God (3.5e Prestige Class)

This article use rules from Complete Epic.

God
"What a fool you are. I'm a god! How can you kill a god?! What a grand and intoxicating innocence!"

The gods; mighty avatars of aspects of life, given flesh through the spirit, given breath through belief. These great beings exist above mortalkind, running the world from their thrones in distant planes, maintaining the safety and security of the afterlife, and running aeon-long plots in an eternal political game against others. Yet not all of these gods were born at the beginning of time. Some began their roots as humble low-level spirits, spirits which grew beyond the constraints of their body and mind and like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, changed into something greater than they were. They are the deities, from mere quasideity whose mortal connections remain strong, to greater deities who control the elemental forces themselves.

The road through the levels of godhood is a long one full of challenge, yet in doing so not only do they defeat the bonds of death, but they tie themselves to the very aspects of the universe. In due time, perhaps they will control the very same universe they represent.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the God.

You do not, however, gain the benefit of your previous class's hit dice, attack progression, skill points, or saving throws. If you had more than one class before becoming a God, you must decide which class to add to each level for the purpose of determining class features. You can advance base classes, but not prestige classes.

Divine ranks are used for many abilities, and represent a God's overall connection to their divine spark. Divine ranks grow naturally, as word of you spreads and religions pop up in your name. The highest a God can reach is divine rank 20. There are ranks beyond 20, but they turn the PC into an Overdeity, a being whose by its nature is disconnected from the world. To become one is to become an NPC.

Divine ranks cannot be copied, even by effects that duplicate creatures such as simulacrum and fission, only the original retaining divine ranks. They retain any deific powers and abilities, but abilities which require ranks to function no longer work.



 : A god gains a divine aura out to 10 feet, which the deity can use for three different effects. Activating or excluding subjects is a free action, and changing which aura is active is a swift action. All divine aura effects are mind-affecting, extraordinary abilities. The saving throw is 10 + 1/2 HD + your highest ability modifier. Choose from the following:


 * Awe: Your radiance fascinates other beings into a stupor. All creatures with HD equal or less than your own must make a Will save or become fascinated for as long as they remain in line of sight, and for 1 minute after, save negates.  An opponent that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to that same deity’s aura of awe for 24 hours.
 * Fear: Your wrath is most terrible. All creatures with HD equal or less than your own must make a Will save of become frightened for 1 minute.  On a successful save they are instead shaken for 1 minute.  Those with higher HD than you make a save vs shaken instead, save negates.  An opponent that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to that same deity’s aura of fear for 24 hours.
 * Resolve: You bolster your allies and fill them with zeal. All allies in your aura receive a +4 morale bonus on attacks, damage, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

At 4th level the range of your aura expands. It becomes equal to your divine rank x 100 feet. At 9th level it becomes your divine rank x 1 mile. At 14th level it becomes your divine rank x 100 miles. Finally at 19th level, it becomes your divine rank x 10,000 miles, enough to cover entire planets.

 : A god becomes immune to Death, Mind-Affecting, Petrification, and Polymorph effects.

You gain your alignment as an alignment subtype (if any) and are considered a native outsider on your original home plane (often the prime material) and any planes which match within one step of your alignment. For example a LE god is native to LN, LE, and NE planes.

At this point a god also chooses his divine anathema (see below), typically the environmental trait which is polar opposite of his alignment and one unique or rare item or event, such as an artifact sword or being inside a volcano. In addition, they become a paragon of your portfolio and alignment. They have worshipers who rely on them remaining who they are, and radical changes in belief and dogma cause them to lose their strength and possibly become an Ex-God (see below).

 : A god is as swift as lightning. The god's base speed doubles at 2nd level. At 5th level, this increases to five times the original base speed. At 10th level, this increases to ten times the original base speed.

 : A god must be tough. At 2nd level a god receives DR 10/cosmic, allowing them to bypass cosmic damage reduction. At 6th level the damage reduction becomes DR 20/cosmic. At 11th level, it becomes DR 30/cosmic. At 16th it becomes DR 40/cosmic. Finally at 21st it becomes DR 50/cosmic.

 : A god must be endure the elements. At 2nd level a god receives energy resistance 10 (acid, cold, electric, fire, and sonic). At 6th level this becomes energy resistance 20. At 11th level this becomes energy resistance 30. At 16th this becomes energy resistance 40. Finally at 21st this becomes energy resistance 50.

 : At 3rd level a god is not bound by mere mortal laws like not breathing in space, dying of starvation, and burning to death in lava. They are always under the effect of adapt body as an extraordinary effect. Finally, their voice carries regardless of medium, even allowing them to speak underwater or in space. A silence field still silences them however.

 : A 3rd level god warps reality around it, protecting it from harm. The god has a 20% miss chance against both harmful physical attacks, spells, and other effects. This is not concealment nor is it bypassed by true seeing, it is the altering of fate to be most favorable to the deity.

At 8th level, this ability improves to a 35% miss chance. At 13th level, this ability improves to a 50% miss chance. At 18th level, this ability improves to a 65% miss chance. At 23th level, this ability improves to a 80% miss chance.

The item’s cost and creation time remain unchanged, but the deity is free to undertake any activity when not laboring on the item.

If a deity has the item creation feat pertaining to the item it wishes to create, the cost (in gold and XP) are halved, and the production time drops to 1 day.

 : A 4th level god gains multiple resistances to many dangerous effects. He adds his divine rank as a luck bonus to saving throws against ability damage, ability drain, banishment, binding, dimensional anchor, disease, disintegration, dismissal, energy drain, imprisonment, paralysis, poison, repulsion, sleep, soul bind, stunning, temporal stasis, trap the soul, and turning and rebuking.

 : Gods can see with greater accuracy than a mere mortal. They gain superior low-light vision and darkvision out to 1 mile per divine rank. If they possess the scent ability, it extends to 3 miles instead of the default 30 feet. Any blindsight, blindsense, tremorsense, and similar abilities they possess double in size.

He can choose between obtaining a domain, or obtaining a salient ability.

Domains function like spheres, gaining the domain spells as spell-like abilities as well as the domain power. They may use these domain spell-like abilities once per day as if it were a minor sphere. The god can choose the same domain up to three times, upgrading it as if a moderate sphere (with SLAs used 3/day) to a major sphere (with SLAs used at will). Alternatively he can choose a different domain. Spell-like abilities with expensive material or experience still require them. A psionic character can also choose psi-like abilities of the spells in question. If the domain offers miracle as a spell, while you obviously can self-approve your own requests, but they cost as if you were casting wish. Normally that cost is covered by the the god in question, but since you are that god... oh well.

Instead of a domain, a god can select a salient ability. These function almost like feats, but are only available to beings with divine rank.

Each time you level up in god, you can choose to swap out one of your portfolio abilities for a different one, or up or downgrading your focus in your domain.

Divine spellcasters may pray to you and obtain their divine spellcasting, using any domains you know as the domains available to them for worshiping you. This doesn't benefit you directly, and it does not distract the god. However, a god can choose to withhold spells if it becomes aware of a spellcaster whose behavior he disapproves of. This is a non-action and takes effect the next time the spellcaster attempts to acquire spells, until you choose to lift the restriction.

 : A 4th level god has a limited ability to sense events involving their portfolios. They automatically sense any event that involves one thousand or more people. The ability is limited to the present. Lesser deities automatically sense any event that involves their portfolios and affects five hundred or more people. Intermediate deities automatically sense any event that involves their portfolios, regardless of the number of people involved. When a deity senses an event, it merely knows that the event is occurring and where it is. The deity receives no sensory information about the event. Once a deity notices an event, it can use its remote sensing power to perceive the event.

Demigods receive followers as if you had the Leadership feat, but you do not get a cohort. This stacks with the effect of Leadership and similar. These followers are your devoted worshipers, making up whatever church or other organization you wish. As normal with followers, they are loyal to you but not suicidal or fanatical, and typically won't do anything reckless like follow you into battle without a good reason. In addition, demigods no longer fumble on a natural 1.

 : A 4th level god is under the constant effect of Tongues as an extraordinary ability.

Over the course of 1 week you attune a spherical area equal to your divine rank squared x miles large. In this area, you can control the temperature, lighting, and minor elements of the environment to any degree which is normal for that plane (which for the material plane is typically between -20ºF to 120ºF), and fill the area with scents and sounds as the deity sees fit. Sounds can be no louder than one hundred humans could make, but not harmful sound. The deity’s ability to create scents is similar.

A demigod or lesser deity can erect buildings and alter the landscape, but must do so through its own labor, through magic, or through its divine powers. Intermediate deities can create buildings and perform major terrain alterations like adding mountains or rivers, and greater deities may create impossible structures such as mountains supported by a single twig or rivers that flow through the sky.

Any deity can block off the creation of portals or plane-shifting effects into their realm, or designate where portal locations are possible. Lesser deities can control what links to other planes exist, severing or adding links to coterminous planes and blocking access to other planes. This may render teleportation, summoning, and other effects useless in the realm if the required plane is cut off.

Intermediate deities can alter the physics of the realm around them. They may apply the enhanced magic or impeded magic traits to up to four groups of spells (schools, domains, spells with the same descriptor, etc). However, the impeded trait never inhibits the deity's own spells or spell-like abilities. Greater deities can alter physics further, applying new gravity, elemental, energy, or time traits or applying the limited magic trait to a particular school, domain, or spell descriptor within the area, preventing such spells and spell-like abilities from functioning. The greater deity’s own spells and spell-like abilities are not limited by these restrictions.

Once a deity sets the conditions in its realm, they are permanent, though the deity can change them. As a standard action, the deity can specify a new environmental condition or change in terrain. The change gradually takes effect over the next 10 minutes. Changing astral links, planar traits, or terrain requires more effort, and the deity must labor for a week to change them. During this time, the deity must spend 8 hours a day on the project. During the remaining 16 hours of each day, the deity can perform any action it desires, so long as it remains within the realm. The astral links, planar traits, and terrain remain unchanged until the labor is complete.

A god cannot alter the divine realm of another deity unless he has more divine ranks than the deity. Even then, he must succeed on an opposed level check, and the deity in question is immediately alerted to the attempted usurping, regardless of success or failure. If successful, you may now alter the area as normal.

' :''' A god can step easily between the planes. At 5th level a god gains greater plane shiftSpC at will as a spell-like ability.

' :''' A god knows no distance between steps. At 5th level a god gains greater teleport at will as a spell-like ability.

 : A 7th level god can perform skills with great speed, as long as they are related to his portfolio. Once per round the god may make a skill check or ability check as a free action. For example, a god of lies might make a disguise check as a free action, a god of the forge crafts a tool as a free action, a god of athletics makes a strength check to push a boulder as a free action, or a god of knowledge uses gather information as a free action as if he had gone searching around manually.

When the god receives the title of lesser deity, they may make two such free actions a round. As an intermediate deity, they may make three free actions a round. A greater deity may make four free actions a round.

 : A 7th level god can sense things from afar and communicate in kind. As a standard action, the god can duplicate the effect of scrying anywhere within range of its divine aura, except you can target locations as well, the duration is concentration, and it allows senses out to their normal range as if they were really there. Typically it is done to sense events it has gained knowledge of via its portfolio senses. This sensory ability can be suppressed or blocked by an antimagic field, effects which block scrying (though the deity gets an opposed caster level check to bypass), and the interference of another deity (see below). A god can scry up to his divine rank in locations simultaneously with no loss in focus.

As part of his concentration, a god can shoot to manifest an illusion of himself in the location of scrying as if using major image, except the effect is clearly illusionary. Through this medium, the god can speak to those observing, usually to deliver a message or warning. As before, the number of simultaneous apparitions he can command is equal to his divine rank.

A god can choose to block another god or divination effect related to their portfolio instead of sense it. This works like normal remote senses, but instead of viewing it you produce static for the person or area scryed upon, out to 1 mile per divine rank. This is a standard action, and lasts for 1 day per character level. Epic spell effects and deities with a higher divine rank can ignore the blocking effect. A blocked area counts as one of the number of places you can sense at once. For example, the god of volcanos (divine rank 5) has decided to block knowledge on a certain volcano, and one of his followers. He can only scry on 3 places at once, as two are busy blocking knowledge of those two subjects.

 : Deities rarely, if ever, fail. At 8th level, they can can compare their character level to their opponent's character level, with the difference being the lowest they can roll on a d20 up to a maximum of 5. For example, a demigod (CR 25) is fighting a monster (CR 10). 25-10=15, capped a 5. Regardless what the demigod rolls on a d20, the result will never be under a natural 5. However, if the monster is closer to their level (such as a CR 25 demigod vs a CR 23 monster) the result is smaller. 25-23=2. The lowest the deity can roll is a 2 on any d20 roll made against that creature.

At 13th level, lesser deities minimum roll rises to 10. At 18th level, intermediate deities minimum roll rises to 15. At 23rd level, greater deities minimum roll rises to 20. As such, it becomes more and more difficult to combat higher level gods unless you are close in level to them or exceed them.

Any item he creates he can turn into a minor artifact. The item gains no special powers or abilities beyond being impossible to destroy by traditional means as usual with artifacts. The deity may determine two moderately difficult methods of destruction, such as breaking the item in a non-unique traversable location like a forest or cave or destroying it with an uncommon but non-unique method, such as setting it on fire or letting a creature devour it.

The god may only have one artifact at a time. If his previous artifact is destroyed, he may assign a new creation of his as a new minor artifact.

The followers obtained by Title of Demigod multiply by x10. Many lesser deities become established members of their local pantheon, and their teachings are accessible and easily found.

If a lesser deity is slain, the lesser deity can be brought back to life by normal revival methods or by special means. The lesser deity can return to life on the completion of a particular event or quest, such as returning a sword to its place or creation or performing a ceremony with dragon's blood at a full moon. Regardless of the means, it is a quest a CR 15 party can do reasonably. If left alone a group of heroes will emerge from his followers and complete the quest in 1d10 weeks, reviving the deity with no level loss. If this party of adventurers is stopped or killed before that happens, then the lesser deity can only revive by normal traditional means.

 : A 10th level god can create an avatar. This functions similar to simulacrum, except no disguise check is needed. Unlike a normal simulacrum, you can lend your divine ranks to your avatar, lowering your own temporarily while the avatar gains it. An avatar with divine ranks has the class abilities (but not the HD or any other abilities) of a god of appropriate class level (minimum 3rd for rank 0 avatars). Divine rank 0 counts as 1/2 a divine rank, and you cannot reduce your own divine rank less that 0 (that is, 1/2). This does not change your title or abilities, but abilities based on divine ranks may function at a lower level than normal. The avatar can act on its own, typically to do business on another plane while the deity is busy, and as insurance to put the deity in harms way without actually putting the deity in harms way. If the avatar is slain, the god is temporarily weakened, with divine ranks returning to him at a rate of 1 per week, but otherwise this does not have the threat of direct interactions would have.

The avatar and deity cannot exist in the same nearby area. Whenever the avatar is within 1 mile of the actual deity, it winks out of existence and its divine ranks briefly rejoin with the deity until the deity moves out of the area.

' :''' A 12th level god can bestow blessings onto their followers. Once per day a god may duplicate the effects of limited wish for any creature who has the god as their patron deity, and may do this at range through their remote sensing ability. They cannot use this ability to benefit themselves directly, but might benefit from it indirectly (such as buffing an ally who also happens to be a worshiper). This is a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your character level, and does not take any experience cost.

 : At 14th level, a god's ability to create artifacts improve. He may make a number of minor artifacts equal 1/4 his divine rank (minimum 1). The same restrictions apply.

The followers obtained by Title of Demigod multiply by x100. Intermediate deities are often commonplace and great temples are built in their honor.

The revival method of the intermediate deity improves. No longer reliant on the aid of others to return, an intermediate deity will automatically revive themselves with no level loss within 1d10 weeks. For this reason, the best way to kill an intermediate or greater deity is via imprisoning effects or stealing away their divine ranks to a point where they can be killed permanently by traditional means.

 : A 17th level god becomes immune to any spell he has in his domains, as if he has infinite spell resistance against them.

 : At 19th level, a god can now have their created artifacts be major artifacts. As a result, their methods of destruction tighten, becoming one specific event or thing such as throwing the item into a certain volcano, breaking the item under a full moon in a ceremony, or getting a god to destroy the item. They can only create 1 major artifact, regardless how many minor artifacts they can create.

The followers obtained by Title of Demigod multiply by x1000. Greater deities lead entire pantheons, and are the most well known deities of all. Beyond this title lies overdeities, beings which are less deities as cosmic physical beings who compose reality itself.

Greater deities are difficult to kill for good. The automatic respawn time for a greater deity is reduced to 1d10 days.

 : A 22nd level god becomes truly immune to any spell in his domain, even if it does not allow SR, up to the point of ignoring the effects of these spells such as seeing and moving through a solid fog or being unaffected by anything a summon monster II might do. Instant effects such as a wall of stone are nonmagical and are not ignored.

As an immediate action the deity can counterspell any spell he has in his domain without fail.

Divine Anathema
Gods are most powerful in their divine realm, and still powerful outside of it. However, there are ways to depower a god given the right circumstances. All deities have at least two divine anathema, with one usually being the polar opposite alignment to their own, and another being specific to the deity such as a certain sword, a location in the multiverse, or another rare effect. When a deity is presented with the object of environment of his anathema, his effective divine rank for determining class abilities decreases by 1 (minimum 1) and his divine armor's miss chance decreases by 10% for each such object or substance present until the offending materials are removed from his sight.

Ex-Gods
There are certain effects which may strip a god of divine power and rank. Approaching the center spire of the Outlands slowly strips gods of their power, to the point of complete negation once Sigil is reached. Gods lose god class features and divine ranks, but retain BAB, HD, skills, and saves while this is under effect. Gods also become ex-gods if they change alignment, and remain so until they return to their alignment or they go on a quest to atone and either re-define who they are, or return to who they were.

In addition, a creature which kills a god (and knows they did) may attempt to steal your divine rank as part of their Task of Ascension. If they do this, upon revival the god is missing a divine rank, and the god loses class features of their last god level. This can be restored either by obtaining a divine rank again on their own via any of the methods in the Task of Ascension (typically by killing the would-be divine rank thief), or leveling up and making the special level check as if absorbing a divine rank. If successful, they level as normal and their divine ranks and class features are restored as normal.

Playing a God
Combat: Who would dare fight a god? Epic level creatures, thats who. Indeed as a deity you are great, but powerful beings are still a threat to you. Fortunately, any classes you took before becoming a god still apply. Do what you did before, and you will do well.

Advancement: What better way to go than up? You can become a greater deity, or if you feel satisfied with your growth you can go back to the class you were before.

Resources: As a god, you will likely draw the attentions of the local pantheon. You may be wrapped up in divine politics, or you may choose to spend his days wandering the world. As a deity, know that even the most evil and vile of gods are expected to behave in certain constraints. The material plane is often seen as a neutral ground, and if one god were to meddle too deeply in its affairs they would draw the ire of others. The politics of divinity may vary from world to world, but many do not want their cold war between good and evil, law and chaos, to become hot. As a result, deities rarely deal with the material. Their adventures lie beyond.

Gods in the World
"All hail the God Emperor of Mankind!"

NPC Reactions: The common man can barely imagine meeting a powerful archmage, much less a god. You might shock them into a religious coma if they knew. Of course, some deities like that kind of attention, but divine politics tends to frown on gods mucking up things on the prime material.

God Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge Religion can research gods to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Gods in the Game
Adaptation: Less an adaption, but DMs may be interested in the godspark, quasideity, demigod, lesser deity, intermediate deity, and greater deity templates for a quick way of applying god levels to monsters and creatures.

Sample Encounter: Know that you have angered a god! GONGAN EIJI! Can you escape his wrath!?

EL 29: PENDING