Sean O'Brien 794's page

You'd better believe he is. When bombs and mutagens won't get the job done, loads up whatever kind of cartridge amuses him most and goes to town. Practices his aim on a flock of birds he keeps in his home. He's kind of a nut case, but he's damn fun.

I have an alchemist BBEG, more of a side villain, but he's the best in my campaign and the players regard him with equal parts terror and admiration. No gunslinger dip, just a pistol and the Amateur Gunslinger and Gunsmithing feats. Worth the feat tax in terms of a flavourful and effective boss. They went after him early thinking he was small change, and he demolished them and sent them home with their tails between their legs.

You might want to modify some of the more absurdly OP elements of the Dread Vampire template. It's 3rd party power creep on steroids, basically unkillable the way it's written right now.

So Sean,

What's the verdict?

Inquiring minds want to know.

There are so many strings of conversation up in the air right now on this thing, I haven't the foggiest idea which you're waiting on a verdict for.

Did you ever specifically mention that he wasn't wearing a great big hat the whole time he's outside?

Uh... that's a tough one. Great big illusion? Daylight spell inside of a shielded environment? Technically vampires aren't harmed by spells that replicate daylight.

If there does happen to be a back door, grab a group of soldiers (preferably on horseback if you got em) and put them on standby for a sortie if you need one. If there's a chance of them breaking through the gate/wall, better to risk a handful of troops than the whole fort. A sortie can quickly take down rams and siege engines before they become a serious threat.

Moats filled with acid are lovely too. Moat full of waters of maddening (since that's something you aim to craft) can hold them back for a good long time.

Any battlefield control spells you have that can separate the orcs are also essential. Split a group off, surround and kill them.

If the rogue and ranger can safely scout out the enemy formations to get a picture of their numbers/gear before the assault, that intelligence will be invaluable regarding what to craft and build.

The best way for the PC's not to view him as a threat... is for him to not be a threat. A high level bard is a powerful character with great manipulative powers.

On the other hand... a commoner with a very powerful tool, like an orb of dragonkind that he keeps very carefully hidden from the PC's, couldn't possibly be the BBEG...

The man behind the man?

Sean O'Brien 794 wrote:

eltacolibre wrote:
Christianity/Judaism usually tend to make people uncomfortable at gaming table, so I usually just avoid it for any setting
Nobody's uncomfortable with religion at the gaming table. We're Canadian.
I'm sure there's a good comeback to this, but it eludes me. Eh!

We should be friends forever now.

Christianity/Judaism usually tend to make people uncomfortable at gaming table, so I usually just avoid it for any setting

Nobody's uncomfortable with religion at the gaming table. We're Canadian.

I recommend that his courtyard have a lot of shade, for starters. Perhaps this hat of disguise that he wears could have a particularly wide brim that he never takes off while outside. Indoors there are remarkably few windows. I'd say that I'd go as far as to make the courtyard that he walks in a dense orchard. You get where I'm going, it's all things that the PCs can pick up on, but nothing that screams "vampire!" It also goes without saying that he doesn't have any rivers running through the compound.
Succubus is good, especially since they can change shape as they please, but why is this succubus serving a vampire? Somebody would have had to use some sort of binding spell on her, since they're powerful demons (though the vampire would be even more powerful) and thus unlikely to obey orders without proper coaxing. Of, course, a vampire who can coax a succubus just proves himself as a force to be reckoned with. If you have enough succubi, and each can dominate somebody once per day, you could enslave the entire party in one fell swoop if they don't make their will saves.

Here's the rough draft for the Casca NPC. Still working out his role in the storyline, but here's what I got so far.

Problem with creating full-fledged vampires is that these vampires have a will of their own. Might not even like you for turning them. You have no control over them and they owe no allegiance to you.

No, because vampire spawn are not full vampires until they are freed. They do not get the Create Spawn ability according to RAW.

"It gains the blood drain and
dominate vampire special attacks.
• It gains channel resistance +2, DR
5/silver, resist cold and energy 10, fast
healing 2, and the vampire qualities listed
above (gaseous form, shadowless, and
spider climb).
• A vampire spawn gains all of the
standard vampire weaknesses.
• A vampire spawn is
CR 4."

This is copy pasted right out of the Bestiary.

Inquisitor. Melee combat abilities (judgements, bane, solo tactics/teamwork feats) spontaneous divine casting (learn cure spells and you're good to go), and lots of class abilities that make you an expert scout, tracker, and hunter/killer (detect alignment, track, monster lore). Spell list is great, saves are great.

Problem is Abadar's weapon is a crossbow, which isn't much use since you're already proficient in repeating crossbows and longbows. You can avoid feats and just sword and board with a morningstar+shield combo. And, of course, the greatsword is just a feat away.

That should pretty much fill out your character concept and intended role.

I'm just gonna rule on this race issue. Rome is a purely human empire, while the rest of the world is littered with other races that exist in isolated regions. Orcs are barbarians from the mountains. On top of one mountain is a tribe of Tengus (cause bird people like heights). I think of the logic of races environmentally, not in terms of their national equivalent in the real world. Gnomes and elves like the forest, dwarves like rocky areas. This has nothing to do with nations, just that regional geography.

As for things like Germania, Gaul, Egypt, Persia, mostly these are human-centric, with slight propensity towards certain less common races. Egypt, for example, has a large catfolk population, because ancient Egyptian culture revered cats. That's not racism, just cultural extrapolation.

Let's put the issue to bed and leave what constitutes racism to the philosophers.

I think you've really answered the problem for yourself. Rather than write down the exact description of everything, have a list of quick point-form questions related to the key information so you can fill in the gaps with your own words.

For example:

You've got an NPC that the PCs would already know about in this universe, but the players don't know anything about him/her, so you need to give them the essentials. Rather than delve into the entirety of their story like the average Tolkien wannabe, simply answer these questions.

1. What is this NPC known for? One or two simple things that you can elaborate on if asked.
2. Do the character's know this person?
3. Quick synopsis of the NPCs appearance. Defining features only. Tall? Short? Morbidly obese? Facial scar? etc.

Same goes for rooms. Normally I just say "it's old-looking. Mostly stone. Long table in the centre. Chairs have been knocked down." Point form usually does it, but you say it in your own words, which is where the flavour comes from. Rather than lots and lots of descriptions, how you describe it gives it atmosphere. Should they be afraid? Describe it ominously. Normally I just deadpan it and let them react to the information as they will, rather than indicate that something's out of place.

I dunno if you can get away with him being undead, but vampires are the kings/queens of making mortals into their b!&%%es. Dominate person plus charisma bonuses make them an excellent template to add to a bard who specializes in manipulating people. Problem is detectability, but I'm sure there's some magic means to manage this. Technically all this BBEG would need is a solid disguise check, so a hat of disguise would do the trick for the most part. And, of course, if cover's blown, just bust out some dominate and let the PCs fight each other for a bit.

Thank you, Mr. Fishy. You've got some excellent ideas. I'm especially fond of the idea that the war that's beginning directly over their heads is littering the gate with newly killed souls from both sides of the battle. This in itself presents a complication, an obstacle to overcome, and relevant exposition for what's happening in the outside world.

The idea that blood of the living can feed the restless dead can at the very least present some motive for hostile shades looking to feel life again. Very few of the freshly killed would be buried or burned with the coins to pay for their trip over the river, so some shades could potentially grant the PCs safe passage or even aid them if they're paid a couple gp. This would make things complicated as more shades try to take advantage of this. A blood offering to gain information from the dead would also be an interesting ritual to role play.

I know Set from Egyptian mythology. Why specifically Thaddeus of Edessa? Fairly low ranking on the Christian celestial scale unless I'm reading wrong. Is it cause of his influence in Syria, which is sort of near Egypt?

If Christianity in this campaign ends up going the 'Holy Trinity Route' in the future, both Gods would potentially be gaining followers. If they aren't adverse to sharing, it could be a win-win situation for both.

Well, I think the best asset here is that this blending of mythology/theology allows access to Elysium and Heaven, both of which have a set of monsters/monsterous NPC possibilities in the Bestiaries, and thus saves me a lot of time. Plus, the idea of some sort of celestial politics going on above the action could add an interesting dynamic once things start to get serious.

I try not to be offended by ignorance, whether Campbell's or someone else's. The idea that there's no mercy in the Hebrew Scriptures is one of Campbell's all-time idiocies ... and he had more than a few.

Alright, let's not get into actual theological debate here. If it ain't Pathfinder related, it ain't for the Pathfinder forum.

Sorry, didn't specify I was referring to Mythic rules.

Well Mercury became Jesus in order to get a personal following. Christian clerics are still praying to him, they just don't realize it, and they get their spells from him.

Also, the Jewish God would definitely still exist, being at comparative power to Mercury or any other god in this world. The Jewish religion carried on long after Christianity came around, and it does so similarly here. The old testament god is a vengeful fellow, but His options would come down to vengeance against unsuspecting followers of a false prophet who is actually a real god, or against Mercury himself, which would put Him at odds with the other Olympians.

Returning to this Casca NPC, would he be too OP if he was a tier 10 champion or guardian for the immortality benefits? Technically his character level would still be around 9 or 10, which would even out his CR to 14. Since I figure that's around where I expect the PCs to be when they encounter him, it shouldn't be a problem.

Haha, didn't mean for my little twist on mythology to turn into a theological debate! Bear in mind that two of the three parties I'm running this for tend to approach the game pretty humorously, and half the guys play stoned.

Well, isn't Hermes famed for stealing Apollo's cattle? I suppose it isn't too far to The Good Shepherd from there.

Christianity is, according to skeptics, an amalgamated hodgepodge of Jewish and Greek thought, after all. Hermes is a passable fit.

[I have little doubt the above statements just earned this fairly devout Catholic about twenty more minutes in Purgatory.

That's such a good and plausible concept/justification that I have no choice but to use it. Also, I sincerely appreciate those extra minutes in Purgatory you'll be spending just to help me write a decent campaign :p

As for Casca, a lot of what you guys have written so far is really good. I have to head out in a minute, but soon I'll come back with a sample stat block for a level 10 gladiator. Maybe a couple levels of cavalier for those teamwork feats? After all, he's a centurion, leader of men. Fits the flavour and makes him a good boost if he gets allies.

The problem with implementing Casca effectively is that he's intimately associated with Jesus Christ—the Jesus Christ that is in fact the omnipotent being claimed by Orthodox Christianity. Having Christ be Mercury with a beard [arches brow again] causes Casca's legend to lose a great deal of its poignancy and potency.

Maybe the Spear of Destiny is particularly effective against the gods, and thus desirable?

Did Jesus/Mercury die? Maybe folks don't know it was Mercury?

Nice thinking on the spear. After all, what better Chekhov's gun/Macguffin in a Titan based campaign than a god-bane spear?

What I'm thinking now is that Mercury took human form with some God-related powers, so his human body was killed. The blood blessed the spear and made Casca immortal (which he decided not to revoke, being miffed for being stabbed while nailed to a cross). Mercury busted out three days later as a god again, and being the fun-loving trickster he is, decided to forgive the people who were bowing down to him rather than go all divine wrath. Now he's got a bunch of worshipers as this "Jesus" figure and decided to leave them to their own devices.

Hmm, Celts and Germanians led by druids and warlords. That might do nicely for the sort of empty space I've got in Gaul/Germania/Britain. Not yet conquered, but with the empires on their doorstep. Leaders that are divided on whether or not to fight or submit, complete with profiteers and mercenaries who will sell out the PCs and their own people to the highest bidder. I'll see what I can do with this one, I certainly like it.

This is a campaign screaming to have Casca Rufio Longinus as an NPC!

I had literally never heard of this character or the Casca series until I looked him up. It's a pretty badass NPC concept, though not sure how to implement him. Any ideas?

I did have one alternative in mind, though I have a feeling it would be rejected. Later, the angel who helped them starts to lose hope. Time is running out and his/her own plan failed. Then it occurs to him/her that if the PCs die, their souls get to cross over for free. So this angel tries to kill them. At that point it's gone dark and has become an mythic Erinyes (Fury).

Maybe there could be something that Charon wants from them in exchange for a lift? I'd be semi-open to something in a different part of the world than this artifact, so at least there are two possible destinations.

I just sort of mixed the races in. Reason I had the main characters be former slaves in a rag-tag community helped explain why so many races were spoken for in one place.

Reason loss of slaves would be a disaster is because at that point they comprised most of the workforce. Farmers were suffocating under the weight of wealthy landowners who had slaves doing all the labour. No slaves would mean that until they could hastily acquire more, most production of basic necessities such as building materials and food would grind to a halt. It takes time to re-build that kind of infrastructure, though it would help explain why they promptly invade everybody they can reach while letting the Sparticans go. Hannibal proved the dangers of crossing the alps at the time well enough.

Hadn't heard that story of Heron the inventor, though I heard a similar one about a glass-maker in Alexandria who brought a form of glass that was almost unbreakable to the governor. After determining that nobody else knew of this invention, the governor immediately had the glass-maker killed, though this is probably also a myth.

I could plausibly set the action a couple hundred years later instead of one century. Empire could basically get to where it was, Republic could break down, technological advancements made (I'm thinking a steampunk/clockwork army right now. I really really want one).

Looking at the outline, I would caution against the thinking that there is only one true way to overcome a challenge. Specifically, the crossing of the Archeron river. I would suggest statting out the 4-5 different ways to cross that come to mind, and staying open to the possibilities that yet another way may be what occurs to the party. Sticking to only one method of moving forward can easily cause frustration for both the DM and the players which is why it is recommended not to do so.

4-5 different ways to cross the river means that many long term adventure possibilities that I have to write on the fly. I give a lot of leg room when it comes to choices, and the three different parties have gone in very different directions. This is just kind of one of those fixed things. They need a specific artifact, but can go about looking for it any way they want. If there's an easier way across, then they might get there too soon. It's railroading, but it's incredibly selective railroading.

If you've got 4-5 ideas of these ways across that can still follow a similar enough path, I might be able to work with that. I'm just not sure I'd have time to write it all.

Polearm Fighter, or any reach-build with Combat Reflexes and a couple of trip related feats can do a lot of harm to many opponents.

Master of Many Style Monk archetype can mix up a couple of style feat chains to give themselves reach and shorten the path to Whirlwind Attacking. My friend's got a specific build that combines Dragon and Marid Styles.

Literally anybody with Cleave and related feats, though they lose their luster over time so a Fighter who can retrain them gets a leg up.

Ooh, Prometheus. Now we're talking. I was looking for some sort of divine guide/figure. Was thinking maybe an angel (judaism/christianity counts), who gets them out of the mountain and onto their next quest. Prometheus could fit that role nicely, and he slots perfectly into the setting. Scaled down stats are good. I'll browse around for a suitable NPC/monster/template for him.

I've got a rough campaign outline here for those who wanna take a look. Figure if I'm looking for help, I should be specific as I can.

Lot of stuff. I have levels 1-20 in mind and probably some mythic. Long campaign.

As a matter of fact, a large orc hoarde acts as a sort of secondary/distraction antagonist when the PCs are still with their community in the mountains, notorious for their barbarian populations at the time.

Ogres or ogrekin barbarians could make an interesting addition once they expand outwards. A proper tribe of monsters to take their minds off all the damn gods and daemons :P

True. Didn't mean to sound snarky in response to 8th Dwarf's advice, just trying to explain that the . The question I asked was what would happen if all the slaves escaped Rome at once, given that Rome was technologically about 200 years from going to the moon (they had harnessed steam, but merely used it for toys). The addition of the Eastern Empire came from the premise that conquest would accelerate after industry began to boom as an alternative to slave labour. My exact estimations are pretty sketchy, I admit. Mostly just wanted to set up the world as efficiently as possible. I aim to borrow generously from history for the setting without adhering to it too much.

It's actually pretty much exactly 100 years, give or take a year or two, which can be a lot if you consider the 20th century. What I'm working with is the accelerated expansion that pretty much conquered as much domain as they had at their peak, so occupied Israel is a thing. Romans in that area saw him do some crazy stuff and conversions happened pretty quickly. Imagine a Jewish rebellion but with the ultimate mythic buff cleric/heirophant backing them, turning out to be an actual Roman god who decided he wanted some proper followers rather than act as a messenger for the higher ups.

Bearing in mind that in this universe the gods are a fact rather than a religion, so it comes down to who you like better at the time. If anybody has a better geopolitical explanation for how these events can unfold, I'm all ears. Long as the results work for the story.

The ferryman was on the river Acheron btw

Right. Charon, ferryman of the Archeron, river of Tartarus. I'm rusty. Used to be a huge mythology buff. Hard enough to give everything the Roman name and not the Greek name. Actually did custom fit the Roman gods over the standard gods/domains.

Lastly, a quick note on the campaign as it's being played. I've got three parties playing it. One's intensely political, one tends to run straight for the action, and one is in it for the lolz. As such, a bit of tongue-in-cheek is called for pretty consistently to appease a couple of the parties. Hence Jesus as Mercury. Can be played seriously, also hilariously.

I haven't read The Jewish Wars, but I can take a gander at if I can. I've heard of Give Me Back My Legions, I'll look for that one too.

Rome was still a "republic" at the time of Spartacus's revolt. Pompey and Crassus are just forming their political alliance and Julius has yet to invade Gaul.

If the revolt was successful the slaves would have escaped and dispersed. Rome like the machine it was would have churned out new legions and crushed any revolts harshly restocking its supply of slaves.

Historical accuracy is all well and great, but Rome also didn't include the existence of gnomes, magic, and vampires. I have a scene where the PCs discover that Jesus was just Mercury with a beard. I'm using creative license to create a flavorful campaign world that feels like it could have been. Ever see Gladiator?

Verteitiger, this cult sounds so cool it would be disgraceful not to use. Thanks a lot for the idea!

Blast, almost forgot about the river Stix... that actually solves my problem for the fourth chamber. The evil cleric has a Macguffin that lets him cross over, but the PCs need to find their own version of this artifact. Makes sense if this artifact is a way of gaining passage from the ferryman. This is what leads to the rest of the campaign. They gotta head back out into the world after that point to find this artifact.

Off to Wikipedia I go...

Final boss of the previous chapter happens to be a Dhampir anti-paladin actually, sidekick of the cleric who stays behind to kill every Spartican who could pursue him beneath the world. Vampires are a solid chunk of the villains in part 1.

Tieflings would make a lot of sense actually. I'm thinking of tapping into that third party template for demon possessed characters as well.

The underworld I have planned is divided into chambers, and each chamber must be solved before proceeding to the next one. The first chamber is kinda fuzzy. Mostly empty, puzzle to be solved to move to chamber 2. Maybe a couple otyughs for kicks and giggles.

Chamber 2 is the Kingdom of Hell, where the morphed and possessed miners live. They hold a vague grudge against the Sparticans who sealed them in when the dug too deep 20 years ago, but are not immediately hostile. Some stuff needs to happen here to get to chamber 3. PCs should be in danger of being possessed the same way, so it should revolve around that.

Chamber 3 is terribly haunted and partially sentient. Getting closer to the underworld itself, this place changes shape at will to separate the PCs. Combined with haunts and some undead monsters, I want this to be a terrifying series of encounters and puzzles.

Forgot to mention that APL at this point is around 5-8.

Hey, I'm building a campaign setting in alternate universe Roman empire. Basically imagining if Spartacus' rebellion succeeded and the slaves escaped, causing the empire to collapse, then have an industrial revolution. Eastern and Western empires go for a century without communications, now they are about to clash in a massive war that the PCs are caught between as descendants of the slave rebels. Apart from specific historical basis on Earth, the rest of the setting is pure Pathfinder.

I'm writing as fast as I can, but there aren't enough hours, and the party I'm running is catching up. Main plot revolves around an evil cleric with support from daemons attempting to unleash the Titans from Tartarus, with the war as a sort of subplot. PCs are mainly trying to save their people and eventually save the world.

Right now the key is writing the second major chapter, where the PCs chase the evil cleric into the underworld, which is accessed through a mine that was dug just a bit too deep. There they discover members of their own society (miners) who they thought long dead. The kicker is that these people have gone dark, which is discovered to be because they got too close to the shades below and were possessed and transformed.

Most of these people are now darkfolk (former humans) and Duergar (former dwarves). They transformed 20 years ago. Love the idea of many turning into shadow dancers, but apart from that the Kindgom of Hell (the community of these 200-odd trapped Sparticans) is pretty loosely defined. Long story short I could use some ideas of semi-hostile NPCs.

I'll post more as I go along, but this is sort of the immediate thing. Any ideas welcome. Go crazy!

Forever dotted. Douglas Muir, your initials are DM for a reason. I love all of this.

The RAI for any class granted bonus feat is you bypass prerequisites.

Playing a LE Dhampir Inquisitor for Kingmaker right now. Only evil member of a party that includes a LG Cavalier. I handle law and order on the fringes, a necessary evil to keep the kingdom intact. I have a code of honour so my teammates know I can be counted on so long as it serves my interests. I just happen to drink the blood of my prisoners and torture them relentlessly for pleasure. LE is really the best way to maintain a team dynamic while still evil.

I was under the impression that RAW only allow spontaneous casters to prestige into DD. If entering with Magus, you'd still have to take a level of either bard or draconic sorcerer to make it happen, no?

The good thing about level one is that it's not gonna kill you. 18 AC at level one is definitely a good start. Light armour proficiency can be a doll.

I think that with vanishing trick you can depend on being able to disappear when the hits start coming too hard so you can land SAs without flanking. You'll be leaving the rogue in the dirt a bit, but life's hard that way for rogues. Add the shadow clone trick later and you've just gotten a 75% miss chance even when visible.

I think you've got a good build overall. Take toughness if you have the feats to spare, but don't prioritize it unless you start dropping in combat too often. An unconscious ninja is a useless ninja.

Ninjas aren't proficient with falcions. You'll have to take a feat for it if you want to play ninja. As a matter of fact they don't have much in terms of two-handed weapons except simple weapons like the longspear or the ball and sickle. Best you could look for is the katana wielded two handed, which gives you the same crit range as the falcion and leaves a hand free for things like shuriken.

Usually 1/2 level includes the statement of (minimum 1).

When SA isn't an option, you'll be depending on strength for damage, which for you is justifiably low, so taking a katana in two hands would hurt you cause of no finesse. There's always the poison sand tube option. Blast a cone of poisoned sand at the lot of them. Poison use if kind of your thing as a ninja anyway.

Get the Resilient trait for fortitude saves. Killer helps dish out more pain on crits. I think only some campaign traits help with will saves. Good thing your wisdom is pretty good.

Thrown weapons are the key here, I think, especially ones that can be used in melee and range like daggers, star knives, spears, etc. Chakram are good, but you can't melee with them. You can draw one and toss it, toss one you're holding and draw another with Quick Draw, and collect them at the end of the fight. Plus, you save on the money to adjust a composite longbow to your strength.

For real swiss army feel, carry some pila (pilum) when the enemy's got a shield. I'm also a hunga-munga fan, cause you can TWF them in melee and throw them as you please.

Admittedly this may catch up with you in later levels as being a jack of all trades makes you a master of none. You may have to streamline to make it work.

Also, I'd add TWF to shield bash when you sword and board. Spike the shield.

Always take vanishing trick. Combine that with the sorcerer taking the spell vanish and the rogue's necessary high stealth score and that'll be the key to your party surviving. Face facts, your party is pretty squishy, and there are beasts in Runelords that can one-shot each of you, especially at early levels.

I'm actually playing Runelords right now with a 5 player party. My Paladin has been the primary tank for most of it, taking hits that could drop the others. I'm also the only original character still in the game. Keep that in mind when you play. You won't always be the one sneaking into combat. Sometimes it'll go quite the opposite way.

I'd also agree on the money point that dropout made. Take traits that boost your saves, not your starting cash. You'll get money soon enough.

The rogue tag-team SA strategy is great against single, large targets. Getting into flanking position like that when fighting a room full of enemies will be almost impossible. Have a backup plan when you need to engage multiple opponents. The trip strategy sounds like a good plan, but you'll need to get snap shot to make ranged AoOs when they get up.

Lastly, I'd say don't bother with Improved Feint. I do like it with things like duelist builds, normally fighters who can spare the feats. You can't. TWF is a feat-intensive style, so stick with those.

Best I've got so far is one I'm about to run, and it just sort of sprang to me right before I was about to run a homebrew (delaying us slightly while I developed him).

Basically there's a trading center in the PCs' home town run by two criminal merchants. One's your typical sly mob-boss/merchant prince, while the primary competitor is a psychopathic gnome master chymist named S@~+ Kenter (he coined that first name himself). He's also an amateur gunslinger who practices on a flock of birds he keeps in his house at all times. Unlike most gnomes he was born with literally no talent for magic, which is why he started dabbling in alchemy and gun smithing.

The thing is that even the most modest of local knowledge checks reveals that despite the fact that he's a murderous lunatic, his presence in the trading enclave is the only reason that the main mob-boss offers reasonable prices on any of his goods, meaning that removing him, no matter what he does to the PCs, is a bad call for them. I'm curious to see how they handle it.

Paladin. Always paladin.

Apart from the inherent tanking capacity (solid saves, heavy armour, smite evil, self-healing as swift action), almost all of the best paladin spells are about what you want out of this character.

Challenge Evil, Knight's Calling, Compel Hostility are all spells dedicated to making opponents attack you instead of your allies. Shield Other and Paladin's Sacrifice make it so that even if they do attack your allies, you take the hit instead. Then there's things like Flames of Entanglement, which literally attaches your opponent to you.

Paladin's Sacrifice in particular is a must-have, since you can cast it as an immediate action so you can straight up save a friend's life if all else fails. Had that one happen myself, saved the party rogue at the height of a boss fight, who then killed the boss on his next turn.

Combine that with stacking auras that make you immune to fear, disease, charms, and later on compulsions (auras that offer bonuses to all nearby allies) and you've got all the essential components of a bodyguarding tank. Crank up that charisma score and away you go.

Playing it as part of a party right now. It's ungodly levels of fun. There's a lot a variety in the storyline, like a murder mystery, a haunted house, and leading an assault on a captured fort, all within the first three books. It's worth playing through first before DMing it.