Could a Titan do that? I know Arch-devils and Demon Lords can, but what about a Titan? Is there a cut-off point? I have a vicious idea for bringing much chaos and destruction to a hapless nation in Golarion, but my inquiring mind wants other opinions on the matter.
Hm. I don't know about the rules, but the worship of beings that rank lower then actual divinities is hardly a rare occurrence. Being such as demigods and archdevils, neither of which are gods, can provide divine power to mortals. I think the reason most beings worship creatures such as demon lords and gods is because they can communicate with and understand them. It's nigh impossible to communicate with an inevitable, so no one worships them. Depending on the type of Titan, I'd say you're worshipping whatever plane the Titan represents (Such as Elysium) with the Titan acting as a conduit for your worship.
Hm. I don't know about the rules, but the worship of beings that rank lower then actual divinities is hardly a rare occurrence. Being such as demigods and archdevils, neither of which are gods, can provide divine power to mortals. I think the reason most beings worship creatures such as demon lords and gods is because they can communicate with and understand them. It's nigh impossible to communicate with an inevitable, so no one worships them. Depending on the type of Titan, I'd say you're worshipping whatever plane the Titan represents (Such as Elysium) with the Titan acting as a conduit for your worship.
Fomorian, atm
Any being with at least three mythic tiers and the Divine Source universal path ability:
Divine Source (Su): You can grant divine spells to those who follow your cause, allowing them to select you as their deity for the purposes of determining their spells and domains. Select two domains upon taking this ability. These domains must be alignment domains matching your alignment if possible, unless your alignment is neutral. You grant access to these domains as if you were a deity. Creatures that gain spells from you don't receive any spells per day of levels higher than your tier; they lose those spell slots. In addition, you can cast spells from domains you grant as long as their level is equal to or less than your tier. Each day as a spell-like ability, you can cast one spell of each level equal to or less than your tier (selecting from those available to you from your divine source domains). If you're a cleric or you venerate a deity, you may change your spell domains to those you grant others. At 6th tier and 9th tier, you can select this ability again, adding one domain and two subdomains (see the Advanced Player's Guide) to your list each time and adding their spells to the list of those that you can cast.
From looking at B4 and the Empreal Lords and Demon Lords, it seems that the weakest of them are at least CR 26.
So, a fomorian titan is pretty close, but maybe make this specific one a suped up unique titan. A fomorian titan lord or something.
If he's going to be a god-like big bad you should trick him out and make him unique anyway.
Not everything the GM does has to be rooted in some rule in some book. You are the supreme arbiter of reality within your world, period. While weighed good sense is always prudent you can always have a variable in your back pocket to explain away circumstances that otherwise don't seem attainable or explainable. Ancient primal magicks, being born of remarkable destiny, learning your first spell at the precise moment of the alignment of the stars, etc etc. Some wonderful themes and monstrous villain origins can exist without coming from a sourcebook.
In the AD&D 2e campaign setting Dark Sun each city-state was led by a "Sorcerer King" or "Queen" who were between level 20 and 23 wizards/psions. Arguably they would be mythic in Pathfinder terms, (maybe even gestalt) but that's neither here nor there. These sorcerer kings and queens had dozens of "Templars" in their service who were granted divine spellcasting directly from their masters. These Templars could reach high level and therefore be granted up to 9th level magic. That sounds pretty damn powerful for only a level 20 character but it was fundamental to the campaign setting and therefore nobody questioned it.
There are meta variables that you can simply handwave away and allow it to be. I say as long as you're not cheesing your players, do what you want and have fun. If it furthers the fun of the campaign or provides a plot hook, run with it.
Any being with at least three mythic tiers and the Divine Source universal path ability:
Divine Source (Su): You can grant divine spells to those who follow your cause, allowing them to select you as their deity for the purposes of determining their spells and domains. Select two domains upon taking this ability. These domains must be alignment domains matching your alignment if possible, unless your alignment is neutral. You grant access to these domains as if you were a deity. Creatures that gain spells from you don't receive any spells per day of levels higher than your tier; they lose those spell slots. In addition, you can cast spells from domains you grant as long as their level is equal to or less than your tier. Each day as a spell-like ability, you can cast one spell of each level equal to or less than your tier (selecting from those available to you from your divine source domains). If you're a cleric or you venerate a deity, you may change your spell domains to those you grant others. At 6th tier and 9th tier, you can select this ability again, adding one domain and two subdomains (see the Advanced Player's Guide) to your list each time and adding their spells to the list of those that you can cast.
Looking at Mythic rules now.
From looking at B4 and the Empreal Lords and Demon Lords, it seems that the weakest of them are at least CR 26.
So, a fomorian titan is pretty close, but maybe make this specific one a suped up unique titan. A fomorian titan lord or something.
If he's going to be a god-like big bad you should trick him out and make him unique anyway.
That is the basic idea. A cult trying to free an imprisoned Titan in a nation already having more trouble than it can handle.
If you're the GM you can ultimately decide whatever you want, if it serves the plot. So go for it, it isn't something that has a mechanical impact, it's just a worldbuilding thing.
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Not everything the GM does has to be rooted in some rule in some book. You are the supreme arbiter of reality within your world, period. While weighed good sense is always prudent you can always have a variable in your back pocket to explain away circumstances that otherwise don't seem attainable or explainable. Ancient primal magicks, being born of remarkable destiny, learning your first spell at the precise moment of the alignment of the stars, etc etc. Some wonderful themes and monstrous villain origins can exist without coming from a sourcebook.
In the AD&D 2e campaign setting Dark Sun each city-state was led by a "Sorcerer King" or "Queen" who were between level 20 and 23 wizards/psions. Arguably they would be mythic in Pathfinder terms, (maybe even gestalt) but that's neither here nor there. These sorcerer kings and queens had dozens of "Templars" in their service who were granted divine spellcasting directly from their masters. These Templars could reach high level and therefore be granted up to 9th level magic. That sounds pretty damn powerful for only a level 20 character but it was fundamental to the campaign setting and therefore nobody questioned it.
There are meta variables that you can simply handwave away and allow it to be. I say as long as you're not cheesing your players, do what you want and have fun. If it furthers the fun of the campaign or provides a plot hook, run with it.
I agree, but I really dislike the "because I'm the GM and you are not." argument. If I can do it, then the players with the proper justification can do it as well. So, if I don't want the players to have access to something that might be game breaking... I need to be hands off too. But there are no real rules, just good guidelines.
Agree to disagree I suppose. There are many many things in and of the world around the PCs that can do things the PCs cannot, or that they cannot (and frankly, need not) understand. As long as the notion doesn't marginalize the players I see no need to search for "proper justification". All the justification I need is that we're having game night, I'm the GM, and I need to fill a hole. If I fill said hole with something out of a published book or something I made up on the spot, there is no substantial difference to the players.
Deities(true gods), demigods(lesser gods), and other deific-like entities(such as the beings from the the Cthulhu mythos) to include archdevils and demon-lords.
PS: This is not a complete list. You can normally find out if specific creatures can grant spells. CR is not an indication of this. Titans can not as a whole, but maybe a specific titan could.
Agree to disagree I suppose. There are many many things in and of the world around the PCs that can do things the PCs cannot, or that they cannot (and frankly, need not) understand. As long as the notion doesn't marginalize the players I see no need to search for "proper justification". All the justification I need is that we're having game night, I'm the GM, and I need to fill a hole. If I fill said hole with something out of a published book or something I made up on the spot, there is no substantial difference to the players.
I'm just trying to shortcut a few of the inevitable arguments of: But I have 15 ranks of blank so I should understand blah arguments. Had that one in current game twice. Those are momentum killers. The last one involved a wizard who had gone insane and created a couple of items out of his madness... yeah unless you go insane I don't think you will understand exactly what his madness did. Somehow that wasn't a fully acceptable answer.
Deities(true gods), demigods(lesser gods), and other deific-like entities(such as the beings from the the Cthulhu mythos) to include archdevils and demon-lords.
PS: This is not a complete list. You can normally find out if specific creatures can grant spells. CR is not an indication of this. Titans can not as a whole, but maybe a specific titan could.
That was the way I read it, going to work with Mythic and see what I can cook up.
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Agree to disagree I suppose. There are many many things in and of the world around the PCs that can do things the PCs cannot, or that they cannot (and frankly, need not) understand. As long as the notion doesn't marginalize the players I see no need to search for "proper justification". All the justification I need is that we're having game night, I'm the GM, and I need to fill a hole. If I fill said hole with something out of a published book or something I made up on the spot, there is no substantial difference to the players.I'm just trying to shortcut a few of the inevitable arguments of: But I have 15 ranks of blank so I should understand blah arguments. Had that one in current game twice. Those are momentum killers. The last one involved a wizard who had gone insane and created a couple of items out of his madness... yeah unless you go insane I don't think you will understand exactly what his madness did. Somehow that wasn't a fully acceptable answer.
Just tell them that in his madness, he accidentally picked up a level of the Metaplot Definer prestige class.
Then show them Gamers: Dorkness Rising and ask them why even the rules literalist never questioned the magic of the mask and staff in that movie, which are not standard magic items from the rulebooks.
I guess my bottom line point was that every bad guy and every theme that we now hold as canon was once an arbitrary decision that came from an abstract concept. The notion of granting divine magic is yet undefined and still abstract, and so I say just go with it.
For example, I make up a bad guy off the top of my head - he's an evil humanoid fey that can animate dead with a glance and can grant these undead level 1 divine spells. Does it really matter why that fey can do what he can do? Does it really matter where his power is derived from? He makes skeletons and zombies who can cast bane and inflict light wounds on the enemies which the players have to deal with. It is not remotely game-breaking, it doesn't have to be explained to the players, and it doesn't have to be grounded in any rulebook-authorized backstory.
As long as players aren't marginalized then go for it. Don't waste time looking for "authorization" out of some book. It's the go-with-the-flow GM thing.