Greets all, watching Highlander on the tele, while flipping thru a copy of the LGGaz and it made me wonder... immortals...not gods, or demi-gods, but npc of extremely long life....who wouldn't die naturally, and wouldn't be overly vocal of this uniqueness...secretive...guarded.
Now elves would definitely qualify, however I've considered on nixing that extremeness of age for my games down to a few hundred yrs...then Mordenkainen came to mind....immortal
... and if memory serves me well there was a Dragon article about "Immortals", but I don't remember which issue and nearly all of my resources are in storage back home.
So, I appeal to the masses and grey sages... any thoughts, information, or location of resources. I've a good idea what I want to develop for a campaign, however, I like to do a little research and see whats out there first...maybe adapt something I haven't consider.
You're no doubt thinking of "Ancient PCs" from Dragon #354.
I like the idea myself. I think Highlander-style immortals are an excellent fit for Greyhawk, if you leave out the "there can be only one" angle. And I agree that Mordenkainen is a perfect fit for such a race.
There are certain problems with the concept, though:
1) The average campaign doesn't last long enough even in game years for the character's longevity to make a difference.
2) There has to be some mechanism to either limit their potential. If immortal characters could continue to grow in power over the course of millennia, they'd eventually come to dominate the multiverse, especially if the campaign is using 3.5e rules.
3) There has to be something special about them beyond just their longevity, otherwise they're only humans who don't get age spots.
Of course, if you can deal with these problems adequately I think there's a lot of potential here for gaming goodness - even if (or perhaps especially if) you avoid all the Highlander-inspired ideas. I look forward to hearing more of your ideas.
Thanks Bubbagump,
....actually on the GreyTalk thread I got some real good ideas. Immortals can live with each other, however, slaying each other increases there "power" (what, i'm not sure yet, something to work on for game balance and all), thus evil directed immortals would seed this either by dying to a better good aligned immortal or killing them.
There could be a chance by a mortal to become immortal if they slay one, maybe a percentage chance based off of constitution. This way immortals will look to stay secret/guarded about there special ability of long life, which can only be lost by being beheaded (cannot die by other means, however i would look at certain spells doinf the same as a beheading)...good venue to bring back the reasoning for vorporal blades.
Immortals can be born of it and enter immortality during puberty...maybe having a gods blood influance? Certain spells to discover or detect immortals could be drawn up from this.... some excellant ideas from the guys on the thread tonight.
Looking forward to hearing more, once I figure something out... I may write it out and submit it for CF viewing.
I remember seeing somewhere on the 'net (I forget where - it's been a long time) a d20 fan-made game for Highlander. You might want to surf around and see if you can find it. I don't know if it was any good, but it might be useful for inspirational purposes.
This might have something to do with the strange magical effects found on Oerth (I have forgotten the exact name of the stuff, but it is found beneath the surface of Oerth.)
I always saw it that the immortals came into being when they were mortally wounded the first time - otherwise, the age of Sean Connerys character in the movie would be hard to explain if it would be something with puberty. (Regarding movies, there really can be only one - I havenīt seen the others)
Regarding fanmade games: IIRC, the copyright holder crushed any attempts at creating fanstuff - there was one version using the old World of Darkness rules floating around the net. Wasnīt there even an official attempt at an RPG?
Other effects than beheading to kill them: If the effect brings the immortal below a certain threshold (say, two times his con into negative hp), you might consider his head having come off his shoulders as well - beyond the rest of his body being a bloody pulp anyway.
They obviously regenerate all damage otherwise, and relatively fast as well.
What about starving and dying of thirst? Do they fall into a coma (similar to Haldamar in Vecna Lives)? Poison effects?
Another point is "The Quickening" - some special feature of being immortal, or rather something like psionic abilities, to be added with class levels?
Not sure this helps with the Highlander-theme, but I think GH immortals were called quasi-deities. EGG wrote an article about them back in Dragon #71, which names included Daern, Johydee, Nolzur, Quaal, Tuerny, Heward, Keoghtom, and Murlynd. He also states that NPCs like Mordenkainen and the Circle of 8 are not quasi-deities.
The 3.5 revisions for the Deities and Demigods book gives full details of Quasi-deity traits: Immune to transmutation, energy drain, ability drain, ability damage, mind-affecting effects;damage reduction 10/epic;fire resistance 5;spell resistance 32;immortal.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
aka BusterBudd
