I am looking for some advice to make an interesting combat out of a rather unfortunate setup (at least when it comes to encounter design). This is one of the final battles in long going campaign (72nd session over about six years, 12-16 hours each). The party is at level 13 and there are the following characters involved:
- elven transmuter in the body of a human bard
- half elven oracle of life
- dwarven inquisitor of torag
- infernal sorcerer
- a ghaele azata NPC (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/azata/ghaele/ )
- a mystic theurge NPC (CR 12) carrying a bag of holding which is rather important (see below)
- (soulless body of a human bard)
The enemy is a single (thats why I said "unfortunate") lich of 17th or 18th level (I didnt finish his stats so far)
The exposition:
The BBEG of this story arc is a high level lich (wohoo). As the party discovered the secret source of his powers said lich had to risk everything not to lose grasp on his plans. In a last attempt to prevent the party from destroying an atifact which holds the weapon he depends on to conquer kingdoms he casts the spell magic jar through said artifact on the partys bard who held it. My approach here was: when the lich has its soul and therefore phylactery at hand he is able to cast the spell but puts the one thing at danger that keeps him from dying. So the bard fails the save and is possessed. The party tries to negotiate without success and the lich threatens to kill the bard. Thats when the partys wizard does something rather surprising. He himself casts magic jar on the bard and as you probably all know: sometimes the dice tell the best stories. The lich fails its save rolling a natural one (even though his bonus alone exceeded the DC) and his precious soul becomes trapped in the wizards soul jar while the wizard on the other end possesses the bards body.
Now the constellation is rather freaky. Its kind of a stalemate; both fractions remain with a soul of their enemy.
Now the thing is how magic jar works. As both bodies are too far away from their respective soul jars, crushing those instantly sends them to the afterlife. Both parties know the other side is ready to negotiate somehow as otherwise they would have released the souls already but they expect deceit and cheating - somethings on the line here after all.
The PCs figured out they are somehow in the better spot as the lich will be desperate to get back his soul while at the same time the bards sacrifice seems like an option to save their kingdom. They made up a plan and created a demi plane, rather small, greenish and of circular shape where they gathered and invited the lich for a prisoners exchange. They know the lich will come as he needs his soul and the magic jar spell is soon to end. They also install a teleportation trap to only let in the one enemy they want to face and back that up by threatening to kill his soul as soon as someone else enters their demi plane. Quiet a bad spot for the lich to be in I guess. They stored the soul jar containing the liches soul inside a bag of holding, ready to crush it from within, killing the soul as it cannot travel between planes - the extradimensional space inside the bag is insurmountable no matter how close the lich is to the bag of holding.
The scenario:
So the lich enters a small demi plane where the party awaits him and first thing he does is casting a quickened time stop (using a rod) - thats when last session ended (nice cliff hanger!).
While he has lots of allies who could reasonably help him fighting the party, a teleportation trap doesnt allow creatures to enter the fight and even if they manage to bypass the trap the lich might not want them to risk his soul (see exposition).
The lich is buffed up from toes to teeth but now I need to know what
is reasonable for him to do and
makes for an interesting boss fight.
So what are the spells he casts during his rounds of time stop?
My first idea was: Mages Disjunction. I am not exactly sure wht the consequences will be but I think it will dispel the demi plane as soon as time stop is over and it will also render the bag of holding containing his soul useless for its duration and therefore safe. If he combat will be relocated - they will all be spat out somewhere in the astral plane (due to create demi plane) which actually makes for a nice location. But what next? The lich will be largely outnumbered and usually these kind of fights dont work well in pathfinder. I need him to get support somehow, he needs to survive the first rounds of combat and then challenge the party. I have no clue how the battle could go on from there and I'd appreciate every single idea you can come up with. I want this to be remarkable! Also - it doesnt have to end there. It would be rather fine if the lich is able to rescue is soul somehow and flee or even flee without his soul. But at this point a final battle might as well be the perfect ending to this story arc.
Furthermore I would really appreciate some feedback on the whole mess of magic jars in place. I feel like we sticked as close to the rules here as possible but now it seems pretty hard to figure out what a mages disjunction will add here. As well as dispelling the demi plane it will probably end the magic jar spell on all participants. So the magic jar spell cast by the transmuter to trap the liches soul will and and as the respective soul jar is stored in the bag of holding the soul will not be able to get back to its original body (or here: phylactery), right? How could the lich prevent that from happening? Is there a way for him to force his soul out of the bag of holding wjile in time stop? Is there anything he can do about it? And is there something I missed about all those interactings of spells (namely two magic jars, time stop, mages disjunction and create demiplane)? Are there certain spells the lich can use to his advantage for this specific situation?
Thank you a lot in advance! I cannot wait to read your ideas :)
Best wishes,
Wasum
PS: Bonus points if you have an idea how this can evolve the transmuters hidden agenda; the player whants the character to become currupted more and more (he already drifted some steps away from his NG alignment at the campaign start).
PPS: Also bonus points if the following chain of events sticks to the pathfinder rules as close as possible. Not because I love those rules (man, at times this feels so outdated) but because this forms the ontology of the world we agreed to play in and itself has been part of this games narrative
In my Campaign beneath Lake Reykal there was an enormous system of tunnels and caves which completely collapsed after my players fought some Neothelids there and this caused the lake to get drained completely.
What are the consequences for the nation of Brevoy? Im interessted in the obvious ones as well as in some minor consequences causing interesting alterations to the surrounding area.
I really appreciate your ideas, thanks in advance!
I have a question towards kingdom building and more specific the Ultimate Rulership supplement by Legendary Games.
In my group we considered a switch from the Ultimate Campaign ruleset to the more balanced approach in Ultimate Rulership but - more than two years in the game - noticed a rather huge gap between the old and new stats of the kingdom which appears to prevent further its developement. E.g. the stability value dropped too far to give us a fair chance of making the respective checks. This raises several questions:
- has anyone here ever managed such a transistion and can share his or her expieriences?
- for those who had no transistion but still used both those rulesets: how did they compare? What were major differences in the kingdom developement and its pace?
- has anyone another idea on how to manage that? We dont want to reconstruct all turns already played so this hopefully isnt the only solution. But maybe someone comes up with an advice on how to deal with this situation
I would appreciate some help on a level 9 fractured mind spiritualist build. The character is based on Senua from Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice. I want her to fight in melee as well as the class allows while her phantom should be a melee tag team mate of hers. I even considered the pahntom blade archetype but as the character already appeared in my campaign and had her phantom fought some sirens offscreen it will probably be hard to back up.
Character creation rules are PB20, two traits and all paizo material allowed.
Du you have any kind of recommandation? I'd be really glad on how to effectivly build such a character :)
I am looking for a secondary role for an oracle of life. I do not want to go full caster with the halfling (its an NPC) so I'm looking for ideas on how to make him a nice melee combatant. So for now I have warsighted as an archtypes that serves well but I need some help on how to go on from there. Slashing Grace? Piranha Strike? Something else?
I'm trying to build a cyclops skeleton with the kineticist class (about 8-9 levels). As he's an undead I'd have to pick the Overwhelming Soul archetype - which fits pretty good if you ask me and I guess void would be the apropriate element.
But now I'm a little stuck. I'm completely inexperienced when it comes to the kineticist and I need to consider archetype, template, base creature and the class itself including good picks of infusions.
Maybe someone could help me so I get a correct statblock for a somewhat powerful monster. I'd really apreciate your help!
Thanks in advance,
Wasum
PS: "Creatures with class levels receive +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, and –2 adjustments to their ability scores" - this is the only thing I can do to improve the cyclops rather poor dex and cha values, right?
I am playing a campaign based on kingmaker right now, but I'm not going to use books 4 to 6 (as I don't like the plots). The PC are level 9 and have to deal with strange murders in their capital as well as political entanglements these days as the House Orlowski seems to have suspicious plans.
What happened so far and what is different to the plot in the books - not obligatory for answering my questions:
Just a rough-grained summary: Restov was ruled by Jomani Surtowa, mayor of the city and loyal to the king Noleski. In times of riots (as aldori swordlords wanted to reclaim power in Restov) his position was questioned he sent out adventurers to the greenbelt in order to stabilize his power by taming the wilderness in the south.
The players then played the first book, killing the staglord and eventually establishing their first city right on the ruins of his fortress - Narlgaard. Few days before the coronation he dies to a Wright - Turalyn Baldor the Stillborn.
They then start building up their nation, make friends with werewolf mercenaries and find themselves in a planar adventure that after betrayal leads them to the fellnight realm (based on the respective module), rescuing Roswen the awakened goldfish witch and shutting off the arcane engines that connects the demiplane to the narlmarshes (I used the "Fangwood Keep" instead of the one found there in the second book of the AP.
Right after that Noleski Surtowa, king of brevoy, marries Elana Lebeda and announces that Restov shall again be ruled by the aldori swordlords - which costs Jomani Surtowa, sponsor of the PC, his job.
Meanwhile Raifs, the father of the staglord and Hragulka started to gather allies in order to defeat those humans penetrating their world. More threads arise within their boarders, riots of mine workers caused by some mysterious stranger, a bonedevil assaulting their high priest and killing dozens of guards and conflicts within the high council. Another PC dies in the very same tomb Turalyn did a year earlier. Far deeper in old catacombs of ancient cyclops. This is also where the PC defeat a normous costruct guardian who protected a long forgotten grave. An undead cyclops then rises from this very tomb and flees as fast as he can. He will later awake Vordakai, the lich king of cyclops.
This is the point where my questions below will connect.
A lot of stuff happens. An army of trolls appears right in the center of Narlgaard, their capital, and destroy a huge part of the town as well as hundrets of citizens. They can fight back the attack but the damage is great and the trolls appear to have some kind of great magic in their support. Suspicious. The players then notice that the trolls gave up their bond to Raifs, killed him and most of their allies. When the PCs enter a new but empty stronghold of Hragulkas troops they find a cave leading to a valley where they find an entrance to old caves - "The Rift" (You can goolge for the "rift" and the "warrens" maps, which I combined - they belong to the most amaging dungeon maps I ever used!) where they not only find Hragulka and his fellow trolls but also the entrance to a newborn underground keep of duergars. The battles are long and tough but finally the PCs manage to kill the high circle of the enclave - three powerful duergar spellcasters and recover an artifact foliant of droskar.
Back in their capital the recession kicks in. The damage is terrible but slowly the young nation starts to recover.
This is where my game is right now the next event will be a marriage between a PC (elven wizard) and Mina Lodowka, princess of House Lodowka.
What I want to do is make Vordakai a far more fleshed out villain than he is in the actual book. His tactics are so poor as written that I wouldn't want to waste and sacrifice a freaking lich for a little dungeoncrawl.
Thats why I thought about what he would do from the moment he is woken up by his champion that the PC released in the ancient cyclops tomb.
He has this crazy powerful artifact in his head which he wants to make best use of:
Oculus of Abaddon
Minor Artifact
Category:
eyewear
Description:
An oculus of Abaddon appears as a sphere of clear crystal that contains a black void at its center. When held, the oculus feels warm to the touch and fills the holder with a sudden desire to pluck out an eye and place the oculus within the socket—this causes 1d8 points of damage, 1 point of bleed damage, and 2 points of Constitution damage. Once placed in an eye socket, the oculus can only be removed by ripping it free (causing the same amount of damage as the initial plucking). An oculus placed in an empty eye socket immediately heals all damage caused by plucking the previous eye out. Once placed, an oculus allows its new owner to utilize its powers, as listed below.
Darkvision to a range of 120 feet (constant)
True seeing once per day as a free action
Greater Scrying three times per day
Planar Binding once per week (only to summmon natives of Abaddon)
Familiar farsight at will
The oculus of Abaddon’s greatest power, though, is its haunting beckon. This ability is usable once per year, and allows the user to manipulate the minds of a huge number of targets, provided that the end goal of the manipulation is a tragic or otherwise horrific fate for those being manipulated. This functions as mass charm monster, but with a range of 1 mile, and establishes a telepathic link between the caster and all minds in that area. The effects are still language- dependant despite this telepathy—creatures without the ability to understand language (typically, creatures with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower) are unaffected. All other creatures are automatically affected unless they have 6 or more HD, in which case they gain a DC 22 Will save to resist the effects. Spell resistance applies regardless of HD.
The oculus of Abaddon is powerfully neutral evil and possesses a limited and hateful intellect of its own. while not capable of communicating directly with its owner, it refuses to activate its powers for any user who is not neutral evil.
But first he needs information - the most important good for him in the early and even more so in the later stages of his rise. Luckily his Aculus allows him to scy a lot and use his familiar for scouting the neighbourhood. He spots Varnhold, he spots the realms of my PC and he spots Brevoy as well as Mivon. A lot has changed within the past thousands of years. Together with his champion he wakes up all other cyclops buried in this very tomb (for which I use a slightly recolored map of Snurres Hall of the Fire Giant King) - enough to do some mining at least. He uses spells and undead workers to produce salt and jewelery - he needs money to accomplish further goals he set up. So while his minions are mining he scries and scries and scries. His raven travelling through the surrounding countries, listenig to important nobles, lords and ladies. He gets to know secrets, for example that the Orlowskis plan to attack the Lands of House Lodowka (an elven wizard PC is just about to marry the princess of House Lodowka) so thats a good point to start. He visits Lord Orlowski in human form (he uses Greater Magic Aura and a greater Hat of Disguise to appear as humen without magic properties) and convinces him that he wants to buy weapons for wars in the south so he makes him a great offer. He will fund the war against the Lodowkas if the Orlowskis provide more weapons he can transport to the south.
The Orlowskis will then ask Jomani Surtowa who was a broken man ever since he lost his reign over Restov to make a deal with the dwarves in the Highdelve. They should fabricate weapons for their war against the Lodowkas as well as weapons for Vordakai (who needs them as he will have to equip an undead army later on) - all in the name of House Surtowa.
For Vordakai this is perfect as he wants to use the war in the north as distraction and also profits from weapons for his own units.
Right after the deal is made he uses his artifact for the first time. He charms the population of Varnburg in order to take their (rather empty) treasueries and to have more workers for his plans. There is a lot of stuff he needs to prepare.
He gets mercenaries in Mivon who will deal with the transportation of the weapons from Brevoy.
He now has one year of time to get ready for the next step in his plan.
At this point I might need your help. He now has a couple of undeads, a lot of information and ~200 citizens from varnhold he turns into undead (maybe one or two intelligent ones as he needs help organizing his upcoming rulership). He also started to contact other evil enteties around to find some allies or vassels.
A year later when the war between Orlowskis and Lodowkas has probably started - according to his plans - he wants to use the Oculus of Abaddon for a second time. But now he's aiming for Restov.
I did some calculations on the distribution of CR among the citizens and the formula I thought looks plausible was an exponential function, proportional to EXP(-[HD of citizen]/1,25) which resulted in ~19.900 of the 20.000 inhabitants being charmed without getting a save. That sounds like a lot but I wanted to have a rather steep distribution. Most of the remaining citizens won't make their save so that I guess 20-30 of them being able to resist the artifact.
Now what? He has almost 20.000 humanoids under his control for 20 days. What does he do? Does he move them to his "base"? Will he kill them to raise them as undead? That seems hard to handle. He wont be able to feed so many people at all so he probably needs to kill them. That's a truely scary scenario. What does he do with those that resisted the charm? What will those who resisted the charm do anyway? Some might be able to use spells to stop several of the charmed... but I'm not sure how to think that through. What's going to happen afterwards? Would it be smart to even use the artifact? He could take every single coin from that city - not too bad. Could he use the structures? Should he leave the city abandoned? Can he still conceal whats going on? How does he move those people? Just have them walk two hundred miles?
And what would he need to tho in the previous year in order to prepare for that event?
This is how far I am right now. I also want him to get some help from Abaddon as his artifact is closely tied to this plane. He will get some Divs and Daemons to lead his armies because why not. He will also get an army of Urdefhans as I feel like this would suit him really good and is plausible.
I'm open to any kind of idea or critique - the more detailed the better. I want his plans to suit a highly intelligent ancient wizard with great knowledge and power so it should make sense all through and result in a subtly rising threat establishing in the very east of my PCs nation.
I am a little confused by the saves of some demons I checked. While I can rebuild the saves e.g. of a Succubus easily I am kind of struggeling with some of the higher CR demons.
For example the Balor has a +17 ref save at 20 HD and 25 dex. I have no idea how to get there.
Same with the Nalfeshnee with +21 will save at 14 HD and 22 wis.
Could you let me know what I am missing? There are actually more examples where I have no idea how to get the written saves so I feel like there is something I don't understand.
I want to create the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, a Dark Souls 3 boss in Pathfinder.
For everyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, here's the link:
I now want the creature suit into the pathfinder lore. What kind of outsider could it be?
And how could I stat out the creature? You maybe have ideas for abilities it should have?
I need some idea on how to get a small army of duergars and trolls could surprise attack a nearby town.
The town is about 60 miles away from the duergar keep. The town also has scouts who keep an eye on this keep and the town of course has walls. On the attacker side there are duergar spellcasters up to character level 9 (druid, cleric, wizard). They have a lot of time to prepare their attack - I just doubt a tunnel over 80 miles would be all that plausible. Maybe you can come up with some suggestions, how around 30–40 duergars and trolls could get their buns inside that town – the more surprising the better!
I am looking for classes, archetypes and prestige classes that are fluffed out to desl with devils. I'd prefer spellcasters but I'm open to any kind of idea. I appreciate builds but do not necessarily need fleshed out characters.
I want to generate an intense atmosphere of danger in the next session of my current campaign.
Last session the 7th level PCs entered the realm of an evil fey and managed to stay unnoticed for a while. When they decided to use "Secure Shelter" for resting their shelter for the night was spotted by fey units and they surrounded the bulding until reenforcements arrive. Inbetween the PCs developed an escape plan and actually managed to flee - 3 of them teleported out, the druid left in eagle form, invisible, and the alchemist tried to escape invisible as well but is chased by a Babau, who was summoned by an antagonist to shut down the invisibility. Now the Dimension Door they used to teleport has no huge range and therefore they are not out of danger. The session ended with them regrouping close about 400 m away with the alchemist still being chased by the Babau (who will stay whole 10 Minutes as it was summoned by a summoner).
The PCs want to reach the tower of said evil fey queen which is about 30 km away. As they dont have means of fast travel (other than wildhape of the druid) this will take them at least two days, more if they actaully stealth. I want those days to be intense. I want them to feel hunted, with creatures looking for them and constant thread of being outnumbered.
Do you have recommandations on how to design such a scenario? I'd really appreciate every single idea you can contribute :)
I have a question towards designing an upcoming encounter. Last session the following happened:
The party, a nature oracle, an alchemist/fighter, an inquisitor of torag, a druid, a bard and a wizard got informed that another member of their "high council" has been killed within their castle. Investigation of the corpse revealed a poisen that belongs to a bone devil, so the next night they were alarmed and watched their bedrooms from save distance. They didn't see the bone devil (due to it's invisibility) but they could tell something is there, so just three of them attacked. It was a desaster - they didn't stand a chance, about 20 guards were killed and the three (bard, wizard and alchemist) only survived because the devil had no means to overcome invisibility in combination with silence.
Now that they know what's up against them they want to prepare for the fight and also plan to ask a local priest for help and maybe even shelter as they know he's rather powerful (he's actually cleric level 11 but they don't expect that).
The really interesting thing now is that right this priest is the antagonist who called the bone devil via planar ally and gave him the task to kill certain members of the high council. I really want to make the best of this great setup and therefore need help on how to let the devil and the priest act in regard of the following aspects:
- First I want the encounter to be interesting and challenging. The devil doesn't have much time so he will attack in the next night. I am afraid that a single bone devil will be rather easy for 5-6 players at level 6 who know what is coming and will be prepared.
- The priest who called the devil doesn't want to reveal his evil alignment so he needs to offer help to the players on one hand while subtly supporting the devil on the other.
- The location of the combat will likely be a temple as the players thought this might be to their advantage, especially when said priest offers protective spells.
I really want this to be a memorable fight. It would be great if the players didn't get to know about the priests intentions but in case they manage to find out it's fine. What do you think should the cleric do? What should the devil do? And how do I make this encounter more interesting than "6 players vs 1 bbeg" promises?
I am going to play RotR soon and I have to admit I'm really struggeling. But lets start with what's cut in stone:
I want to play a diviner, schroedinger style. I want him to be versatile, always having a trick up his sleeve, subtile most of the time and making use of interesting spell combinations (e.g. using blood money). Also - and thats what I picked the diviner - I want so survive. I don't want to dominate all combats especially not by myself. I want to control pace and intensity of the fight but in a subtile way that lets my party shine as well. He will adventure along a shamen, an investigator, a dwarven slayer and probably a monk (hopefully unchained...). Also I want to be able to summon but not focus on summon spells as those tend to slow down the game most of the time.
The character is actually a historian (focused on Thassilion) from Magnimar who was once asked to help the cyphermages in Riddleport where he got to know a wizard who convinced him to give the arcane arts a try. So when the game starts he will already be some older investigating sandpoints ruins acompanied by a scorpion familiar which disgusts him.
His stats will be: 7/14/12/20/14/8
Where I need help now is feats and traits. This is giving me a surprisingly hard time, especially because I kinda want to have both: broad versitality and a focus on some kind of "preferred spell" which could be used to fill those subpar divination slots.
I took Preferred Spell (Battering Blast) because I think the spell is versatile for a blast, its pretty powerful and has a thassilion offspring which makes it fit perfectly in the character design.
But I have some doubts on whether this is actually a good idea. I did not focus heavily in increasing CL which usually is the way to make Battering Blast so good and I dont want to spend all my feats in doing so. Right now I'm afraid I will have a hard time hitting, overcoming SR and making the maneuver because I did not invest much in these areas. Also the metamagic feats I picked synergize not that amazing with the spell. Highten Spell is a feat tax, Persistent Spell is okay but more usefull on area spells or SoS's. Quicken is cool later though.
In short: I just dnt know whether picking Battering Blast as preferred spell is a great choice at all.
I wanted to focus more on conjuration spells which is why I thought about changing battering blast to ice spears and getting spell focus conjuration in there somehow... but yeah... I just dont find myself able to make a destinct decision.
The feats I considered in addition to those mentioned above are:
- Spell Focus, Spell Spec. and Greater Spell Spec.
But those have three problems: First it takes 3 slots, second I had to increase casting time to buff my spell with metamagic and third, I would need to pick spell focus evocation if I wanted to sick to battering blast - a school I did not plan to utilize much (other than conjuration).
- Reach Spell
I love reach spell as you wont get all its awesomeness out of a rod. It just doesnt fit in.
- Dazing Spell
I am kinda afraid it might be too powerful. As I said - I dont want to dominate encouters all by myself and this feat is definitly in danger of doing so.
- Craft Wand
Just in order to provide my improved familiar with ammunition!
- Spell Penetration
For obvious reasons
- Opposition Research
Because The only school I really dont want is enchantment... and even there I'm gonna miss Confusion.
For traits I considered:
- Outlander (Lore Seeker)
This offers my preferred spell and two more +1 DC/CL. Most non-blast-spells only profit from one of those bonusses which makes it hard to actually pick spells here...
- Reactionary
Again - obvious reasons
- Seeker
Having perception as class skill is just wonderful
- Magic Lineage
In case I stick to some kind of preferred spell I'd be stupid not to pick this trait
- Scholar of the Ancients
This fits perfectly to my background and being able to read and write thassilon seems to be pretty sweet in this campaign.
So for now I'd really appreciate to get some help. I know this is just about some details but somehow its giving me a hard time. I'm open to anykind of idea or critique - I just really want to make tgis well rounded character thats powerful on one hand and merges well into the campaign on the other.
Thank you in advance for taking the time of reading this, thank you even more for taking your time to reply!
I plan to play a diviner wizard in RotR soon and I want him to specialize in battering blast and battlefield control while providing a lot of utility to the party. I dont want to be a primary damage dealer, the battering blast will be pretty effective as non-evoker option - in the long run I want to be the schroedinger kind of wizard, at least to the degree my party approves.
He will start as a historian, human, 20 int, opposed schools: necromancy and enchantment.
Feats I want to have are: improved initiative, craft woundrous items, improved familiar, persistent spell, dazing spell (but not sure about this one yet, I'm kinda afraid it might be too strong) and quicken spell, later spell perfection.
For traits I picked additional traits feat so I have four of them: lore seeker (+1 to CL and DC of 3 spells), searcher (perception as class skill), magical lineage and one of the traits in the players guide.
I wanted to use magical lineage and one of the lore seeker spells with battering blast. I dont know yet which other spells to pick for loreseeker. As I dont want to blast much, I can't think of spells that would profit from both - increased CL and DC. Right now I consider create pit as I love the spell and maybe color spray. But in case someone has a good idea what I might pick for the trait, please let me know!
The next thing is (greater) spell specializing OR preferred spell. Both is appealing. Spell specialization would increase the CL for battering blast by two - wonderful - but it needs more feats (and I didnt really want to take spell focus as I am starving for feats) and applying metamagic to my specialized spell would increase the casting time - a real bummer…
Preferred spell would be easier to fit in but I dont really know whether I could somehow utilize heightened spell… and I'd really miss the increase in CL for battering blast. Standard action metamagic sounds sweet though…
Another consideration would be to ignore both of the latter and just pick other feats instead (craft wands for my familiar, opposition research for necromancy and so on).
Can you maybe help me decide in this case? Is there other stuff I should or could consider? I'd really appreciate every single idea you guys have - thanks in advance!
I have a simple question: I am going to play a druid/diviner/mt and I want to pick one of those two archetypes but dont really know which one suits better. The character is an elven sage calling himself "The Moon".
Wolf Shaman:
Liberation or Travel domain. Both great but the totemic transformation stuff isnt spectacular. I love travel for the increased speed but on the other hand it doesnt give much that I couldnt get via arcane casting. Also longstrider wouldnt stack with the increased base speed from the transformation. Liberation offers some sweet spells I couldnt access otherwise but as we have a cleric anyway those wouldnt be too much of a miss. The domain power is pretty sweet though.
Serpent Shaman:
This archetype would offer somewhat better options for totemic transformation - namely increased natural armor or swim/climb speed. Also I'd have access to the trickery domain. I wont be able to use early entry to MT anyway but the domain isnt that bad at all. stealth would be a nice addition to my class skills and creating a mirror image as move action is good as well. Same for the deception subdomain which gives a more or less useful teleport as immediate action.
Do you have any ideas which combination of archetype and domain might be favorable? Im looking forward to receive some advice. In case it matters: I can only access CRB, APG and ACG.
I will be playing in a campaign that revolves around dark but high fantsy: The PC will arrive in a strange and dangerous world where flora and fauna seems to hunt them wherever they go. Winged beasts reign the sky, so flying might not be the go-to-option it usually is.
We will have to find out how to survive in this mysterious environment and how and why we actually got here.
Now I want to make a character who will be able to survive all those threats. Usually I like to play versatile characters which in Pathfinder means spellcasters. Thing is we got the following framework for character creation:
- Starting level 5
- PB 25
- One Fighter bonusfeat OR two traits, no traits otherwise
- if the character has a casterlevel the casterlevel cannot exceed 3/4 of the characters HD (So Wizard 3 Cavalier 2 is allowed, Sorcerer 4 Monk 1 isnt).
- Only core races but with an additional +2 to a stat that is not modified by the race adjustments
- 18.000 gp starting gold (!)
- No spellcasting that is necessarily bound to deities (Paladin)
- no pets, no leadership, no SA-summoning
- no gunpowder
- Allowed sources: CRB, APG and one more book of choice
Do you have some cool ideas on what to play there? I love spellcasting, so maybe a gish would be nice. The powerlevel of the game will probably kinda high, so I want to make good use of those rules. MAD-classes seem to be the way to go, maybe some multiclassing, but actually I just don't have a clear concept right now...
My players want to build a Pathfinder Lodge in their town and I'm considering how to do that. Do you think there already is a building that could appropriately function as PF Lodge? And if there isn't, how would you mechanically add it?
Since my gilfriend asked me to run her first pathfinder campaign just for her I started to think about how that might work out. I'm an expierienced GM, running monthly PF (and ealier 3.5 games) for about 10 years. Now I have never before made up a campaign for only one player. In addition to that she wanted me to have character as well, another thing I usually do not appreciate while GMing. But now that's my framework.
We already created her PC, a slyph oracle of wind. Now the oracle is definitly no class that starts out super effective unless you pick certain mysteries/revelations or high strength melee builds. She did none of that and I decided to habe too much influence in her major decisions. Also I like the oracle class and I'm pretty sure in the long run its a great pick. But for the first levels things might become a little tricky. Her stats are 13/16/12/12/12/16, so no highly optimized distribution, but her Charisma is finde and her defense too. As her feat she picked toughness, first level spells are Cause Fear (a great pick!) and obscuring mist. So the PC kinda uses a well balanced, but not really combat heavy build. She already read most of the rules and - from what I expect - will have no issues when it comes to fluent application of the mechanics. She still wanted to play a character that is not too complicated in order to keep an overview of all her abilities.
The first set of questions refers to management of this very PC. Do you have experiences when it comes to 1-player-campaigns? Is there something I should keep in mind? Do you have advice what kind of challenges (other than combat encounters) such a PC could find interesting?
And what kind of companion should I provide? I dont want some melee heavy brute who will definitely outshine her at low levels. Also, I dont want a magic heavy NPC because he should be more of a sidekick and keep enemies at hand while she casts spells or fires her crossbow. My first idea was a dex-based monk, maybe maneuver master, in order to set up, but not easily kill enemie combatants. I know the both will tragically lack in damage, but I plan to make up for that by encounter design.
The second set of questions deals with the campaign I want her to live through. Usually I am everything but a fan of too exotic party constellations. "A Tiefling, a Stryx, a Duergar amd an Ifrit enter the tavern" is something I usually try to avoid unless its somwhat plausible. Now this tike its different. As she will be the only player its totally fine for me if she wants to play that one special snowflake and allowed all races found in paizo releases. She picked a sylph and the wind oracle in conjunction, so I will not complain - this is quiet flavorful. My idea now was to adopt some concepts of "the last airbender". There she is born in a temple of the air somewhere of golarion. As monks and priests living their are tied closely to air spirits and the deity Gozreh every now and then a sylph is born. When that occures she is meant to become one of the sages of this very air temple as the bith of sylphs are understood as blessing and gift. She should be trained and taught until she is capable to fulfil this prophecy. The final part of this process is a huge journey to all of the three other air temples on golarion. I want the first episode of the campaign to deal with her trip to magnimar from where she will take the boat to eleder in sargava. I want to start with some travelling encounters and adventures before letting her take the boat just to find herself in the first book of serpent skull. She will strand on that island and try to survive there for several weeks until concluding this part by a small dungeon. I dont want to add the serpent folk stuff as Im not planning to use more than this first part of the AP.
My questions now are:
Where are those air temples? The first one should be somewhere in the northwest of golarion, so that the first part of the campaign can deal with her journey to magnimar. The second one should be somewhere in the south, maybe close to sargava and one more I wanted to place to qadira. Do you have an advice, where exactly those temples could be found? And where might the 4th temple be placed?
And finally: what do you think about those lose drafts of a plot? Do you think Serpent Skull 1 is a good thing to start with (well, at least after some introducing sessions around varisia)?
I didnt want to ask on the kingmaker boards as the actual question is "how could low level npcs capture a low level commoner unnoticed"?
The setting: We have a trading post, kinda small, which is repeatedly haressed by bandits. Being an old fort, the trading post offers some degree of protection (10 fert of palisades e.g.). There are some guards (lowlevel warriors) looking for bandits even at night up on the wall.
A group of bandits (as few as possible, if one could do it on his own that would probably be best) wants to capture the owners wife - Svetlana who sleeps inside the building and is guarded as well (by one lowlevel guard).
I want that lowlevel guard to be kidnapped as well as my PCs dont trust right this guard at all and I want them to think he is responsible for Svetlanas disappearing.
So my bandit (or group of bandits) is lowlevel has just some mundane items and several potions. Yeah, thats actually all he got, some potions of first and second level spells - definitely more first level ones. Do you guys have an idea how he could archieve:
- to arrive at the trading post unmoticed, even though his face is well known to the guards?
- to enter the trading post unnoticed?
- to get around that guard
- to make Svetlana follow him silently
- to have a reason to take the guard with him as well
- to find a way to actaully get both Svetlana and the guard out of the trading post
- to get away with those two unnoticed.
My only idea so far is the combination of potions of invisibility, enlarge person and reduce person. But even then I dont know how to get close to the trading post unnoticed as the potions only last for several minutes...
I'd be really glad to find some good advice here - thanks in advance!
Wasum
Edit: getting out unnoticed is not a necessity by the way!
Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight beyond 5 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).
I am confused (actually I'm not, just gotta prove something!) by the phrasing "obscures all sight" and "5 feet away". How is fog actually supposed to be handled?
A) Adjacent creatures have Concealment (20% miss chance), all creatures further away have Total Concealment (50%),
or
B) Adjacent creatures are clearly visible; creatures further away have Concealment (20%)
?
Benefit: When you kill a creature during a surprise round, you can attempt a Stealth check, opposed by the Perception checks of potential observers, to prevent them from noticing your action and subsequently identifying you as the assailant.
Any ideas for a nice engineer build? I dont really have an idea how to make it work honestly - maybe gunslinger but I dont really want a gunslinger... so... yea, I'd love some input.
I was talking to a friend the other day and we decided to have a little pvp challenge. No classes with 9th or 6th level spell progression allowed.
I'm not sure which classes would work good there, probably ZAM and Barbarian would be decent, but maybe you have other ideas what classes could make strong PvP choices.
Important is that they will have to fight ~6 encounters first to qualify for that all of them CR 10 - 13, some single bbegs, some larger groups of weaker enemies.
Now I'm open to any kind of advice, I'm curious to get to hear your ideas. Also - I am curious about specific builds as well!
I'm about to start playing a storm druid as replacement character in our Skulls and Shackes campaign. My goblin alchemist recently was forced to leave the crew after he ate a little girl so I had to make a new character.
He's going to be a caster type storm druid focussing on the lightning spells and water stuff.
Now I wanted to have a cool picture representing him, but struggled to find one. I was a little surprised as I thought that kind of character is pretty stereotypical somehow but I just didnt find anything good.
Now I'm asking you whether you maybe have some idea which picture I could take.
I am going to play a magus pretty soon and have some troubles finishing my build. What I got so far is Magus, eventually
hexcrafter archetype, rolles stats (16, 16, 15, 14, 12, 10)Str based.
I for sure want to get a familiar and even surer I do not want a spike nova build. In
fact, I want to heavily focus on
debuffing.
Already set is magical lineage (frostbite), rime spell, enforcer and the
flght hex, as well as bruising intellect.
Okay, now I've got several questions.
1) Is Hexcrafter the right choice in my case?
Yea, as I said I want to focus on debuffing, mainly abusing frostbite synergies. Therefore I do not need that many spells / arcanas and I have a lot of space for interesting stuff. That is what made me think of hexcrafter as he'd be able to debuff even more and to do something when not attacking.
But I still have some doubts. I dont want to utilize slumber so I'm looking at misfortune and evil eye as offensive hexes. Maybe I'd just pick one of those two, but Im not yet sure about that - guess its gonna be evil eye. Thing is, Magus is really begging for full attacks and any full attack I'm taking will interrupt my cackling. That means, if I evil eye someone and he saves I'd have to keep cackling in order to keep the hexes up. So when I start combat, I hex some enemy and then start fullattacking, I wount be able to keep up my cackle and therefore debuff. I could focus on spellstrike only when I have to cackle but
I doubt thats a good idea. I do need advice here! Should I focus
2) The Race
Human elf, half elf. Right now I think I dont want the elf due to con penalty, while half elf offers a bonus feat at first level (EWP or skillfocus) even though +2 will saves is kinda interessting as well. On top of that I get that really nice elven FCB, granting me a new arcana every 6 levels.
Humans on the other hand got that bonus feat (for me, it has about the same value as the FCB of the elf/half elf) and skilled (which I do not need that much) and in addition to that they'd get 1 hp per level as they take it as fcb.
Breakdown: Bonusfeat and FCB evens out, so now I need to check which of these feats I'd chose as bonusfeat: toughnes, iron will, EWP or skillfocus. If its going to be toughnes I'll take human, otherwise half elf.
3) The Stats
As I said I rolled 16, 16, 15, 14, 12, 10.
I'd arrange them like that:
Str: 16
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Int: 16
Wis: 12
Cha: 10
And now I'm trying to figure out where to put my +2 - str or int.
Putting it on str means +1 to hit and +1 (or +2 if THFing) to damage.Putting it on int means +1 to save DCs (actually not that many I'm about to abuse) and +1 on HEX DCs as well als +1 for arcane accuracy in case I take it and +1 for my arcane pool.
What do you think would be the better choice?
So many questions, I'd be so glad to get your advice!
Hope its ok to post this here - I'm looking for a pathfinder module to play with some of my old PF-mates who come visit me next weekend.
I want it to be pretty classic with at least some kind of dungeon crawl but also some kind of investigation aspects (even though these could be minor).
It should not take too much time. I guess those 36-pages modules of paizo would fit pretty good.
I dont want it to start at level 1, but it also shouldnt be above 7th/8th level as well.
And I want it to be lots of fun, so the background and the atmosphere should be as good as possible!
Hey there, inspired by another thread on here, I wanted to ask what options you have if you want to shoot an army into a city using some kind of siege engine. Would something like Mage's Magnificent Mansion work when you put the entrance onto a big rock and use a catapult to launch your army transporter over the enemies walls?
Is there maybe a "chaeper" way to do it (than a 7th lvl spell)?
I want to make a lunar oracle and I'd like your advice on how to improve the stuff I made up.
As there are only core races allowed in this game I'm going to pick human. At first I thought for something similar to the reach cleric, using str as primary stat, but now that I see that there are feats I'd prefer over the melee stuff I dont think its worth it.
For now I decided to go with STR: 12 DEX: 7 CON: 14 INT: 12 WIS: 12 CHA: 19
For revelations I wanted to have the companion, prophetic armor, misfortune, fortune, maybe touch of the moon and then maybe some shapeshift stuff, even though I'm not sure whether thats even worth it.
Now I'm glad to be king of action economy with that build. Familiar, companion, summons - great! But I'm not sure what to do myself. Tossing spells seems the best idea, but the cleric lists kinda lacks the real good stuff, even though there's probably enough to work with.
Is touch of the moon worth it to make use of inflict spells? I'm really not sure about this. While I'm no fan of inflict stuff at all, the confusion might make it worth it, but here I need your advice.
And do you maybe have some more ideas I missed out?
I am looking for character concepts that are competetiv in optimized game but use unusual ways to deal with their problems.
You know - other than beatung things up with falcata or falchion, other than pit spells and shocking grasp spellstrike action... just things that do not come up often as main schtick of a character.
Just for example: I had that sorcerer who used some pimped up enervation action to defeat his enemies or another one who used fear effects and phantasmal killer.
Maybe a character who effectivly uses poison to kill his enemies? Or a hydraulicnpush sorcerer with bullrush feats and high CL?
I somehow feel like I kinda fail at explaining what exactly I am looking for, but maybe you have an idea and can provide some ideas:)
I am playing Skulls and Shackles right now as goblin alchemist (current level 2). I want him to provide support via the infusion discovery, so that his mates may drink the extracts I brew right before we start entering a ship.
To make things more interessting I dont want them to know what exactly is inside the potion they swallow, so that it will have some surprising effects on them.
Therefor I want to prepare folded cards that tell the other players what happens after they drink the infusion - just to make it as easy for them as possible.
Probably I will use buffing extracts (shield, enlarge person, true strike and so on) and a lot of different polymorph-options (beast shape, montrous physique, ...). Mainly I want to buff them but every now and then a potion with a funny or slightly handicapping effect would be sweet (like weird polymorphs or reduce person on a str-melee), but nothing too bad.
Now I'm looking for ideas which extracts and even more which polymorph forms I could use! I want cool forms for alter self, beast shape, undead anatomy and monstrous physique. A lot of cool ons and some funny ones, do you guys maybe have some ideas what I could pick?
I'd really appreciate some help - actually I want to never give my players the same "form" twice, so I do need some versitality:)
I'm building a giblin alchemist pirate for skulls and shackles AP!
Now I need some help on what discoveries I should pick, especially when it comes to different types of bombs.
Stats are going to be:
STR: 7 DEX: 18 CON: 14 INT: 17 WIS: 12 CHA: 5
Coming to feats and dicoveries I'm a little uncertain. I may only pick from CRB, APG, UM and UC - most of the other stuff is not allowed. For now I have something like:
Smoke Bomb
-> Stink Bomb (I think the best bomb out there)
Tanglefoot Bomb
Frost Bomb
Sticky Bomb
Explosive Bomb
But sadly I have no idea what to pick. While stink bomb is amazing it needs smoke bomb and I dont like that one much at all. Then I'd like to have either frost bomb or tanglefoot bomb as both target reflex and bring some control. The effect of frost bomb is stronger but targets a usually stronger save and only effects one creature. I dont want to pick both (as you can see, I do not have much space left there), so do you have any good reason why to pick one over the other?
Should I get stink bomb even though its so "expensive"?
What about sticky and explosive bomb? Do you guys think one of these might fit in better then those I mentioned? Or is there even something else I did not think of?
Also, do you think my picking order is fine? any reasons to change stuff? I'm not sure whether it might be useful to get the monkey familiar earlier to have him use infusion for action economy and maybe throw some alchemical weapons.
I'd also like to have precise shot in there at some point but it hardly fits in - but I should be able to still hit anyway, shouldnt I?
As soon as he gets "beat morph" and "monstrous physics" extracts he is going to hand those as infusions to other characters whithout them knowing what the effect is. The idea is to surprise them with what form they are going to become after drinking and therefor I'm interessted in forms that might be strong and entertaining (maybe with some exception, could be really funny to have my melee brute become some tiny fish once in a while!). Do you maybe have some good ideas? I want my players to take the risk so the forms shouldnt be too bad:)
I want to build a character based on the fishmen in "One Piece". I'm not sure which way to go, but I probably want him to be a martial artist (-> Fishmen Karate) and maybe even adopt their abilities to fight using water somehow. And he should be kinda charismatic of course!
I'm using a 20pb and about all the paizo-sources available.
Oh and I already thought about making him a mysterious stranger but then it would be even more difficult to implement the fishmen karate thing...
Well, I'd be really glad to get some advice there!
For my campaign I just made up this monster - its supposed to look like a "Gengar" from pokemon - just dont ask why!
I want to know what CR this monster would have (I'm facing a 9?) and what you think about its abilities (especially the size changing one)
Gangar
NE Small fey
Init +10; Senses low-light vision; perception +XXX
Frightful presence (30 ft., DC19)
Defense
AC 26, touch 16, flat-footed 20 (+5 Dex, +1 Size, +10 Natural)
HP 102 (12d6 +60)
Fort +8, Ref +13, 10
DR 10/cold iron; SR 19
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee Bite +8 (1d6 +1) plus Grab
or Slam (1d4 +1)
Special Attacks Growth, Massiv Charge, swallow whole (4d6 piercing damage, AC 15, 11 HP)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12; Concentration +15)
At Will - Gaseous Form
3/day - Create Hungry Pit (DC 19), Phantasmal Web (DC 18), Deep Slumber (DC 16)
1/day - Quickened Mirror Image
Statistics
Str 12, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 16
Base Atk +6, CMB +6 (+10 grapple); CMD 21
Feats Toughness, Power Attack, Improved Bullrush, Awesome Blow, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Improved Initiative
Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +17, Stealth +24
Special Abilities
Change Size (SU)
As swift action a Gangar can change its size up to huge. He gains +6 size Bonus to Strength, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity for each size category larger than small (up to +18/-6 when becoming huge)
Massiv Charge (EX)
When a Gangar changes its size while charging it gains an aditional attack bonus of +2 for each size category larger it gets. For example when changing its size from large to huge the Gangar gains +4 on his attackroll for this charge attack - 2 from charging, 2 more from massiv charge. It also can combine the awesome blow feat with a charge attack.
Skin Pin (EX)
After swallowing whole a foe the Gangar can decrease its size becoming no smaller than the size of the creature swallowed. When shrinking to the size of the swallowed creature that creature gains the pinned condition immediatly.
I want to make an item, the staff of earth, that can cast 3x Stone Shape and 3x Stone Call on activation.
How would such an item be priced? Somehow I just cannot figure out how to do the calculation as I dont have much experience concerning magic item pricing.
I'd really appreciate some help, thanks in advance!
I will be starting a new campaign with 3 new pathfinder (and rpg in generall ) players soon and want to male a reallly, really good session. I really want them to have fun and find interesst in the game, so it just has to be more than some good encounters. While I can make those up on my own I have troubles finding a good plot. The Characters will be a DD-Kensai, a TWF-Ranger and a heavens oracle.
Now there are plenty of classic adventures or modules that are quiet interesting but for now Im looking for an exceptional experience. This may sound somewhat silly, but I really mean it, I want a one-shot with a rather intelligent story that excites my players, gives them some real challengenes and introduces them into the game mechanics. I really dont have an idea that Im satisfied with.. maybe some horror would be cool, Zombies and stuff, or an snow and ice setting... but I just cannot come up with a truely amazing plot that will do it for me.
It doesnt neccessarily have to be a one shot as we probably will keep playing anyway, but it should just be interessting throughout the whole session.
Hey there,
Right now Im working to improve the final encounter of kingmaker 3/6. The Lich by himself is a little bit boring as BBEG as he probably won't challenge my players that much at. I already made up another encounter including masses of undead (my Lich made Zombies out of all inhabitants of varnhold) so I wanted to have not too many participants in this fight. So I planned on giving him a pet - a fast zombie purple worm. Now my idaea is that he DDs inside the worm whenever he's short on HP and channels to heal himself and the worm while the pet still tears apart my PC.
Now I'd like to know what you think about this and how to further improve this tactic. Maybe I need to change some of his prepared spells to have more DDs and slightly improve his ability to channel energy. Will this Channel hurt PC right next to the worm as well?
And then I consider adding something else to distract the party from attacking the worm (as it will drop fast when 5 PC attack him like crazy, even though he has tons of HP) but I dont really have a good idea yet. The fight will take place in a huge chamber where the party killed the undead inhabitants of varnhold before, so everything will be full of corpse - is there a way for my Lich to make use of that? Or can you think of some kind of mechanic that will make this fight more interessting?
I don't know whether this is going to work, but after some research I recognized there is no thread like this one yet.
My idea here is to post creative, special and challenging encounters that others can use in their games. Making up encounters is not easy and requires a lot of preparation (even though there already are a couple of great guidelines of how to do so), so I'm pretty sure such a thread - if filled with the most exciting battles, skill challenges, traps or whatever you made up in your games - will find use in many campaigns.
To help readers on whether a posted encounter may be implemented in their current scenario we should mention some important aspects:
_________________________________
Summary: ("Party fights small mosquitos in mouth of colossal frog while trying not to be swallowed")
CR of the encounter:
Typ of encounter: (Is it a boss fight, a skill challenge or some mini game?)
Background: (For what party did you initially create the encounter, what was the intention?)
Encounter: (What exactly does it look like? What creatures did you use, what tactics? Just all the details!)
Comment: (How did your group get through the encounter? What might be a problem? What else should be mentioned?)
________________________________
I really hope to find some people filling this thread with great ideas! I will do so as soon as I get home as I have some cool encounters that might be interesting for some of you:)
This might really help lots of GMs or at least can provide some inspiration! I know we have a huge number of creative heads on these boards, so there's no excuse:)
I am DMing Kingmaket and we're about to start the third book - varnhold vanishing. Now I just was informed there will be one additional player next session (in 2 days) and I have no clue how to blend him into the story.
It will be an half orc guide ranger and I have no idea how to plausibly add him to the party. Why would he join that group and why would a king and his crew. Travel around with that half orc? I dont really have a good idea tight now - help appreciated! I'd be teally glad for some suggestion:)
I need your help, I'm making a group of 4 NPCs to first trick, then attack my party.
We're playing Kingmaker and my playsers are at level 7, they will be on their way to Varnhold when they meet these guys near the roc. However - the group Im building consists of a half orc ranger, a rogue, a bard and a witch. They're well known bandits and should be an actual threat to my party.
The PC:
- a lion shaman druid, dwarf
- a ZAM, half elf
- a bard, elf (archer)
- an oracle of life, human
- a magus, elf
I already built some of the enemies:
Bard: human, arcane duelist, probably scimtar wielding dervish dancer (I just didnt want hom do be the DD-archetype)
Ranger: Half orc, guide, switch hitter using a greatsword and composite bow - his companion is not done yet - any advice? Maybe a wolf.
Rogue: Scout, human, spring attacking with a spear
And yea, I have no idea how to build the witch. Im not familiar with that class at all and I just want a HD7 witch that fits to the rest of this party. She should be able to debuff and controll, but I dont want her to have sod's. Any advice for that bandit witch? She should be flavoured like that lestrange-woman from Harry Potter, at least that is what I have on my mind.
Actually I just wanted to ask for help, but first off I want to mention that it would be amazing if someone felt like making a guide about how to effectivly raise undead. I know there are a lot of different possibilities, Juju-Oracle, Sorcerer, Bones-Oracle, Wizard and of course cleric. Usually I like checking this out myself, I love comparing builds and classes when it comes to theri ability in a certain sector (like creating an undead army). But now - I never dealt with Animate Dead spells, controll undead feats and the like before. I dont even know why that never occured in the time I play PF/D&D, but somehow it never did.
So if anyone feels like writing a guide this is something noone has dealt with before and that is yet to be covered!:D
So, actually I want to build a character that controlls an army of undead and my questions now are all these that would be answered in a guide:
What is the difference between the classes that are able to raise an undead army? which class is best there?
What would such a builds look like?
How do I create undead? What are good choices, what are bad ones? How do I get the most power out of the availible HD?
What do I have to keep in mind when playing such a charakter? How do I get the Zombie-Version of the enemy I just tore apart?
And whats really important: How viable is such a character?
I bet there's even more that would come up the more I dive into that topic, but for now those are my main questions.
I hope someone will give me some nice answers on how exactly all this works, and if I really get someone to write a guide about that - yay - great!
