Dear elder forces, I'm trying to plan out how to make a stat block for Tharizdun as my final boss for my campaign. I know gods aren't meant to be "fought" per say, but my plays with have divine blessings and be at level twenty most likely so I'm not worried about their power level. How do I make a good godly stat block? My first thought is phases, something like a good video game boss (like bloodborne) with abilities that build on each other. I just don't want him to feel flat and boring :(
Thanks for the help! I love your stuff :)
*cough, switching to Hermaeus Mora voice, cough*
Yes. Good question young darkling. You were right to bring this matter before the midnight council.
We are of the opinion that true god stat blocks should not be utilized in gameplay. Even at high player level. Ideologically, threatening the mortality of a hypothetically immortal entity goes against the balance of power of a setting, where mortal creatures allow gods to draw power from belief. Your rules for how gods work may alter this.
We have devised two strategies.
1) Tharizdun as the environment rather than a proper opponent. Gods, or their presence or aspects of them, can be brought into the world through rituals and powerful belief. Those that call a god's power into the world act as anchors for that power. Powerful ritual implements can also be used as anchors. Players can be tasked with quickly subduing powerful followers or corrupt angels or dismantling ritual circles while the power of Tharizdun works against them. You can treat Tharizdun as a sort of interactive lair; you have a table of effects that happen to players, and players can do certain things to mitigate or prevent those effects. Like, an eldritch viewing eye of the god stands in as the physical form, following the players and causing anomalies to disrupt them. Every round on the eyes initiative it rolls to cast a spell or alter the terrain unless it has been dealt a certain baseline if damage or a special condition has been met. This causes the players to split priorities. They must deal with the influence of Tharizdun while accomplishing special objectives potentially in a certain order. Like this: the eye follows the players until Tharizdun's anchors are dismantled in a certain order, first the deacon that cast the summoning ritual, then the ritual circle (and potentially acolytes), and then the artifact through which the ritual was enacted. The deacon's power prevents players from harming the circle and the circle protects the artifact. This way you get stages without necessarily changing forms or derailing combat and worrying about players being discouraged by not being done yet or not feeling like they were rewarded for early effort.
2) An avatar of Tharizdun. Whoever brought Tharizdun's power into the world becomes the god's avatar. Draw from an archfiend's stat block for inspiration. But to make the battle interesting without bogging it down with minions, be sure to make the lair interesting. The lair is not just some pseudo monster, it is a place. Being in certain positions benefits the avatar in certain ways (close to the ritual circle allows them to draw more power, killing an acolyte restores health, coming too close to mundane objects imbues them with chaos and causes them to lunge out towards players with random magic, etc.). This method can also use phases of combat, though the council has discovered that phases can be daunting if your players are not prepared for a slog. Rather than phases, the council recommends periods of invulnerability. When the avatar hits certain hit point milestones (quarters, thirds, or halves generally) the avatar enters a state where they cannot be damaged (starting on their next turn in combat) and remain invulnerable until a specific condition is met (usually clearly evident in the directly visible environment, like the destruction of newly conjured icons of godly influence).
The midnight council hopes this advice is satisfactory and helpful. The council also hopes that Amy typos are ignored, as it is hard for several entities to type a coherent message concurrently with various non-ui friendly appendages (tentacle suckers stick to the touch screen and rip off keyboard keys if care is not taken).
