While in the past rakshasa have been specifically vulnerable to "blessed bolts" in this edition the weakness is a little broader.
The beastiary rakshasa has DR15/ good and piercing. Meaning that every hit will be reduced by 15 points of damage unless you attack with a piercing weapon that is also good aligned. Blessed crossbow bolts are one example of such a weapon, but so is a holy lance.
Getting a weapon to be good aligned as a ranger can come from the align weapon spell, or getting bolts with the holy property.
Putting a few construction points on your luggage might help if you are willing to spring for the extra cost. This is needed if you are making it out of anything other than standard wood.
Ladies, Gentlemen, and World Cruching Monstrosities. The solution to this matter is quite simple. The key is, once the tarrasque has been killed, before it regenerates, cast animate dead on the corpse to turn it into a skeleton. This requires a caster level of 15, and a 750gp onyx gem. The skeleton template removes all defensive abilities, and all special qualities that are not Ex abilities that improve melee or ranged attacks. The tarrasque now is dead and no longer has regeneration.
That is correct. both caster and archer gain benefit from a fly speed. Druids, less so due to wildshape + natural spell being an option already. But a ranged weapon can let you plink foes in your off turns, as druids don't start with alot of spells. Wind subdomain would benefit from air affinity, but if you don't choose it, breeze kissed is a good trade to get a useful racial feature.
Trade Air affinity for breeze kissed unless you want air domain. Work airy step and wings of air into your build to get a fly speed and more air based resistances.
Archery builds will benefit.
Carved horn ivory, or sandstone would make for good holy symbols.
Birthmark makes your body a divine focus and it's a faith trait.
Not as sure on non-racial traits, but beast of the society is decent for a wildshaper if your dm will let it fly. Reactionary is a favorite for all builds, Birthmark gives a built in holy symbol. then i would recommend whatever gets you a new class skill you want.
147 Anatomist Sketchbook
The pages of this artist's sketchbook are high quality rag paper, bound in soft leather, with the contents written and drawn by silver point stylus. The first section contains several artistic studies, including some tasteful nudes, and a few picturesque landscapes. The middle section is a set of highly accurate anatomical drawings and dissections of the humanoid form, annotated in detail. The end pages are filled with strange geometric diagrams, hieroglyphs and arcane formulas.
The book gives a +2 bonus to Heal checks if the reader takes 1d4 minutes to consult the diagrams. Furthermore, A mage who makes a sucessfull spellcraft check DC:28 can use the information in the book to construct a flesh golem of medium size as if he or she had the Craft Construct feat, and make it look like a living humanoid.
Anatomist Flesh Golem CR5:
N Medium Construct
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0
Defense
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (+1 Dex, +7 Natural Armor)
hp 53 (6d10+20)
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +2
Defensive Abilities:
DR 5/Adameantine; Immune Construct traits, Magic
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +10 (1d8+4)
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 12, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 21
Special Attacks: Beserk
Special Abilities:
Berserk: When a flesh golem enters combat, there is a cumulative 1% chance each round that its elemental spirit breaks free and the golem goes berserk. The uncontrolled golem goes on a rampage, attacking the nearest living creature or smashing some object smaller than itself if no creature is within reach, then moving on to spread more destruction. The golem's creator, if within 60 feet, can try to regain control by speaking firmly and persuasively to the golem, which requires a DC 19 Charisma check. It takes 1 minute of inactivity by the golem to reset the golem's berserk chance to 0%.
Immunity to Magic: A flesh golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.
A magical attack that deals cold or fire damage slows a flesh golem (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds (no save).
A magical attack that deals electricity damage breaks any slow effect on the golem and heals 1 point of damage for every 3 points of damage the attack would otherwise deal. If the amount of healing would cause the golem to exceed its full normal hit points, it gains any excess as temporary hit points. A flesh golem gets no saving throw against attacks that deal electricity damage.
Uncanny Likeness: An Anatomist flesh golem looks like a medium humanoid. It takes a DC 25 perception check to discern the golems nonliving nature by sight. The Anatomist Flesh Golem still cannot speak.
143 The Immaterial World
This rather hefty tome details at length the philosophical theories of an ancient illusionist. His "immaterialist" theory is that all of existence is an elaborate illusion projected directly to the non-corporeal mind. The work cites several magical examples such as the phantasm subschool and in particular the effect of phantasmal killer as proving that sensation is reality. The last chapters detail the workings of spells the author claims he has devised to further prove the illusory nature of existance. The spells detailed are the shadow illusion subschool, Shadow Conjuration, and Shadow Evocation.
Well, if blackfire adept counts, i figured Riftwarden would too. Their two of a kind. Neither seems really worth it to me. Giving up spell progression on a pure caster build is just distasteful.
I missed that someone brought up the Arcanist, but i kind of like it.
Hemothurge isn't evil really.
I think what abjurers need is more spells in their school. And conjuration needs to give some back. Like all of the healing spells. Mae armor should be abjuration too. A new set of abjurations would be a good forum project.
If you just use the claws, Two attacks. You will never get more. If you mix with a weapon, add 1 claw attack at -5 to the usual one handed weapon routine.
If you use a glaive, no claw attacks at all. Your hands are occupied.
I always thought Eldrich Heritage: Aquatic gives a very Deep One transphormation.
But I feel like a proper Lovecraft dungeon could benefit from some classic Conan. Howard was a contemporary of Lovecraft, so they influenced each other. Try reading "The Scarlet Citadel" for a very Lovecraftian fantasy dungeon.
Furthermore: Demon summoning is a decent basis for any freaky cult. And you KNOW you want a freaky cult to populate your world. The Book of the Damned Vol 2 is a good resource for some twisted stuff. Try snagging some rituals or the Demon Body Part items.
What about an archer cleric of Erastil? Definitely something to do without giving tying you up in melee, so you can still drop spells or channels when called for.
If I might suggest a Devil based encounter similar to Ashiels Demon Horde
this one weighing in at CR 15 and designed to take the fight to the airship, and maybe even steal it.
CR15 Flying Devil Host 51,200 Xp:
1 Heresy Devil (Book of the Damned 1) (CR 12) 19,200 Xp
4 Erinyes (CR 8) 16,800 Xp
1 Barbed Devil (CR 11) 12,800 Xp
All the Devils open combat by spamming summons as a screen to the others, the Heresy Devil doubles summon chances for close allies, making it a sure thing that 8 Barbed Devils get dropped on the deck to mix it up with the party. In addition, The Heresy devil himself can possibly bring in a couple bone devils.
If they arrive, the bone devils arrive they can use at-will dim anchor and wall of ice to carve up the battlefield and separate allies. All the devils teleport at will, so they can escape with little trouble. They can remain invisible when doing so, or just wade into melee to assist the troops, using quickened invisibility for surprise attacks.
The Heresy Devil himself hangs back and uses his spell like abilities to make the parties life hell, leading with summons and then using telekinesis to steal weapons or hurl characters around, or off the railing.
The Barbed devil must teleport in, or be carried by the Erinyes onto the deck, but he uses the support of the summons to single out non-flying foes to impale and then toss them over the side. Even if falling damage does not hurt, they're effectively out of the fight unless they can teleport or the wizard hits them with a fly spell. With a bit of luck, or a moment with the Boss, he could bring in a second of is ilk.
Erinyes can shoot powerful ranged attacks, span Unholy Blight at will, or use ropes to entangle. The ropes could help drag people off the deck, but i forget the exact mechanic for that. Anyway, they act as superb harassment, staying out of reach of the deck and focusing down archers or the wizard if they cause trouble.
End game goal is that the party might lose control of the battle and be kicked out of their base. This doesn't even take into account the devil's gear allotment, which is considerable (and triple on the Erinyes).
There is also "Clinical Lycanthropy" a mental disorder where the minds ability to perceive the body's shape is deficient. The sufferer will feel as if their body is changing into strange shapes. In japan, it is often reported that they feel they are turning into a fox, as cultural background shapes ones interpretation of the symptoms.
Okay, on the Charisma, open up your bestiary to the nastiest high charisma undead you can find, and show the picture. Wait one round (six seconds irl) then repeat your previous explanation.
Point out that if you don't train a skill, youre not good in the skill.
Then let him play, he will take the advice... or not.
Try to get some acid resistance. Sorceror bloodlines get that, but for you , i recomend digging into the past of Paizo with the feat
Indigestible
Pre-req: Favored Enemy: Ooze, or survive being engulfed by an ooze
Benefit: Gain Resist Acid 5
It should increase the CR, but for the rest, see how much the rest of the finished creature differs from the Red of the same age. Size, breath weapon, and stats are all weaker. +1 sounds good to me.
