I'm curious to see if anyone has any interesting answers that aren't "get another god/god-like being to do it", "get rid of their followers, forever", or the ever dull "The DM says I do it, so I guess I just do it (/shrug)".
I know that (most) Gods lack a stat block in 5E, so i figure this should make it extra spicy to come up with a believe-able reason that they could be killed.
Find a Lore Bard, or maybe he's a Whisper Bard named Neitzsche and assist him in the production of Twilight of the Idols. When he's finished, assist in the works proliferation across the realm. You also someone with psionic insight, maybe call that guy Freud ... then you need to patronize someone trying to establish the notion of dialectical materialism. Not only have you killed god, but you've broken the world.
Arguably a Warlock named Crowley may be somewhere in the margins, but that was more an exercise in vanity than a contribution.
nope this just seemed a fun question. i have my way to kill a god, i think it's a fun and unique take on the idea. Simply wanted to see how other people would do it. That said i highly doubt you would take me at my word, but /shrug. Would it make you happier if the question got changed to "how would YOU go about killing an Ancient (blank) Dragon"?
I'm curious to see how many people who read the forums, and bother to answer questions, think outside the box. And how many are entirely bound within the RAW. I figure that if your DM is going to set you on a path to fight a God, there must be a way to win. No one likes multi hour long impossible fights / fights that have to be won by the DM (N)PC.
"I figure that if your DM is going to set you on a path to fight a God, there must be a way to win." You asked me how I'd go about killing a god. I know I couldn't do that. Nothing that has stats qualifies to me as even a weak true god, and with the kind of power I believe a god would possess, it would flash-fry me in an instant for daring to disrespect it enough to attack it. If you want to show how you'd go about it, be my guest, It might be interesting if you can actually explain how you'd go about killing something that was a fundamental part of the cosmos.
As for an Ancient Dragon? I'd run that at about level 17 and nothing less, and I'd expect that my players knew enough at that point to have a chance. I'd be as ruthless as I could, use every legendary action, all lair actions, and every minion I could throw at them, because if I use a monster with that kind of power, if I don't do my best to kill the lot of them, I'm depriving them of any chance to feel like heroes. As for killing it with my character? I'd need a lot of help, a team I could trust with my character's life, a lot of experience, which I don't have yet, hopefully weapons capable of penetrating it's defenses, a lot of detailed background gotten from scouting, and a big pile of luck.
So your response to a God is "I wouldn't because I don't think I could" which begs the question of why go into a threat about doing exactly that, just to say "You can't do that"?
As for the Ancient Dragon, you didn't actually answer the question. You start by changed the question to how you would run it as a DM, which is NOT how you would defeat it. It's how you expect other people to defeat it/ how you want them to feel after doing so. Then when you roll around to how "you would do it" you keep the description so vague that it could honestly be used for any and every high level encounter, any non descript high level adventurer might have. There's are no details, "i lure the dragon down, and then surprise it in such and such a way so it can't fly away....", no personal touch. Heck no description on how you would want to finish such a beast off, or even a preferred race/class to do this with. Where's the passion? Where's the excitement? You are fighting (probably) one of the strongest and oldest creatures that exist on this world, do you (your character) even care?
All right. Once again from the top. How would I go about killing a fundamental part of the cosmos? I'd start out at level one as a Sorcerer, I'd get past level 50 or so, and then I'd try. By then I'd have enough Sorcery points to be able to cast all my spells that didn't require a material component subtly, so if I got the drop on the god, who has Truesight, and Legendary actions so it can use those to re-roll for Initiative, and I'd still lack any Legendary actions myself, so I might be able to one-shot the god if I actually got the initiative. If not, I'd have to deal with the god fighting back and I'd probably lose, it would be a hard fight. I'd also need a team of course, and there's no chance at all that my team would outnumber the gods, so we'd be outnumbered by things that are at least equal if not greater in power than we were.
As for defeating an Ancient Dragon? I'd start out at first level as a Bard, I'd go for the Lore college, and try at about level 17 with my team. We'd all do a lot of research of course, anything that old and powerful would have some known characteristics. Then what I'd do is walk right up in front of it, and try to talk to it. I'd have a high enough armor class and enough hit points to survive if it attacked me first, and I'd try to talk it into surrendering. Bards are good at that. Clearly I couldn't expect to use spells against it but I'd have as many buffs on me as I could get. I can't award Bardic Inspiration to myself, but I would have Expertise in Persuasion, the DM might have given me Inspiration of the normal kind, and the party would have to agree to stand by and wait. I'd expect we'd have a well built close range damage dealer of some kind sneaking up behind the Dragon, they only have a passive perception in the mid to low 20s. Maybe I'd use my Bardic Inspiration on the damage dealer to help out. Oh yes. This is assuming I'm trying to defeat a non-evil Dragon. For an evil one? I'd probably wait until level 17 again, but I don't really know what class would work best. I've only played a Battle Master Fighter up to level 4 so far, and I don't have any real experience with any other class.
I was asking as a player. With what I assumed was the implied idea that you could do anything, and it would fit within this imaginary DM’s world. Maybe your character is an “extra” MF who would try to kill a God via crushing them under “infinite” rose petals. I assumed since you are killing them, the God would be evil, or at least a God your character had issues with.
I’m looking for a personal flourish, some unbound creativity. And honestly, I’m not impressed by the answers thus far. (Though Geann’s idea for a level 50 Sorc does spring new ideas/questions to mind.)
So your response to a God is "I wouldn't because I don't think I could" which begs the question of why go into a threat about doing exactly that, just to say "You can't do that"?
As for the Ancient Dragon, you didn't actually answer the question. You start by changed the question to how you would run it as a DM, which is NOT how you would defeat it. It's how you expect other people to defeat it/ how you want them to feel after doing so. Then when you roll around to how "you would do it" you keep the description so vague that it could honestly be used for any and every high level encounter, any non descript high level adventurer might have. There's are no details, "i lure the dragon down, and then surprise it in such and such a way so it can't fly away....", no personal touch. Heck no description on how you would want to finish such a beast off, or even a preferred race/class to do this with. Where's the passion? Where's the excitement? You are fighting (probably) one of the strongest and oldest creatures that exist on this world, do you (your character) even care?
How you would do it as a player is dependant on how someone would run this as a DM. If the DM hates the concept of characters researching things, good luck with Geann's suggested route there.
Are you asking as a DM? If so, why are you insisting on knowing how to approach this as a player? And even then unless you are giving players pre-scripted characters, it is hard to answer properly.
Are you asking as a player? If so, it is hard to answer properly without knowing the DM or anything about their world setting.
All that said, to kill a god, there are three classic routes:
1) Ascend to divinity oneself and take them on directly.
2) As a mortal, support and generally boost the power of one or more of your adversary's divine rivals to the point where they can kill said god for you.
3) Be prophesized to be 'the one.'
Note that these are not mutually exclusive paths. One could ascend to divinity because of a prophecy. One could be prophesized to be the new messiah of a god. One could support other gods so strongly that they grant you divinity. Or all three... following the great prophecy, you build up the faith to the point where you, yourself ascend and fulfill your destiny.
But none of those happen without both the DM and players 'buying in' to whatever path is taken.
I would add in a fourth: Find the ancient maguffin relic of god killing and perform the ritual of god killing when the cosmos is in perfect alignment, which only occurs for a 10 minute span once every 100,000 years, and that time just happens to be coming up three weeks from next Tuesday.
Which I guess boils down to, the DM made a campaign about it.
I think the problem with this thread is that it is soliciting tactics for something that is mechanically undefined. It's not that the rules say that the gods are essentially unkillable. It's just that there are no rules to the gods. If Zhule has the common power fantasy (note Freud reference above) of wanting a PC or a pet DMNPC to become the Master of the Universe, as a DM they can make a way. There's nothing wrong with say revieiwing the God of War video game franchise and porting it over to D&D in fact I'm sure you'll find stuff in homebrew to help you do it.
Killing a god, mechanically speaking might as well ask how does a PC become a master of the universe. You're talking about beyond epic level play, there aren't any rules to it and you're sort of on your own. It seems a lot of regulars on this forum don't see much interest in playing at that level.
Really, just read some books, or comic books or movies where god slaying happens, or play through or watch live plays of the God of War franchise. This isn't really a a question where good answers sit because you're ultimately going to have to rely on homebrew mechanisms.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So your response to a God is "I wouldn't because I don't think I could" which begs the question of why go into a threat about doing exactly that, just to say "You can't do that"?
As for the Ancient Dragon, you didn't actually answer the question. You start by changed the question to how you would run it as a DM, which is NOT how you would defeat it. It's how you expect other people to defeat it/ how you want them to feel after doing so. Then when you roll around to how "you would do it" you keep the description so vague that it could honestly be used for any and every high level encounter, any non descript high level adventurer might have. There's are no details, "i lure the dragon down, and then surprise it in such and such a way so it can't fly away....", no personal touch. Heck no description on how you would want to finish such a beast off, or even a preferred race/class to do this with. Where's the passion? Where's the excitement? You are fighting (probably) one of the strongest and oldest creatures that exist on this world, do you (your character) even care?
How you would do it as a player is dependant on how someone would run this as a DM. If the DM hates the concept of characters researching things, good luck with Geann's suggested route there.
Are you asking as a DM? If so, why are you insisting on knowing how to approach this as a player? And even then unless you are giving players pre-scripted characters, it is hard to answer properly.
Are you asking as a player? If so, it is hard to answer properly without knowing the DM or anything about their world setting.
All that said, to kill a god, there are three classic routes:
1) Ascend to divinity oneself and take them on directly.
2) As a mortal, support and generally boost the power of one or more of your adversary's divine rivals to the point where they can kill said god for you.
3) Be prophesized to be 'the one.'
Note that these are not mutually exclusive paths. One could ascend to divinity because of a prophecy. One could be prophesized to be the new messiah of a god. One could support other gods so strongly that they grant you divinity. Or all three... following the great prophecy, you build up the faith to the point where you, yourself ascend and fulfill your destiny.
But none of those happen without both the DM and players 'buying in' to whatever path is taken.
I would add in a fourth: Find the ancient maguffin relic of god killing and perform the ritual of god killing when the cosmos is in perfect alignment, which only occurs for a 10 minute span once every 100,000 years, and that time just happens to be coming up three weeks from next Tuesday.
Which I guess boils down to, the DM made a campaign about it.
The bolded is a prophecy.
Or just math based on observations and how things move.
This becomes increasing frustrating. This isn’t a question about mechanics nor is it a question on how to write this as a DM. Hence why this thread was created in discussion and not either of those threads.
The question is an remains “How would you kill a God”? If the only answers you can come up with are pulled from video games or RL stories… well then that’s the limit of what you are going to answer with. Guess I was hoping someone would come up with something unique and personal. Even if it was just “I get the legendary thing that once hurt a god, and use that as a means to hurt it again”
perhaps future questions are best asked on a different medium. So far it seems people in these forums are “over fond” of RAW. Basing their answers on the understood mechanics / how the math plays out.
I did kill a god back in 1-3.xe. Shot it with an arrow of slaying called shot to the eye and rolled a natural 20. Then proceeded to roll 10 more appropriate “criticals” (1, 20, 01 or 100) in a row. At that point the DM gave up and said the god is dead and you have absorbed their power. Even in 5e the same basic routine would work all you need is an insane run of luck like I had.
Find the godbane and use it to strike the god in the vulnerable area your research has determined as the sweet spot.
Forge weapons of anathemenium and lay waste to the god.
Look up a Cleric Lich in the phone book or whatever directory they use in your world and request an interview regarding their tactics.
The possibilities are endless. Oh that's one, deliver the god to a space where they are confronted with endless possibilities beyond their control and watch the god simply dissolve into impotence.
Forgotten Realms has tales of mortals who became gods, I think Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul actually had an alliance to do so.
I could go on, but the question is so abstract and diffuse in its articulation, it's sort of boring.
Usually when a poster is claiming a problem with a community they're addressing, it's operator error.
So far it seems people in these forums are “over fond” of RAW. Basing their answers on the understood mechanics / how the math plays out.
There are plenty of other threads that have nothing to do with RAW, and a lot of people here replied to those threads without referencing RAW. I can assure you most of GMs and players on here have no blind love for RAW. Practically all of us bend RAW in some way, shape, or form.
I think it is unfair and disingenious to accuse those who took their time to reply here of blindly loving RAW when the whole premise is communicated poorly in the OP. The OP sounds like it is fishing for some kind of justification with RAW or lore, and the people who replied gave you justification via RAW and lore accordingly.
I'm curious to see if anyone has any interesting answers that aren't "get another god/god-like being to do it", "get rid of their followers, forever", or the ever dull "The DM says I do it, so I guess I just do it (/shrug)".
I know that (most) Gods lack a stat block in 5E, so i figure this should make it extra spicy to come up with a believe-able reason that they could be killed.
This one is an appeal to lore. Plenty of gods have duked it out with each other, and sometimes they kill each other and absorb each other's powers. This one is also an appeal to lore. Gods in D&D are tied to their followers. This one appeals to rule zero, which is the RAW way to ask GMs to override RAW. This is one appeals to RAW and lore, cause stat blocks are basically part of RAW, but you need a way around RAW to kill gods.
The whole OP sounds like it is asking for ways to kill gods that is justifiable with RAW or lore, as long as the justification is not one of the specifically listed reasons.
nope this just seemed a fun question. i have my way to kill a god, i think it's a fun and unique take on the idea. Simply wanted to see how other people would do it. That said i highly doubt you would take me at my word, but /shrug. Would it make you happier if the question got changed to "how would YOU go about killing an Ancient (blank) Dragon"?
I'm curious to see how many people who read the forums, and bother to answer questions, think outside the box. And how many are entirely bound within the RAW. I figure that if your DM is going to set you on a path to fight a God, there must be a way to win. No one likes multi hour long impossible fights / fights that have to be won by the DM (N)PC.
I was asking as a player. With what I assumed was the implied idea that you could do anything, and it would fit within this imaginary DM’s world. Maybe your character is an “extra” MF who would try to kill a God via crushing them under “infinite” rose petals. I assumed since you are killing them, the God would be evil, or at least a God your character had issues with.
I’m looking for a personal flourish, some unbound creativity. And honestly, I’m not impressed by the answers thus far. (Though Geann’s idea for a level 50 Sorc does spring new ideas/questions to mind.)
It would bug me a lot less if you just simply asked "How would you roleplay about killing a god?"instead of needlessly antagonizing people, and then accusing them of giving loaded answers when you yourself are asking a loaded question.
Assuming the question you are really asking is "How would you roleplay about killing a god?", I guess I would appeal to the GM for a homebrew artifact I just made up off the top of my head called the Blade of Life, and I earn it by doing adventures for it, buy the GM drinks, or whatever else I need to do. The Blade of Life can give mortality to anything, so that means it can be used to animate stuff like rocks, papers, and scissors; resurrect the dead; cure vamprism and other unnatural undead states; and of course, it can be used to end the divinity and immortality of the gods. Then I stab a god I do not like with the Blade of Life and make them experience all the horrors and suffering of being mortal, and I guess I will absorb all their powers in the process or something. I guess I will pick Azathoth since he is the greatest evil I can think of, so after I turn it mortal, I will have it experience torture, ****, enslavement, the consumption of its own excrement, mind break, and everything else that is too graphic and objectionable to describe. Only when its consciousness has died, then I physically kill it. And when it finally feels the sweet embrace of nothingness and death, I bring it back to mortal life full of consciousness and sanity, and I rinse and repeat the whole process again for eternity.
As to the parts before. The biggest issue with asking a question is that you either don’t know the answer or you know just enough that when people give answers you can recognize them as “not being what you actually meant”. Then you get to spend countless time wording, rewording, and rewording again, the question. Only to have someone still answer the question in such a way as to not address what you are getting at.
I’m tired of the endless back and forth, trying to find the “perfect” way to word a question such that I get answers that I can use. I’m either going to end up using a word I shouldn’t, which will derail the conversation. Or I’m not going to use a word that I’m suppose to, and the conversation gets derailed. Someone is always unhappy with how the question turns out, so why bother stressing over trying to please everyone.
As to your attempts to pick apart the limitations. Let’s me break that down for you as to why I wanted to avoid those:
1) “asking another God or god like being to do it”. You aren’t fighting a God in this situation. You are begging someone else to deal with the problem. There may be RP around how you convince them, but there is nothing around how you (as the player) kill the God.
2) “killing all their followers”. Again you are not fighting the God, you are taking the route that would (in theory) depower the God over time. But you are not confronting the God. This is a battle of attrition where you hope your actions will eventually lead to results in a second/third hand manner.
3) “Your DM says you do it, so you did it”. There is no personal story here. You haven’t explained how you won, you’ve simply stated that you did. This situation reads as the player gets all the spoils of killing a God, while the DM does 1500% of the work on setting up how.
incorrect. There are answers that would satisfy me.
There is no 100% one and only "right" answer. and i'm not even saying the answers I got were "wrong". I'm saying that many of them missed the point of what i was going for. I was looking for personal takes on the situation, and many of the answers just ended up being "well X worked in such and such legend/module/etc... or RL text. so i'll just do that" OR "I'll go for the answer that circumvents that limitations of mortal vs. god" Neither of these are "wrong" answers, but neither are they unique thoughts Heck i gave an example of crushing a God under infinite rose petals, I'm pretty sure that's not "the answer" in a pre existing module or how (famous name) did it when they fought a god.
You don't need to know the DM, you don't need to know the plane, or the context of the world. You simply have to "kill a god". It's a thought experiment not a math problem. Just accept that it can happen, it is going to happen, and all you have to do is come up with some vaguely possible reason as to how and why. Or don't, and fail to grasp the point of the question. Who am i to tell you how to live your life.
no this just appeared to be a pleasant inquiry. I have my approach to kill a divine being, I believe it's a fun and interesting interpretation of the thought. Essentially needed to perceive how others would do it. That said I profoundly question you would trust me, however/shrug. Would it make you more joyful if the inquiry got changed to "how might YOU approach killing an Ancient (clear) Dragon"?
I'm interested to perceive the number of individuals who read the discussions, and trouble to address questions, consider new ideas. Also, the number of are completely bound inside the RAW. I figure that if your DM will show you a way to battle a God, there should be an approach to win. Nobody likes multi hour long unthinkable battles/battles that must be won by the DM (N)PC.
As to the parts before. The biggest issue with asking a question is that you either don’t know the answer or you know just enough that when people give answers you can recognize them as “not being what you actually meant”. Then you get to spend countless time wording, rewording, and rewording again, the question. Only to have someone still answer the question in such a way as to not address what you are getting at.
While I do not think asking "How would you roleplay killing a god?" is all that difficult, I do not think it is right to get angry at listeners when the speaker is miscommunicating their intent or idea.
All of us have moments where we have trouble remembering a word, have difficulty describing something, or just brain farts in general. However, instead of getting hostile at others and provoking them over miscommunication, we work with the listener by rewording our intent to see if it gets the point across, use examples, ask them for help, have them rephrase your words to see if it matches what you mean, etc. While you have done some of those steps to try to improve communication, the hostility and provocation is unnecessary and highly counterproductive to communication, and it makes people defensive and stop listening to what you are trying to say.
I'm curious to see if anyone has any interesting answers that aren't "get another god/god-like being to do it", "get rid of their followers, forever", or the ever dull "The DM says I do it, so I guess I just do it (/shrug)".
I know that (most) Gods lack a stat block in 5E, so i figure this should make it extra spicy to come up with a believe-able reason that they could be killed.
Play through Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden or Rise of Tiamat.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Find a Lore Bard, or maybe he's a Whisper Bard named Neitzsche and assist him in the production of Twilight of the Idols. When he's finished, assist in the works proliferation across the realm. You also someone with psionic insight, maybe call that guy Freud ... then you need to patronize someone trying to establish the notion of dialectical materialism. Not only have you killed god, but you've broken the world.
Arguably a Warlock named Crowley may be somewhere in the margins, but that was more an exercise in vanity than a contribution.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
nope this just seemed a fun question. i have my way to kill a god, i think it's a fun and unique take on the idea. Simply wanted to see how other people would do it. That said i highly doubt you would take me at my word, but /shrug. Would it make you happier if the question got changed to "how would YOU go about killing an Ancient (blank) Dragon"?
I'm curious to see how many people who read the forums, and bother to answer questions, think outside the box. And how many are entirely bound within the RAW. I figure that if your DM is going to set you on a path to fight a God, there must be a way to win. No one likes multi hour long impossible fights / fights that have to be won by the DM (N)PC.
"I figure that if your DM is going to set you on a path to fight a God, there must be a way to win." You asked me how I'd go about killing a god. I know I couldn't do that. Nothing that has stats qualifies to me as even a weak true god, and with the kind of power I believe a god would possess, it would flash-fry me in an instant for daring to disrespect it enough to attack it. If you want to show how you'd go about it, be my guest, It might be interesting if you can actually explain how you'd go about killing something that was a fundamental part of the cosmos.
As for an Ancient Dragon? I'd run that at about level 17 and nothing less, and I'd expect that my players knew enough at that point to have a chance. I'd be as ruthless as I could, use every legendary action, all lair actions, and every minion I could throw at them, because if I use a monster with that kind of power, if I don't do my best to kill the lot of them, I'm depriving them of any chance to feel like heroes. As for killing it with my character? I'd need a lot of help, a team I could trust with my character's life, a lot of experience, which I don't have yet, hopefully weapons capable of penetrating it's defenses, a lot of detailed background gotten from scouting, and a big pile of luck.
<Insert clever signature here>
So your response to a God is "I wouldn't because I don't think I could" which begs the question of why go into a threat about doing exactly that, just to say "You can't do that"?
As for the Ancient Dragon, you didn't actually answer the question. You start by changed the question to how you would run it as a DM, which is NOT how you would defeat it. It's how you expect other people to defeat it/ how you want them to feel after doing so. Then when you roll around to how "you would do it" you keep the description so vague that it could honestly be used for any and every high level encounter, any non descript high level adventurer might have. There's are no details, "i lure the dragon down, and then surprise it in such and such a way so it can't fly away....", no personal touch. Heck no description on how you would want to finish such a beast off, or even a preferred race/class to do this with. Where's the passion? Where's the excitement? You are fighting (probably) one of the strongest and oldest creatures that exist on this world, do you (your character) even care?
All right. Once again from the top. How would I go about killing a fundamental part of the cosmos? I'd start out at level one as a Sorcerer, I'd get past level 50 or so, and then I'd try. By then I'd have enough Sorcery points to be able to cast all my spells that didn't require a material component subtly, so if I got the drop on the god, who has Truesight, and Legendary actions so it can use those to re-roll for Initiative, and I'd still lack any Legendary actions myself, so I might be able to one-shot the god if I actually got the initiative. If not, I'd have to deal with the god fighting back and I'd probably lose, it would be a hard fight. I'd also need a team of course, and there's no chance at all that my team would outnumber the gods, so we'd be outnumbered by things that are at least equal if not greater in power than we were.
As for defeating an Ancient Dragon? I'd start out at first level as a Bard, I'd go for the Lore college, and try at about level 17 with my team. We'd all do a lot of research of course, anything that old and powerful would have some known characteristics. Then what I'd do is walk right up in front of it, and try to talk to it. I'd have a high enough armor class and enough hit points to survive if it attacked me first, and I'd try to talk it into surrendering. Bards are good at that. Clearly I couldn't expect to use spells against it but I'd have as many buffs on me as I could get. I can't award Bardic Inspiration to myself, but I would have Expertise in Persuasion, the DM might have given me Inspiration of the normal kind, and the party would have to agree to stand by and wait. I'd expect we'd have a well built close range damage dealer of some kind sneaking up behind the Dragon, they only have a passive perception in the mid to low 20s. Maybe I'd use my Bardic Inspiration on the damage dealer to help out. Oh yes. This is assuming I'm trying to defeat a non-evil Dragon. For an evil one? I'd probably wait until level 17 again, but I don't really know what class would work best. I've only played a Battle Master Fighter up to level 4 so far, and I don't have any real experience with any other class.
<Insert clever signature here>
I was asking as a player. With what I assumed was the implied idea that you could do anything, and it would fit within this imaginary DM’s world. Maybe your character is an “extra” MF who would try to kill a God via crushing them under “infinite” rose petals. I assumed since you are killing them, the God would be evil, or at least a God your character had issues with.
I’m looking for a personal flourish, some unbound creativity. And honestly, I’m not impressed by the answers thus far. (Though Geann’s idea for a level 50 Sorc does spring new ideas/questions to mind.)
I would add in a fourth: Find the ancient
maguffinrelic of god killing and perform the ritual of god killing when the cosmos is in perfect alignment, which only occurs for a 10 minute span once every 100,000 years, and that time just happens to be coming up three weeks from next Tuesday.Which I guess boils down to, the DM made a campaign about it.
I think the problem with this thread is that it is soliciting tactics for something that is mechanically undefined. It's not that the rules say that the gods are essentially unkillable. It's just that there are no rules to the gods. If Zhule has the common power fantasy (note Freud reference above) of wanting a PC or a pet DMNPC to become the Master of the Universe, as a DM they can make a way. There's nothing wrong with say revieiwing the God of War video game franchise and porting it over to D&D in fact I'm sure you'll find stuff in homebrew to help you do it.
Killing a god, mechanically speaking might as well ask how does a PC become a master of the universe. You're talking about beyond epic level play, there aren't any rules to it and you're sort of on your own. It seems a lot of regulars on this forum don't see much interest in playing at that level.
Really, just read some books, or comic books or movies where god slaying happens, or play through or watch live plays of the God of War franchise. This isn't really a a question where good answers sit because you're ultimately going to have to rely on homebrew mechanisms.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Or just math based on observations and how things move.
This becomes increasing frustrating. This isn’t a question about mechanics nor is it a question on how to write this as a DM. Hence why this thread was created in discussion and not either of those threads.
The question is an remains “How would you kill a God”? If the only answers you can come up with are pulled from video games or RL stories… well then that’s the limit of what you are going to answer with. Guess I was hoping someone would come up with something unique and personal. Even if it was just “I get the legendary thing that once hurt a god, and use that as a means to hurt it again”
perhaps future questions are best asked on a different medium. So far it seems people in these forums are “over fond” of RAW. Basing their answers on the understood mechanics / how the math plays out.
I did kill a god back in 1-3.xe. Shot it with an arrow of slaying called shot to the eye and rolled a natural 20. Then proceeded to roll 10 more appropriate “criticals” (1, 20, 01 or 100) in a row. At that point the DM gave up and said the god is dead and you have absorbed their power. Even in 5e the same basic routine would work all you need is an insane run of luck like I had.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Find the godbane and use it to strike the god in the vulnerable area your research has determined as the sweet spot.
Forge weapons of anathemenium and lay waste to the god.
Look up a Cleric Lich in the phone book or whatever directory they use in your world and request an interview regarding their tactics.
The possibilities are endless. Oh that's one, deliver the god to a space where they are confronted with endless possibilities beyond their control and watch the god simply dissolve into impotence.
Forgotten Realms has tales of mortals who became gods, I think Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul actually had an alliance to do so.
I could go on, but the question is so abstract and diffuse in its articulation, it's sort of boring.
Usually when a poster is claiming a problem with a community they're addressing, it's operator error.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There are plenty of other threads that have nothing to do with RAW, and a lot of people here replied to those threads without referencing RAW. I can assure you most of GMs and players on here have no blind love for RAW. Practically all of us bend RAW in some way, shape, or form.
I think it is unfair and disingenious to accuse those who took their time to reply here of blindly loving RAW when the whole premise is communicated poorly in the OP. The OP sounds like it is fishing for some kind of justification with RAW or lore, and the people who replied gave you justification via RAW and lore accordingly.
This one is an appeal to lore. Plenty of gods have duked it out with each other, and sometimes they kill each other and absorb each other's powers. This one is also an appeal to lore. Gods in D&D are tied to their followers. This one appeals to rule zero, which is the RAW way to ask GMs to override RAW. This is one appeals to RAW and lore, cause stat blocks are basically part of RAW, but you need a way around RAW to kill gods.
The whole OP sounds like it is asking for ways to kill gods that is justifiable with RAW or lore, as long as the justification is not one of the specifically listed reasons.
It would bug me a lot less if you just simply asked "How would you roleplay about killing a god?" instead of needlessly antagonizing people, and then accusing them of giving loaded answers when you yourself are asking a loaded question.
Assuming the question you are really asking is "How would you roleplay about killing a god?", I guess I would appeal to the GM for a homebrew artifact I just made up off the top of my head called the Blade of Life, and I earn it by doing adventures for it, buy the GM drinks, or whatever else I need to do. The Blade of Life can give mortality to anything, so that means it can be used to animate stuff like rocks, papers, and scissors; resurrect the dead; cure vamprism and other unnatural undead states; and of course, it can be used to end the divinity and immortality of the gods. Then I stab a god I do not like with the Blade of Life and make them experience all the horrors and suffering of being mortal, and I guess I will absorb all their powers in the process or something. I guess I will pick Azathoth since he is the greatest evil I can think of, so after I turn it mortal, I will have it experience torture, ****, enslavement, the consumption of its own excrement, mind break, and everything else that is too graphic and objectionable to describe. Only when its consciousness has died, then I physically kill it. And when it finally feels the sweet embrace of nothingness and death, I bring it back to mortal life full of consciousness and sanity, and I rinse and repeat the whole process again for eternity.
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Trick the god into entering Sigil.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I like the last bit.
As to the parts before. The biggest issue with asking a question is that you either don’t know the answer or you know just enough that when people give answers you can recognize them as “not being what you actually meant”. Then you get to spend countless time wording, rewording, and rewording again, the question. Only to have someone still answer the question in such a way as to not address what you are getting at.
I’m tired of the endless back and forth, trying to find the “perfect” way to word a question such that I get answers that I can use. I’m either going to end up using a word I shouldn’t, which will derail the conversation. Or I’m not going to use a word that I’m suppose to, and the conversation gets derailed. Someone is always unhappy with how the question turns out, so why bother stressing over trying to please everyone.
As to your attempts to pick apart the limitations. Let’s me break that down for you as to why I wanted to avoid those:
1) “asking another God or god like being to do it”. You aren’t fighting a God in this situation. You are begging someone else to deal with the problem. There may be RP around how you convince them, but there is nothing around how you (as the player) kill the God.
2) “killing all their followers”. Again you are not fighting the God, you are taking the route that would (in theory) depower the God over time. But you are not confronting the God. This is a battle of attrition where you hope your actions will eventually lead to results in a second/third hand manner.
3) “Your DM says you do it, so you did it”. There is no personal story here. You haven’t explained how you won, you’ve simply stated that you did. This situation reads as the player gets all the spoils of killing a God, while the DM does 1500% of the work on setting up how.
incorrect. There are answers that would satisfy me.
There is no 100% one and only "right" answer. and i'm not even saying the answers I got were "wrong". I'm saying that many of them missed the point of what i was going for. I was looking for personal takes on the situation, and many of the answers just ended up being "well X worked in such and such legend/module/etc... or RL text. so i'll just do that" OR "I'll go for the answer that circumvents that limitations of mortal vs. god" Neither of these are "wrong" answers, but neither are they unique thoughts Heck i gave an example of crushing a God under infinite rose petals, I'm pretty sure that's not "the answer" in a pre existing module or how (famous name) did it when they fought a god.
You don't need to know the DM, you don't need to know the plane, or the context of the world. You simply have to "kill a god". It's a thought experiment not a math problem. Just accept that it can happen, it is going to happen, and all you have to do is come up with some vaguely possible reason as to how and why. Or don't, and fail to grasp the point of the question. Who am i to tell you how to live your life.
no this just appeared to be a pleasant inquiry. I have my approach to kill a divine being, I believe it's a fun and interesting interpretation of the thought. Essentially needed to perceive how others would do it. That said I profoundly question you would trust me, however/shrug. Would it make you more joyful if the inquiry got changed to "how might YOU approach killing an Ancient (clear) Dragon"?
I'm interested to perceive the number of individuals who read the discussions, and trouble to address questions, consider new ideas. Also, the number of are completely bound inside the RAW. I figure that if your DM will show you a way to battle a God, there should be an approach to win. Nobody likes multi hour long unthinkable battles/battles that must be won by the DM (N)PC.
While I do not think asking "How would you roleplay killing a god?" is all that difficult, I do not think it is right to get angry at listeners when the speaker is miscommunicating their intent or idea.
All of us have moments where we have trouble remembering a word, have difficulty describing something, or just brain farts in general. However, instead of getting hostile at others and provoking them over miscommunication, we work with the listener by rewording our intent to see if it gets the point across, use examples, ask them for help, have them rephrase your words to see if it matches what you mean, etc. While you have done some of those steps to try to improve communication, the hostility and provocation is unnecessary and highly counterproductive to communication, and it makes people defensive and stop listening to what you are trying to say.
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