By common sense, I'd say no. Under construct rules nothing specifically calls it out, since it's a Will save and not a fortitude save and channeling isn't technically magic.
Also from variant channeling, Forge healing can affect constructs. Does this mean normal channeling doesn't affect constructs?
Pummeling Charge is probably the easiest alternative to pounce. It even works while mounted if you can pull off the feats. Getting Improved Critical as soon as possible to increase the chance of that amazing Pummeling critical is pretty legit. Ideally you want to either have a flying mount or a pretty good move speed and access to Dragon Style and Rhino Charge.
If your GM doesn't want you pouncing too early, you can get it at 12, which is only a little behind when the barbarian would be pouncing normally; otherwise a single level of monk will get you there, which seems like an acceptable dip.
I should clarify, this is for a Barbarian. So I cannot rely on brawler feats like Pummeling Charge.
The feat says you need either brawler or monk level 8th. Pummeling Style was similarly errata'd, apparently, to affect only unarmed attacks.
DM for one of my games has said I cannot take beast totem on my Barbarian, which will deny me ability to get pounce. Are there any alternatives for getting a full attack more often? All I can think of off-hand is Lunge and the Step Up line.
* Diviner or Divinist class (cleric/oracle smash-up w/ divine exploits, divine metamagic and divine reservoir). Healing without spells or channeling. Archetypes that get arcane casting from the deity.
*Concrete rules for concept clerics, with good examples to encourage more DMs to allow it.
*Cleric capstones or discoveries, as a wizard with a more divine feel.
*Archetypes to Divinist or Cleric that grant divine bloodlines.
*Capstone could be a 3rd domain or channel energy at will.
*Divine Meta-magic in some limited form, maybe as seen above
*More wondrous items that affect domain powers, high level healing mechanics and some porting over of old 3.5 feats like Augmented Healing, Sacred Boost and other cool stuff from Complete Divine
*A viable necromancer archetype that borrows from Bones Oracle and Juju Oracle. Again, like Undead Lord, piegon-holding the PC into channeling negative energy and losing armor/shield proficiency and 1 domain to focus on Undeath domain. Reduced channel progression to get some SLA of animate dead, scaling appropriately.
*Related to above, a companion that functions as an undead version of a druid animal companion, perhaps.
*Divine Bonds or Familiars. Divine bombs. More domain variety, particularly with technology concepts coming to light in Numeria or mentalist material being hinted at in upcoming content.
*A "Red Mage" archetype. Clerics give up pivotal class features to get arcane casting. Starting, obviously losing all armor, shield and weapon proficiency. Possible limited access to wizard arcane schools.
*A Divine Sin Mage Specialist, with divination as the main school. I think we all know this means more cleric spells per level, and yeah some lost spells or "opposition" divine action.
*Immortality discovery or feature as a cleric. Capstone. Seriously, Paizo.
*An archetype that does what Mythic Theurge does, but does it better. Holy Vindicator as a concept archetype, scaling appropriately by level.
More variety and caster/gish/arcane options for the cleric class, essentially.
I would run a full core deity as a level 40 with 10 mythic tiers. Generally speaking, 20th level in 2 classes. Maybe one hybrid class, depending. Generally speaking, most (if not all) would take Divine Source and Hierophant. A few may be Champion and the rare one may be an Archmage (Nethys, anyone?)
But does CR 40 / ML 10 equal a deity? No, but we're bloody close at that point. Most deities need Mythic Regneration stapled on there, plus Divine Source. Surge is, IMO, at least +1d20 if not more for the core deities. I'd give them Unspeakable Presence as well, from the Great Old One archetype.
Ultimately your average deity would end up with something like mythic subtype, outsider [alignment] and probably augmented.
For instance, I would stat Asmodeus out as a 20th level Warpriest (full Cleric spells nonetheless), 20th level Sorcerer (Arcane 'bloodline', possibly Sage). Mythic Tier 10, likely Champion if any path or Marshal.
SQ of heavy fortification, DR 25/epic, Immune (devil resists), Resist 50 vs other elements SR 50. AC would be broken at around +15 armor, +36 natural, +12 profane, +9 DEX +8 shield, +4 dodge). Converted to outsider d10 hit-die instead of class levels. Regeneration except (good, mythic), 20. Total HP is around 1500 probably. Sick CON, STR, CHA. Reasonable INT, lesser DEX and WIS. Obviously, planar omniscience, see invisibility, limited spell-immunity, detect good at will, detect thoughts, detect magic and smite good/chaos. Some sexy Domain SLA as well, probably including touch of law, evil and battle rage. Charm monster, fireball, teleport, hold monster, spells vs. good and polymorph at will are all in there. Discern location and resurrection SLA go without saying. X/day of wish, as SLA and standard action. Summons of devils, w/ Sacred Summons as a modifying feat.
He'd be able to use any poison on his weapon, and probably prefer to avoid straight up fights, letting summons and his gaze attacks do most of the dirty work. Trickery domain powers are an obvious must, channeling negative energy to heal himself with alignment channel as needed.
To prevent cheesers like the Vacuum or One, I'd throw on something there about how he doesn't need to breathe, and he can summon smoke, mirror images and illusions to keep "One" from owning. Planar Omniscience to see cheap stealth builds coming. Forbiddance effect around his throne.
Looking for other opinions on this. Can a N Cleric pick any 2 domains he wants and grant them to himself? Would this grant 4 domains total or replace the original domains?
So I'm starting a prison campaign with my friends. The party are evil and neutral PCs who are either rightfully or wrongfully in prison. The setting is in Taldor. The characters have a reason to be working together (Evil is not Murderhobo trope...)
I am aiming for a theme of showing how decadent Taldor's society is, how 'evil' is really practical in some circumstances and how "Lawful Good" isn't really so different from evil, at least in practice.
What I'm struggling with is... what magic items should exist in a prison? Should or can the prison be a self-sustaining community? Is it too cheesy to include a series of dungeons under the prison? What encounters can I plan for the (evil) PCs in the prison?
What fantasy literature/movies can I find about 'real' prison life?
Mostly looking for commentary or advice from people that have ran similar campaigns.
A True Neutral character can choose any two domains he wants? That seems a little overpowered IMO. But maybe that's the way it was designed. I'm also not really seeing any verbage in the ability that implies the character actually gets the domain powers, since it says he grants others the domains.
You can grant divine spells to those who follow your cause, allowing them to select you as their deity for the purposes of determining their spells and domains. Select two domains upon taking this ability. These domains must be alignment domains matching your alignment if possible, unless your alignment is neutral. You grant access to these domains as if you were a deity. Creatures that gain spells from you don't receive any spells per day of levels higher than your tier; they lose those spell slots. In addition, you can cast spells from domains you grant as long as their level is equal to or less than your tier. Each day as a spell-like ability, you can cast one spell of each level equal to or less than your tier (selecting from those available to you from your divine source domains). If you're a cleric or you venerate a deity, you may change your spell domains to those you grant others. At 6th tier and 9th tier, you can select this ability again, adding one domain and two subdomains to your list each time and adding their spells to the list of those that you can cast.
1) Does the mythic character himself gain access to these domains and their associated domain powers?
2) Can a neutral aligned character select any two domains he wishes, or do they still have to be alignment domains?
3) Can the original 2 domains you choose be subdomains?
4) Can the user of this ability choose to venerate himself as a deity and therefore grant himself domains? Or can he only grant other people domains?
5) What does "you may change your spell domains to those you grant others" mean? Does it mean you can still only have 2 domains, or does it mean you can change the domains you give others? Wording here seems really clunky.
My 2 copper... seems like a pretty solid ability either way. Especially if you can grant yourself domains. Possibly bordering on overpowered.
Depends on the GM. Best to ask them upfront before you start the game.
In my setting, it is evil. But that's because not all drow are evil. I treat them like every other race in the book.
I am asking about Golarion setting. In the world setting it seems 99.99999% of Drow are evil and exist as twisted creatures of the underdark. Not killing them on sight IMO represents a threat to one's own odds at survival. Few venture above the surface, and those that do usually are up to no good like the rest of their race.
Everyone wants to play Drizzt. Which is just a case of Mary Sue meta-gaming BS in my not so humble opinion. Most Drow would be killed on sight. Including him, and for justifiable reason. So I guess I had an agenda asking this question.
4th edition toddler logic aside, I think that there's little reason that monstrous races would be even vaguely tolerated in human society.
Imbicatus wrote:
In Golarion, all drow are evil. If an elf get's too evil, they turn drow, and if a drow turns good, they become a normal elf.
However, indiscriminately killing evil beings is usually evil.
Stand your ground and castle doctrine. Armed drow outside the gate can be assumed to be evil and are filleted with arrows immediately. Unarmed drow, same story. They're just assumed to be casters. Even Paladins are fully justified in 'murdering' Drow, because as a monstrous race their lives hold no value in RAW alignment.
Drow seem to be pretty much universally reviled in lore. Subject says it all. The way I am reading evil vs good in the alignment rules, it seems to only apply to humanoid creatures and to core races. As such, killing intelligent undead, monstrous humanoids (kobolds, drow, etc.) on sight is not inherently evil. But rather a matter of killing them before they kill you.
Let's keep the Paladin code of conduct out of the discussion, as Paladins are extremely rare in the setting in question (i.e. not a player class).
The player in question is arguing that psionics are part of the world of Golarion, which is part of why I made this thread I guess. I haven't seen anything in official source material that even begins to hint at psionics. Other than possibly detect thoughts.
IMO it depends on the deity. He'd need a strongly chaotic action to fall, and a pattern of it at that. It's a mechanic I only use to punish "monks" that go full-on murderhobo.
This is not a thread about psionics. It is a thread about a prison campaign. I don't feel psionics has been legitimized in any Paizo published material about Golarion, thus I feel it has no place. My understanding is PFS feels exactly the same way, otherwise they'd allow psionics.
I like this idea. The monk is going to be wheeled around Hannibal Lecter style. Maybe he'll reconsider dumping CHA that way... As for Psionics, yeah screw that gimmicky crap. Has no basis in lore or in a medieval setting.
From a DM's perspective, I want the party to earn their freedom through creativity. Plus a lot of the first plot arc revolves around the assumption they cannot easily escape a maximum security prison. For the Monk I'm just going to tell the player that they found out he's a martial artist when arresting him. They assign extra security detail to him, and manacle him during most of the day. Do they know he's a monk? Nah, I doubt anyone but the Paladin would even guess. All the same "Hey, that guy is dangerous with his hands. Let's manacle him".
Plus Monks can technically fall for committing non-Lawful actions...
Still Silent Liberating Commands man, you can never be too cautious.
I'm in realization on this, but i don't think the average sorcerer has them. Sure most players do, but i think players tend to break away from what the rest of the world does quite regularly. (sort of let it stay open as a player escape option)
at which point, if they do attempt an escape, you just cut their tongue out as said or have like a shift watch of people with prepared dispells.
In this case, the governor of Porthmos is a cheapskate. He ain't paying wizards to guard people. The captain of the guard is a blowhard Paladin, typical square-jawed type.
RE; Psionics. Yeah whatever, they aren't core material. It's 3PP. Most DMs don't allow that nonsensical BS.
It's a LG nation. They'd never disfigure or torture anyone. About Psionics, I disallow all 3PP stuff. The vast majority of DMs I know also do. Psionics was silly OP in 3.5, it seems that way in Pathfinder. It isn't that I am not familiar with it, I just think it's very poorly balanced... Cool idea just the same, no offense to the guys that wrote it.
I'm also restricting players to the Core races, since it seems that 99% of Golarion is core races.
Seeking advice on this prisoner protocol.
Martials: Their weapons are confiscated, as are armor and shields. Returned upon sentence completion.
Wizards: Spellbooks are burned, as arcane magic is illegal in this nation. Familiar is not killed, but is kept in a separate part of the facility. Bonded items are confiscated.
Sorcerer: Undecided.. meh.
Monk: Manacled, probably.
Rogues: Weapons taken. Full body cavity search for picks.
I'm a somewhat new DM, and I'll be running an internet campaign soon, where the PCs are convicts. Advanced Class Guide is not being allowed.
- One player is complaining Advanced Class Guide and psionics are part of core material. Is it better to just let this guy go or try to entertain him? My reason is pretty much that I think ACG is overpowered, and psionics is silly 3PP bull-hockey.
-How should I deal with characters such as Sorcerers or Monks? Would the NPC guards be able to tell these sorts apart from other inmates and take precautions (such as manacles, rope, etc.)?
Players are educated beyond grade 5 they shouldn't need to be told if you attract attention you become the center of attention. To expect otherwise is being a delusional jerk that wants monsters to pick on other players illogically and unfairly.
My rant on abusive PFS game masters:
See this is why I play my Varisian Pilgrim, Cleric of Desna build. When the GM is a jerk and picks on one character, I use min-max'd healing or just teleport them away with Caravan Bond. I also play with a scroll of Breathe of Life, Quick Channel and wands of healing plus scrolls for status removal. When the DM guns to kill a character, you can just resurrect them at 0 PA cost. I've had DMs try to eject me from their tables over it.
Power goes to some people's heads, it's good to have a good support character there to tell power-tripping DM to go **** himself sometimes. My 2 copper.
@OP:
I'd say a level 1 Barbarian with 20 STR and high CON is probably a good bet. A Fighter with Unbreakable archetype (free Diehard feat, at level 1) and decent CON is also good. Lets you stay alive at level 1, even at negative HP. A tiefling fighter could easily top 25+ AC and be nearly invincible(6 armor, 3 DEX, 2 natural w/ feat, 1 trait, 1 DODGE, 2-4 shield). The Barbarian will average 20+ damage per round, more with Cleave and Power attack.
Eastern armor is legal these days, so most martial PCs should start with 4 mirror armor or Kikko armor, as they are only 45 gold and 30 respectively. That's way cheaper than a breastplate.
The problems level 1 casters have in Society:
*No Scribe Scroll = no making scrolls
*Limited wealth => no GP for scrolls
*Limited spell slots, from being level 1
*Low level casters are worthless when their spells are gone, since most cantrips suck
The low level martial character can swing all day, provided he has HP. Strength seems to even out around level 3 spells, and casters eclipse martials in general past level 8-9 or so.
Would you say there's a 1 level dip that's possible with the above build? And is the current one better than the original build posted?
Any thoughts as to whether 1 level Holy Vindicator would be better or 1 level in Dual-Cursed Lore Oracle w/ Misfortune and Sidestep Secret?
I stand by Caravan Bond being a good battlefield control tactic, when stacked w/ Dimensional Hop. If I read that right I can use my move action to let melee form flanks, retreat or get in line for a charge.
Don't allow most of the Featured Races if they will not be in your setting. Bear in mind that 99% of Golarion is the Core Races.
Not everyone can or should be a special little snowflake. First and foremost, tell him that he cannot play a Mary Sue. Make the player justify why Aasimar/Tiefling are in the setting. Ultimately this is a role-playing game, so you should go with characters that actually have a reason/motive for being in your immediate world/story.
Thanks for all your optimization advice and feedback guys, especially Demoyn and Kydeem. I've decided to re-tool this build a bit... Still seeking advice. Specifically a bit stuck on what items might help a support cleric, which I'm pretty set on playing despite the popularity of CC/damage builds. Figure I can throw out a few Hold Person/Dismissal/nasty bad touchy stuff here and there.
Varisian Pilgrim, Cleric of Desna:
Level 8 Cleric (possible dip into Life Oracle for separate channel pool)
Race: Aasimar (vanilla, still before they make it illegal)
Base Stats w/ racial bonuses:
7 STR
8 DEX
14 CON
18 WIS (eventually getting +WIS/CHA added to phylactery or switching it out when it isn't needed)
18 CHA
11 INT
Channel Pos. Energy 6d6 10/day
Bit of Luck 7/day
Good Fortune 1/day
Agile Feet 7/day
Dimensional Hop up to 80ft/day
Gear:
Phylactery of Channel Pos. Energy (adds to Oracle pool, plus Cleric pool of channel energy since item doesn't specify...)
Rod of Extend Spell, lesser
Rod of Reach Spell, lesser
Strand of prayer beads
Gloves, First Aid
Belt of Con +X
Magic Armor/Shield (duh)
Cloak of Resistance +X
Bottle of Air, just to see the look on the DM's face
Scrolls of various condition removal, invis purge, ghostbane dirge, breathe of life, etc. spells
Wand of Lesser Restoration
At later levels: Scroll of Raise Dead
Other Feats: Liberation Channel / Alignment Channel, Improved Initiative, Aasimar Wings Feat (name escapes me as I write this)
Typically Prepared Spells:
1st - Longstrider (D), Bless, Protection from Evil, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Ant Haul (if heavy armor/shield)
2nd - Aid (D), Communal Prot Evil, Animal Buffs (Bull's STR), Spiritual Weapon, Silence, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration
3rd - Fly (D), Dispel Magic, Bestow Curse, Invis Purge, Magic Circle against Evil, Prayer, Nap Stack, Vision of Hell (maybe...), Resist Energy communal
4th - Dimension Door (D), Blessing of Fervor, Air Walk, Death Ward (if undead ), Dismissal (if outsiders), Freedom of Movement, Greater Magic Weapon, Lesser Planar Ally (banned?), Summon Monster IV, Spiritual Ally, Terrible Remorse (we are deeply, deeply sorry)
5th - Teleport (D), Breath of Life (cause its good to be prepared, holmes), Plane Shift, Blessing of Fervor (cause it's still badass...), True Seeing, Wall of Stone, Curse,Major, Air Walk communal, Greater Spell Immunity
Thoughts:
-Likely weaknesses are low AC, crappy reflex saves and sub-optimal DPR. Can probably make up for that w/ buffs and hiding. Loss of armor proficiency really hurts. Might be worth dropping a level in Holy Vindicator to pickup Heavy Armor proficiency, shield proficiency and the extra AC.... Wouldn't do until level 9+.
-Support/Healer is probably sub-optimal, but oh well. It isn't always about CC/DPR. Guess I see this as an alternative playstyle.
-Caravan Bond seems to stack nicely with Bit of Luck, Dimensional Hop and Agile Feet. Doubt that it works with the +10 movement speed (despite that it's listed under Granted Powers....) but hey. All the same pretty awesome.
Race: Aasimar Agathion-Blooded (before they make it illegal!)
Base Stats w/ racial bonuses: 7 STR 8 DEX 18 CON 14 WIS 18 CHA 12 INT
Skills: Focus on Knowledge (religion, arcana, planes), Perception, Spellcraft, Heal
Deity: Desna (could just as easily be Sarenrae)
Archetype: Separatist
Domains: Luck (for Bit of Luck, domain spells), Healing (mostly SUCKS, except Healer's Blessing is pretty cool for when you need free heals)
Abilities:
Channel Pos Energy 5d6, Cleric
Channel Pos Energy 3d6, Oracle
Bit of Luck
Gear:
Phylactery of Channel Pos. Energy (adds to Oracle pool, plus Cleric pool of channel energy since item doesn't specify...)
Rod of Extend Spell, lesser
Rod of Reach Spell, lesser
Strand of prayer beads
Belt of Con +X
Fullplate/Tower shield (Ant Haul casted daily to overcome carrying capacity)
Cloak of Resistance +X
Bottle of Air, just to see the look on the DM's face
Scrolls of various condition removal, invis purge, ghostbane dirge, healing, etc. spells
Common Critique: BUT.. BUT.. NO DPR. Yeah, that's sort of the point. You really cannot end every combat in 1-2 rounds in Season 5, at least in my experience. You could make the argument that Blessing of Fervor, Bless, Bit of Luck and other Cleric buffs do a lot more for DPR than most might think... but meh. I'll leave that proof to the Excel-fu masters.
Common Critique #2: BUT BUT COMBAT HEALING ISNT OPTIMAL. Until your party fighter goes down from the DM's lucky d20 and a confirmed crit.
Common Critique #3: BUT -14 PROF PENALTY. I don't care, because I never swing a melee weapon or ranged weapon period at all, like ever.
Way I figure it, between Bit of Luck, spell buffs, item buffs keep me busy. Any constructive criticism you guys can provide for this build?
Is there a simple rule that prevents min-maxing and power gaming? Maybe some suggestion in the SRD that deals with this. Inevitably in my games, one player ends up creating a cheesy min-maxed silly character.
What house rules on char creation can completely kill off all cheese 100%?
20 point buy. 2 traits. Starting gold is restricted due to party wealth. Mythic tier after level 6. Zen archers, gunslingers and synth summoners are banned. As are psionics (and all other 3PP). Starting level is 3rd. Core races only plus Aasimar or Tiefling, because the DM doesn't want min-maxy racial builds, considering 99% of Golarion is Core Races...
Current party is a battle bard, a lock-stock-and-barrel cleric, melee paladin and a classic conjuration wizard. I'm looking for a thematically appropriate build to even out above party
Put bluntly, I've lost interest in one of the campaigns I run through the internet. The premise of it simply no longer interests me, and it's totally un-enjoyable for me. How can I cancel this in a classy way?
Is 7 PCs too many for an evil campaign? Can I realistically expect 6-7 NE and CE murder-hobos to cooperate with one another? Looking for advice from a fellow DM that has ran an evil campaign. How did you handle in-character conflict (say conflict of interests, vying for power, etc.) PVP?
Paladin had an Oath Against Devils. My cleric had a hatred of all outsiders. Yes, DM shouldn't have allowed character. For anyone wondering, the Barbarian was devil-bound, per the template. He had the evil sub-type.
Our group now has a policy of no 'secret characters'. Things are going much more smoothly.
Long story short I have 7 PCs. They're all inmates at a prison, and most of them are decidedly evil. To get them to work together I've made sure the players understand there will be 0% pvp or in-game harassment allowed. They are allowed to be chaotic evil or neutral evil.
To encourage them to work together, they are working under the close guidance of an imprisoned warlord, an evil monk type (optimized Qinggong/Four Winds. They have a common goal to work together and a common adherence to the warlord. I also asked the players to put in their backstory that they have ties to each other.
What can I do to ensure that this evil campaign is successful and memorable for the players?
A real save or suck way... But other than what is mentioned a good old "Command Undead" can work wonders here. A wizard or necromancer can just order it to retreat. Turn Undead can rape a wraith pretty badly too. If DM allows mythic tier stuff, this gets really nasty too. Myself and most DMs do not allow mythic content though..
Setting is the massive underground death complex of a sadistic lich wizard with a God complex. It's literally a dungeon that's many levels into the ground. The party is sealed underground, with forbidance running on the entire dungeon -- they *cannot* ever teleport out or summon creatures in. Including eidolons, summon monster and so forth.
Mr. Lich has bribed/summoned local earth elementals to keep watch on anyone trying to stone shift out. The party is stone shaped underground.
Best low level options are a Cleric of Sarenrae, Paladin or Bard.
For cleric, Sun and Glory domains. A level 3 Cleric with decent charisma is looking at a save of 10 + 5 charisma + 2 improved channel + 2 Glory domain + 2 level for a DC of 20-21 with 2d6+3 damage. Plus Wraith doesn't get his channel resistance. For more fun add the Turn Undead feat. Level 3 human cleric could have Extra Channel, Improved Channel and Turn Undead feats. At later levels, Clerics are using things like Searing Light, Disrupting Weapon, Undeath Ward or even Undeath to Death. High level battle Cleric can throw on Dust Form.
Bards can buff. Throw Bless weapon on the melee's weapon. Throw out ghostbane dirge spell.
Paladins can toss out a smite evil. Paladins can likewise channel energy, throw Axiomatic or Holy on their weapon with Divine Bond. Undead Scourge variant and Oath of Vengeance go nice with this. Inquisitors and Paladins both get ghostbane dirge at level 4.
For non-Cleric parties:
Ghost salt weapon blanhce. Oil of Bless weapon. Empowered magic missiles. empowered healing spells. Use bless weapon on a packet archers and get a zen archer. Alchemist with holy bombs. Barbarian with ghost rager can own wraiths all day.
Best way to take down undead is often using Clerics and Paladins. An anti-undead Cleric can absolutely trivialize most undead heavy encounters.
Wraiths are tough customers, but low level adventurers can beat them... if they are prepared.
Out of combat... Druid is the wise guy. Paladin is moral compass. Oracle is the face and ham, bit of a conman. Ranger is an alcoholic. Wizard is awkward but is the group brain. Druid is the glue, and more or less the defacto leader.
We've only had a few sessions so far and it's at level 2. I'm running them through a dungeon crawl, but want general hints on how to create effective traps/encounters/puzzles to keep them feeling challenged.
The PCs have thrown together a fairly good group. Ranged Paladin, TWF Ranger, Life Oracle w/ good melee and combat familiar, a good control Wizard and a front-line Druid. They have stats that might reflect a 25 or even 30 point buy.
She's there to deliver a message and assess the party's current battle strength / tactics for her master, a very high level lich wizard. Is it over the top to have her sunder items, perform dirty tricks, steal stuff, or knock people unconscious, perhaps kill party familiars/pets?
The NPC's main goal here is sociopathic self-amusement and to demonstrate their weakness to them. She's bored because she isn't yet allowed to kill them by the master's orders.
Just got the first character in... CAGM Barbarian. Half-Ogre with +6 STR belt, 7 DR/- from Invuln Rager. Then he gets +6 STR from Greater Rage, 6 STR from Racial Bonus, 2 STR from levels and 2 more STR from permanent Enlarge Person. 40 STR while raging. Plus a weapon with undead bane, holy and vicious.
I run, he gets the charge for a pounce full attack with his beast totem. I hit him, oh boy I get 3-4 AoOs a round that resolve *before* my attacks (what the crap CAGM is overpowered)... Unholy crap, save my poor little vampires.
I am preparing a short scenario where a powerful vampire lord has finally overstepped his bounds, angering a nearby wealthy noble in Ustalav. The noble hires the adventurers to get his revenge.
How can I make him a challenge for a party of level 15 characters? I want to give him levels in Antipaladin and PC-level wealth. What items are good for him? What sort of minions can I realistically give a vampire lord?
Immortal Ichor (CR17) If you want to be mean throw templates like Mighty, Advanced or Giant on him. Or give the Ooze psionic levels :-P Out of the box he has 20 something INT.
Some oozes are pretty smart actually. The smart ones tend to hide and conceal their presence, then eat their prey when catching them off-guard.
Keep in mind that 5-6 level 11s have an APL of 12, since the CRs are balanced around 4 players. A challenging CR is usually +2. So don't feel bad throwing a CR14 at them if everyone is there.
I've seen guys storm out of Society games because their cheese character died to a crit. At the same time I kill characters all the time.
"But if the bow crits me then I'm dead"
Me: "Yep. You're dead."
I play with experienced player. Death is part of the game. Hero points can be part of the game but hey guess what, sometimes you fail that save-or-die twice in a row. That's the way the dice fall.
It's absolutely juvenile for any character to expect their PC to be immortal. Not to mention silly from a narrative point of view. My 2 copper.
