Okay, so, what got me into the whole mess was that I had a powergamer at my table decide to build a Sacred Fist Warpriest a year ago. This itself wasn't a problem, but since he was using an in-game "respec" item that allowed him to keep the same identity but make a new character, he tweaked his race into a Samsaran without dying first.
Since Samsaran's reincarnate every time they die, but he essentially "stole" a body/soul from a Samsaran, it was decided that he had inadvertently caused a Negative Energy -Soul creature to enter the world. Like matter and anti-matter, its sole goal was to obliterate itself.
Skipping over things here and there we finally got back to the game and made it to the point where I want to bring in the monster, but I'm not as strong at building power-PCs as he is. Factor in that he'll have 6-7 other PCs behind him, I'm hoping the community can help me with some ideas.
Party is not quite all level 9, with
- an optimized Brawler (Powergamer's PC, massive AC)
- An Oracle caster ("Blind" Oracle's curse, yet plays ranged. Moderate power)
- An un-optimized Magus who rarely has his highest-level spells ready
- A third-party Divine/Arcane caster with limited spell levels but many slots,
- A new Inquisitor, played by a stereotypical Barbarian
- A cautious Fighter balanced between Melee and Defense, able to do archery
- 7th PC shows up with a Fighter occasionally, but pays little attention and just "runs up and hits."
- The GMPC Rogue/H.Opportunist (built for situational adaptation and theft/lying, not combat.)
Essentially we have a lot of melee with a powerful, hard-to-hit melee bruiser and a full-Oracle caster, but the rest of the party is more varied than optimized.
.
The monster I'm wanting to build should have at least 2* CR above the party's APL, and I was wanting to have it be a 2-H weapon-wielding Monk for story reasons. As it's an NPC, it can take NPC levels at a 2-to-1CR ratio.
- GP-build value matches a PC of its CR, or 11-12 at the moment. 12 would be more dangerous for the monster itself, but a level-appropriate Wight-style minion swarm would drop its appropriate CR by 1-2.
- The Monk levels should give it good saves and allow it to flurry with its weapon, which is decently beefy
- NPC levels would allow it to pump its BAB and HP to stand up to the party (PC levels just don't stand up to that kind of damage.)
- Gaining the ability to Channel Negative Energy would be interesting, but not required.
- Can't use pets - living animals refuse to come near it.
- Blink for a miss chance might work, or some form of poison to try and assassinate the Powergamer (whom it views as a Nemesis.)
The monster NPC has a few abilities and a neat weapon.
- 29-point buy (matches PCs)
- Undead immunities.
- Has Lifesense 60'
- d8 HD, unless superseded by base creature/class.
- Heals from Positive Energy, takes only 1/2 Negative Energy damage
- Soul resides in the weapon, not in the humanoid host. Body is immune to mind-effecting affects and fights until negative Con without being Dazed.
- Weapon is immune to magic that does not also target objects or is harmless.
- Can possess a new host body if the old one dies, but this isn't likely to work vs. the PCs directly as they'd suspect it.
- Is weak vs. Hallow, needing to pass a DC 25 Will save to enter/remain inside, and the body it possesses gets saving throws after 2d6 rounds.
- Has an aura that makes opponents Fatigued if they come within ?~feet. Save is Fortitude, and a save means you're immune for a day. Fatigue lasts for 1d6 +1 minutes after leaving the aura, and resets without a save if you re-enter the aura before the effect ends. Save DC matches the weapon's DC below
.Currently has no DR/good, but I'd say that option fits thematically.
- Weapon applies the following effect each* time it hits.
.This should probably have a cap placed on it if it's being powerbuilt.
.Or if it only works once or twice per round per target, we could increase the damage to d4xeffect:
- Roll 1d4. If the target does not save, apply the following effect:
1 = 1 point of Strength damage, and the Soulless gains +1 CMB, attack, and damage.
2 = 1 point of Dexterity damage, and the Soulless gains +1 dodge AC and CMD.
3 = 1 point of Constitution damage, and the Soulless regains (1/2xtarget’s HD) HP and gains any excess as temp HP.
4 = 1 temporary negative level, and the Soulless gains all of the above bonuses.
- The bonuses received by the Soulless stack up to a total of +5 for each ability score and +(2x its HD) temporary hit points. The Soulless burns through the captured life force quickly, losing 2 from all of these values every hour.
- Crits turn the effect into Drain rather than Damage.
- Save DC = (10+Cha+1/2HD). This value is reduced by 2 in an area of Hallow, stacking with Hallow's bonus to saves.
.A 2-Handed weapon would give more damage to the build, but a Keen Scimitar gets more crits. I also haven't thought about what magic might be on the blade, but it should probably have an enhancement bonus appropriate for its level (so like a +3 ATK/DMG right now.)
- If the Soulless NPC kills a soul-possessing creature with its weapon, it creates a spawn in 1d6 minutes. These spawn are under its control, but are far weaker and die quickly.
-They die soon after sunrise each day.
.Currently I'm planning on using a Cairn Wight or Wraith as the base idea for the spawn, essentially a vitality-draining zombie horde. Depending on the level of the party, I might boost the CR of the horde. The minions should probably stay about 3 CR below the PC's levels though.
.I also think there's a bloody weapon (unique or an artifact) that also creates bloody zombies on kill, I might have to look for that as well.
Hopefully I'd want a fight that they can win if they plan and figure out how to kill the thing, but the NPC would be able to wipe the floor with them if they fought it carelessly. This essentially came about as a "self-inflicted revenge" by/for the powergamer, so that would be the appropriate level of play required to kill it.
Not that anything could stand up to a fully-optimized party of 7 PCs.
I can help with this tonight after work.
Your parties apl is 11, so you want a cr 13 creature? Pc gold is a lot.
Pc gold increases cr by 1, and the template would probably increase it by 2. That means your base would be a level 11 monk if you want it to be cr 13.
Party size of 6+ is only +1 APL, so they should just be 10 right now. They're actually fighting it for the first time this Sunday, which is probably going to push the rest of the party into level 9.
They're also used to fighting high-CR encounters in this campaign.My comment on NPC levels and the treasure value was based off something Ashiel I think once posted, but you're right - it should be CR__ monster loot rather than PC loot. Still, it should be using it appropriately - Amulet of Natural Armor, Ring of Deflection, etc.
A level 12 pure Monk would get destroyed in a battle like this. I've seen some of the builds my powergamer has made up, and I've used 1-2 level higher NPCs in combat before, and they never last more than about 3 rounds.
I was thinking a few levels in Warpriest might give it the ability to heal itself with Swift actions, and for 2 levels in Warrior (equal to 1 level in a PC class) he'd get +2 BAB, +11HP +(2xCON), 1 point of Fort save and 2/3's points of Will and Ref.
NPC levels counting for half opens up large new windows for NPC building, as a CR6 Warrior could fight a level 9 PC "equally" with their 12 NPC levels. 3 base attacks, +12 BAB, 6 feats, 65 base HP, +2 stat points, 6 FORT 4 REF 4 WILL. It's not fully equal to level 9 Fighter, but it'd be pretty beefy. Take out 2 levels of Warrior and put in a level of Adept and whatever the NPC rogue option is, and you get +1d6 Sneak Attack Damage and some self-healing and buffing options while only sacrificing 4 base HP and 1 BAB.
You don't get the abilities with NPC classes (Armor Training, etc.) but it's the quickest way to stats and cheap multiclassing.
It seems pretty obvious to me that your best choice would be to make a 'dark doppleganger' of the focus pc with +2-3 levels from what he has. The build is the same (fight power gaming with power gaming.)
The doppleganger's goal is to kill the PC so it can replace him and continue its existence in the mortal world. I would probably give it PC wealth, but most of it could turn out to be 'shadow matter' that fades when the creature dies if you didn't want to drop that much wealth on the party.
One advantage of this, is that while the full party can help, because the creature only cares about the focus PC they probably won't be killed as collateral damage.
I would also add some non-mechanical special effects to creature to give an 'opposite' and maybe negative energy field. Even just a beard might work.