together they help, but even affter casting a ton of spells on it, the animal companion doesn't come nowhere near close to a mildly optimized greatsword warrior. unless the flashraker/venomfire combo is used.
Yeup, you have to get abusive with combos for a druid to actually dominate at everything. The whole druid having class features greater than a class usually comes from a very optimized druid vs an unoptimized warrior.

Animal growth is great but it costs an action which could have been spent on something else. Often something better unless you've already beefed up the companion in other ways. GMF can be put up 24 hours so you don't have to cast it in combat, which is really nice. Barding helps, if you can find an NPC to custom make it, or 24 hour mage armor from the party wizard. These are both great for the wildshaped druid too. With permanent bonuses like this you can at least make the companion decent enough to help. Likewise if you extend spell min/level buffs like animal growth at the entrance of a dungeon, and are high enough level, it might last through all or most of the dungeon. 10 min/level buffs work at dungeons much earlier though they're tend to not be as strong. At very high level and possibly with help from magic items like rods of extend you can get 10 min/level spells up 24 hours.

[Biggus]

There are lots of good animal buffs in the Spell Compendium: Enrage Animal, Align Fang, Nature's Favor, Jagged Tooth, Nature's Avatar. Also general buffs like Greater/ Superior Resistance and the Vigor series.

[Talverin]

Hmmmn...

THEMATIC IDEAS!

One of them more associated with magic, has the ability to cast a small list of spells as SLA's at will? Perhaps make a spell or two even become treated as Ex abilities, therefore immune to things like counterspells and antimagic zones?

Perhaps one of them has strong connections to a bloodline, and their Godly power means now their offspring carry that blood, or that its' blood can 'call' to creatures of that type, letting you summon/gate creatures of that type to you as a uses/day.

Perhaps the rogue could become some kind of trickster-mythos, granting him Ex illusions, uses/day or at will? What about free at will alter self?

One more nature-associated could gain Fast Healing or Regeneration when in nature/water/soil/etc?

A Divinely-focused one could grant limited Divine powers (Lower level spells, or even Channel/Lay on Hands) to their companions/followers, perhaps with the Leadership feat as well? If Positive energy, give them DR/Vile or Unholy damage, or the opposite, and give them Resistance to Vile/Unholy damage? Those are normally damage types that cannot be reduced.

An archer who can call arrows of up to (Say +3?) from the air at will, a limited number of times (Or infinite! No Bane though.) each day.

What about more indirect abilities? The power to always find what you seek, if you want it badly enough. The power to predict - Or control! - the weather. Influence over games of chance, or a temporary boost to CL/HD/whatever whenever someone invokes your name for luck in a game of chance.

Perhaps the ability to make broad predictions, and them come true, even if in unexpected ways.

The TV show, Lucifer, has the very named character being able to find out people's deepest desires just by asking - a weak compulsion effect which forces them to tell the truth. There's a lot people can do with that.