I have enjoyed throwing interestingly built NPC's and baddies against my group in the past. One of my most memorable was a Kobold Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker. Described as small even for a Kobold and wearing only a loincloth... this little unholy terror was wheeled into battle on a little hand cart, muzzled, and chained in adamantine chains.
Continuing along those lines I recently thought of creating a Goblin Warblade. With very little changes needed to port over ToB: Bo9S to Pathfinder (concentration skill being the biggest) I think this could be a fun Baddie-Build.
As I like going for the apparently harmless look, I'd want to create a Unarmed fighting style for him. Improved Unarmed Strike would be a must and Catch-off-guard would be a close second. Including the Versatile Unarmed Strike feat from PHB2 would make for some fun visuals as well.
Concept is this... build the goblin warblade around focused concentration and the Insightful Strike maneuver. That means my little friend would be at least a CR 5 encounter.
Once every other round he could slice/smash/or stab things with his hands for potentially serious damage. He would be relatively tough because of his D12 HD.
Hows this sound so far?
5 hours later and still no takers huh? A little more info then...
Goblin Characters
Goblins are defined by their class levels—they do not possess racial Hit Dice. All goblins have the following racial traits.–2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, –2 Charisma: Goblins are fast, but weak and unpleasant to be around.
Small: Goblins are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Fast: Goblins are fast for their size, and have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Goblins can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Skilled: +4 racial bonus on Ride and Stealth checks.
Languages: Goblins begin play speaking Goblin. Goblins with high Intelligence scores can choose any of these bonus languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnoll, Gnome, Halfling, Orc.
I'd say this little fellow is "heroic" for a goblin.
Heroic NPCs: The ability scores for a heroic NPC are: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.
So stats before racial mods...
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Str 12, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 8
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... after racial and level mods...
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Str 10, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 6
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HD:
Speed: 30
Special: Darkvision
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Feats: 1st-Improved Unarmed Strike, 3rd-Skill Focus (Concentration), 5th-Weapon Finesse, Blade Meditation (bonus)
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Skills: Acrobatics, Concentration, Stealth, Perception (These would be my main choices with more being possible.)
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So going with the above info... when making a concentration check my Goblin Warblade would have a +15. (5 ranks, +3 Class, +2 Con, +3 Focus, +2 Blade Meditation)
So on a Insightful Strike he would have a +11 to hit and deal 1d20 +15 damage.
Sound right so far?
I would try to include TWF and Snap Kick.
Superior Unarmed Strike, too, for that matter.
That way your standard attacks to regain your Insightful Strike are just as vicious.
I would try to include TWF and Snap Kick.
Superior Unarmed Strike, too, for that matter.
That way your standard attacks to regain your Insightful Strike are just as vicious.
Good suggestions, however...
As a 5th level character the Goblin would have a considerable amount of wealth off the adventurers he has killed and eaten. The only "problem" with the Warblade is that it gets fewer feats than a fighter, so you have to be choosey. There is a magic vest in one of the Complete Series of books that gives a +5 on all concentration checks. (vest of steady spellcasting I think) If I give that little gem to my goblin I could drop the Blade Meditation as I was only taking it for the +2 on concentration. This would give me back one feat or I could keep the feat to give me a total bonus of +17 (5 ranks, +3 class, +3 focus, +2 con., +2 Blade meditation, +5 vest) on concentration or 1d20 +20 (21-40) points of damage.
Because Goblins are inherently weak, I skipped around that and maxed out his dex for both defense and to hit. So really, having superior unarmed strike would not help much as I'm mostly ignoring his "normal" damage by focusing on Insightful Strike.
The idea is to have this little scrawny goblin that could if he wanted to, chop down a tree in 18 seconds and two chops with his bare hand. Or... stab his hand into a steel door and slowly slice it open like a can opener. Doing these things despite the fact that it "should" be physically impossible for him to do so. I would start off a combat by smashing a nearby object so the players KNOW what a hit from the little guy is like, and then spend his recovery rounds either "shadowboxing" or drawing and stabbing with a poisoned dagger (sleep or paralytic) ... depending on if he is still threatening a PC or not that round.
So... at 5th level he is sorta tied to the feats he has. Past that though... he is open. Say you advance him to 11th level, that would give you access to quite a few more feats as well as Greater Insightful Strike. (Goblin would spend two rounds attacking before recovery)
A suggestion on a feat choose would be sudden recovery. If you can set up a pattern of attack/refresh/attack... suddenly recovering a maneuver and attacking two rounds in a row could throw the PC's for a loop.