I've been working on a massive homebrew campaign and world for a LONG time now (it's been at least 7 years working on it on and off, with it going through several major rewrites). The campaign this is for all revolves around fighting a god at the end of it. I've seen at least one other thread here discussing how one would "kill" a god in D&D, but I'm here to ask for more specific advice, since I have a 90% solution to how the party will accomplish this already.
For context, the campaign is set around the idea that a good goddess (adapted from Chauntea) disappears and her evil sister (adapted from Talona) becomes more and more powerful, so the party is sent on a quest to stop the evil goddess and bring back the good one. Hence, the vast majority of the campaign is a mix of fetch quests to obtain items for the end game fight and quests to disrupt any rituals/cults/followings to the evil goddess.
Back to how the party is supposed to accomplish this. I know it's pretty common fair to include removing a god's following to weaken them (I did mention it above). My plan for that, however, is to use how much they disrupt her following as a method of determining the difficulty of the end-game fight. If they practically mass-exterminate her followers, the final fight will be significantly easier. To actually "kill" her, the party needs to accomplish three things: First, summon her. Second, bind her to the Material Plane. Finally, wallop her (and don't get walloped too hard back).
Those three steps are where I would love some extra input. I've been working on a list of things the party will need to gather over the course of a long campaign (I plan for the party to go from level 1 to at least level 18 if not all the way to 20, so there's a lot of exploring to do). Here's what I've got so far, but I'm looking for more input:
Summoning- The ritual will require the following items (Keep in mind, like Talona this is a goddess of disease and poison, so the items are related to both her and her status as a god)
3x Neutral Evil Candles of Invocation
Crystal Ball of True Seeing
A Periapt of Health that is destroyed during the ritual
A fresh corpse of a humanoid that died while diseased
A few ordinary items, such as chalk and incense, that have been blessed by a high-level Ceremony spell
A location that has been dedicated to the goddess by a Ceremony spell (usually a shrine or temple)
Binding- Once the goddess in brought to the Material Plane, they have to act quickly to keep her there.
A Ruby Weave Gem
A method of casting the "Hold God" spell (They can either Wish for this spell or find out how to cast this through exploration. Must be cast through the Ruby Weave Gem)
Blessed Iron Bands of Binding (a creation of mine that's basically just the iron bands of binding, but they've been blessed with holy water and a high level Ceremony spell)
Walloping- Most of these items are just "nice to haves", but essentially only the items listed here will be able to do full (not halved or outright negated) damage to her. Plenty of other powerful items are in the campaign, but they will still have a damage reduction to further increase the difficulty of the battle.
Arrow of God Slaying (Pretty much the only thing required to kill her right now, but it won't do so outright, it just gives the opening to actually make her at least partially vulnerable to other magical damage.)
Modified Holy Avenger (Basically modified to deal its extra damage to any outright evil entity. Doubles all damage from one attack per turn if they focus their holy wrath on a specific atrocity they witnessed that evil entity commit)
Sphere of Annihilation (The party will have to try to get this to the Material Plane from another plane, though)
Not getting walloped back- Okay I guess this is a fourth step, but it basically falls under the walloping stage. These are the only items that can actually give the party a resistance to her spells/attacks, as most of her attacks would otherwise ignore all resistances, magical or otherwise.
Armor of Anti-Divinity (A homebrew cursed armor infused with essence from the world's equivalent of the Blood War that negates celestial magic, including both godly smites as well as Cleric, Paladin, and non-fallen Angel/Aasimar spells)
Periapts of Health (primarily to gain immunity to her disease aura, less about reducing damage)
Potion of Proof Against Disease (Another homebrew item. These are really just a cheaper but time-bound alternatives to Periapts of Health, which would be a bit more rare in this world, as well as a good alternative for any companions that they might not have a spare Periapt for)
Modified Scarabs of Protection (The party would need to get these modified during the course of the campaign, but they would allow the holder to expend 2 charges to auto-succeed on any spells from the goddess or her adds)
Again, looking for any thoughts on extra items I could add to spice this up even more, either official or homebrew! I feel like there's definitely more I could add to the summoning and binding portions especially.
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Hi there!
I've been working on a massive homebrew campaign and world for a LONG time now (it's been at least 7 years working on it on and off, with it going through several major rewrites). The campaign this is for all revolves around fighting a god at the end of it. I've seen at least one other thread here discussing how one would "kill" a god in D&D, but I'm here to ask for more specific advice, since I have a 90% solution to how the party will accomplish this already.
For context, the campaign is set around the idea that a good goddess (adapted from Chauntea) disappears and her evil sister (adapted from Talona) becomes more and more powerful, so the party is sent on a quest to stop the evil goddess and bring back the good one. Hence, the vast majority of the campaign is a mix of fetch quests to obtain items for the end game fight and quests to disrupt any rituals/cults/followings to the evil goddess.
Back to how the party is supposed to accomplish this. I know it's pretty common fair to include removing a god's following to weaken them (I did mention it above). My plan for that, however, is to use how much they disrupt her following as a method of determining the difficulty of the end-game fight. If they practically mass-exterminate her followers, the final fight will be significantly easier. To actually "kill" her, the party needs to accomplish three things: First, summon her. Second, bind her to the Material Plane. Finally, wallop her (and don't get walloped too hard back).
Those three steps are where I would love some extra input. I've been working on a list of things the party will need to gather over the course of a long campaign (I plan for the party to go from level 1 to at least level 18 if not all the way to 20, so there's a lot of exploring to do). Here's what I've got so far, but I'm looking for more input:
Summoning- The ritual will require the following items (Keep in mind, like Talona this is a goddess of disease and poison, so the items are related to both her and her status as a god)
Binding- Once the goddess in brought to the Material Plane, they have to act quickly to keep her there.
Walloping- Most of these items are just "nice to haves", but essentially only the items listed here will be able to do full (not halved or outright negated) damage to her. Plenty of other powerful items are in the campaign, but they will still have a damage reduction to further increase the difficulty of the battle.
Not getting walloped back- Okay I guess this is a fourth step, but it basically falls under the walloping stage. These are the only items that can actually give the party a resistance to her spells/attacks, as most of her attacks would otherwise ignore all resistances, magical or otherwise.
Again, looking for any thoughts on extra items I could add to spice this up even more, either official or homebrew! I feel like there's definitely more I could add to the summoning and binding portions especially.