Ok, one of the guys in our group has been reading and thinking again. (Always a dangerous combination.) He's talking about a campaign where the end goal is survive going into and coming out of the StarStone to become gods. Either the group is supporting one guy making it or everyone in the group is trying to make it.
This guys is largely talk, so it will likely never happen. But it got me figuring anyway.
What would I be if my end goal is to get through the that gauntlet to become a god?
Fighter, barbarian, magus, etc... all are good at killing things. But that doesn't seem likely to be the only thing required to pass the challenges to become a god.
Cleric, Inquisitor, Druid, Paladin, Oracle, etc... are already dedicated to some higher power. It seems a bit of a betrayal to become competition to the thing to which you are dedicated you life. (Oracle I can almost see.) Unless you were doing an evil PC or party of course. Then it would be completely logical, but our group doesn't do evil PC's.
I can only see 2 possibilities that seem likely:
Wizard with the divination specialty to find out what is most likely to work and have the spells to carry through almost anything IF you have time to prepare. Maybe the ACG arcanist.
Monk, I know many people on these forums hate monks. However, monks if made for it are almost impossible to kill. With great saves, SR, evasion, high AC, immunities, etc... Good skills for moving, evading, and slipping past.
I think wizard would be my first choice and monk my second. Knowing nothing else about the campaign (which is fair since no one knows anything about the StarStone) what would you pick to make it through?
I'm not saying there is "one build to pass the Startstone" test.
Obviously there is not since only 3 of thousands have made it. One doesn't know how and the other two aren't talking.
But if I were going for it, what would be my strategy? Me, it would either try to be the guy that knows everything before it happens or the guy with nearly no weaknesses to exploit.
If I were to try this, I just can't hardly see any other choice I could make in-character and think I had even a slim chance.
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Cleric, Inquisitor, Druid, Paladin, Oracle, etc... are already dedicated to some higher power. It seems a bit of a betrayal to become competition to the thing to which you are dedicated you life. (Oracle I can almost see.) Unless you were doing an evil PC or party of course. Then it would be completely logical, but our group doesn't do evil PC's.
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I just thought of a way good religious types could legitimately do this. If you felt that say Iomedae needed more allies in the pantheon. That just an amazing mortal champion was not enough. (I don't know, maybe Asmodeus or Zon are trying to eliminate her.) So then you would try to become another god to support Iomedae. So I guess the good religious types are not off the table.
You can't pass the starstone test without being allowed to pass it. There's no such thing as a character that knows everything before it happens (plenty of ways to block divination) nor a character that has no flaws. Remember, this game is more than combat scenarios; you can make the most perfect fighter that exists and present them with a simple challenge: "pick the most valuable gem out of these 10,000 very similar gems". Perception and Appraise checks! And luck! Those aren't things a combat character is well known for having.
The point of the starstone is a hand-waving trick Paizo has for creating unlikely gods, such as Cayden, without having one of the other gods promote them. If you want it in a game, the GM has to agree the character should become a god for some kind of story reason. I wouldn't even try to cheapen the experience by actually running the trial, nor would I allow it to be possible to fail because the fact that the character will become a god must be a predetermined conclusion.
Even the pit entrance to the test is randomized. Flight works for some, others fall to their death immediately. Teleporting might be blocked or it might not be, mundane ropes might work, you won't find out until you're safe or you're dead.
It's a neat thought process, but actually running a group through it would be pure DM handwaving.
A god is more than just a personality; they are the embodiment of an idea. Many divine characters follow the idea more than the personality. A follower of Iomedae could be following the idea of justice and honor as much as they would be following Iomedae herself. This is not to say that the deity in question is not important, after all they are the living embodiment of the idea.
A divine character that ascends to godhood will often still be an important part of the sponsoring religion. At this point they have become more of a partner then an employee. This is even more likely in the case of a good deity than an evil one. Now instead of having someone you need to provide power to, you have someone who bring more power to your cause.
I wonder if his first indication of his divinity was realizing that he didn't have a hangover.
If your GM was running a campaign where the culmination was attempting to enter the Starstone and become a god, what would you pick? What would seem to you like it had the best chance of succeeding?
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Someone doesn't just become a god, they become a God of Something. At least in the inner sea area, there isn't a lot of overlap in terms of the Somethings (domains are a different story, but they are just tools), so you would have to pick Something that the other inner sea gods aren't doing and the test would probably involve that Something in some way. Wizards might be at a disadvantage since there is a God of Magic already, and monks would probably be inclined to skip the Starstone and go the Irori method....
Good point. I'm sure we would have to think of something to wrap our lives around to become the god of that something. that will require some more thought on our part.
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... There's no such thing as a character that knows everything before it happens (plenty of ways to block divination) nor a character that has no flaws. ...
Agreed, but there could be people that think they know nearly everything important or think they have essentially no flaws. They happen to exist in our real world.
If I was the kind of person to try and brave such a test. It would make sense to me to be someone who makes an extreme effort to know nearly everything OR a person who made eliminating weaknesses a major part of his existence.
It would not make sense to me that a fellow that can barely read his own name and knows nothing other than swinging a club really hard would have the best chance of succeeding. So that wouldn't be the direction I would push my life if I wanted to try and pass the test.
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You're in the wrong place.
You want Scion.
If your GM allows the use of Mythic Adventures, you can became essentially a Demigod from the 3rd tier:
From the 1st tier you can gain Longevity (Su)
From the 3rd tier you can gain Divine Source (Su)
At 6th tier and 9th tier, you can select the Divine Source ability again.