Hmm.... if leadership is allowed. Then this can be done at level 15, with copious amounts of followers and cohorts. But, we'll go to level 20.
Class X 5 levels/Noble Scion 10 levels/Class Y 5 levels
With its "Greater Leadership" ability, you now have a cohort of equal level.
We now have countless Cohorts, Followers, and Servitors. With those we now have nigh-unlimited funds.
Everyone will have extended Delay Poison or Neutralize Poison cast upon them, since according to the Technology Guide, radiation is a poison effect. Copious amounts of Resist Energy and Protection from Energy as well.
Anyone that dies can be reincarnated or raised.
or
They all just cast Rebuke Technology. The "Legion" would have enough castings of the spell through scrolls or wands or personally casting the spell that the nuke assault will fail.
or
Using antitech field they can put themselves in the path of the nukes. They'll either detonate or fall harmlessly to the ground, either case. That'll be round one, during the nuke launches.
The scariest monsters are the ones you cannot see.
Though my players seem to have a great dislike of kobolds and glue pots/tanglefoot bags. They made a song about it.
Though now I think I shall introduce them to pugwampi's and glue pots/tanglefoot bags... adding in class levels too. Maybe a pugwampi with a grease spell.
Though the scariest monster that I've run was a human child ghost, wielding a ghost touched dagger, it sang a lot as it chased the party through a sewer with tight spaces for medium creatures.
Bardicus Musicus
N Venerable (SoE) Male Human Bard 20 (Humanoid [Human])
Initiative +20; Senses Perception +27; Improved Low-Light Vision, Darkvision 120ft
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DEFENSE
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HP 183 (20d8+90); negate critical hit or sneak attack (turns to regular attack; immediate action; 7 times); fast healing 1, regeneration lost limbs, organs, other body parts
AC 46, touch 29, flat-footed 40 (+8 armor, +4 shield, +5 Deflection, +6 Dex, +5 Enchancement, +1 Insight, +2 Luck, +5 Natural); Concealment (blur-like effect; 20% miss chance), 1/day immediate action deflect ranged attack; +2 armor bonus vs. Outsiders (chaos, evil, good, law), 1/round deflect melee attack (immediate action; +2 shield bonus vs. melee attack); arrow deflection 1/round (R DC 20 + Enhancement bonus to negate attack)
Fort +23, Ref +30, Will +25; +4 vs. bardic performance, language-dependant, sonic effects; evasion
Immunities harmful vapors and gases (such as cloudkill and stinking cloud effects, as well as inhaled poisons), bleed damage; hostile polymorph effects (6 times; failed saves)
Resistances DR 2/— vs. Outsiders (chaos, evil, good, law), Magical Beasts, and Dragons; Fire 30
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30ft (6 squares); fly 60ft (good)
Melee +4 Agile Bane (Outsiders [chaos, evil, good, law], Magical Beasts] Spiked Gauntlet +26/+21/+16 melee (1d4+11 plus 2+2d6 vs. Outsiders and Magical Beasts/20x20)
Ranged nothing
SA bardic performance 56 rounds/day (swift action; DC 36 mod; countersong, deadly performance, dirge of doom, distraction, fascinate, frightening tune, inspire competence +6, inspire courage +4, inspire greatness, inspire heroics, mass suggestion, soothing performance, suggestion)
Bard Spells Known (CL 20th; Concentration +36; DC 24 + spell level [+2 Enchantment spells]):
6 (5/day) dirge of the victorious knights, fool’s forbiddance, greater shout, overwhelming presence
5 (5/day) deafening song bolt, greater dispel magic, frozen note, ki shout, resonating word, shadowbard, shadow walk, false vision
4 (5/day) dance of 100 cuts, dimension door, echolocation, freedom of movement, shocking image, virtuoso performance
3 (5/day) clairaudience/clairvoyance, cure serious wounds, dispel magic, exquisite accompaniment, haste, purging finale, see invisibility
2 (5/day) acute senses, allegro, alter self, cure moderate wounds, glitterdust, heroism, pyrotechnics
1 (5/day) anticipate peril, expeditious retreat, feather fall, magic aura, saving finale, summon minor monster, weapon wand
0 (at will) dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound, light, mending, prestidigitation, read magic, spark, summon instrument Bardic Masterpieces ancient’s flight (1 full round; 2 bardic performance rounds/round active; 5th level spell slot), at the heart of it all (5 full rounds; 5 bardic performance rounds; lasts 24 hours; 3rd level spell slot), clamor of the heavens (3 full rounds; 3 bardic performance rounds/round +1 each round; 5th level spell slot), pallavi of nirvana’s blossoming (3 full rounds; 3 bardic performance rounds; lasts 20 minutes; 4th level spell slot); rat quadrille (1 standard action; 3 bardic performance rounds; 10 minutes or 1 minute; 2nd level spell slot), the dumbshow of gorrac (1 full round; 2 bardic performances; 2nd level spell slot), the winds of the five heavens (3 full rounds; 3 bardic performances; lasts 200 minutes; 4th level spell slot), triple time (1 minute; 1 bardic performance; lasts 1 hour; 1st level spell slot); vindictive soliloquy (5 full rounds; 5 bardic performances; lasts 20 minutes or 15 bolts; 4th level spell slot), the canticle of joy (1 round; 1 bardic performance/round; 3rd level spell slot)
song of extinction (5 full rounds; remaining performances for the day; 6th spell slot)
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STATISTICS
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Str 10, Dex 24, Con 22, Int 22, Wis 14, Cha 38
BAB +15; CMB +17; CMD 34
Skills Craft (painting) +31, Knowledge (arcana) +28, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +28, Knowledge (engineering) +18, Knowledge (geography) +18, Knowledge (history) +18, Knowledge (local) +18, Knowledge (nature) +28, Knowledge (nobility) +18, Knowledge (planes) +28, Knowledge (religion) +28, Linguistics +18, Perception +27, Perform (comedy) +36, Perform (dance) +36, Perform (key-board instruments) +36, Perform (oratory) +36, Perform (sing) +36, Perform (wind instruments) +36, Spellcraft +27, Use Magic Device +36
Feats Noble Scion of War, Weapon Finesse, Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Lingering Performance, Ability Focus (bardic performance), Harmonic Sage, Spellsong, Spell Focus (enchantment), Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Dimensional Agility
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Languages Varisian, common, draconic, celestial, infernal, abyssal, thassilonian, necril, giant, azlanti, ancient osiriani, undercommon, aklo, auran, terran, ignan, aquan, aboleth, elven, goblin, orc
Traits Fate’s Favored
SQ bardic knowledge +10, jack-of-all-trades (use any skill, all skills are class skills, take 10 on any skill), lore master 3/day, versatile performance (dance [acrobatics, fly], comedy [bluff, intimidate], oratory [diplomacy, sense motive], keyboard instruments [diplomacy, intimidate], wind [diplomacy, handle-animal]), well-versed, necklace of adaptation (breath underwater, in a vacuum, or other airless environments)
Gear Clothing (traveler’s set), Headband of Aerial Agility (Cha) +6, Necklace of Adaptation, Vest of Resistance +5, Cloak of Minor Displacement, Vambraces of Defense (slotless), Bracelet of Second Chances, Rod of Absorption (25 levels filled; weapon cord), Mithral Chainshirt +4 (Defiant Outsiders [good, evil, law, chaos], Dragons, Magical Beasts], Quickblock Red Dragonhide Buckler (Greater Energy Resistance [fire]), Ring of Protection +5, Ring of Evasion, Ring of Continuation, Ring of Regeneration, Belt of Physical Might (Con, Dex) +6, necklace of natural armor +5hand of glory (2; slotless), headband of vast intelligence +2 (slotless), +4 Guardian Guantlet, +4 Defending Dagger, Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier (slotless), Eyes of the Dragon
Other Gear Handy haversack (2), scroll of life bubble (2), bead of newt prevention (6), boundary chalk, concealing pockets (2), waterproof hooded lantern, candle of invocation, dust of dryness (filled beads; 8), elixir of vision, doom harp, eversmoking bottle, feather token (tree; 8), marvelous pigment (2), luckstone (+1 luck bonus on saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks), wasp nest of swarming (10), books read (+4 [Int, Wis, Cha, Dex, Con], +2 [Str]), Dusty Rose Prism (Ioun Stone), portable hole (2), opera script (100g)
Gold Left Over 139,252 (WBL 880,000 + 440,000 for having 2 crafting feats; Magic Arms and Armor, Wondrous Items were bought at half price)
Shoggoth Fight:
Finding a Shoggoth was rather easy for Bardicus, but getting to him was another matter entirely.
Initiative – Bardicus 30
Initiative – Shoggoth 22
1st Round: Upon finding Shoggoth’s Lair, Bardicus casts Exquisite Accompaniment into his ring of continuation, then spends a swift action for the spell to continue his Fascinate Performance
1st Round: Shoggoth upon detecting the intruder charges out but once within the range of the bard’s fascinate ability it makes a will save (on a roll of 19 or less it fails), it sits in the water quietly watching Bardicus
2nd Round: Bardicus can now at his leisure buff and do what have you for the next 24 hours, because Shoggoth cannot do anything while fascinated until something distracts it or endangers the creature.
Buffs: Casts Freedom of Movement (200 minutes)
Buff: Casts Echolocation (200 minutes)
5th Round: Bardicus cracks his knuckles and then starts a new performance (which should not interfere with the ring of continuation’s fascinate performance), the Shoggoth now has to make a will save or die from enjoyment, after the performance he uncorks the eversmoking bottle
5th Round: Shoggoth fails the will save and dies from the deadly performance, out of sheer joy.
6th round: Bardicus is transported to the next fight.
Used this Fight:
2 rounds of Bardic Performance, 3rd level spell, 2 4th level spells
Demon, Balor’s Fight:
Knowing of Bardicus and his capabilities the Balor is quite confident that it can win. I mean come on, it’s a bard!
Though not knowing how Bardicus will appear may cost the Balor. The Balor knows that while flat-footed, it has a 50% of hitting the bard, when not flat-footed it drops down to 10%.
The balor also knows that bards tend to be squishy and can be eaten in many different ways, but doesn’t know quite know what the item held in the bard’s hand is, though it looks familiar, almost as if other opponents have had them in the past and knows targeted spells are absorbed into the rod.
Surprise Round Balor: The Balor grins at Bardicus “Your time to die has come mortal!” (Free action). Then if the Summon SLA is a standard action it summons a Vrolikai Demon (CR 19)
Then Initiative for Combat happens.
Initiative: Bardicus 30
Initiative: Demon, Balor 22
Initiative: Demon, Vrolikai 20
Round 1: Bardicus uses a move action to draw out a feather token tree from his handy haversack, then a standard action to throw it on the ground below the two demons causing a massive tree to grow beneath them
“Rule of Cool” is sounded as the Balor and the Vrolikai are impaled – might need some rules clarification on this one
-or-
(This is also what occurs if the Balor cannot use the Summon SLA as a Standard Action)
Round 1: Standard Action to Intimidate the Balor with Comedy (DC 27 vs. 46 assumed, succeeds on a 1 with Skill checks; minimum Balor is shaken for 4 rounds). Bardicus uses a free action with Kn (engineering) to use Harmonic Sage to increase the DC of Deadly Performance targeting the Balor. Deadly Perfromance now has a DC of 37, the Balor fails 65% of the time, good enough for this. The Balor dies and death throes with the other demon taking the 100 damage, well 90 due to resistance, Bardicus takes no damage (failing on a 1) because of evasion.
Round 1: The Vrolikai demon not being too happy about its friend dying tries a quickened enervate against Bardicus, but that gets absorbed into the rod he holds. Then tries a charge attack with its deadly knives, but fails on anything below 18.
Round 2: Bardicus tires of the demons attacks and casts Overwhelming Presence upon the demon (Will save DC 32, the demon fails on anything below 15), but it also has SR 30 (CL check 20 + 10 or higher; I make it 55% of the time). The demon is now helpless and prostrate, dropping all weapons.
Round 2: The demon attempts to regain its composure but fails.
Round 3: Standard action to cast shadowbard (inspire courage +4),
Round 3: The demon fails its save again.
Round 4: Bardicus coup-de-graces the helpless foe: (Regular Hit: 20 minimum damage [not reduced by DR]; 24 average damage [not reduced by DR]; 33 max damage [not reduced by DR], because this is a coup-de-grace, these damage values are doubled [treated as a critical hit], the minimum save the demon has to make is a Fort DC 50; the demon fails on anything below a 20.
Bardicus is whisked away to the next fight.
Used this fight: 2 bardic performance rounds, 6th level spell slot, (feather tree token?), 5th level spell
Devil, Pit Fiend’s Fight:
The Pit Fiend isn’t too worried about the bard beating the Balor, I mean come it’s a bard! But he has heard of this Bardicus, the bard who is not like other bards.
In this small room, starting apart these two brave combatants face off… Sorry it’s a bard facing a Pit Fiend (announcer laughs).
Initiative: Bardicus average results 30
Initiative: Pit Fiend averages 23
Round 1: Knowing that the pit fiend has wish, Bardicus takes action with a move to get closer (they are now 20ft apart). A standard action to Intimidate the Pit Fiend with Comedy (DC 30 vs. 46 assumed, succeeds on a 1 with Skill checks; minimum Pit Fiend is shaken for 3 rounds); Free action to use Harmonic Sage; Then Bardicus begins the deadly performance as a swift action, the performance has a W DC 37, the Pit Fiend has a rather pathetic will save for some reason, Will save +18 (+16 shaken), the Devil fails on anything below a 20.
Round 1: Pit-Fiend dies from the sheer joy of the performance.
If the Pit-Fiend goes 1st, it is any ones game because of wish, without wish the devil would have summoned a creature or used other tactics, but thems the breaks.
Used this fight:
1 bardic performance round
Tarn Linnorm’s Fight:
The Linnorm is enjoying a meal of the foolish would-be Linnorm kings that came to claim their prize when it is disturbed by a clamorous racket caused by a bard, this outright enrages the dragon to act.
While enjoying a walk through the Land of the Linnorm kings, the bard takes rest near a Tarn, though is quite surprised as a Linnorm rages to the surface and…
Surprise Round: The Linnorm Breathes a cone of acidic breath at the bard, R DC 32 (The bard fails on a 1 and is immune to the secondary effects), the bard is unharmed by this display of might (evasion).
Initiative: Bardicus 30 average
Initiative: Tarn Linnorm 22 average
Round 1: As a full round action bardicus commences a performance feared by dragons true or lesser; Ancient’s Flight (W DC 37) and as a free action replaces the fascinate performance from the ring with this new one, the Linnorm fails the save on a 16 or lower roll.
”Ancient’s Flight” wrote:
Affected dragons cannot use their mouths to attack or even speak except to recite Ancients' Flight, preventing them from using their bite attacks and breath weapons, casting spells with vocal components, or otherwise communicating vocally for the duration of the performance. The effect ceases as soon as you end your bardic performance.
Round 1: The Linnorm knowing the song from ancient times, it rushes forward in a rage to bite the bard before it can complete the performance, as it tries to bite the bard, the bard handily deflects the bite (quickblock buckler; immediate actions can be used during a full-round action(s)), the Linnorm needs a roll of 18 or higher to hit the bard 15% chance.
Round 2: The dragon now can only make claw attacks and a tail swipe as it joins in with the song “Ancient’s Flight”. Bardicus is quite upset at this dragon, being immune to most everything that he can do. So he punches the dragon twice!
This can continue for 20 rounds doing minimum damage, the dragon cannot flee and it’s regeneration does not work. The dragon can only hit the bard on an 18 or higher, even then 1 attack that does hit can be deflected and any crits can be taken down to a regular hit.
Average Bardicus is doing 24/25 damage a hit, so that takes 16 rounds and at max damage its about 12 rounds, that’s just one attack hitting. On average Bardicus will be hitting with two punches (40/35).
So bardicus wins this longer fight and renewed shadowbard.
Used This Fight
3 bardic performance rounds, 5th level spell slot
Ancient Gold Dragon’s Fight (baseline for other dragons as well):
Now this is interesting thinks the Gold Dragon, but upon hearing the song that the bard has going on “Ancient’s Flight” it makes a will save (W DC 37 vs. Will +24), the dragon fails most of the time so no spells and breath weapon or bite attack.
Both opponents can see the other, one because of its higher perception check, the other because of the size of the dragon. The dragon can clearly hear the bard as well.
Initiative: Bardicus 30 average
Initiative: Goldie 9 average
Round 1: Bardicus begins to walk towards the dragon, curious of what it might do, shrugging off the fear aura (W DC 30 vs. Will +25 (+29 with inspire courage); failure on a 4 (or a 1) or lower)
Round 1: Goldie keeps to the air, staying roughly 700 feet away (600 feet in the air, 100 feet away) and launches a sunburst at the bard (R DC 25 halves damage negates blindness vs. R +30 with evasion), the bard takes no damage and is not blinded, this surprises the dragon and lets her/him know that this is a dangerous opponent indeed.
Round 2: Bardicus uses a dimension door spell to get above the dragon then a swift action (dimensional agility) to use deadly performance (W DC 36 vs. Will +24); the dragon fails on an 11 or lower or 55% of the time, the dragon tumbles out of the sky from having heard the best song in the world.
Round 3: Before plummeting to his death, Bardicus is able to use an immediate action to cast feather fall to save himself from a hard landing.
Used during the fight:
3rd level spell slot, 1st level spell slot, 1 bardic performance round
Angel, Solar’s Fight:
Well this is interesting thinks Bardicus.
Surprise round: Not having heard Bardicus’ approach, the Solar remains in peaceful bliss until Bardicus moves to be within 20 feet of the solar and shouts “This is the greatest song in the world!”
Initiative: Bardicus averages 30
Initiative: Solar averages 19
Round 1: Bardicus uses a standard action to intimidate the Solar with Comedy (DC 29 vs. 46 assumed, succeeds on a 1 with Skill checks; minimum Solar is shaken for 3 rounds), swift action to perform the greatest song in the world for a deadly performance (W DC 36 vs. the Solar’s Will save +22), the angel fails on a roll of 13 or lower and dies from pure bliss and joy.
Used this fight:
1 bardic performance round
Tarrasque Fight:
Well now this one should be interesting.
If we use the new Tarrasque from ISG book, then Bardicus will start off with clamor of the heavens to blind and deafen the big guy for the duration of the fight replacing the performance Ancient’s Flight in the ring.
If we use the old Tarrasque this will make it a bit more challenging.
In either case Bardicus will also use Pallavi of Nirvana’s Blessing to entangle the creature. (-2 attack, -4 Dex)
Then Rat Quadrille that lasts 10 minutes (-2 Attack, -4 Concentration)
Then Canticle of Joy (-4 attacks, saves, ability checks, and skill checks)
Intimidate Big-T (-2 saves)
Then Song of Extinction (If rolls result in a 10 then Big T fails)
Used in Fight:
7 bardic performance rounds, the remaining bardic performances in the day
This is a repost from anotehr thread, working out the kinks and will have to adjust the rules so they are more in line with the original beastmass rules used.
Any paizo created race is acceptable (no custom races)
Monsters as PCs, use CR as their baseline level (20HD max)
Any class from paizo is acceptable (no 3rd party materials; i.e. dream scarred press, frog god games, ect.)
Characters start with 2 traits (these cannot be campaign traits meant for AP character creation)
Use standard WBL for PCs (880,000gp for a 20th level character)
Item creation feats will increase this by 5% of the base value for each item creation feat possessed by the character; or 7% if you have the hedge magician trait
Custom magic items cannot be used; however slot changes for items will be acceptable with a 25% cost increase of the crafting cost or a total of a 50% increase of the market cost.
SLAs cannot qualify you for early access to prestige classes
Leadership is allowed, however followers and cohorts use NPC wealth by level and cannot transfer any wealth to the character that took leadership; unless it is to bring the character back to life and have restoration cast upon them. Doing this though may place followers and cohorts in harms way and should be noted in the combat section.
Combat Rules:
Combats should be as descriptive as possible
Gathering information on creatures is crucial for any PC, but to represent the more unusual creatures in each bestiary after the first, we need to make it more difficult.
The baseline is the Bestiary 1, which allows for Knowledge DCs at 10 + CR/ +5 after that to know more about the creatures.
Knowledge checks DCs for Bestiary 2 are: 15 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result
Knowledge checks DCs for Bestiary 3 are: 20 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result
Knowledge check DCs for Bestiary 4 are: 25 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result; however the base DC will increase on a 1:1 basis if the creature has Mythic Ranks.
Each combat encounter should be run three times. Once for the monsters to have a surprise round, no surprise round, then the character gets a surprise round.
Any creature or PC that has a surprise round also gets two free rounds to buff themselves; this time may be extended by casting the spell time stop.
As an additional advantage to the creatures, they have fore-knowledge of the characters abilities when they receive a surprise round and when no surprise round occurs to better adjust their tactics to the PC.
For combats that include powerful abilities and spells, such as wish, the creature would most likely pick something that is very debilitating to the opponent. (Ex: a pit fiend fighting a character who relies heavily on magic items would wish for an AMF, Mage’s Disjunction, or a Negating field [words of power] before going into melee combat, some widened to encompass a very large area). If a challenger needs help with an appropriate wish, we (as the community) will try to be as constructive as possible.
Each combat should occur in the creature’s native habitat, if that habitat is not easily accessible to the PC in question, provide a neutral area where all abilities have the possibility of being used in equal measure. (sounds confusing; will change wording to make it clearer).
Use average results for dice rolls, going from low to high for PCs and high to low for monsters. (d20 for PC: 9, 10, 11, 9, 10, 11 ect; d20 for monsters: 11, 10, 9, 11, 10, 9, ect).
Critical threats kick in when the percentages from hits (not misses) build up to 60% within or over rounds (eg. 12 basic /20x2 hits would offer one threat and confirmation).
Failed saves kick in when the percentage from rolls builds up to 60% within or over rounds (eg. 12 rolls for a dice that needs a 1 to fail a save would offer a critical failure)
Going with the table, any creature that has a CR under the PCs level should have the CR of that encounter increase to be more appropriate for their level.
Ex: Shoggoth from the bestiary one is a CR 19, one less than the APL for an average encounter, but an easy encounter none-the-less. For an increased challenge to the PC, adjust the encounter accordingly.
1 shoggoth for an easy encounter; 2 shoggoth for an average encounter; 3 shoggoth for a challenging encounter; 4 shoggoth for an epic encounter; 6 shoggoth for an improbable encounter.
Stats at creation before racial adjustments: 14/14/14/12/12/11
Stats after applying human adjustments with level adjustments: 15/19/15/12/12/11
Fighter McFightnington
Male Human Fighter 20
N Medium Humanoid (Human) Hero Points 3
Init +11; Senses Perception +21; see invisibility, darkvision 120ft, blind-sense 60ft, superior low-light vision
Defense
AC 52, touch 25, flat-footed 43 (armor +14, shield +8, +9 Dex, natural +5, insight +1); armor master
hp 254 (20d10+140); DR 5/—
Fort +28 Ref +24 Will +18; +12 vs fear.
Immunities Resistance Acid 30, Fire 30
Offense
Speed 30 ft (6 squares); fly 60ft (average) 15 minutes/day (5 minute increments)
Melee spiked heavy shield +41/+41/+36/+31/+26 melee (1d8+21 plus bull rush plus wounding/19-20x3) and
Melee spiked heavy shield +41/+41/+36/+31 melee (1d8+21 plus bull rush plus wounding/19-20x3)
Ranged composite longbow (+2 str) +37/+32/+27/+22 ranged (1d8+8 plus wounding/x3)
SA rend (1d10+10 plus wounding)
Combat Gear heavy mithral shield w/ mithral spikes (+4, speed, courageous, wounding; +5, bashing, grinding), heavy mithral shield w/ mithral spikes (+4, speed, courageous, wounding; +5, bashing, grinding), mithral full plate (+5, staunching, delving, deathless, defiant [evil outsiders, dragons], grinding, greater energy resistance [fire, acid]), mithral armor spikes (+5, defending, grinding, guardian [enhancement bonus to ac]), composite longbow (+2 str; +1, phase locking, wounding), gloves of dueling
Statistics
Str 24 Dex 28 Con 24 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 11
Base Atk +20 CMB +41 CMD 51
Feats Improved shield bash, weapon focus (heavy spiked shield), shield focus, two-weapon fighting, iron will, weapon specialization (heavy spiked shield), master craftsman, double slice, craft magic arms and armor, greater weapon focus (heavy spiked shield), craft wondrous items, improved two-weapon fighting, endurance, greater weapon specialization (heavy spiked shield), shield master, greater two-weapon fighting, hammer the gap, bashing finish, improved critical (heavy spiked shield), missile shield, shield slam, two-weapon rend
Skills Craft (runes) +24, Intimidate +13, Kn (arcana) +11, Kn (nature) +11, Kn (planes) +11, Perception +21
Traits Divine Favor (+1 on all Luck bonuses), hedge magician
SQ weapon training (close weapons group +4, bows +3, heavy blades +2, thrown +1), weapon master (heavy spiked shield), armor training (1—3), bravery +5
Other Gear Ring of regeneration, ring of freedom of movement, spectral shroud, eyes of the dragon, belt of physical might +6 (Dex, Con), stone of good luck (+1 saves, skill checks, ability checks), crown of conquest (on crit confirmation: You and each of your allies gain a +1 luck bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks), amulet of natural armor +5 (slotless), amulet of adaptation, cloak of resistance +5, bracelet of second chances (once per round, reduce a critical hit to a regular hit; 7 times then item is useless), pale green prism (ioun stone), flawed pale green prism (ioun stone), dusty rose prism (ioun stone), manuals for physical stats (+3), 240 cold iron arrows, winged boots, efficient quiver (4)
WBL is abused with the fighter crafting all his magic arms and armor and wondrous items.
Shoggoth Fight:
Round 1: Shoggoth charges, but fails to hit the fighter, the fighter and Shoggoth are now adjacent to one another. The fighter makes his save against the maddening cacophony.
Full attack spread: 51,52,45,41,35,52,51,47,40, all attacks hit. Shoggoth is rended at the end and each attack increases damage with hammer the gap.
5(25)+4(26)+45+15=289, but shoggoth has DR 10/—, and ends up taking 189 damage.
Shoggoth has 144hp, then fast healing kicks in bringing it to 154. Shoggoth full attacks the small fighter, but fails to hit. (needs a nat 20)
The fighter finishes off Shoggoth in the second round with automatic confirming of crits (so the second confirmation roll is actually another crit)
Upon confirming the crit, Fighter’s crown of conquest activates
Balor’s Thoughts:
Surprise round goes to the Balor, knowing that most of its SLAs are useless against the Fighter or would do little damage, it tries to take advantage by slicing at the fighter, missing him by a hairs breadth (needing a roll of 12 or higher to hit, it rolls a 10). (IF the balor does hit with a melee attack, it deals 20 damage on average, reduced to 15
They tie for initiative, resolved by having Fighter go first (higher Dex score and more luck items?), fighter grins “Hello old friend” then begins to full attack the big Balor
Full attack spread: 51,52,45,41,35,52,51,47,40, all attacks hit. Shoggoth is rended at the end and each attack increases damage with hammer the gap.
5(25)+4(26)+45+15=289, with 10 bleed damage a round. Also the Balor is subjected to 9 free bull rush attempts thanks to the fighters build.
Bull Rush spread 53 (target is now prone), 59, 51, 58, 57, 53 (adding insult to the injuries)
Because the shields do not over come the damage reduction (+4 enhancement, need a +5 for alignment), the balor takes 154 points of damage plus 10 bleed
The Balor can try to stand from prone as a move action, the fighter will wait for the Balor to stand. The Balor knows about the fighter and his tactics. If you’re in melee range with this fighter in an enclosed area, opponents will fall.
Balor’s Action:
During the surprise round, the Balor Greater Teleports to the top of the enclosure, out of melee range of the fighter, knowing that it will fail in a melee contest.
They tie for initiative, resolved by having Fighter go first (higher Dex score and more luck items?), fighter grins and says in a booming voice “Hello old friend” (causing his boots to sprout wings) then readies a standard action.
The Balor tries to pelt the fighter with a quickened telekinesis, but the fighter saves on a roll of 5 or higher. Roaring in frustration, the Balor drops a greater dispel magic on the fighter, targeting the fighter’s shield, surpressing the spike’s magic for 2 rounds.
The fighter charges the Balor, and hits with a shield bash from the other shield, slamming the fiend into the ceiling, before causing it to fall prone (10d6 damage on top of the shield bash).
This is a battle of attrition, one the Balor will lose in the end.
The pit fiend is causing some problems for Fighter, depending on which one goes first it can swing either way due to wish. If the Pit Fiend already used wish for that year, the straight up fight goes to the fighter, with wish, there are complications like a widened AMF.
The fight with the Linnorm is also a battle of attrition with bleed damage, regeneration, shield bashing. Yes it can fly out of reach, the fighter does have a bow 3 of 4 hits a round with more damage from bleed and other bonuses. It's a long fight with the fighter having a 50/50 chance of being cursed.
The gold dragon fight is also a battle of attrition.
Before I get into the others fights though, would the fighter be able to over come the Pit Fiend with its current build?
Characters should use 20 point buy for starting ability scores
Any class (including archetypes), race (except for custom races), and feat from Pathfinder can be used, no 3PP material (ex: dream scarred press, wotc, ect…); additional restriction, magic item crafting costs cannot be reduced beyond the 5% produced by the hedge magician magical trait (to prevent excessive WBL abuse).
For the use of honor or fame systems, or any system that is similar; Points may be purchased for a cumulative cost of 500 gold pieces per rank. 1 points 500gp, 2 points 1500gp,…, 5 points 7,500gp,…, 10 points 27,500gp, ect…
Builds should be as descriptive as possible as per the original beastmass and the Zen Archer monk guide.
One to Four party members may enter the combat for contest; for each party member beyond the first, reduce starting wealth for each by a cumulative percentage; 2nd party member would reduce would reduce overall wealth by 5%, 3rd party member would reduce overall wealth by 10%, 4th party member would reduce overall wealth by 20%
Cohorts do not count towards the party member limit, but they start with having npc wealth of their level -3. As such, Familiars and Animal companions also do not count towards the party member limit.
The PC(s) receive on rest period between every 3 encounters.
Each creature will have a starting attitude of hostile towards the single PC or Group of PCs
Gathering information on creatures is crucial for any PC, but to represent the more unusual creatures in each bestiary after the first, we need to make it more difficult. The baseline is the Bestiary 1, which allows for Knowledge DCs at 10 + CR/ +5 after that to know more about the creatures.
Knowledge checks DCs for Bestiary 2 are: 15 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result
Knowledge checks DCs for Bestiary 3 are: 20 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result
Knowledge check DCs for Bestiary 4 are: 25 + CR/ + 5 for each ability after the initial result; however the base DC will increase on a 1:1 basis if the creature has Mythic Ranks.
Every combat encounter should be a CR 25 challenge or greater. Environmental factors, I believe, do not greatly influence an encounters CR in a meaningful way after level 10, so they should not be factored in for the encounters final CR. If a player wishes to impose such extreme environmental factors that they alone would constitute a challenge to their PC or PCs, then that will be on top of the base CR of the challenge.
Using table 12—3 on page 398 of the Core Rulebook we can determine how many creatures are needed to make a CR 25 encounter. 1 Creature = CR; 2 Creatures = CR+2; 3 Creatures = CR+3; 4 Creatures = CR+4; 6 Creatures = CR+5; 8 Creatures = CR+6; 12 Creatures = CR+7; 16 Creatures = CR+8. If an encounter has more than 4 creatures, they will be broken down into groups of two (or the nearest whole number rounding up) for initiative counts. Example Shoggoth needs 8 creatures to make a CR 25 challenge, for initiative we will have 2 Shoggoth in each initiative grouping.
The PC or PCs will use their own initiatives, if they have familiars, eidolons, or animal companions they will go on their own initiative counts. This rule will also apply to followers. Summoned creatures will go on the same initiative count as the summoning creature.
Each combat will take place in the environment listed in the creature’s stat block with a few minor changes. There is a 50/50 chance that either the monster or the PC(s) get field advantage. If the monster gets field advantage, then they also get two precombat buffs if applicable and a surprise round. For example, Shoggoth can be found in any cold aquatic or underground environment. If it gets field advantage, the battle will take place in a vast underground cavern system filled with icy flowing murky water (DC 30 swim check to move about; failure drags you 1d6x5 feet deeper into the cavern and characters might start to suffocate). If the PC(s) get field advantage, then they remove the water from the underground cavern system or they decide to fight Shoggoth on a small island or from a boat. This is just an example.
Each combat should be played out five times with the opportunity of gaining field advantage changing each time. To advance to the next opponent, the PC(s) needs at least three wins; any tie will be declared a loss for the PC(s).
Each lost match for the PC(s) will still allow them to advance to the next opponent however with a twist. For every lost match, the PC(s) are reincarnated randomly, with any result of Other (GMs choice) being a kobold with a negative advanced template (-4 to all physical stats, -2 natural armor).
If the PC(s) loses two matches in a row or have lost a total of four matches, then they have failed the challenge.
Each combat should have a round by round post with dice rolls, these combat posts do not need to be detailed, just enough to show what each combatant did with rolls as necessary. <Dice>1d20</dice> with [ or ] replacing the < or > to roll a dice.
While detailed, this is a rough draft of an updated beastmass challenge. I am also working on fleshing on the field advantage system I proposed and also working on making a set of twists for each encounter.
A twist may be that certain abilities may have already been used before combat starts, such as a Pit Fiend's 1/year wish or that the pit fiend is actually an infernal duke with unique traits as presented in the Bestiary.
It took a while (I'm happy I have hard copies), but here is the 81 critters. Though I think each encounter should at least be CR 25, that's just me though (adding more critters as necessary).
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I figured this may be the best place for my question concerning the Inner Sea Gods. Specifically regarding the aligned class feature of the Evangelist and how it works with Prestige Classes (one being Mystic Theurge).
My previous thread was about making a Cleric 1/Wizard 1/Class X 1/Mystic Theurge 2/Evangelist 10/Mystic Theurge 6
Race can be Aasimar (alternate traits) or Drow Noble
Spoiler:
By a strict reading of RAW of aligned class
Aligned Class (Ex):
Evangelists come from many different backgrounds, and they show an unusual range of diversity. At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class. She gains all the class features for this class, essentially adding every evangelist level beyond 1st to her aligned class to determine what class features she gains. She still retains the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks of the prestige class, but gains all other class features of her aligned class as well as those of the evangelist prestige class.
No class can be an aligned class due to it not specifically calling out Core Classes, Base Class, or Prestige Classes and even if they could they would have to be of a female gender. That is a very very strict reading of the rules with the clarification of core and prestige. This would also be, I suppose asinine would be the term. IF we went with such strict readings.
However the wording in the ability:
At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class.
Definition of terms as listed on page 374 of the Core Rulebook
Core Class: One of the standard eleven classes found in Chapter 3.
Class Level: The level of a character in a particular class. For a character with only one class, class level and character level are the same.
Note the class level definition, it is any level of a class the character has. Whether or not it is a core class, prestige class, or base classes is irrelevant to the class.
So let's look at the Evangelist ability again.
Aligned Class (Ex):
Evangelists come from many different backgrounds, and they show an unusual range of diversity. At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class. She gains all the class features for this class, essentially adding every evangelist level beyond 1st to her aligned class to determine what class features she gains. She still retains the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks of the prestige class, but gains all other class features of her aligned class as well as those of the evangelist prestige class.
At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class.
This class can be any class that the character has a level or levels in as per the definition of class level found on page 374.
So the aligned class ability works by RAW apparently with any class the character has prior to gaining the second level in the Evangelist PRC.
Now the next set of questions belongs to how certain classes interact with the prc if they get to higher levels. This is one such example:
We have a virtual pool of 9 levels of Mystic Theurge and an actual pool of 4 levels in the prc. For a total calculation of 13 levels of the prestige class.
There are a very limited number of prestige classes that do not have the standard 10 levels and so no table is given to give their class abilities.
The core rulebook however gives players something that works just as well as a table. I've posted this earlier but it seemed to be ignored:
Scaling Powers:
Hit dice, base attack bonuses, and saving throws continue to increase at the same rate beyond 20th level, as appropriate for the class in question. Note that no character can have more than 4 attacks based on its base attack bonus. Note also that, before long, the difference between good saving throws and poor saving throws becomes awkwardly large—the further you get from 20th level, the more noticeable this difference grows, and for high-level characters, bolstering their poor saving throws should become increasingly important. Class abilities that have a set, increasing rate, such as a barbarian's damage reduction, a fighter's bonus feats and weapon training, a paladin's smite evil, or a rogue's sneak attack continue to progress at the appropriate rate.
Bold emphasis is mine. Class abilities that have a set, increasing rate with examples given in the text, continue to progress at the appropriate rate. The Mystic Theurge has a class ability that fits this definition.
The mystic theurge gives +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class/+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class at every level. This is a set increasing rate that continues to progress every level.
So does there need to be a table describing what the Mystic Theurge gives after 10th?
If you were called there, you have to be very careful.
If you were summoned there, then just commit suicide, you are not really dead (as per the summoning subsection of the conjuration school) and will reform on the material plane (your home) within 24 hours.
Find out which happened to you might be a tertiary priority though.
Run away and use the holy hand grenade of antioch.
Let Brave Sir Robin deal with it.
Fight in a confined area that does not allow for easy flying for the dragon, have the area with lots of cover to hide behind for breath attacks. Find items to help over come SR and saves.
On a more serious note, present the build of your character for more specific answers.. and possible quotes.
IF you're the DM, lay down the law for that PC and tell him to roll a new character if he does not like your rulings on how the ability works in your game. My two cents.
