Hello, mighty Paizo forums! I've heard rumors about this board, some bad but mostly good, but never had a reason to visit you veterans and newbies alike until now!
(There's a TL;DR section at the very end of this paragraph for the actual request itself, but I recommend reading the other stuff too, to grant you a firmer grasp of the situation)
Bit of a backstory with the game I'm in, to help it all make sense: I'm currently playing in a "Monster" campaign with a bunch of friends. We're all (mostly) responsible adults ranging from young 20s to 30s, and get together online every Sunday to blow off some steam and have fun; we affectionately name our campaign "The <Fecal Matter> Show". Replace <> as appropriately.
Regardless, whilst it's a light hearted campaign with a very important primary focus on "FUN" in all caps, there's a twist... being that every single character are of the stuff of nightmares. Nightmares from regular, responsible, and fair players.
For example, we have a Harpy in our group. This particular Harpy has a firearm. A little bit strange and out of place, since gunpowder weaponry is just recently emerging, but she doesn't have just any old firearm. She has what is equivalent to a modern day, fully automatic rifle with four distinct firing modes which may or may not include adding elemental damage dies to her attack. With a silencer. Aaaand a scope.
We also have a Half Dragon... something. Classes aren't really regulated in our group (we have everything from Paizo published to 3.5 homebrew converted to Pathfinder to just completely made up crap), as well as other labels such as alignments and what not (we're all veteran roleplayers and extremely comfortable with each other). Anyways, this Half Dragon has the power to capture and utilize souls of different lifeforms... and one of his abilities is complete immunity to all magical effects. All.
Aaand let's not forget the Aaismar-Orc, who is the Chieftain and sits at the head of an Orcish army, having united all the individual Orc clans and tribes. Though a recent battle cut the numbers down severely, we're still looking at 150 Orcs at her disposal.
I think you get the point I'm trying to make! All the ridiculous things aside, we've been having a lot of fun and tacking on some choice bits from the "Creating New Races" page from the d20pfsrd onto our characters - the average party RP value sits somewhere between 25 and 30.
My old character was an Orc Scarred Witch Doctor, a full Constitution-primary caster, who also had Fly, Invisibility, Haste, Enlarge Person and Cure Light Wounds as At-Will Spell Like Abilities. Probably the laziest character out of all of the colorful cast, but I thought I had a good thing going, and abused the game mechanics very liberally - infinite heals and Haste, CON-casting primary, and a DC 24 Slumber Hex at level 6.
Buuuuuut, surprisingly, my character has been under performing the past few sessions, especially when he gets caught alone. So, being one of the only two people to have yet swap out their character, I decided it was time to change... but alas!
My grand scheme of playing a Machinesmith with a giant medieval wagon-tank has been temporarily foiled, mostly because I didn't want to add yet another "tech" or "Science based" theme to the group.
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TL;DR
So then, here I am, completely at a lost! I am in dire need of fresh ideas to throw at my stagnating imagination; the only criteria is that it needs to be mechanically solid, not infinite-damage-d2-crusader or gamebreakingly so, but enough to make your regular players, much less GMs (or DMs), shudder and throw up in disgust! I unfortunately don't have much experience in this regard, with that Orc Witch thing mentioned above the fullest extent of my foray into this gray territory.
Not exactly looking for a specific build, but I would welcome those too to see what you used to make a specific concept work. You can get away with most anything, including Psionics (though its probably a last resort, since I would be the only Psionic in the entire game) - I'm mainly looking for 3rd party material* usually tossed to the side or avoided due to how inherently weird or unbalanced they are to draw ideas from.
That secret abomination you mashed together with the lights out and internet disconnected? The horrifying creation you dreamed up in your mind by accident one day? Or a carefully crafted monstrosity you kept in the deepest, darkest depths of your heart, too ashamed to let the day of light shine upon it? Let them loose! (Please!)
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Edit: * By 3rd party I mean outside the usual Paizo published. This may also include Pathfinder homebrew, actual 3rd Party Published such as the famous Dreamscarred Press, or 3.5 stuffs - official, dragon magazine, homebrew, 3rd party, most anything would be fine!
Edit 2 : It is worth mentioning that the insanity you see is mostly intended. All giggling and jokes aside, the core of the game is to have a bunch of powerful individuals clash with titanic forces, either a singular powerful, deity-like being, or a clash between two armies.
Everything is better with Driders and Aboleths. And dragons, but that may be a little bit too sane for your game.
Be an Aboleth with a Constant Seamantle Spell-like Ability, or better yet, riding in a modified Steam Giant filled with water as a fishbowl on legs! For personality, I'd play it all cutesy and nice ("Sugoi, Aboleth-kun!") just for added silliness and to break expectations, although the occasional lapse of "Fear my land-dwelling might, mortals!" wouldn't be amiss. You might want to learn Common, too... or Dominate everyone else and make them learn Aboleth!
Or perhaps a Drider who fancies themselves as Spiderman?
Your game sounds like a blast.
I don't know how helpful this by itself is, but let me at least say that if I were in this game, I might consider breaking out my 2nd-Edition AL-QADIM Sha'ir's Handbook and cook up a Pathfinder update of one of the several cool-as-hell alternative Wizard kits found therein. Even if I missed out on 2nd Edition outside of the computer games, I consider the Sha'ir's Handbook to be one of the most outstanding jewels of my sprawling book collection - well worth getting!
Hmm, excellent suggestions, one and all. However, someone's already beaten me to the punch with the Drider - who is currently missing and being mistaken for as a mop of new, growing hair on the Forest Giant's previously bald dome, after a natural 20 Stealth check...
The monster equivalent of a Goldfish in a Mechanized Fishbowl sounds like a highly interesting concept, however! I may be able to figure something out with that one!
And as for the Wizard Kits, they look amazing. Especially the Digitalogist. You see, mathematics -is- magic! I have a feeling I might stick with that one. There's a certain charm to a Monster in a Monster Campaign defeating fellow creatures of darkness and brave adventurers alike with the power of equations!
Now the rest of you, don't be shy now, speak up! Reveal your most horrid desires and your guiltiest dreams!
Rigge wrote: Hmm, excellent suggestions, one and all. However, someone's already beaten me to the punch with the Drider - who is currently missing and being mistaken for as a mop of new, growing hair on the Forest Giant's previously bald dome, after a natural 20 Stealth check...
The monster equivalent of a Goldfish in a Mechanized Fishbowl sounds like a highly interesting concept, however! I may be able to figure something out with that one!
And as for the Wizard Kits, they look amazing. Especially the Digitalogist. You see, mathematics -is- magic! I have a feeling I might stick with that one. There's a certain charm to a Monster in a Monster Campaign defeating fellow creatures of darkness and brave adventurers alike with the power of equations!
Now the rest of you, don't be shy now, speak up! Reveal your most horrid desires and your guiltiest dreams!
X is Magic. Spellcasters loving science and math. If it weren't for trademark laws ...
... and dear Gorum I just had an idea. The creature all the rest of the party fears:
Human.
Sure, bolt on a few extras, maybe a little GM generosity, but have it all in a medium-sized human-subtype package. Hell, just see what your GM thinks of you running one, but with all 18s (except for a 20 for racial adjustment), or whatever it'd take to catch up to the others if need be. Not quite sure about the other personalities in the group but I find the idea of some human just hanging out with this mess to be amusing.
I'm sure there's SOME kind of gamebreaking thing you can do with those fleshbags.
Podspawned and Young templates... -3CR when you lose spellcasting...
Go druid, put everything into your animal companion...
Take 'eye for talent'...
There is an archetype, don't recall which, where you can trade out most of your spellcasting/SLA/SU stuff...
Feat: Huntmaster (Human).
Basically, a child is raised by an evil druid cult, gains animal companion (which is one level higher than them due to the feat), trained in their archetype that sacrifices most of their divine power... then fed to a plant monster!
All told, you will have an animal companion FOUR LEVELS HIGHER than the rest of the group.
Your character should focus on stealth and armor class, or use the animal companion as a mount.
Looks like an innocent child, actually evil duplicate that is far more powerful than it seems. :D
Animal companion: Cat-small. Black furred panther, call him 'Night Stalker' or something...
Used ranged weapons, heck, use poison (coat yourself in it, you're immune).
I want to be a Ghul Lord, personally - and I've done extensive work on making an updated Clockwork Mage.
Thanks for your help everyone! With the recent release of Occult Adventures, I got just what I needed - an Elemental Astetic that punches allies to heal (and Styles twisted in for even more punch gimmicks) ;D
He will always quote randomly made up philosophical-sounding sentences that makes no sense ("Hey what should we do about the prisoner?" "As the sun rises in the distant sea; the blind man sees ever more.").
I have a whole bunch of ideas for this new guy, and I haven't even settled in on a race yet! Anyways, thanks for all the help and creative ideas, especially the Wizard Kits from the Sha'ir Handbook (you'll be pleased to know the Sha'ir Eastern mysticism theme appears as an Archetype Option for the Occultist class). I'll definitely keep those in reserve!
Cheers!
A barbarian giant that dual wields ogres that dual wield dwarves who dual wield halfings that each dual wielding battleaxes.
A Quickling Rogue pervert who goes around flashing others and pulling their pants down at lightning speed.
A necromancer cleric skeletal champion who lives in his raised troll zombie's rib cage, casting negative channel heal from within it anytime the troll gets hurt in combat.
An Otyugh fighter martial master / mutation warrior specialized in poo flinging, trip and overrun.
Combine
Greater Sunder
Deadly Concussion
the 3.0 (and d20 Modern) version of Improved Sunder
and Combat Brute
Take Master Craftsman and make yourself a +1 Adamantine weapon that combines the Shatterspike and 'of the Titans enchantments.
See a Shatterspike is a +1 longsword that gets an extra +3 when used to Sunder by someone with Improved Sunder. It costs 4315gp: 15 for a long sword, 300 for masterwork, and 2000 for +1, the shattering part of the Shatterspike costs 2000gp.
And a Maul of the Titans is a +3 Greatclub that does triple damage vs inanimate objects and costs 25,305gp. That's 5 for a greatclub, 300 for masterwork, and 18,000 for +3, that means the triple damage thing costs 7000gp.
It's in the Core Rulebook under the descriptions of making magic items and Partial Enchantments.
So, instead of making it +3, just leave it +1 and save 16,000gp. Instead of a masterwork sword or club, put the enchantments on an Adamantine Earthbreaker Hammer. The whole thing would cosst 40 + 3000 + 2000 + 3000+ 7000 = 15,040gp, a bargain, really
So what the weapon will let you do is when you Sunder, you bypass the first 20 points of hardness, do an extra +3, and triple the damage.
The 3.0 version of Improved Sunder, first appearing in The Sword and the Fist, lets you inflict double damage when attempting to Sunder an opponent's weapon, with your customized weapon, that makes it quadruple damage.
With Greater Sunder, the residual damage passes to the wielder/wearer.
With Deadly Concussion, you do again as much damage to the wielder/wearer whenever you destroy your opponent's Armor or Shield, so that's Octopule Damage!
With Combat Brute, whenever you destroy your opponent's armor or weapon with a Sunder, you get a Free attack on the former owner.
If you take Improved Trip and then the 3.0 Feat Knockdown, whenever you hit someone for more than 10 points of damage, you get a free Trip Attempt.
The 3rd edition version of Improved Trip lets you get a Free Action attack on someone you tripped.
Greater Trip lets you make an Attack of Opportunity on your opponent you just tripped.
The 3.5 Feat Pushback gives you a Free Bull Rush whenever you hit somebody.
The 3.5 Feat Shock Trooper lets you Trip 2 opponents if you Bull Rush one of them into the other.
So, here is a character that can inflict anywhere from triple to octople damage with every hit, and can get multiple free attacks and attacks of opportunity against single and in some cases multiple opponents. You will be doing more than a thousand points of damage/round before level 10.
What to do next?
If your character is humanoid, definitely take Greater Cleave and multiply all that by the number of people you are fighting.
But if all of the above isn't ridiculous enough, make your character a Thri-Kreen, and put that enchantment on all 4 of the heads of your 2 Gythkas...
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