The Ultimate Weapon?

Recently, I've been running a game that's very much a riff of Accel World/Kamen Rider, with a bit of Wraith: The Oblivion thrown into it. The players are explorers and guardians, trying to map an afterlife that is becoming increasingly hostile and disgorging all kinds of hideous and inhuman ghosts. This is going to build, eventually, to a final battle where all kinds of horrors are unleashed upon the real world for an apocalyptic confrontation.

Now, I've run into a bit of a writer's block, here. The leader of the invading spectres is - of course - an extremely powerful Kamen Rider equivalent. He's like the P Cs, but basically the antichrist; Their armour is actually a human derivation of alien technology, which means they're vague copies of the original. (It also ties in, thematically, to the vaguely Biblical imagery - The heroes are linked to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with the guy in red armour being War, the guy in black as Famine, and the guy in white as Pestilence.)

Their antagonist is, of course, Death.

I'm wondering; What kind of powers could I give him, to make him extremely deadly? Thus far, the P Cs have the following abilities...

1.) War can manifest weapons tailored to the situation, including weapons that target the weaknesses of specific targets. 2.) Famine can drain energy from his opponents. 3.) Pestilence has an array of biological weapons, allowing him to 'purify' his targets by disintegrating them.

...It's going to be hard for Death to top that!

Death can fly. Or give him the power to steal men's souls to empower himself or something.

Well, I can see a few paths to go.

One is that Death can "kill" powers temporarily. Or abilities. Possibly even senses. Imagine if the players suddenly lose access to their powers because they got locked by Death. Or, on the other hand, if Death's lackeys could fight indefinitely because he removed their ability to feel pain. You'd have to work out limits to this (have it work against someone only for a number of rounds per day, or it can only be active on one person at a time, or something like that), but it fits thematically.

Another is that the other three lead to Death... so Death can use the powers of the other three Horsemen. Maybe not quite as well - either with diminished effect or not all of the abilities.

One other that I can think of is total environment control - if this all takes place in the afterlife, you're in the domain of Death. Within that realm, he could very well be a Reality Warper.

You could go the Barragan route and give him the ability to decay everything to dust and ashes, even the characters' attacks/weapons. That's a bit overpowered though.

There's also the "Death of Hope" route, whereby the character is able to knock his enemies unconscious or at least severely weaken them through his mere presence or force of will. He is Death, The End, ever advancing and never truly defeated. The PCs may be strong, but he is beyond strength.

Death's attacks can not be defended against. Parries do nothing as the weapon phases through. Dodges do nothing as cuts appear on the victim anyway. Armor Is Useless. Shields Are Useless. Damage reduction does nothing. AC does nothing. The Googles Do Nothing. Healing and Regeneration don't work properly or at all. You are going to die and there's nothing you can do about it.

edited 15th May '14 3:10:30 PM by Belisaurius

Exactly. If he's supposed to be Death, he should be like the Lady of Pain; no stats, no encounters, no chance in hell. If you see him coming, RUN! Run as fast as you can, and as far as you can, put as many doors between him and you as possible, and pray to GOD he didn't see you.

edited 15th May '14 6:25:33 PM by maxwellelvis

I rather like the ideas so far, I have to admit. I'll have to give it plenty of thought, but I'd certainly like for the enemy to be something they *can* fight, however.

Note, I said you couldn't defend against it, not that it was an insta kill. You can moderate the difficulty by modifying the damage dealt.

Instead of giving death a number of HP, instead have their attacks do various negative effects, such as slow him down, knock aside his scythe to make him lose an attack, etc. Make it perfectly clear that they're not doing any actual damage to him, but stronger attacks do weaken him in a better manner. That way, you can actually run a fighting retreat, as the party tries to avoid the inevitable.

Ah, so the goal isn't to kill death but rather render him incapable or unwilling to kill you.