the campaign im currently running has a recurring villain in it, who has thus far been pretending to be somewhat friendly towards the PCs. she is the head of a major political party in the country their adventures have been taking place in.
anyway things are, im pretty sure, about to head towards open conflict between the party and the villain. she started life as a throwaway bit character, and has grown into a major factor in this section of the campaign - has been quite cool really.
i had decided as a spur of the moment thing that she would be a powerful vampire / sorcerer, mainly because i liked the charisma synergies.
neither the PCs nor the players know she is a vampire, and its generally a secret. she wields significant political power, but has never shown any other abilities - though the players presume her to be a wizard or sorcerer as the ruling council she is part of is supposedly made up entirely of spell-casters.
one of the PCs has a fair bit of influence with the military, so she may not rely too heavily on that aspect of government for her personal protection.
in her situation, as a reasonably powerful vampire / spellcaster / anything really, what would you do to protect yourself from vengeful adventuring parties?
though shes ambitious and paranoid, and does scry on the party, she has only moderate intelligence so her defenses shouldnt be too fiendishly all encompassing. i guess ultimately im looking for a memorable showdown with a fairly important NPC.
i'd expect APL of about 11 by the time this occurs, and they have managed APL+4 encounters in the past.
your inspiration appreciated :)
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Stay away from the party and teleport if they show up. Preferably with out them know she is there. There is no reason to stand your ground.
Hide your evil alignment and undead ness too
Run your evil plans in two locations far from each other.
Hire good people and lie to them about why they are doing things.
Planar binding to murder the adventurers families with an angel.
Pretend to be them to blacken their reputation. So people stop selling to them. Or they get arrested, or worse.
Who are her allies? As a vampire, she can always do the "battlefield promotion" thing, turning powerful warriors into bodyguards for her. Alternatively (and perhaps a better idea) she can just charm these guys, as they can protect her during the daytime. No matter how badass she is, a single vampire cannot match an entire party. Note that an allied evil cleric can give her some quick healing. I don't know if you can bolster or counter turning in Pathfinder, but if you can...
Backup doesn't just protect her, they also give her skills she doesn't have. She could even charm (magically or otherwise) allies in the military and every other aspect of the government. She could focus on low-level guys who can give her information rather than trying to rule everything.
Does she have combat experience?
Vampire weaknesses are well-known and crippling, so she should overprepare for those. Something that gives her immunity to sunlight is not out of the question. Same for being able to enter buildings, deal with running water, etc. IME, when PCs hear "vampire sorcerer" they only hear the first word and overfocus on those weaknesses, rather than the more reasonable "she doesn't have fire resistance" kind of thing.
She's immune to poison. With the right spells, she can turn any battle against her into a fight in clouds of poisonous gas. No Con damage for her!
Be a Mythic Vampire? It really is a game changer in terms of weaknesses. Or hey, be a level 20 Monk. :D
Definitely wear a custom magic ring that has a continuous protective penumbra spell on it.
Don't stand and fight. Remember your teleports and Mind Blank. Always have an escape plan. Hire a consultant to look for obvious flaws in your plans.
You are a powerful, ageless spellcaster. You'll win eventually.
From the players point of view. They have a nemesis that remains in play even after they discover her identity. Always there in the shadows pulling strings and plotting.
yeah, the best way is certainly not to fight at all. Use political ties to just have the PCs arrested. If they don't comply they will likely have to kill a few town guards and will then be wanted enemies of the state.
have many escape ways ready, Teleportation spells are your best bet, but a Vampire's gaseous form will do just fine in a pinch. This should pretty much shut down the PCs until they start using Dimensional Anchor, and you should at least get a single escape in before they wise up.
Beyond that, having minions and bodyguards around to help keep the heat off for a while is always a good idea.
If they already know she's a sorcerer, there isn't much a vampire can do that couldn't be explained away as a Sorcerer spell. I definitely agree on the "immune to poison" angle-- if the going gets tough, the tough drop Cloudkill and escape under cover of poison gas. It's not like the PC's will notice that the potion she's drinking is a potion of Inflict instead of Cure while they're under concealment and also suffocating.
Which deities have churches in this nation? Is there one with decent PR that's open-minded about undead? She could use her influence to cozy up to a few high-level clerics, make herself visible in the church community to cement her good reputation, and have a ready source of negative energy to escape to when she needs it.
Her best bet would be to figure out who the PCs would be most likely to try and recruit against her, and arrange it so that she's already in the process of sweet-talking him when they get to him.
First and foremost, I go out at night. Second off, persisted misdirection on a soul gem that contains the soul of some douchey LG Paladin type. I now detect as human, LG and mostly harmless. Alter self to appear as some kindly old codger.
I lie to good groups and get them to go hunt mc guffins for me. When they come back with my stuff, I drain them dry and start over. Burn the bodies. Raise them as spawn, if they're suited for it. I geass a guy to make my crap for me. First up, he makes a continuos use protective prenumbra. I carry wands with me: Create Undead, Prot Good, Haste, Black Tentacles. I have one level in Ranger, rest in Cleric. For Track and Favored Enemy (humans). My prepared spells are
1st: Prot Good, Sanctuary, Obscuring Mist, murderous command (enjoy that fall, Paladins heh)
2nd: Descrate. Spiritual Weapon. Grace (while I animate my undead minions and the party melee is powerless to attack me), Instrument of Agony to nauseate melee,
3rd: Animate dead. Bestow Curse. Dispel Magic. Prayer. Stone Shape. Enter Image.
4th: Air Walk (for my minions), Dismissal (for good summons), Divine Power, Spell Immunity. Blessing of Fervor.
5th: Plane Shift. Symbol of Sleep. Wall of Seeing (to divide and then eat enemies), Greater spell immunity. Fickle winds to make Zen Archers and other ranged characters WORTHLESS mwahahahahahahahaha
Deity:
Items: +3 unholy keen longsword with persisted invisibility on item itself, belt of physical might +6 STR/DEX, cloak of resistance, ring of FoM, ring of prot +5, amulent of natural armor +5, bracers of persisted protective prenumbra, boots of speed, glammered, undead controlling +4 mithral O-yoroi, Goz Mask (to see through my own obscuring mist) w/ command word greater invisibility... mask also has invisibility cast on it, headband of alluring charisma +6 (with +6 wisdom as well)
Tactics:
-Avoid direct confrontation. Rely on deception through nondetection/misdirection and alter self. Use minions or geas'd PCs to get my crap. When they return, nail them with CC spells. Give them some map or something that's scry'd. By the time they're back I'm fully buff'd with Grace, Sanctuary, Prot Good, Prayer, Desecrate, Spiritual Weapon and Air Walking minions. I drop a quickened Obscuring mist when they enter the door to my "humble abode". Pop the mask on and go to work. Easy targets go down first. I stick to non-combat actions like buffing my minions, healing them and debuffing party melee. If the minions start to lose, I take emergency measures.
I'm channeling negative energy at least once a turn with Quick Channel. I'm also wearing a phylactery of channel neg energy. If the smoke goes down I rely on Grace or Sanctuary.
If things start looking bad, I summon more minions. Focus on swarms of bats and rats with diseases. I cast black tentactles with a wand to nail melee. Start dropping curses on melee. If need be, I get my hands dirty and full attack.
Under 50 HP and I run with gaseous form back to my coffin, sure to come back and destroy the PCs in their sleep. I follow them with scry'd item, or if they find that out I send undead minions to stalk them. If need be I stalk them myself directly with my level in ranger.
I attack when the party is weakest. If they send a familiar ahead to scount alone, I kill it and drain its blood. If the wizard goes off on his own, I pop him like a tomato. I'm ruthless, and I don't care if I "kill the PCs".
My 2 copper, then again this is why people are always dropping from my games heh
Lair:
Somewhere nobody would suspect a vampire to live. Probably a cabin in the woods. It's setup like some kindly old man lives there. Not even an illusion, it's just setup that way. I have a well-hidden and invisible lever near the fireplace that obscures a staircase to my true lair -- a dank dungeon beneath the Earth.
It has numerous holding cells with persisted silence on them, where I keep my victims. It also has numerous traps on doors and fake treasure chests with insanity mist. My coffin is behind a holy altar, disguised to look like Sarenrae in the main room. I gaseous form past all the traps, which are triggered by pressure plates.
I have at least 3-4 ghouls. At least one is a wizard that makes me magical items and the other is a trapper Rogue, who both serve me unquestioningly.
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Step 1: read the evil overlord list.
Step 2: Don't get caught. Run a prison. eat the prisoners and then collect money for the "upkeep" of prisoners that aren't there. Double check not to eat anyone important. Its also a great excuse to have a few hundred well guarded, sunless rooms you can retreat to. They even come with their own minibars
Step 3: I will not have a coffin in an underground cave. Any peasant with even a reasonable facsimile of a turnip between his shoulders knows that a coffin lying around in the open means "vampire in the area". I will own several warehouses that specialize in shipping bath tubs, Osirion relics, giant planters, man sized safes, airtight barrels, and/or an upscale funeral home to explain a dozen or so multiple choice caskets
PC's are attracted to the unusual and valuable, be none of these things to all outward appearances and the NPC should be fine.
However if the pcs are on the NPC's case misdirection is a wonderful ploy, there are numerous examples previously but one I like is to have a 'fake weakness' with the intention that should the pcs try to exploit it then it will be counter-productive for them. Examples could include: the vampire must protect something, when in fact the location of the said thing is actually a trap or a specific 'magic sword' is their bane, however in reality it is merely a cursed weapon.
Have a weaker vampire created and pretend that they are the senior/stronger one, you can be sure the pcs will focus on that one should/when confrontation arises.
Have illusion magic as a significant part of their portfolio but pretend that they are a necromancer.
I could go on but also remember Divination is a tremendous asset to an NPC especially if the pcs know they will get encounters when they are at their weakest/most vulnerable. This will make them focus more on their defence rather than offence.
Don't engage in conflict at all. Give the PCs no reason to come after her. Don't do things like fund evil cults or blood banks or undead armies. Adventurers come and go. They tend to get themselves killed or wander off somewhere. Remain on their good side. And if you can aim them toward a rival whose plans are plain nasty and diabolical, they can do the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing. Really, why have a conflict at all?
Minions!
Have a divine caster with inflict spells, and perhaps a harm...
Have someone able to go out in sunlight to do my work during daytime...
Golems to take care of other casters trying to take my power...
Make sure my daytime resting place is secret
If CE a few levels of anti paladin works wonder for saves...
ALWAYS have darkness spells in memory, and nondetection running...
I've got a vampire villain in the works for my campaign, though the party's nowhere near far enough along to know about her yet. She's a long-running vampire sorceress elf who's been messing with world politics under different personas for centuries, because it's how she amuses herself. More recently she's decided to mess with the budding trade-nation that the campaign centers around by establishing a gathering of wealthy aristocrats and using their money to mess with the business landscape that the nation is centered around, vulture capitalism style.
As for protection, she wears a hat of shade for the most part, and has protective penumbra for a backup defense if the hat is lost. That said, she uses teleportation to travel without needing to go outside much, and mostly has emissaries do her work. It's rare that she meets anyone unimportant face to face, except at one of her lavish parties.
You would have a special 4 walled room with no doors where you keep your coffin. There would be very small holes in the walls that you use gaseous farm to travel through. This room of course is well stocked with anything you may need if you know you have a fight waiting for you once you leave (extra spellbooks, scrolls, potions, back up weapon, etc).
You would also have a tunnel system built leading from the town to your main place just in case you are out of spells and need to escape in daytime.
Of course, it would have been built centuries ago and every record of its existence is removed, including the people who built it.
Depending on your level you can get up to all kinds of shenanigans. Contingency, Permanency, Planar Binding and Simulacrum are your friends as an immortal sorcerer. You can take crafting feats too, bonus points for Craft Construct. I would be guarded by layers of Planar Bound outsiders, charmed guards, simulacri, Animated Objects, leadership minions, and paid thugs. I would pay for a permanent Deeper Darkness heightened to a 9th level spell item. And if I did have to live in a coffin for some reason you can bet that the coffin is an Animated Object that will burrow me to safety while I cast Summon Monster spells to cover my retreat.
Thoughts in no particular order:
1) Consider having or obtaining a Doppleganger ally/minion ... also known as a future fall guy if or when things start to unravel. Perfect Sunlight protection if you aren't the one getting out in the sun.
2) While not specifically listed consider linking the oft-mentioned protective penumbra spell to your lair with Unhallow. Consider placing said lair somewhere where such a spell (protective penumbra) might be consider normal or at least not highly suspicious such as around a temple/memorial to a moon/night deity etc..
3) Beware of scrying the party too much without a good reason above and beyond keeping an eye on a potential foe/personal reasons. Detect Scrying can be a nasty surprise to an unprepared foe. It was one of the first spells my Loremaster started to use as a daily, always on protection. And remember scrying sensors can be detected by a flat non-scaling DC. In other words have a plan in place if the party decides to confront you about spying on them. You were thinking of hiring them is a fairly obvious and flattering excuse.
4) Love BigNorseWolf's prison idea for a lair or go completely unexpected and place one of your coffins in plain sight. Thinking something along the lines of the tomb of someone famous where followers or pilgrims pay homage only you've now taken it for your own use. Naturally such a place is guarded and warded plus daily it has a nice supply of pilgrims errr hostages coming by to lay flowers/light candles or whatever if a fight erupts. Maybe it's some ancestor of yours (or even you back before you became a vampire :p) giving you reason to be seen there and have a vested interest in its protection. Bonus points if you hire the party (see #3 above) to help with some problem associated with your tomb. The irony of them discovering they've been protecting your coffin ...
i would use illusions to make my really high ac snake style monk buddy look like me, make me look like a low level mook, and make a low-level-mook look like him. bonus points for making your army look undead so they jump on that weakness. even better if you illusion up constructs as anything they expect to have trash saves so they waste stuff on it. As for hiding your coffin i really like the famous crypt deception ideas Kayerloth had :)
Thralls, Contingency, Dorns Instant Fortress
Greater simulacrum of pre vampire days. Also sorcerer. Let them be the usual contact with people.
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Use divinations to feed exclusively on evil people. Not because you're a "good vampire," but because nobody shows up to avenge a jerk.
(That "swap undead appearances with a living minion" idea has its perks, but be careful to stand outside the cleric's spontaneous-channeling range or you'll give the game away by bursting into flame. ;)
Lincoln Hills wrote: Use divinations to feed exclusively on evil people. Not because you're a "good vampire," but because nobody shows up to avenge a jerk.
(That "swap undead appearances with a living minion" idea has its perks, but be careful to stand outside the cleric's spontaneous-channeling range or you'll give the game away by bursting into flame. ;)
Yeah, that would suck, but if you can just go invisible (as its a lvl 2 spell that does not break with spellcasting and can be quickened) they HOPEFULLY wont notice. it might hurt though...
Also, the eating only evil people thing is brilliant. Becoming a famed assassin under a psuedo-name would be great for extorting the other big bad evil persons into helping you kill the heroes.
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