I am going to have a high level pathfinder adventure where some characters have the option to have fewer class levels but gain divine rank 0. Anybody have an idea how many levels this would be worth? Right now, I'm thinking LA +12.
Contributor
|
Considering that the web enhancement for Deities & Demigods considers the quasi-deity version of Erbin, the Beggar God, to be a challenge for a party of mid-level adventurers, I think that a +12 LA looks pretty close.
That would, however, give Erbin an ECL of 13 and only 13 hit points. Granted, with DR 10/epic he doesn't stand much of a chance of taking excessive damage, but it's a fair guess that if someone can deal out epic damage, they're going to deal out a lot of it.
Is it possible to use the Savage Species guidelines to estimate the level adjustment or is it just guesswork?
Well lets see...
Divine Rank 0 (3.0 Version)
Advanced Augmented Bonus/HP per level (18 CP)
Celerity III/+30' Speed (12 CP)
Damage Reduction 35/+4, (Specialized: Physical Only, not vrs +4 Weapons, 75 CP)
Improved Spell Resistance/10+Level (12 CP).
Immunities:
Forced Physical Transformations (Common/Severe/Legendary; 48 CP)
Mental Manipulations (Common/Severe/Legendary, 48 CP)
Energy Drain (Common/Major/Legendary, 36 CP)
Ability Drain and Damage (Common/Major/Legendary, 36 CP)
Time (Uncommon/Major/Legendary, 24 CP)
Normal Bodily Needs (Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping) (Common/Minor/Legendary, 24 CP
Fire (Common/Major/Major, Corrupted: 20 point resistance only, 6 CP)
That's a 339 CP Template, or +10 ECL.
The 3.5 Version is similar, but replaces the DR 35/+4 with DR 10/Epic (only 18 CP) and reduces the Fire Resistance to 5 (Common/Major/Trivial, 3 CP). I'm unclear offhand as to whether they still get the boosted speed, but I'll assume that they do. That gives us 279 CP, which is only +8 ECL.
That seems reasonable enough: the immunities are nice, but defensive abilities against relatively unusual attacks aren't all that vital - and the reduced DR will no longer make such a character virtually invulnerable to attacks by creatures that can't bypass it.
I’ve translated into Eclipse point-buy, since that’s what we usually use - and it does cover ECL calculations nicely. If you should want it, it’s a free download at RPGNow:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51255
If you should want it...
Ooh, that's very interesting. Thanks for the link.
I'd suggest +7 LA or less for a DR 0 unless it is giving the new demigod the 20D8 outsider HD like St. Cuthbert has but Vecna does not since both were humans at one point who ascended.
Sold my Faiths and Pantheons the other day but as I recall the Chosen of Bane was only a +7 LA which would probably be higher using the calculator.
Well lets see...
The 3.5 Version is similar, but replaces the DR 35/+4 with DR 10/Epic (only 18 CP) and reduces the Fire Resistance to 5 (Common/Major/Trivial, 3 CP). I'm unclear offhand as to whether they still get the boosted speed, but I'll assume that they do. That gives us 279 CP, which is only +8 ECL.
But what about the SR 32? That's got to boost it up too, right?
But what about the SR 32? That's got to boost it up too, right?Not much. In my mind, SR is way overrated. Sure, it protects you from direct harm from many spells, but it also makes it really hard for your party to buff you and heal you mid-combat.
Unless Pathfinder changed it, 3.5 rules state that you can voluntarily lower SR whenever you want.
Unless Pathfinder changed it, 3.5 rules state that you can voluntarily lower SR whenever you want.
According to the SRD, it takes a standard action to lower spell resistance and it lowers against everyone for the entire round. So any round you're getting buffed or healed, you can't do anything else and you're missing your SR against other people. That also complicates the emergency teleport out of combat, too.
Now, if there were feats for 'quickened lower spell resistance' and a follow-on feat for 'immediate lower spell resistance' (1/round as interrupt), it might be a different story.
"But what about the SR 32? That's got to boost it up too, right?"
The Improved Spell Resistance was for that. It's useful, but it's still a power available to higher-level characters - and 10+Level was a pretty good match for the usual level 20+ candidate for godhood and allowed lower-level types to have the template without simply becoming immune to spells at first, then progressively move vulnerable, up until - at epic levels - it pretty much became irrelevant.
If you want to match the original fixed rating of 32 we could just say it was "Specialized for Doubled Effect: will not progress past 32" (that should be a meaningful restriction by the time the characters may be picking up divine templates) and buy another level of "Improved" (+6 CP, I don't think that's enough to change the ECL modifiers offhand). That would give us the SR 32 for a character of level one.