Within the next few sessions a party of PC's consisting of:
8th Lvl Paladin/Inquisitor
8th lvl Ninja
8th lvl Witch
7th lvl Rogue
7th lvl Slayer(ranged)
7th lvl Gunslinger
Are going to encounter one of the main villians of the current arc. He is an Arcanist of 10th lvl, 3rd Mythic Tier.
Now this guy also happens to be the spymaster for a rather large and powerful organization, so his resources are virtually unlimited when it comes to followers.
Any advice on building a spymaster arcanist of 10th level would be appreciated. Everything from feat, Arcanist Exploit, spell selection to guides please.
Also, these guys love to split the party. It is split 4 ways right now.
The Tarroh Student archetype gets some relevant class skills and can pick up divination spells from other classes - which seems useful to a spymaster. I might pick deathwatch, focused scrutiny and pierce disguise as spells known via it.
School understanding (divination: foresight) and bloodline development (rakshasa) also seem useful.
Except the school understanding that's mostly out of combat, tho' with a little time to buff he'd at least be very hard to fool. In combat you're looking at a 10th level arcanist presumably with the potent magic exploit. Hold monster or persistent glitterdust or dazing burning arc works well with that. Or if he has a familiar, dazing burning gaze.
With the followers - I assume he has a few body doubles? Disguise other or magic jar or illusion of treachery (/greater) may help.
The Tarroh Student archetype gets some relevant class skills and can pick up divination spells from other classes - which seems useful to a spymaster. I might pick deathwatch, focused scrutiny and pierce disguise as spells known via it.
School understanding (divination: foresight) and bloodline development (rakshasa) also seem useful.
Except the school understanding that's mostly out of combat, tho' with a little time to buff he'd at least be very hard to fool. In combat you're looking at a 10th level arcanist presumably with the potent magic exploit. Hold monster or persistent glitterdust or dazing burning arc works well with that. Or if he has a familiar, dazing burning gaze.
With the followers - I assume he has a few body doubles? Disguise other or magic jar or illusion of treachery (/greater) may help.
Thanks, I will check those out.
General Info -
As a spymaster his spell selection should focus on information gathering (Divination & enchantments - charm spells) and escape/survival. What the party should be worried about is his bodyguards and traps.Question: Is there a reason for the Spymaster to fight the party?
Normally, I'd have him spend 2-3 rounds 'buffing' his bodyguards and then Dim-Dooring away.
Yes, the spymaster had one of his assassins kill an NPC the party had a lot of love for(We have been playing this game consistently for about 20 months now), and is now preparing to send the assassin to kill the paladin, the Slayer has discovered this by tracking the assassin(a catfolk monk/ninja) back to the spymaster, he discovered that the spymaster is holding the assassin's daughter as a hostage for leverage against him. The Spymaster is working for the (corrupt)Church (theocracy) that rules this land, and all the PCs have essentially been marked for death. Its a story of betrayal. The PC's have worked with him before to root out corruption within the church ranks, but now that the PCs reputations have begun to grow, the church wants to get rid of them to prevent them from gaining too much influence and threatening the elites in the hegemony. So the spymaster himself doesn't really want to fight, but the PCs are now actively hunting him, and the gap is closing.
Tactics -
Need something to shut down that Witch, depending on the type of Witch can completely dominate any encounter with humanoids.The spell Darkness and Darkvision can be a pain for the party. Fact is, depending on if they have darkvision or no way to dispel it, can shut down the effectiveness of a lot of the party.
Slow can be a extremely nasty spell for a Arcanist with them having the ability to bump the DC up by 2 with a arcanist point.
Escaping has been a focus in his build. Its quite likely that the first few encounters will not have the full group facing him, or the group at full strength which will make escaping easy. The witch is likely to be incommunicado for another in-game month or so, shes currently on an island about three days sail from the coast. The Paladin has a great number of followers and is likely the biggest immediate threat due to the number of combatants he could bring to bear in a single encounter.