| Douglas Muir 406 |
Character concept: spoiled aristocrat is briefly a paladin, finds it too hard, goes over to the dark side. Now he's a respectable member of the aristocracy in public, a servant of chaos and evil in his copious spare time.
Lord Willis is deliberately a bit suboptimal. Given 10 character levels +1 of aristocrat, there are probably several better builds possible. But that's okay -- the PCs aren't optimized either.
That said, if anyone has ideas for incremental improvements (or stuff that's just cool), I'm all ears.
Lord Willis (CR 9)
Male human Aristocrat 1/Antipaladin 5/Fighter (Tactician) 5
CE medium humanoid
Init +7 Perception +9
+7 Init is pretty nice, but he's not really optimized to take advantage of it.
DEFENSE
AC 23 (+7 armor, +3 shield, +1 Dex, +1 ring, +1 Dodge, 13 touch 21 flatfooted)
Fort +13, Ref +7, Will +11
90 hp
OFFENSE
Spd 30 ft.
Melee +15/+10 Longsword d8+4 (17-20) or Touch of Corruption (6x/day, 2d6 damage + DC 16 Fort save or Shaken)
Ranged +12/+7 masterwork composite longbow d8+2
Smite good for additional +4 attack/+5 damage or +4/+10 vs. good outsiders, good clerics or paladins
Fiendish boon for 1 minute/level – typically Flaming (+1d6 damage).
No way around it: he's pretty weak on offense against non-evil characters. And not all that powerful even against good ones. At full blast against a good fighter, he'll be just +19/+14 for d8+d6+9, which is not really impressive for a CR 9 foe.
STATISTICS
Str 15 (17), Dex 12, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 14 (18)
Base Atk +10; CMB +13, CMD 24
Feats (9): Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Improved Initiative, Toughness, Dodge, Weapon Focus (longsword), Improved Critical, Shake It Off (+1 to all saves for you and one ally if you’re adjacent)
He likes knocking people down. Greater Trip gives +4 to trip attacks and a free AoO if you succeed, so it's his go-to opening attack. I was toying with Tandem Trip as his teamwork feat, but that seems like overkill.
Antipaladin spells:
1st level (5/day) Death Knell, Murderous Command, Protection from Good x3
These are pretty feeble, but PfG for himself and a couple of allies is something.
Notable skills: Appraise +6, Bluff +18, Diplomacy +18, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (Nobility) +8, Knowledge (Planes) +6, Knowledge (History) +6, Knowledge (Local) +8, Knowledge (Religion) +8, Linguistics +10, Perception +9, Sense Motive +14
Here's where he really shines. Decent Int, being human and those Fighter (tactician) levels combine to give him a very respectable number of skill ranks. Max ranks in Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate help him keep the truth hidden, the other stuff lets him anticipate PCs and get ahead of them.
Detect Good, Smite Good 2x/day, Aura of Cowardice (-4 to saves vs. fear), Plague Bringer
Languages: common, abyssal, undercomon, orcish, elven, draconic
Combat Gear: +1 Agile Breastplate; +1 Heavy Mithril Shield, +1 ring of protection; +1 Thundering longsword (+d8 damage on critical and DC 14 Fort or deafened); Belt of Strength +2; Cloak of Charisma +4
I haven't run the numbers yet, but I think he gets a bit more gear. Which is good, because he needs some sort of dingus to disguise his aura of evil. He's a wealthy aristocrat, so money isn't an issue except for game balance purposes.
Lord Willis is currently traveling around with a 10th level alchemist, 10th level necromancer, and a couple of 4th level fighter mooks. They're a rival party for the PCs, who are six 8th level characters.
If he survives, he'll level up as an antipal (adding all the 6th level antipal goodies plus another iterative attack). If encountered at home, he'll be accompanied by his wife, who is also CE and, I don't know, a witch or something. The PCs will of course accuse him of being EVIL, but his high social standing, wealth, Bluff and Diplomacy skills and high Will save should combine to make this almost impossible to prove.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Doug M.