Our "favorite" bard is going to meet mine player's kingdom very soon.
Mine players are at the 2nd mythic and particularly the Baroness has Display of Charisma, a feature the player like to use a lot...
They will probably have Grigori humiliated into the social encounter (but non so easily, since I'll use the 7th level 6-PC-version of him with the Glibness spell), and probably he will be sent in prison (with all the Unrest necessary)...
So, I got this idea: let's have that Grigori has an "occult helper", someone who can help him in spreading his false (or true) propaganda, and could even help him in case of a fight, although staying carefully hidden into the town's mob.
The Mesmerist perfectly fits this role: his stare ability works well in conjunction with the Bard's spell, the psychic casting spell (no verbal & somatic) can come from the folk without being detected, and so on...
Hence I decided to give leadership instead of toughness to Grigori, and with this feat a 5th level Mesmerist as a Cohort.
This will be mine first Mesmerist ever, so I need any possible ideas and help in making it.
I need any possible ideas and help in making it.
Hello!
If you didn't see it going on in the blog, we recently had a contest for fans to redesign Rasputin, and the winning entry, a Cult Leader Mesmerist is here. As a bonus, you'll see that as part of his mesmerist class abilities, he has a pretty nice and substantial "helper": Anna-[redacted]-Vyrubova!
The contest blog page also has a TON of other entries to check out, if you want to peruse through the various statblocks submitted and see if there's anything you want to use in there, though none have been polished or developed by the design team like the winning entry was. A GREAT resource either way!
EDIT: Aaaaaaaand THEN I realized I was posting in the Kingmaker Forum and your Grigori isn't *my* Grigori [Rasputin] from Reign of Winter. Hahahaha. Going to leave post instead of deleting just because there are some cool mesmerist statblocks there you could mine for ideas!
Thank you Brandon for your suggestions!
I read the Contest for Rasputin, and that was one of the elements that give me the main idea for a mesmerist helping the namesake Grigori (bard).
I found the builds in the contest very interesting, although I personally lack the skill for a fine 'retro-engineering', to create a level 5 mesmerist cohort from those, instead of building it from level 1 to 5.
Tartuk, the summoner, is a recurring villain in mine Kingmaker too, but he will became a BBEG for our Spinoff Kobold-Maker (where mine players are a party of Kobold Mini-me PCs, the heirs of the Sootscales tribe, currently fostered by the main party PCs).
Trying to draw the build for the mesmerist:
Feodosiya, the above suspicion child (Grigori's cohort)
Race: Halfling
Shiftless alternate racial trait (+2 racial bonus on Bluff and Sleight of Hand)
Class: Mesmerist 5
heroic array NPC stats are: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.
Stats: Str 6 (8 - 2 race), Dex 16 (14 + 2 race), Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 18 (15 + 2 race + 1 at 4th)
1: consumate liar, hypnotic stare, knacks, mesmerist trick (compel alacrity), painful stare; F: Childlike (+2 on Disguise checks to look like human child, take 10 on Bluff checks)
2: mesmerist trick (mask misery), towering ego
3: bold stare (susceptibility), touch treatment (minor); F: Pass For Human (+10 on Disguise to look like human)
4: mesmerist trick (vanish arrow)
5: manifold tricks (2), mental potency; F: Deceitful (+2 on Bluff and Disguise checks)
Skills: 5 ranks/level
Bluff (5 ranks + 4 cha + 3 class + 2 racial + 2 deceitful +2 consumate liar) = +18 (a 28 while taking 10 vs a -2 due to susceptibility at one enemy's Sense Motive)
Disguise (5 ranks +4 cha + 3 class + 2 deceitful) = +14 (+26 to look like human child)
Perception (5 ranks + 1 wis + 3 class + 2 racial) = +11
Sleight of Hand (5 ranks + 3 dex + 3 class + 2 racial) = +13
Stealth (5 ranks + 3 dex + 3 class + 4 size) = +15
Spell selection [TO DO]
0th 6
1st 4
2nd 3
I'm still developing this NPC, and looking for any possible advice about a Mesmerist build at 5th level... particularly the spells selection is not something I'm completely sure.
I was thinking of a more deceitful way for his role. He will support Grigori while staying hidden in the crowd. Nobody could suspect that one of the curious kids in the scene is an enemy.
Surely he could charm some townsfolk to cover his master if a fight arises, and if the party doesn't use an accurate caution (non-lethal damage vs citizens) this event will push up their Unrest quickly.
If Grigori is arrested but not put in public trial, he will continue to spread false and true voices about the PCs.
If the PCs somehow detect his presence and kills him while fighting the bard, this will probably bring more panic to the townsfolk, who will later whispers about the "Child murdered by the kingdom's leaders". (Unless the party publicly finds a way to show he is a disguised halfling, and find proves of his connection to Grigori, an so on...)
Kundal is not an option, since he was cured and recruited by the party as part of the Blackfeathers guards in their second city of Blackfeathers (Temple of the Elk), but how Kundal was rescue and the people of the capital deceived by their own rulers is surely ONE of the many information Grigori and his helper will use in their defamatory campaign versus the PCs.
0th level (6), DC 14, at will:
- Bleed: resuming the dying condition, could be useful especially if the PCs don't act carefully with their own citizens.
- Daze: effect is better due to Mental Potency
- Ghost sound: fakes the presence of an invisible person.
- Message: coordination with Grigori (ie. “I'm hypnotizing the catfolk, target him!”)
- Prestidigitation: always useful.
- Unwitting Ally: mess up flanking tactics.
1st level (4), DC 15, 5/day:
- Charm Person: Use to cover him or his master, charming commoners while running away and so on.
- Color Spray: effect is better due to Mental Potency.
- Memory lapse: useful in the propaganda campaign, not against PCs.
- Unseen Servant: fakes the presence of an invisible person.
2nd level (3), DC 16, 3/day:
- Anonymous Interaction: this spell is pure gold for the propaganda campaign vs the Party.
- Invisibility: always useful!
- Silence: although it's not something useful since Grigori's inability to cast spells and use bardic performances, when placed in the right location during the fight this is a deadly spell for the PCs spellcasters who relies on Vocal components for their spells.
This is happening in my game tomorrow! Grigori and his "daughter" are going to be fun to play...
If the PCs do a little peeping on them (and one character would be perfect for that, they will find out that she actually his lover in private. I wonder how they will react to that!
We had slowed down our gaming pace due to some RL reasons, but I count of having mine players meet Grigori and Feodosiya in a few sessions (hopefully next month).
That love affair is a really interesting idea... let me know how your players will "deal" with this double menace.