So a very serious work injury has left me out of work for 2 months. Having mostly caught up on my TV and book backlog (and being unable to game due to severed nerves/tendons until healed) I decided to start work on my next campaign (current one only has about 3 months left and is basically done on my part).
So my BBEG is essentially an ancient Strigoi or as close as one can come. I have his appearance and theme down (grey skin, a "sharper" Voldemort face, ancient tattoos and crimson robes with gold jewelry) and his class (qiqong monk to really drive his overwhelming strength and powers home. Question is: how should I Vamp him up? I plan to use mythic mostly as a post 20 thing, and want to try to keep its inclusion.
The main options I was considering are: Mythic Dread Vamp, Mythic Nosferatu or just plain Mythic. But would mythic work well enough for dread or a Nosferatu? There's clearly a few issues and some overlap. I was also perhaps considering Nosferatu/Dread with a mythic path if there would be too many issues with mythic vamp. Overall just looking for done feedback with the best or smoothest way to make this big old baddie.
Well, I guess it depends on what you want to focus on. Do you want to drive home his incredibly developed martial skill, his supernatural powers, or more of his ancient might and unkillable nature?
Is he more a Bram Stomer's Dracula, or Hellsing Ultimate Alucard?
Inspiration comes from equal parts penny dreadful and skyrocket DLC. I want something monstrous and powerful and ancient. An elder evil in the world. The focus is more on his inherent strength, not discipline. I want him to be hulking and intimidating and to not need weapons. His vampire traits fall somewhat secondary to that (if that makes sense).
Working in advance on this. I disabled 3 of my fingers so I'm bored out of my mind and starting work on my next campaign.
That said I have a party of six, maybe seven, so it's a safe bet they'll have most bases covered.
Well, if you give him a sort of customized Mythic Build you could easily do that. Maybe use Fleet Warrior, Impossible Speed, and Panther Style (dress it up more as unnatural speed and reflexes and less disciplined martial skill) to allow him to move about rapidly and strike rapidly. Add in the ability from the Guardian path to deflect attacks, and a shadow-step style ability to let him essentially Dimension Door in a swarm of bats.
Not actually familiar with either of the sources you mentioned, but just my ideas on a brutal monster type.
Funny enough, I had a Monk Vampire of my own as a BBEG. If you were interested for his build as a comparison, here's my old one.
Now I went the mythic Vampire route, rather than a mythical BBEG who happens to be vampire. I did so for a few reasons. First, the blood claws and multiple negative levels a round were super cool and I could(via feral combat training) integrate them into a flurry of blows for lots of attacks. Secondly, having a supernatural source of magical darkness that is up to a mile away is super terrifying at early levels to PCs. Lastly, I emphasised defense so getting the mythic creature template(which adds your rating to your natural armor) pushed his already stellar AC into the 80s. For the record, my PCs didn't ever beat him in combat(they sorta sidestepped him at the end) but he was quite capable at taking on both parties.
Now if you were trying to make a more offensive build... I think that making a straightforward mythic NPC would be better. The more mythic power, path abilities, and other useful kit gets you what you would want better than any of the mythic monster template would(besides agile, that's just amazing).
Thanks for the feedback. That monk build and other ideas greatly helped me flesh the BBEG out. And since it was mentioned: Dread Vampire is an improved vampire from the utterly incredible advanced bestiary, a mythical 3rd party tome used frequently by Paizo themselves for their APs.
So ultimately I think I'll go Mythic Dread Vampire. There's a little overlap (dread already gets rid of or reduces most weaknesses and sunlight now just deals damage each round) but that can somewhat easily be ignored or gotten around (dread gives magic flight at half speed so I can use the mythic flight and claws as manifestations of his true power).
To describe him a little as a character, he's a Strigoi (in PF all vampires are descended from a race known as the Strigoi) who secretly guided and ruled much of ancient Osirion and founded their obsession with undeath. He was also a prominent member of the Whispering Way before that. He's a rival to Tar Baphon in might. In ancient times he was defeated and his remains, followers and necropolis disappeared. In truth powerful magic transported it to below the mountains of the frozen north.
The basic plot is survivors of his cult manage to sacrifice a hero above his ashes and revive him. He immediately spreads his influence and the PCs get involved at the edge where they end up working with vampire slayers after discovering an Ustalav vampire plot.