[Cerek the Barbaric]

Well, Luvian, I'm going to have to disagree with you on one point.

It is not IMPOSSIBLE to kill a god in AD&D (especially in avatar form). Admittedly, the chances of defeating a god on their home plane should be infinitely tiny (maybe a 1 in 100,000 chance), but it could technically be done.

I had a dwarf fighter that embarked on a self-imposed quest to kill Grolantar (the Hill God giant and a perpetual racial enemy to dwarves). His goal was to achieve Sainthood as described in one of the "Best of Dragon" magazines.

His quest was successful for a number of reasons.
1) I had a POWERFUL party to back me up (about 6 characters....all over 20th level).
2) The dwarf had the Ring of Gaxx and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords to aid him (he actually began the initial phase of the Quest when he received the Axe).
3) I received a special blessing directly from my diety, Clangeddin Silverbeard, to aid in the final battle.
4) I had a very lenient DM.

To be honost, I probably would NOT have allowed the victory if I were the DM. But my dwarf had decided that he would either win great honor for his diety or go out in a blaze of glory.

Fantasy and mythology works are filled with stories of mortals challenging the gods themselves. As you said, it's very rare that they succeed, but there is just the slimmest of chances that they could.

And most novels - especially those set in Forgotten Realms and Krynn - DO follow AD&D rules.

The entire Dragonlance series was ROLEPLAYED by Weiss, Hickman, and thier friends. That's why the characters sometimes do unexpected things...because that's how it happened in the game.

For example, the authors admitted that Raistlin was originally a very weak character. Then - in one of the gaming session shortly after changing alignments - the PLAYER used the low, raspy whisper that suddenly made the character seem MUCH more menacing. Weiss and Hickman said that they would NEVER have thought to do that with Raistlin on their own.

Well anyway, I agree with you in theory...it SHOULD be ALMOST completely impossible for a PnP character to defeat a diety....but that's the beauty of PnP...sometimes, you CAN do the impossible.