The two-imp debuff


Advice


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Stumbled across this while working on my Diabolist guide. -- Play a caster with a familiar. Throw a feat at improved familiar to get an imp. It's helpful, but not necessary, if you're human and choose the Eye for Talent alternate racial (+2 on any ability score for familiars and companions.) Max out your ranks in Intimidate. Your imp familiar gets to use these ranks.

Now dip a level of Diabolist. Hey, you just got an imp companion! Now you have two imps, one one each shoulder.

Unfortunately, Intimidate is not a class skill for imps. And worse yet, as Tiny creatures imps will suffer -4 on their Intimidate (demoralize) checks against all larger creatures. That sounds pretty bad. But on the other hand, two imps means you get to check twice! Leverage this. Let's say you took Eye for Talent -- +2 Cha for each imp. And then have each imp take Skill Focus (Intimidate).

How does this play out in practice? Well, at level N each imp will have N ranks. So up until 10th level, their Intimidate checks will be at N+2 (+3 for their 16 Cha, +3 for the feat, -4 for their size). At 9th level, that's two checks at +11. What are some typical demoralize DCs for monsters you might face at this level? Rakshasa, 21; nosferatu, 22; young adult black dragon, 25; frost giant, 26. With two checks at +11, your odds of demoralizing these guys are, rakshasa - 80%, nosferatu - 75%, dragon - 51%, and giant - 44%.

That's actually pretty good. And once you hit 10th level and your imps pick up an additional +3 from the feat, your odds get very nice indeed. You have a well better than even chance of demoralizing any monster of your CR, and a near certainty of success against large groups of lower level (CR-2 or 3) mooks. I wouldn't say this is a fantastic tactic; it requires a bit of planning and investment. But it's definitely viable, especially at level 11 and up. Intimidate is a fine debuff (-2 on attacks and saves) that ignores SR and all other defensive abilities. And of course, there's the visual: you walk into a room full of monsters, and your two imps start jumping up and down on your shoulders, screeching like insane apes, and all the monsters become demoralized...

What think you?

Doug M.


Personally, I leave familiars alone so long as they're not used for any in-combat advantage. The instant they become combatants, though, they're fair game, and they're incredibly squishy. It'd work a few times, but then the imps are likely to die.


Well, the Diabolist's imp companion cam be replaced by an identical companion for free -- you just have to take a day. So, squishiness not really an issue there. Losing a familiar hurts a bit more, but if you're burning a feat on Improved Familiar you're probably committing to putting your guy in the path of danger sometimes.

Also, if they're targeting your imps, they're not targeting you or another PC. Sure, spend attacks killing Skippy and Buddy. Trust me, I'll make good use of those rounds.

Doug M.


AoEs are still a problem. If you're the caster, you're a prime target, and they're sitting on your shoulders.


If I'm a caster, I'm a target anyway -- and my familiar takes the damage from AoEs just the same. (Which is why familiars get Evasion, of course.)

Honestly, the bigger concern with this build is that demoralizing has a range of 30 feet, so you have to get closer to the enemy than you might care to. But if you're a Diabolist, good chance you're walking around in the middle of a phalanx of called devils. So, less of an issue.

Doug M.


Ipslore the Red wrote:
AoEs are still a problem. If you're the caster, you're a prime target, and they're sitting on your shoulders.

Helps when they are devils so they got some fire immunity, resist to acid and could + evasion.

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