Character concept: an evil NPC bard, NE or CE, who is a ruthless, charming manipulator. He constantly uses his skills and bardic abilities to lie, cheat, steal, and generally get what he wants. So, for instance, if he's in a tavern, he'll use his Fascinate/Suggest ability on other patrons to get them to buy him drinks, and he'll zap the poor bargirl to wait on him constantly, bringing the choicest cuts and the finest ale, and then later to warm his bed. Basically, I'm looking for a build that is a charming, utterly self-centered sociopath.
He can fight a bit in a pinch, but he's not optimized for combat. He doesn't want to pick fights; he wants the rabble to serve him with love and awe. His preferred tactic is to have others do his fighting for him. If PCs confront him, they should quickly find themselves surrounded by an angry mob; in any given social situation, from metropolis to cave-dwelling orc tribe, he'll very quickly dig in and make himself beloved.
Build is 15 points, 6th level, human. I don't see a compelling reason to take any archetype -- Diva and Celebrity /could/ work, but I think he moves around a bit too much for Celebrity or Demagogue.
So, assuming we go with straight bard, what feats or spells come to mind? Skill Focus (Bluff) and Spell Focus (Enchantment) seem obvious, but are there any feat chains that would help here?
Doug M.
Unless you're building him at level 1, which seems low for this kind of NPC, you probably want that to be skill focus perform string. That way it doubles up on diplomacy. Sing gets bluff with sense motive if you think getting sense motive on charisma is more important than getting your skill focus on diplomacy. I think bluff and sense motive are the only social skills an NPC can use against a PC, but if he winds up in an opposed diplomacy check to control a mob or something you'll be glad of having piped that skill focus through versatile performance.
"Build is 15 points, 6th level, human".
He gets two Versatile Performances. Oratory and Comedy would seem to cover all the social skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive). And an NPC can certainly use Intimidate against a PC!
Maxing Perform gives (level+Cha bonus+3) before buffs. So, he'd be looking at around a +14 on all these skills, or +17 if he throws a feat -- Skill Focus (Perform:Oratory) would give him +3 on Diplomacy and Sense Motive, for instance.
Doug M.
Make sure that he has the "Undetectable Alignment" spell. It should come standard for all evil, manipulative Bards with even a hint of self-preservation.
That said; abuse the heck out of versatile performance. Make sure to grab a perform skill that allows for Sense Motive checks, so that you can use his charisma bonus instead of his wisdom bonus. And as Atarlost said, grab skill focus in the perform skill that gives him the best social skills (Bluff and Diplomacy, if I remember correctly), so that you get it to both of these skills in one feat.
Use his other feats for combat, Arcane Strike, Dodge, Finesse and so on. Feats aren't that good for much else anyway. Optimise his social skills, cutting skills such as stealth and just throw a single rank into each of the knowledge skills for free knowledge about how to abuse the various aspects of life.
I would probably have him have a longer term goal than just "personal pleasure" if you're going to use him for more than a short adventure. He's a little one-sided to be more than an annoying bump on the road to more glorious enemies.
Other than that, I can only recommend that you sit down and make him yourself, it will give you a far better understanding of the character when you use him to lie, cheat, manipulate and steal his way through the game setting :)
Edit: Don't plan too hard on him using Intimidate against the players, it's a short term effect, that leaves a very negative impression of the NPC and most players will instantly tag him as an antagonist and a target if he uses this tactic against them.
Instead use Diplomacy, compliment their achivements, talk of their heroics, get them drinks. All the while manipulating everyone around the heroes into giving him what he wants for free ;)
Court Bard gives a level bonus on Diplomacy and some knowledges so may be more fitting - someone who is used to wealth and expects certain things for a person of their station.
They also get a debuff instead of inspire courage/competence which would fit a more self-centred character better.
I would also say that a Sociopath will be good at hiding it, it probably will only become apparent when he is willing to sacrifice others to meet their ends. That could be a very gradual and nasty revelation for the PCs.
Level 6 human bard, plain vanilla. 15 point build
Str 10 Con 10 Dex 12 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 22 (17 +2 human, +1 level 4, +2 headband)
No dump stats.
HP 33 (6d8+6) -- favored class bonus on hp. The alternate favored class benefit for human bards (one more spell known/level) gets pretty sweet at higher levels but it's not that useful right now.
Saves Fort +2 Reflex +6 Will +5
Skills: 7 ranks/level. He'll max out Disguise, Perception, Perform (comedy), and Perform (oratory). Half ranks (3 each) in Acrobatics, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand and Stealth. Remaining 7 ranks go into four different Knowledge skills, Appraise, Spellcraft and UMD.
Feats: Here's a thought. For two feats -- Skill Focus (Disguise) and Eldritch Heritage (rakshasa) -- he can get the rak bloodline's Silver Tongue ability, which adds +5 to Bluff checks made to lie and makes it very hard to force him to tell the truth. The feat tax makes this a bit pricey, but it's consistent.
That leaves two feats. I'm thinking Skill Focus (Perform:oratory) -- two +3 skill bonuses for the price of one -- and Spell Focus (Enchantment).
Most of his WBL (4,650 gp) is spent on the headband. I suppose we can spend the remainder on a masterwork rapier and a scroll or potion or two.
Spells: ist level (6x/day) Charm Person (DC 18), Disguise Self, Memory Lapse (DC 19), Undetectable Alignment
2nd level (5x/day) -- Allegro (for escapes), Charitable Impulse, Eagle's Splendor (of course), Hold Person (DC 19)
Thoughts?
Doug M.
Two thoughts. One, while the Court Bard archetype is a bit underpowered, it might be a good fit here. Satire and Mockery aren't really as good as Inspire Courage and Inspire Competence, but, okay, they are a good fit thematically -- he tears others down instead of building them up. And Heraldic Expertise will raise his Diplomacy to eye-watering levels -- +6 ranks + 3 skill focus + 3 Heraldic Expertise +6 Cha +3 class skill = +21. Under RAW that means he can auto-turn most Unfriendly creatures, and get most Indifferent ones to reveal secrets or give lengthy and complicated aid. And if he fails, he gets to reroll -- twice. That's all right.
Second, I think he'll trade 3 hp for three more first level spells known. The alternate favored class benefit for humans really is pretty sweet, and there are any number of useful first level spells.
In-game explanation of the archetype: possibly he's an embittered courtier? A royal bard wannabe, who for some reason or another didn't make the cut. Now he's a spy for hire -- that fits his high Disguise -- carrying out missions where a glib tongue and the ability to turn people friendly are more important than swords. He's still kinda bitter, though, and his first instinct is always to provide a comfortable berth for himself.
Doug M.
Has the spellsong feat been mentioned yet?
Also: hypnotism is an underrated spell, but you can implant certain requests that'll stay with that victim forever. I suggest starting with "don't fight my spells", and work from there.
Douglas Muir 406 wrote: Two thoughts. One, while the Court Bard archetype is a bit underpowered, it might be a good fit here. Satire and Mockery aren't really as good as Inspire Courage and Inspire Competence, but, okay, they are a good fit thematically -- he tears others down instead of building them up. And Heraldic Expertise will raise his Diplomacy to eye-watering levels -- +6 ranks + 3 skill focus + 3 Heraldic Expertise +6 Cha +3 class skill = +21. Under RAW that means he can auto-turn most Unfriendly creatures, and get most Indifferent ones to reveal secrets or give lengthy and complicated aid. And if he fails, he gets to reroll -- twice. That's all right.
Second, I think he'll trade 3 hp for three more first level spells known. The alternate favored class benefit for humans really is pretty sweet, and there are any number of useful first level spells.
In-game explanation of the archetype: possibly he's an embittered courtier? A royal bard wannabe, who for some reason or another didn't make the cut. Now he's a spy for hire -- that fits his high Disguise -- carrying out missions where a glib tongue and the ability to turn people friendly are more important than swords. He's still kinda bitter, though, and his first instinct is always to provide a comfortable berth for himself.
Doug M.
Regarding the Satire ability (having played it) in essence if there are more pcs than the enemy hit by the ability it is a net loss, if there are more enemies than pcs it is a net gain.
Essentially this single npc could hit the party with it and lingering performance and generally be better off than if he had inspire courage on himself.
It's an excellent archetype especially with a longspear, master performance and Flagbearer.
Those that would require 4 feats (Extra Performance, Lingering Performance, Master Performance, Flagbearer) or a 5th level bard but would give -3 on all pc attacks, damage and some saves, and they would have an additional +1 on theirs. Some spells would quite hard to resist (another reason Satire may be better than inspire courage) and their combat abilities would be 20% more advantageous than the pcs.
Oh and at later levels you can shape it too.
If you're going to spend a feat on skill focus, remember the focused study human alternative trait. The extra skill focus won't kick in till level 8 mind you...
Both spellsong and lingering performance are intriguing. (In fact, as I think about it, lingering performance is almost necessary, because both Satire and Mockery expire as soon as the performance stops. That's pretty ridiculous and really makes this archetype unattractive.)
Hypnotism, good point -- though it's nerfed a bit by the "brief and reasonable request" language.
Doug M.
Another Feat worth thinking about would be Voice of the Sibyl, especially if you think this baddie could get into mythic levels. This gets doubly fun if he goes down Eldrich Heritage (Maestro) for more bonuses to his language-dependant spells, though both of these options are only strong further down the line.
Flavor it how you will, but it might be interesting to give him a few Words of Power Friendship or Complex Order items, should they be available.
Don't think he'll be around at high levels. And EH (Maestro) needs three feats to get good.
Upon consideration, I think spellsong and lingering performance are too good to pass up. Spellsong lets him zap people while singing -- and nobody likely to spot him doing it, with his Perform -- while LP lets him debuff and then do other stuff. So, tossing out Skill Focus (Disguise) and EH (Rakshasa).
Doug M.
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