Mythic Kingmaker: Grigori needs an upgrade!

[kadance]

Running a mythic KM and approaching the end of vol. 1. As I plan out and restat encounters in RRR (Kundal the Dire Were-Wolverine!), I find myself stuck on Grigori. He's great fun and all, and the last time I ran KM he was a real challenge, but this time, with this new group of players, I"m thinking he needs beefing up.

My thoughts so far are:

1) Re-train the bard levels to sorcerer. I just don't see him getting a lot of mileage out of bard spells and abilities compared to 3rd level sorcerer spells and bloodline powers. Focusing on spells that influence crowds and get him out of trouble, like he already has.

2) Use Grigori as the face of an underground organization (somewhere between the foot clan and the mafia...) hired by the same forces as written for the same purpose.

Any ideas for optimizing this encounter?

[pennywit]

My mythic players steamrolled Grigori when they encountered him. I had upgraded him a little bit, but clearly not enough. If I had to redo the encounter, here's what I would do:

Storywise, Grigori would no longer be a Pitax spy. Instead, he would be a roving agent for Nyrissa. This would give him a more interesting role in the story, and it would justify beefing him up quite a bit.

Next, I would keep Grigori a bard, but I would bump up his level a bit, possibly as high as 10th or 11th, and I would give him the demagogue archeype. The next thing I would do is give him the Spellsong feat, allowing him to surreptitiously cast bard spells.

I would swap out some of his bard spells for spells designed to humiliate the PCs and sow discord. Fumbletongue is a good spell, as is Malicious Spite. I'd also give him spells that incapacitate the PCs, but don't kill them (i.e., Hold Person).

Then, I would give Grigori somewhere between three and four mythic tiers in Trickster. I'd give him path abilities like No One of Consequence and (this one is vital) Display of Charisma.

Finally, I'd change the circumstances of Grigori's initial encounter with the PCs. I'd run it as a 4E-style skill challenge, where they need to beat Grigori on opposed Diplomacy checks or else their kingdom suffers unrest. And instead of staying there for days, Grigori would pop up maybe once every couple months to stir up the people.

All of this makes Grigori an unbeatable foe, right? Of course it does! That's the point. At least for most of RRR, the players will have to deal with Grigori in some way OTHER than "stab him with a sword until he falls down."

Since Grigori is now an agent of Nyrissa, rather than a simple spy from Pitax, his job is not just to destabilize the PCs' kingdom, but also to incite the various baddies (trolls, barbarians, lesser faeries, Pitax, and evil mimes) that trouble the PCs throughout the AP.

Important thing: Whenever the PCs deal with a major foe, make sure they can detect Grigori's hand in it somewhere. Also, make sure Grigori always has an escape plan of some sort and that he always does something to humiliate the PCs when he appears.

By the time the players get to the final confrontation, they will really, REALLY want to kill Grigori.

Also ..... make him French.

[Dragonchess Player]

Note that Gigori was never intended to be a challenge to the PCs in a stand-up fight. The encounter is set up for a non-combat challenge where the PCs have to influence public opinion, not beat up ("Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!") a rabble rouser.

[pennywit]

That's true enough. That's also why I think it's worth giving him a few enchantments along with Spellsong. In my group, he got off a nifty little enchantment against my gruop's barbarian ... then that barbarian promptly turned around and intimidated a clerk into robbing the kingdom treasury.

[Dragonchess Player]

Making him mythic detracts (IMO) from the mythic rules in general. Mythic should be added rarely, not shoehorned in as a common occurrence. Add an extra level or two of bard and boost his Bluff and Diplomacy a bit (for the opposed checks); possibly through a magic item (circlet of persuasion) and/or the spell glibness (an elixer in a hip flask, perhaps?).

[pennywit]

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Making him mythic detracts (IMO) from the mythic rules in general. Mythic should be added rarely, not shoehorned in as a common occurrence. Add an extra level or two of bard and boost his Bluff and Diplomacy a bit (for the opposed checks); possibly through a magic item (circlet of persuasion) and/or the spell glibness (an elixer in a hip flask, perhaps?).

I can see that POV. Over in my campaign, the players steamrolled him because the queen had Display of Charisma and used it liberally. Very difficult for Grigori to beat somebody with a +30 bonus on her Diplomacy rolls.

[Dragonchess Player]

pennywit wrote:

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Making him mythic detracts (IMO) from the mythic rules in general. Mythic should be added rarely, not shoehorned in as a common occurrence. Add an extra level or two of bard and boost his Bluff and Diplomacy a bit (for the opposed checks); possibly through a magic item (circlet of persuasion) and/or the spell glibness (an elixer in a hip flask, perhaps?).

I can see that POV. Over in my campaign, the players steamrolled him because the queen had Display of Charisma and used it liberally. Very difficult for Grigori to beat somebody with a +30 bonus on her Diplomacy rolls.

At that point you congratulate your players for making well-rounded characters and not just concentrating on combat-effectiveness. Still, using glibness (+20 on all Bluff checks to make people believe you for 10 min/level) and Bluff vs. Diplomacy opposed checks evens things out a bit (Display of Charisma is +20 on a single check per use of mythic power) without requiring Grigori to be mythic.

[kadance]

Very nice suggestions, Pennywit! I think I'll stick with Bard, but it's a toss-up between celebrity and demagogue, and Spellsong is, indeed, a must.

So far, all the mythic opponents in my AP are either agents of N. or legendary beasts. In fact, the player's mythic power was stolen from N. by the intervention of Erastil when they killed her agent (a mythic fae bear) at the Temple of the Elk. This stems from her need to keep the lands her essence has been dispersed into wild and the inherent conflict with Erastil's interests in taming said lands.

I’m using Orthos’s rings idea to mark N.’s agents.

Without a bit more survivability on Grigori’s part, I’m fairly certain at least one of my players will, with one stroke, murder him in a dark alley/his bed/in broad daylight before the eyes of all the children in the kingdom.

[Orthos]

My Grigori was multiclassed a few levels in Rogue for access to the Rogue talents Obfuscate Story and Steal the Story. Sadly my Grigori, while having the same Diplomacy and Bluff modifiers as my Ruler, rolled very poorly while she rolled very well.

Glibness was a tactic I forgot to make use of and would remember to add should I try this event again.

[kadance]

After careful review I've decided on

Grigori:

Grigori CR 10
Male Half-Elf Court Bard-11 (trained at the Pitax: Academy of Grand Arts)
CN Medium humanoid (human, elf)
Init +2; Senses Perception +8, Low-Light Vision

Defense
AC 21, Touch 13, Flat-Footed 19 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +1 shield, +1 deflection, +1 natural armor)
hp 64 (11d8+11)
Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +7; +4 bonus on saving throws made against bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects.

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +9/+4 rapier +1 (1d6+1/18-20)
Ranged +11 Mwk Shortbow (1d6/x3)
Special Attacks Bardic Performance (move action, 80'cone/50'-rad, 51 rnds/day)
Countersong, Distraction, Fascinate (4 targets, DC 19, ench(comp)/[M-A]), Satire (AOE, -3 Attack, Damage, v. fear, v. charm), Mockery (1 target, -4 Cha checks), Suggestion (DC 19, must be Fascinated), Glorious Epic (DC 19, foes become flat-footed), Inspire Greatness (+2d10 HD, +2 comp. Attack, +1 comp Fort)

Bard Spells
Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +12)
4th (3/day, DC 18) - Denounce, Dimension Door, Dominate Person
3rd (5/day, DC 17) - Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Glibness, Malicious Spite
2nd (5/day, DC 16) — Blindness/Deafness, Detect Thoughts, Eagle's Splendor, Enthrall, Honeyed Tongue
1st (6/day, DC 15) — Charm Person, Disguise Self, Fumbletongue, Innocence, Vanish, Windy Escape
0 (at will) — Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation, Read Magic

TACTICS
Grigori immediately begins using his thickly french-accented Satire ability to impose a -3 penalty to his opponents attack and damage rolls. He also makes liberal use of dirty tricks to impose blinded, dazzled, deafened, entangled, shaken, or sickened conditions. Against martial targets he will try Dominate and Charm person while also employing Combat Expertise. Arcane casters are usually subjected to Blindness/Deafness. Finally, Dimension Door and Vanish are used to escape any combat that seems remotely lethal.

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 18
Base Attack Bonus +8/+3;
CMB +8 (Dirty Tricks +12, no Attack of Opportunity, lasts 1d4+1/5 over CMD rnds, standard action to remove condition)
CMD 20 (22 v. Dirty Tricks)

Feats Spellsong, Skill Focus (Bluff), Extra Performance x2, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Combat Expertise (-3 Atk/+3 ac), Improved Dirty Trick, Greater Dirty Trick

Skills
Bluff +27
Diplomacy +27
Escape Artist +16
Knowledge (history) +13
Knowledge (local) +13
Knowledge (nobility) +13
Linguistics +9
Perception +7
Perform (Oratory) +21
Perform (Sing) +21
Sense Motive +13

Languages Common, Hallit, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan

SQ
Heraldic Expertise (re-roll Knowledge(history/local/nobility) 3/day)

Gear
potion of cure moderate wounds (2),
potion of undetectable alignment (3),
potion of reduce person (2),
scroll of sound burst,
scroll of greater invisibility,
caltrops,
+2 chain shirt,
masterwork buckler,
+1 rapier,
Mwk shortbow with 20 arrows,
ring of protection +1,
Amulet of Natural Armor +1,
Cloak of Resistance +1,
Circlet of Persuasion,
disguise kit,
buckler
18gp