Trace, thank you for posting that link for the companions of the hall.
Byrdology is correct, Forgotten Realms 3.0? (or was it 3.5) had twin weapon style but I think it was for Drow characters only, or maybe Drow and natives of Waterdeep but I'm not sure.
+3 plate, +3 keen greataxe, amulet of natural armor +2
gauntlets of ogre power (str 18?)
periapt of wound closure, potion of cure serious wounds,
potion of heroism
After reading all the books, I pictured Bruenor with a shield in one hand and a dwarven battle axe (1 handed exotic weapon) in the other.
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I fully realize that as undead I probably smell like dead flesh, but there is nothing in the bestiary that says zombies, juju zombies or other undead suffer any stealth penalties for their stench. Thus I don't see any need for gentle repose. Zombies don't slowly turn into skeletons so I'm not worried about my flesh falling off.
I believe the DM is keeping the "why" I am undead as a secret for now. That's fine. I'm sure he has a story element to it down the road. I'm probably cursed. Only he knows. The chance to play an undead monk in an evil pirate campaign just sounded like too much fun when he offered it to me.
I am worried about the lack of hit points. We did discuss that undead are normally destroyed at zero (0) hit points. The DM says he has plan for that and I shouldn't worry. Maybe the "curse" provides a way around that issue. I can still die (again) and I certainly feel vulnerable.
I am considering some sort of charisma boosting item to help with my HPs. I'd hate to pass on raising my wisdom since wisdom boosts my ki pool and my AC.
You're right that being undead provides plenty of advantages, especially in this pirate campaign. Right now the DM is imposing a one level penalty to make sure I don't become overpowered.
Trying to use disguise and bluff are not going to work because my charisma is so low.
here are my stats. I'm happy with them. I think they're probably too good for a level 3 character. Keep in mind that in addition to the undead traits, I also gained +3 natural armor, +4 strength, +2 dex, and the rest of the juju zombie template including the toughness feat and improved initiative feat (pretty sweet for a melee character like myself).
At level 3 my hit points are currently: 21
Everyone else in the party is level 4 and has 40-50 HPs
hit point breakdown:
monk d8: 8
cha penalty: -3
favored class: +1
toughness: +1
total: 7 hp per level x 3 = 21
Note: the DM is experimenting with HPs and giving all the PCs max hit points at every level. Basically the concept is that if the PCs have more HPs he can beat on us harder ( and I think most of the bad guys might have max hps too but that just makes combat longer).
Right now my thought is crank up my armor class so I don't get hit and thus the lack of HPs won't hurt so bad.
My armor class is 23, pretty good for a level 3 character.
+1 bracers of armor
+4 for wisdom bonus (monk)
+4 dex
+1 dodge
+3 natural armor
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10 base
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23 armor class
One of the posters suggested I use poisons, but I'm not sure how that would really work for me as a monk.
I've got some ideas. For example, when I can afford it, getting a 'hat of disguise' for those times I might be around people (in port?) that are not part of my crew.
by a strange twist of fate (a.k.a. DM fiat) my previously dead PC is now back as an undead PC (juju zombie template).
It wasn't my idea but something the DM came up with.
We're both excited to see how this unexpected change will work... I've got some cool ideas on how to play him (btw, he's a monk). We are in the Skulls & Shackles campaign, which helps mitigate most of any potential alignment issues of being undead.
As a balancing factor, I will always be one level behind the rest of the party and at the moment, my hit points are about half the weakest PC. Why is that? good question. It's because I have a penalty to my charisma, which affects my hit points as an undead (and I'm a level behind).
SO.... this thread is just to see what the incredibly clever PRPG community can come up with on how to pimp out my undead monk to make him the biggest, baddest pirate the seas have ever seen.
Currently the PCs are level 4. My monk is level 3.
Got ideas on how to make him awesome? Then let's hear it.
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Our little game group, actually our awesome little gaming group, has several campaigns running at the same time. We definitely use WBL when a character dies and we need to bring in a new PC. However, we're pretty strict about keeping with the Pathfinder's gamemastering guidelines on not more than 25% on weapons, not more than 25% on armor, etc. As a DM i usually ask to see the gear list that the new character is bringing into the party.
There are exceptions. If there is a DM-created unique item, those tend to be very expensive and skew character wealth substantially.
!! Fun exercise... in my high-level campaign where all the PCs are level 17, they just lost all their gear. Seriously, they are all naked with only one item. I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses. I'm planning to start any new encounters low to watch how a lack of gear effects play. I know that eventually I'll get them back to a normal WBL.
oh my gosh, I know I'm late to the conversation here but this is ridiculous.
I just looked up a bear animal companion.
The bear is getting robbed!
the large cats get the special attacks (grab, rake, pounce) when they advance but bears do not get grab?
The wolf gets to advance from medium to large but the bears is stuck at medium???
This is not right!
looking on the boards, it seems the best answer was to just use the large cat stats and call it a bear (with maybe an adjustment to lower its dex) and add the grab ability.
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.I saw what James Jacobs said about how a "maze" spell works normally on an eidolon, but what happens if you use a "maze" spell on the summoner? Does the eidolon stay now that the summoner is in the maze's extradimensional space?
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.Question about Eidolons and magic.
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.Eidolons are a "summoned creature".
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.The rules concerning eidolons say that " The eidolon cannot be sent back to its home plane by means of "dispel magic".
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.Would a "mage's disjunction" (9th level spell) send the eidolon back to his home plane?
Or would he stay since mage's disjunction says " spells and spell-like effects are unraveled and destroyed completely (ending the effect as a dispel magic spell does)"
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.I am confused.
I thought a "mage's disjunction ended all spell effects and sent summoned creatures back home.
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.P.S. as a side note, we used to believe that when an eidolon went home that any gear it was wearing stayed here on the material plane. Yet we cannot find that in the rules anymore. Was that in the beta and has since been removed?
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.if you're building the dragon, then double his HPs and make sure he has the spell "fickle winds" to shut down those archers (either himself or a minion casting the spell).
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Personally, since "shapechange" is a 9th level spell, I would also suggest that the other polymorph spells like "monstrous physique" and the undead one, and the vermin shapes would also be permissible.
I vote that Paizo should errata this into "shapechange" abilities.
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my interpretation of the rules would suggest you could not have any walls blocking off where you want the designated landing spot for these intruding teleporters. There would need to be (some) open space from where they were teleporting into and where you direct them to.
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However, that doesn't necessary fit with the examples they gave below:
"Pathfinders of the Grand Lodge make use of permanent teleport traps in several key locations, trapping would-be intruders in a small wing of jail cells. At least one crypt of the Whispering Tyrant makes use of the spell as well, trapping grave robbers in coffin-sized stone cysts, there to die a slow and agonizing death from thirst and starvation."
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It seems like the intent of the spell does not match up with the RAW of the spell.
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.Everyone is wrong! (or maybe it's just me)
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So far every post I have read about this spell, the poster has misused used the spell.
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(I'm asking my players to stop reading here! Venom, Sparky, Cid!)
Using it wrong:
The spell I am talking about is "teleport trap".
According to Pathfinder rules the area you are redirecting any teleportation movement must be within the area of the spell:
"Teleport trap wards an area, redirecting all teleportation into or out of the area to a specific point within the area determined by you at the time of casting. The destination must be an open space on a solid surface."
So... you CAN NOT use teleport trap to redirect interlopers into the sun, the bottom of the lake, halfway around the world, etc.
It looks like you have to redirect any traffic into a specific spot within the 40-ft cube a level area specified in the "teleport trap" spell.
While this is helpful, I fail to see how that really stops a party of PCs. It merely slows them down for a round or two. (of course the defender will hopefully have something in the destination area to hinder/attack these intruders).
I am wrong here? Or can I use teleport trap to send unwanted teleport traffic somewhere outside of my castle?
I think you might be right. casting "spell immunity: silence" would only provide immunity from someone casting (targeting) silence on the protected player, not make them immune to a silence spell already in effect.
@mysterious stranger, Thank you! That looks like an excellent suggestion on how to solve this challenge.
@venomblade, i don't see how a level one "bless" spell will counter the higher-level "unhallow" spell. Besides, "bless" just provides +1 on attack rolls and a bonus to saves versus fear.
@Turin, I don't understand your comment about using the "Maze" spell. that could take the Barbarian out of the fight for quite a while. Most barbarians probably have a low intelligence score, meaning they would have to roll a "20" to get out of the Maze spell. I don't see how a targeted "dispel magic" would help the person inside the "maze" spell since they gone. The barbarian is physically in another plane. Are you suggesting the dispel would end the maze spell prematurely?
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.I am running a game and they PCs have reached the climatic fight where the BBEG sits inside an unhallowed area with a silence spell effect tied to it.
This has shut down any PC ability to speak or cast spells.
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.we have been discussing how would someone remove the unhallow effect without casting the natural opposite hallow (because casting hallow takes too long to work).
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After looking through the core book for spells, it seems like "break enchantment" is the best choice, but even break enchantment takes too long in a combat (one minute cast time).
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.Are there any other solutions to remove the unhallow effect?
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.Right now I am considering a little DM fiat and giving "greater dispel magic" a chance to work for the PCs.
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.The PCs have access to 8th level spells.
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.We did discuss the use of an anti-magic spell, but that's pretty extreme and has a very limited range and doesn't really help that much.
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.There were suggestions that amounted to just completely remove or damage the FLOOR through various spells, (casting from the entry way into the room). That is not a very desirable solution and arguably just scraping away the top layer of the floor doesn't necessarily remove the unhallow effect for the entire area.
So I am just wondering if we missed something in the Pathfinder system that would let the PCs bring down the unhallow effect.
(note: no PCs have the silent spell feat, no one has any silent meta magic rods, yet.)
P.S. Not sure if it matters but we are playing a Pathfinder game and the adventure is an older 3.5 module. The unhallow/silence dynamic was written in the book by the designers. The designers discussed how this is a tough challenge for the PCs to overcome.
campaign spoiler (what adventure we are playing):
This is a heavily modified Red Hand of Doom game for high-level PCs
I just want to say I've done the army of little guys before. It's fun. The PCs definitely get to shine. I just want to avoid having too many bad guys on the map since combat can slow down too much.
First and foremost I wanted to say, "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you" for all the wonderful suggestions.
Really, some of your ideas are great. Some are quite amusing. They're all fun.
For the record, I am familiar with Tucker's Kobolds. I read about them years ago and have read their story more than once.
The CHALLENGE I have is that we have an overpowered player in combination with an overpowered team of PCs and most of them are pretty smart players to boot.
Does a barbarian have poor will saves? Yes, until he starts raging.
He'll kill anything within reach within a round or two.
The party knows what his weaknesses are. That's why they normally cast True Seeing on him so eliminate pesky problems like invisibility or mirror image or concealment.
This level 16 barbarian and most of the party usually has mass fly, energy resist 30 (all of them) and fickle winds, and freedom of movement already cast if they know they are going into battle.
If I can surprise them, then things are fine and I get a few rounds before the buffs go up.
If the party knows they are going to fight, then the buffs make it almost impossible to slow down or impede these guys, especially the barbarian.
I definitely appreciate all the suggestions.
As I said in the beginning, the problem as the DM is to challenge the players, not kill them.
I like wave of exhaustion and maze but the maze spell just might be too mean. I still want everyone to have fun and if you're not in the fight, that's really frustrating.
@dunebugg, I had not looked at the DivineScion, that is interesting. I definitely like the extra weapon feats a Dscion would get.
@starbuck_II, what is a God blooded template? What books are you using for these?
@Arizhel, wow! that's a lot of work building those characters. Thank you! I'm worried the party would chew through them pretty quick. One critical hit from the barbarian's sword and that halfing is dead.
@Oterisk, Now you're getting into the spirit! Cool ideas. I'm going to have to consider some of these. I'm glad someone suggested an environmental hazard.
The idea of an NPC with Stockholm syndrome is very clever!
@Tandriniel, I like the idea of a dragon disciple. it's very thematic with the story. I've been wondering is someone would suggest alternative classes or a prestige class.
@Yosarian, you are so RIGHT about the real challenge being his one round of actions versus the party's round of actions. part of the challenge is trying to play a BBEG that's smart than I am. ;-)
@wraithstrike, I had not even considered a diviner. I do like the idea of him calling in friends. I just don't want there to be too many bad guys. the last several fights have been the party vs. small armies.
@Dilvias, love the details. and definitely the glyphs on the floor. Here's a rule question for you: if a PC is flying, how close would they have to be for the glyph to activate with a proximity trigger?
@Quath -- now that's an interesting idea. Can you really do that in the rules for those spells?
@Poldaran -- that's a clever idea, but would it really work with a caster spitting out weaker versions of another caster? My initial thought is that a weaker version would have less spell casting.
@Turin -- how does one go about building a
Spoiler:
a disjunction trap? I think the glyph ward spell only allows up to sixth level spells unless you're going with DM fiat
@wraithstrike, I would not add more than 10 in addition to Azarr.
@theDavid, that's an interesting idea, but do need to keep him a cleric.
BUT I am open to ideas on adding additional class levels. So let me know what you think.
the PCs typically prep for a big fight by casting:
(communal) energy resistance 30 (probably all of them),
freedom of movement,
fickle winds,
mass fly,
and a couple of them will have true seeing (usually the barbarian and the wizard)
I completely forgot, there are 7 PCs, the 7th one is a summoner with a tricked out, nigh indestructible gargantuan eidolon with six attacks. I can't believe I forgot him.
An epic fight is CR21? That's a joke! These PCs will crush anything that low.
yes, he DOES know they are coming. He will be prepared. Do you have suggestions on how he should be prepared aside from the normal buffs and resistances?
The dimensions of the fight area are up for grabs. I am open to suggestions. It has to be within a large, enclosed cavern.
See my original post on possibilities (add/adjust) list.
@Journ Very interesting idea, Journ! I might use that for another encounter down the road. creepy!
@Petty Alchemy your comment about multiple turns sounds a lot like some of the high level mythic abilities I heard/read about recently for the yet to be released mythic rules.
The BBEG knows A LOT about the PCs. He knows who they are. What class they are. What their normal attacks are, what spells they like to use.
There are (6) PCs, all level 16. That makes the Average Party Level (APL) of the party 17. However, they all have LOTS of gear and they are experienced plays. I would assume their APL is actually 18.
An EPIC encounter is APL +3 so that would be CR 21. Yet I already know these players can CRUSH a CR 21 encounter without more than a couple of scratches.
The PC wizard has 8th level spells. I think both the PC cleric and oracle has 8th level spells and the PC bard has 6th (max) level spells.
Armor class for the PCs is in the 40-to-50 range.
@Petty Alchemy, I know it would help but I am not going to provide the BBEG stats or sheet because that would be too much temptation for the players to look at it.
Just assume the High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul has really high stats wherever he needs them. He has access to almost any item/gear/spell.
The PCs have already fought plenty of summoned/gated help from hell. Azarr is a cleric of Tiamat. In this game Tiamat resides over the first layer of hell. Summoned/gated creature themes should be draconic or devilish.
I am looking for suggestions on creating a truly terrifying BBEG for a high-level campaign.
I'll provide some background and open it up for ideas.
My players should stop reading....now!
Campaign: I've taken the awesome Red Hand of Doom adventure and scaled it up significantly. The PCs are all currently level 16. The heroes are extremely powerful. Plenty of arcane casting, divine casting, and melee represented in the group. They have plenty of magic and items to support them. The PC group includes a barbarian, a cleric, an oracle of life, a mixed melee/casting dragon disciple, a bard, and a wizard.
Warning: spoilers ahead...
fight scenario:
Scenario:
The PCs are about to fight the High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul. He is a half-dragon hobgoblin and a high-level cleric. He knows the PCs are in his lair but they have yet to reach him in the final room. He is currently too busy with a complicated magical ritual to bother dealing with them and has left his minions to handle the PC invasion. Well now it's just Azarr and the PCs.
We have already had plenty of fights with dozens and dozens of bad guys. I do not want to crowd this last fight with too many adversaries. Azarr can have what's already in the room and maybe a little bit more (I am open to ideas here).
So, I have already done a lot of work on Azarr and possible tactics. I am asking for suggestions from the community.
Potential Adjustments to make this a truly memorable fight that lasts more than 3 rounds:
Add additional class levels to Azarr? if so, what and why?
Add additional minions/monsters in the room (not too many!)?
Add/adjust the layout and composition of the final room?
Add/adjust environmental hazards for this final fight?
Add/adjust Azarr's spell selection?
Add/adjust Azarr's magical item available for use against the PCs.
Am I missing anything else that would make this fight awesome?
Money is no object! Let's get crazy awesome.
*NOTE* If you're going to post, please do NOT hint at what happens after this fight.
I want that to stay secret.
