Immortalhood

Everyone seems to kind of want to become an Immortal in my campaign. Which is fine, it is always a legit goal for a character to want to become a demigod or other powerful entity in a DnD campaign. I figured I would run down a little bit of what goes into being an Immortal and what kind of power it bestows on a character. Most of this is going to be information the players can get through idle conversation on the topic of Immortals with like Gob or something, so it can be used as character information, within reason. 

So the first step to Immortalhood is getting to The Black Mountain, which is entirely on the opposite end of Orcunraytrel from New Haven, which is about 1000 miles as the crow flies. The mountain is also "protected" by a range of mountains inhabited by some crazy hermits that call themselves the Druids of The Black Mountain (which is a misnomer as they are composed of Witches and Druids, not just Druids). After that, they have to get up it, which sounds easy, but it is so tall it can actually be seen on a clear day from the top of Fort Jagged Tooth's tower. Mind you, the base of the mountain is about as wide as the state of Indiana. The trials of the mountain are also not precisely physical in nature. They are a trial designed to test the strong and kill the weak. Because of that, flying to the top seems perhaps like it might not be quite as easy as one would hope, and perhaps will have some unforeseen impact upon the trials. 

Once atop the mountain, one must deal with the nameless entity found there. Specifically, to make a pact with him. The entity delights in suffering, so some aspect of the pact almost certainly offers the aspirant some manner of pain and anguish and will likely restrict their lifestyle in some way. Oftentimes, the pact also encompasses a purpose the aspirant must pursueo in exchange for power. The most clear cut example of this is Lotharium II having to dedicate the rest of his unending life to undoing everything his father, Lotharium the God-King, built in his mortal life. He's about halfway there, just so you know. 

That is about as specific as I can get in terms of becoming an Immortal. It isn't exactly a clear cut process and depends entirely on the individual and the mood of the entity at the time you speak to it. The trials might be physical, or they might be mental, more likely both. The pacts, well, I know what the pacts are, they're all written down for each of my players. They are unkind, as is their purpose.  

Now, what does becoming an Immortal do? I've basically built them as a race using the race construction guidelines found in the Advanced Race Guide with some additional stuff to fit in with the pseudo-god type of creature they are. 

• Immortality, i.e. you don't age to death and become immune to aging effects. They also no longer require food, drink, sleep, or breathing. However, they also cannot be raised or resurrected or otherwise restored to life should they meet an untimely death via dismemberment. 
• +2 to saves vs. poison, disease, mind-affecting effects, exhaustion, and fatigue. 
• +2 to each ability score.
• +2 bonus on saving throws made to resist death effects, saving throws against negative energy effects, Fortitude saves to remove negative levels, and Constitution checks made to stabilize if reduced to negative hit points.
• Spell Resistance of 6 + character level, this becomes Power Resistance if the character is a psionic character. 
• You also gain 6 race points with which to purchase additional abilities from the Advanced Raced Guide. However, these abilities must be in a theme. Like if your Immortal is the Earth Lord or some such, you could buy burrowing speed, ferrous growth, and fertile soil. You can also take weaknesses like light blindness and such to offer up some extra race points if you need them. 
• The ability to now take divine classes (Paladin, Oracle, Cleric, etc, Druid is still an arcane class) and may convert levels in previously taken classes into those new classes. If you do this, you may also grant spells you have the capability of casting to followers if they are a divine class. Basically this allows you to form your own priesthood, but it is limited by how many levels you have in divine classes. In the case of followers, you cannot control them or speak to them over vast distances or anything like that, but you can turn their powers that come from you on and off at will and are never vulnerable to them in any way (a Cleric you grant power to cannot harm you with spells you've granted him). Making a priesthood is a little involved, so I'm not going to run down the whole thing here. 
• Become a Tier 1 Mythic Character. 

So that is kind of the run down of the effects of Immortalhood. Kind of like a god, but much more limited in power and still relatively easily killed. These powers may change as I get more ideas and such, but I'm pretty confidant this is what they'll look like by the time the guys get around to climbing the giant mountain at the north end of Orcunraytrel. 

Now, Mythic Characters. Paizo is currently working on a book called Mythic Adventures. There is an open playtest pdf available on the website to be downloaded. Essentially, it is Pathfinder's equivalent of epic level characters, but doesn't necessarily mean 21st level and higher play. It is still in playtest until it is released some time next year, but assuming the rules remain similar it basically amounts to ten levels of super adventurer. For instance, a Mythic Archmage has the ability to up a spell's damage by 50%, double its duration if it has one, penalize saves against it by -4, and ignore spell resistance and elemental resistances. There are ten tiers of mythic power, they're kind of like levels but not. You don't advance via experience points though. They have these things called lesser and major mythic challenges. Basically you have to do a bunch of really difficult things to advance to the next tier. Lesser trials are simple stuff related to the individual, like kill an enemy in one hit with a sneak attack or death attack type ability, the sort of thing. Major trials are challenges of more concern to the world at large, the GM determines those. 

So I hope that is a clearer picture of Immortalhood and what it entails.