Rakshasa

Danny Morrison's page

Organized Play Member. 77 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character.




This is a very specific question, but I'm wondering if there are any archetypes that are specifically suited to a character who guards an ancient Egyptian/Osirian-style tomb.
The character concept is a little bit like the Medjai guy from the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy. This character would discourage outside archaeologists and tomb raiders from desecrating the burial sites, and take down undead if/when they do rise up. He's motivated partly out of a desire to stop undead rampages from killing people, but also out of a desire to protect his cultural heritage from outside imperialists. He might also break into museums and steal artifacts for repatriation.
Inquisitor, Investigator, Cleric, and potentially Paladin seem like good classes, and obviously there are plenty of ways to make an undead hunter character, but I'm just wondering if there are any options that are specifically flavoured about protecting tombs or other places of cultural significance.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Way back in the days of 3.5, there was a Forgotten Realms book called Unapproachable East with a race in it called the hagspawn. Unlike the weird-but-pretty female changelings of Pathfinder, the hagspawn was a hag's brawny-but-ugly son. Something about the idea was pretty cool, and I made a hagspawn barbarian character I quite liked, pretty overtly based on Caliban from The Tempest.

So now I'm wondering what the most optimal way to recreate this character in Pathfinder would be. Hag-riven bloodrager looks like the most obvious way to make a hag-descended tanky character, but is there anything else hag-related I'm missing?

I haven't seen many guides to optimizing the hag-riven, nor is it mentioned in any of the bloodrager guides I've seen, so I'm looking for some practical optimization advice for making this concept work. Reskinning the changeling is an obvious racial pick (although I don't see anything in the rules that says the archetype is exclusive to changelings), but I'm a bit leery of building a melee character with a charisma penalty, so I might just go human or even tiefling.

The hag bloodline works thematically but it also looks kinda weak.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm running a rather silly adventure involving rival adventuring parties, all of whom also play together as bands. This means there will be a large number of major NPCs and so I was wondering if anyone could recommend specific archetypes and/or race combinations well-suited thematically and/or mechanically to the different bands. It doesn't need to be optimized, but it does need to be at least functional. I'm also making Perform a class skill for everybody.
So far I have:

Stakes n' Bones, a hair metal band who hunt vampires
On vocals and guitar: dhampir inquisitor (kinslayer)
On solo guitar: half-elf skald (Fated Champion)
On bass: human sorcerer (shadow bloodline)
On drums: catfolk bloodrager (Destined bloodline, Prowler at World's End archetype)
could maybe also use a paladin or cleric on keyboards or something

Putrid Chalice, a death metal band who worship disease
On vocals: human spiritualist (Grim Apostle, with the pestilence phantom)
On lead guitar: aasimar (angelblooded) antipaladin (blighted myrmidon)
On drums: ratfolk alchemist (ectoplasm adept, plague bearer, vivisectionist)
On keyboards: probably a human bard (provocateur)?
Might also give these guys a cleric of Apollyon or some other disease god

Thud and Blunder, an orcish metal band along the lines of Lordi or Gwar
On vocals and guitar: orc barbarian (invulnerable rager)
On backup vocals: half-elf skald (demon dancer)
On drums: orc brawler (constructed pugilist)
On keyboard: half-orc sorcerer (red dragon bloodline)/dragon disciple

The Silver Mountain Band, a country band who hunt monsters
On guitar and lead vocal: human bard (silver balladeer)
On harmonica: human ranger (two-weapon style, not sure about animal companion)
On string bass and backup vocal: dwarf druid (menhir savant)
On banjo and backup vocal: tengu gunslinger (pistolero)

Vvviper, a glam metal band who are part of a snake cult
On guitar and lead vocal: vishkanya skald (serpent herald)
On backup guitar: vishkanya sorcerer (serpentine bloodline)
On bass: vishkanya gunslinger (mysterious stranger)
On drums: nagaji monk (scaled fist)
On keytar: human shifter (weretouched, deinonychus focus)

Also considering an occult-based R&B group and a Cthulhu-worshiping prog rock band.
Any more character options I should consider or ways to improve what I already have?


I really like barghests. The visual design on them is super cool. Unfortunately, they're clearly not suitable to be player characters. So I guess what I'm wondering is are there any character options - races, feats, class archetypes, &c. - that thematically tie into barghests? Like is there some obscure barghest-based tiefling heritage?

3rd party stuff is probably fine as long as it's reasonably balanced.


I'm writing up an adventure set at an abandoned arcology, loosely modeled on a nightmare version of EPCOT, and looking for some cool mad science-y encounters, monsters, &c. to put in there.
The place was established out in the swamps as "the blueprint for the cities of tomorrow" but after a succession crisis when its ratfolk founder died, it was torn apart in a civil war. Some people got out, some died, and some got turned into monsters (undead, mutants, and things like that).
I realize morlocks are kind of the default monster for any lost city but I think this place has only been abandoned for about ten or fifteen years which is not enough time for morlocks to happen.
The overall tone I'm going for is kind of Bioshock-meets-Bloodborne (especially the Byrgenwerth College and Research Hall areas). What are some good monsters that fit that kind of visceral scifi-horror flavour?


Playing a campaign with a kind of mad science feel and I thought it might be fun to make a character who is all about plants, along the lines of Poison Ivy from Batman. My first thought was to go leshykineticist but that looks kinda weak. I'm also considering the Verdant sorcerer bloodline (which looks okay), and wondering if there's any particular kind of druid with maybe a sciencey feel. I'm also looking at a plant-based summoner but the party already has a pretty solid tank so I feel like that might be redundant. We also already have an alchemist so I don't want to just be another of those.


Writing a horror adventurer involving a mad scientist who is working on a Bride of Frankenstein-like creation. She's created to be his ideal vision of beauty, but she's stitched together from well-preserved bits of corpses, so I'm not really sure what would be the best monster type to use for her. Is there a specific monster that is:
- able to pass for humanoid, more or less
- sentient
- either a Construct or a created Undead? (so not like a vampire)

Or should I just call her a unique Flesh Golem?


I am writing up a villain who is a spiritualist, but my idea is that the spiritualist is really a pawn of his phantom, who is the one pulling the strings. The phantom is the spirit of a powerful villain (currently named Osragul) who had, in the backstory of this setting, held the region in a grip of terror. He was defeated and killed many years ago, but is returning as a phantom to corrupt a new generation and continue his evil schemes.
Think Voldemort on the back of Quirrell's head.

Since Osragul is returning as a phantom - rather than a lich or something - I think it makes sense that he was of some occult class in life, probably a psychic or maybe a mesmerist.

So basically my question is: what's a good way that a very powerful occult character and his cult of followers could have held an entire region in a reign of terror? Is there a specific monster that he might summon a horde of? I like the idea that maybe he tried to psychically dominate a monster that was a bit too powerful for him and maybe that's what killed him in the first place.
It doesn't need to be super-detailed as to how he did it because it's all in the backstory.


I'm trying to write an adventure based around a Chaugnar Faugn cult and I'm trying to think what monsters might be good for such an adventure, either as cult leaders or pets or something like that.

Chaugnar is one of the less classically "Lovecraftian" of the Great Old Ones so I'm trying to avoid the basic tentacled aberration cliches. Hags also seem like obvious choices for any spooky hinterlands cult but I feel like I've been overusing them lately.

Chaugnar Faugn is outlined in In Search of Sanity, book 1 of the Strange Aeons adventure path, on page 66. He originates from a novel called The Horror from the Hills, by Frank Belknap Long, but I have not read it.


I'm working on a campaign where there will be a major NPC who deals in captured monsters, mostly for sale to various villains. This is the person who sells the chimera to the coliseum so they can pit it against the champion gladiator, who sells gremlins to the industrial saboteurs, and who sells the chuul for the mad wizard to keep in a tank and feed those who have displeased him.
What I'm looking for advice on is: what would be a good character class for this NPC? If they were just dealing in captured animals I'd say ranger or druid, but is there any way of getting something like Handle Animal for a broader range of creatures?


Are there any other published settings for this game beyond the basic one with Absalom Station and Golarion and all that? Maybe from a third party? If not, anyone know if there will be?


I have a specific idea for a character in mind and I'm trying to come up with the best way to actually build him in rules terms, so I thought I'd float the current build idea I have. Please tell me if it's any good.
The idea is to be a Werewolfkin Skinwalker, but at Small size (which it says you can do) who specializes in natural weapon combat. I realize this will reduce his damage die size but I'm hoping the bonus to attack - and especially to AC - will make up for it.
As for class, I'm leaning toward the Beastmorph Alchemist, probably stacking it with Vivisectionist Alchemist.
My hope here is that the Beastmorph's access to Pounce - and later, Rake - together with the Vivisectionist's sweet sweet Sneak Attack, will help to mitigate the damage ceiling that natural weapon builds tend to run into.
Is this a viable build, or would I be better off looking into another class?
(And before anyone suggests, I'm aware that Ragebred Skinwalkers are great but it doesn't fit into the vision I have for this character.)


So I've finally gotten a copy of Ultimate Wilderness, and I can't help but notice that a lot of the archetypes in there are basically all pointing in the same direction: natural weapon-based combat. If I wanted to build such a character, which of the following would be the best way to do it?
1) Warpriest, feral champion. Looks like it overcomes the damage problem a lot of natural weapons have, re: scaling at higher levels
2) Brawler, feral striker. Seems pretty straightforward, but is it any good?
3) Shifter, weretouched. I know most people find shifters to be pretty underpowered, but that damage reduction has to count for something
4) Bloodrager, shapechanger bloodline. Not in Ultimate Wilderness, but based along a very similiar theme. Any particular archetypes it would combine well with?
5) Skald, hunt caller. This one might not be as fighty as I want, but I want to mention it anyway because the art in the book is basically wh

I'm leaning towards playing a Small character, most likely a halfling or gnome. I really like the idea of a tiny, unassuming little guy suddenly sprouting claws and slicing the bad guys up. I realize this would likely reduce my damage dice size, but the boost to my armour and attack rolls would kind of make up for that.


So the devil monkey is my stand-out favourite critter from Bestiary 6 and I really want to play one, or something resembling one, and from there probably go into Barbarian. What would be the optimal way to do it?
a) Straight-up use the Awaken spell. Would the racial HD be too high a price, though?
b) Just use a Vanara? They're not optimal Barbarians, but make decent Rangers, I hear. I kind of want to be a gigantic hulk though.
c) Dust off the old Taer race from the 3rd edition book Unapproachable East? Are they any good?
d) Just build a custom race? This is kind of a last resort, since it's so easy to abuse custom races and I don't want to be that guy.
e) Something I haven't thought of yet?

The most important thing here is being a baboon tank.


Pretty much what it says in the title. Is there a way to get horns/a gore attack for a PC, without resorting to:
*an expensive magic item like the Helm of the Mammoth Lord
*temporary effects or shapechanging, like the ragebred skinwalker or a demon totem barbarian

The idea I have for the character is someone who is part-satyr, probably a melee combatant, like a brawler or something, so if it could be thematically tied to the fey (or hags, who are close enough) that would be an extra bonus.