That is a question some of the greatest mages of the world have tried to answer IC and they rarely agreed on the answer. Perhaps it is some cosmic secret allowing them to siphon power from the very fabric of existence, perhaps they are so primal that they are fundamntal to some aspect of the spheres, perhaps each of them has found their own path to such independence like wizards seeking lichdom. It's impossible to say for sure.
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
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That is a question some of the greatest mages of the world have tried to answer IC and they rarely agreed on the answer. Perhaps it is some cosmic secret allowing them to siphon power from the very fabric of existence, perhaps they are so primal that they are fundamntal to some aspect of the spheres, perhaps each of them has found their own path to such independence like wizards seeking lichdom. It's impossible to say for sure.
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Gods don't die the instant their worshippers do. They die when their essence/power runs out. Tiamat and Bahamut are weird because they seem to draw a ton of power from the mere existence and spread of their Dragons and not just sacrifices and prayer, but theoretically if we could kill every Dragon, end every one of their worshippers across the multiverse and somehow get them to expend all their power (steal it?) then AFAIK they would die.
EDIT : So they might have something else on top of that? Jeez, talk about unkillable Big Bad.
DOUBLE EDIT : Or maybe Dragons are a cornerstone of existence (this is Dungeons and Dragons, after all...) and so their Gods are too.
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Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
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- He/Him
Hm? Then aside from Bahamut and Tiamat, who gets the same treatment? What other gods could theoretically exist as long as it wants with the same rank of Existence Hax that those two have?
Hmm. Yss is considered old as dirt but Lo and Behold, he still nearly died if not for us. But a Primordial God that's bound to a single Plane wouldn't be as Grand nor Powerful as those whose influence stretches across all of the Planes (such as Tiamat and Bahamut because of Dragons)
It doesn't necessarily have to be some sort of super cheat; there are plenty of high end creatures that have godlike power on their own. If one of them was to ascend, who's to say that it would effect them the same way as it would a mortal or "pure" deity?
It could be the case that anything of a certain level of personal power that becomes a god takes up divine ranks the way humans take up mythic ones. In that case their worship could die out and they would just rank down instead of dying. Tiamat and Bahamut are pretty much the perfect case study in how something like that could work since they are the Dragons every "lesser" dragon is patterned after.
I always figured it was something like consumption versus production. Being a God takes a lot of power, all souls generate that mystic god juice to some level. But Gods are so big they need a constant supply to keep going. Like food.
Bahamur and Tiamat are like all dragons more inherently...well 'more's than most people. Soe even as Gods even just their own souls are stronger enough to keep them going. Maybe not a full power but enough not to starve.
Bahamur and Tiamat are like all dragons more inherently...well 'more's than most people. Soe even as Gods even just their own souls are stronger enough to keep them going. Maybe not a full power but enough not to starve.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
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- Formerly of the Far Realm
Something else to consider; a Great Wyrm Dragon, especially one with Advanced HD and thousands of years to hone their magic in strange ways, is nearly the equal in terms of power as a minor deity. So what is the effect when such a Dragon is also a deity with tens of thousands of years to grow in power?
In other words, in some ways Dragon gods are to gods what Dragons are to mages.
In other words, in some ways Dragon gods are to gods what Dragons are to mages.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
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My read on it is that Primal Gods who existed since the beginning had first dibs on the best concepts which draw in power from merely the very act of those things relating to their domains.
So like Zathir draws in power from the acts which relate to his domain (industriousness, creativity, ingenuity, and so on) Tiamat gets to feed off the passive acts from half a dozen different, very commonplace, domains. As does Bahamut.
This "passive feeding" method is something common with the very oldest Gods, it's just that Tiamat and Bahamut, in True Dragon fashion, are goddamn conceptual hoarders.
So like Zathir draws in power from the acts which relate to his domain (industriousness, creativity, ingenuity, and so on) Tiamat gets to feed off the passive acts from half a dozen different, very commonplace, domains. As does Bahamut.
This "passive feeding" method is something common with the very oldest Gods, it's just that Tiamat and Bahamut, in True Dragon fashion, are goddamn conceptual hoarders.
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh? I must admit, I am interested in this tidbit of yours. When you say there are others who could achieve the same way. What are the examples? I would like to read upon them.
...Draconic mien, huh?
Forgive me, but I am at a conundrum here. And that pertains on: 'Why?'. What makes Dragons so special? They are considered as ultimate beings who has titanic powers at their disposal and they seems to be able to achieve anything they want and wish, provided they sacrifice moments of their attention to such special subjects.
But, why? How did this happen?
(Dragons are so fascinating to research aren't they?)
So, what are you saying is that supposedly if a god were to comprise/emodied some primal emotions such as pride, greed, fear, etc... they'd get stronger passively due to the fact they got the right of dibs?
...the more I read this, the more alike these gods are to Chaos Gods from Warhammer. Them being the reflection and echo of several actions which in return empowers them.
Found a better picture for anu as I was looking for pics for the various other kinds of warforged
Do you guys want an interlude next or an account on the various forms of warforged with fluff and crunch included?
Do you guys want an interlude next or an account on the various forms of warforged with fluff and crunch included?
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Found a better picture for anu as I was looking for pics for the various other kinds of warforged
To you guys want an interlude next or an account on the various forms of warforged with fluff and crunch included.
Yeeees.
That's yes to the warforged info I assume?
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
I'm actually good with either, but we still need the info no matter what.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
I wouldn't mind either, I'd still remind you of the stuff you're forgetting.Found a better picture for anu as I was looking for pics for the various other kinds of warforged
Do you guys want an interlude next or an account on the various forms of warforged with fluff and crunch included?
Incessantly so.
Beep.
OK then Warforged account it is. I'm in the headspace for it anyway
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[X] Goldfish
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
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- Formerly of the Far Realm
I just noticed a mistake I made on Anu's sheet, @DragonParadox. He's receiving the +6 saving throw bonus from Channel Vigor for his Reflex saves, but it should be Fortitude instead.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Be damn glad DP is writing up Warforged, and not Shadow!Fortress-infiltration.
This right here would have been the cue for everyone dying.
Red flag, Red Flag!!!
Interlude DCLXXII: The Secondborn of Sarnor
The Secondborn of Sarnor
By Anu of Sallosh
As the Makers forged us in times of old so too do I craft. Forge-fire be the light that leads my children into beings and crucibles their wombs, but no less loved than all of that than any being born of flesh. I must confess before I began this endeavor I felt a certain hesitation in imparting upon them knowledge of the dead. One could all too easily imagine such 'wisdom' shaping the unborn to the desires of the caster or bequeathing upon them the petty feuds and hatreds of the last four hundred years. What is 'enough' knowledge to fit in? Where does it end and the work of the enchanter, the mind-shaper, begin? Is there an honest answer to be found or does the very question lie upon shifting sands?
Such were my questions, my doubts in the days before the first forging, but as I uttered the ritual for the first time, as I felt the magic pass through me as the singer's breath moves through the flute I understood my error. I had myself fallen prey to the very bias I feared to engender in my kindred. There was no crude failing in the serpent-kin ritual, no hidden cruelty to the passage of knowledge from ancestor to newborn. Though the bones I had acquired, donated from the Flesh Forge in Lys, specifically allowed for arcane experimentation may not have been ancestors of my kin in the common parlance it had still been men who first dreamed of our kind and that above all else is the thing that binds together the passage of the ages.
The first of those I made was wrought of steel as I was, though these steel plates had been infused within the hardening chamber before time. Happily the results were as far a binding of the living brass as one might expect, accompanied by only a cosmetic darkening of the steel to black with sparks of red along much of the body. Anbari proved to be somewhat stronger than expected, though paradoxically both more and less hardy. While unenchanted weapons would find it far more difficult to penetrate his armor, as he proved by challenging a veteran legionnaire in the Circle on his second day against my advice, the shallower infusion of living metal meant that when blows did find their mark he was quicker to fall.
Steel is the new metal, the work of industry and progress, the strong limb upon which the dreams of an empire hang.
-The Gift of Steel
Ability Modifiers Change from Wis -2, Con +2, Cha -2 to Wis -2, Str +2, Cha -2
Gain DR 5/Magic
While Anbari proved interested in trials of arms and feats of strength he was happily not inclined to join the Legion before experiencing more of the world. The second fear I must confess to is that my kin would slot too easily among the workings of the Empire, never questioning their place or having the time and mental distance to truly choose their path as the children of men do. So it was with a lighter heart that I moved on to the second forging, to another metal, or rather two, copper and tin, the first barely harder than common stone, the second worse, for all the song of tin is sweet. Yet together they make bronze, that sun-kissed alloy by which battles grand and terrible were fought and the first great monuments of Sarnor were raised when the world was younger.
Though I did try to harden bronze as I did steel the magic was this time lost in the forging, something to do with the inner virtues of the metal perhaps, or simply the affinity of brass and bronze for through both the blood of copper runs.
Bronze is a metal of twin natures, copper red as blood quick-flowing and tin bright and filled with songs.
-The Gift of Bronze
Ability Modifiers Change from Wis -2, Con +2, Cha -2 to Wis -2, Str -2, Cha +2
Gain: Spellcasting Prodigy as Bonus Feat
Zabar, as he chose to be called, proved to have an affinity to art and an easy charm such as I have not been able to match to this day. Though he has little patience in the deep study of magic he has an affinity for arcane energies that leads me to be hopeful that he might some day become one of the song-sorcerers such as Wisdom Velen, though I do not know enough of that art to guess for certain how long the training might take. Regardless, Zabar is I suspect one for whom the name 'warforged' will quickly lose its meaning.
Having acquainted myself enough with the way the soul-brass bonded to common metals I dared to expand my horizons to other more daring workings, true silver, the bane of devil and shapeshifter alike, metal of the moon and of clarity. I had centuries ago known several of my kin wrought of this precious metal, though sadly not for long as the waning of magic left them drained and listless, then finally faded and dead. Was it working in their memory that made the metal ripple and flow so willfully, or some hidden virtue of the moonlight spinning down on fragile rays I know not, but I am not so prideful to refuse the gift of fate of fortune.
Flowing Moonlight swift as thought, mirror bright and thrice as true.
-The Gift of Mithral
Abilities: Wis -2, Dex +4, Con -2
Gain:
- Mithral Body and Mithral Fluidity as Bonus Feats
- Sell Resistance of 6+HD
- Unarmed attacks count as silver for the purposes of overcoming damage resistance
- LA +1
The grace and the greater strength of mithral-wrought armor I had expected, but when Kirem demonstrated her ability to reflect magical energies into a shower of harmless sparks I was taken wholly aback. Judging by the mirth my expression elicited I can only conclude it was very intentional. While Kirem does not have Zabar's quick charm her sly wit can easily have one laughing of even one's own missteps right along with her.
OOC: I will cover cold iron and adamantine later. This is already getting rather large and I still need time to decide what the results would be for the various roll results. The features above were not automatic but dependent on metalworking, spellcraft and arcana rolls from Anu.
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- Location
- United States
The Serpentfolk say hello.
A nat 20 on the spellcraft roll will do that, though keep in mind there are plenty of races with better SR.
And they are very OP.The Serpentfolk say hello.
Seriously spell resistance should be compulsory for the pretorian project.
- Location
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They are pretty OP, but the Serpentfolk are also racially knee-capped and have LA +3. Even freaking Drow only have LA +2.
On a side note @DragonParadox, is there a chance we can get a sheet for Riz'Neth? I'd like to start keeping track of his progress given that he's starting to go out on fights.
Sure I'll have that up tomorrow.
- Location
- France
This looks like a typo, DP. Shouldn't it be "whipped"?