For an upcoming game I'm making an NPC whose speciality is breaking into highly warded areas. Any thoughts on best classes, combos, or tricks?
I'd assume another powerful magic user, probably an abjuration specialist.
Spellscar Oracle might be an interesting place to start, can make it wrecking so they can lockpick and breaks traps by running their hand over them too.
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Barbarian with an adamantine weapon, Spell Sunder rage power, and an Oil of Silence.
Barbarian with an adamantine weapon, Spell Sunder rage power, and an Oil of Silence.
It's for sure a barbarian. Make him a dwarf with the superstition witch hunter and spell sunder rage powers and he can smash some wizards. If he is level 12 then you can get him pounce and he can finish the wizard in one round probably.
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Breaking and entering? It's called a Rogue, dear heart.
The Cosmopolitan feat can supply it with the Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft skills, and the Pragmatic Activator trait - or better yet, the Counterfeit Mage Archetype - can allow you to further consolidate the character's ability scores. Another possibility, if this is sufficiently high-level (11+), is the Carnivalist Archetype, since their Familiar gains spell resistance at that point.
About the only advantage a Rogue has over a Barbarian is the ability to detect magical traps. I'd give the Barbarian ranks in UMD and a wand of Arcane Sight to counter this problem. Beyond this issue, Spell Sunder Barbarian can just smash silently through any problem and walk out afterwards.
Try a rogue with Use magic device and a scroll of antimagic field.
I was going to say aristocrat and hire someone else to do it!
A monk? All good saves, good touch AC, great Perception and Stealth, and eventually spell resistance and other defenses, like immunity to poison and evasion. Quingquong or whatever might be able to swap out some abilities for good spells?
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I have to say another magic user. Probably a wizard. High intelligence, so skills aren't an issue. Has spells to buff, scout, sneak, disable, and even teleport if necessary. Saves aren't great, but that's about their only weakness, and the whole point is being able to notice, and disarm any traps instead of triggering them.
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#1 buy adamantine maul of the titans
#2 be a goliath druid
#3 wildshape into Storm Giant
#4 profit
Finding/tripping traps: Summon Nature's Ally 3+, 1d4+1 allies 'scout' to find 1d4+1 traps by leaping on traps and setting them off. Even summon minor allies gets you 1d3 'scouts'.
Locks: smash...
Doors: go to wall next to door, smash... Leave door + trap intact.
No one said it had to be sneaky right?
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Well, the thread title says you want to break into the homes of Magic Users. If you aren't going to be taking a class from a later time period into this, your options are somewhat limited. You will probably need to use a Thief . . . But at least in this time period, ONLY a Thief can do some of the things you're looking to do.
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I feel like there is something off key about a superstitious spell sundering witch hunter barbarian cautiously carrying around a wand of arcane sight xD
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I think an Investigator could be a good fit.
- It's a bit more cerebral class than a rogue, which means you'll be better at interpreting anything weird you come across.
- If you have to fight, Studied Combat is pretty decent.
- You have pretty much all the class skills and lots of skill points.
- You can disable magic traps without making a ruckus.
You do still need a way to cast Detect Magic at will, ideally as an SLA so it doesn't involve verbal components that people might hear. That's a bit tricky - the chained rogue talent is only 3x/day, while the typical magic items (discerning wayfinder, cloak of the hedge wizard, lantern of auras) all require a command word.
A dip into Psychic could get you Detect Magic and Detect Psychic Significance cantrips. Psychic Significance might also be able to pick up traps - especially if they're injured someone before, they're likely to have some emotional charge.
Just knock on the front door, and have big knockers.
Why break in when you'll be invited in? Some Sleight of Hand, a bit of Bluff... he'll never know what hit him.
Don't rely on magic when dealing with the ultimate in magic-users.
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Psychic detective investigator: Trapfinding, Inspiration (can add +1d6 on Disable Device and Perception checks without expending inspiration uses with the Underworld Inspiration and Unconventional Inspiration investigator talents), Rogue Talent (Trap Spotter) as an investigator talent, can spam sift as a 0-level spell, has find traps as a 1st-level spell on their spell list, has access to the psychic spell list (up to 6th-level spells)*.
*- including detect magic, mage hand, read magic, detect secret doors, erase, acute senses, hypercognition, invisibility, knock, levitate, object reading, perceive cues (smaller bonus than acute senses, but a longer duration), pilfering hand (for objects heavier than 5 lbs or to use Disable Device at range), see invisibility, dispel magic, fly, heroism (+2 on all skill checks and saves), meld into stone, etc.
Breaking and entering? It's called a Rogue, dear heart.
The Cosmopolitan feat can supply it with the Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft skills, and the Pragmatic Activator trait - or better yet, the Counterfeit Mage Archetype - can allow you to further consolidate the character's ability scores. Another possibility, if this is sufficiently high-level (11+), is the Carnivalist Archetype, since their Familiar gains spell resistance at that point.
Flavorwise I like the counterfeit mage. I may play with that just for fun regardless.
Being a wizard.
The best way to beat a magic user is being a magic user.
Because a high level magic user is going to have things like their own permanent demiplane to protect their really valuable stuff. You can't even get in there if you don't have magic.
Being a wizard.
The best way to beat a magic user is being a magic user.
Because a high level magic user is going to have things like their own permanent demiplane to protect their really valuable stuff. You can't even get in there if you don't have magic.
Yea, but good luck finding it. We're I a wizard with a demiplane I'd never bring anyone or describe it.
Yea, but good luck finding it. We're I a wizard with a demiplane I'd never bring anyone or describe it.Being a wizard.
The best way to beat a magic user is being a magic user.
Because a high level magic user is going to have things like their own permanent demiplane to protect their really valuable stuff. You can't even get in there if you don't have magic.
That's my whole point.
If you're breaking into a magic users "home" to get their stuff you need a bunch of magic to even have a chance to find it in the first place. I think anything other than a full progression spell caster would be a mistake.
The rogue still has the optimal set of class features for stealthfully entering a mage's residence, temporarily disabling all alarms and traps, accomplishing a specific non-combat task (e.g. spying, stealing, etc.) and making a successful exit. All this without alerting the occupant that his innermost sanctum was ever violated.
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Geisha with a really high CHR. Its how Nimue took down Merlin after all.
The rogue still has the optimal set of class features for stealthfully entering a mage's residence, temporarily disabling all alarms and traps, accomplishing a specific non-combat task (e.g. spying, stealing, etc.) and making a successful exit. All this without alerting the occupant that his innermost sanctum was ever violated.
The wizard can duplicate pretty much all of that with magic.
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The rogue still has the optimal set of class features for stealthfully entering a mage's residence, temporarily disabling all alarms and traps, accomplishing a specific non-combat task (e.g. spying, stealing, etc.) and making a successful exit. All this without alerting the occupant that his innermost sanctum was ever violated.
Investigators are better at pretty much all of this.
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I would say wizard->arcane trickster. Anything one caster can undo, typically with a small list of abjuration spells. That said skill ranks are extremely useful for preserving spell slots. After all most magical defenses are of long/permanent duration. What happens if you run into the owner after using up most of your higher level slots just breaking in. With all of the feats we have available now it is quite easy to build an arcane trickster with only a level delay in both sneak attack and spellcasting advancement. Or if you prefer it is possible to get near full sneak attack with full casting advancement. Thats not even mentioning all the class abilities you gain from arcane trickster and your sneak attack class