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Background
From a rules perspective... there are times when the GM absolutely needs to mask the identity of an NPC.
Main Question?
How would you do this against L13 players who will travel with the NPC? Assume the players have decent ability stats and access to Arcane/Inquisitor/Cleric spells and abilities...
Example:
If a powerful (CR20) demonlord wanted to travel with the players (for a time) by impersonating an NPC bard, how would you mask the NPC's identity enough to fool the players?
Scenario:
Malcanthet, Queen of Succubi (see Fiendish Codex I), reveals herself as the bard the players traveled with. As a GM, I'd like to take the extra step to ensure this can be explained with the rules for a few players who need that sort of thing. At first I thought about possession, but I actually need Malcanthet to appear instead of the NPC in the final location. Then I thought about disguise +40, but the players already tried true seeing and discern lies etc. and did not detect her previously (over the weeks they'd traveled with the NPC bard.) So my thought is at the last moment she stepped in (disguised) and joined the party in the NPCs place. But the wizard had arcane sight with permanency set to his eyes, and would have seen her powerful magic aura.
Bottom Line:
As a GM, how would the fool-proof disguise take place per RAW?
Won't nondetection do the job?
Mind blank. There's some disagreement about just how far you can go with it, but as the GM you're within your rights to rule that every divination spell that encompasses her would fail, true seeing included.
give the bard a item that f+~%s with alignment or magic. Maybe it's a cursed item that she reveals to the players and claims she can not be rid of it.
I'll get to the disguise thing, but first....
I take note of this:
At first I thought about possession, but I actually need Malcanthet to appear instead of the NPC in the final location.
I don't know what Malcanthet has at her disposal specifically, but if I wanted to do this, I would actually go with something close to your first instinct.
I would have the succubus give the bard her Profane Gift. She can now telepathically communicate with the NPC bard at will, whenever she likes. (The relevant rule to pay attention to: "As long as the profane gift persists, the succubus can communicate telepathically with the target across any distance (and may use her suggestion spell-like ability through it).")
It's a supernatural ability, I doubt it could be easily detected, although she could always give him an item that grants misdirection or a similar effect that makes it hard to notice.
Then when you get to the final location, which Malcanthet knows about through telepathic communication with the bard, she teleports in. She could have set up a contingency or suggestion to have the bard teleport away at the same time (assuming the bard has dimension door) if it is important he is not actually there.
Buuuuuuuuut....
If you really want to go with a disguise, your problem is true seeing, which will see through her change self ability and most other magical or supernatural means of altering her appearance. Because even if they already tried it on the bard, if they just happen to cast it later, they'll notice the bard's not him/herself, quite literally.
If you are loath to give her a "mask divination" ability (hey, she's a demon lord of succubi, it would make sense), the thing is finding a way to keep them from casting true seeing or keep her out of the way if they do. Or dress her in an invisible lead suit? I really don't know. Not much gets in the way of true seeing... except counterspelling, and I think that would make everyone suspicious.
Arcane sight's not an issue---just use magic aura to block it. Unless the wizard is made to be suspicious, he's got no reason to make the save to disbelieve. Unless you think the spell's too weak to mask her demon lordishness, but that's really your call. I don't think outsiders as a rule exude a magical aura so I am assuming what you want to block are the magical/supernatural effects she's using to disguise herself, which should be blockable by magic aura.
And anything you do to have her charm/dominate/suggest her way to have them trust her, the players of course will be suspicious---but that IS another option.
I suppose she could just use the Disguise skill, but there's those pesky wings and fangs and claws that are hard to whisk away with a mundane skill. But mechanically, it's possible -- she'd be at at least a -12 penalty, but if you assume she takes 20 to put on the Disguise, it will still be hard to beat--and no magic can detect a real disguise, just Perception.
Personally, I'd still go with the Profane Gift.
Actually, I think I'd note that using the Disguise skill seems like the way to go for a simple disguise. Succubi have silly-high Charisma scores, and a succubus queen/lord probably has an even higher Charsima modifiers. Plus, she can have Disguise as a class skill as an outsider. If she has nothing but outsider HD or NPC class levels, she can have a pretty high HD for her CR, which results in a lot of ranks in her favorite skills. Toss that in with her Charisma, and if you really want, a magic item or something that grants a +X bonus to Charisma, and you should be golden.
CR 20? Well, a basic succubus is CR 7. Add like 20 levels of the Warrior NPC class brings her to CR 17. Add like 6 levels of Bard (non-associated levels) brings her to CR 20. She'd have a total of 8 + 20 + 6 = 34 HD.
So that's a +34 Disguise, plus a whopping Charisma modifier. The penalty to disguise yourself as a different race is -2. I'm pretty sure she can pull it off.
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Note that players are a bit uneasy about DMPCs in the first place. Generally, they are a Bad Idea. And, players really, really don’t like party members betraying them.
Combining the two is a sure recipe for disaster. Especially as the PC’s took reasonable precautions and will afterwards think you strained the rules to pull a fast one on them.
I did this same sort of scenario awhile back. A Night Hag who had become a constant thorn in the side of the players (even killed one or two) shows up in the disguise of a poor bedraggled preggers girl asking for help.
Then I learned to hate True Seeing with every fiber of my GM-Being. Seriously F this spell, right in its dumb A.
Anyway they saw through the illusion and their was nothing to be done about it, so the contingency was just to go with it. Strangely the Night Hag had gotten into something even eviler than herself and had been impregnated by the big bad who was then going to sacrifice the baby for ultimate power. Then she pulled a Darla and sought out the only people powerful and guilable good enough to help her. So despite my feelings for that wretched power that completely screws up an entire selection of spells as well as numerous possible plots, the players had to make the hard decision of protecting this evil thing that had tortured them so much in the past, to stop the death of an innocent or at least the ascension of a much worse threat.
so anyway, that probably doesn't help, but maybe you can decide to use their discovery of her real identity to inject some drama into the decision of what to do once they find out.
Give him this:
Assumption (Su)
The ultimate ability of the master spy is to take over another persona entirely, making it her own. As a full-round action, the spy can touch a helpless creature and shift her aura to that of her target. This confuses divination effects and spells, even ones as powerful as discern location, such that they register the spy as being the creature she has touched. This ability is not proof against the actions of deities or similarly powerful beings. The assumption of an identity lasts until the master spy ends it (a standard action) or she uses the ability on another creature.
That and a good disguise check. Kill the local tavern bard and take his identity. No one will know the difference.
Pax, I'm curious. Did you ever decide how you were going to handle this?
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Hey DeathQuaker - thanks for your interest.
Using all the spells listed above, along with a limited wish, Malcanthet steps into the party in the bard's place just before the current battle. Malcanthet could have possessed all the observations and gotten all the party's knowledge through the Bard's eyes via her spells, then at the last possible moment, stepped into the group in full disguise with all prepped spells at work. The real bard would be tied up and hidden at that point. Malcanthet has a +20 to disguise anyhow, so a DC48 would clear the PC previous rolls that morning.
As for where she'd been? I introduced an NPC who was "bound" to the main ballroom on the ship the PCs are traveling upon. She raised early suspicions by at least one PC that she might have been a succubus already - so this works out well enough, without needing to slice and dice all the details of how this was achieved to the party. Suffice it to say its believable and would work.
Afterthought:
I considered writing out all this detail and accounting for it to the party. But honestly, I'm a bit tired of the "explaining" GMs usually have to do in modern game groups. GMing was designed to be a flowing spontaneous act, so I reason that as long as its reasonable, that needs to be good enough for the party. (I kinda miss the old days of GMing. There's still plenty of room for GM fiat, but I as a player myself in other campaigns I do appreciate a reasonable explanation. So, this has been a balancing act.)
So then what happened?
You rhould rave worn a rask! It always fools ry riends.
I still advise against doing this, then.
I think it's reasonable as long as he gives the PCs a chance to notice the NPC suddenly acting strange, or not knowing something that he should. Just a slip-up or two they could potentially catch early.
Ok, so what happened?