Crouching Ranger, Hidden Fiend?


Shackled City Adventure Path


To make a long story short, in my campaign Nabthatoron survived the siege of Vaprak's Voice and now we are beginning Strike on Shatterhorn and I want to bring Nabthatoron back as an Advanced Glabrezu/Fiend of Possession 6 from the Fiend Folio. Unfortunately, the resident leader of my adventuring party (THE Ironguard) is a ranger 4/ cleric 6/ knight of the chalice 8, by the name of Ezekiel Hellbane. My dilemma is this, I want Nabthatoron to possess Zeke's precious greatsword "the Hunter of the Pit" with his Possession ability and lay dormant so Zeke will become easier to possess later on, however Zeke has a feat from the Book of Exalted Deed called "Nemesis" which allows him to detect his favored enemy (evil outsiders) within 60ft. without actually seeing them. The Fiend of Possesion prestige class has a special ability which lets them make a special hide check to avoid detection from certain spells or effects with a DC equal to the spells save DC but it says noyhing about feats. Should I give Zeke a normal spot check to notice Nabthatoron possessing his greatsword? Is "Nemesis" effective while sleeping? If Nabtha-
toron was under the effect of an "Undetectable Alignment" spell would a feat that detects EVIL outsiders still work?

PS: any input would be helpful the Sage is a busy man indeed!
if you have the book of exalted deed or the fiend folio please reference them and tell me what you think.


really like your idea. I've done something similar in a planescape campaign. There was an adventure called fires of Dis that works on the same premises. A Paladin's holy sword is stolen. The PC's are sent to Baator to retrieve it. Uppon presenting it to the Paladin, it turns out to have been posessed by a fiend. A very memorable game that was!

Concerning your questions:
Your player chose a feat that isn't likely to see much real use. He could have taken any combat oriented feat and would have probably seen much more use from it. So when an opertunity presents itself, you should allow Zeke to attempt to notice the fiend. Of course, it doesn't have to be easy. I'd say the DC is equal to a detect (animals/ plants/ chaos/ evil/ good/ maigic) spell (DC 11+wis modifier), Which Nabatharon can easily beat most of the time.
I'm not use if I'd use a spot check, as you suggest. The (meta-gaming) reason is that if you use a spot check, the chance your player detects the fiend is a lot higher that if a paladin of equal level attempts the same. And that doesn't really makes sense.
As for the undetectable alignment issue: If your player chose a different favoured enemy (say oozes), and they had an undetectable alignment cast on themselves, would Nemisis be affected? It’s still an ooze right? The same should go for evil outsiders.


Chef's Slaad wrote:
As for the undetectable alignment issue: If your player chose a different favoured enemy (say oozes), and they had an undetectable alignment cast on themselves, would Nemisis be affected? It’s still an ooze right? The same should go for evil outsiders.

I assume Nemesis would still apply. Favored enemy (evil outsiders) implies that the person is familiar with the evil outsider races, not the circumstances of particular individuals. It would apply even to a redeemed devil, but wouldn't apply to a fallen deva.


Chef's Slaad wrote:


Concerning your questions:
Your player chose a feat that isn't likely to see much real use. He could have taken any combat oriented feat and would have probably seen much more use from it.

No offense Chef, but are we playing the same AP? To my best recollection there are at least 25 evil outsiders during the course of the Shackled City Campaign! It wouldn't be so bad,

but every time I want to catch the jump on the party, Zeke
detects an evil outsider and then the party fortifies its position in preparation for a buff session! In short I think
Nemesis has benefited Zeke and the Ironguard much more than any
combat feat. But your input is greatly appreciated thanks for
your opinion.


Jaycen Keenword wrote:


No offense Chef, but are we playing the same AP? To my best recollection there are at least 25 evil outsiders during the course of the Shackled City Campaign! It wouldn't be so bad, but every time I want to catch the jump on the party, Zeke
detects an evil outsider and then the party fortifies its position in preparation for a buff session! In short I think Nemesis has benefited Zeke and the Ironguard much more than any
combat feat.

Yeah, but how many of those outsiders are in 'kick-in-the-door-and-kill-whatever's-behind-it' scenes? There aren't that many real surprises. Maybe 2 or 3 in the entire AP (as written anyway). And that's when the feat is at its most usefull. And even if it has seen a lot of use, how is it any better than the Paladin's detect evil ability?

Take the meeting at the Rivaldi house in Lords of Oblivion. It's pretty clear who's an evil outsider and who's not. You don't need a feat to detect them. Or take Cacuphon (sp?) in Test of the Smoking eye. Sure he's an evil outsider, but the adventure has a special contingency to deal with the party detecting that. How is having the Nemisis feat going to help o'le Zeke there?

Still, if you feel the feat is unbalancing your game, you're completely within your right to tone down the feat's usefullness.

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