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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!garfield!shawn
From: shawn@garfield.UUCP (Shawn Kearley)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: PCs vs Gods (reposted)
Message-ID: <2469@garfield.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 11:59:00 EST
Article-I.D.: garfield.2469
Posted: Wed Feb 13 11:59:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 08:50:36 EST
References: <2400083@uokvax.UUCP> <3429@ucla-cs.ARPA> <5026@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: shawn@garfield.UUCP (Shawn Kearley)
Organization: Memorial U. of Nfld. C.S. Dept., St. John's
Lines: 66
Summary: 

In article <5026@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>   Consider the kinds of powers normally attributed to gods:
>> 
>>   (1) Creation of the universe.
>>   (2) Creator of the human species and/or other living species.
>>   (3) Omniscient/Omnipresent.
>>   (4) Hears the prayers of all worshippers at all times.
>>   (5) Control over death/the afterlife.
>

   The following quotations were taken from the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG)
and from the Deities and Demigods (DD) manuals.  Hopefully these will clear
up the problems about the gods in AD&D being omniscient and/or unkillable.



  DMG p42  fifth level clerical spell commune explination

    " [...] Note, that it is possible for a deity to answer 'I Don't Know',
as most deities are not omniscient."


  DD p8 paragraph 2
    "However, it is true that a gods power often increaces or decreaces as
the number of his worshipers varies."

  DD p8 paragraph 7
    "If a god enters combat (willingly or unwillingly), he or she will always
attempt to avoid any situation where the god can be physically defeated. [...]
The easiest avoidence of combat is the god's innate teleport ability, which
enables him or her to leave combat entirely, or "blink" away to a convienant
distance and resume combat in a manner of the god's choosing (spells, special
abilities, etc).

  DD p11 paragraph 7
    "Type V and VI demons must rest a century before returning unaided to the
plane where they were slain;  Demon Princes and Lords, and Greater Devils and
Arch-Devils require 2-8 weeks to restore there energies to a point where they
can plane travel or send a servitor to another plane; and even the Greater
Deities require 1-4 weeks of rest before dealing with activities outside there
home plane."

  DD p11 paragraph 8
    "If any servent or minion of a deity (or even the Deity itself) is slain
on its home plane, that being is absolutely and irrevocably dead."

  DD p11 paragraph 9
    "                   DIVINE ASSENSION                       "
    "  as a study of the various mythologies will show, it is remotely
     possible for mortals to ascend into the ranks of the devine [...]"



from these quotes it is easy to see that in the AD&D setting the gods are
neither omniscient nor unkillable by mortals.  The powers that the gods have
should make this nearly impossible but as shown the possiblity is there that a
PC could kill a god.  As to weather the gods are mearly high level characters,
the final paragraph shows that high level PC's can possibly become gods.  This
paragraph continues to tell what is required to become devine and what happens
to the character but I didn't think there was any need to include it here.  It
does however say that after a period of time the character can become a
demi-god, thus it is possible that the gods were at one time just highly
superior mortals.

                                               Shawn Kearley
                                               shawn@garfield.UUCP