make my heroes!!!! help with big NPC project

[master_marshmallow]

I'm writing my new campaign for my players, since our Mythic campaign is about to 'end' and I need some help fleshing it out.

It's a custom setting and I want to focus on governments and organizations (social combat and diplomacy will be large factors here).

The campaign itself will have a steam-punk Eberron feel, with magical vehicles being present (though expensive and pretty much only available to large organizations with money).

I'm using the 'Heroes R Us' trope to recruit the PCs and send them on a sort of Black Opps missions type campaign where they are not the big famous heroes of the game world, but rather they will be adventuring parallel to them on various missions around the globe investigating dungeons and locations.

I need 5 heroes, each thematically fitting into a mythic path. Their sixth member will be a vigilante who spends most of the campaign as my DM protagonist/Zordon/Sponsor figure and won't actually have his true identity revealed until the plot happens somewhere in the second or third act of the campaign's overall plot.

These 5 heroes should ideally show up individually as mentor figures and helpful NPCs for the group as they encounter different types of problems around the world all leading to clues about my BBEG who is planned to be an evil organization.

I need help spitting back writing ideas and I can't spoil it for my players so I can't bounce these ideas off them....

[Diachronos]

Aside from being tied to a particular mythic path, is there anything specific you're looking for out of the NPC heroes? Will the group's Zordon figure also be associated with one of the mythic paths?

[master_marshmallow]

Diachronos wrote:

Aside from being tied to a particular mythic path, is there anything specific you're looking for out of the NPC heroes? Will the group's Zordon figure also be associated with one of the mythic paths?

Yes

I plan at least for him to be the secret sixth member of the 'A Team' while my players act as the 'B Team' for the first act of the campaign.

Ideally each of the five 'A Team' members will interact with my players on different missions serving as mentor figures before the as-of-yet-unwritten plot kills them all off and the players take up the mantle of 'A Team' part way through the entire campaign.

Specifics would be non evil alignments, guns are okay. I'd like a decent mix, as if these were PCs.

EDIT: Perhaps I should elaborate on the party-

Big Jym: Half-Giant (DSP with tweaks) Brawler
James Cassidy: Human Gunslinger Pistolero/VMC Rogue
unnamed: Elf Exploiter Wizard
unnamed: Ghoran Water Kineticist
unnamed: Aasimar Life Oracle VMC cleric (Healing Domain) (focused on healing and social combat stuff)

[master_marshmallow]

Shameless bump

I have been working on my own and I have two of them done.

Bennedict Downey Jr, human- "Trickster" Empiricist 11/ Siege Gunner 1

Ryu, dragonsoul- "Guardian" Yojimbo 12

I am leaning towards an aasimar (emberkin) arcanist 12 and a gnome feyspeaker VMC cleric 12 for the "archemage" and "heirophant" respecively

things to note: Heroic NPC array (or 15 point buy, same thing)
21,000 gp (standard NPC wealth)
12th level
+1 inherent bonus to the primary stat (or CHA in case of the Heirophant) and is considered to have 1 Mythic Tier, including one Mythic Path starting thing (not the path abilities) and one mythic feat

[avr]

What level of detail do you want? Complete build, just the ideas, or something in between?

[Tacticslion]

Bard or Mesmerist: marshal or trickster (the vigilante gets the other one)
Paladin or Swashbuckler: guardian
Bloodrager or Mysterious Stanger Gunslinger or Swashbuckler: champion
Oracle or Sorcerer: Heirophant
Arcanist or Summoner or Sorcerer: archmage

Make special note: all the above classes are charisma-based. I chose this on purpose, in order to give a justifiable in-world excuse about why the world finds them all so glamorous: they're beautiful, compelling people with powerful personalities and highly self-motivated, social essence. They're the heroes everyone wants to know and be, because they look awesome and are fun (or at least arresting/compelling) to hang with or watch.

Emphasize stuff like Persuasive Countenance; Divine Countenance; and similar: this will help smooth their way within the world, while compelling others to aid and assist them.

The other thing is that these classes tend to be "flashy" in what they can do and how they do it: anything you can give them that takes the. Out of the shadows and into the spotlight, do that. They all have the Leadership feat (and more or less accidental cults of personality), and each has a single charismatic or social focus - bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, perform, and use device: assign one of these to each and make it their "signature skill" in which they have skill focus and the +2/+4 feat (like Alertness or Steslthy, only their own signature skill). This will net them a +10 bonus to that one skill and greatly simplify the building of the characters.

More later; gotta put kids to sleep!

[avr]

In case it's just the idea you wanted (I'm not making up a fully detailed 12th level character if it's not needed), I'd thought for the marshal a swordmaster and teacher would work. An exemplar brawler that is, elegantly elfin; probably quite different to the half-giant. Martial flex lets her demonstrate techniques, exemplar and marshal both help buffs, she might well have mythic dazzling display to make unwise challengers back down.

[master_marshmallow]

avr wrote:

What level of detail do you want? Complete build, just the ideas, or something in between?

Really I could work with either, I just need ideas.

I went with an all INT based Empiricist for the trickster who can do all the charisma stuff, but with INT. Thought it made him unique.

I finished my heirophant, trickster, and guardian today: 12th level characters; I have full builds, following the rules for NPCs (21,000 gp NPC array etc.)

Spoiler:

Kath, Gnome Feyspeaker Druid VMC cleric (eagle domain & trickery-deception subdomain) she spends most of her time in firebird form, and casts blast illusion spells with shadow evocation (stacking gnome bonuses with Mythic/Greater Spell Focus) as a caster based heirophant. Not focused on martial combat at all, uses defensive buffs like blur, mirror image, and displacement.

Bennedict Downey Jr., human empiricist investigator, with 1 level in siege gunner gunslinger. I have a player playing a gunslinger who is interested in adding siege weapons to their Air Ship so I made sure to include that. He uses a swordcane pistol and Mythic Weapon Finesse for DEX to damage and uses INT for literally all his many skills. He's obviously meant to be a Sherlock Holmes analogue. Since he's the skill guy, and does rogue based things I have him as my trickster.

Ryu, dragonsoul (half-elf, human based) yojimbo samurai. Since he has armor training and the bodyguard feat, I planned on him being the strong-silent type guardian. He's from my Asia analogue and I want to use that when I send my players there. Also the dragonsoul is more or less our dragonkin/dragonborn PC race and I love it.

I had a working idea for an emberkin aasimar elemental master arcanist (fire) but I'm not really feeling it. I need an archemage for sure still, and marshal or champion can go to the last slot before I do the vigilante.

SIDE NOTE: Each of these characters I'm planning to be focal to different "arcs" or "episodes" of my campaign, and I want each one to sort of serve as a mentor figure for each of my players so I'm planning to design each segment of the game to include it's big challenge to be something that highlights that. I'm working on a more narrative driven game, abandoning XP. I'm thinking about each player having their own week(s) to shine and giving them all individually a boon (like a bonus feat/trait/item, TBD) at the end of each one encouraging them to each step aside and let the other players have the limelight so it's not the same players stealing the show every week. I want each 'episode' to be worth about 2 levels, since we're starting at level 3 and there has to be at least a level's worth adventure for tone setup, by the time I'm done introducing all these characters they'll be around lvl 14-15 which is when I plan on Plot happening and my vigilante character will go missing and they PCs will have to work without him.

As for plot, I want to do an evil organization draining the magic out of specific places on the map (where leylines cross to be specific) and using the magic to fuel a WMD that they plan to use for world domination. Plot twist, the evil organization is actually secretly run by evil aliens (most likely reptoids) from a post apocalyptic future where their race has taken over (this being the event which causes it) and the final plot of the game (17th level+) will be about preventing the world domination plot and wiping their existence from reality and allowing the world to continue safely. By this time they'll have taken over as the "A Team" and the players will be the most important characters. At least that's what I have right now. Gonna have to start writing individual stories/dungeons/social combat encounters soon.

My vigilante is going to be the Mission Control/Secret Mentor trope and he is the one who technically owns and operates the airship, 'hiring the PCs. I am considering a wyrwood robot buddy to help as well. I want magic fueled vehicles and high magic eberron esk technology to be a big theme in this particular campaign, if that gives anyone inspiration.

[Tacticslion]

Spoiler:

Bard or Mesmerist Investigator: marshal or trickster (the vigilante gets the other one)
Either way, the character can get a powerful Persuasive Countenance to breeze through social situations. If you grab Divine Countenance and Beyond Morality, there is literally no creature that can have a starting attitude worse than Indifferent... which makes the question of what killed him even more mysterious... Beyond that, the investigator can be an awesome contact for the underworld, and spread the fame of the group to those people as well. It might get along very well with, say, the summoners of they focus on the "real" aspect, but have a bit of a friendly rivalry with the cult of the firebird (whose faith-based ethos and concealing illusions are opposed to the empirical evidence and truth that the investigators seek). They may also use the bloodline cult as a method of integrating and ingratiating high society (as I imagine many wealthy will suddenly seek to prove their value with ancestral delvings - investigations of which specialized linguists and knowledge experts would be most suited to working with. Making a secondary focus on engineering could be an awesome way to supply alchemical and gunnery (or whatever) weapons to the Heroes (tm) as well, with a few alchemists in the leadership group - maybe even Dr. Samson the Wise, the Halfling cohort of your investigator! *cough* >.>

Paladin or Swashbuckler Samurai: guardian
- This actually works very well, and I'm slightly ashamed I didn't think of it. Mostly, I think I just forgot about Sword Saint and I figured you didn't want to mess with a mount in addition to all the other stuff I was recommending. Sword Saint lends itself perfectly towards dazzling display and intimidation focus. That said, see Bloodrager, below. Being a leader, he may well have once been a lowly Ronin who has effectively become a mighty warlord simply by default for how famous his exploits have gone: he thus has started his own clan or military organization, quite probably more or less by incident. He is likely an often-absentee lord, with little explanation of when or where he is going beyond the minimum necessary to fulfill his honor; he wasn't made for a desk job, you see, and so he feels bound by his own honor and restricted by his position, taking any opportunity to go and do instead of just sit and make others do. That said, he probably really does have a sense of honor and would probably see in adventurers something that reminds of his old life of true freedom and their potential... As a warlord, his style could blend/conflict with that of his fast ally's - the swashbuckler. As swords sings focus on overwhelming immediate destruction, and due lists like Aldori and swashbucklers focus on self-defense and making the opponents make a mistake. This friendly rivalry could be a powerful basis for motivating their continued adventures, and could be a string reason that they each have to continue adventuring - each trying to out best the other's combat style and prove their own philosophy superior once and for all. Also, the irony (or whatever) of the defender being a brutal instant takedown and the champion being a defensive survivalist is pretty sweet.

Bloodrager or Mysterious Stanger Gunslinger or Swashbuckler: champion
Either could work well with UMD, though the swashbuckler works well as a performer and as a bluff guy, too, while the Bloodrager lends itself more towards intimidate (but as you have a Samurai, you might want to choose one to be the "scary guy").The Bloodrager could work for a more aggressive champion with a bloodline cult or something (including sorcerers and variant bloodline creatures like aasimar or Tiefling or half elves or half orcs or black blood orcs or something), while the swashbuckler would lead itself well the the concept of a Fencing School like the Aldori or something; in fact, if you were interested in a prestige class, the swashbuckler would work best with the Aldori Swordlord and/or the duelist. And don't forget the Crusader power! This would, I think, especially lend itself to the swashbuckler, but the Bloodrager could also use that ability to phenomenal effect, especially if combined with his own and the sorcerer's (if you go that route) leadership to make an enormous and influential cult of bloodlines (see sorcerer below). The swashbuckler actually might prove to be a mind of "frienemy-rival" of the samurai, each taking a flashy and frightening but effect method of combat and applying it differently: the samurai focusing on immediate overwhelming force, and the swashbuckler and disciples focusing on personal defense and making the enemy make mistakes. See samurai.

Oracle or Sorcerer Feyspeaker: Heirophant
- This is fantastic; I'd forgotten about the Feyspeaker when I made my list; I remembered it last night after the time for editing was over, but I was too tired and never got back to this; my one question is whether or not the VMC can RAW spont-cast cures, but I'd certainly allow it! For feats (unless you've already decided?) as you only have the three, I might suggest being able to speak in animal form, leadership (cult of the firebird!), and cunning caster) to hide the illusions she's making? I kind of want her to focus on handling animals, but... no feats! XD Also, consider grabbing the archmage illusion ability to make her illusions temporarily real! I could see this cult running into conflict with either. Summoner or similar: the firebird cult focuses on faith and belief (illusion) while the summoner derides such frippery and focuses on what is "real" and "factual" (conjured monsters) that the faith group derides as a devotion to a false or empty reflection of the truth - the monsters may be solid, but they are not "real" but merely reflections (ultimately making the sumkoner's group less "real" due to falsehood than their own illusion-based group); beyond which, the Druid has actual divine power and can literally shapeshift into "real" things... On the other hand, I can envision the cult of the firebird getting along quite well with the mixed bloodline cukts of either sorcerer or Bloodrager (or both), though the firebird focuses which bloodlines it accepts, making the two allies, but not the same.

Arcanist or Summoner or Sorcerer: archmage
- Having it be a Summoner would make it the least expected archmage, I'd guess (although that's pretty awesome). Were it me, I'd suggest a master summoner-brood master (I don't know if this works, but I'd probably hand-waive it a bit to work, sacrificing something to enable it as necessary), with Leadership focused around conjurers and other summoners. Leaving it "not Unchanined" means that you can net weirder and more unique Eidolons, which, along with his brood of them (each of which would be almost as powerful as the greatest of his disciples'), would help explain his fame. This guy might be the least outgoing/most reclusive of the Heroes (tm), but also a major secret to their success, considering the hordes of creatures he can pull at a moments notice: he conjures, Feyspeaker buffs, and Samurai leads into the charge; or he conjures, and aids Investigator in stealthy research; or he conjures and Investogator buffs, and duelist leads a powerful holding pattern; and so on. On the other hand, a sorcerer could have a bloodline cult that blends well with Mr. Bloodrager's cult (making one big cult of their two Leadership feats). This would make them extremely powerful and influential in the region, as over 300 people would be under their combined sway, with no fewer than four sixth levels. Significant and powerful! Finally, an Arcanist, to me, represents about the best "all encompassing" generic Mage-type you can get; I heart it a lot! It also allows for all sorts of magical shenanigans, closer to a wizard, which is pretty solid; my one hesitation is if you want to bother with all the spells known in a spellbook. That said, the Arcanist can also work with the bloodline cult, and even oppose the Feyspeaker on grounds of "real" v. "False" if it is a summoning specialist... or be a secondary aid to said cult of they are shape shifters and/or illusionists as a whole.

[Tacticslion]

Oh!

Spoiler:

I forgot to mention - I didn't mention the investigator myself, because I tried to avoid tricky or hard-to-put-together (or specific) builds. I didn't want to complicate things for you. But you did it for me! Woo!

[master_marshmallow]

VMC Cleric specifically calls out spontaneous cure/inflict at first level, so no problems there.

I like the arcanist for the archemage, as I have different traditions of arcane casting being tied to different locations and cultures in my game world, and the concept of draining magic (the narrative mechanism for my game) is something the arcanist already does it makes sense to me thematically.

Problem I have is that the Feyspeaker is already a blaster caster, so I may want to change the roles up a bit and consider the Blade Adept or the Brown-Fur Transmuter.

Blade Adept seems really interesting, if I could find a way around the BAB problem thing (Transformation is a 6th level spell that I can access though since the build is 12th level). I may try to work with that.

[avr]

avr wrote:

In case it's just the idea you wanted (I'm not making up a fully detailed 12th level character if it's not needed), I'd thought for the marshal a swordmaster and teacher would work. An exemplar brawler that is, elegantly elfin; probably quite different to the half-giant. Martial flex lets her demonstrate techniques, exemplar and marshal both help buffs, she might well have mythic dazzling display to make unwise challengers back down.

stats:

Female elf exemplar brawler 12

Str 14, Dex 20 (22), Con 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 12

Martial flexibility (9 feats/day, 3 as free action or 1 as immediate)
Martial training (treat as fighter 12 or monk 12 for feat prereqs)
Brawler's cunning (treat as int 13 for feat prereqs)
Knockout (Fort DC 22, 2/day)
Call to arms (negate flat-footed for all within 30' as free or immediate, uses 1 martial flex.)
Inspiring prowess (15 rounds/day, move action to start inspire courage +2 or inspire greatness)
Field instruction (2/day, std action to give a teamwork feat to allies within 30')
Mythic: Rally (swift action & 1 mythic power to give allies within 30' one reroll of a d20 for 1 round)

Acrobatics +21, Bluff +17, Diplomacy +17, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16

Feats: combat reflexes, power attack, improved unarmed strike, combat expertise, improved feint, precise strike, weapon finesse, weapon focus (rapier), fencing grace, iron will, dazzling display, mythic dazzling display.

Those feats are heavy on prerequisites which martial flex can build on. E.g. she could grab the entire swordplay style line, or else get coordinated charge and another teamwork feat as the prereq.

+1 menacing rapier, cold iron dagger, silvered dagger, +1 mithral chain shirt, +1 buckler, belt of incredible dexterity +2, aegis of recovery, sandals of quick reaction

[master_marshmallow]

avr wrote:

avr wrote:

In case it's just the idea you wanted (I'm not making up a fully detailed 12th level character if it's not needed), I'd thought for the marshal a swordmaster and teacher would work. An exemplar brawler that is, elegantly elfin; probably quite different to the half-giant. Martial flex lets her demonstrate techniques, exemplar and marshal both help buffs, she might well have mythic dazzling display to make unwise challengers back down.

** spoiler omitted **

These are some amazing ideas.

[master_marshmallow]

I have a build for my archemage- he's a 12th level blade adept arcanist whose spellcasting is focused on utility magic and typically goes into Transformation during combat, using his arcane pool to fuel abilities like Arcane Accuracy and Dimensional Slide, and has the Mage Strike Mythic ability to burn his then unusable spell slots for extra damage.

Weapon of choice is the Elven Thin Blade (mechanically identical to the katana save for it being an Elven Weapon that can be Finessed, from 3.x) and he uses Elven Battle Focus to use INT for damage. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Only slot left is to figure out what I really want for the champion. I'm leaning towards a dwarf who has racial hate towards my half-giant, and playing with that for character development but I'm not sure. I use fighters a lot so I may want to come up with a different kind of martial build, and bows/ranged is really underrepresented in this list so I'm not sure.

I've also almost exclusively used core races, which may or may not be a problem.

[avr]

You mentioned steampunk above. Is a gunslinger champion an option? A dwarf with a big gun is a decent image to work with.

[master_marshmallow]

avr wrote:

You mentioned steampunk above. Is a gunslinger champion an option? A dwarf with a big gun is a decent image to work with.

I'm working on one for an NPC with caster shells, there's an awesome homebrew for them and my gunslinger player is a big Outlaw Star fan.

Totally down for the idea though.

[master_marshmallow]

I think I've landed on an "azlanti" (but not really) human shield champion with VMC fighter for the champion.

Switch hitter with a shield, and distant thrower.

Not 100% sold on VMC fighter, I mainly want it for Armed Bravery and Warrior Spirit, but they may not be worth the feats.

I'm still fiddling with it.