For my home brew campaign the BBEG is going to attempt a series of rituals to become a demigod. I want there to be several ways this can be disrupted, so my thought is probably about 3 rituals or components. One to summon a vestige of a dead god from the astral sea, one to absorb the the power of the vestige, but I’m struggling to come up with a third element.
Also any suggestions on where to start on a stat block if my players fail? If that happens, my PCs wont be able to kill him immediately, but I do want some framework for them to find a way to kill him later on.
What is the character/personality of this aspiring demigod? Are they evil, or good? What is the Party's motivation to stop them?
The reason I ask is that what this aspiring demigod can/wishes to do can thematically emphasize the dramatic impact you want their attempted ascension to have.
A good or neutral aspiring demigod might only need to be in a particular arcane site, at a particularly significant time, or need to possess a particular holy relic. An evil individual might need the blood of the last surviving member of a bloodline of ancient priests to the fallen god, and thus need to commit murder, or even genocide.
As for the stat block - I might not give them a stat block at all, were I in your boots. A god or demigod is a completely different kind of being ( in my mythology/cosmology the kind of being that can alter and shape reality merely through force of will ). A divine being simply would not be destroyed no matter how many times you whack 'em with a sword, or fire a meteor swarm in their face.
What I would do is give them an AC, and some attacks, some Legendary Actions, a handful of "cast at will" spells - all in order to define what they can do to the Party.
What the Party needs to stop a divine creature is divine weapons, and magic. So that gives the Party a quest to find the knowledge and artifacts to destroy the demigod, should they ascend.
Then the final confrontation is along the lines of: can the Party beat down, or manipulate, the demigod into a position where they can employ the divine artifacts to destroy him or her. To that end, I might have the demigod stunned under certain conditions - e.g, if the Party can deal X number of HP damage in a round, if the Party can collapse the roof of the cavern and expose the demigod to the rays of sun ( for a demigod of night, shadow, or deception, etc. ), etc. Such instances would give the Party the chance to use their divine weaponry against the demigod.
Final showdown becomes not a straight up monster fight, but a contest to see if the Party can survive the demigod's attacks long enough to tactically maneuver them into the position they need to be able to trigger their divine doomsday weapon.
That gives the Party the means to defeat them, but stresses the other nature of the demigod now. They simply cannot be defeated by any power the Characters have at their personal disposal, but the Party has access to powers from this other level as well, for this one final battle.
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For my home brew campaign the BBEG is going to attempt a series of rituals to become a demigod. I want there to be several ways this can be disrupted, so my thought is probably about 3 rituals or components. One to summon a vestige of a dead god from the astral sea, one to absorb the the power of the vestige, but I’m struggling to come up with a third element.
Also any suggestions on where to start on a stat block if my players fail? If that happens, my PCs wont be able to kill him immediately, but I do want some framework for them to find a way to kill him later on.
Once the power has been absorbed through the second ritual, the third one allows them to actually ascend to demigod status.
Back in 1e, my friends and I had a homebrew thing where there was a throne you sat in to become a god. You don’t necessarily have to use that, but with the other two parts being more ritual sounding, it could be nice for the last one to be something more physical. A place the BBEG has to be in order to complete things. Then if the PCs can get there first, they can try to destroy the place instead of fighting the enemy.
As for stats if they fail, I’m a huge fan of reskinning. You could use something like Tiamat or the tarrasque, or the rules for mythic monsters in the theros book. If not that, you could say you need a god to beat a god, and the players need to do something to gain the favor of a different god who will them strike down this upjumped mortal. Or they need to become gods themselves. Then if they win, you have a new pantheon for the next campaign.
Thanks so much these are all great points and ideas!
For context, my setting is a mostly reskinned Amn in Forgotten Realms. This is all still relatively early in my development but my thoughts are the BBEG will be an exiled Red Wizard from Thay who is attempting this ritual to oust the lich that controls Thay.
My general idea is that deities are all essentially mantles of power for their respective domains / portfolios, and energy of that magnitude can't be really created or destroyed on the PC scale - so the most straightforward way of becoming a god is to have the power passed on or somehow taken over. When I say demigod I mean like a quasi-deity or the lowest order of some sort of immortal godlike creature, not the mythological human offspring of Zeus for example. Gods would all reside in the outer planes and do not directly manifest in the material plane as that influx of magical energy would essentially just destroy everything around it. So the BBEG's idea is to siphon off the maximum amount of energy from the remnant of a god, or other primordial type entity, while still allowing him/her to remain in the material plane.
I really like the idea of needing a specific location to be tied to the rituals. I also had never considered not coming up with a full stat block and making it more of a skills trial mixed with combat encounter rather than a straight slug fest. Although my players tend to favor a little more of the murderhoboy side of play style.
They might require a certain number of worshipers so may need to create cult or mind control a city or something similar
The dead god may need some kind of Resurrection ritual as well for example absorbing enough life force to maintain the body of a dead god
Since you have a rule where god get banished when over a certain amount of power, the villain may also need to complete some kind of binding ritual to bind themself to the mortal plane or else get banished
They may have had to make some kind of deal with a powerful entity to achieve their goals and so make some kind of payment in addition to what they already needed to do
As for making a stat block that's balanced for a fight but not necessarily immediately killable, a good mechanic is adding in specific death requirements or damage gates. For example the loup garou requires the final hit to be silver and the lich requires you to destroy it's phylactery these are all special death conditions. Damage gates are things like mythic where a creatures health bar is broken up into segments or stages another good example is the Auril boss fight where she actually has 3 stat blocks and so killing her requires you to fight all 3. Each stage could be a balanced fight for a party but they may not be able to take the gauntlet yet.
Maybe attune to the domain/powers? As in learn to fully harness them.
I became a demigod in one game. A demigod of lightning. I was a moon druid and my full potential was unleashed with wild shape. I could also use devastating lightning powers in my original form too, but within the limits of a mortal body (basically the equivalent of lvl 9 spells)
But after I gained this power I felt this immense power bottling up and had no way to unleash it in a controlled manner. I went to a desolate place and tried wild shaping into a lightning elemental/form. I ended up a creating a lightning storm and destroying everything in a mile radius in a matter of seconds before passing out.
I then had to travel to the plane of lightning to learn how to control it. After I returned, I was preeeeeetty powerful.
Because if a demigod is like Hercules, then that's basically just any high level PC.
If lvl 17-20 and equivalent characters are extremely rare in the setting, then practically any lvl 20 character is pretty much a demigod even in a high fantasy setting. But if every court wizard is blasting lvl 9 spells, then demigods must be pretty close to actual godhood.
So a pretty convincing demigod would be just a lvl 20 with 1-3 epic boons in most settings. That doesn't require as much building either. But if a demigod is more like an immortal lesser deity, then that changes things.
one time I was the d.m for a god I had them level up like a normal player so their were immensely powerful gods and weak gods so the player just had a few extra advantages and I added in a few disadvantages. for the halth they had h.p but when reduced to zero health they turned into something like Voldemort when his avada kedavra back fired and had to build up again
Lol if you can find me a dm besides me who be ok with me playing a demi God Id join that campaign with a character . That aside I just let my player do it she played a divine soul sorcerer who got their magic from being the daughter of a God.
I had a party that was nearing the end of our time as a group. So they set out to kill a number of less than good Lesser gods from the Greek Pantheon. After the third one Zeus came down to put a stop to it by making them Demi gods. on the spot. So they attacked Zeus. Well it was the last session and it did end in a blaze of glory.
The third ritual could just be the transformation. After absorbing the power, the bbeg needs to do something to truly become a demigod. Perhaps, if they do stop that ritual, but not the first two, the power instead is released, blasting the players and the environment with magical fallout.
As for a statblock, a empyrean or solar would be a good starting point.
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For my home brew campaign the BBEG is going to attempt a series of rituals to become a demigod. I want there to be several ways this can be disrupted, so my thought is probably about 3 rituals or components. One to summon a vestige of a dead god from the astral sea, one to absorb the the power of the vestige, but I’m struggling to come up with a third element.
Also any suggestions on where to start on a stat block if my players fail? If that happens, my PCs wont be able to kill him immediately, but I do want some framework for them to find a way to kill him later on.
What is the character/personality of this aspiring demigod? Are they evil, or good? What is the Party's motivation to stop them?
The reason I ask is that what this aspiring demigod can/wishes to do can thematically emphasize the dramatic impact you want their attempted ascension to have.
A good or neutral aspiring demigod might only need to be in a particular arcane site, at a particularly significant time, or need to possess a particular holy relic. An evil individual might need the blood of the last surviving member of a bloodline of ancient priests to the fallen god, and thus need to commit murder, or even genocide.
As for the stat block - I might not give them a stat block at all, were I in your boots. A god or demigod is a completely different kind of being ( in my mythology/cosmology the kind of being that can alter and shape reality merely through force of will ). A divine being simply would not be destroyed no matter how many times you whack 'em with a sword, or fire a meteor swarm in their face.
What I would do is give them an AC, and some attacks, some Legendary Actions, a handful of "cast at will" spells - all in order to define what they can do to the Party.
What the Party needs to stop a divine creature is divine weapons, and magic. So that gives the Party a quest to find the knowledge and artifacts to destroy the demigod, should they ascend.
Then the final confrontation is along the lines of: can the Party beat down, or manipulate, the demigod into a position where they can employ the divine artifacts to destroy him or her. To that end, I might have the demigod stunned under certain conditions - e.g, if the Party can deal X number of HP damage in a round, if the Party can collapse the roof of the cavern and expose the demigod to the rays of sun ( for a demigod of night, shadow, or deception, etc. ), etc. Such instances would give the Party the chance to use their divine weaponry against the demigod.
Final showdown becomes not a straight up monster fight, but a contest to see if the Party can survive the demigod's attacks long enough to tactically maneuver them into the position they need to be able to trigger their divine doomsday weapon.
That gives the Party the means to defeat them, but stresses the other nature of the demigod now. They simply cannot be defeated by any power the Characters have at their personal disposal, but the Party has access to powers from this other level as well, for this one final battle.
Good luck :)
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Once the power has been absorbed through the second ritual, the third one allows them to actually ascend to demigod status.
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Back in 1e, my friends and I had a homebrew thing where there was a throne you sat in to become a god. You don’t necessarily have to use that, but with the other two parts being more ritual sounding, it could be nice for the last one to be something more physical. A place the BBEG has to be in order to complete things. Then if the PCs can get there first, they can try to destroy the place instead of fighting the enemy.
As for stats if they fail, I’m a huge fan of reskinning. You could use something like Tiamat or the tarrasque, or the rules for mythic monsters in the theros book. If not that, you could say you need a god to beat a god, and the players need to do something to gain the favor of a different god who will them strike down this upjumped mortal. Or they need to become gods themselves. Then if they win, you have a new pantheon for the next campaign.
Thanks so much these are all great points and ideas!
For context, my setting is a mostly reskinned Amn in Forgotten Realms. This is all still relatively early in my development but my thoughts are the BBEG will be an exiled Red Wizard from Thay who is attempting this ritual to oust the lich that controls Thay.
My general idea is that deities are all essentially mantles of power for their respective domains / portfolios, and energy of that magnitude can't be really created or destroyed on the PC scale - so the most straightforward way of becoming a god is to have the power passed on or somehow taken over. When I say demigod I mean like a quasi-deity or the lowest order of some sort of immortal godlike creature, not the mythological human offspring of Zeus for example. Gods would all reside in the outer planes and do not directly manifest in the material plane as that influx of magical energy would essentially just destroy everything around it. So the BBEG's idea is to siphon off the maximum amount of energy from the remnant of a god, or other primordial type entity, while still allowing him/her to remain in the material plane.
I really like the idea of needing a specific location to be tied to the rituals. I also had never considered not coming up with a full stat block and making it more of a skills trial mixed with combat encounter rather than a straight slug fest. Although my players tend to favor a little more of the murderhoboy side of play style.
Make sure they have to have at least a few hundred followers that would work.
Maybe a spell/ritual(karsus avatar) that needs to be performed, or a sacrifice of a being/creature of immense power and innate magic power.
I can think of a few things
As for making a stat block that's balanced for a fight but not necessarily immediately killable, a good mechanic is adding in specific death requirements or damage gates. For example the loup garou requires the final hit to be silver and the lich requires you to destroy it's phylactery these are all special death conditions. Damage gates are things like mythic where a creatures health bar is broken up into segments or stages another good example is the Auril boss fight where she actually has 3 stat blocks and so killing her requires you to fight all 3. Each stage could be a balanced fight for a party but they may not be able to take the gauntlet yet.
Maybe attune to the domain/powers? As in learn to fully harness them.
I became a demigod in one game. A demigod of lightning. I was a moon druid and my full potential was unleashed with wild shape. I could also use devastating lightning powers in my original form too, but within the limits of a mortal body (basically the equivalent of lvl 9 spells)
But after I gained this power I felt this immense power bottling up and had no way to unleash it in a controlled manner. I went to a desolate place and tried wild shaping into a lightning elemental/form. I ended up a creating a lightning storm and destroying everything in a mile radius in a matter of seconds before passing out.
I then had to travel to the plane of lightning to learn how to control it. After I returned, I was preeeeeetty powerful.
Finland GMT/UTC +2
maybe you could have the last ritual by sacrificing something for the fates so they don't torture you for all eternity because you ruined their plan?
Also. What is a demigod in the setting?
Because if a demigod is like Hercules, then that's basically just any high level PC.
If lvl 17-20 and equivalent characters are extremely rare in the setting, then practically any lvl 20 character is pretty much a demigod even in a high fantasy setting. But if every court wizard is blasting lvl 9 spells, then demigods must be pretty close to actual godhood.
So a pretty convincing demigod would be just a lvl 20 with 1-3 epic boons in most settings. That doesn't require as much building either. But if a demigod is more like an immortal lesser deity, then that changes things.
Finland GMT/UTC +2
one time I was the d.m for a god I had them level up like a normal player so their were immensely powerful gods and weak gods so the player just had a few extra advantages and I added in a few disadvantages. for the halth they had h.p but when reduced to zero health they turned into something like Voldemort when his avada kedavra back fired and had to build up again
Lol if you can find me a dm besides me who be ok with me playing a demi God Id join that campaign with a character . That aside I just let my player do it she played a divine soul sorcerer who got their magic from being the daughter of a God.
This thread inspired me to make a post about a concept called Life Arc games that we play. Those games can easily end up at demi-god powerlevels.
Figured you guys might be interested to hear, if you like epic power levels too. 😄
Here is a link to the the thread:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/160460-introducing-life-arc-games-one-of-my-favorite-dnd
Finland GMT/UTC +2
I had a party that was nearing the end of our time as a group. So they set out to kill a number of less than good Lesser gods from the Greek Pantheon. After the third one Zeus came down to put a stop to it by making them Demi gods. on the spot. So they attacked Zeus. Well it was the last session and it did end in a blaze of glory.
The third ritual could just be the transformation. After absorbing the power, the bbeg needs to do something to truly become a demigod. Perhaps, if they do stop that ritual, but not the first two, the power instead is released, blasting the players and the environment with magical fallout.
As for a statblock, a empyrean or solar would be a good starting point.
Pronouns: he/him/his.
My posting scheduled is irregular: sometimes I can post twice a week, sometimes twice a day. I may also respond to quick questions, but ignore harder responses in favor of time.
My location is where my character for my home game is (we're doing the wild beyond the witchlight).
"The Doomvault... Probably full of unicorns and rainbows." -An imaginary quote