In a mythic settings an NPC who selected the Legendary Item path ability and is working towards making their armor an artifact well dies. Could he come back as a Graveknight and the armor still be an artifact? Am I insane? Most likely but I want to know if this would be a viable option or if it is way to overpowered because if the NPC hits Tier 3 the armor becomes a minor artifact and then has only one way to destroy it and if that armor is now a Graveknight I have the one true reoccurring bad guy.
Thank you in advance
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First of all, legendary item is intrinsically mythic, so mythic is kind of made for stuff like this. Koschei the Immortal from Russian myth is like this (soul inside in an egg ina chest, etc). In the paizo-verse Baba Yaga has similar ridiculously ludicrous requirements for her destruction.
Its not overpowered, even as a villain because well..
1.) Just because you can't die doesn't mean you get to go around no trouble. They can petrify the guy, imprison him, cast him into another plane, or find a thousand other ways to ruin his day. Hell you could put him into an adamantine chest with barely enough room for the armor and bury him somewhere. Admittedly, most PCs aren't a fan of being the guy who seals away the ancient evil, but there you go.
2.) Disjunction can blast artifacts, and the party can start getting scrolls of that, or reliable methods for casting way before they actually have 9th level spells.
This sort of thing is fun on villains. It makes the heroes have to think through their attack, and also makes them disdain the jerks for relying on 'cheater's' methods.
My 14th level, non mythic group had to deal with an evil mage who had armor that redirected damage and negative spell effects from him to innocent people chained to him. The party sussed out how to deal with him, and then took glee in smashing his armor into bits.
Yay a vote for my insanity! I really want to do this and the Graveknight can only be destroyed with certain spells cast together so I will just be making it even harder maybe make the spells have to be mythic, need more than 3 spells, can only be done in a certain place, a certain time, or a combination.
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As far as I know there is nothing stopping you, I guess technically any grave knight with a artifact armor could make it their special armor. A lich has to craft his own phylactery but a grave knight just does in his. This would be pretty cool to fight, graveknights armor is already pretty tough this just makes him that much scarier.
Now I must begin the creation of mythic armor. And Spook205 the having armor that redirects to the innocent is hilarious if I can figure out a way I might use that. Thank you both
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Now I must begin the creation of mythic armor. And Spook205 the having armor that redirects to the innocent is hilarious if I can figure out a way I might use that. Thank you both
Can't take full credit. It was used by the Fell Emperor in the book of vile darkness.
Essentially damage and negative spell effects are redirected to the up to four people attached. The drawback is that you take some pretty hefty ACP because you're trailing four people. The Fell Emperor used children because the penalty was lighter.
I think it was made with shield other as a spell component.
Now I must begin the creation of mythic armor. And Spook205 the having armor that redirects to the innocent is hilarious if I can figure out a way I might use that. Thank you bothCan't take full credit. It was used by the Fell Emperor in the book of vile darkness.
Essentially damage and negative spell effects are redirected to the up to four people attached. The drawback is that you take some pretty hefty ACP because you're trailing four people. The Fell Emperor used children because the penalty was lighter.
I think it was made with shield other as a spell component.
I am going to see if I can find that book among the things my friends have because that would be perfect for a later boss. This will be awesome!
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I second a lot of the thoughts here. Don't worry about the strange consruction condition being overpowered for an NPC. As a GM, instead consider the possibilities it has for interesting sotry-telling. A big component of a good mythic game is being driven to do mythic things and travel to mythic locations. Sure, a volcano might melt the armor of a normal graveknight, but maybe this one must be thrown into a volcano in tha Abyss or boiled in an empyreal lord's tears. Even researching how to destroy this graveknight for good could be its own quest.
I'm rather amused by the idea of killing the campaign villain about 25% of the way through the adventure, and the rest is all about trying to keep him dead.
Well its not the big baddy but one of the foes I want to reoccur. I want this NPC to bother the PCs for at least levels 8 through 17 I think defeating it might even be worthy of a tier, something I am having trouble deciding what is worthy of one. Granted the party could luck out and figure it our much earlier because they like to mess my plans up like that. Thank you all so very much. This is my first campaign and will I know I have bitten off way more than I should have being able to ask the people of the message boards has been so helpful since only one or two people I play with can actually separate in and out of game information.
one more question which path should I pick. The class is anti-paladin and it will later go into the Graveknight. Should it be a Hierophant, Trickster, Champion, Marshal, or Guardian?
I will reread through the champion I am not very familiar with that one. Thank you
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one more question which path should I pick. The class is anti-paladin and it will later go into the Graveknight. Should it be a Hierophant, Trickster, Champion, Marshal, or Guardian?
To be a little cheeky, the answer to your question is "yes." Any of these could be a great choice, and that choice helps to flavor the graveknight's style.
Champion: In undeath, it is even stronger than it was while alive, and every act of depravity is another demonstration of its extraordinary prowess.
Guardian: Having thwarted death once and being nearly invulnerable now, the graveknight sees itself as an eternal fixture of the campaign setting—perhaps taking on a cruelly philosophical bent as it re-envisions itself as an avatar of the evil that can never be purged from this world.
Hierophant: It sees its reanimation in a divine light, perhaps as a gods-granted gift. The carnage it inflicts is a tribute to those gods.
Marshal: Mortal ambition is limited by one's lifespan, yet an immortal general can sculpt an eternal nation capable of accomplishing unfathomable greatness. Even mortals might ally with the graveknight from the sheer magnetism of its vision.
Trickster: The mortal that became the graveknight should have died, should have ended up in the afterlife as normal. Instead, its reanimation is actually its "greatest heist," stealing its own essence out of the river of souls to evade its fate in one of the fiendish planes.
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That plan on keeping the villain dead is the whole idea of a lich. "Hey look that spellcaster died, now to find that phylactery.... Ummm... Any ideas?" A grave knight wears his bonded armor, a lich keeps his buried in the moon in a foot thick lead box and warded to teleport to him of touched. Good luck. Mythic lich gets even more fun with becoming an artifact, on that note mythic rules allow a lich to have an artifact tied to them so a grave knight with artifact armor should not break the game.
2.) Disjunction can blast artifacts, and the party can start getting scrolls of that, or reliable methods for casting way before they actually have 9th level spells.
I mean, yeah, sure, if the caster doesn't mind having only a 20% chance of success and the possibility of permanently losing all spellcasting abilities.
I am really liking the Champion so I think I will be going with that one and might throw Trickster in the mix. These are the two I am the least familiar with and after actually reading and not just glancing at them them they are my two favorite out of the six options. I have never dealt with a Graveknight but I love the concept its like the martials version of a Lich. And I am looking forward to the eventual Lichs the party will deal with later and the ways I will have to hide the phylactery's. It will be crazy fun. And thank you all for saying that my idea was not irrational but should prove to be entertaining which is my goal as a GM, to entertain.
I doubt the group will chance a Mages Disjunction. The whole group has a healthy fear of that spell from RotRL.
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I mean, yeah, sure, if the caster doesn't mind having only a 20% chance of success and the possibility of permanently losing all spellcasting abilities.
2.) Disjunction can blast artifacts, and the party can start getting scrolls of that, or reliable methods for casting way before they actually have 9th level spells.
Its called adventuring, not safering.
If it comes down to destroying an eldritch evil atrocity, the loss of one's life's work is kind of like par for the course. At least if you've got a L or a G in your alignment block.
Also you can get around that by giving a scroll of disjunction to say...a fighter or rogue with UMD. 4.5k a pop (which is kinda rough), good chance of succeeding and oh no, I lost my spellcasting..which I never had.
And its a 18% (assuming min level on the scroll maker) chance of success, with a DC 25 will save or lose all abilities. The irony is a 14th level wizard can make DC 25 most of the time, let alone an 18th, let alone a mythic 18th.
Its not great, but its not bad either.
To be a little cheeky, the answer to your question isThat a very annoying suspiciously similar recurring villain will be coming up in the next adventure path!
You know, at least in the Paizo system this is harder to do than (3.5 follows)
Gheden (template) Dwarf Commoner 1 (Feat: Troll-blooded), CR 1.
Regeneration 1 (Fire/Acid), all damage that isn't fire or acid is converted to nonlethal damage.
Immune to nonlethal damage, plus death effects, death by massive damage, coup de grace, stun paralysis poison list goes on...
Gets diehard as a bonus feat.Convert it to a lich later, and the stat block effectively reads:
Immune to any effect that deals numerical damage, affects either humanoids or undead, or does not affect either humanoids or undead.
And if you do figure out how to penetrate that, it comes back to life 1d4 days later if you don't kill the phylactery.
And my group says mythic is broken.
So, I can find neither the Gheden template nor the Troll-Blooded Feat, so I'ma assume they're both 3.5 meaning IDGAF.
So I'll just point out that a Commoner 1 is not a spellcaster of 11th level, so can't be a Lich.
That is true. I shouldn't rely to anything right after waking up.