Victor Saint-Demain -- Conversion from the Hell's Heart trilogy

There are going to be those who immediately recognize the name, and know well about the Hell's heart master detective who turned evil because his ego wasn't satisfied. The trilogy in Dungeon Magazine's 133, 150, and 151 are practically legendary. Heck, the second adventure is reminiscent of the SAW movies, and they came out after this adventure.

I can not recommend running or playing this trilogy enough. It is one of 3.5's absolute best mini-series.

Victor Saint-Demain exists in the world of Eberron. In "The Chimes of Midnight" we meet him for the first time. It is here that we realize that he's on the PC's level in every which way, including stats. Victor is a human expert 2/swashbuckler 3/master inquisitive 4 with 28 pt buy stats (10/14/12/18/8/14).
Unfortunately, there is no Paizo equivalent for the original swashbuckler or master inquisitive (no, I don't accept that the Sleepless Detective is a proper alternative as some have suggested).
In "Hell's Heart", we meet him for the final time as an expert 2/swashbuckler 5/master inquisitive 4/duelist 5 (there's obviously some kind of typo somewhere because Victor has true seeing yet he hasn't accessed the final level of Master Inquisitive) with the same 28 pt buy stats (10/18/12/22/10/14) but with two +4 stat items.

What I want to do is make an equivalent version, and instead of having his wisdom stat actually show how egotistical he is, just have it be a flavor thing. The main reason is that an inquisitor gets Discern Lies, and can take Zone of Truth as a spell. They also get access to True Seeing. And in Ultimate Campaign, anyone can gain contacts without the need of taking feats or a PrC.

I've already talked to James Jacobs and he said that giving an NPC standard elite array or PC stats shouldn't increase the CR, so I'll give Victor the equivalent exchange (3.5 28 pt buy to PF 20 pt buy). This makes his stats 10/14/12/18/15/14 with the +2 for humans going to Wisdom.
Unfortunately, there are a few things that we're going to lose. Namely the feats: Education, Investigate, and Urban Tracking. Granted, thanks to Dreamscarred Press Urban Tracking has been brought back so feel free to use that version if you'd like. Also swashbuckler doesn't exist in its original form so you'll have to either use rogue levels or take the swashbuckler class from Tome of Secrets. Either way, this doesn't make up for the Insightful Strike damage that he'll missing out on.

The first thing I'm doing is getting rid of the expert class altogether. Of no use to us in this conversion. Next, I'm making Victor an Inquisitor 5. This gives him back Discern Lies and makes him a high enough level to take Zone of Truth as a 2nd level spell known. Next he needs at least four levels of rogue archetype investigator. This gives him uncanny dodge, sneak attack, and two rogue talents (Finesse Rogue, Follow Clues). Victor doesn't have trapfinding, but he always seems to know everything about the PCs, so Follow-Up is more thematically sound. Finally, give him the magic trait Mathematical Prodigy for +1 arcana and engineering, and make Knowledge(engineering) a class skill. Eduction gives you a +2 to two knowledge skills, but they aren't defined as to which ones gain the bonus. My guess is one of them was Knowledge (local), but the +3 trained aspect of Pathfinder skills should balance it out. Then again, Reformed Acolyte might be the best for the +1 Knowledge (local) and (religion) as his final version has those as the absolute highest possible.

Two more levels of rogue for the extra sneak attack and rogue talent (combat rogue: dodge) will easily allow you to gain access to the duelist 5 levels. As for the true seeing, I honestly don't know. There's a typo somewhere. Master Inquisitive 5, not 4, gives you true seeing. However, he has it a level early in his final incarnation, and zone of truth is missing. Also, the caster level is 15th when he's obviously 16th level (2+5+4+5=16). It even says he's 15 HD beside the 98 hp. And considering he has 2 points put into his wisdom stat to make it 10 instead of 8, I think he's actually 16 HD and MI 4, not 5, meaning he shouldn't have true seeing at all.

In my version, his final form should be 11/14/12/18/16/14 for stats, have access to a +4 Dex belt and +4 Int headband (doesn't really matter what skills they are but Knowledges local and religion seem like the best bet), one trait (or two if you'd like), and be a human inquisitor 5/investigator (rogue) 6/duelist 5. He never actually uses the two contacts in his PrC so he doesn't actually need them, but having them for flavor purposes is fine. Finally, add +1 CR so he can have PC wealth because otherwise he can't afford the +2 speed wounding rapier he uses, or any of the other high level gear he owns. Also, if giving him true seeing is important add an item with that as well.
As for the inquisition or domain for being an inquisitor, I'd say inquisition. I'll leave it up the GM in question as to which one should be taken, but personally I'd go with the Recovery Inquisition. It seems like a decent substitute for the Investigate feat.

-----------

Let me know your thoughts.

The fact that Victor can't add his Int bonus to damage is really bothering me. There's a ranged attack feat, Focused Shot, where the character can add their Int bonus to damage with a bow or crossbow, but nothing about melee attacks.

I am running Hell's Heart soon. So I would very much like to see your final conversion kevin.
Though I mos likely will keep him at level 15 since you trade inn two expert levels for a PC class level.

I am running Hell's Heart soon. So I would very much like to see your final conversion kevin.

Though I mos likely will keep him at level 15 since you trade inn two expert levels for a PC class level.

About the only thing that stayed the same was the equipment list. He's got the wealth of a PC giving him the +1 CR.

kevin_video, are you also going to relocate the trilogy from Eberron to the Inner Sea (Golarion)?

kevin_video, are you also going to relocate the trilogy from Eberron to the Inner Sea (Golarion)?

No, I'm not going to worry about that. I had thought about it, but I don't know the world Golarion very well. I've been told that Cheliax makes the most sense, and I don't disagree, but I don't know if that's the best place to put it.

The Advanced Class Guide has both the Swashbuckler AND Investigator classes. Might I recommend those?

The Advanced Class Guide has both the Swashbuckler AND Investigator classes. Might I recommend those?

Until I see the finalized version in the Fall, I'd have to say no. The playtest versions just don't fit the character.

Have you done the conversion Kevin? Would you like to share it? :)

Have you done the conversion Kevin? Would you like to share it? :)

I actually haven't done an official conversion. All I have so far is my above suggestions. Everyone's going to have their own interpretation of how it should be done. This was mine.

So back in April I was converting Victor, but since then we've gained the official hybrid classes. The Swashbuckler is a much better fit.

So I would go inquisitor 5/swashbuckler 7/duelist 4. I say 16 HD because while it says 15 HD, the BAB and stat points say otherwise.

Looks like my build isn't all that accurate for what I was hoping for. A 20 pt buy for Victor isn't what I had up above, but rather 10/14/12/15(17)/11/14 if I want to make him an inquisitor with 2nd level spells. At 4th and 8th HD the two points would to Wis and Int to even them out. Then at 12th and 16th they can both go to Wis.

For how I wanted it, I'd have to go 25 pt buy. If your PCs have that, then by all means do it up.

This ended up being more math than I figured on.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for The Raven. He's a savant 3/urban druid 6/swashbuckler 3. The swashbuckler is no problem, but the urban druid is nowhere near the same as the new PF version, and savant is a class with bard knowledges and can cast both wizard and cleric spells.

The Raven is a druid (animal domain with both subdomains and the world walker swap-out for favored urban terrain) 6/archivist (bard) 1/rogue 2/swashbuckler 3. Unfortunately, he's lacking a LOT of areas because of the heavy differences between 3.5 and PF.