Levelling Issilar (spoilers)


Serpent's Skull

Scarab Sages

Hey all,

So my players just had a great climax encounter to Racing to Ruin with Issilar the serpentfolk enchanter.

Basically he controlled the fight all the time, he dominated people, suggested a cavalier PC remove his armor and stand in a corner, hold persons, flaming sphere, web, spider climb and he also major image-ed a blade barrier around himself. He only got hit once and then suggested a PC healer heal him.

After all of that he ran out of spells, bowed, and walked away. Basically he has entered 'to be returning' territory. The players really hate him, he is arrogant and they can't wait to get the chance to deal with him again later on.

Which brings me to the question: He is awesome as written, but I would love to get an idea how to best level this enchanter and how to gear him and enhance his style of casting over the next few levels. I do not plan to let him show up again before level 8, so that could up his CR to 10. How would you go about leveling him? I am open to all kinds of awesomeness. :)

This party is high on the roleplay, so anything that could enhance that is also fun.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Did the PCs impress him at all? Remember that his entire goal in leaving Saventh-Yhi was to find enough strength to kick Akarundo off his island and save his people. If the PCs seem capable of that, he's going to want to do whatever he can to manipulate them into doing so. He might even propose an alliance, once he's strong enough again, though it sounds like your group might have more fun fighting him again.

Anyway, I think his level choice will depend on what he plans to do next.

Scarab Sages

Oh that is right indeed. It would be very interesting to try to get the players to 'work' for him without them finding out. Through proxies and agents and the like.

I'd say he'd stick with his enchanter levels so far, I don't see any reason to change that progression. What would be key abilities or spells or items for a higher level enchanter to obtain I wonder?


General guidelines:

>Boost the DC's of your spells, especially Enchantment

>Get Dominated minions (maybe a couple members of their faction)

>Maybe come up with a feat that has Spell Focus: Enchantment as a pre-req? Like Augment Summoning for enchanters

>Crafting could get Issilar more items, like wands, scrolls, and Headband of Expanded Intellect

>Check out some of the new spells on the SRD, there's been a lot more released since Serpent's Skull

>Since he's already encountered the PC's and fought them, he will likely have a sense for their abilities. Issilar could use this information to counter them (but not know about the leveling they've done since Tazion)

>Ally him with another faction (Aspis Consortium is a good option). The leader will likely find out about his true face, but let him use Disguise Self to fool the rest.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Oh I like the allying him with another faction. :) Very nice. Thanks for the tips. Next session finishes off book 2 and we head to Saventh-Yi in the session after.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Serpent's Skull / Levelling Issilar (spoilers) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Serpent's Skull