The setup...
A wizard (some distance away from current location) tries to impress local leader - interested in his daughter - by having a scribe create a fictitious account of his heroic actions during the Battle of Shedrig's Pass, which is the pc's locale. To explain his heroic use of magic which he can't duplicate, the story gives him a powerful wand, which was lost during the fight. Unfortunately, the local leader is familiar with said battle, & knows there were no wizards involved - forcing the mage to leave the area in a hurry when his attempt @ deception is revealed...
Sometime later, the (fake) account ends up in the hands of another wizard, who decides to look for the missing wand. His research turns up no evidence of the wand ever being found, so he assumes the goblins involved in the conflict must have it. After much preparation, he travels to the pc's locale & is promptly captured by a goblin scout party - but not until after he manages to use some form of Disguise Self to make him look like a goblin, albeit a very tall one. While facing the chief, he takes advantage of a lunar eclipse to "demonstrate" his power. The chief flees from such a powerful foe, & the wizard begins using the goblins to help him look for the 'magic stick' he lost.
The goblin chief turns to his rival chief from the 1st encounter for aid, who decides to try to use the pc's to solve the problem. The goal will be for the pc's to capture/kill the wizard & get out of the goblin territory without starting another war.
The advice I'm looking for is what school of wizardry should this guy specialize in? Universalist is the easy, safe choice - but divination, evocation & transmutation also could work. Haven't decided if he'll be human or half-elf yet, either.
Any input is, as always, most appreciated....
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I love this setup, someone searching for something that's a historical fiction! (No doubt, the goblins have brought him a great collection of sticks, bones, weapon hafts, rusty arrows, oversized feathers, and other random bits of junk, which lie in a heap in his 'throne room...')
Psychologically, a half-elf might be more likely to A) be travelling by himself (growing up with one foot lightly in two different worlds, and never feeling like he belongs) and B) be better than average at pretending to be another race entirely (since he feels like he's been doing that all his life anyway, pretending to be a human, or pretending to be an elf).
A divination specialist both fits the idea of a character who would be poring over historical texts, or reading accounts of local battles, searching for potential goodies (knowledge is power!), and, mechanically, has a potentially crucial school power for a class that, as Big Bads go, tend to die quickly. Able to react during a surprise round, he's at least got a chance of getting a spell or two off, before being ganked.
Either the Foresight or Scryer sub-schools, from the APG, can also be a fantastic resource for an NPC wizard.
Actually, I'm thinking of a scene where the pc's come across a couple of goblins arguing over whether a stick can become magical if they break it to the size their new 'leader' is looking for...
Another aspect is that this wizard will come up with the idea of just wearing a cloak with the cowl pulled up to hide his face so he doesn't have to keep casting the disguise spell on himself all the time - (in goblin) "You fools, I am Brak-Ni (the 'Hooded One'), & I don't need to explain anything to you! Now keep searching for my magic stick!!"
I'm almost always a fan of the Illusionist.
Makes disguise self not so burdensome, and it seems to me that an Illusionist might be more likely to be taken in than a Diviner, in the first place...
What level is your Wizard obstacle? Knowing his/her accessible spell levels would make it easier to advise...
PS love the idea!
Giving the wizard a hat of disquise would be an easy way to deal with the being a goblin issue while assuming the party eventually wins letting them have what i consider one of the most fun and useful low power items in the game :D
What level is your Wizard obstacle? Knowing his/her accessible spell levels would make it easier to advise...
He's going to be 4th-5th level. I nearly added Illusionist to the list earlier.
What kind of magics does this "wand" is reported to posses?Actually, that's something else I haven't determined yet....
Giving the wizard a hat of disquise would be an easy way to deal with the being a goblin issue while assuming the party eventually wins letting them have what i consider one of the most fun and useful low power items in the game :DA very interesting idea... my only concern is with how smart my group is, they could easily make much better use of it than I expect - a problem I should be so lucky to have, I suppose. :)
OK, so I am still trying to figure out how to quote earlier posts for response...
Not to be rude, but only 4 responses so far (and even then, only 2 school suggestions - not that I don't appreciate the other posts, mind you)?
I'm really not sure where to go with this, so any help/advice would be really nice...
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I'm re-reading your OP and I'm getting a little confused...
You mention a "rival chief from the 1st encounter". Is this the "local leader" you mention earlier???
Also, what is the race/culture of the "Local leader" and the races of both wizards?
That could help give us a better ideal on what you could do.
For example, is the 2nd wizard (who is looking for the wand) a human or a drow?
A human could just be a power hungry wizard. But a Drow could be a rogue or part of a mercenary band/house.
The reactions from your party could be quite different if they find the Big Bad Boss is a Drow (After all he could be "ASSUMED" to be part of an invasion force! :P )
Please provide us more information?
I was more disappointed in the community that 9 posts in we have no one to suggest looking in the next stall.
Illusion is helpful, divination might lead him to realize he has been duped. Evocation makes for a nice damage dealer in an enemy. Nothing says evil wizard like necromancy. Part to of the evil scheme might be to raise undead army from the former field of battle.
I think you might want to go with a diviner or a conjuration specialist and perhaps make him a lore master... Albeit a poor one. Perhaps he is a collector of such magical wands from great historical battles.
Apologies for any confusion...
In our 1st scenario, the group averted a new Goblin War by killing an owlbear that had forced the local goblin tribe out of their homes. The goblins, merely trying to survive, accidentally killed one of the townsfolk. The pc's managed to figure out what was going on and solve the dilemma. The party's rogue is the goblin chief's son (CN alignment) - he will be joining them permanently at the end of this scenario.
The deposed chief turned to the goblin pc's father for help with this new threat (the disguised wizard). Because the party saved his tribe, the father comes up with the idea of putting the party onto the (not yet revealed) wizard.
The local leader who caught the original wizard's deception is in a distant town - realistically, this piece of backstory will probably never come out in the game, I just included it to try to help explain the scenario.
The wizard looking for the (non-existent) wand will be either human or half-elf.
I hadn't thought of the possibility that divination might expose his mistake - one school down...
Up to this point, I have been kind of interested in evocation - as the school is so heavily into the raw power of magic, I could easily see this guy looking for some kind of wand that could seriously increase his power level. Keep in mind he believes the wand was used in a heated combat situation, again suggesting some sort of power attack.
"Nothing says evil wizard like necromancy." - a good point. Perhaps the wand allowed it's user to animate the dead on the battlefield and force them to fight their still-living companions... that would definitely get a necromancer's attention, I think. Although that may not be the kind of magical feats you'd want to use to impress a girl's father....
Thanks, and keep it coming!
I would agree with evocation. Power-grubbing...fiending for the cosmos at their fingertips. It wasn't a wand, maybe, but a staff of Intensified, Empowered Meteor Storm, heh (because really, how powerful can wands get, anyway?). Evocationists are like lead singer's in a band, they're the glory-mongers. If he is a half-elf, an outcast exile that has no real cultural identity, maybe he finds his identity in raw power. He defines himself on how easily he can manipulate energy. Or whatever.
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I have this notion that the wizard might take up the mantle of 'chief of the goblins' just for convenience, only to find it's not as easy to put down.
Perhaps something about the location allowed the previous chief to tap into a sort of local power, of relatively minor but useful nature (can spy on his minions within the cave complex, by placing his hands on a black stone at the center of the labyrinthine warrens, for instance), only, unknown to the wizard, by taking over, and making use of the stone, he's also fallen under the curse of the stone, and can no longer leave the cave himself...
Alternately, the goblin shaman might have been dosing the chief (and is now dosing the new chief) with some fungal alchemical toxin that makes him suggestible, so that he finds himself agreeing with the shaman, and even coming to think of himself as a goblin chief, and not someone pretending to be a goblin chief. Even if he snaps out of it, and leaves, he'll be wracked with brutal and agonizing withdrawal pains, and might find himself passing out and being 'rescued' by his faithful goblins (who might try to exorcise their 'beloved chief' with a good beating with stinging nettles, to drive out whatever crazy spirit tried to make him go wandering out of the goblin lair all by himself during the day!), and 'nursed back to health' with more of the same fungal brew.
It would be just the luck of this poor wizard if he's not only come here in search of a wand that doesn't exist, but has gotten in over his head and can't find a way to ditch this 'goblin chief' gig, due to some circumstances completely beyond his ability to deal with.
Maybe a rod of some kind?
Oh, wait, it doesn't matter because it doesn't exist!!!
DOH!
Anyways....
A conjurer of the Teleporter sub-school comes with a built-in escape plan. But an illusionist is more likely to have disguise self prepared. An enchanter might have more people skills to command a tribe.
What level is the party? How powerful do you want the BB2 to be? Don't forget ranks in Knowledge history!
The party is 2nd level,but many of the players are pretty experienced rpg'ers (consider they managed to kill an owlbear at 1st level).
I'm looking for the encounter to be CR+2 or 3 (fairly challenging - difficult). There'll be an ogre/bugbear or two present (the wizard is looking to hire extra muscle in case of the deposed chief tries to take back his throne) for the group to deal with along with the "goblin chief's" personal guard. I can play with the numbers on the fly as needed to increase/reduce the level of difficulty.
You know gnomes have some nice abilities with illusion spells, and if he's not an illusion specialist (but is still good with illusions) that could help with general shenanigans.
I would suggest the wand be a double wand of special design (of course) that allows the aiding of allies and hindering of enemies at the same time -- perhaps it casts both slow and haste as a full round action?
Thinking I'd prefer to stick with human or half-elf here, although those are interesting points about the gnome. Part of the story is even though the wizard looks like a goblin, he's medium-sized.
Since the wand doesn't even exist, I'm leaning towards using the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) - probly something like fireballs or lightning blasts....
Have been giving some thought to having the group find some other moderately decent magic device - right under the wizard's nose, but he was so focused on the (non-existent )wand/staff, he totally missed it.
Maybe a divine or bardic music item? Or even a weapon or martial-based wondrous item.