Alright my campaign is focused around bringing down Razmir the False Living God. At around level 15 the party, 5 players Magus, Rogue, Monk, Alchemist, and a Cleric/Witch/Mystic Threuge, will be sent to Thuvia to stop Razmir's supply of Sun Orchid Elixir. Well I was planning on having poor old Artokus Kirran the creator of the Elixir dead and Razmir's own personal alchemist running the show.
Now I know its an idea rip but I have recently been getting really into Batman in particular the villain Scarecrow. I want to ask you fine folks for ideas on how to flesh out the concept both in fluff and raw wise. I figure he would work well with Razmir as fear would be a powerful tool to keep people oppressed. As the basis for the Fear Toxin I was thinking about using "Insanity Mist" poison as the base for it. What else would you GMs do to make it into a truly disturbing, frightening, and challenging encounter?
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Definitely don't make it a solo boss fight. Those are just lame. And seriously, alchemists are one of the scariest boss types in the game, because they can cg a ton of extracts and nova.
Have the approach to the boss be a multi-tiered progression through the creep factor. Make sure to have multiple simulacrums of him to add to the confusion. If you want, make him a master Chymist and forgo bombs to make him a vivisectionist, and have plenty of evidence of mutilation.
Might I suggest the psychonaut alchemist archetype from Ultimate Magic? Stack up on nightmares and put him at level 17 to get moment of foresight. Concentrate on him adding formulae to his books for illusions and compulsions. High int goes without saying and take heed of the complementary discoveries UM suggests for that archetype.
And simulacrums. Lots.
And set magical traps for reverse gravity and more nightmare/illusions/compulsions.
Head over to drivethrurpg and find the Pure Steam beta playtest. There is an alchemist archetype in there called the fumagist that may interest you.
Crap...the playtest is no longer up. Basically, the fumigant (not fumagist, remembered it wrong) allowed you to give up brew potion and mutagens for earlier access to poison use and to infuse your bombs with poison, with it being especially effective if it was an inhaled poison. Very Scarecrow-ish.
confusion bomb? I admit I don't know what exactly you're talking about, but that might fit in. See the thread on confusion bombs to see if they get a save or not.
Freeport Insanity Rules are wicked.
Have you seen the movie Limitless? Have you seen New Jack City? or Even Training Day?
Have the team go in with something easy "Pesh"- the gateway drug. The skill challenge would be to get the Mwangi slaves to become "better" workers, say double the Wis damage, lower the addictive DC to 5 and then give them an anti plaque/toxin cocktail to keep the extra hit points but hire a Channeling poisin cleric who "positively" boons the "Hut"- the Hood neighborhood/ Shanty town.
In this area (Golorian Colombia) the locals harvest the purest form of the "product", but the PCs have four things to achieve.
A Necro-mist Rage Chemist/ Necromancer has chemically enraged undead crocadiles to fight raft master boatmen shipments and hijack supplies.
His lair has the greatest Swamp technology on the planet to refine and mass produce the most prime product ever. Masking alignments and False life potions would get you in. The party is helped by a strung out Inquisitor who has lost his sense of justice.
Insanity is a hard sell, so let the PCs "act" crazy. The best way to infiltrate is to understand that the city is 100% supportive of this activity. Everyone gets a cut, so the party should gather information on every aspect of the corruption in percentages so as they Scooby-Doo they have reports and ledgers and eye witnesses who will testify if you can keep the Undead goons away until the secret trail breaks.
Nuetral and Good forces will frustrate the PCs. The Paladin horse- like in the movie Tangled, does not believe that the party is anything other than scum and will arrest them for a few nights in the River Brig. Undead Jello night means the Mighty Mold gets acidic revenge on all living things, the PCs rescue the Captian-Warden and from that the final assault can be designed. The Captain snitches and 100% of the corruption is revealed, but only if he lives to testify, (Boom!) the boat starts to sink and Chemically altered Undead Cracken and undead Stirges buzz in for blood.
Restoring the area to "balance" means controlled-burning of the Amazonian forest. Rehab for side effects (nightmares-canabalism-ticks-stuttering-magic witch hair growth)and whatever never really cures anything. But the Life Orchid Mythology should be whispered in the background but not disturbed. They never find the lair, never find the boss. It's adventure for the sake of roleplayed adventure. If at 15th level you can make Wisconsin "not" the dairy/badger state, I think the game loses credibility. Chemistry and the like go nuts with free expression, but we had a party member make the Blackros matriarch fall in love with him in a PFS, it was funny but, how many Blackros games can this system cook up? It will forever taint the landscape. This idea just taints the PCs in insane failure, and I hate mind control so I'd leave it up to them how crazy they get. Someone needs to make a Diplomacy check eventually would be my warning!!!
I was planning on giving him Madness Bombs to simulate the fear effect Scarecrow's canisters have.
As for the actual lead up to him I was figuring on have several rooms where the 'gas' is being leaked into, doing subtle perception and fort checks as it begins to bend the parties minds and start manifesting their characters deepest fears. Each check getting progressively harder as the nightmares get worse. As long as they keep making their saves they advance through the rooms easily but each trap releases a cloud of the gas with a harder DC.
At the very worst I figured I'd have the characters go unconscious and be trapped in a horrific nightmare, until one of the other PCs shakes off the fear affect and does a heal check to wake the other. Though I am pretty sure I need more then this to make this encounter worthwhile.
As for the boss fight I figured on having effigies of the boss himself as well as important people in the characters life. But I am not 100% on how the boss fight should go down.
I am trying to make this a truly unique encounter, as this is something my group has never dealt with before, a psychological challenge for their characters, beyond simple morality based decisions.