Moving from the Death Of Lavinia thread
And lastly, adding in during the side mission I have just before SWW, that the leader of the pirates is a very still human Vanthus who gets killed by the party at the end of that adventure. Thus bringing again to light the contingency with the church of Wee Jas. Thus gives Vanthus post fiend and later post mortem much more motivation to hate the party and the party gets that "Not him AGAIN!" response along with the half-fiend shock that never really happens. Only seeing Vanthus for 2 seconds or as a painting pre-demon doesn't really give that oomph to his encounter that's needed IMO.
First, Oh, so that’s how you do bullet points. Thanks!
Second, my group is in the middle of Here There Be Monsters. Stewart (and anyone else who has some thoughts) how could I work the scenario so as to best take advantage of the Vanthus Vanderboren, Vampire idea we discussed in another thread (thanks for the character stats, BTW. Stealing those, too!) Part of me wants to make him not so demon and more vamp for the first reveal (the battle at Farshore). Kind of reversing the order in which your stats go. So what if I made him a vampire for the battle, then a buffed demon/vampire later on?
So it goes something like this:
Now that I’ve written this, though, I realize that the only way that this could occur is if the fleet attacks at night. That wouldn’t be bad, though. I like the visual – fireballs and burning buildings lighting up the night.
Maybe this is a lot of work for nothing. This just sounds good to me esthetically. I like vampires and I know my group does, too. Also, I think the transition – painting, human (oh, no, wait, vampire, grr-argh) and then demon (demon/vampire, whatever) – is smoother than – painting, horrible ugly demon, Death Knight (demon/vampire, whatever). Visually speaking, anyway. Ultimately, the CRs should be about the same.
What do you think. Am I just fixing something that ain’t broke? Any ideas that might work with what I’m thinking here?
Moving from the Death Of Lavinia thread
And lastly, adding in during the side mission I have just before SWW, that the leader of the pirates is a very still human Vanthus who gets killed by the party at the end of that adventure. Thus bringing again to light the contingency with the church of Wee Jas. Thus gives Vanthus post fiend and later post mortem much more motivation to hate the party and the party gets that "Not him AGAIN!" response along with the half-fiend shock that never really happens. Only seeing Vanthus for 2 seconds or as a painting pre-demon doesn't really give that oomph to his encounter that's needed IMO. First, Oh, so that’s how you do bullet points. Thanks!
Second, my group is in the middle of Here There Be Monsters. Stewart (and anyone else who has some thoughts) how could I work the scenario so as to best take advantage of the Vanthus Vanderboren, Vampire idea we discussed in another thread (thanks for the character stats, BTW. Stealing those, too!) Part of me wants to make him not so demon and more vamp for the first reveal (the battle at Farshore). Kind of reversing the order in which your stats go. So what if I made him a vampire for the battle, then a buffed demon/vampire later on?
So it goes something like this:
(<huh? Check me out) Vanthus appears to be human when the battle starts, but when he is actually engaged, he “vamps out” (ala Buffy vamps) and can fly (ala Twilight vamps). You still get the ugly creepy factor, but not as much, and maybe a better reveal. I could make him more, less, or equally challenging in relation to the Vanthus Demon that appears in the STAP. Then, at the point that he would be encountered as Death Knight in the STAP, I use the second set of stats Steward created. Now that I’ve written this, though, I realize that...
Actually it works fine if you want the reveal to work that way, as the pcs are going to be blindsided by his changes and such regardless. As for the attack, it works just aswell during the day, and is way cooler, if the yuan-ti on the ships do some crazy ritual magic or spells that effectively summon darkness or better yet storms to sunder Farshore aswell as blot out the sun, so Vanthus can descend. Thios has the three fold use of making the party think the casters are just using the magics to attack with and make them even more threatening, gives Vanthus a cool intro and fight (awesome lightning in the background) and thirdly makes a beat up party have an easy way out if needed (kill the casters to end the spell kind of thing). I think it would work quite well.
But as I said before I think any kind of changed Vanthus is cool, but it loses oomph if the party hasn't faced him as a human beforehand.
Oh and you welcome for the build I did, it was based on the originals and the mm so no biggie, and I posted them for your use if you wanted anyway :)
Oh and I gave Vanthis a twobladed sword in all the versions of him I made, as the Ascendant hellsword Mini has one and I thought to myself "How cool, an exotic weapon no one ever uses." I think it will give Vanthus a memorable gimmick. Oh and here is my straight human version of Vanthus for just before SWW
Male Human Rogue 4/Fighter 4
Chaotic Evil Medium Human
Init +3, Senses Notice -1
Languages Common
AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 17 (+6 armor bonus, +3 dex, +1 shield)
hp 73 (4d6+4d10+24)
Fort +9, Ref +9, Will + 2
Spd 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee +2 Two Bladed Sword +11 (d8+5/19-20 x2)
Full Attack +2 Two Bladed Sword +9/+5 (d8+5/19-20 x2) and +2 Two Bladed Sword +9 (d8+4/19-20 x2)
Base Atk 7/2; Grp ++8
Space 5 ft. ft.;Reach 5 ft.
Abilities Str 12 (+1), Dex 16 (+3), Con 16 (+3) Int 8 (-1), Wis 8 (-1), Cha 16 (+3)
SQ Trapfinding, Trap sense +1, Sneak Attack +2d6, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge
Feats Dodge, Mobility, Two-weapon Fighting, Two-weapon Defense, Exotic weapon proficiency (Two Bladed Sword), Weapon Focus (Two Bladed Sword), Weapon Specialization (Two Bladed Sword),
Skills Acrobatics +9, Bluff +12, Diplomacy +5, Forgery +5, Intimidate +5, Jump +7, Knowledge (Local) +5, Profession (Sailor) +5, Sense Motive +6, Swim +7.
Possessions +2 Two Bladed Sword, +2 Chain Shirt, Masterwork Dagger, Masterwork Longbow, 5 cold Iron arrows, 5 silver arrows, 20 regular arrows, +1 Cloak of resistance, 3 potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 2 potions of Neutralize poison, Potion of Bull’s Strength, 4 gold earrings (worth 100gp each).
Actually it works fine if you want the reveal to work that way, as the pcs are going to be blindsided by his changes and such regardless. As for the attack, it works just aswell during the day, and is way cooler, if the yuan-ti on the ships do some crazy ritual magic or spells that effectively summon darkness or better yet storms to sunder Farshore aswell as blot out the sun, so Vanthus can descend. Thios has the three fold use of making the party think the casters are just using the magics to attack with and make them even more threatening, gives Vanthus a cool intro and fight (awesome lightning in the background) and thirdly makes a beat up party have an easy way out if needed (kill the casters to end the spell kind of thing). I think it would work quite well.
Yeah, I really like this. I’ll have to give it some more thought, but you’ve definitely given me some good stuff here. Thanks again!
But as I said before I think any kind of changed Vanthus is cool, but it loses oomph if the party hasn't faced him as a human beforehand.
I agree, but I don’t know what to do about that. That is, I think one narrative shortfall in the STAP as written; Vanthus isn’t seen or mentioned again after TBG. If it weren’t for the fact that my group is BIG on role playing (the Lavinia romance subplot has become big), I don’t think Vanthus’ name would have even come up in the interim. Luckily there was plenty of, “I’m so sorry about your brother, but this will be a fresh start for you…” sort of stuff. But, frankly, they think that he has very little to do with the main story. Then he’s going to show up all Balrogafied? And they’re supposed to recognize him from a portrait? I don’t think so.
We are well past SWW, so even if you shared the details of your side adventure, it wouldn’t help me. And I have a lot going on with Rowyn that I don’t want to muddy things up even more with Vanthus between now and the battle. So, I think the vampire thing is my best option.
Oh and here is my straight human version of Vanthus for just before SWW
Spoiler:
That’s awesome. Thanks. If I do go for straight vamp at Farshore, I can build from this.
Yeah, I really like this. I’ll have to give it some more thought, but you’ve definitely given me some good stuff here. Thanks again!
No prob, its what I do :P
I agree, but I don’t know what to do about that. That is, I think one narrative shortfall in the STAP as written; Vanthus isn’t seen or mentioned again after TBG. If it weren’t for the fact that my group is BIG on role playing (the Lavinia romance subplot has become big), I don’t think Vanthus’ name would have even come up in the interim. Luckily there was plenty of, “I’m so sorry about your brother, but this will be a fresh start for you…” sort of stuff. But, frankly, they think that he has very little to do with the main story. Then he’s going to show up all Balrogafied? And they’re supposed to recognize him from a portrait? I don’t think so.We are well past SWW, so even if you shared the details of your side adventure, it wouldn’t help me. And I have a lot going on with Rowyn that I don’t want to muddy things up even more with Vanthus between now and the battle. So, I think the vampire...
I agree wholeheartedly, my players are still after him but really hes taken a backseat and if they meet him on my sidequest and take him down, his return is much more heated as is his later actions. As for you already being into HtbM, I would say the only way to get him to sneak in is to add some crimson fleet pirates to the island, and Vanthus-lite there maybe making a pact with the Bar-Lguras and whatnot for passage to where the shadow pearls are being made... But that's awfully close to Tides, so him coming back so quick could be an iffy.... unless you set it so that he surrenders and is taken back to Sesserine and tried for his parents murder then executed (nice little side venture for time and roleplay) and then things go on as normal and he shows up again at the end of Tides and you get the Oomph the fight needs. It may not help if things are already too set, but if not I hope its useful. Regardless I'm glad you can get some use out of Vanilla-Vanthus. :P