In a campaign i'm currently in a large portion of the party has monstrous cohorts. Being one of the few people who didn't grab leadership (even though i'm one of the few with a charisma focus), i finally decided to grab it, and during a side adventure I gained a cohort who was a Vampire Succubus.
While thats pretty good our party is level 16 right now, and kind of a bunch of horrible overpowered monsters ourselves.
The GM's rules for this is a little custom but as it can be a level 14 cohort the number of class levels i can give it is 14-CR(9).
So i can give it 5 levels of my choice. The DM would prefer i kept within the theme of it making it a "Charismatic Warrior type" as the NPC is the type to like to fight. Its put me in a bit of a situation for this one as all the other cohorts in the party are either support....or cowards so they have pretty good ways of not really participating directly in the heat of combat.
So this thing is going to be really durable as its an undead with a 31 charisma, so its going to have a really good HP pool.
Otherwise its stats are 19, 21, 10, 20, 16, 31 (str, dex, con, int, wis, cha).
So the problem comes in here, I know the best option would be to make it some sort of support option, but to acheive this "charismatic warrior" type i would have to make it more combat oriented than support, so i need to make these 5 levels count.
The problem is I'm a multiclassesed monstrosity of a sorcerer/dragon disciple/ect.. who has a +32 to hit and a 55 AC....and i'm about lower-middle in terms of to-hit (though the highest ac by about 2 points) compared to the rest of the party.
So i have to figure out how to make this cohort actually participate in combat and still be able to actually hit anything.
So here's a few things I've figured out so far:
1. It's going to to have some durability, but it would probably be best in the back row.
2. It has spell-likes and thats probably the most spellcasting it'll want to do as its not going to be able to reach beyond level 2 spells.
3. It would probably be best against touch AC, but the GM currently doesn't have guns in our setting so that reduces the possibilities.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, as i'm at a bit of a loss how to really optimize on this one.
Bard. No class does "support" like a Bard. It wouldn't even require any special Archetypes or Feats.
Bard. No class does "support" like a Bard. It wouldn't even require any special Archetypes or Feats.
As i said the GM wants this thing to be more combat oriented and less support, so unfortunately its not a great option in that aspect.
Anti-Paladin, fits the whole "combat oriented" thing very well, and has mad synergy with the charisma of vampire and succubus...
Yeah, those classes would help. Antipaladin seemed like the best choice.
As to everyone suggesting bloodrager/skald, its undead so unfortunately it is immune to all morale effects, so the creature itself couldn't benefit.
Honestly my biggest problem is its only getting 5 levels so spellcasting is generally not going to help much either.
And the final issue is if i'm almost 100% certain this thing will never actually land a hit because we're generally up against things with 44+ ACs, and this won't have nearly enough wealth to even think about closing that gap.
I think with 5 levels of antipaladin and weapon finesse (because it just gets that for being a succubus) i managed to reach a +18 to hit. and NPC wealth (considering this is 27k gp vs the 315k gp wealth between it and a real character).
I thought vaguely about the Overwhelming Soul kineticist to maybe hit touch ACs, thought it wouldn't be very good at it, but as undead can't accept burn normal kineticist archetypes are out so this is the only one that still gives something for reducing burn costs in place of completely losing the ability to take burn.
Scaled Fist Monk 1 adds Charisma to your AC.
Sensei Monk 2 adds Charisma to attacks with unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
Technically the two can't be taken together, since Scaled Fist modifies the bonus feat list and Sensei replaces it, but if your GM is lenient you might be able to make it work.
Sensei also gives you a mini-bard with Inspire Competence and Inspire Courage too.
As a GM (well I wouldn't usually allow cohorts in the first place but) I would prefer players keep it simple by utilizing martially focused classes and not casting classes. In large part because casters are very powerful and can change the game more significantly than non-casters.
In any event, the fact that you're working with a succubus and limited class levels that way makes it difficult to choose.
As someone else suggested already, bloodrager is pretty good choice.
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Although it is a bit of an obscure rule, Undead Barbarians are a thing. Back in the early days of PFS, developers unloaded Ghoul/Ghast Barbarians, Skeletal Champion Barbarians, and more at the PFS players. When these players started to cry foul on this, the developers eventually created a rule, which can be found in a stat block of the Vampire Savage published in the Monster Codex:
Undead Barbarian: An undead creature with the ability to enter a rage gains the morale bonuses from rage despite being immune to morale effects. The bonus to Constitution from the rage applies to an undead creature’s Charisma instead.
So, undead seem to be able to go into rage, apparently gaining this ability in the process. So an Vampire Bloodrager should be possible. Bard on the other hand is a bit less useful (in case of trying to self-buff), as Inspire Courage is a Mind-affecting effect.
On a complete another note, you could also consider a Dashing Thief Swashbuckler. When this archetype feints, you can activate the Dazing Charm Deed to give the opponent a quick kiss as a free action. It might also activate the Energy Drain (and Suggestion) of the Succubus itself, giving some nice battlefield control (smooching one enemy to death while parrying the other opponents). You could even just take 4 levels of this Swashbuckler, and 1 lvl of Scaled Fist Unchained Monk to also gain Charisma to AC/CMD (and a Bonus Feat).
Or be the Ex-Paladin archetype, the Vindictive Bastard. This "paladin" can smite whoever dares to strike one of their allies, regardless of the alignment. It is not the best paladin archetype in this occasion, but maybe you don't want to/cannot change the alignment of your cohort.
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And the final issue is if i'm almost 100% certain this thing will never actually land a hit because we're generally up against things with 44+ ACs, and this won't have nearly enough wealth to even think about closing that gap.
I think with 5 levels of antipaladin and weapon finesse (because it just gets that for being a succubus) i managed to reach a +18 to hit. and NPC wealth (considering this is 27k gp vs the 315k gp wealth between it and a real character).
You're supposed to shell out some of your own gold to help equip your cohort, certainly as you level up (since they don't get their own share of treasure) but also even when you acquire them. Buy your succubus some nice things, she deserves them!
Scaled Fist Monk 1 adds Charisma to your AC.
Sensei Monk 2 adds Charisma to attacks with unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
Technically the two can't be taken together, since Scaled Fist modifies the bonus feat list and Sensei replaces it, but if your GM is lenient you might be able to make it work.
Sensei also gives you a mini-bard with Inspire Competence and Inspire Courage too.
Yeah, scaled fist would be helpful, though currently its Chaotic Evil so a bit of an issue for taking monk levels.
A fun thing to do would be to Atone it to Lawful Good, and then turn it into a Sacred Shield Paladin
Sacred Shield turns smite evil into an untyped 50% damage reduction bonus if the smitten enemy hits someone close to the paladin that isn't the paladin itself, a huge combat buff.
In effect, the succubus is taking the hits for you to atone for all it past misdeeds. They get their Cha to AC, get to weird fullplate and heavy shields, which should mean AC through the roof.Meanwhile you get their shield bonus to your AC too.
Because it is a paladin, it also get +Cha to saves which is neat.
With the bracers item whose name I forget you can do it 3x/day, which should be plenty.
Yeah, wouldn't make much sense though as we're a an almost entirely evil party.
Although it is a bit of an obscure rule, Undead Barbarians are a thing. Back in the early days of PFS, developers unloaded Ghoul/Ghast Barbarians, Skeletal Champion Barbarians, and more at the PFS players. When these players started to cry foul on this, the developers eventually created a rule, which can be found in a stat block of the Vampire Savage published in the Monster Codex:
Undead Barbarian: An undead creature with the ability to enter a rage gains the morale bonuses from rage despite being immune to morale effects. The bonus to Constitution from the rage applies to an undead creature’s Charisma instead.So, undead seem to be able to go into rage, apparently gaining this ability in the process. So an Vampire Bloodrager should be possible. Bard on the other hand is a bit less useful (in case of trying to self-buff), as Inspire Courage is a Mind-affecting effect.
I'll check with my GM to see if that might work
You're supposed to shell out some of your own gold to help equip your cohort, certainly as you level up (since they don't get their own share of treasure) but also even when you acquire them. Buy your succubus some nice things, she deserves them!And the final issue is if i'm almost 100% certain this thing will never actually land a hit because we're generally up against things with 44+ ACs, and this won't have nearly enough wealth to even think about closing that gap.
I think with 5 levels of antipaladin and weapon finesse (because it just gets that for being a succubus) i managed to reach a +18 to hit. and NPC wealth (considering this is 27k gp vs the 315k gp wealth between it and a real character).
Totally want to do that, unfortunately we just ran into a mage's disjuction trap that obliterated half our party's wealth, so most of our gold is going towards damage control.
At that level, gloves of dueling are pretty cheap, so I'd go with a fighter.
Antipaladin. Signature Skill Feat (Intimidate), lots of ranks in Intimidate. Stack intimidate bonuses. Dazzling display or Cornugon Smash. Send even normally fear-immune enemies fleeing.
How do you do that last bit?
Antipaladin. Signature Skill Feat (Intimidate), lots of ranks in Intimidate. Stack intimidate bonuses. Dazzling display or Cornugon Smash. Send even normally fear-immune enemies fleeing.How do you do that last bit?
By being an antipaladin.
Aura of Cowardice (Su)
At 3rd level, an antipaladin radiates a palpably daunting aura that causes all enemies within 10 feet to take a –4 penalty on saving throws against fear effects. Creatures that are normally immune to fear lose that immunity while within 10 feet of an antipaladin with this ability. This ability functions only while the antipaladin remains conscious, not if he is unconscious or dead.