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I'm building a mercenary NPC that I'm hoping will become a recurring enemy for my party, appearing without warning and relentlessly attacking them until he can't go on anymore.
There are three things I want to achieve with him, in order of importance:
1. He is extremely hard to kill or even stop. High saves, high HP, high AC.
2. He is effective at shutting down casters. It's a magic-heavy bunch and he's sepcifically after a halfling sorcerer in the party.
3. He needs to be able to deal damage in combat enough to actually be scary when he shows up.
A few things that won't change: He's a half-orc and he's an unbreakable fighter. Don't try and convince me otherwise. Not interested. Right now I've got him at level five for his first encounter with the party, and they're level 2.5ish (using SKR's step-leveling). They'e also not a party ideal for front-line combat; they're an archer ranger, an arcane duelist, a TWF rogue, and a shadow sorcerer. They're more comfortable infiltrating and stuff, which is part of what will make this guy so scary.
Lukan, Half-orc unbreakable fighter 5
Feats:
1: Power Attack
Tough as Nails: Endurance, Diehard
2 Fighter: Weapon Focus Falchion
3: Toughness
4 Fighter: Ironhide
5 Fighter: Heroic Recovery
5: Step Up
He wields a falchion and wears full plate.
A little side note, is he properly leveled for the party? He'll have two or three level 1 fighter minions with him.
Make a self-resurrecting druid. Once a week he/she can literally fight to the death and still come back.
I'm building a mercenary NPC that I'm hoping will become a recurring enemy for my party, appearing without warning and relentlessly attacking them until he can't go on anymore.
Bolded for my emphasis.
I think I'm having trouble imagining a mercenary--someone who fights for money--being relentless like that. People are generally willing to die for things they believe in, or even stuff like revenge. I find it really hard to believe anyone would be willing to die for money.
I'm building a mercenary NPC that I'm hoping will become a recurring enemy for my party, appearing without warning and relentlessly attacking them until he can't go on anymore.Bolded for my emphasis.
I think I'm having trouble imagining a mercenary--someone who fights for money--being relentless like that. People are generally willing to die for things they believe in, or even stuff like revenge. I find it really hard to believe anyone would be willing to die for money.
Well, he's got something personal against the sorcerer because he has eluded his grasp before. I've thought about this, and he's now a) more interested in vengeance for his failures that the money and b) he's just that type of guy. He's a mercenary to kill, not to make money. Money is a side-effect.
Did you think about giving him boots to boost his speed? Since he wheres full-plate he is slow. If he can get close to the sorcerer the first time step up is briljant.
I've no idea how, but silence or obscuring mist is really strong against this party. (And it might contribute to the ambience.)
I have thought about something to boost his speed. I was thinking maybe just have him wear breastplate until he gets armor training II.
Breastplate would work as well, an upside to this is when he gets his Full plate the characters know that his AC is even higher, (i would hate that as a player). Try to make sure that he has a decent touch AC as well.
One small thing, you might all ready have done, make sure you have a description or picture of him, (maybe he has his own symbol?) it helps to bring him "to life".
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Something to help with the speed attribute would be the "Linebreaker" trait, all he needs is to be from around the Hold of Belzeken area of Golarion, and thats Orc central. Being a Half-Orc would be ideal for that.
You want something really relentless, go with a Revenant.
If it helps at all, I built a superb Barbarian who took 1 level of Unbreakable Fighter first and then went Invulnerable Rager. Taking Stalwart and Improved Stalwart to stack with the Invulnerable Rager's DR gives him an absurdly high damage resistance, and Superstitious (with the human favored class option) gives him ridiculously high saves as well. He can wear any type of armor and wield any type of weapon.
There's a trick you can do with Stalwart/Improved Stalwart which converts AC bonuses into DR for an attack penalty... then Reckless Abandon converts that attack penalty to an AC penalty... then Beast Totem negates the AC penalty.
Really high saves vs. spells, good AC, really high DR, can't be flanked... he's a great, great character and would make for a superb recurring villian.
If you want to give him a side-kick or accomplice, consider a half-elven/half-orc Summoner (treat as half-elf). I made one with a hideous face that she kept cowled and veiled, but wore revealing clothes apart from that to show off her figure... she would give him buff spells, access to much needed options for a clean get-away (like Dimension Door and Teleport) as well as a very powerful but utterly disposal minion who could be customized to face off against the party.
A good side-kick is important for a recurring villian as it allows them to keep from getting ganged up on and overwhelmed and almost always gives you an 'out'. Worst case scenario if the party defeats him, the side-kick can then become the recurring villian who plagues the party in her quest for revenge.
If any of this sounds good to you just drop me a line and I'd be happy to work with you on it.
He has a composite longbow matched to his strength. For tracking he's just using the survival skill. I'm counting it as a class skill for him because I can. I think I'll switch back to breastplate for now so he's not slower.
I'm not gonna switch to barbarian. He's very methodical and calm (externally), not at all the raging sort.
I like the idea of a sidekick. I don't want to synthesist, but how about a blood god disciple? Three characters for the price of two, and one of them is very disposable. Plus it can adapt to the party after each encounter more than its master and the fighter can. Plus, the eidolon could aid in tracking. Give it scent and a boost to survival, and it can easily track the party.
He has a composite longbow matched to his strength. For tracking he's just using the survival skill. I'm counting it as a class skill for him because I can. I think I'll switch back to breastplate for now so he's not slower.
I'm not gonna switch to barbarian. He's very methodical and calm (externally), not at all the raging sort.
I like the idea of a sidekick. I don't want to synthesist, but how about a blood god disciple? Three characters for the price of two, and one of them is very disposable. Plus it can adapt to the party after each encounter more than its master and the fighter can. Plus, the eidolon could aid in tracking. Give it scent and a boost to survival, and it can easily track the party.
I wasn't suggesting a synthesist, just a regular Summoner - one who could stay invisible while her eidolon fights alongside your villian.
I also wasn't necessarily suggesting that you change, but I do want to mention that he was an Invulnerable Rager/Urban Barbarian, meaning that his rages are controlled - more like a combat focus than a rage - and he could choose to boost his Dex instead of his Str when he wanted to use his bow or improve his armor class and initiative. Like I said, one of my favorite characters.
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Something to look out for: after the second time he attacks the party, I'll bet they'll get creative about how to take him out permanently. Even if he's immortal. If he's a fighter, this could be something as simple as chaining him up, weighting him down, and throwing him in the ocean. If the party has good mid-level magic, they could do even nastier things like plane shift to send him directly to Hell. Or just keep him inside a Bag of Holding with the top sewn shut.
I'm not saying an unkillable recurring fighter is a bad idea necessarily, but be prepared. They might "leave him for dead" once, but probably not twice.
I'm definitely considering the tenacious survivor feat. I'll probably throw it in there after the first battle (from which he'll probably flee, lacking the resolve he will later develop), to help deal with the issue trinite proposes. They won't let him get away a second time, but I don't think they'll do much more than kill him. When he shows up a third time, then they might be a bit more thorough. By then, though, his synthesist buddy should have powerful magic of her own to counter the party's other removal tactics. And they certainly can't just turn him to stone or mind control him, his ability to handle saves, especially fortitude, will be spectacular.
His glass jaw is going to be his non-Fortitude saves. Assuming 12 Wis and 14 Dex, at 5th level his Will and Reflex saves will both be +3 -- not horrible, but not enough to withstand a barrage of save-or-suck spells. Low-level casters will probably have save DCs around 14-15, so he has an even or slightly worse chance of failing his save against Grease or Command or what have you.Doug M.
Again, this is where a Barbarian with Superstion comes in. Tremendous saves vs. spells, especially if he has access to the Human favored class option.
Good point. Maybe level 4 for now with 2 level one fighter minions? Or perhaps level 4 with one level 2 summoner minion?
It's from his backstory. Long-story short, the sorcerer almost killed the son of mayor (accidentally) and ran away. For two years, he's had this guy following him.
He will definitely be focused on the sorcerer alone. His plan will be: take down the sorcerer, eliminate the rest of the party, then kill the sorcerer is he's just unconscious. That's four basically level 3 PCs, so it shouldn't be too likely that he succeeds. He's got 54(ish) health, so he can take a beating.
I'll definitely use the darkvision to his advantage. Only the sorcerer has darkvision, and it only goes out to 30 ft. I'll make it a low-light/darkness set up. His initiative is +1, so you're right about that. And I totally dig the idea of the oath to a lawful god. I was gonna make him neutral evil, but I think I'll go lawful evil worshiper of a lawful neutral god. His summoner buddy certainly won't be a blood god disciple then, due to very obvious chaos-law alignment conflicts. Just a plain old summoner, then. That oath is a great idea.
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I set up a combat between the party and a half-elf combat monster; the setting was everything.
I was inspired by a scene early in the second Hellboy film, both for the half-elf and the cool line, 'Humans! I'll make you remember why you fear the dark!'
When the party enter the room the doors lock. In the room is the half-elf next to a well, holding a candle. The only other light comes from a circle of candles that are set high around where the Walls meet the ceiling, just high enough that, if the candle that the psycho holds were to go out, those with normal vision (humans) are in darkness but those with low-light vision (psychotic half elf) are in dim light. The room is in an area of anti-magic, so the party's usual magic light sources don't work, but this complex has plenty of candles so who'd think to light their own?
Party enters, psycho expresses disapproval, party expresses it's opinion, psycho utters immortal cool line and drops his candle in the well.
Candle goes out. Party is in darkness (although they can see the ceiling clearly), so everyone is invisible and has total concealment and finds it difficult to avoid furniture. Half-elf-full-nutjob is in dim light so suffers 20% miss chance, but has lots of attacks.
I'm sure you can adapt this to your own needs! : )
So, for the summoner. I'm going to do blood god disciple anyways, because lawful evil blood god. Deal. Level 5 Unbreakable and a level 3 Blood God Disciple.
The eidolon's
Base Form Serpentine
Evolutions:
Climb, Tail, Tail Slap, Bite (free)
Scent (1 Point)
Grab: Bite (2 points)
Constrict (2 points)
Improved Damage: Bite (1 point)
He's got six points because the summoner took extra evolutions.
Feats:
1: ?
3: Final Embrace (so he can constrict medium creatures)
The eidolon serves two primary purposes: To track via scent and to lock up other enemies beside the target. Thus the constricting. I'm going to give him poison later, as well as a skill boost for survival. Other than that I'm mostly going to play it by ear for his updates. I'm letting him use blood feast when he's got someone pinned. Then the summoner gives bite to himself and the fighter.
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To further his motivation, you might let it be known through gossip or Kn Local that this guy's reputation as a bounty hunter / mercenary has been significantly damaged by this damned sorcerer who managed to get away. Say the mayor was so pissed that he couldn't deliver on his contract that he has revoked his business charter or blacklisted him or something. Then it is much more personal and really justifies his relentless pursuit.
I think you might want to make him a graveknight, giving him some true tenacity.
I think you might want to make him a graveknight, giving him some true tenacity.
I assume you mean in the future, not right now, correct? I just might, although most of his unbreakable special abilities would become totally useless (+to saves against mind-affecting effects, big fort save abilities, diehard). I'll probably switch him to a normal fighter then and trade out his irrelevant feats. This is what I'll do with him after the third or fourth encounter, when they (think they) utterlyh destroy him. But if they leave a piece of his armor, that's it.
I don't think deepsight will be necessary yet and he'll be grappling too much to antagonize.
The reputation is a good idea, but none of them have Knowledge Local. Maybe they can overhear it in a town or something.
Well I was considering both because you said they stay at range and both seemed a way to get into melee before they could run.
If they run that's fine. It'll just teach them this guy is scary, which is exactly what I want. Lukan will want to approach openly at first, anyways. That's his style. March in, demand the sorcerer, and do whatever he can to get him if they refuse.
As a gm and player, I find it very annoying when a gm 'just' modifies opponents at a whim, (changing class/abilities).
So I would suggest strongly controlling your encounters as groups tend to focus fire the people you want as reoccurring enemies pretty quickly and as mentioned above they will find ways to put an end to him permanently. The flip side is you should prolly have built in 'win' strategies, otherwise if you design the encounter to well as well as meta gaming to counter player characters abilities it can quickly take the fun out of the encounter, the game and make it so the players are disgusted with the one sided (unfair) treatment. So after the first 2 encounters you might want to let the party know in future encounters this guy isnt 'untouchable'.
Hands down the best occuring villian i have ever had is Jinko the Sly in dragon lance world. Any one of players could prolly beat this guy up one on one, but he is a weaselly scum bag that always has had consequences to his actions and luckily the party has always chose the rp choices instead of just ignore everything and kill him. But he has become a very memorable villian even though he isnt a big tough guy.
The best way i have found for re-occurring enemies is encounter control. The cliche of, villian starts death machine that will kill little puppies, so do the players A, rush and stop the machine saving the puppies or B, ignore the machine letting the puppies die but getting the villian as the best way to go.
It also adds rp to it in that the players have choices to make, and decide which way to go. All options you offer in the scenario have drawbacks or consequences, they just have to choose which one(s) they want to pursue.
I really liked Wiggz barb idea with the summoner, so much that i gotta 'borrow' that concept for some of mine :)
I don't think it's metagamey for the bounty hunter after the party to develop appropriate to their abilities. Right now, he's just a real tough guy with a little bit of anti-magic ability. He doesn't have anything metagamey about him. When he fails, he will focus his future training on making up for his failures. I won't arbitrarily go back and switch around his abilities to slay the party. I might reconstruct him a bit if he becomes undead, but that's because his current abilities would be absolutely redundant. I'll just switch them out with more standard fighter abilities. Undeath makes some serious changes, you know?
With the notions of 'relentless' and 'vengence' you might also want to take a look at Inquisitor. Lots of synergy with Half Orc, tons of abilities and spells around hunting/tracking/pursuing, and if the sorcerer is the object of his "quest" then the spellbreaker archetype could really make things interesting.
Certainly adds to the hunter/prey element......the party is resting after an adventure and hear a rumor that this enemy is asking questions at taverns on the other side of the city so they need to cut their visit short, etc etc etc.
Going with Calistria will mess with the LG idea but entering the service of the goddess of revenge after a few failed attempts to nab his prey fits in to the 'vow' concept. An unbreakable fighter who multiclasses with spellbreaker inquisitor sounds like it has all kinds of possibilities.....
Or he swears a vow of vengence and Calistria sends an Inquisitor to join him as a cohort or something
I've got no Calistria in my world. He will have some vaguely religious overtones, but the law enforcement angle just happens tocoincide with his thirst for vengeance. I like the idea of the inquisitor, but I'm going to stick to single-classed Unbreakable.
I like that your sticking to a fighter type for this party antagonist. He doesnt come across as a super tracker ext, and if you did go inquisitor it would have a different feel to the type of opponent you are creating.
Personally I would have went with Human Merc, it kind of strikes at the home core of the most basic of races, and I think this guy could be cool like Tombs, the merc from Riddick.
Tombs is a fantastic party antagonist.
But anyway, the guy has a vendetta to settle and good ol fighter with some backup work well. The scenes dont have to be over thought, it is this guy wants to get his guy, and the party if they know what's good for em will stay out of it, lol.
And yes, when changing to undead i completely see that changing him. Ironically one of my clerics enemies is a duelist prince that became a undead prince of his lands that rules the sickly gross dead. God i hate that guy, and gm always have him do just gross things, lol.
He's just one really tough guy on a mission.