So I've got a cool encounter I'm making for a group of four lvl6 PCs, well optimized and 25 PB. They'll encounter a dryad vampire (using elf stats but dryad flavor, as Gaea would strip her dryad abilities). This vampire still hangs around her tree though (easy supply of stakes).
Now what I'm thinking is, what class levels to give her (6 levels I'd say)? I'd been considering Rogue, Sorcerer, and Tetori. Rogue would depend entirely on Children of the Night wolves to flank, which are otherwise fodder. Sorcerer could be a OP and boring fight, as the PCs would have trouble climbing the tree and bringing the fight to her, and Tetori would be fun for an optimal bloodsucker build...but kinda weird in terms of flavor.
Divine classes are pretty much out.
Any tips? I'm thinking of adding a couple of dominated bodyguards as well, but they'll probably get shredded pretty fast. The party has a lot of damage at their disposal, if they can get into melee, but if they can't, they are very lacking.
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Creative choice of minions! As a former dryad, she may have used her dominate ability on all manner of animal. She may command plants, like assassin vines to hold her prey, or perhaps she's convinced a treant that composting the nearby village of humans is the most environmental solution.
For bodyguards, perhaps a camp of loggers has recently gone missing, and are now under her thralls. If you seed the idea early on that the loggers are innocent (perhaps their families can ask the party to find their loved ones after they went missing in the woods), the challenge becomes not only defeating the bodyguards, but keeping them alive - it's a good chance to exercise non-lethal options that normally fall by the wayside.
It's also an opportunity to go heavy on the environmental hazards, as she has an intimate a knowledge of the surrounding terrain as possible (having formerly been a part of it).
For class, go druid. Sounds wrong, I know, but there's a legit vampire druid half-elf in part 5 of Carrion Crown ("Ashes at Dawn"). It's a very strange combination, and the druid's power of the landscape compliments their minions and children of the night in really fun ways. The encounter is more like 13th level, but it's a good place to steal some ideas from - especially the giant flytrap companion that she feeds "leftovers" to.
Divine classes are pretty much out.
Why? I'd think making her a Blight Druid would be quite appropriate. As would a Cleric of either Urgathoa, Rovagug, or Ghlaunder.
Add a dominated illusionist, get the players chasing their tails. Vamp fighter/monk archer with great speed (55), deflect arrows and using poison arrows is a good idea, dryad vamp should also avoid the melee and maybe make her an enchanter or witch, throw in a lot of dire animals or vampire spawn animals to bog them down and a treant that still feels obligated to protect the dryad.
If they want to rush into melee, don't forget camo pit traps, with rot grubs and rotting victims at the bottom of one of the pits.
Balance it so that it is quite hard, with the opportunity to flee if it is too much for them. If they rush and power through so often, give them an encounter where they have to think and use a bit of ranged/care to be able to wrap it up.
There is a lot of potential in what you are doing here. Good!
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Thanks for the input so far!
Krodjin: My definition of a fun encounter is something that pushes the PCs, but something they can overcome with the tools that they have. While an archer on a tree would be a potent opponent against them, it would not be a very exciting fight. It would also not really highlight the fact that they're fighting a vampire (no domination, no life draining from them...)
Tips to help them contest an opponent in a tree would also be welcome, since it's not particularly fun for them to throw shuriken (which have terrible range increments), daggers without sneak attack, a few scorching rays and some sound bursts. It's pretty hard to climb a tree if your opponent can blast/shoot arrows while you try.
bbreitz: I like the assassin vine suggestion, as they are CR 3, I could throw in a few of them easily. Maybe four of them. Previously I was thinking of having a few tough orcs from nearby war camps be dominated, but I think I like the vines better.
By RAW, I know that the druid is a legit class for a vampire, but it just feels wrong to me. Perhaps as a Blight Druid though.
I was also considering a Witch with the Poison Steep hex. As it happens, this dryad vampire hangs around a peach tree. It could be fun to pass them poisoned peaches, or at least dominate and have 'em chow down.
I should mention that the party is a monk, rogue, magus, and cleric.
Edit: I started typing a reply, went out for a bit, and didn't refresh to see the new replies!
Son: Right, I am thinking about the Blight Druid. The world is homebrew though, and the Gods are dead. There are divine spirits of some power, but it's pretty rare to be able to call on them.
3.5: They actually fought a Rakshasa in a tree recently, who was pretty clever. The PCs managed to spot his pit trap, but not the Snare he cast from a scroll via UMD. The unfortunate Magus got dangled above the pit, and then the Rakshasa let him down by severing the vine with a thrown dagger. Then he "sealed" the pit with a Silent Image (only the cleric was able to spellcraft it, drat!) I played up the Rakshasa's cockiness though, and he jumped down to engage them in melee after a few rounds.
I like the suggestions though, particularly pits with rot grubs (actually I just looked up the rot grub swarm and it's CR 7. That's probably killer. The PCs are only level 6, and I feel the vampire should be the main event). Your suggestions seem like a lot of fun for a higher level vampire encounter, and I'll keep them in mind for the future.
How about making her a Necromancer? A Bone Oracle or Gravewalker Witch both fit the theme of a fallen Dryad and her undead minions could be her former lovers, with her "favorite" former paramour being the most powerful.
I ended up going with a natural weapons Ranger!
Here's a link: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=43226
I'm ignoring the Natural Bond ability, giving her no companion. Her favored enemies are Fey and Orc, neither is found in the party (but they make sense for her). However, she is level 7, and I will have her Children of the Night ability awaken four assassin vines on the tree. She's a formidable melee opponent, particularly if she gets her buffs up, which give her a d8 damage die with her melee natural weapons (lead blades), +2 hit/dmg (from the bear shapeshift), and -2 hit/+4 damage from power attack, for a routine of +13/+13/+13 1d8+12 each hit, and the first hit each round will also give two negative levels.
With a powerful Str and base investment into grappling (the Improved Grapple Feat), she has a pretty powerful CMB (+17 to grapple in bearshift), so she might be able to draw some poor sap into her embrace and drink their sap...I mean, blood.
I think she has the potential to do some serious damage if the PCs don't manage to put her down quickly.
Edit: She's made on 20 PB. I gave her a 14 Con (12 after Elf racial) because I thought she would have had some Con in life. I use temp score 16 Con, because that's her Cha, and undead use Cha for Con.
The Rival Guide has a feat in it that lets a vampire druid or ranger take a vampiric animal companion. It's limited to creatures that a vampire could normally summon with their Children of the Night ability. The vampire makes one of the summoned creatures into her new animal companion by turning it into a variant vampire spawn, basically. It still progresses as an animal companion, but it gains vampire vulnerabilities and vamp-spawn level vampiric abilities, and its hitdice count against the total number of hitdice of spawn that the vampire can control.
Since you decided to go with ranger, you might consider the vampiric animal companion for that Natural Bond you're ignoring.
Vampiric Animal Companion (on d20pfsrd.com)
A vampiric animal’s statistics are identical to those of the original animal, save for the following changes.
Its type changes to undead with the augmented animal subtype.
It gains a +4 natural armor bonus.
It gains the blood drain vampire special attack.
It gains an energy drain attack (1 level, DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the animal companion’s racial HD + the animal companion’s Charisma modifier).
It gains the dominate vampire special attack with respect to animals of its type.
It gains channel resistance +2, DR 5/silver, resist cold and electricity 10, fast healing 2, and the vampire qualities of gaseous form and shadowless.
It gains all of the standard vampire weaknesses.
It gains Str +2, Dex +2, and Cha +4.
It does not gain the vampire’s children of the night or create spawn abilities.
Of course there are restrictions on the feat (minimum effective druid level, and a CHA pre-req.) but if you're in your own homebrew, you could just say your vamps can wave those pre-reqs if you wanted. I mean after all, this is a vampire dryad that isn't a dryad mechanically, after all, so there's some wiggle room.
Then, when the vamp does use her Children of the Night ability, the summoned wolves could join the vampiric wolf (or bats could join vampiric bat, or whatever), and follow its lead in combat.
I think vampire rangers are cool. I have a couple planned for my own campaign.
And as you said she can awaken assassin vines on the tree with her Children of the Night, maybe a vampiric animal companion could fight without more of its own kind when Children of the Night is used.
Definitely a cool feat, Wolf, though my vampire falls a little short of that 18 Cha.
Matt2VK: That's a good point, and could also make for a big fight. The situation in my game is a little different, without droning on exposition, since the Gods died, it's only safe for the monstrous races to be outside certain designated zones (which monsters cannot enter). It is a rare few of the civilized races that can wander the world outside of these zones.
This Dryad and her sister had been protecting their grove against orcs without aid of elves or other natural allies they might have, so they are a little more militant out of necessity.
Now, if this Dryad can scout out the PCs and set up a play, that could be pretty fun. If she doesn't manage to spot the PCs coming in time, I guess she'll do what she does every night: Try to coax her sister to come out of the tree and join her, and hunt. I like your idea though. I'll insert a spy somewhere at the ghost town where the remaining orcs are squatting. It would make sense that she'd be scouting them. The PCs might be able to catch the scout. Perhaps a rat or something.