Tim Matthews's page

All excellent advice, thank you. I'm feeling a little better about this.

Again I can't believe I didn't consider Feint. I'm used to its action economy just flat out eliminating it as a viable option for my PC that I completely disregarded it. I can throw in a few duelist/bodyguard types that use feint builds and that should solve A LOT of my problems as that can potentially strip 15 of his AC.

I'm usually too impatient to use true strike, but Raynulf is totally right. Nobody beats the true strike and just identifying people casting it will raise his tension. There are also a lot of inquisitors in their future, usually as bosses but perhaps I will make some mid-level enemy types.

Trimalchio - your bonus "challenge narrative" is freaking excellent. I already have a few ideas.

Firebug - Thank you for pointing out the penalties for feinting non-humanoids and low intelligence things. Don't think it will usually matter with his +30 bluff but it gives them a chance. Also I love awesome blow. Actually used that one earlier to great hilarity when a Fiendish Ogre ally of theirs led a rebellion against them. Probably too soon for more. Good times :)

Looking at the Rogue Talent rules Sundakan and Raynulf are quite clearly correct about using the Ninja Trick to take an additional Combat trick being illegal. That is easily enough fixed. The player is understanding about such things.

Spell Perfection may actually allow the occasional spell to get through/hurt and I think I'm just going to them largely fighting in consecrated environments from now on. (Makes sense in a militant theocracy)

I also found a few 3.5 spells that I think I will port over. Holy Storm most notably. Also I feel I have been under-utilizing good old magic missile + metamagic.

This is exactly the stuff I wanted guys. Thanks.

Other characters are an Unchained Monk (again god stats but nothing like the vampire) Anti-Paladin (good stats) but he is perfect for the campaign and thus very powerful and a Gnoll Cleric who I love to death. Heart and soul of how I have built the campaign but also definitely the squishiest and least encounter breaking. (Can't Believe I am saying that about a level 11 primary caster)

As some have said WotW is way the hell to easy. Generally My pattern is to double the "bosses" in encounters, because Sundaken is right they are not bosses at all, and then make a better version of the boss (2 or character levels, usually paladin) as a leader of the other two.

Plus whenever encounters are going too easy I have this supper annoying ghost that has been haunting the monk ever since they got up to Serial Killer nonsense (it was awesome) in Farholde. She pops in with a couple of buddies.

Works pretty good for the rest of the party.

Not willing to sunder. Not only would it not harm the Vampire much but two of these players rage quit an old campaign that I was thankfully not DMing over it.

Thought of Mirror Image earlier. My players eventually just asked me to stop using Legion Archons because it was driving them crazy.

As far as not using house rules Drahliana...

Not really sure what you are referring to here. Been DMing for over a decade as I said and the only house rule we have is the 20 being a 30 thing whose original purpose I think had to do with having an actual number for the automatic success when both people role 20s. As I said it predates me by about 6 years. The Vampire Feats and rolling system were what was suggested in the Players guide for the campaign. Frankly I assumed the author of this very highly praised AP had carefully balanced around the considerations.

Good points Sundaken.

Quick question does the +3 ignoring DR include bonuses equivalents? For example does a +1 Fire Burst weapon ignore his DR? or does it have to be a +3 Fire Burst Weapon. Further does a Paladin using divine boon to buff his sword to a +3 put it in that category?

Did not realize that Unchained rogues could not shop from the base list. I'll think about that. Still did just check and unless I am misreading things it is still a base rogue talent. So a bit confused on that point.

His Feat list is as Follows
Human (Blood of the Deep)
1,3,5,7,9 Vampire Feat Chain.
11 is Leadership (This part oddly enough isn't causing me any real issues as nobody wants to bring their henchmen to combat it's just for rp)

Rogue Talents are
Offensive Defense
Combat Trick (Combat Expertise)
Ninja Trick (Improved Feint)
Weapon Training (Weapon Focus Dagger)

He picked up Iron Will from a Meditation Challenege in the last book of the adventure path at the cost of being literally crazy (CE) for several sessions. In retrospect I wish that I had ignored that encounter.
Sigh... the vampire template also awards Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes and Toughness

Did I mention that Vampires also get a natural slam attack that gives 2 negative levels?

He has the River Rat Trait which gives him a +1 to damage with daggers. Dex to damage from unchained rogue. So even when he only gets one attack I think it reads +2 Dagger +20 1d4+12. +5d6 Sneak attack usually.

Oh god spell perfection is EXACTLY the sort of thing I was looking for Anon A Mouse, thank you. Should work wonderfully with Consecrate Spell. Not sure how to buff Sense Motive high enough Vampires get +10 to bluff, really didn't read that template well enough, so he is rocking a +30 Bluff.

I like the clone idea but the problem is I am one hundred percent confident that the vampire character could wipe the rest of the party easy peasy as long as they didn't just leave. Not sure that would be fun but I'll keep it in mind.

I also can't believe that I never considered that somebody with ridiculous bluff could feint him. That alone might make a solid fighter viable. Does Feint also strip dodge bonuses? Seems like it should.

Thank you for those ideas Dien. Sadly I think Uncanny Dodge prevents the loss of Dex to AC from invisible opponents and being flat footed. But the Bralani Ranger just might be able to hit him anyway with enough buffs. That could work perfectly right now as they are in the middle of an epic battle to sack a holy site and it even mentions celestial archers.

I do very much want to finish the campaign. And boy have I learned a few things by this point. What I had hoped to find by consulting the knowledge pool of these forums was some spells or creatures, feats even that could actually effect this dude.

If not that than any tips to create even the illusion of threat would be more than welcome.

They are having fun ATM but a good deal of that is the fact that I have been trying really hard to make sure they don't understand just how out of hand this has gotten.

Frankly I think that the inherent invincibility of this character has the serious potential to remove all suspense from combat and if I can't come up with ANYTHING that has even a chance of killing this dude then I think I have to suck it up and ask him to re-roll. And the enthusiasm killer that is a request like that may doom the campaign just the same.

If this was a short campaign, a month or too to go I wouldn't worry. But I sill have 3 1/2 books of really great campaign that I want to get through and I don't think this is manageable long term absent challenge.

First I'm going to make it clear that this is entirely my fault.

I've been GMing pathfinder and 3.5 off and on for more than a decade. But in all that time I have never dealt with characters over 10th level and usually with players that are intense with role-playing and hard casuals with character building. I was not prepared.

First my players all have god like stats. This is partly because of the system that WotW proposes called 'Focus and Foible' where you pick an 18 an 8 and roll 1d10+7 for the others. They rolled like little gods and I didn't have the balls to tell them no. So that's on me but for three of them it isn't a big deal I just kick up the power level a little.

The problem is that this Adventure Path also has an optional system for players to become vampires by investing five feats getting the abilities over time. That's a pretty huge investment and I kinda just blindly trusted that was a balanced trade. Since the actual full template didn't kick in until 9th in snuck up on me. Stats got crazy better and you got a few new tricks. What I failed to consider (was working 80+ hour weeks at the time and was pressed for time) was the defensive implications. I simply cannot threaten this dude.

Unchained Rogue 9/Anti-Paladin 2
Str 21 (15 Base, +6 vampire)
Dex 28 (18 Base, +4 Vampire, +2 Belt, +2 Leveling, +2 Human)
Con - (Undead, This is where his 8 went during ability assignment)
Int 18 (16 Base, +2 Vampire)
Wis 17 (15 Base, +2 Vampire)
Cha 24 (16 Base, +4 Vampire, +4 Headband)

AC Base 38 (10 + 3 Bracers, +3 Shield, +9 Dex, +6 Natural (Vampire), +1 Natural (Amulet) +2 Deflection, +1 Dodge, +3 Combat Expertise)

He further uses feint and a rogue trick called offensive defense (Benefit: When a rogue with this talent hits a creature with a melee attack that deals sneak attack damage, the rogue gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC for each sneak attack die rolled for one round.)

Couple with the Unchained Rogue ability Debilitating Injury he debuff the Attack bonus of those he sneak attacks by -4 (and he has feint remember)

This gives him an effective AC of 47. With Uncanny Dodge so no flanking.
Once per day he can use Smite Good (And everything scary in this campaign is good) for and additional +5 deflecting.
So on bosses that is an AC of 52.

I should further note that our longest standing house rule is that a 20 is actually a 30 and not an automatic success. Which means most things can't hit him on a 20. Why do we have this rule? No idea, it predates my DMing.

His saves are:
Fort +14 (6 Base, +7 Undead use Cha, +1 Resistance)
Reflex 26 (7 Base, +9 Dex, +7 Cha, (Anit-Paladin) +1 Resistance With Evasion)
Will +19 (6 Base, 3 Wis, +7 Cha, +2 Iron Will, +1 Resistance)

Further as a vampire he has 5 DR/Magic Silver AND Fast Heal 5.
So he is effectively immune to attrition.

As for classic vampire weaknesses the Adventure Path introduces a new feat called Blood of the Deep that removes the running water vulnerability as well as a Magic (Slotless Even) cloak that makes them able to walk in the sun. Which I gave him in place of an early treasure haul because only doing things at night was leading to constant party splitting which was driving me crazy.

Again all of this is my fault. I should have realized where this was going and nipped it in the bud at character creation.

What the hell do I do about it now though?

My players are still super exited. We have been playing this campaign for almost a year now (our longest to date) and it looks fair to continue for at least another several months. Maybe even another full year. This AP is awesome and I don't want it ruined because the encounters are trivialized. I've kicked the CR of the encounters up by about 3 in all places, increased the number of enemies dramatically and I'm using full hp pools for the monsters.

Does not remotely solve the problem, just slows things down a little.

Any advice welcome. Sorry for the text wall.