Hello everyone, first time poster, long time creeper.
I need some advice on making a BBEG Lieutenant homebrew campaign, I have an idea for a Nightcrawler (X-Men) type of assassin and would like some help/input/advice.
Again, this is for a homebrew campaign and I will be mixing and matching to create this character. It is by no means RAW but I houserule a few things and my PC’s have no issue with it.
Long story short (or shorter at least), The PC’s are on an epic quest to stop the reforming/resurrection of an ancient evil that could destroy the entire lane. This creature was previously stopped by a powerful weapon that was forged by the Dwarves and enchanted by the Elves, long before Mankind ever walked those lands. The weapon broke into seven different pieces when it was last used to stop this great evil and now the PC’s are on a quest to find the Shards of the God-Piercer.
This great evil has Four main lieutenants with varying characteristics and styles. Each is somewhat bound to their personality and traits as those type of individuals, they are: The Knight (an Anti-Paladin, the first one they encountered, not a big thinker, his idea of serving was standing guard in front of one of the shards to protect it), The Fool (a modified Bogey Man with demonic traits and immunities, uses Fear to destroy enemies, bound by his foolishness and love of drama/showmanship). The Sorcerer (the PC’s first encountered him when they found one of the shards and were told to speak with this person about them, The Sorcerer is in the guise of a noble lord who runs a museum and tells the party he wishes them to seek out the shards for him as part of a “History Exhibit”, He will probably be the final lieutenant they finally take on, and The Assassin… which is what brings me to this thread here.
Now as previously stated, they are all bound by who/what they are and all serve their master in different ways because of it. The Sorcerer goes to great lengths and comes up with schemes, using the PC’s as his unknowing tools while the Fool kidnapped a party ally and made the party come after him in his Horror-House (think Joker meets Scarecrow) and makes a big scene and show about it.
This Assassin, let’s say has been following the party for months, observing them. The time will soon come when this creature makes his move and I need some help on finalizing him.
The Assassin will most likely be a Tiefling with the tail that can grab items (archetype or trait) so as to have the Kurt Wagner feel to it. I’m thinking of having him Rog 5/Ass 10 as the PC’s will probably be around LVL 11 when they fight him and I need him to be able to sneak attack/flank against ALL PC’s or it just won’t seem like a boss fight. The problem I am having is determining if this is balanced and/or too difficult or too easy for the party. What things should be removed, what should be added, etc. I belive he should have special abilities for the Demonic essence and for his Assassin for The Great Beast status.
TIEFLING, MALE ROGUE: 5/ ASSASSIN: 10 BAB: 10
STATS: (call it a combination of good rolls, 4-level bonuses and magic items)
STR: 18 DEX: 30 CON: 16 INT: 18 WIS: 16 CHA: 21
FEATS:
Dodge, TWF, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Kukri), Double Slice, Improved TWF, Blind Fight, Critical Focus, Exotic Weapon Proficiency – Kukri (Bonus Feat, call it an archetype or trait)
Rogue Tricks:
Fast Stealth, Combat* Two Weapon Defense
Special Talents:
Death Attack, Poison Use, 51 save bonus vs. poison, Hidden Weapons, True Death, improved Uncanny Dodge, Quiet Death, Hide in Plain Sight, Swift Death, Angel of Death, Trapfinding, Evasion, Sneak Attack 8d6
Defense: HP: 150 (sounds good, yes?)
AC: 29 (armor is modified Celestial Armor – into Aklo Armor) (armor +9, Dex + 8, dodge +1, Two weap def +1 = 29
SR: 24? DR: 10/Good
Immunities: Acid, Disease, Death Effects, poison
Resist: Acid 10, Fire 10, Elec 10
Offense:
+3 Keen Kukris (2)
+22/+22, +17/+17 (1d4 +7) plus 8d6 Sneak Attack (crit 15-20/x2)
Mwk Composite Short Bow +4
+1 arrows.
Speed:
Move 30’ *BAMF* 60’? 100’? w/in eyesight? (cannot be used with any feats to allow movement and attack outside of move action, standard action, when used as full round action may *BAMF* up to 3 times but no attacks whatsoever)
Is this too much? How far should his *BAMF* movement be?I like this type of movement (similar to cape of mountebank) and I like the idea of it as a move action rather than dimension door/teleport as standard action because it allows him to move a great distance very quickly and still get a single attack in w/o allowing full attacks)
SPELLS PER DAY/SPELL LIKE ABILITIES: This is where i feel i am having the hardest time in determining what spells should be at will, constant, 5x, 3x per day, etc or what spells should be included or not. So far I have…
CONSTANT: See Invisibility, Detect Magic, Spider Climb
AT WILL: Obscuring Mist, Invisibility, Ghost Sound, Alter Self/Disguise, Greater Teleport, Telepathy (100’)
5x Per Day: Deeper Darkness, Shield
3x Per Day: Haste, Gaseous Form
I think that pretty much sums up what I’m going for. Again, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m afraid that this might be too much for the party to handle.
They are Rogue: 11, Barbarian 11, Sorcerer 10, and two NPC's that they choose to take with them that i control (will most likely be Cleric of Athena -war/knowledge, and either Ftr3/Pal8 or Ranger 11.
I plan on having them dealing with a bandit lord who agrees to allow them to leave for a small price and takes them to the mess hall to draw up the paperwork but they walk in and see all the badit lord's men face down in their broth with their throats slit. Then about 6-8 Red Mantis Assassin pop out and start attacking; after about 3 rounds of fight, the Assassin makes his move and goes for a Death Attack.
Let me know what you think.
Magus 13/Rogue 2/Trickster 2. Give him Spell Blending. Damnation Stride IS Bamf, it would be a sin not using it.
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Ninja 11/Horizon Walker 3 using the Dimensional Agility line of feats. The worst is there's 2 really good uses of the swift action...one to add an attack using a ki point, and the other is to actually use dimension door and still full attack.
However, the ability to dimension door 8ish times per day and still full attack on those turns is pretty cool. And RAW...houserule to flavor...
I like it. It allows him to BAMF by RAW however, I really want to keep him as an assassin as this will be the first assassin the party will encounter and they already know of him as an assassin. I also really like the idea of him being able to BAMF as
a move action. (think of it as flavored flying). More like the Age of Apocalypse nightcrawler... a killer as opposed to a swashbuckling hero.
Switch his Dex and str and go with 6th level ranger(two weapon fighting) 9 the level crimson assassin. You get 2 favored enemy ,1 favored terrain, 2 weapon feats and all sawtooth saber goodness plus a good spell list.
I always saw him as a Bard. This would also give him the ability to cast Dimensional Door (and thus access to the dimensional feat chain), not to speak about other interesting spells like Bladed Dash. A Bard/Assassin could be a fascinating combination.
Maybe with some Diabolist levels for Infernal Transport and an imp on his shoulder?
As written, your boss has all the loots every optimized player would want on a character like that. You're building a boss, not an optimized PC. I don't think it needs "celestial armor". Also remember, class levels are stronger than monster HD for the most part.
Consider a Spell Dancer Magus if you want a super mobile antagonist. Take Hellcat stealth and/or Shadow Dancer 1. ACG - Swashbuckler 5 / Magus 9 / SD 1 would be quite strong, give you flexibility on movement, damage types and not weird out CR calculations by tacking on perma at-will G.teleports to a boss made with class levels. Don't bother with metamagic feats, you don't want to insta-kill a party member every round. Drop SD for Ninja or Assassin to get poison use, and you can have some fun with that in melee also.
If you want to keep the rogue/assassin levels, I'd swap out teifling for baubau or a Lilin (3rd party devil) to get the G.Teleports at a CR appropriate tier. As it stands, a 15 class level Tiefling with that many at-wills is a higher CR than calculated as only 15 class levels.
Here's what I came up with for Nightcrawler. Remember, assassin is a profession in game, not a class. A fighter, a wizard or a cleric can all be "assassins" as far as your party is concerned. He's not 100% done(didn't include every monk ability, or go through all the qi-gong potential), but most the important details are here.
I wasn't sure where you pulled your number from so I did a 25 point buy, which is far less than what was posted. Since he was a boss I gave him max hit points/hit dice.
Tiefling (Asura Spawn) Qi Gong Monk 13/Shadowdancer 2
Values in paranthesis are fully buffed with Barkskin, mages armor, Cats Grace, Owls Wisdom, Greater Magic Fang +5, Haste and Displacement
S: 10
D 24 (26)
C: 14
I: 11
W: 20 (22)
C: 7
Speed: 90
Initiative: +9 (+10)
Hit Points: 163
AC: 10 + Dex 7 (8) + Wis 5 (6) + Monk 4 + NA 1 (6) + Mage Armor (4) + Dodge 1 + Haste (1) + deflection +1 29 (41) + 50% miss chance
Touch: 28 (31)
FF'd: 21 (31)
Attacks: 19/19/14/14/9 2d8+7
Buffed: 26/26/26/21/21/16 2d8+13
Attacks count as +5 and cold iron for the purpose of dr
Stunning Fist DC: 22 (23) 13/day
Saves:
Fort: 13
Ref: 18 (19)
Will: 16 (17)
Skills:
Stealth: 31 (32) He can sneak in anywhere, but takes a -10 when doing so in bright light.
Racial
Scaled Skin: +1 NA and resist cold 5
Maw: Bite attack 1d6 damage
Prehensile Tail
Skilled
Darkvision 90
+2
Feats
Weapon Finesse
Dimensional Agility
Dimensional Assault
Dimensional Dervish
Dimensional Savant
Skill focus (Stealth)
Hellcats Stealth
Dodge
Mobility
Combat Reflexes
Dampen Sense
Stunning Fist
Traits:
Accelerated Drinker
Reactionary
Special:
Improved Evasion
Uncanny dodge
Immune to poison and disease
Slow Fall 60
Hide in Plain sight
Ki Pool: 11/11
Barkskin switched for wholeness of body
Abundant Step
Equipment
Belt of Dex 4000
Headband of Wis 4000
Amulet of mighty fist Agile 4000
Monk Robes: 13000
Wand of Mage Armor: 750
Ring deflection +1 2000
Cloak of resist +2
Boots Of Speed
Potions
Cats Grace
Owls Wisdom
Displacement
Greater Magic Fang +5
Over heroic NPC wealth by 3100
He spends his first three rounds buffing by drinking potions, using his tail in round 1 to pull out a potion that he can use accelerated drinker on in round 2. At round 4 he is fully buffed and ready to come out with dimensional assault. Remember he counts as flanking from all squares he attacks from and can flank with himself. If the red mantis agents aren't dealt with the party will be in serious trouble. He could do this from roughly 400 feet away and teleport back there. He has 10 ki left (after barkskin) and 10 rounds of haste. If you want him to be recurring, after 8 rounds he can easily use his remaining resources to flee.
Obviously things can be changed to deal with your party specifics, but this is one scary guy, and comes in at an actual CR 14 character unlike what you posted, which is probably closer to a 16 or 17. He is 100% raw legally, though he's 3100 gold over on Heroic NPC wealth. I'd probably like to add a ring of featherfall too. Even though he has slowfall, I feel he should featherfall as well, and may even qigong out slowfall. If I wanted to beef him up I'd wave the shadow dancer requirements and pick him some different feats. I'd also like to ultimately take 2 ranks in the feat fiend sight to gain see in darkness (now hes getting really BAD) and the feat grasping tail (because it fits the character).