As far as I know, currently the only PC's who are descendants of a Deity or Deity like beings are Aasimars.
Not really, since forever there has always been people who have Roleplayed as having a Divine Ancestor, and ever since the Bhaalspawn trilogy it has become very common to have people play one.
Aren't we discussing core rules? If so then Aasimars only apply here.
If we are discussing Core Rules then Aasimars are descendants of Celestial beings, not gods.
I said Deity or Deity like. And the core rule say they can be descendants of Angels or just infused with Celestial power. Thus that's as close as you'll get to a divine blessed PC.
It sounds like a great way to get main character syndrome and everyone else is a secondary character OR if you want permanent plot armor. Not something I'd allow at my table.
As far as I know, currently the only PC's who are descendants of a Deity or Deity like beings are Aasimars.
Not really, since forever there has always been people who have Roleplayed as having a Divine Ancestor, and ever since the Bhaalspawn trilogy it has become very common to have people play one.
Aren't we discussing core rules? If so then Aasimars only apply here.
If we are discussing Core Rules then Aasimars are descendants of Celestial beings, not gods.
I said Deity or Deity like. And the core rule say they can be descendants of Angels or just infused with Celestial power. Thus that's as close as you'll get to a divine blessed PC.
Angels still aren't gods tho, and the closest you'll get to a Divine Blessed PC is a Divine Soul Sorcerer since that is literally the whole point of that subclass. Also I do not know why I need to keep pointing this out but Aasimar are no closer related to Deities than Tieflings are, Aasimar and Tieflings are essentially two sides of the same coin just one traces its roots to the upper planes and the other to the lower planes.
As far as I know, currently the only PC's who are descendants of a Deity or Deity like beings are Aasimars.
Not really, since forever there has always been people who have Roleplayed as having a Divine Ancestor, and ever since the Bhaalspawn trilogy it has become very common to have people play one.
Aren't we discussing core rules? If so then Aasimars only apply here.
If we are discussing Core Rules then Aasimars are descendants of Celestial beings, not gods.
I said Deity or Deity like. And the core rule say they can be descendants of Angels or just infused with Celestial power. Thus that's as close as you'll get to a divine blessed PC.
Angels still aren't gods tho, and the closest you'll get to a Divine Blessed PC is a Divine Soul Sorcerer since that is literally the whole point of that subclass. Also I do not know why I need to keep pointing this out but Aasimar are no closer related to Deities than Tieflings are, Aasimar and Tieflings are essentially two sides of the same coin just one traces its roots to the upper planes and the other to the lower planes.
A Divine Soul Sorcerer, doesn't exist in the new rules. Tieflings have nothing whatsoever to do with Deities, much less Angels or other Celestial like bodies. The OP asked and the Aasimar are the closest you can come to a character who is descendant from a Deity outside a Homebrew.
A Divine Soul Sorcerer, doesn't exist in the new rules. Tieflings have nothing whatsoever to do with Deities, much less Angels or other Celestial like bodies. The OP asked and the Aasimar are the closest you can come to a character who is descendant from a Deity outside a Homebrew.
XgtE is still currently valid under 2024 and so that means Divine Soul Sorcerer in fact still exist, unsurprisingly.
As I have already pointed out, in forgotten realms the most common type of Tiefling are Asmondeus Tieflings and Asmondeus is literally a Deity. Asmondeus also goes out of his way to forcefully change the lineage of many Tieflings so that they are descended from him, if they were a direct descent from him or not. So more Tieflings are descended from Asmondeus then there are Aasimar descended from any deity at all.
I think you have some misconception that deities only exist in the upper planes, which is simply not true. Deity does not mean good, there are plenty of neutral and evil Deities that exist in other planes including the lower planes. Generally speaking, Aasimar that do descend from Deities usually can only descend from Celestial Deities since Aasimar need to descend from a celestial whereas Tieflings can just as easily descend from Fiendish Deities and Asmondeus has gone out of his way to have as many Tiefling Descendants as he can.
There are at least two parts of this puzzle. The first is “How far back was the deity?” Aasimar and teiflings ( as well as Genesai) are generally not the direct children of the deity/celestial/fiend/elemental lord that they are descended from. Playing one that has a family history/record (supposedly) tracing back is generally fine - as long as they aren’t out to gain abilities beyond those of the species/type as in game mechanics. Also, such PCs are generally not a problem in play u less the player is a newbie or a total powergamer. When the pc is the immediate child of a deity (or the culmination of some ancient prophecy, etc) that we can get main character syndrome - especially from newer players. The second is recent offspring. Many of the ancient heroic stories/myths are that sort and it doesn’t play well in game. The only situations where it doesn’t are things like the story of Jaso and the Argonauts, or Percy from the lightning thief where the entire party ( or at least the PCs of the party) are all similarly powerful and have roughly the same sorts of backgrounds. Then it can be interesting and fun to lay as an extended one off.
There are ways to fit such PCs not a game but it takes work on both the player and DM’s part. I have two characters that sort of fit the category. One is the sone of an old (1e) character of mine that became a deity in game. He partnered with an NPC that would, eventually, also become a deity but they had the child before either rose. Does he have a spark of divinity? I have no idea - that is for the DM to decide. His parents shifted him to a new and different world where his parents are unknown and their deific foes are also pretty much unknown so he can’t be used as a pawn or hostage. The other is a takeoff of the first but the parents aren’t divine just Epic in level. And he was shifted to a distant continent not world. The real problem with both is that they have parents that understand how difficult adventuring can be and so tried to provide some sorts of edges to help them survive - magic at L1. If your not main charactering it helps but not as much as many folks think. The first is still waiting for a campaign, the second is currently a L2 ranger/L3 lore Bard soon to reach L6.
There is precedence in the lore for such (We do have demigods, Bhaalspawn, or even chosen/favoured of gods which while not by blood is a similar concept). There's also older editions that have things like 2e AD&D's Birthright where scions have bloodlines that don't directly relate them to gods, but relate them to people who inherited divine powers when gods were slain in an epic battle. Or the I in BECMI for Immortals who are PCs who are essentially minor gods themselves.
As people have noted it's not so much the plausibility of the concept, so much as the balance game wise and narratively. In systems like Birthright or Immortals the players are assumed to all be divinely powered in some fashion so it's more balanced, and the narrative and game play revolves around this level of play (Although you can play non 'blooded' folk in Birthright which can be interesting to do). In the Baldur's Gate Games (Spoilers for any of those)
You can be a Bhaalspawn which is a direct mortal child of the god Bhaal. However you are also intentionally the main character in those games.
I wouldn't say the normal adventurer would be such, but that the idea could work if either the group is all X and the game built for such, or you don't mind that one PC is technically more powerful. Such imbalances don't have to be unfun- having one PC be maybe more powerful potentially but with other risks, and their party being loyal allies working to help protect them and aid them can be interesting too.
For the original post and concept of 'Divine right to rule' I'd highly recommend looking into the Birthright setting, which actually ties rulership to divine inheritance, where being 'god blooded' gave you a supernatural link to the land and rulership- the better you rule, the stronger you can become.
In 5e I'd say these concepts might be doable with introducing epic boons a bit earlier.
A relatively easy "fix" for a divine heritage mechanic could be to let all PC's have the cleric ability of Divine Intervention and spin it as tapping into their divine heritage but, whether successful or not, you only get to try it once per week. The more powerful the PC, the easier it is for them to tap into their divine ancestry as represented by them growing in class levels until they hit level 20 and they get to enact a divine ability once a week.
A Divine Soul Sorcerer, doesn't exist in the new rules. Tieflings have nothing whatsoever to do with Deities, much less Angels or other Celestial like bodies. The OP asked and the Aasimar are the closest you can come to a character who is descendant from a Deity outside a Homebrew.
Deity aka gods and Goddesses in D&D from the 1970s until now included beings from both the Upper and Lower plains. Technically All your Infernal Tieflings look like that because the God of Avernus wanted all Tieflings to look like him, Asmodeus is one of the most powerful gods in D&D and you can totally play a Tiefling who is directly descended from him, since well ALL Tieflings were altered at one point to look like hm already.
Celestials are also not gods, they can be powerful at times, but Animal Lords are Celestials you can totally play any of the beast like species as a descendant of an Animal lord, and that is just as powerful as any of the basic rank and file upper plain Deities. Divine Tabaxi anyone!!
But wait, Loth the Spoderqueen, Goddess of Spiders and Drow totally could have a Drow great grand daughter as her Daughter also a Goddess Eilistraee is the patron Deity of all good aligned Drow, and Bladesingers.
Oh yeah that's right Every Species has their Own Gods, So a Dwarf god (other than the ones who are actually Asmodeus) could have a Dwarf grandchild. Let's not forget that Garl Glittergold might have a kid or two so have a Gnome.
But wait, The Main Human Gods Selûne, Lathander, Shar, and Chauntea could easily have a Human grand child, who has no signs of their divine heritage. Also Bhaal we know he had a ton of Children and they could have been of any Species including White Dragonborn.
Aasimar are generally descended from Humans who lived near Portals to the Upperplane, and do not need to have any actual Celestial ancestry, but the few that do are generally related to beings like Deva and Planetars.
And to Quote a professor I had in University (It was a coarse on classic literature)
What if all the player characters are descendents of a distant ancestor God or Goddess that has been dead for hundreds of years? However, what would happen if the followers of the dead God or Goddess want one or more of the player characters to ascend to divinity, taking over the position of their dead God or Goddess.
Good old Highlander. That movie does make a good DnD plot tbh. Surprised none of the DnD players I know considered that. (EDIT- see post #33 for context, did not realize it would not auto quote)
What if all the player characters are descendents of a distant ancestor God or Goddess that has been dead for hundreds of years? However, what would happen if the followers of the dead God or Goddess want one or more of the player characters to ascend to divinity, taking over the position of their dead God or Goddess.
I would say that is more of a creation myth since it's hundreds of years. You could work it to where that, while their divinity is not up for sale since their dead, it provides a minor or somewhat useless boon, like clean laundry no matter what or never getting sick in the rain.
An important event happened at the creation of my D&D campaign world, a variant of the world of Toril otherwise known as the Forgotten Realms. A Celestial and an adult Silver Dragon fell in love and then had a child that over many years became Lord Apex, the God of good dragons. The previous God of good dragons died in a battle against evil.
And then, over many centuries, Lord Apex fell in love and then married many mortal women of many different species. Lord Apex said that his children are as beautiful as the Moon and as bright as the Stars. Thus, he named his family’s last name Moon-Star.
All members of the Moon-Star extended family have trace amounts of Celestial and Silver Dragon in themselves. Therefore, Lord Apex considers all (player character and non-player character) members of the Moon-Star family - regardless of species - as part of his extended family tree. If politely and respectfully asked, Lord Apex will give what he considers the correct amount of aid and/or apprenticeship to any members of his extended family.
Lord Apex lives in a celestial plane palace that has a very large school for adventurers who train to fight against evil. Graduating from this school allows player characters an edge in being hired for jobs.
So my character is a Cambion whose father is a High Lord in the City of Dis in Baator and his mother is a Eryines Champion. Even though he was raised in Hell rather than the Material Plane, he was still subjected to the same bullying for being different the child of a deity would be on the Material Plane. Now he is a major champion sword to the service of Dispater.
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I said Deity or Deity like. And the core rule say they can be descendants of Angels or just infused with Celestial power. Thus that's as close as you'll get to a divine blessed PC.
Is my PC a descendant of a deity? No. Never, ever, would I play one as such, nor would I allow one at my table.
It sounds like a great way to get main character syndrome and everyone else is a secondary character OR if you want permanent plot armor. Not something I'd allow at my table.
Angels still aren't gods tho, and the closest you'll get to a Divine Blessed PC is a Divine Soul Sorcerer since that is literally the whole point of that subclass. Also I do not know why I need to keep pointing this out but Aasimar are no closer related to Deities than Tieflings are, Aasimar and Tieflings are essentially two sides of the same coin just one traces its roots to the upper planes and the other to the lower planes.
A Divine Soul Sorcerer, doesn't exist in the new rules. Tieflings have nothing whatsoever to do with Deities, much less Angels or other Celestial like bodies. The OP asked and the Aasimar are the closest you can come to a character who is descendant from a Deity outside a Homebrew.
XgtE is still currently valid under 2024 and so that means Divine Soul Sorcerer in fact still exist, unsurprisingly.
As I have already pointed out, in forgotten realms the most common type of Tiefling are Asmondeus Tieflings and Asmondeus is literally a Deity. Asmondeus also goes out of his way to forcefully change the lineage of many Tieflings so that they are descended from him, if they were a direct descent from him or not. So more Tieflings are descended from Asmondeus then there are Aasimar descended from any deity at all.
I think you have some misconception that deities only exist in the upper planes, which is simply not true. Deity does not mean good, there are plenty of neutral and evil Deities that exist in other planes including the lower planes. Generally speaking, Aasimar that do descend from Deities usually can only descend from Celestial Deities since Aasimar need to descend from a celestial whereas Tieflings can just as easily descend from Fiendish Deities and Asmondeus has gone out of his way to have as many Tiefling Descendants as he can.
There are at least two parts of this puzzle. The first is “How far back was the deity?” Aasimar and teiflings ( as well as Genesai) are generally not the direct children of the deity/celestial/fiend/elemental lord that they are descended from. Playing one that has a family history/record (supposedly) tracing back is generally fine - as long as they aren’t out to gain abilities beyond those of the species/type as in game mechanics. Also, such PCs are generally not a problem in play u less the player is a newbie or a total powergamer. When the pc is the immediate child of a deity (or the culmination of some ancient prophecy, etc) that we can get main character syndrome - especially from newer players. The second is recent offspring. Many of the ancient heroic stories/myths are that sort and it doesn’t play well in game. The only situations where it doesn’t are things like the story of Jaso and the Argonauts, or Percy from the lightning thief where the entire party ( or at least the PCs of the party) are all similarly powerful and have roughly the same sorts of backgrounds. Then it can be interesting and fun to lay as an extended one off.
There are ways to fit such PCs not a game but it takes work on both the player and DM’s part. I have two characters that sort of fit the category. One is the sone of an old (1e) character of mine that became a deity in game. He partnered with an NPC that would, eventually, also become a deity but they had the child before either rose. Does he have a spark of divinity? I have no idea - that is for the DM to decide. His parents shifted him to a new and different world where his parents are unknown and their deific foes are also pretty much unknown so he can’t be used as a pawn or hostage. The other is a takeoff of the first but the parents aren’t divine just Epic in level. And he was shifted to a distant continent not world. The real problem with both is that they have parents that understand how difficult adventuring can be and so tried to provide some sorts of edges to help them survive - magic at L1. If your not main charactering it helps but not as much as many folks think. The first is still waiting for a campaign, the second is currently a L2 ranger/L3 lore Bard soon to reach L6.
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ModeratorThere is precedence in the lore for such (We do have demigods, Bhaalspawn, or even chosen/favoured of gods which while not by blood is a similar concept). There's also older editions that have things like 2e AD&D's Birthright where scions have bloodlines that don't directly relate them to gods, but relate them to people who inherited divine powers when gods were slain in an epic battle. Or the I in BECMI for Immortals who are PCs who are essentially minor gods themselves.
As people have noted it's not so much the plausibility of the concept, so much as the balance game wise and narratively. In systems like Birthright or Immortals the players are assumed to all be divinely powered in some fashion so it's more balanced, and the narrative and game play revolves around this level of play (Although you can play non 'blooded' folk in Birthright which can be interesting to do). In the Baldur's Gate Games (Spoilers for any of those)
You can be a Bhaalspawn which is a direct mortal child of the god Bhaal. However you are also intentionally the main character in those games.
I wouldn't say the normal adventurer would be such, but that the idea could work if either the group is all X and the game built for such, or you don't mind that one PC is technically more powerful. Such imbalances don't have to be unfun- having one PC be maybe more powerful potentially but with other risks, and their party being loyal allies working to help protect them and aid them can be interesting too.
For the original post and concept of 'Divine right to rule' I'd highly recommend looking into the Birthright setting, which actually ties rulership to divine inheritance, where being 'god blooded' gave you a supernatural link to the land and rulership- the better you rule, the stronger you can become.
In 5e I'd say these concepts might be doable with introducing epic boons a bit earlier.
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A relatively easy "fix" for a divine heritage mechanic could be to let all PC's have the cleric ability of Divine Intervention and spin it as tapping into their divine heritage but, whether successful or not, you only get to try it once per week. The more powerful the PC, the easier it is for them to tap into their divine ancestry as represented by them growing in class levels until they hit level 20 and they get to enact a divine ability once a week.
Deity aka gods and Goddesses in D&D from the 1970s until now included beings from both the Upper and Lower plains. Technically All your Infernal Tieflings look like that because the God of Avernus wanted all Tieflings to look like him, Asmodeus is one of the most powerful gods in D&D and you can totally play a Tiefling who is directly descended from him, since well ALL Tieflings were altered at one point to look like hm already.
Celestials are also not gods, they can be powerful at times, but Animal Lords are Celestials you can totally play any of the beast like species as a descendant of an Animal lord, and that is just as powerful as any of the basic rank and file upper plain Deities. Divine Tabaxi anyone!!
But wait, Loth the Spoderqueen, Goddess of Spiders and Drow totally could have a Drow great grand daughter as her Daughter also a Goddess Eilistraee is the patron Deity of all good aligned Drow, and Bladesingers.
Oh yeah that's right Every Species has their Own Gods, So a Dwarf god (other than the ones who are actually Asmodeus) could have a Dwarf grandchild. Let's not forget that Garl Glittergold might have a kid or two so have a Gnome.
But wait, The Main Human Gods Selûne, Lathander, Shar, and Chauntea could easily have a Human grand child, who has no signs of their divine heritage. Also Bhaal we know he had a ton of Children and they could have been of any Species including White Dragonborn.
Aasimar are generally descended from Humans who lived near Portals to the Upperplane, and do not need to have any actual Celestial ancestry, but the few that do are generally related to beings like Deva and Planetars.
And to Quote a professor I had in University (It was a coarse on classic literature)
Gods who have kids make Heroes not Angels.
What if all the player characters are descendents of a distant ancestor God or Goddess that has been dead for hundreds of years? However, what would happen if the followers of the dead God or Goddess want one or more of the player characters to ascend to divinity, taking over the position of their dead God or Goddess.
Good old Highlander. That movie does make a good DnD plot tbh. Surprised none of the DnD players I know considered that. (EDIT- see post #33 for context, did not realize it would not auto quote)
I would say that is more of a creation myth since it's hundreds of years. You could work it to where that, while their divinity is not up for sale since their dead, it provides a minor or somewhat useless boon, like clean laundry no matter what or never getting sick in the rain.
An important event happened at the creation of my D&D campaign world, a variant of the world of Toril otherwise known as the Forgotten Realms. A Celestial and an adult Silver Dragon fell in love and then had a child that over many years became Lord Apex, the God of good dragons. The previous God of good dragons died in a battle against evil.
And then, over many centuries, Lord Apex fell in love and then married many mortal women of many different species. Lord Apex said that his children are as beautiful as the Moon and as bright as the Stars. Thus, he named his family’s last name Moon-Star.
All members of the Moon-Star extended family have trace amounts of Celestial and Silver Dragon in themselves. Therefore, Lord Apex considers all (player character and non-player character) members of the Moon-Star family - regardless of species - as part of his extended family tree. If politely and respectfully asked, Lord Apex will give what he considers the correct amount of aid and/or apprenticeship to any members of his extended family.
Lord Apex lives in a celestial plane palace that has a very large school for adventurers who train to fight against evil. Graduating from this school allows player characters an edge in being hired for jobs.
Not a deity exactly....
So my character is a Cambion whose father is a High Lord in the City of Dis in Baator and his mother is a Eryines Champion. Even though he was raised in Hell rather than the Material Plane, he was still subjected to the same bullying for being different the child of a deity would be on the Material Plane. Now he is a major champion sword to the service of Dispater.