Thinking aloud: On the topic of the deification route.
1. Anyone know how many followers one needs for rank 1? Should be in Deities and Demigods, but I'm AFB.
2. There's also the divine proxy mechanics. Hmm. That's somewhat more restricting without the use of component-less ice assassin.
3. Exceptional petitioner mechanics might also work, though even more restricting.
I found the Divine Ranks rules here. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineRanksAndPowers.htm as you can clearly see rank one needs just over a hundred followers.
PH leadership rank 25 gives 165 followers.
Playing god has never been so easy
also this character is clearly a schemer, making planning a logical domain. Time stop at will anyone?
There is a difference between follower and worshiper. But yes, this is a nice clarification on what I would need to do. My current plan is to try for it, but keep it a long-term possibly campaign resolution kind of goal. Essentially just use it as an interesting thing to pursue if nothing else.
The biggest hurdle is resisting the urge to send your taint score into the stratosphere for bonus spells. Asking your DM for rules changes that mildly nerf your character (maximum taint caps?) tends never to be turned down IME...
We decided to basically halve the maximum taint values as a function of wis/con from the table. When you do that, it's really not THAT bad anymore. For a character with 16 wis/con, your save DCs can get pretty high (22+spell level), but it's not wtf broken. There are a couple of other factors which prevent this character from rofl-pwning all over the place (aside from my reluctance to do so).
Anyways, I talked at length to the DM on this matter. The following were decided:
1. Savage Species rituals to become a fiend are allowable. I don't think this is a very CO-friendly pathway, however.
2. Alienist PrC can be adapted such that upon transformation, one becomes a unique fiend (gaining outsider type). Basically replace everything pseudonatural with fiendish and tweak some flavor a little bit. This adaptation style was mentioned in CArc. Obviously for a fiendish transformation, the alignment predilection changes from chaos to law.
3. For some reason he seemed to be okay with the idea of Haunt Shifting an object. I think this is cheese to be avoided, personally.
4. Becoming undead was interpreted to mean that one's soul essentially soul energy is lost and replacing it with negative energy, thereby circumventing the problem of soul rendering somewhat. This solution preserves continuity of the mind, if done right, which is really the most basic goal my character has.
5. "Getting Religion" won't work with a pact certain, but would work with a pact insidious by his ruling.
6. It was agreed that under a pact certain I could purchase more time to exist by corrupting others. The idea here being that I might instigate and convince fellow mortals to sign Faustian pacts. Once they agree, my imp familiar would have the necessary means to complete and tender the transaction, with the credit going to the imp (for promotional purposes), but time credit would be added to my material existence in a straightforward manner, depending on the value of the soul ensnared.
7. The concept of becoming a deity was met with chuckles.
So my plan is as follows:
0. Sign a pact certain with the condition that I am guaranteed to be undisturbed by soul collectors until I run out of time. Time being X years, with additional time being added by getting others to sign pacts or getting them to be lawful evil. X years and how much time is added under what circumstances is something I've yet to fully formulate.
1. Take the alienist PrC starting at level 13 (I want to get 3 levels of tainted scholar for the lore ability, which as of my current build will require 2 more levels beyond 10). This puts me on track to enter the hierarchy by level 22. Kind of long term, I know, but it's the safe bet for now.
2. Plan B consists of becoming a necropolitan if I can't successfully meet my soul quota. The devils get my soul still, but my mind remains intact.
3. Uber long term plan consists of me attempting to set up a religion for myself, so that I can become a deity... at the conclusion of the campaign.
All those combined should let me function fairly normally as a character, depending on how time pressed the DM wants me to be. If I got to get a soul a week or something, it might not be terribly functional.