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Divinities and other supernatural beings


Lloyd Dupont

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In the very long term of this campaign, player might meet super supernatural beings. Like greater angels or demons.

I wonder how do they flesh out in RD100? Looking for suggestion! :) 

The only idea I came up with so far, they might have many area attacks which damage everyone in an area... (how would that work with a sword though?)
Obviously single target damage could be higher and multi target damage could be in the reasonable range of mortal normal attacks...

And I might reintroduce HP, increase toughness a bit and HP a lot and add HP regeneration to the mix....

Also, of course, death is just a mere inconvenience until the time they regrow a new body...

Edited by Lloyd Dupont
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In White Dwarf Magazine, They had a Special Section Called "RuneRites". One issue had an article called "Lords of the Spirit World" by Dave Morris. (issue #27) Another a three part series about Demons and other Supernatural beings. Called "Dealing With Demons" (Issue #'s 44, 45, and 46) also by Dave Morris. I use these is a home brew world (Sandbox) that I have created. I also created what I term as Avatars, a type Demi-God that I did a write up on if you are interested. I have attached a PDF of Avatars.

Avatars 2-26-2014.wps 4 (2).doc

Edited by Ethereal
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9 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

In the very long term of this campaign, player might meet super supernatural beings. Like greater angels or demons.

I wonder how do they flesh out in RD100? Looking for suggestion! :) 

Wait for Merrie England: Age of Crusade? 🙂

In my opinion, you can treat Greater Angels or Demons in two ways:

  • They are just powerful monsters that can be interacted with and killed, if necessary
  • They are all-powerful beings who cannot be attacked or killed

There are good and bad points for both approaches.

Treating them just like any other Monster demeans them slightly, which is fine and dandy, but might not get the feel that you are after.

treating them as untouchable NPCs is very frustrating for the Players, as they might have come up with a plan to defeat them.

What I tend to do is make them really powerful, quite strong and difficult to kill, but not unkillable. However, killing them just banishes them to their Celestial/Infernal home and they can be resummoned again. In order to properly kill a Greater being, you have to travel to its realm and kill it there, or need a special artefact to use to kill it.

However, attacking and killing Greater Demons and angels is sort of missing the point. You are better off negotiating with them, making deals with them, gaining information from them, perhaps even worshipping them, or at least gaining them as a Feat which gives you power. 

 

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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4 hours ago, soltakss said:

Treating them just like any other Monster demeans them slightly, which is fine and dandy, but might not get the feel that you are after.

treating them as untouchable NPCs is very frustrating for the Players, as they might have come up with a plan to defeat them.

Nailed it! ;) 

 

4 hours ago, soltakss said:

However, attacking and killing Greater Demons and angels is sort of missing the point. You are better off negotiating with them, making deals with them, gaining information from them, perhaps even worshipping them, or at least gaining them as a Feat which gives you power. 

Good point too...
In my remote campaign idea though there will be little choice...
But it might be fun to introduce some encounter before that.. you just motivated me to do just that! :)

In fact one important upcoming NPC is just that.. But the plan is already to negotiate! ^^
they are looking for precious magic stone at the moment.. Next they will try to visit the "king of the dark forest" (the magic stone will be a gift to .. it?) they don't quite know what it is, the dark forest is full of undead though.. and they have a clue the "king" could help them go back home....

 

4 hours ago, soltakss said:

Wait for Merrie England: Age of Crusade? 

Ok, waiting! :)  

Edited by Lloyd Dupont
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  • 2 weeks later...

I got an idea recently, one I am hesitating to use because it is somewhat anathema to D100, is to used variable HP for divinities.
It is somewhat in use, since often deity, even of human shape and size, would have outrageous CON and POW and I was thinking to give them something like 10 toughness, 30 life (i.e. 30 damage before lethal wound)

What of it?
Or would you just advice normal rules but simply outrageous toughness of, say, 20?....

Edited by Lloyd Dupont
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Er... a guy with STR and CON of 18 is 10 Toughness 36 Effort, so 10/30 is in no way outrageous. Toughness 20 is a dragon with good stats, nothing a well prepared fighter PC could not handle.

In my opinion the best way to handle divinities is "advanced combat not allowed". You can still try to swordfight with them, but the deity will be able to use its peculiar strengths to prevent the cunning player from overcoming it with a couple of sword slashes. Essentially, it is a matter of "not gaming the system". You can defeat a deity in a physical confrontation if you are truly a master of combat or another discipline such as Agility, not by gaming the system and packing enough damage to overcome an arbitrary Toughness. You know the old saying "If it has stats, you can kill it".

Edited by RosenMcStern

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It all depends on how you see Deities in the setting.

In the Stormbringer game, the rule was that PCs always had first hit against a deity, then the Deity killed them. Obviously, Corum wasn't a PC.

In a game set in Mythic Greece or Mythic Norseland, the Deities could be killed and sometimes were, but they would be hard to kill and can heal. I think that either Nectar or Ambrosia from the Greek Myths cured injuries, but cannot remember. The Golden Apples of the Sun in Norse myth might have done the same.

If the game uses more of an Abrahamic-style religion, then perhaps the Deities just cannot be killed.

I wouldn't have a single set of rules for every setting, but would vary it.

The idea of making them really tough is a good one. You could have them only being harmed by magical weapons or by certain materials. Baldur was blessed by everything except mistletoe, so could be hurt by a dart made from it, although that is a special case it might apply to certain deities.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Oh yeah.. it obviously depends on settings and expectation....
My expectation is that down the track player will be fight with and against divinities... 

In fact, seeing how the campaign  is going... I though I might do an apotheosis campaign down the track! Which I never done before but would be cool. Already got some plan about the ascension procedure and the enemy they will be fight with and against! :D 

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