Karsus

Dungeons & Dragons · Tabletop · Immortal Demigod, Netherese Arcanist

Archwizard of Netheril

Tier
HIGH 6-A, up to 2-A
Attack Potency
Multi-Continent Level, up to Multiverse Level+
Speed
Relativistic+, up to Infinite
Durability
Multi-Continent Level, up to Multiverse Level+

Vestige

Tier
HIGH 6-A, up to 2-A
Attack Potency
Multi-Continent Level, up to Multiverse Level+
Speed
Immobile, up to Ftl+
Durability
Multi-Continent Level, up to Multiverse Level+

Powers and abilities

  • Superhuman Physical Characteristics
  • Reality Warping
  • Magic (All magic is done by manipulating the Weave, a multiversal construct and deity)
  • Non-Physical Interaction (Magic can interact with intangible, incorporeal, abstract, and totally nonexistent foes, and strike creatures across the many planes of existence to hit all of their personages at once)
  • Gravity Manipulation
  • Physics Manipulation (Through the magic of his Mythallar, Karsus created impossible architecture that defied all normal laws of gravity and physics; His other magic allows him to reverse gravity on a whim, or reduce its effects on him)
  • Power Bestowal (His heavy magic was a tangible arcane essence that could be applied to an object to grant it magical effects; Karsus, unlike many Netheril magi, is capable of creating permanent magical items through the use of Enchant Item, bestowing upon them a great deal of power)
  • Accelerated Development (Instinctively learns new spells and learned by the age of two what it took other hyper-intelligent arcanists to learn by the age of 18)
  • Absorption
  • Soul Manipulation
  • Necromancy (His Heavy Magic is capable of, regardless of the spells used on it, absorbing vast amounts of magical energy from other targets- and, in the void of that, souls, instantly killing the creature and raising them as an appropriate undead; Sadebreth's Undead Control allows him to wrest control of any undead away from them or whoever is currently controlling them; He can cast Volhm's Drain, which annihilates the soul and body of the target until dead, and makes Karsus a conduit directly into the Negative Energy Plane)
  • Power Modification (The use of Heavy Magic altered how spells functioned, causing them to interact with the environment in unique ways; Karsus can cast Permanency, which changes the duration of the affected spell effect to permanent)
  • Illusion Creation (Has access to spells such as an advanced form of hallucinatory terrain, which can paint the environment as a sort of dream-realm; He used Heavy Magic to create a museum comprised effectively of arcane holograms depicting the entire history of Netheril; Karsus' illusions, suffice to say, are extremely diverse in function)
  • Power Nullification (Volhm's Drain was capable of directly countering the arcane power of his entire city, causing it to plummet to the ground as it counteracted the magical power of his mythallar; Capable of casting Antimagic Shell, which negates all incoming magical effects; Can deliberately end hostile ongoing magic effects with Dispel Magic)
  • Air Manipulation
  • Flight (Tolodine's gust of wind was capable of levitating his entire city when spread across it properly; Also capable of casting Tolodine's Wind Wall, which deflects physical projectiles; Stoca's Wings allows him to fly, although does not explicitly mention the presence of actual, physical wings)
  • BFR
  • Matter Manipulation (When battling an army of fiends, he made liberal use of spells such as Aksa's Disintegrate and Oberon's Dismissal; the former reduces a target to dust, while the latter returns a target to their home plane of existence- or, alternatively, to a pocket reality briefly; The leading theory to the disappearance of the city of Doubloon was that Karsus banished it to a fiendish plane)
  • Law Manipulation (When Karsus cast his Avatar spell, he managed to, very briefly, use the powers of Mystryl to alter the laws of magic- the only immediate effect this had was doubling the duration of magical effects, however the extent to which he would have changed it is unknown)
  • Earth Manipulation (Implied that the use of Karsus' Avatar was affecting the earth badly enough to spawn a supervolcano that practically immediately destroyed the city of Harborage)
  • Biological Manipulation (A number of magical mutants were born by indirect exposure to Karsus' Heavy Magic)
  • Energy Manipulation (Karsus controlled not one, but two mythallar, magical artifacts capable of directly harnessing energy from the Weave; Through the use of carefully placed mirrors, Karsus could well have exponentially increased the magical output of his Mythallar, such that it would passively destroy his entire city in an instant)
  • Social Influencing (His showiness with his magic caused him to be considered greater than even Ioulaum in the eyes of the Netherese people)
  • Preparation (He had organized a network of spies in the past, and spent many years perfecting even just a single spell; His important buildings were, by Netherese reckoning, effectively impossible to breach by any means, as they were warded against every possible spell effect)
  • Disease Manipulation (The first time someone is exposed to Heavy Magic, they experience a wave of incapacitating nausea; With Lucke's Contagion, Karsus can weave diseases upon his enemies)
  • Portal Creation (The facilities on his city maintain portals to other planes when convenient- for example, his food freezing facilities simply keep portals to the Elemental Plane of Ice open to maintain temperatures; Via Phase Door, he can create a portal only he can see and access)
  • Forcefield Creation (As a Mentalist, he would know Lefeber's Weave Mythal, which allows one to shield a Mythallar to prevent access and seal the energy within; M' dahl's Missile Shield protects the user from all physical projectiles, completely negating the threat of them)
  • Fear Manipulation (The power of Trebbe's Weird is so great that it paralyzes a target with fear, even if they successfully resist; Carbury's Killer is an illusion capable of killing those who see it out of sheer terror)
  • Resistance Negation (Some of his magical effects, such as that from Trebbe's Weird, cannot possibly be resisted)
  • Creation (The effects of Trebbe's Weird are, for all intents and purposes, very real to those who fall victim to the illusion- they must battle that which they fear the most and can die from the endeavor)
  • Teleportation (His version of the Succor spell ought to be superior to the weakened post-Netheril version, which itself can be used to instantly teleport to and from his home; He can teleport anywhere in the universe without error and may do so with other lesser spells for shorter distances, such as Oberon's Extradoor; Finally, spells such as Oberon's Blinking allow rapid-fire teleportation, occurring to random locations to cause attacks to automatically miss while the wizard barrages targets with their own attacks)
  • Sealing (The Imprisonment spell uses magic to permanently seal a target away within the heart of the world; Repulsion forces targets out of a small specified area, and prevents them from re-entering it)
  • Time Manipulation (Imprisonment's secondary effect is placing the target in a permanent temporal stasis until freed by some outside party; He can cast Quantoul's Slowmorph, which causes time to slow down around one target, making them half as fast as they normally would be; Can stop time in a limited area, or lock targets into a temporal stasis permanently)
  • Precognition (Foresight offers prior knowledge of all sources of danger coming to the wizard, allowing him to act accordingly)
  • Perception Manipulation (Via the use of Berthot's Screen, Karsus can dictate what can and cannot be detected by outside sources such as divination magic)
  • Mind Manipulation (Through Kutson's Mind Blank, Karsus can render himself immune to any form of mental manipulation, clearing such effects instantly; he also has access to Keonid's Charm Plus, which can mentally control a great number of enemies all at once; Feeblemind reduces a target's intellect to nothing, reducing them to animalistic levels)
  • Clairvoyance (Vision allows Karsus to get answers to any question in the form of visions sent by a deity; Zahn's Hearing and Zahn's Seeing, later dubbed Clairvoyance and Clairaudience, allowed remote viewing of any given location named upon casting the spell)
  • Attack Reflection (Trebbe's Turning allows Karsus to return any given spell effect back at its caster; Niquie's Reflection, nowadays know simply as Gaze Reflection, reflects all sight-based abilities back at their user automatically)
  • Duplication (Karsus can create copies of himself- although they are weaker in certain respects, they maintain his ability to cast spells and remain under his direct control; Karsus can create clones of himself that will become active upon his own death)
  • Status Effect Inducement (Xanad's Stun is an improved form of Power Word Stun, and allows Karsus to use Truename magic to force a creature to become stunned, regardless of resistance)

Weaknesses

He openly admits to his primary crime being his hubris, such that he underestimates the danger of new knowledge

Ranked tied for #28 of 704 in Dungeons & Dragons by strength.

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