Creating an Evil God From Scratch

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I was looking through the Book of vile Darkness, and I came across the Diabolist Prestige class (BoVD p. 56). It got me thinking. There are plenty of different evil acts a character can do, but I liked the thought of a character that had the plan to become an evil god. Now, this will not be taking place in the campaign, because I will be playing this character, but this is a goal for them to work towards.

Following the BoVD, and a few of the other evil based books, I want to make a very evil, and very powerful spellcaster. And I want a near progression up to level 20, that will set him up on the track to becoming an evil god.

The only thing is, I don't want most anything to do with Undead, because those aren't in my style. I know that I can become a Lich, and do all sorts of evil acts for as long as I want after that point, but I'm still bound by undeath. That's not the flavor I want.

Diabolist is a nice prestige class, full casting, and the free imp familiar is nice. The prerequisite feats aren't bad, and I planned on using the corrupt spell feat to make all of his spells have the evil descriptor, and focus down on increasing the DC of specifically evil spells. But the class is quite dull, the imp is nice, but it's pretty much empty levels until you get the +3d6 diabolism, and even then, you can only use it 4 times per day.

I need something truly evil for him to do. I was looking at the Sacrifice section of BoVD, and that looked like a nice passtime. All I have to do is leave one enemy alive, have the melee combatant or CHA-caster torture them, and then kill the, in the name of some Nondescript evil god, and I get some nice bonuses once I get good enough.

I was wondering if there was a better way to approach this.

[Goaty14]

One does not simply "become a god". Don't you need followers, priests (not clerics; you can't give them spells yet) and etc to support that kind of a lifestyle? Admittedly you could also shoot for ganking an existing god and hoping to assume the divine essence that remains (such as the one evil god that got killed in Faerun's time of troubles, which produced several lesser deities because they killed him), but that stretches beyond your current plan.

To start, I'd try and plan to make sacrifices to yourself, not to some already-god that's out there. If you want to assume godhood, subservience to existing deities is a good way to sabotage yourself. Also, try to broaden your scope beyond "I'm going to sacrifice enemies that we were going to kill anyways" idea. That's too limited, and for somebody who's truly Evil, you must truly go out of your way to make that a point. That's not to say you should be Chaotic Stupid and kill everything in your path, but you should try and look for ways to be evil outside of adventuring in order to achieve your goals.

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

One does not simply "become a god". Don't you need followers, priests (not clerics; you can't give them spells yet) and etc to support that kind of a lifestyle?


That's not to say you should be Chaotic Stupid and kill everything in your path, but you should try and look for ways to be evil outside of adventuring in order to achieve your goals.

That was what I was thinking about.

1. I understand that achieving godhood is not easy, but I just need to make a character that will have a big enough legacy, and even if he never achieves Godhood, he will go down in history as a man that rivaled the gods. In the long run (After the campaign ends) I planned that he would use his wealth and experience amassed from adventuring around with his inherently evil party, and he would become something akin to a king. He would use his power and influence to force all of his kingdom to worship him as a god, while he continues to seek more power. He would us something akin to the Ur Priests, where he would essentially siphon the power of some gods, and use it for his own.

2. The alignment I was planning on playing him as was closer to a Lawful Evil type. He's the cool and calculating villain that shows no remorse to those that cross him. He will have his party to assist him in his endeavors, where there will inevitably either be a Chaotic Evil Sorcerer or Warlock, maybe even a Chaotic Evil Rogue or Fighter in the party to be the Chaotic Stupid one.

3. He will be more methodical about his sacrifices than just killing enemies he encounters, but he has to start somewhere. There will definitely be a chance, probably after the campaign, where he will have the chance to choose the sacrifice that will earn him the most points, because mechanically, BoVD has a big table of ways to increase the sacrifice check, and boost results. Having many underlings, he will have no problem hunting down and sacrificing a cleric of another god in the presence of a Demon he has summoned, on unhallowed grounds, in front of his hundreds of followers. By amassing so much power, and making routine public sacrifices, he will make a name for himself has a brutal, and powerful ruler. Not to mention, his followers will be making sacrifices as well. This method will be bound to draw some attention of some higher power.

[Ruethgar]

Achieving godhood is actually too easy. Anyone with CL 7 can become a god of neigh infinite divine rank via Mirror Mephit familiar and simulacrum of the beggar god granting his DR to you before melting. Even without that, use Create Device to divine and teleport through the Test of Starstone. If you wanted something more reasonable, there were those Epic Legacy Feats iirc. They had an option for non-epic version, basically no feats from HD for 12+ and at 20 you become a minor god if you used the demi-god legacy.

Edit: Epic Destiny Feats was the name. https://web.archive.org/web/20090602124646/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080428&pf=true

[Mnemius]

Pathfinder has a "god" called Razmir that might give you a map to follow.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

As far as full casting prestige classes go, Diabolist is extremely lackluster. You can get an imp familiar from a core feat (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) (found in the DMG). You can even pick up Obtain Familiar (CA) to count other prestige classes that advance spellcasting toward its benefits, or gain a familiar on a class that wouldn't normally get one or that's traded it out for an ACF. I don't think you could even become a deity if your soul is already owned by a powerful fiend, though.

For evil deeds, you could use a weapon made from Thinaun (CW) to collect the souls of creatures you kill. If you do go with Diabolist, that will even catch your own soul if you were to die, preventing the fiend from immediately taking possession of it. Maybe in the spirit of Jack Sparrow bargaining with Davey Jones, you need to provide a hundred souls to the fiend that's entitled to yours before it will release you from that obligation. Such a dagger would make this fairly easy to accomplish, and after you've completed that any additional souls you capture are yours to do with as you please.


It's easy enough to gain worshipers. Go to a remote town that's easy to reach, use Fabricate to make a statue of yourself, use Craft Wondrous Item to make it into an automatic reset magical trap that casts Remove Disease, Remove Blindness, and Remove Deafness on anyone that kisses your (statue's) feet. Include a poetic inscription about yourself that implies but doesn't outright say that you're a deity, that implies but doesn't outright say that you're to be feared. People will go on pilgrimages to bring their sick to your statue to be healed, and word will spread of your power and benevolence, but they'll fear to approach you in person. Maybe put a Permanency: Private Sanctum with Selective Spell to exclude you from the effect over the statue's location. You can use Clairaudience/Clairvoyance or a Third Eye: Sense to observe your statue, and Sending to answer those who pray to you at it. Similarly, go to an area that's suffering from a food shortage, and put up a set of golden arches that's an automatic reset trap that casts Create Food and Water for anyone who walks under it while making a comment about your great power that includes your name. Somewhere else make a statue of yourself fully nude, anyone who strokes or kisses your ample manhood causes water to pour forth that's imbued with a Plant Growth effect if used by the person who obtained it. Go to a warlord and offer to make an enchanted anvil that casts Fabricate when used by someone who worships you, in exchange for making you the official state religion....