Character concept: the potion salesman

[Douglas Muir 406]

Gnome Rog 1 / Sorc (rakshasa bloodline) 4 / Alchemist 2

He sells potions, cheap.

You get what you pay for.

Doug M.

[cartmanbeck]

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

Gnome Rog 1 / Sorc (rakshasa bloodline) 4 / Alchemist 2

He sells potions, cheap.

You get what you pay for.

Doug M.

Can you explain this in a little more detail for me? As in, why do you need the rakshasa bloodline? Just for the bonus to Bluff checks? What does the 1 level of rogue give you?

[Douglas Muir 406]

cartmanbeck wrote:

As in, why do you need the rakshasa bloodline? Just for the bonus to Bluff checks? What does the 1 level of rogue give you?

To be clear: this character is an NPC, and not optimized.

Doug M.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Rak bloodline for the crazy high Bluff power, yes. Also the mindreading!

He really is an alchemist (if a low-level one). The best lies are the ones that are partly true, and he really can mix up potions. The rogue level is really thematic, but also so that he can mix things up. Experienced players tend to expect NPCs to be just as optimized as their wonderful selves, and to pigeonhole them -- "oh, he must be an alchemist, I saw him drink an extract". So having him be able to pick locks or sneak can be an interesting surprise. Still not optimized, at all, but that's very much not the point here. (And if designed with care, he can throw some nasty surprises, optimization or not.)

Doug M.

[ossian666]

You do know an alchemist gets stealth and disable device as class skills...if that is all you want the rogue for its not necessary...

[Poncho-Ninja]

Don't forget about the vivisectionest alchemist archetype from Ultimate Magic which lets your alchemist levels stack with rogue levels when calculating sneak attack.

[Drejk]

I'd drop the Rogue for another level of alchemist and made him into vivisectionist - unless you want him to keep bombs, of course.
Note that alchemist get Disable Device but do not get Stealth as a class skill, so you'd have to give him trait for making it class skill if he is to excel at skulking around.

[Name Violation]

ossian666 wrote:

You do know an alchemist gets stealth and disable device as class skills...if that is all you want the rogue for its not necessary...

they dont get stealth

[blackbloodtroll]

If he has traits, there are ones that reduce crafting costs.

[Silent Saturn]

Practice your "used car salesman" roleplaying. I'd say watch some infomercials to get a feel for his persona. (Vince Offer? Billy Mays? Stan from Monkey Island?)

Also he has a bunch of magic traps to protect his merchandise.

[blackbloodtroll]

Mindchemist is good for this.

[Douglas Muir 406]

I know about the vivisectionist, but I want him to have bombs. His single discovery is Smoke Bomb [poof!].

Mindchemist for sure. Note that this cranks his ridiculously high Bluff even higher.

Doug M.

[Douglas Muir 406]

20 point build: Str 6 Con 14 Dex 14 Int 14 Wis 10 Cha 19 (21)

Feats include Skill Focus (Bluff) and Breadth of Experience. Motivations, in rough order: greed, amusement, and above all curiosity.

His greatest weapon is neither spells nor bombs, but his ridiculously high Bluff. It's +18, or +23 when he's lying. And that's before his cognatogen or any buffs or traits. I'm pretty sure he has the Charlatan trait, which lets you burn a spell slot as a swift action to gain a Bluff bonus equal to the slot's level. So he can generally hit +20 / +25 whenever he feels like it. He can tell far-fetched lies with ease, and has a better than even chance of convincing ordinary people of impossibilities. Note that this makes turning him in to the authorities pretty worthless -- unless careful precautions are taken, he'll simply talk his way out of jail. It also means that attacks on him are likely to attract a crowd of defenders. "He cured my bunions!" "He's the lost heir to the throne of Galt!" "Protect the blessed one of Abadar!"

He's CN, not evil. And Breadth of Experience + his mindchemist bonus = he has +6 in every Knowledge skill without dropping any ranks, and +10 as soon as he drops a single rank. So he really knows a lot about all sorts of things -- he's been wandering the world scamming people for decades, and is relentlessly curious. Curiosity is a more powerful motivation for him than greed, so he'll make a fair trade for interesting information; on the other hand, if his vanity is properly tickled, he might be willing to tell what he knows about those weird inscriptions on the ancient bridge. He can actually be quite useful to a party, if the PCs can suppress the totally understandable impulse to grab his little neck and wring it hard.

In combat... he doesn't do combat, actually. He's optimized for lying, sneaking, fooling and escaping. He might drive a party crazy with tricks and illusions, but he'd be very reluctant to actually inflict damage on anyone. (Though he might perfectly well stand by smoking a pipe and chuckling while an enraged crowd beats hell out of someone who was being a nuisance.)

Doug M.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Other trait... Brastlewark Businessman gives +2 to Craft (alchemy), Rapscallion is +1 to Init and Escape Artist, and Fast-Talker is +1 to Bluff. Any of those would be appropriate.

As a gnome, I think he'll take the Gift of Tongues racial trait. (Gain a +1 bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and learn one additional language every time you put a rank in the Linguistics skill. Replaces the defensive training and hatred.)

As a rogue, the Charlatan, Investigator and Spy archetypes are all good. The Charlatan in particular: "At 1st level, when a charlatan successfully deceives a creature with a Bluff, that creature takes a –2 penalty on the charlatan’s Bluff checks for the next 24 hours." That one gives you the Rumormonger rogue talent at 3rd level, which could be amusing.

Doug M.