For most adventurers in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, retirement looks like a quiet cottage, maybe a small keep, and an occasional local goblin pest control gig to stay limber. But in 1986, TSR decided that wasn’t enough. What if your Level 36 Fighter could become a god? What if your Magic User didn’t just cast Meteor Swarm, but commanded the fundamental forces of the multiverse? Enter the Dungeons & Dragons: Immortals Set the final, bonkers capstone of the BECMI boxed set series.

Authored by Frank Mentzer and released as the fifth and final boxed set in the BECMI line, the Immortals Set was the high fantasy equivalent of “retiring to become a cosmic CEO.” It invited players into a world where the stakes were metaphysical, the rules were rewritten, and the monsters had names like Entropy, Matter, and Thought.

So grab your epic character sheet, pour yourself a goblet of planar ichor, and let’s explore this cosmic oddity that dared to ask: What comes after Level 36?

BECMI Recap: How We Got Here

To understand the Immortals Set, you first have to understand the four boxed sets that led up to it:

• Basic Set: Levels 1–3. You fight kobolds in a basement and dream of one day affording plate mail.
• Expert Set: Levels 4–14. You explore the wilderness, fight dragons, maybe become a baron.
• Companion Set: Levels 15–25. You become nobility, lead armies, and wrestle dinosaurs.
• Master Set: Levels 26–36. You rule empires, battle demon lords, and ask “what’s next?”

That’s where the Immortals Set comes in. Once you hit Level 36, mortal adventuring just isn’t spicy enough anymore. You’ve slain every beast, ruled every kingdom, and your player notes now take up more pages than the Silmarillion. It’s time to ascend.

Ascension to Immortality: The Literal Endgame

In BECMI, immortality isn’t just a flavour concept. It’s a full on game mechanic. You don’t just retire a character; you elevate them to Immortal status. But before your character can punch the fabric of the cosmos, they have to pass a test. Literally a “Test of the Immortals.”

This isn’t a simple multiple choice quiz on divine etiquette. No, this is an epic, DM run adventure crafted to challenge every aspect of your character’s abilities, morality, and cunning. Fail, and your mortal character remains in the realm of pitiful kings and emperors. Succeed, and you take your place among the gods. Cue dramatic thunderclap.

New Stats, Who Dis?

Once you achieve Immortal status, your character sheet undergoes a radical transformation. Your character no longer gains experience points (XP). Instead, you accumulate Power Points, a sort of divine currency used to do everything from casting Immortal-level magic to influencing entire worlds.

Your standard six ability scores? Cute. Immortals now deal with Power, Hit, and Speed ratings abstract stats representing cosmic might, combat ability, and initiative on a multiversal scale. It’s like replacing your Toyota Camry with a sentient spaceship powered by faith and algebra.

Also, say goodbye to regular levels. Immortals advance in Ranks, from Initiate up to Hierarch. Each rank gives you more power and more responsibilities, which includes managing your own planes of existence. Yes, you get your own pocket dimension. And no, you don’t get to fill it with infinite ale and talking dragons unless that aligns with your Spheres.

Spheres of Power: Divine Cliques

Immortals don’t just run around doing god stuff willy nilly. They must choose a Sphere of Power, which basically functions like a divine major in college. These are:

• Matter: You like stability, creation, and physical form. You are the cosmic equivalent of an urban planner.
• Energy: You’re into change, dynamism, and lighting things on fire (constructively).
• Time: You manipulate the past, future, and sometimes even time travel to prank mortals.
• Thought: You love ideas, knowledge, and philosophy. Basically, you’re the smart kid in the divine lunchroom.
• Entropy: You’re into decay, destruction, and cosmic goth aesthetics. Welcome to the dark side we have anti matter cookies.

Each Sphere has its own goals, responsibilities, and portfolio of powers. You don’t just choose one; you must prove yourself worthy of it. And switching Spheres later? That’s as politically fraught as switching allegiances in a soap opera set in heaven.

Immortal Magic: When Fireball is Child’s Play

Immortal spellcasting is no mere matter of memorizing Magic Missile. The Immortals Set introduces Immortal Magic, which is far more powerful and customizable than mortal spellcasting.

Spells can be designed from scratch using effects, durations, areas of effect, and power point costs. Think of it like building your own custom spells with divine Legos. Want to summon a continent made of glass? Sure. Want to age an entire civilization into dust? Just don’t forget to balance the cost with your power budget.

Oh, and clerics are out. All Immortals are effectively magic users now. Yes, even your axe wielding fighter-turned-god can cook up a good Create Cosmic Rift spell.

Epic Conflicts: Godfights and Cosmic Bureaucracy

You’d think that as an Immortal, life would be all wine, roses, and being worshipped by sentient volcanoes. But no divine life is riddled with politics, rivalries, and interdimensional paperwork.

The multiverse is divided into planes, and planes are ruled by Immortals of various ranks and alignments. There are laws to follow, Spheres to appease, and mortals to watch over. And yes, you can still fight things like rogue Immortals, abstract embodiments of chaos, or entire rival pantheons. You can also manipulate mortals like chess pieces in long term cosmic games. Sometimes the gods are just really bored.

And let’s not forget The Council of Hierarchs, the ruling body of the Immortals. They handle big picture stuff like maintaining cosmic balance and organizing divine bake sales. Step out of line, and they might de ascend you. Nobody wants to go from godhood back to scrapping with orcs in a forest.

Rules for a Divine Game Master

The Immortals Set also includes extensive advice for Dungeon Masters willing (or foolish enough) to run Immortal level campaigns. You’ll find:

• Guidelines for Cosmic Creation: Want your players to make their own planes, complete with physical laws? There’s a table for that.
• Immortal NPCs: Think Zeus, but with spreadsheets.
• Immortal Monsters: Entities like the Nightwing (a 36 HD horror from the Negative Material Plane) or beings composed of raw entropy.
• Divine Politics: Because nothing says fun like a trial in front of a celestial tribunal over who started the last planar war.

Running Immortal campaigns requires a deft hand. You’re balancing universe shaking events with players who might be one bad roll away from annihilating a city. Or creating a new religion. Or both.

The Art and Aesthetic: 80s Gods in Spandex

The Immortals Set is gloriously 1980s in its presentation. The cover art by Larry Elmore depicts a dramatic, muscular Immortal locked in battle with a glowing blue space lizard thing, and it perfectly captures the cosmic fantasy vibe TSR was going for.

Inside, the books are filled with clean layouts, bold headers, and delightfully overwrought language. Everything feels BIG because it has to be. This isn’t dungeon crawling anymore. This is planar crawling. With style.

Also included are new character sheets, Immortal level spell lists, monster stat blocks, and a whole lot of tables. Because what’s godhood without some crunchy math?

The End of the Line

The Immortals Set marked the grand finale of the BECMI series. It was TSR’s ultimate answer to the question, “What happens when my character gets too powerful for the game?” And instead of nerfing that power or ending the game, they said, “Let’s make a whole new one.”

However, it was also the beginning of the end for the BECMI line as we knew it. With AD&D 2nd Edition on the horizon and TSR shifting priorities, the Immortals rules were rarely revisited. Later editions of D&D would nod toward epic play and demigods (see Deities & Demigods or Epic Level Handbook), but never again would godhood be a mechanically integrated part of character progression like it was in BECMI.

Why It Still Matters

Despite being a product of its time layered with crunchy mechanics and over-the-top cosmology the Immortals Set is a testament to the sheer ambition of early D&D design. It was weird, wild, and genuinely awe inspiring. It dared to imagine what lay beyond “endgame” and built a whole new game on top of it.

Today, it serves as a fascinating design relic and a sandbox of ideas for DMs looking to run campaigns at the highest of high levels. Want to explore divine ascension? Want players to reshape reality itself? The Immortals Set is still the blueprint.

Just be ready to break out the graph paper. And maybe a physics textbook.

Final Thoughts: All-Powerful and Still Late to Meetings

The Dungeons & Dragons: Immortals Set (1986) is the ultimate “hold my beer” moment in table top design. It says, “You’ve conquered the world now try the cosmos.” It’s the ruleset where your Fighter becomes a force of entropy, your Thief rewrites the laws of time, and your Magic User finally gets to say, “I told you so.”

But even with all that power, you’ll still have to deal with immortal audits, divine regulations, and the ever looming risk that another player god might turn your realm into a giant gelatinous cube just to make a point.

Godhood, it turns out, is just a higher stakes game of who brought the best snacks to the table.

And isn’t that what D&D’s all about?