Lord Vhalantru and Paladins

[Mr. Peepers]

I am thinking about equipping Lord Vhalantu with a Ring of Mind Shielding in order to protect his alignment from my party's dwarf diviner and human paladin. My reasoning is that if he is passing himself off as a "good guy" after having bought his way into the Cauldron nobility, there must be some way he hides his alignment when he is making speeches, out drinking at the Flood Festival, etc.

I have been reading the thread on the Paladin vs. Wee Jas and this is certainly a similar situation. Is the Ring of MS too nerfy? Should I just let Lord V be a bad guy from the get go?

Thanks for the input.

[Par-a-dox]

I too have been wondering this. My PC's are 10th, and they have not yet actually met with Vhalantru, just seen him at a distance at the cusp of sunrise. Anyway, I have a paladin who has the prestige class fist of raziel (book of exalted deeds). That class lets him radiate a magic circle against evil. That means that if he passes his caster level check to bypass Vhalantrus SR, that Vhalantru cant come within 10' feet of the Paladin! ...And that would probably give away his "evil" nature, not to mention the detect evil.... I'm wondering how to address both problems... LoL Damn do-gooder paladins! :)

[Claw]

Mr. Peepers, in the Hardcover Lord V's statblock indicates he is already equiped with a Ring of Mind Shielding.

Par-a-dox, sounds like you have a bigger problem with that prestige class. Then again, by the time you are that far along, its probably ok for the PCs to be "on" to Lord V's evil nature. In fact, you can probably have fun with it- they know he is the bad guy, but if no one else in town believes them yet and they have no proof, they will be helpless to do anything about it.

[Magagumo]

Actually, that hedging-out effect only functions against summoned creatures, not every evil creature in existence. :) It's a common error, and the magazine actually misused the Unhallow spell to similar effect against the NPCs in the kuo-toa temple in Zenith Trajectory.

No worries, the MC vs. Evil will keep that PC and others from charms, dominates, (maybe suggestion), and potentially evil summons (though his caster level is low, correct?)- but it won't keep him/her safe from all the deliciously nasty villains of the AP.

[Par-a-dox]

magagumo,

Good catch! Thanks for the clarification...I checked the rule for Magic circle vs evil and you are correct! Thanks!

Magagumo wrote:

Actually, that hedging-out effect only functions against summoned creatures, not every evil creature in existence. :) It's a common error, and the magazine actually misused the Unhallow spell to similar effect against the NPCs in the kuo-toa temple in Zenith Trajectory.

No worries, the MC vs. Evil will keep that PC and others from charms, dominates, (maybe suggestion), and potentially evil summons (though his caster level is low, correct?)- but it won't keep him/her safe from all the deliciously nasty villains of the AP.

[Jeffrey Stop]

Mr. Peepers wrote:

I am thinking about equipping Lord Vhalantu with a Ring of Mind Shielding in order to protect his alignment from my party's dwarf diviner and human paladin.

Depending on how you want to play this, you don't even have to hide his alignment. Annah Taskerhill's father is neutral evil, if I remember correctly. It might not be unusual for the nobles to be evil, each with their own agenda, each jockeying for power. At that point, Vhalantru just becomes another noble.