Picking up Outsider Hit Die?

[FirstAdam]

Im running a one-on-one game with a friend of mine, where an NPC that we affectionately refer to as the "living plot hook" is in the process of a divine ascension. Looking through Deities and Demigods (extensively), all of the gods listed have 20 outsider hit die, including the ascended mortals, St cuthbert and Vecna. So, as this NPC ascends higher, Im looking for some suggestions as to how a human character can gain outsider hit die as close to the RAW as possible. Any ideas/suggestions for the forum on this? Thanks!

[Emperor Tippy]

IIRC, HD turn into outsider HD when you become a god.

[Jasdoif]

Deities aren't required to have outsider hit dice, though they miss out on some stuff if they don't, like AC. Besides, unless you have racial hit dice it's just a matter of type anyway. Looking at Deities and Demigods, Hercules, for instance, doesn't have outsider hit dice, his HD are all class despite his being typed an outsider. Wait...Vecna doesn't have Outsider hit dice OR the Outsider type....he's undead, with 20 Wizard HD and 20 Cleric HD.

And...I don't think RAW covers ascension at all, actually. The closest I can suggest is the ritual idea for gaining the half-fiendish template, though you could easily use the same thing for half-celestial.

[Penguinsushi]

Yeah, the Deities & Demigods book doesn't really give you much in the way of 'rules' for ascension.

From the descriptions in it, however, most of the deities are described as '20hd outsiders with 30 - 50 character levels'. That seems to imply (to me) that the powerful 20hd outsider is effectively their 'base creature'. I don't know of (m)any ways a character can 'pick up' creature HD.

As Jasdoif pointed out, not all of the deities have outsider hit dice - some of them merely have character levels.

I think, in the end, the ascension to god-hood is pretty much a story-based process at the discretion of the gm, as opposed to being composed of mechanical steps.

I think the most important thing to consider for a rising god is where his/her power comes from - i.e., was it merely some sort of 'unclaimed' domain, or is he/she taking it (with or without consent) from an existing deity? Again, a very story and concept based part of the game world that can have drastic implications regarding what is required for ascension.

Also, there are several questions Deities & Demigods poses at the beginning of the book that should be answered before you can really go about that sort of process. (It's basically a 'how do you want this to work in your multiverse' kind of thing.)

Sorry for the verbosity.

~PS

[TheOOB]

Gods get 20 levels of outsider so they they gain the max amount of base attack bonus and base save bonuses before they go epic, thats the main reason.

[AtomicKitKat]

Let him gain an Outsider HD with each level up? Just remember that the Outsider HD come first, for BAB/Save purposes. The purposes of Outsider HD for D&DG is threefold. Better BAB/Saves(before you hit the silly Epic limitations), and more HP(Maxed D8s means each HD is worth one swing of a longsword, before other modifications like Con, Str bonus to damage, etc.).

[the_tick_rules]

ascended mortals don't get the 20 outsider hit dice or the 13 base natural armor.

[FirstAdam]

Let him gain an Outsider HD with each level up? Just remember that the Outsider HD come first, for BAB/Save purposes. The purposes of Outsider HD for D&DG is threefold. Better BAB/Saves(before you hit the silly Epic limitations), and more HP(Maxed D8s means each HD is worth one swing of a longsword, before other modifications like Con, Str bonus to damage, etc.).

This definitely clears up a lot as far as understanding the rationale for these gods having the outsider HD. I guess that pretty much slipped my mind. I know that RAW, base attack and saves switch at epic, but even though it doesnt come up often, everyone I game with house rules (un-houses?) that rule so they continue progressing as in pre-epic (with the logistically reasonable cap of 4 attacks from base attack per round limit). I was just thinking that since most of them lived on a plane, that's why they were outsiders, but St. Cuthbert was throwing me off...