Help with Information broker build


Advice


Hello fellow players,

I am about to introduce an important npc on my campaign, She is a crafty Kitsune that thrives as an information broker in a big city.
She is a clever schemer and has plenty of conections all over the place, which has allowed her to know many secrets and all shorts of info.

The characters are about to meet through her own request, after making them come to one of her many meeting places. Her intention is to persuade or trick the pc's into telling her some relevant info about the plot.

I have her concept very defined, but what I don't know is what kind of build could suit her best. I would like that she had some king of magical ability or spellcasting (mostly divination and enchantment) but also lots of skill monkery to be able to excell specially on the social aspect.

Of course, this requeriments scream the bard class, but I don't know if there is some archetype, class combination or cheese factor that would suit her better.

Don't worry about stats, I would like a build of 10th level and what feats/talents/powers/etc could work best for this concept. She is not a combatant, prefering to use companions and minions to do her wetwork.


I don't have a lot of ideas for this, but am interested in what others have to say.

Following.


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I like Investigator (Mastermind). I don't know how's practical it'd be but have considered a multi class with Urban Druid. The two can mesh in some ways, and if you just focus on certain spells CL isn't an issue.

I think you could get like Alter Self at will, and the ability to think in Druidic, making mind-reading impossible.

Even without druid, it's great at subtle manipulation.


Secret Broker Occultist with the Divination and Enchantment implements.


We just finished a campaign and this was similar to my character.

Kitsune- with realistic likeness- for disguise and infiltration ability

One level of Investigator (Sleuth)- gives a good set of skills as class skills as well as an inspiration pool to help buff up skills. I played as a sleuth for extra survivability but mastermind would be a great npc choice.

Wizard (exploiter)- access to all spells (if they are in your spell book of course) and gives many options for disguise/stealth etc. Throw in a good choice of exploits and you have tons of versatility.(Dimensional step...simple window you can step in, snoop/steal, step out real fast for example).

wizard you gain access to divination spells/ invisibility and stealth tools.. also remember small cheap items- hat of disguise and gloves of reconnaissance can be really helpful...

at low levels you have high disguise and can be a huge range of people/characters to fit into any situation/location. You can start information networks using different looks/persona to keep who is really behind the whole situation obscured.

higher level play you can make simulacrums of yourself...also with realistic likeness for an army of loyal confusion

was honestly one of the best times I had playing a character lol


A Street Performer bard is amazing at gathering rumors, stories, and gossip.


Rogue! Not because I am biased or anything.

If she is non combative, this is probably one of the better ideas as well.

While I normally like to tell people to use race archetypes, the kitsune rogue archetype isn't that fantastic. Instead I'll suggest to use the phantom thief archetype. No sneak attacks (again non combative remember) and a ridiculous focus on skills.

But what you actually want to do is abuse the hell the unlimited combat tricks from rogue talents. Through combat tricks every level you get a rogue talent and your actual feats every other level, your kitsune can get the full progression of the magical tail feat by level 7. How? Your kitsune NPC also has the nine tailed scion racial trait.

Assuming your PCs are familiar with the feat (or you can try to clue them into how scary a nine tailed kitsune should be through the appropriate knowledge check) they would be more likely to not mess with your information broker as without the shortcut, your kitsune should have been level 15 to be able to get nine tails.

This leaves you with one normal rogue talent, one feat and one advanced rogue talent at level 10.

If nine tails wasn't enough to dissuade your PCs from stirring trouble, take fox shape as your one other feat. Since she had invited the PCs to one of her meeting places, it would of course be set up to her advantage. Tiny escape holes (she can lie to call them ventilation shafts if you want) spread all over for her to turn into a fox and escape. You can even have her use diminutive holes for extra paranoia if she has a high enough escape artist to squeeze through.

Hell tell her to force the PCs to peacebond their weapons/toss it away before she decides to give them any information and stuff because she would always be operating under the assumption things will go bad. That will give her the surprise round and possibly the first round to escape in that event. Probably more effective if she is alone and is confident she can successfully escape.

This leaves you with two more talents. Since she isn't a PC there is no point suggesting black market connections as I always would to get her items (although if you want her to rely on items or help the PCs obtain items this could be an explanation why) Given her reliance on companions/minions convincing lie could be an option. If your PCs are wise up in asking her minions to confirm what she had said, they will be using her bluff check (which should be high if she is an information broker!) to beat all their sense motive checks. Nothing more convincing than full corroboration even from the dumbest looking fool in the building.

Again being one of her buildings which she had prepared, cunning trigger is another option for a talent. Need to escape? A smoke trap which has a stupidly specific trigger to not risk the PCs prematurely triggering it can be used to cover an escape. Or poison gas. Or explosives. Etc. You get the idea.

Obfuscate story is another favorite talent of mine although this might be a more dickish. If things go wrong, send a large firework or have an ally blow the rape whistle and wait for the guards to storm the building (supposing its near one of their patrols) Watch the PCs trying to figure out whats with all the opposed diplomacy rolls and the situation just going from bad to worse with the possibility of them going into the slammer while your information broker is long gone the next morning. (This is assuming she can survive on her own for a few rounds that is. Would be suitable if you had her invest in stealth as well or is in one of her 'fox holes')

Speaking of stealth, if she does prepare her meeting place with obstacles and stuff all over (e.g. like a warehouse) the ninja talent fast stealth is pretty good assuming you don't even want to risk the smallest chance of letting their perception beat her stealth checks. Wall climber is the poor man's mundane spider climb if you want to make it hard for the party to get to her in the first place.

Of course, being a information broker, she is totally going to go for rumormonger as her advanced talent. Even more reasons to make the party regret their decision if they turned her into an antagonist and let her live for her revenge. But as an alternative, skill mastery. Why? UMD, and probably some of the other skills I guess.

But the best part, at level 10 your information broker would have four skills unlocked with the 15th rank unlocks. All these being mundane and without any items, your paranoid PCs can't even preemptively look for reasons to murder her and you get to withhold some of the items they'd expect to get if they do.

The fact of the matter is the 15th rank unlocks are the good stuff, hence why PT becomes a really good option for what you are about to do. Looking at the applicable options below...

The bluff unlock to prevent mind reading. I'd suggest diplomacy but again, your kitsune isn't a PC so adjusting attitudes isn't really effective on the supposed opposition. Escape artist for a "I surrender" moment and a sudden escape when they aren't looking (if you are confident your PCs aren't murderhobos) Handle animal is an interesting and misleading option. Telling those tigers/elephants/t-rexes she had bought "sic em!" will leave them wondering if she is a druid or something. Intimidate is another good option but it is better if you weren't focused on magical tails (or are willing to get less tails) for dazzling display, although the last three tails are really strong options normally unavailable to non casters.

Sense motive allows your information broker to read minds! What information broker doesn't want to be able to do that! Without magic! So no detect magic shenanigans. On the other hand, UMD expands the amount of magic items your information broker wouldn't ordinarily be able to use at the same time!

Best to take bluff, sense motive, escape artist and UMD although you might want to take one less to actually give your kitsune more stealth for example, despite the unlock being absolute trash to a PT.

Remember, since you are the GM and can pretty much pull out the stops, you can spend your NPCs entire wealth on stuff like animals, traps and items focused on skills, which trying to beat/bypass to get them will actually deny your murderhobo PCs from their 'loot' and the best part is you still get to operate within actual NPC limitations without much GM fiat. You wouldn't even have to risk any minions/allies of her and they will be much better prepared for the next meeting. REVENGE!


Would that use an archetype to allow you to pick multiple Combat Tricks? Normally rogues can't take any rogue talent more than once.


Yeah. In exchange for giving up sneak attack and trapfinding, the phantom thief can use its rogue talents to continually pick combat trick, minor magic and major magic without any limitation. Even the rogue talents can be used for skill focus instead.


Secret Broker Occultist!!!


Amazing ideas guys, thank you so much!

I'm still undecided, but so far I like Mastermind Investigator, plain Unchained rogue and Negotiator Bard.

The Rogue could go for the cheese through the magical tail tree and still get some goodies. I think it can be the more generalistic of the choices as she gains combat utility and the skill unlocks.

On the other side, the Mastermind gets the superberb nope to any kind of divinition and the option to make paws use her diplomacy and intimidate checks, which qualifies with her modus operandi.

The Negotiator is pure and brutal bonuses, as the bard fcb gets an +1/2 per lv to roll to lie and gather information, plus, half her level as well to all the social skills.

It is a tough choice.

What about feats or specific items? Is there a must have out there for this kind of char?


Hi, sorry for the double post and the necropost, but I just wanted to share the final character I made for the concept.

In the end, I decided on pure bonuses going with the Negotiator Bard. While there where another amazing ideas in the thread, I opted for something I am familiar with.

The Secret Broker Occultist looked great, but I don't have any npc or pc using an occult class in the campaign, and will result in having to introduce new mechanics and classes, and half of my players are newbies to whom I don't what to overwhelm with more features.

The Phantom Thief almost convinced me, specially with the access to the social talents, but having to invest in magical tail and magic talents to suply spell casting put the result against it.

On the other hand, the choice between the negotiator and the mastermind was hard. But in the end, I was only interested in the Impregnable Mind ability, which can be almost replaced with some items and spells.

What I liked about the negotiator is that he is in part skill monkey, in part spell caster and in part talented rogue. And the fcb is also very thematic.

The Fast talk/Spellsong combo is brutal, specially with charm and suggestion spells. The Binding Contract makes sure that anyone that makes a pact with her is compelled to fulfil it or suffer the consequences. And it also has access to all the rogue talents I was interested with.

So, here is my Information Broker build:

CR 11

Race: Kitsune

Alternate Racial Traits: Gregarious

Abilities (20p/buy)

STR 10-2 DEX 10+2 CON 13 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA 14+2+2+2

Class: Bard (Negotiator) 10

FCB: 1/2 Lv to Lie and Gather information checks

1- Hard Bargainer, bardic performance (Counterargument, Fast Talk, Distraction, Fascinate), Realistic Likeness
2- Well-Versed, Rogue Talent (Coax Information)
3- Inspire competence +2, Spell focus (Enchantment)
4- +1 Cha
5- Master of Rhetoric, Spellsong
6- Suggestion, Rogue Talent (Black Market Connections)
7- Inspire competence +3, Extra Talent (Obfuscate Story)
8- Dirge of doom, +1 Cha
9- Binding Contract, Extra Talent (Stealth Story)
10- Jack-of-all-trades, Advanced Rogue Talent (Rumormonger)

Base Attack +7

HP 55 (10d8 + 10)

For +7 Ref +11 Wil +11

Skills: Diplomacy +26 (+31 to gather info), Bluff +26 (+31 to lie), Intimidate +16, Sense Motive +19, Knowledge: Local +25, Knowledge: Nobility +10, Perform: Oratory +21, Perception +20, Lingüistics +10, Stealth +10, Sleight of Hand +10, Disguise +15, Appraise +20

Languages: Common, Sylvan, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Dwarven, Draconic, Goblin

Spell-like ability: 3/day—dancing lights

Spells know:

0th: Light, Prestidigitation, Message, Mage Hand, Read Magic, Detect Magic
1th: Beguiling Gift, Auditory Hallucination, Charm Person, Silent Image, Disguise Self
2th: Animal Messenger, Share Memory, Invisibility, Tongues, Cacophonous Call
3th: Jester's Jaunt, Scrying, See Invisibility, Seek Thoughts
4th: Modify Memory, Dimension Door

Notable Gear:

Ring of Mind Shielding 8,000
Medallion of Thoughts 12,000
Cape of Resistance +3 9,000
Circlet of Persuasion 4,500
Eyes of the Eagle 2,500
Headband of Alluring Charisma +2 4,000
Gloves of Larceny 2,500
Boots of Escape 8,000
Wayfinder with Mossy Disk Ioun Stone (Knowledge: Local) 5,500

56,000 spent

As I said in her introduction, I tried to be faithful to her concept, and choose all feats, talents, skills and geart that should feat her role as a schemer and info broker.

If combat breaks up, she will always try to escape if her bodyguards are not present or looks like they will lose. Secret passages, invisibility or dimension door should always be her first choice.

About her capabilities, numbers speak for itself. With her bonuses she can convice and influence almost anyone with ease, or lie her way out if the sitiation demands it. With her puntuation in Knowledge: Local, she should be able to know most of the things that occur in the city, even obscure ones, and if not, she has the abilities to procure those secrets herself.

I will also provide her with some allies who work for her spy network, to be used as plot convinience once in a while.

So, what do you think?


there is Spymaster prestige class... sadly the class is mostly mundane based and self defensive. The kitsune base abilities cover some of the mundane disguise abilities of the class...

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