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How does one become a deity? I read Deities and Demigods, but some things are either not explained or not mentioned at all.

  • Do you have to get a blessing from a god with 20+ divinity?
  • Can you achieve ascendancy with a lot of worshipers? (Let's say a million.)
  • Can you ascend if you kill a god?
  • Is there a ritual to become a god?
  • Any other means of becoming a god?
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I'm hoping that an answer might take into account PC progression to god, e.g., BECMI(mmortals), D&D Immortals – javafueled Nov 8 '12 at 0:47

6 Answers

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Follow the Rule of Cool

Not a RAW answer, but if your dm agrees with you, there's nothing wrong with you taking epic actions to take on a divine portfolio.

For instance:

Just don't expect it to be easy.

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Not having watched any Doctor Who, that TvTropes link doesn't seem to explain any kind of godhood; could you give a better example? – ioanwigmore Nov 7 '12 at 15:02
I will probably go with the combination of the above. Killing a god while being praised by a million worshippers or something like that. – Invader Zim Nov 8 '12 at 8:07
up vote 4 down vote

There are several ways. For instance:

  • One can be elevated to divinity by another god, like Red Knight; or
  • Kill a god and usurp his power, like Bane; or
  • A dragon can become a quasi-deity through the Draconomicon class Dispassionate Watcher Of Chronepsis (the DM could allow them to receive level 0 divinity); or
  • Maybe through extremely powerful magic.

In the end, is up to the DM to decide whether a player can become a god or not.

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Worth noting that in Forgotten Realms, Karsus' avatar is supposedly the only spell that ever allowed the caster to become a god. Two caveats: it would last only for the spell's duration and Mystra restricted the use of magic afterwards. – Roflo Apr 6 at 5:08
up vote 2 down vote

At the risk of having a DMG thrown at my head... there's always Pun-Pun. Divine rank can be acquired through (ab)use of Manipulate Form and Ice Assassin.

Not recommended as anything other than a theoretical exercise.

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A bit complicated as there are three new players. I'll go with slaying gods and gaining followers. – Invader Zim Nov 8 '12 at 8:20
up vote 13 down vote

The DM should decide based on the campaign world and PC history:

I'd say that this is mainly a DM decision, and depending on the type of gods in the world you are playing, might end with converting the PC to a NPC.

For example...

I once played a wizard that worshipped the god of knowledge. When they read some older than the gods scrolls the god got to know about some ancient knowledge and disappeared. As a consequence I lost my priest spells.

Some days later, we finished successfully the campaign. We were playing in a very heroic way and my character died in the last minute. The dragon we awoke (who was a lot more powerful than the gods) resurrected my PC to take the place of the lost god of knowledge. This was a reward from the DM for good role playing during all the campaign, and was a good and reasonable solution for the world we were playing.

Of course I lost the character anyway, but the next time we were playing within the same world it was nice to know that the god of Knowledge was my previous character.

So in summary, I think it should be something that

  • fits the world
  • fits the past of the character
  • happens as a consequence of some very relevant success on the part of the PC
  • DM and Players agree on it.
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I'd go so far as to suggest the DM and players should decide together. – okeefe Nov 7 '12 at 18:04
Completely Agree with you @okeefe that is maybe the most important idea, even it was there properly explained, just added it to the answer – pconcepcion Nov 7 '12 at 18:18
Since there are three players in training, DM and me I think that only the two of us should agree (because of the character history). Also I am playing a used-to-be-god whose worshipers were are slayed and he suffered full memory and ability loss. Now, he doesn't know he is a god (but he think he is his worshiper). There is a little problem of divinity, because he would be overpowered with any level of divinity but I would let DM sort that out. – Invader Zim Nov 8 '12 at 8:11
up vote 9 down vote

Well, here is how my group did it, without the DM's approval (until the last moment of course, he could probably have said "NO.")

  • We all had fake names, for some reasons (mainly being paranoid, but also because we had betrayed every king in the world at least once), and the DM had forgot that the names we were using were not our real names

  • We started saying we wanted to make the world biggest magic school / magic guild. We wrote a school chart, including bullet point 8: "On 8th day of 8th month, all followers should participate to a cult in the name of [Real name of PJ1], God of [Domains he wanted to get], etc.."

  • We then went and beat the tarrasque (hint: she can be drowned), in order to build fame. Then we recruited people, converted other schools and guilds, beat people who disagreed, until we had several millions of people following us.

  • We conducted the cult, the DM asked "Wait, who are those gods by the way?"

  • We showed him our character sheets, especially the "Name" part. According to his own words, he was "impressed and horrified at the same time".

  • He thought it was cool, and wanted to go that way, so gave us a Rank 0.

  • Profit.

Again, it depends entirely of the DM's willingness to go with it, but this is a way of achieving it.

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Yeah, my idea is similar, only none of the players would know what I am doing so I need DMs approval. – Invader Zim Nov 8 '12 at 8:13
Well, I could definitely have pulled that one by myself, but I thought it was more fun if everyone became a god :) Be careful though, as a DM I might approve with one of my PC doing that kind of thing, but he would become a NPC soon after. – Scrollmaster Nov 8 '12 at 16:06
Knowing my DM he won't make him a NPC. More likely everyone would get divinity (through plot) and then we would start slaying gods xD – Invader Zim Nov 9 '12 at 11:29
up vote 3 down vote

There are rules for increasing one’s Divine Rank in Deities and Demigods. You have to have Divine Rank 0 to do that, though. There are very few mechanical ways to achieve that (a prestige class in Dragon Magic that can only be finished after level 20 is the only one I’m aware of), so mostly you just have to rely on some plot development; see Simon Gill’s answer for ideas on that.

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