Hey Everyone!
So I’m doing a one-on-one game and I think I need the help of the Paizo community!
But first I’ll tell you about the Character and what I need your help with. This Character is the son of one of my other characters Vincent Von Drake who died at the hands of a champion of Fraya (sp?) with his swords which were created to destroy Mourning Blade Vincent’s Demon Sword. His adopted son Moon Von Drake was captured by a Necromancer before his death and after his death he was trained in the art of Necromancy for 18 years then he killed his kidnapping Master and now would like to create a undead army, get Mourning Blade remade, and bring his father back, but first make a lair, and that’s where I need your help! I want to make it the best lair ever! I was thinking about becoming an Undertaker and making the Lair under the Cemetery, but I don’t know so what’s your ideas? What should I do? should I have fountains of blood, and gold walls, or what????? I would really think you guys could create something awesome!!!
So lets hear it!
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I'm not sure I understand why you want the lair to be so fancy? If his motivation is in an army of undead and the raising of his father and fixing of the sword or whatnot, then wouldn't it be better to be more utilitarian and just have a hidden workshop? probly lots of bones lying around, potion shelves and scroll cases (maybe even a cabinet)? Notebooks? but i don't see fountains of blood or gold. not when he's startign out his necromancy. that sort of stuff i usually save for high leveled people who have allready established dominance in the area. necromancers starting out usually have to hide from other people. so a hidden workshop in a cemetary or a basement in an old house is probly your best bet.
(incidently, it would be best if you somehow found some way to use mind control magic and suggestion, since then you can find someone caring for a sick reletive, mind control them and kill the relative. no one will get suspicious from extra food being bought, and you can use almost the entire house with someone to run errands from you. hide in plain site. And since you're obviously evil (undead army?) there is nothing in this plan to violate your alignment. in fact, it enforces your alignment.)
I'm not sure I understand why you want the lair to be so fancy? If his motivation is in an army of undead and the raising of his father and fixing of the sword or whatnot, then wouldn't it be better to be more utilitarian and just have a hidden workshop? probly lots of bones lying around, potion shelves and scroll cases (maybe even a cabinet)? Notebooks? but i don't see fountains of blood or gold. not when he's startign out his necromancy. that sort of stuff i usually save for high leveled people who have allready established dominance in the area. necromancers starting out usually have to hide from other people. so a hidden workshop in a cemetary or a basement in an old house is probly your best bet.
Yeah I totally Understand that but I wont be able to even get the sword back till level 20, let alone my characters soul which is being fought over by two good Gods, so its going to be a long time coming and he has alot of people who want to kill him. So he needs a place where he can go where he is safe. Also he is a lawful character and wants order and he is a book binder going around from town to town coping every book on Souls, Gods, and Undead. and he keeps the the bodies of all the people he kills. He also is a very good Doctor. So he needs a big traped nice Liar, Home!!
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Yeah I totally Understand that but I wont be able to even get the sword back till level 20, let alone my characters soul which is being fought over by two good Gods, so its going to be a long time coming and he has alot of people who want to kill him. So he needs a place where he can go where he is safe. Also he is a lawful character and wants order and he is a book binder going around from town to town coping every book on Souls, Gods, and Undead. and he keeps the the bodies of all the people he kills. He also is a very good Doctor. So he needs a big traped nice Liar, Home!!
There is so much here to work with, but only if you're goign with the "hide in plain sight" approach. he's a bookbinder? get employed at a university (or library or whatever your game has). plenty of people around to fuel experments and access to books. He's a doctor? set up a doctor's office in a smaller town. whenever you need "raw materials", well "oops. I'm sorry mr. _____, It just wasn't possible to save her. no it's okay. I screwed up, so i'll handle the funeral." I'm not sure how he keeps the bodies if he travels, and i'm still not sure what level he is. both of these approaches will hide you from people chasing you assuming you're smart about it. And you still havn't explained why you want such a fancy hideout. I understand your need for one now. but why so fancy? you're going to be putting a lot of time and enery and money into that thing and then some band of adventurers shows up and kills you and takes it.
Yeah I totally Understand that but I wont be able to even get the sword back till level 20, let alone my characters soul which is being fought over by two good Gods, so its going to be a long time coming and he has alot of people who want to kill him. So he needs a place where he can go where he is safe. Also he is a lawful character and wants order and he is a book binder going around from town to town coping every book on Souls, Gods, and Undead. and he keeps the the bodies of all the people he kills. He also is a very good Doctor. So he needs a big traped nice Liar, Home!!There is so much here to work with, but only if you're goign with the "hide in plain sight" approach. he's a bookbinder? get employed at a university (or library or whatever your game has). plenty of people around to fuel experments and access to books. He's a doctor? set up a doctor's office in a smaller town. whenever you need "raw materials", well "oops. I'm sorry mr. _____, It just wasn't possible to save her. no it's okay. I screwed up, so i'll handle the funeral." I'm not sure how he keeps the bodies if he travels, and i'm still not sure what level he is. both of these approaches will hide you from people chasing you assuming you're smart about it. And you still havn't explained why you want such a fancy hideout. I understand your need for one now. but why so fancy? you're going to be putting a lot of time and enery and money into that thing and then some band of adventurers shows up and kills you and takes it.
Yeah I was thinking that whole doctor thing, right now he is level 3 but he has alot to work with and like I said this sure is going to go to 20th level. I dont really care about fancy so much as really freaking awesome and functional and full of traps and cool ideas, if its fancy or not I dont care although it would be cool to have blood fountains.
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Well i've always found the most interesting lairs to be thsoe not easily accessed and well hidden. like having the entrence be a crack between two stones behind a cabinet that you have to use gaseous form to access. assuming that people can't get to it you don't need to trap it. and at level 3, you're not in much of a place to trap anything yet. at later lebvels though, let the magic traps fly. baleful polymorph, teleport them underground, teleport them into space, activate the summoning circle on the floor, activate the golems all around them. oh the fun with traps. especially fun if you keep the lair simple. one to two rooms at most. at later levels though, you can build around those two rooms and put in ostentateous rooms filled with fancy and a plentitude of simple traps, like pit traps and whatnot to distract people. from what i get though is that you're alone, so you don't have a trapmaker on your team. which means traps at low levels are out. also, you seem to be running a very focused character with a drive. try playing that up. the building of lairs is complicated and tiome consuming buisness. leave ti to the long dead lichs. although you could just take one from them.
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He travels from town to town....let's try something with that.
I picture a gypsy-type caravan or traveling medicine-man type of half a dozen wagons or so and 30ish gypsies/ assistants. Of course this is an illusion. The wagons are (eventually) bone golems and huge skeletons that haul about the 'passengers' in specially modified ribcage compartments. The gypsies or assistants are actually undead (eventually intelligent ones). Just imagine a everything that would be part of a caravan and convert it to death and see what you come up with. A traveling lair is sometimes harder to find than a stationary one and as you get more powerful you can really amp it up with extra-dimensional spaces, cool movement upgrades, defensive magics, offensive magics, etc. Eventually you could pull up to a small keep and just wipe it out if you wanted.
An undead Baba Yaga's hut would be cool too, but on wheels.
Just some thoughts.
I smell a new series here: Extreme Dungeon Makeover!
I think you're definitely on the right track- becoming an undertaker is an excellent idea for a necromancer. I remember a videogame from years ago (Medievil) which had an undertaker's "shop" built into a hill in the middle of a cemetery; the cool part and the point here being that it was dug into the hill; i.e., underground. Do the same with your necromancer. Install a secret door in the back, then get some skeletons and zombies to start a' digging! Aside from the initial cost of raising them, you're looking at free labor that works full-speed 24/7/365. You may need to take some ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) to make sure you build the dungeon right (so it doesn't, you know, cave in on you). Or just kidnap someone and hold them hostage while you work on the thing. Whatever.
As suggested, start small. You can always make renovations later, especially once you get powerful enough to access spells like stoneshape, which will really open up architectural and design possibilities for cheap! And, as was also previously mentioned, don't get too attached to any one lair (yet) and don't get too flashy (yet). You'll draw some goody-two-shoes down on you and have to move out. That may happen anyway, so be ready to flee and relocate at a moment's notice.
That question of how you are transporting these dead bodies is a good one. I'd like to suggest a method implemented in "Funeral Procession" (Dungeon 130): an inanimate corpse is, for mechanical purposes, an object. Get a way to cast shrink item, zap the corpses down to the size of a doll, and carry them around in a more easily concealable bag. Oh, and get some gentle reposes going to cover the smell. Or a lot of perfume.
Are you an arcanist or a cleric necromancer? I'm assuming arcanist, probably wizard or sorcerer. Fountains of blood seem more of a cleric's "thing." I'd go for a throne constructed of your enemies' skeletons, just as a start.
I was tooling about with a low-level necromancer's lair a year or so ago and came up with an interesting concept for a multi-purpose halway. The inspiration came from looking over low-level wizard spells and realizing that it's actually kind of hard for an arcanist to even have any undead under his control until about 7th level (when animate dead becomes available to them). Command undead is the first real option, but has certain limitations as far as duration (though it's good at a day per level, it's still a liability if you plan to be around the beasties really long-term).
So I thought about having a hallway with compartments like a jail cell (with thick, sturdy doors, preferably metal or stone). A lever system could open or close and door, as well as hatch in said doors. The undead are stored, uncontrolled, in these cells. When the necromancer wants to take one over, he opens a hatch (remotely, so a slavering ghoul doesn't reach out and paralyze him), casts the spell through it (the opening gives him line of effect), and the undead is his loyal minion for the next few days. This requires a little initial hunting around to stock the "pens," but is then quite practical.
It also serves as a trap. A pressure plate or magical trigger somewhere in the hall opens all the doors at once (make sure you know where it's at and don't step on it). This is another reason why thick, sound-muffling doors are preferable. If the good guys break in and see a bunch of undead in cells, they'll open fire from range and might have time to buff. We don't want that, do we? So the thick doors keep them off guard until it's too late and five ghouls are attacking them.
When you get powerful enough, get some NPCs on your side. Unless you actually do take ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering), you're going to need someone to design your necro-pad and oversee its construction. If you've got the strength to coerce hostages into it, great, but if not (or if you don't like the liability), I think hiring a few evil-aligned contractors (what other kind is there?) is advisable.
Also, if you're not a cleric (or even if you are), you're going to want some of them working for you (they may walk around saying that the true master is their unholy god, but so long as they do what you say, let it slide). They can create and command far, far more undead far, far easier than any arcanist. Plus, then you have an excuse to incorporate a dark temple into your lair. That is where you put your fountains of blood. Hell, make it a full-sized swimming pool with a bone diving board if you want. Villains need to chill sometimes, too, you know?
Above and beyond all else, as soon as you're powerful enough, GET AN UNDEAD DRAGON! I'd recommend a skeletal black dragon or the like. It's a lair guardian, a speedy flying mount, and about the best and most loyal bodyguard you're ever going to have. Alone, spellcasters are frail. Spellcasters riding skeletal dragons fear nothing.
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Hey Everyone!
I want to make it the best lair ever!
So does everyone else.
If your Players are new to gaming then your banal "under the graveyard" thing will be okay. If they're experienced you need to avoid such an obvious, overused staple like the plague. The plague kills you; banal, overused sites kill your game.
Actually, go with the opposite of the expected without being too over the top. If they're expecting "darkness" give them "light."
A Necromancer building an army in a graveyard is stale. A Necromancer building an army on the third floor of the town school-house overlooking the lush "central park" grove that the town druid nurtures is better. Especially if said school-house is the recently-former site of Lathander's temple. And the brand new site for Lathander's temple can be just across the "central park" a stone's throw away.
As for the layout, if you go with a converted building then there will be a realistic means for you to be creative with the current layout (as opposed to a How come there even IS a third floor here kinda thing). Maybe there's lots of old and used toys lying about (PCs will think of a golem-maker).
And keep the unkowing NPCs unknowing. The school is a good school run by a good old lady; the caretaker of the grove is a good druid, etc.
Mess with your Players' expectations.
-W. E. Ray
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Okay, now I've read the other posts (except Saern's) and with the extra info can give better advice.
Again, undertaker is too obvious -- the Players are going to Know and they're going to know waaaay before 20th level what's up with this guy.
If he's a bookbinder make him a travelling sage that only answers folks' questions, and for a small price -- just enough money for food, parchment & ink. Then, around 4th level or so he gets access to a small extradimensional space -- that's where he keeps the "good stuff."
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But I have a bigger concern, it sounds like you're making a novel here instead of a campaign.
I'd be wary of falling too in love with this NPC and his schemes over the next 20 levels. What will you do if the Players, through no fault of their own, take this guy on long before your "story" plays out? That's the problem with designing stories for use as campaigns.
Have you thought about how this campaign is going to be run?
My understanding of Haun's post is that this necromancer is a PC he is playing in a solo game.
My understanding of Haun's post is that this necromancer is a PC he is playing in a solo game.
Thats right I will be playing this PC it is not an NPC.
Thanks for all the great tips and ideas! I will respond with a better post later, I'm a little busy right now, but I can say that he is going to be a True Necromancer with both Cleric and Wizard levels.
Saern I really like the Pen/jail idea I was thinking about something like that!
Anyway keep this coming, I think I am going to design the whole thing on here and you guys can help me if you want, I will even put up a map maybe.
Thanks and I'll be back later for a longer post,
Haun
I just got the idea for a Cleric/Wizard/Mystic Theurge... A neutral Necromancer with a very wide access to spells, both divine and arcane.
He's already got it covered by aiming for True Necromancer. It's essentially the same thing as a Mystic Theurge, but focused specifically on enhancing necromancy spells and effects (and it's the only 14-level PrC I know of!).