I've been working on a setting of my own for a year, and I've created 4 evil gods who serve as the greatest evil of all. However, I never intended them to be encountered. I intended for them to be the Greater Scope Villains of certain campaigns. The actual villains for these campaigns would be their champions, or demon lords who serve one of them. However, my brother, who also has made settings, personally thinks that given enough time and dedication, player characters can become powerful enough to fight the gods of the setting. I've looked all over the books, and I've never found anything to indicate that would be possible.
Has anyone ever been in a campaign where you've directly fought gods? Avatars of them don't count, I mean fight them directly. If so, how did you get to such power? If no one has, I suppose then it's best to keep my 4 evil gods as the Greater Scope villains of the setting.
Tiamat is the last boss of Tyranny of Dragons, so I imagine quite a few people have fought a god.
Most gods don’t have stats though, and as far as actual gods go, Tiamat is on the lower end. The rules have no concept of challenge rating above 30. Beyond the limits of challenge rating, you’re probably looking at narrative means rather than standard D&D combat.
Well I did bring Tiamat into this setting, and I suppose if I want her for a villain, I can bring her in using her Tyranny of Dragons state. But the campaign will be different, as my setting is quite different from Forgotten Realms, as is the Tiamat of this setting. In this setting, she is portrayed as a goddess of ambition and change. But she's also portrayed as a necessary evil, as A. She opposes the 4 evil gods, as do the Chromatic Dragons, and B. Change and ambition are needed for society to function.
Well, even if Tiamat specifically doesn't quite work in your setting, the Tiamat stat block at least gives you an idea of what a reasonable level of power you could expect from a God that the players would still be reasonably expected to defeat in battle.
I can't say I've as yet had an experience either running or facing a god level enemy, though I have hopes of getting a campaign to the point of my PC's use a combination of Epic Boons, Blessings, and Artifacts to face a 30+ level Monstrosity (God, Cosmic Terror, whatever). Personally, my feeling is that PC's at 20th level plus can give even a being outside the accepted CR range a through beating. I'd reccommend a look at the Enworld Forums as well for thoughts on how to accommodate characters that are edging out of the accepted norms of 5e's power cap (And Mr. Mearls? There is no spoon)
There are outside, 3rd party, sources for going beyond 20th level for characters to reach those levels of power. 2C Gaming has their Epic Legacy stuff which is pretty popular and it's what I'll probably end up using if my campaign runs that long because WotC, in a negative feedback loop, is averse to putting out stuff for higher levels much less making stuff for epic levels.
Sort of. Most gods of d&d don't have stat blocks because they are not meant to be fought and killed. Plus there is the whole, CR capping at 30 thing, and most gods would be well above that.
Lesser gods, demigods, and godly avatars would be in the mid 20s to 30 CR.
Usually, fighting a god will require a lot of powerful support, even for level 20 characters with epic boons.
Last time I fought a god was in 2e, and PCs could get up to level 36 back then, but there are plenty of older 2e publications with stats for gods that could be converted with a little work.
If I remember correctly gods did have stats in previous additions. However fighting the god isn't the only challenge, you'll also have to fight there servants and worshippers who will probably be pissed that you're trying to kill there god, and you'll likely be fighting them on there home plane too. A talisman of pure good or evil can definitely kill a god of the opposing alignment and that's probably the easiest way to do it. If you're creating you own setting go wild with it, you don't really have to obey the rules of d&d.
After looking at all of this, I've decided that due to the fact that I haven't yet actually been a DM, and that I should use what I already know about my setting, I think it's best for my 4 evil gods to never actually appear, and play the role of Greater Scope Villains, while their Demon Lords, Champions, and Worshipers will be the actual villains.
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I've been working on a setting of my own for a year, and I've created 4 evil gods who serve as the greatest evil of all. However, I never intended them to be encountered. I intended for them to be the Greater Scope Villains of certain campaigns. The actual villains for these campaigns would be their champions, or demon lords who serve one of them. However, my brother, who also has made settings, personally thinks that given enough time and dedication, player characters can become powerful enough to fight the gods of the setting. I've looked all over the books, and I've never found anything to indicate that would be possible.
Has anyone ever been in a campaign where you've directly fought gods? Avatars of them don't count, I mean fight them directly. If so, how did you get to such power? If no one has, I suppose then it's best to keep my 4 evil gods as the Greater Scope villains of the setting.
Tiamat is the last boss of Tyranny of Dragons, so I imagine quite a few people have fought a god.
Most gods don’t have stats though, and as far as actual gods go, Tiamat is on the lower end. The rules have no concept of challenge rating above 30. Beyond the limits of challenge rating, you’re probably looking at narrative means rather than standard D&D combat.
Well I did bring Tiamat into this setting, and I suppose if I want her for a villain, I can bring her in using her Tyranny of Dragons state. But the campaign will be different, as my setting is quite different from Forgotten Realms, as is the Tiamat of this setting. In this setting, she is portrayed as a goddess of ambition and change. But she's also portrayed as a necessary evil, as A. She opposes the 4 evil gods, as do the Chromatic Dragons, and B. Change and ambition are needed for society to function.
Well, even if Tiamat specifically doesn't quite work in your setting, the Tiamat stat block at least gives you an idea of what a reasonable level of power you could expect from a God that the players would still be reasonably expected to defeat in battle.
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I can't say I've as yet had an experience either running or facing a god level enemy, though I have hopes of getting a campaign to the point of my PC's use a combination of Epic Boons, Blessings, and Artifacts to face a 30+ level Monstrosity (God, Cosmic Terror, whatever). Personally, my feeling is that PC's at 20th level plus can give even a being outside the accepted CR range a through beating. I'd reccommend a look at the Enworld Forums as well for thoughts on how to accommodate characters that are edging out of the accepted norms of 5e's power cap (And Mr. Mearls? There is no spoon)
There are outside, 3rd party, sources for going beyond 20th level for characters to reach those levels of power. 2C Gaming has their Epic Legacy stuff which is pretty popular and it's what I'll probably end up using if my campaign runs that long because WotC, in a negative feedback loop, is averse to putting out stuff for higher levels much less making stuff for epic levels.
I suppose then it will depend on how things go in playthroughs.
Sort of. Most gods of d&d don't have stat blocks because they are not meant to be fought and killed. Plus there is the whole, CR capping at 30 thing, and most gods would be well above that.
Lesser gods, demigods, and godly avatars would be in the mid 20s to 30 CR.
Usually, fighting a god will require a lot of powerful support, even for level 20 characters with epic boons.
Last time I fought a god was in 2e, and PCs could get up to level 36 back then, but there are plenty of older 2e publications with stats for gods that could be converted with a little work.
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If I remember correctly gods did have stats in previous additions. However fighting the god isn't the only challenge, you'll also have to fight there servants and worshippers who will probably be pissed that you're trying to kill there god, and you'll likely be fighting them on there home plane too. A talisman of pure good or evil can definitely kill a god of the opposing alignment and that's probably the easiest way to do it. If you're creating you own setting go wild with it, you don't really have to obey the rules of d&d.
Not really. You'll need some something greatly buffing you or weakening the opponent for head to head fight.
After looking at all of this, I've decided that due to the fact that I haven't yet actually been a DM, and that I should use what I already know about my setting, I think it's best for my 4 evil gods to never actually appear, and play the role of Greater Scope Villains, while their Demon Lords, Champions, and Worshipers will be the actual villains.