The story behind the assassins guild is that in years past (~100 ago) an anti-paladin build the guild to amass power and money to achieve her goal of stopping a different BBEG in destroying the world (this anti-paladin came back from the future to stop the BBEG that destroyed her world. This anti-paladin is the future daughter of the paladin in our party and once we stopped the BBEG, the anti-paladin laid down her weapon and dismantled the guild). Among her guild members were all sorts of anti-paladins, a mysterious stranger gunslinger anti-paladin, an nyogoth qlippoth with anti-paladin lvls, and many more anti-paladins. mostly out of fear of the anti-paladin leader they followed her, but also because they shared her goal. They all left after he guild was dismantled because only 2 or 3 survived.
Now, they current anti-party will also arrive from the future of a different timeline, were the gods, and simultaneously the lack of influence by the gods, destroy the world. The lack of influence angers the anti-party and the anti-paladin learns about the previous assassins guild ran by an anti-paladin and uses that abandoned guild and the frightening legacy to rebuild the guild to amass power and money to battle the gods herself before the destroy the world. I have her devout to the Oinodaemon, as he is also fond of revenge and destruction. The rest of the anti-party, which will have classes like Dragonchess suggested, have also witnessed the horrors of their timeline and will stop for nothing to achieve the goal of destroying the gods before they destroy their world.
So, thanks to your advice, I'll will only have the anti-paladin have anti-paladin levels, the others will only have their own class lvls.
But I'm struggling with how to build the Anti-party. All of the party members are quite charismatic, so I'm thinking of building all the members with 2 anti-paladin lvls. But what do you think, should the Anti-party all have at least 2 lvls of anti-paladin of would that be a waste of lvls? The Anti-party will be roughly lvl17.
I stopped building NPCs at high levels - it's simply not worth the trouble IMO. Players usually don't care about the mechanics of other creatures and their PCs can often kill NPCs very quickly.
Instead I started using the Bestiary reference table 1-1. According to this one, a CR 17 creature has 270 HP, AC 32, a high damage output of 90 per round (if everything hits) etc.. Add a few iconic class abilities (smite good, thematic spells, two bardic performances etc.), deviate from the average values a bit (for example make it 320 HP, but only AC 30) and you have a solid fake of a high-level NPC. For a fraction of the trouble.
Same goes for equipment. It's quite a headache to get the HP and saves of high-level NPCs to reasonable values, with belts of +4 Con, yet another cloak of resistance etc.. So just don't, give them some interesting items to use and loot instead.
Since many people feel safer close to the rules, here is another option: Pick high-level NPCs from the NPC Codex. Tweak them a bit (it's actually recommended right there) and you are ready to go.
Thanks for the tip, but I really like the idea that they are fighting against themselves, i.e. paladin vs anti-paladin, barbarian vs bloodrager, rogue vs rogue, and bard vs skald. But I'm just not sure if I should have the Anti-party have 2lvls of anti-paladin each (charisma bonus to saves), of just have their full classlvls.
I need some advice about a major plot hook in my home brew campaign. The party is busy trying to save the world and all, as usual, and consist of a paladin(f), bard(f), rogue(f), and barbarian(m). Now, one of the BBEG the party will face is themselves from a different timeline. This Anti-party will de led by the anti-paladin as she is the reason they jumped timelines and has an assassins guild full of anti-paladins. The Anti-party will consist of an anti-paladin, bard, rogue, and bloodrager. But I'm struggling with how to build the Anti-party. All of the party members are quite charismatic, so I'm thinking of building all the members with 2 anti-paladin lvls. But what do you think, should the Anti-party all have at least 2 lvls of anti-paladin of would that be a waste of lvls? The Anti-party will be roughly lvl17.
HAve you tried a CMBrawler? As is, an unarmed fighter with all the improved/greater disarm, trip, graple, and steal? How would one attack you hero if they don't have weapons and are down on the ground?
How about you upgrade the joke even further? Make the feared Bone Crusher a small race. Like a Gnome bloodrager with the Abyssal bloodline? That way the are first likely to laugh their balls of to see a small gnome bigmouthing them, but will lose their insides when Bone Crusher starts raging and starts bone crushing.
Give him an oversized, impact club, and he'll crush some bones.
Depends on how you use Discern Location, i.e. to locate the soul or to locate the gem holding the soul?
Discern Location wrote:
A discern location spell is among the most powerful means of locating creatures or objects. Nothing short of a mind blank spell or the direct intervention of a deity keeps you from learning the exact location of a single individual or object. Discern location circumvents normal means of protection from scrying or location. The spell reveals the name of the creature or object’s location (place, name, business name, building name, or the like), community, county (or similar political division), country, continent, and the plane of existence where the target lies.
To find a creature with the spell, you must have seen the creature or have some item that once belonged to it. To find an object, you must have touched it at least once./
Like you said, it happened "off screen", so you can't find the gem since you haven't touched it. The soul itself however, can be found if you've met the person before being binded to a gem, or have some of its belongings.
How about him being recruited by Valdeis, as she has sefl-harmed herself pretty hard?
Or redemption by The General of Vengeance Ragathiel? That Ragathiel has offered him "redemption" if he wanted to take revenge at those who wronged him (why he fought for the greater good) and he is now a Crimson Templar. I think this would quite suit him.
"Even the most devout followers of good can recognize the need for ruthlessness when opposing true evil. The crimson templars are taught that mercy is a virtue reserved for only those capable of accepting redemption.
They must learn this lesson well, for they are trained to face the heartless legions of Hell. These women and men are Heaven’s assassins, and they tread a bloody path so the oaths of others remain untarnished. Their mission is a thankless one, as righteous allies often view them as just a step away from corruption."
And the stats look good, I don't know if the saves of their special abilities are in line with the CR, but they look kinda low to me. And I would make Venusaur Large sized. He might be 6'7", but he's almost twice the width (i.e. Large). And then you might consider making Ivysaur medium (for the same reason).
Could it be shockingly gruesome? During the adventure into the dungeon on their way to the BBEG, have the L20's one by one step in different One-shot-killing-traps that are "almost" undetectable. And yes, you can make the PC trigger the traps that kill the L20 NPCs.
For example, the first L20 steps on a trap that instantly crushes him/her between two giant pillars, one coming below and one from the ceiling. The squire was """just""" out of reach of the trap, but fully within reach of the gore splatter of the crushed L20 hero (and items likewise crushed). In between traps, have the L20s have epic fights with demons/devils/whatever the world ending threat is in your game. Than, after a combat, the next L20 triggers a trap that opens a giant bottemless pit. So a different L20 quickely casts Featherfall and succeeds, only to see the side of the pit quickly close in and crush the slowely descending L20. Again, guts and gore everywhere. Eventually, have the last L20 teleport the terrefied squires to safety before the gets killed in the final battle with the BBEG. No items from the L20s, just bits and pieces of their actual body.
Probably whoever filled it out just copied the sorcerer's kit and added candles, not remembering that oracles don't get Eschew Materials as a class feature like their arcane counterparts.
I don't think they made a mistake by not including a spellcomponentpouch. A cleric does have a pouch, sure, but the versitality of a cleric (prepared caster) makes it so he can prepare spells that need components, but can also prepare spells that don't. For an oracle, the spell availability is really limited, so you choose spells which you use frequently and are usefull. For instance, my Oracle (Rage Prophet), only has spells without material compontents (well, some have M/DF, but we all agreed that as Oracle can ignore those). If by any chance an Oracle would choose a spell WITH compontents (i.e. color spray), than the oracle would have no need for an entire spell component pouch with all material and focusses for spellcasting. He would only need the material for that one spell. And let's be honest, if an oracle would select such a spell, than I think he can spare the 5gp to purchase a spellpouch, dump the materials and completely fill it with the material needed for that one spell.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to make an exact copy of the ASOIAF character, I just want to make an NPC losely based on her. It is a homebrew campeign with nothing like the storyline of GoT.
The PCs (and I as well) just really enjoyed GoT (except S08), as well as other fantasy stories. I even included the Nazgul into the game, because we all really like LotR. The reason for including the Nazgul and "Danny" is for the PC to go all batcrap crazy when they first encounter them, because they know the refference. And because I could really fit them into my storyline.
The NPC based on Danny is going to be a half-sister of a (female) PC, who is a Bard but gets the 3th, 9th and 15th lvl draconic sorcerer bloodline powers as boons (other PCs get different boons), hence why I also wanted her to be a Dragon Desciple (both descendants of the Dragon God Animitas (Apsu)). That I want her to be martially capabale has nothing to with the original chacarter of GoT/ASOIAF, that's just the way I wanted het to be for my own storyline (a warrior queen, [u]with dragons[/u]). And she has a solid reason to invade the continent of the PCs, it's not going to be an invasion for the sake in anvading.
If you want more details on the general story line (and why this NPC is invading), please ask me and I can give you an elaborate story, but for now, I think you all get the jist.
So, do you have any advice with feats, spells, dips, equipment etc for a Fighter1/Sorcerer4/Dragon Disciple9?
I've looked into the Dragon Mystery from Oracle and the Flame Dancer Bard, but I just didn't feel a match. Thanks for the ideas though!
For my homebrew campeign, I wanted to do a GoT style invasion of the continent the PCs are on, in the same manner as Danny from GoT did (albeit a bit more evil aligned, as is "cleansing" the continent). She has her dragons as well Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion and a massive army to invade the continent.
The PCs will have to do their best to rally the countries (who are at war with each other) to repel the attack or be whiped from the map. Eventually, if everything is going according plan, the PCs win and "Danny" will have to retreat back to her continent and the PCs will follow and deal with her once and for all. The only thing I'm struggling with is the classes I'm giving her, since I can't directly recreate Danny in Pathfinder, and I don't want an exact copy of her. I wanted to do a Fighter1/Sorcerer4/Dragon Disciple9, do you have any advice on what feats, spells, archtypes perhaps, stats?
I now have base stats of
STR 18
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 14
WIS 9
CHA 20
But I don't know if I already took the DD stat boots into this and age bonuses (no penalties), so I have to do some calculations on that part.
However, I would add to either the Enlightened or Complete that the effective oracle lvl for the Curse becomes also character lvl-2 instead of half character lvl. Otherwise, they would only get the lvl 10 curse at character lvl20 and the curse at lvl 15 would not be available for the character at all.
I'd go for option Three/3/III/drie/Drei!!/trois, let me explain the math.
The vines have a reach of 10ft for a medium creature. A medium creature has a natural reach of 5ft. So in other words, the vines themself are "5ft long". Now, after feasting on a potion of enlarge person, the natural reach of that character is 10ft. The vines themselves, eventhought the equipment itself grows in size to still fit the character, don't grow (i.e. still 5ft long). The 10ft character now has a natural reach with his bare hands of 10ft and when using the vines (who are 5ft in lenght) can bash opponents at 15ft distance.
A half-orc fighter, a human wizard and an elf bard walk into a bar.
The orc says to the barkeeper "I just bought some mithral armor and have no gold left, but I could really use a drink right now. Perhaps I could work as bouncer for the night in return for some ale?"
The barkeerer says "Sure, but only the cheap stuff". Seeing this, the human says "I too, have bought a +1 wand and have no gold left. But perhaps I cast unseen servant, and have it wash dishes in exchange for a few drinks?"
The Barkeeper again says "Sure.." - And the Elf interups with "And I will suck you dick!" The barkeepers says "No need for that. The people here love a good tune. If you just play some songs, you'll make enough tips for a few drinks!"
Although I’d probably pick different spells, slay living isn’t doing very relevant damage at level 18 and although destruction is a big hit, for that DC you could be doing more terrific things.
Chains of light to target reflex, this one is particularly nice.
Waves of Ecstacy is strong for Will saves
Implosion is a stronger version of destruction (also wale of the banshee has its upsides)
And plane shift can be a really effective method of killing too :)
Duuuuuude, I totally forgot about PLane Shift as an offensive spell, thanks!!!
The others spells are also really nice options, thanks :)
Well, that's the fun thing about being a rage prophet :) At lvl7 Rage Prophet, when you cast a spell while raging, you add both your Cha AND your Con to the save DC's of your spells.
Keep in mind that this character is lvl18, so he has at least a +6 con belt and a +6 cha headband. I also give him the feats for prestigious spellcasting, so at lvl 18 he's caster lvl 15, and I gave him Mad Magic and Raging Vitality. So he can cast whilst raging.
Now, the +6 con and +6 cha both give a +3 bonus, he has greater rage so that gives another +8 to con (+4 bonus), he will cast Divine vessel (Chaotic) to get a +8 size to con (another +4 bonus) which will result in a +14 bonus to DC. He has base scores to begin with obviously and score increases at lvl 4, 8, 12, and 16, so his base Con and Cha are 16(+3) and 18(+4), respectively. Save DC is 10+spelllevel+modifier(Cha+Con), so in this case that would be 10+21+spelllevel = 31+spell level :')
Divine spark smacks of an Oracle to me, several mysteries would make sense for it dark tapestry for Azathoth for example.
That was a good idea, I've looked into it and made a rage prophet with the Outer Rift Mystery (also linked to Azatoth). I did make him rather OP, the base saves for his spells are 31 when raging, so for a, let say, lvl 7 spell, the save is 38 :')
I'm looking for advice for choosing which classes I should give to the mother and uncle of a PC. A little background info on the Homebrew game:
The duo (Cepheis and Celeste) are childeren of a Tiefling (abyssal) Eldritch Knight Donny Stardust, who himself is a "spontanious generatio" child of the CN God Azatoth of the Stardust. That god would destroy and recreate the earth every ~1111 years and would sometimes (unintenionally) leave a little divine energy behind during the proces. Out of this energy, people could be born when it would come in contact with some DNA (in the case of Donny, with demonic blood). He's now an advisor on Elysium and fathered two childeren. The childeren are normal humans, but they both have the divine spark within them and a little of the Stardust heritage. Now, the son (Cepheis) has fully accepted his lineage, but the daughter (Celeste) has not. Cepheis would travel the world and planes to follow in his father's footsteps, Celeste choose to remain on the material plane and join a nomadic group to live out her life in peace. The nomadic group, however, got ambushed by orcs and, as orcs do, raped about. She got pregnant and her son Tarak the half-orc, is a PC in the party I'm DMing for. Every player gets some nice buffs on lvl 3, 9 and 15 and Tarak gets:
PC specific boosts wrote:
Tarak “Void touched” Stardust
3rd Void Child: You gain resist Electricity 5 and resist Cold 5, and wind effects as being one step less severe. At 9th level, you treat wind effects as two steps lower and as a standard action you can gain the effects of a constant Air Walk for 10 minutes per character level. This effect can be dismissed as a free action.
9th Void Build: You gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Constitution. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and to +6 at 17th level.
15th Void breach: As a full-round action you can become a living void breach and move in a straight line up to 10 times your speed. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity while moving in this way. Creatures do not block your movement but solid barriers do unless they are reduced to 0 hit points. The Void breach inflicts 1d6 point of damage per character level; half of which damage is cold and half is force. Creatures or objects in your path receive a reflex save (DC10 + ½ character level + your Constitution modifier). You can use this power once per day for a number of rounds equal to your character level.
Now, I want to have both Cepheis and Celeste be mayor players in the storyline of the homebrew campeign, but I can't really deside which classes to give them. I was looking for a chaokineticists for Celeste, which seemed pretty neat, but other than bloodrager, I'm completely blank for Cepheis.
Do you guys have any fitting and awesome ideas for classes for these 2 NPCs?
This...this looks really good! Nothign to OP, all well written, and I think it would be fun to play this engineer. Well done. Mind if I download the Docs as source material for when I put an engineer in my homebrew game?
Looks that way. Isn't that the whole point of the feat?
I think the feat is mostly aimed at Bloodragers, even the Bloodrager spells DC's increase by 1, and that it's a nice, albeit small, incidental use for rage prophets. But if it works, it works, right?
The Mad Magic prerequisite states that Bloodrage class feature or the perfect clarity rage power is needed for this feat.
And with this feat you can:
D20PFSRD wrote:
Benefit(s): You can cast spells from any class that grants you spells while in a bloodrage, and you keep your rage benefits when using moment of clarity during a rage.
Now, as a rage prophet (core barbarian + oracle), I don't have the bloodrage class feature, but I do can get perfect clarity to qualify for the feat. I don't have any bloodrage spells, so I won't be able to cast them during rage, BUT, I would be able (with this feat) to keep my rage benefits when using moment of clarity, right? That means I can cast one oracle spell during rage, using the moment of clarity rage power, while still keeping the rage benefits, right?
Perhaps go with oracle instead and advanced into Rage profet later?
That really depends on his charisma score. Otherwise prestiging into rage prophet is really useless. My current RP has a base charisma of 18 and base Con of 16, that will make a good Rage Prophet, since at RP lvl 7, both Con and Cha are used for calculating DC's. If your Cha is lame, than you can't get the nice spells (e.g. major curse, slay living) to use the Cha+Con DC's.
Like Mysterious Stranger said, the archeaologist Bard is a good class or Matthew Downie's Eldritch Knight. But, to spice things up, you can also make a gestalt character as the BBEG.
Swashbuckler and Bard, for exmaple, will fit your description perfectly. Just add some to the CR of the BBEG, but at 6th or 7th lvl, the gestalt BBEG is a formidable foe.
Wait whut? DR/- more powerfull than Improved uncanny dodge? If you ask me, I'd never NEVER EVER trade of the uncanny dodges, especially when you can have both of them in 5 lvls. NEVER being flatfooted or not being able to be flanked, IMO, beats the hell out of some DR/-. A rogue would be scared s!&+less against a CRB Barbarian (with uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge), because he can't (normally) sneak the Barbarian with flanking (improved uncanny dodge) or initiative (flatfooted, uncanny dodge), while the same rogue, could deal massive sneak attack against an """"Invulnerable"""" rager. That difference of DR4/- would be s+#% against 7d6 sneak damage from a rogue.
A wizard who has initiative and casts a fireball? You still have your DEX on your refelx save with uncanny dodge while DR/- does s#$* against magic.
So, in general, nah, """"Invulnerable"""" rager is not OP, by far.
When it's my turn to Dm (after the current campeign is over) I will roll the stats for each player, and then they can choose the stats ;)
In other words, I roll 4d6-lowestd6 for times to get one set of 4 numbers. I'll do this 3 times, so I get 3 sets of 4 numbers. Then each player can choose 1 set to pick the highest scores, then one set and pick the middle two and one set to pick the lowest. Once one set has been chosen, it can't be rechosen.
So one can choose: 15 and 16 bottom pool als highest scores from that pool, 13 and 11 from the top pool als middle scores, and 14 and 14 from the middle pool als lowest scores (16,15,14,14,13,11). But you can also go for 17 and 13 from the top pool as highest, 15 and 14 from the bottom pool als middles, and 14 and 14 from the middle pool as lowest (17,15,14,14,14,13).
Each player may find different combinations, but they all have the "same starting stats".
I'm starting a RoTRL group. I want them to have a drawback for their characters based on the 7 deadly sins for reasons in the book. There are already a couple such as envy, avarice (greed), and pride.
Can any of you help think of some for the rest of the flaws? :)
Thank you in advance!
Lust - Wastes money on prostitutes, and would take any given chance to hit on a NPC (even villains), which may provide hilarious situations
Gluttony - Wastes money on food and drinks, would even get distracted in battle when seeing or smelling food/baverages
Sloth - When rolling initiative, if rolled the highest init, gets to start first, otherwise always acts last. Waste money on transportation.
Wrath - Roll d% in combat with , say, 75% as threshold everytime a NPC hits the character. If d% rolls 75+, the NPC that hit the Wrath character becomes the focus of his wrath and have him unleash his full might upon that NPC (i.e. highest spells and special abilites etc.) and completely annihilates said NPC, while neglecting other NPCs (even if it would cause himself harm by AoO's). That means, even is the NPC is "down" (i.e. below 0 hp), the character doesn't stop, the NPC has to feeeeeel his wrath.
There are ways to get a CL of ~25 without going 20+ levels: Ioun stones 'n shizzle. Buy a couple of those stones and your CL will be unmatched for break enchantment.
However, there is sort of a "greater break enchantment", called limited wish of wish. They are capable of removing enchantments without a CL cap. And since Limited Wish is a 7th lvl spell and Wish a 9th lvl spell, they'll be available at CL 13 and CL 17, respectively. True, these spell are a bit more costly than Break Enchantment, but more effective, and you'll only be capped at CL 16 before you get acces to Wish.
Thank you guys!! This is really awesome and really helpful!!
Each tower will grant the players a bonus depending on the ability score associated with the tower (like Artificial 20 and Cevah mentioned) or a specific personal boon (like a unicorn mount) depending on how the players are drawn to each theme and how they solve the puzzles, thanks guys!!
I don't have much at present, but to better frame your request, are you seeking puzzles for the characters to solve (e.g. skill checks and rolls) or the players to solve (e.g. riddles and brain work)?
Clarifying this might help people contribute.
Thanks for tip, it is a bit of both, obstacles for the characters to overcome (dice rolls) and puzzles/ethical questions for the players to solve/overcome. I'll edit OP to include this.
If a cleric is not devoted to a particular deity, she still selects two domains to represent her spiritual inclinations and abilities (subject to GM approval).
This is basically all you need. If you don't serve a particular deity, you can choose your domains, which ever 2 you'd want (albeit at the approval of your GM).
- High Priest (Fishes/Pisces) [a water based tower]
Now some specifics. This tower almost writes itself. Not only do water elementals and aquatic beasts and traps come to mind, but its opposite fire does, too. Maybe some of the fire forces could even be helpful/friendly towards the PCs.
Danny StarDust wrote:
- Lawgiver (water bearer/Aquarius)
(presuming the law-giver theme here):
Maybe here we have some desecrated Archon temples that are now infested with Lawful Evil baddies. Maybe the PCs could rescue an Archon from his imprisonment from his oppositely aligned Devil tormentors.
I know those are the barest of thumbnail sketches, but I hope it might be a start for you.
Maybe if you think of what kind of atmosphere you want your PCs to confront in each tower you could even change the aspect of a particular zodiacal sign or signs. In other words you could reverse engineer the titles based on what you decide to throw at the players.
Thanks for the advice, the advice for the High Priest is really awesome. I think I'm going for a fire-trail "temple", just to screw with the players who will be prepping for a water-tower.
The Law-giver tower with Archons is a hefty idea as well, but more as judges and bringers of law (or a puzzle that the players need to solve to turn chaos into law [lawbringer]).
For the other towers as well, I was more looking/hoping for puzzles and questionairs and stuff, as the towers are made by a Good Guy, and the towers are meant as tests for people to prove their worth and enable them to save the world.
I'm running a homebrew campeign (where there will be a Hellish civil war taking place on the material plane), and one of the players is the grandson of semi-demi-god (Donny Stardust, a tiefling Eldritch Knight on Elysium).
The group will learn of the "Zodiac Towers", which are 12 towers on the material plane, constructed by Donny Stardust. The idea is that after the 12 Zodiac towers are "completed", a final Zodiac tower will erect from a central island on the continent, which will aid and be the key for the party in defeating the feindish raids and wars on the material plane.
Now, I've found a way to rename the zodiac signs to kind of stall the moment the group will realize they are inside the zodaic towers:
- Resurrection (Ram/Aries) [the first tower they will encounter, which will erect the other towers]
- High Priest (Fishes/Pisces) [a water based tower]
- Lawgiver (water bearer/Aquarius)
- Sacrifice (Goat/Capricorn)
- Savior (Archer/Sagittarius)
- Judge (Scorpion/Scorpio)
- Redeemer (Scales/Libra)
- Messiah (Virgin/Virgo)
- King (Lion/Leo)
- Deliverer (Crab/Cancer)
- Sons of God (Twins/Gemini) [Donny is a twin with Danny, who became a vampire)
- Lord of Hosts (Bull/Taurus)
Now I'm looking for puzzles/quests/objectives and rewards for each tower, which kind of relate to the theme of the tower. One tower (Sons of God) will be 2 large statues of Donny battling Danny (who is clearly portrayed as a vampire), as they are descendants of the CN god Azatoth of the Stardust. Sort of like the Argonath of LotR.
Could you help me out with ideas and advice for each tower?
The party consists of a Bard, Rogue, Paladin, and a Barbarian. The barbarian is the grandson of Donny. The Bard is the daughter of the first Dragon Desciple of Apsu, the Rogue and Paladin are sisters who are descendants of a powerful and wealthy family the Silversmiles.
Any help is much appreciated and many thanks in advance!
I'd opt Driver, the rogue archtype as worst of all.
Giving up the most iconic rogue traits (Trapfinding and Trapsense) for such a situational trait is, IMHO, the worst thing anybody can do. By RAW, the Driver traits also only work/are active when the character is driving a vehicle.
Do won't be driving a vehicle into dungeons or castles, so taking the Driver Archtype is, IMHO, throwing away you character.
the dice is there to point you roll them for each multiplier not just roll once and multiply.
from the critical rules :
"Spells and Critical Hits: A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Appendix 1), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit."
stuff:
from spells section rules:"If a ray spell deals damage, you can score a critical hit just as if it were a weapon. A ray spell threatens a critical hit on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a successful critical hit."
you will notice lack of any mention of 'rolling' in ether case. and a few spells with ray or drain are with a set number with no rolls.
the critical rules :
A critical hit means that you roll your damage more than once, with all your usual bonuses, and add the rolls together."
doesn't say if you do not roll for damage there is no double damage, hack that mean small damage weapon of 1 damage (like small shurikens) do not crit. and they do have a crit multiplier.
just treat the heal\harm standard damage as 0dX+10Xlevel
Eventhough I agree with you, that Harm/Heal can crit, your wording and quoting doesn't provide any evidence that it can.
Crit Rulezzz wrote:
from the critical rules:
"Spells and Critical Hits: A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Appendix 1), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit."
Note that I've also highlighted the "Ability" damage, as this rule specifically and only mentiones ability damage and not hit-point damage. If it was worded in a fashion like "If a spell causes hit-point damage, or ability damage or drain...etcetc" it clarifies what happens to hit-point damage on a magical crit.
Honestly, there is more to necromancy than just creating (and controlling) undeads.
I've been a CG Eldrich Knight specialized in necromancy, and there are a lot of Necro spells that that don't involve creating undead creatures. Some are even against undead creatures (e.g. Disrupt Undead).
Most notable and usable Necro spells for L/N/CG Arcane casters:
- Touch of fatigue
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- Ray of Sickening
- Ray of Exhaustion
- (Wall of) Blindness/deafness
- Brow Gasher
- False life (greater)
- Life Pact
- Stricken Heart
- Halt undead
- Healing thief <- this one is hilarious btw
- Howling agony
- Vampiric touch
- Bestow Curse (personal favorite)
- Bloatbomb <- hilarious one
- Deathless
- Enervation
- Fear
- Suffocation
- Vampiric Shadow Shield
- Waves of fatigue
- Banshee Blast
- Curse, Major
- Undeath to death
- Unwilling shield <- hilarious and functional
- Finger of Death (personal favorite)
- Waves of Exhaustion
- Clone
- Energy Drain
- Soul bind
- Suffocation, mass
- Wail of the Banshee
My first thoughts are that King Ganondorf (hail the king) is a Gestalt character, mainly because he's bad-ass strong. Like you said, schoolbussizedsword and magic, yet not paladin/bloodrager/ranger style magic, but more sorcerer/oracle style magic (i.e. high lvl magic).
So my first guess is a gestalt character, probably figter/barbarian with sorcerer/oracle.
