Nyrissa the Muse?

[pennywit]

So, I'm moving into the last chapter of my mythic Kingmaker game, with Nyrissa's allies in the Stolen Lands (D'Kara the Erlking, a group of black dragons called the Scions of Ithuliak, and the Tiger Lord Barbarians) pressing an attack on the players' kingdom while Nyrissa opens her blooms twice a month on my poor players' kingdom.

I was planning to stat Nyrissa up as a nymph dread lord with sorceress and mystic theurge levels, and with the Archmage mythic path.

But I just came across the Muse, and I got another idea. What if Nyrissa is a muse with oracle and theurge levels? Can that work?

[Andostre]

What is a muse in rpg terms?

[pennywit]

She is a fey who inspires mortals -- poets, artists, dreamers, etc. -- to create. In my game, she has the sobriquet "The Lady of Dreams." My players have not met her, but I've incorporated several of her henchcreatures (the Knurly Witch, Kargaad, the Horned Hunter, and the Wriggling Man so far) into the narrative.

In terms of stat blocks, a muse is heavy on bardic abilities, including bardic performance. I'm playing with the idea that instead of meeting her in Thousandsbreath, my players may tangle with her first out in one of the blooms (the blooms being an extension of her domain).

[Canadian Bakka]

Hm, maybe giving her the benefits of the soundstriker bard archetype would make sense with the Muse as well (perhaps a divine version of bard and then mystic theurge it up?). The oracle/mystic theurge idea is good though!.

The Muse idea works well if you are planning to have her be with henchmen by her side at the end as well so that the heroes cannot just gang up on her.

Having her show up as a bloom in the beginning is cool (kind of like Poison Ivy) - I know that in my campaign, Nyrissa is going to be accompanied by the resurrected form of her sister (the Fellnight Queen, who my players killed earlier on) - one light, one dark, twins since the beginning, torn apart first by the Eldest and then betrayed by the shadow fey courts.

What kind of bloom effects were you thinking of having her manifest when she shows up?

CB

[pennywit]

I think she's going to show up in one of the existing blooms as an "add-in." I narrated before that I ran the first bloom (the swans, I think) around Candlemere Island. To keep things interesting, I had the Wriggling Man at the center of it, and he passed of my players to a jubjub bird. I think I wrote it up here before. That barbarian literally punched it to death from the inside.

[Canadian Bakka]

Yep, I remember reading that. It was pretty cool. :)

Maybe have her show up in every bloom but as a phantom. Like she is witnessing the events described in Zudigger's Picnic?

CB

[wolaberry]

The could work, but she'll lose some spellcasting ability. Unless you don't worry about CR and giver her the same number of class levels. Muse is 9HD higher than Nymph. Even though she's a fey its her casting that gave my party fits. Tossing Archmage in will make that so much better (or worse for your PCs). She already has a complicated stat block without mythic.

The base creature goes from druid to bard so the other half needs to be a divine caster to qualify for mystic theurge. Oracle would work, druid would too. Shaman could be fun depending on how you rebuild her.

[Canadian Bakka]

Druid is probably the best option. Too bad for the mystic theurge combo you can't use it to pull off Witch (Seducer archetype) with the Muse.

Although, thematically speaking, Shaman (Green Vines archetype) looks amazeballs! *wide grin*

As for the Mythic, toss in dual path so you can nab from archmage AND hierophant. Plantbringer and Treesinger are so flavourful. Although if you nab Marshal instead of Hierophant, you can do some fun stuff to keep her minions well supported.

The idea of her being in the blooms is really growing on me.

CB

[Indraea]

I would strongly consider beefing up the effect of a number of highly thematic mythic spells. Mythic Animate Plants, for example, when cast by Nyrissa, should animate as many large plants as she has hit dice, allowing her to potentially animate multiple colossal trees, which in turn should make for a much more memorable encounter, even if such creatures are 'trivial' for the party to defeat now.

[Spatula]

The nymph is already a muse, they have a special ability for it and everything. I gave her Golarion lieutenants a ring made of her hair as her token, along with the corresponding bonus to Will saves.

[pennywit]

I think I'm going to stay with the nymph at this point, although I'm looking at swapping out her sorcerer levels for bard levels and making her more of a leader type than an in-your-face sorcerer types.

[Cesare]

pennywit wrote:

So, I'm moving into the last chapter of my mythic Kingmaker game, with Nyrissa's allies in the Stolen Lands (D'Kara the Erlking, a group of black dragons called the Scions of Ithuliak, and the Tiger Lord Barbarians) pressing an attack on the players' kingdom while Nyrissa opens her blooms twice a month on my poor players' kingdom.

I was planning to stat Nyrissa up as a nymph dread lord with sorceress and mystic theurge levels, and with the Archmage mythic path.

But I just came across the Muse, and I got another idea. What if Nyrissa is a muse with oracle and theurge levels? Can that work?

Completely off topic, but ... tell me about D'Kara the Erlking! Who, or better yet, what is he?

[pennywit]

Lord D'Kara, Marquis of the Fallen Leaves, Custodian of the Castle of Knives, and the True Lord of the Stolen Lands.

My players moved early to ally with Irovetti, so I added him as a fey leader. I used the Erlking monster, then added a mythic simple template. He has his own armies who are moving against folks in the Stolen Lands, soon to assault my players' kingdom. I wove him into the story as having a hamadryad lover who is prisoner in Nyrissa's realm. Because of that, he's helping out Nyrissa. If my players do a little research, they may find out this nugget.

[Kindjal]

I have made her a lesser deity, (I will use mythic template accordingly) and she choose a former paladin from the PC as her Champion.
He has the responsibility to build her clergy and attract followers for her.