Since every DM may run the game differently and there are no rules at all for becoming god - it is entirely DM fiat how you can - if even possible at all.
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Kinda limited options here. I think the cannon way is to achieve enough power and gain followers. But there are fun ways if you are after ideas. Siphoning power from Other planes, weakening a higher god, potentially interrupting great wyrms when they try to fuse with another aspect of themselves and steal the power. Lots of fun ideas.
It depends on the character. Garveld Grimhammer, a Cleric of the Grave, would want to become a secretary of sorts for Kelemvor and would gladly oversee his deity's duties should they retire for whatever reason. Mr. Manalishi, a Pact of the Fiend Warlock, would want to fight his way to the top through guile and legalese. And Montgomery-Sterling Askett would want to form a cult to ascend to lichdom, built by loyal customers who can't get enough of his funerary services.
But more than it depends on the character, it depends on your DM. If you disagree with the DM's ruling on godhood, you can always create your own works outside of their game to determine how one can ascend to godhood.
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I made up a ridiculous thing that my character believed he was part god cos his mam told him his dad was a god. Had no plans on that ever having a meaningful impact on the story. DM ran with that, though, and now my character is descended from a god and working his way towards godhood.
Tyrant. Someone powerful enough to kill you if you do not call them a God and worship them. See leaders of Egypt and Rome in real life.
Prayer Symbiosis. Anyone capable of granting spells (and other cleric abilities) in exchange for worship.
Creators. Any person super-powered person that creates something truly new that spreads throughout the universe. Example, most modern religions consider God to have created the universe. But merely creating lightning, war, life, gambling, money, etc.
Embodied Concepts. Any creature that literally IS a concept. As in, the God of War is War, and cannot be killed while any war currently exists.
Gods in D&D are always Prayer Symbiotics, that is the nature of our rules. But they also usually also have some kind of flavor aspect similar to an embodied concept and the most powerful ones often claim to be Creators.
That said, I would allow any of said creatures to exist. A mere 12th level fighter could go around killing anyone that denies his divinity. Any 20th level character could become a Creator, although it probably is easier with 9th level spells. An embodied concept would require either first creating a new embodied concept and devoting yourself to it with powerful magic, or more likely hunting down a current one, damage it and take it's power. Or more likely becoming possessed by it. While there is no obvious path to becoming a prayer symbiot, I could see someone earning that right from other, existing gods that you worshiped.
If a player wanted to attempt this, I would have them try to do all four methods. Depending on how successful they were, I would end the game with some kind of ranking - demi-god all the way up to Major God.
Get many many Kuo-Toa to believe you are a god, eventually you will become a god (Or they end up creating a being that's a perverse reflection of yourself through their eyes, but that's a risk you gotta take).
All depends on the definition of 'god' you are using. It's perfectly plausible to say "If people worship you as a god, you're a god", though this may not be terribly interesting to PCs as it doesn't grant any useful powers other than those intrinsic to having a bunch of followers.
I read A Spell For Chameleon, probably three-ish years ago. Very, *very* weird gender politics in there. I don't remember much, honestly, but I remember thinking, "boy oh boy, I'm unsettled to consider how many people just absorbed this stuff uncritically because they were children when they read it." Anyway..!
The nature of godhood in the Forgotten Realms is so irritating to me. It makes people think there's a path they can have their characters follow that will lead to becoming a god, or that becoming a god can be anything other than an epilogue at the average table. Plus, it makes the gods seem mundane, weak, and without authority. If gods are just people, why listen to any of them? That's not the vibe the setting is going for, I think. I mean, there's Clerics and angels and holy days and that's all real, and temples to good gods are basically unambiguously good places where good things happen, and so on, but when you get to playing, you end up with a bunch of basically atheists whose only real interaction with gods or their worshippers tends to be killing evil cultists. And clearly the dark gods can't be that scary, because they couldn't even be bothered to TPK the heroes with hell magic or whatever in the first dungeon. So the bad gods aren't a threat, the good gods aren't helping, and why do we even have a pantheon again..?
Not that far really, your covering some basic problems that DND has always had a problem with. We (especially in the US) live in a highly secular world and many, perhaps most (especially in the DND world) are atheist or agnostic and have very little real faith so it’s sort of hard (not impossible) to roll play that relationship. We also have the problem that modern science has explained many perhaps most of the everyday stuff that used to be the gods in action. The other side of the coin of course. I taught earth science for many years and can explain the physics of the rainbow with the best of them, but I still get a religious thrill at the beauty of that simple physical interaction. If you haven’t read them, Greenwood’s knights of myth Drannor series has a couple of adventurer clerics that he portrays pretty well. They also show up in the shadow dale adventures. Sadly for game play, we live in a (mostly) atheist/monotheist world today. The only major religion that is close to the polytheism of DND is the Hindu faith I strongly suspect that the way we view groups like the Nordic, Greco-Roman, Egyptian and other pantheons is very strongly colored by modern world view so you have to try put away modern views and think like they did in a world in which everyday actions like a thunderstorm was the action of a diety.
It may not have aged well but it does manage to show some ways gods/incarnations come into being and go out of being. Like anything written more than about 5-10 years ago they have to be read with a bit of cultural awareness. They are also intended for an age range significantly lower than mine today, so as always with my or anyone else’s reading recommendations it’s reader be aware.
It may not have aged well but it does manage to show some ways gods/incarnations come into being and go out of being. Like anything written more than about 5-10 years ago they have to be read with a bit of cultural awareness. They are also intended for an age range significantly lower than mine today, so as always with my or anyone else’s reading recommendations it’s reader be aware.
Cultural awareness doesn't really factor into things. He's an American who wrote for an American audience. His views on women and relationships were always pretty far out there, even in the 70s and 80s. But that's not really a topic we can seriously delve into here.
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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.
Also, I use my own semi-ho version of the Mystara setting, and Mystara has no gods, it has “Immortal me” instead, and the path to Immortality was already layer out RAW in both 1e & 2e. (And immortality is a curse I wouldn’t lay on my worst enemies.) If I don’t use Mystara, then my next favorite is Dark Sun. (There are no gods on Athas either.)
Out of curiosity i want to know how you would choose to become a god
By asking the DM nicely.
Since every DM may run the game differently and there are no rules at all for becoming god - it is entirely DM fiat how you can - if even possible at all.
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Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Simply by choosing to be DM
and thusly we ascend
Kinda limited options here. I think the cannon way is to achieve enough power and gain followers. But there are fun ways if you are after ideas. Siphoning power from Other planes, weakening a higher god, potentially interrupting great wyrms when they try to fuse with another aspect of themselves and steal the power. Lots of fun ideas.
It depends on the character. Garveld Grimhammer, a Cleric of the Grave, would want to become a secretary of sorts for Kelemvor and would gladly oversee his deity's duties should they retire for whatever reason. Mr. Manalishi, a Pact of the Fiend Warlock, would want to fight his way to the top through guile and legalese. And Montgomery-Sterling Askett would want to form a cult to ascend to lichdom, built by loyal customers who can't get enough of his funerary services.
But more than it depends on the character, it depends on your DM. If you disagree with the DM's ruling on godhood, you can always create your own works outside of their game to determine how one can ascend to godhood.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
I made up a ridiculous thing that my character believed he was part god cos his mam told him his dad was a god. Had no plans on that ever having a meaningful impact on the story. DM ran with that, though, and now my character is descended from a god and working his way towards godhood.
Four traditional definitions of God:
Gods in D&D are always Prayer Symbiotics, that is the nature of our rules. But they also usually also have some kind of flavor aspect similar to an embodied concept and the most powerful ones often claim to be Creators.
That said, I would allow any of said creatures to exist. A mere 12th level fighter could go around killing anyone that denies his divinity. Any 20th level character could become a Creator, although it probably is easier with 9th level spells. An embodied concept would require either first creating a new embodied concept and devoting yourself to it with powerful magic, or more likely hunting down a current one, damage it and take it's power. Or more likely becoming possessed by it. While there is no obvious path to becoming a prayer symbiot, I could see someone earning that right from other, existing gods that you worshiped.
If a player wanted to attempt this, I would have them try to do all four methods. Depending on how successful they were, I would end the game with some kind of ranking - demi-god all the way up to Major God.
Get many many Kuo-Toa to believe you are a god, eventually you will become a god (Or they end up creating a being that's a perverse reflection of yourself through their eyes, but that's a risk you gotta take).
I would opt-out of divinity, too much hassle. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
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So you're asking about our personal preferences? Or our characters' preferences? Or official lore?
I haven't made any characters who would be interested in godhood.
This^
Take up the mantle of GM. Treat your friends fairly and put them in danger without the intent to kill. That is how one becomes a god.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
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"real life is a super high CR."
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"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
All depends on the definition of 'god' you are using. It's perfectly plausible to say "If people worship you as a god, you're a god", though this may not be terribly interesting to PCs as it doesn't grant any useful powers other than those intrinsic to having a bunch of followers.
Killing a god (accidentally on purpose) - happened to me.
being picked as a replacement by a bored god, the other gods deposing one of their own and choosing you as replacement.
for an interesting take on this try reading Piers Anthony’s Incarnations series of novels.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
That series has not aged well.
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 read A Spell For Chameleon, probably three-ish years ago. Very, *very* weird gender politics in there. I don't remember much, honestly, but I remember thinking, "boy oh boy, I'm unsettled to consider how many people just absorbed this stuff uncritically because they were children when they read it." Anyway..!
The nature of godhood in the Forgotten Realms is so irritating to me. It makes people think there's a path they can have their characters follow that will lead to becoming a god, or that becoming a god can be anything other than an epilogue at the average table. Plus, it makes the gods seem mundane, weak, and without authority. If gods are just people, why listen to any of them? That's not the vibe the setting is going for, I think. I mean, there's Clerics and angels and holy days and that's all real, and temples to good gods are basically unambiguously good places where good things happen, and so on, but when you get to playing, you end up with a bunch of basically atheists whose only real interaction with gods or their worshippers tends to be killing evil cultists. And clearly the dark gods can't be that scary, because they couldn't even be bothered to TPK the heroes with hell magic or whatever in the first dungeon. So the bad gods aren't a threat, the good gods aren't helping, and why do we even have a pantheon again..?
I'm way off topic, I think.
Not that far really, your covering some basic problems that DND has always had a problem with. We (especially in the US) live in a highly secular world and many, perhaps most (especially in the DND world) are atheist or agnostic and have very little real faith so it’s sort of hard (not impossible) to roll play that relationship. We also have the problem that modern science has explained many perhaps most of the everyday stuff that used to be the gods in action. The other side of the coin of course. I taught earth science for many years and can explain the physics of the rainbow with the best of them, but I still get a religious thrill at the beauty of that simple physical interaction. If you haven’t read them, Greenwood’s knights of myth Drannor series has a couple of adventurer clerics that he portrays pretty well. They also show up in the shadow dale adventures. Sadly for game play, we live in a (mostly) atheist/monotheist world today. The only major religion that is close to the polytheism of DND is the Hindu faith I strongly suspect that the way we view groups like the Nordic, Greco-Roman, Egyptian and other pantheons is very strongly colored by modern world view so you have to try put away modern views and think like they did in a world in which everyday actions like a thunderstorm was the action of a diety.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
It may not have aged well but it does manage to show some ways gods/incarnations come into being and go out of being. Like anything written more than about 5-10 years ago they have to be read with a bit of cultural awareness. They are also intended for an age range significantly lower than mine today, so as always with my or anyone else’s reading recommendations it’s reader be aware.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Agreed
I haven’t either but I have one that became one anyway. And it’s been a pain in the rear ever since - definitely not worth it.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Cultural awareness doesn't really factor into things. He's an American who wrote for an American audience. His views on women and relationships were always pretty far out there, even in the 70s and 80s. But that's not really a topic we can seriously delve into here.
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.
Also, I use my own semi-ho version of the Mystara setting, and Mystara has no gods, it has “Immortal me” instead, and the path to Immortality was already layer out RAW in both 1e & 2e. (And immortality is a curse I wouldn’t lay on my worst enemies.) If I don’t use Mystara, then my next favorite is Dark Sun. (There are no gods on Athas either.)
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