How about a higher level switch hitter Ranger with Favoured Enemy human/the race of the majority of the PC's and his Rogue 1/Wizard X buddy as a pair of bounty hunters? They could be hired by the Merchants guild in case their first team of enforcers fail, and ambush the players while they sleep. Awaking at the sound of some summoned monsters setting their camp in fire, while the Wizard casts some nasty AoE spells (even better if his summoned monsters are immune to it) and the Ranger makes pincushion of them will teach them not to play Chaotic Stupid anymore.
I think Cavalier was made for this kind of character. An inspiring, most likely noble-born warrior with acces to every skill required for a leader, and enough skill points to buy them.
Oracles and Sorcerers are also be good choices, especially with the right Bloodline/Mystery. For example an Infernal Sorcerer can easily rule with the help of the devilish allies he summoned, or a Battle Oracle could make a great leader for a militaristic society.
And of course there are the Paladins, if you want to play the goody-goody king. But I think NG, LN and even LE characters can make good rulers (and by good I mean efficient, which is the key to rulership on the long run - that's the reason why Chaotic characters make generally poor rulers).
Regarding Bards, I don't think they could command the respect that ruler requires, and they are usually too chaotic to make an efficient leader.
Then take law to the extreme, the monsters (if they possess intellect this works, if not then I would suggest you find a different angle to argue) that attacked you made a threat on your life had they been given the chance they would kill you.
This merits legal repercussions, as they lack a family to sue or a house to press charges against then obviously they must pay the price of attempted murder with forced slavery of their corpses.
Write up a document defining the terms of service. I.E. pray for an animate dead spell
Ex: The attempted murder of myself and my party merits that these creatures repay us in some manner, for the act their remains will be animated and act as indentured slaves for five years or until they are deemed unnecessary and disposed of.
Recall that Abadar is a major god of influence in Katapesh and several other nations that happen to have gigantic markets of slaves (planar or otherwise) so the enslavement intelligent beings is fine with the god so long as there is enough money involved.
You do not worship a god of good, or a god of happy feelings. you worship a god of Law and Wealth.
you are a to the core businessman, wear it with pride and be unrepentant in extracting every concession you can from a creature, man or beast, foolish enough to attack you and your and lose.
That's what I was thinking, too. I checked every background material about Abadar, and I didn't find anything restricting about creating undead, other than obeying the local laws. But because its a Kingmaker campaing, and we will be the ones writing the laws, I guess legalising Necromancy against uncivilized beings is totally fine.
What are the neutral deities opionions on the "evil" aspects of Necromancy, like animating the dead? The only two I'm certian of are Pharasma (big NO) and Gorum (he is ok with), but I wonder if there is any source on the others.
I'm especially interested in Abadar, because I'm thinking about playing an LE cleric of him in our upcoming Kingmaker campaign, and I'd like to raise the enemies of civilization (trolls, giants, monsters) as undead servants to serve our cause.
I'm thinking about reducing my Cha to 14 and bumping my Dex to 10. (Altough a +3 Cha modifier can be beneficial to the Kingdom in Kingmaker, I guess a +2 early on will be fine, too)
And I will switch Toughness for Improved Initiative, and get War Sight instead of Surprising charge, being able to cast buffs first can be a big advantage.
You dont need to note the cure spell - its just assumed you have access to those as needed.
Not bad. Why Dex 8? As its themematic along with lame? I salute you - thats cool RP. If its just a dump stat? Not so hot to take that hit to Ref save (not a good one for Oracles) and AC (esp for a Battle Oracle).
Overall its a solid character and one I'd like to see in any game I was in.
Well, my DM doesn't allow to dump any stat below 8, and as I wanted to have an Int of 12, I had to find another stat to dump, and Dex seemed to fit his Curse.
This is my first post in this forum, and I'd like some feedback on my Battle Oracle. He is going to be my second character (I'm currently playing a Half-Orc Inquisitor in our Carrion's Crown AP game), and I'm planning to run him in our upcoming Kingmaker game with an evil party. I originally planned to take Inquisitor again (learning from the previous mistakes I made with my first character), but our party currently lacks a "face" and a Charisma based character (and we need one to lead our Kingdom), so I decided to take a Battle Oracle. Looks like our 5-man party will consist of a Human Ranger (switch hitter, with Favoured Enemy: Human), a drunken Dwarven Monk, a Human Cleric of Asmodeus (who will likely fall victim to party-fighting the first time he uses Channel in a battle and somebody misses his Will save against it :)) and there is another player, who haven't decided what to take yet. He is thinking about taking another Ranger, with Dual-Wield, but hopefully we can convince him to take something castier or tankier instead.
My character's backstory will include mercenary background (the reason for his mastery with arms and his Trait) and a grevious injury as an explanation for his curse, his "state" of lvl 1 after being an ambitious lieutenant of a mercenary company and his manifesting Oracle powers. This is how my character looks like so far:
15 point buy, 1 Trait and our DM said we couldn't lower any stat below 8:
Human Oracle, Lawful Evil alignment
Str 16 (with racial bonus)
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 8
Cha 15
13 hit points
Trait: World Traveller (somebody has to take Knowledge: Local after all...)
Curse: Lame (I was also thinking about Clouded Vision, but it might hinder him more in a lot of situations)
Mystery: Battle
Feats: Toughness, Extra Revelation
Revelations: Skill at Arms, Surprising Charge (its only 1/day, but it has many uses and offsets his curse a bit)
Skills:
Perception
Diplomacy
Intimidate
Knowledge (Local)
Sense Motive
Profession (Soldier) or Ride (Ride might be better on the long run, but Soldier also fits his background)
Spells:
Level 0: Detect Magic, Create Water, Light, Purify Food and Drink
Level 1: Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor, and either Bless or Remove Fear
Equipment: Greataxe, Scale Mail, Dagger and a lot of stuff which could be useful at exploring the wilderness (Tent, Rope, Lamp, etc).
Unfortunately with a starting gold of 105 I can't afford a Greatsword at the start of the game.
Any suggestions what I should change? I know Dex 10, Int 10 would be more optimal, but I like my characters having above average Intelligence for RP reasons (and I love having a lot of skills), and his lameness is a reason for his low Dex.
I'm planning to take Power Attack and Weapon Mastery at lvl 3, and War Sight and Improved Initiative around lvl 5-7.
Regarding Weapon Mastery, which weapon do you think I should use? I'm torn between the good old Greatsword and polearms (most likely Bardiche, it seems to fit the Russian feel of Brevoy). Greatsword has obviously more damage, but Reach could be and advantage against medium-sized opponents and for Trip attempts. Unfortunately there is no reason for me to take Combat Reflexes, which seems to be great with Polearms, and the lack of attacks (mostly AoO's) against adjacent enemies, other than the option of Spiked Gauntlets can hurt in certain situations.
Also, are there any good multiclass options to dip a few levels or maybe any PrC-s for a Battle Oracle? I know that a level Barbarian is awesome
with the Lame curse, but my alignment doesn't allow it, and I'd rather play a cruel overlord who rules his kingdom with iron fist (LE), than an egoist @sshole (my take on Neutral Evil). 2 levels of Fighter might be handy for some extra BAB and feats, or a 1-level dip into Inquisitor (Abadar) for the Travel Domain and the Judgement ability might be a good option. From the PrC's from Core and APG Holy Vindicator looks like a good choice for battle-oriented divine casters, but it seems more useful for Clerics who use sword-and-board for me.
Offense
Physical Disruption (Affliction 13), +13 Fort DC23 Crit 18-20
Mental Disruption (Damage 13), +13 Will DC28 Crit 20
Electronic Disruption (Nullify 13) +13 Will DC23 Crit 20
Grab +13 DC Spec 19
Unarmed +13 DC 18
Complications
Identity: While his nightlife is full of crime fighting, during the day, he is a struggling graduate student.
Motivation: Doing Good
Having been skewed by Mystery Man, the same person who killed his parents, into a life of vigilantism, Haunt is now driven to make up for the past.
Enemy: Knowing that his Mr. Elliot isn't dead, Grayson fears that he will strike when least expected.
Weakness: Magic tends to mess with his molecular control while in his phased state, causing him to become unstable. Vibranium (or our game's equivalent) has proven to be the only metal that he's encountered so far that he cannot phase through.
Bio:
Grayson Pryde grew up on the roads of North America in a Romani travelling circus, as one third of acrobatic troupe known as "The X-quisite Flying Prydes" with his mother and father. During his teen years, his mutant gene started coming into play, causing him to question his bloodline. During the grand finale of their performance, Gray's mutation caused him to phase through his father's grasp. The show ruined and one of their secrets come to light, The X-Quisite Flying Prydes immediately packed their bags and fled from the circus.
Making their way to a motel in a busy metropolitan city, the family was intercepted by a strange, shadowed man. "Going back on our agreement, I see." Not wanting young Grayson around for the conversation, his father sent him on ahead to book a room. He followed his fathers instruction as he always did, only to hear gunshots moments later.
Running out to the alleyway where they were stopped, Gray dropped to his knees and called for help as his parents bled out."I'm sorry, his father said as he died, "I'm so sorry."
After a rocky year of being shuffled from orphanage to orphanage for aggression and constant fighting, Grayson Pryde was adopted at age 13 by Thomas Shaw Elliot, a wealthy man with a vision. After months of strange comings and goings and unexplained injuries, Grayson finally stumbled on Mr. Elliot's secret: He was the masked vigilante known as Mystery Man. Soon enough, Mr. Elliot started training him to be his sidekick, Strange Lad, brainwashing him along the way to believe that vigilantism was acceptable.
Around age 17, Grayson Pryde voiced his want to strike out on his own after starting to realize that their form of justice is in the wrong. Mystery Man took offense to this and tried to kill him. Battling in hand-to-hand combat, he goaded the ward on, telling him the truth, how his "parents" were training him to become an assassin, how he personally gunned them down, adopted him and finished where they left off. Shocked from the revelation, Grayson phased his hand into Elliot's skull and dropped him, leaving him in a coma. Months later, he was declared dead.
Now in his late twenties, he's fought hard to undo all the wrongs that he took part in, all while working towards a PhD. Nearly on the cusp of graduation, he fights to maintain his focus.
