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Hi All,
So I have an idea for a campaign, and I was curious to see if it sounds fun to anyone. BTW if you identify as Bobthesatyr, Thorin the Thunder Tamer, DestroTheSlayer, or AirRazor, stop reading.
I really like the idea of the Star stone and how it can turn people into deities by some sort of mystical trial. However, it seems hard to build a whole campaign around it, because you either become a deity or die in one little adventure. I would like to open up the deific process and make it sort of a contest
I was thinking of building a world where every so often, magical artifacts activate, and the contest begins. I would have the campaign start off with the characters already level 3 or so, in the final room of a dungeon they were clearing. Its full of goblins, and anyone who can understand Undercommon hears the goblin leader baddy talk about how no one can take his "talky man box". This is to introduce them quickly to the major driver of the campaign, and also give their characters a reason to stick together
Once the threat has been taken care of, the adventurers find that the box is announcing a contest of legend. The start of the deity contest. By communing with the artifact, the adventurers can enter the contest. It would state some rules, but leave alot of stuff obscure and not explained. Heres some ideas for how the contest would work
- You do not need to enter the contest at all. The party could just see how it plays out and continue adventuring as normal
- The party can decide to become deities. The box would explain that there are three roles to play: Deific Aspirant, Demigod Aspirant, or just Follower. Deific Aspirants are the people who are trying to become gods. They are the ones trying to collect the deific power, need to perform the communions, and are the biggest targets for potential enemies. Also, if they die at any point, their soul is consumed and they cannot be ressurected by any means.
Demigod aspirants are bound to a deific aspirant and are trying to help them on their quest. If they die, they can be ressurected as normal. If their aspirant wins the contest, they can become demigods under them, or be recruited to serve under a god that better suits their alignment.
Followers are not divinely connected to either the demigod or deity aspirant. They can be ressurected as normal, and can't be detected with the specific divine power generated by the contest. Their reward would have to be given to them after their aspirants win.
-Deific power is what the adventurers need to collect to win. There are several ways of collecting it:
--Finding artifacts strewn about the land. The Deific Aspirant(s) need to commune with it for several hours, and the artifacts cannot be destroyed or moved in any way.
--Destroying legendary creatures, or felling other aspirants can grant some power. They need to commune with the corpses for awhile and the corpses can only be moved 100 feet from the death site.
--Appeasing the current gods in any manner of ways might get them some small amounts of deific power.
--Awesome moments that show what the deific aspirant hopes to become the paragon of, perhaps to their own detriment
Deific power would not really hold any mechanical benefits. However, the more power you gain, the easier it is to find other sources of deific power. Conversely, the more power you have, the easier it is to identify and find the aspirant as a contestant. Also, with more deific power, you become more susceptible to the powers of the current demigods and gods, to your detriment or benefit. As the heroes get closer to winning the contest, gods who oppose their beliefs might try and screw them over, while gods who share in their beliefs might try to help them.
I am also considering allowing the aspirants to sacrifice some of their deific power to force bad stuff to happen to another contestant.
Classes that already follow deities for class features can also try to become gods themselves, but if they want to retain their divine powers, they must either commit to themselves or enter a outstanding divine contract with their current deity, saying that if they win, they must ally with them and support them in all future deific endeavours.
So what do you think? Good Idea? Bad Idea? It kinda turns into divine highlander + mario party. I am not sure what the end state of the campaign would be. I am also hoping these complex rules wouldn't be too overwhelming
Maybe use the Mythic Rules?
Maybe you have to complete 10 Trials, gaining 1 Mythic Rank per successful contest?
I kind of picture something like Poker, where you have to wager Mythic Ranks in various contests, and winner takes all. Like, it begins five competitors with 10 Mythic Ranks, and you need 50 Mythic Ranks to ascend to godhood.
Or maybe wager levels, and if you lose, you gain negative levels. If you win, you earn Mythic Ranks, and the cost of Mythic Ranks doubles for each increase?
1 Mythic Rank = 1 Level
2 MR = 2 L
3 MR = 4 L
4 MR = 8 L
5 MR = 16 L
6 MR = 32 L
7 MR = 64 L
8 MR = 125 L
9 MR = 250 L
10 MR = 500 L
Godhood = 1000 L
50 competitors of 20th level?
OK. That seems like crazy math. Ugh.
I'll just copy my post from the Becoming a God thread.
A level 20 Mythic Rank 10 character with three instances of Divine Source (to get 4 domains and 4 subdomains) is *almost* a demigod.
A demigod must be able to grant 4 domains, 4 subdomains, and must be at least CR25 as a general rule.
The above mythic character hits CR24 and nearly meets the requirements. It's reasonable that post-campaign, such a character could cross over into CR25 territory and self-actualize into becoming a deity (as my Wrath of the Righteous Hellknight character is working towards.)
Certainly they'd be able to take the Test of the Starstone, which raises a character directly into becoming a demigod - after that, it just takes a few millenia and a strong enough portfolio/worshipper base to raise themselves up to full-on deity. (Lore-wise, the other Ascended passed the Test with much less, whereas Irori and Nethys likely took the Level 20/Mythic 10 route.)
All that said, once hitting demigod status, your character goes straight to being an NPC.
Even so, it's a classic and excellent character motive. You might be interested in the following trait for excellent flavor to back up your character's goals: