Hey guys
I'm working on building my main antagonist for the campaign. He is originally a human turned half-orc, started out his "career" as a Wizard (level 9), but later on became a cleric of Rovagug (level 8). He is NE in alignment.
I am using Dingle Games generator to create the NPC, and this is the most complex one I have yet to create. As a result, I'm simply overwhelmed by the amount of choices. I have to pick feats, spells, and magic items, and in these levels there are dozens and dozens to choose from. Especially when it comes to spells. So far I have decided that the Wizard's school would be conjuration with prohibition on Universal and Illusion, and that the cleric's domains will be Destruction and War.
I am looking mostly for any advice regarding which feats and spells are best for this build, I am interested in making him very aggressive with lots of buffing and attack spells, since he's the final boss of this particular campaign. Ditto for feats. He's at a pretty low AC right now (15) so he needs to have strong offence.
Alternatively, if there is a pre-made build that I can have access to that more or less correspond with the above, that would also help. I did not find anything matching in the NPC gallery. I am flexible in that I can play a bit with the levels but I still wanna keep him at CR 11+.
Thanks!
Universal can't be a prohibited school. The entire point of universal is to cover a small selection of spells that all wizards should have access to. Also, it has less than a dozen spells, so you don't lose many spells if you pick it.
Strangely enough, read magic isn't universal. I just noticed that now. Strange considering that every wizard knows how to prepare read magic without needing a spell book.
A problem with your build is that you are not going to have any high level spells. It'll mostly be a bunch of low and mid level spells. Multi-classing spell casters don't do well in this game because they lose both caster levels and spell levels.
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Best I would say for it is to make him a wizard 4/cleric 3/ mystic theurge 10. Same end result, but much better at casting for both classes.
OmniMage wrote: Universal can't be a prohibited school. The entire point of universal is to cover a small selection of spells that all wizards should have access to. Also, it has less than a dozen spells, so you don't lose many spells if you pick it. In the Dingle Games NPC generator, Universal appears as a prohibited school option you can choose. This is from the calculated page:
(School Conjuration Prohibited Universal,Illusion)
The reason I went with this specific duel class is due to the character's backstory, which led him from being a human wizard, to worshipping Rovagug and becoming a half-orc cleric within the city of Urgir. So my preference would be to keep the classes as they are. However. I am open to suggestions how I can keep the character powerful without clashing with the backstory.
The NPC was a selfish and vain wizard which took advantage of a small Orc tribe and conducted experiments on them. I won't get into all the details, but now he is sort-of making a penance for it. His interests clash with those of the PC's.
I'm not familiar with playing a Mystic Theurge. Will it fit here?
I would take quality over quantity, meaning, I prefer less spells, but more impressive ones. I do not look forward to spending two hours picking and choosing low-level spells I'll never have him use.
Then the NPC generator is wrong. It's not one of the allowed prohibited schools in pathfinder. The rules specifically say choose one of the EIGHT schools of magic as a prohibited school, and that wizards who do not specialize recieve the universalist school, showing it isn't one of the standard 8
In Pathfinder, “prohibited” is a bit of a misnomer. “Opposition” is the more correct term. You can still cast spells of the prohibited school, but it takes up twice as many spell slots. So if you prohibit divination, you can still prepare read magic, but it will take up two of your cantrips instead of the normal one.
And I agree that universal school should never be an opposition school. But the actual rules don’t seem to forbid it.
Since Universalist is not an actual school it cannot be an opposition school. The only place it is mentioned is under the description of wizard class. If you look in the section on magic that lists the schools it does not appear. Even the wording in the description of the wizard class feature states it is not a school.
Arcane School: A wizard can choose to specialize in one school of magic, gaining additional spells and powers based on that school. This choice must be made at 1st level, and once made, it cannot be changed. A wizard that does not select a school receives the universalist school instead.
Notice it says that a wizard who does select a school, not a wizard can select the Universalist school. This makes it clear that Universalist is not actually a school. Also note that the spell description list universal as the school, but the wizard class feature lists Universalist. All other schools match the name of the school in both the class feature and the spell description.
The header for the thing says it’s a school.
Quote: Universalist School
Wizards who do not specialize (known as universalists) have the most diversity of all arcane spellcasters.
So it is a school. It’s just not a specialist school. And the rules for opposed schools doesn’t actually specify it has to be a specialist school.
To be clear, I’m 100% sure universalist shouldn’t be a choice for opposed school. But I also don’t see that properly expressed anywhere in the rules. It could use some errata or a faq.
I second wizard 4/cleric 3/ mystic theurge 10.
Mystic Theurge advances both Arcane and Divine spellcasting levels for all 10 levels of the Prestige Class.
It is a superior and simpler option, overall. In my opinion.
Sorta reminds me of my friends Mystic theurge.
They built entirely into Fire Snake spell. with tons of buffs into it. Lots of metamagic choices. including element switching.
They basically controlled the entirity of the field and made it hard for anyone to escapep, attack or even just stand anywhere.
All the while. being very safe.
So.. I might consider looking into something like that?
Filling a room with Standard Action fire snake, then a swift actoin fire snack to cover thee walls and celings. then an emerency force shell thingy via immediate action. And then just laughing from their bubble
makes a hell of a hello villain introduction.
Thanks, guys. Ok, I'm trying wizard 4/cleric 3/ mystic theurge 10.
I'm getting a CR 14.5 character. The party is APL of 9. Thoughts? Will that work?
Also, I like the Fire Snake spell. Any other recommended spells?
Thanks.
The Mystic Theurge is on p. 387 of the Core Rulebook.
Or see this link:
http://www.aonprd.com/PrestigeClassesDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Mystic%20Theurge
Its a prestige class that advances you down the path of 2 spell casting classes at the same time. 1 Arcane, 1 Divine. It'll definitely give you more magic power than advancing 2 classes separately.
My advice on the high Challenge Rating... face time!
Introduce the BBEG in the background of more appropriate leveled fights, just to give him scene time whilst the party fights his lower level captains, or has to save hostages instead of pursue his escape.
Level the party up to fight him in his full glory.
And you definitely have to take into consideration that if you aren't already familiar with it, you probably don't know how to play a Mythic Theurge to its full potential, so you can introduce the actual fight sooner.
I'm definitely not familiar with it. How do you play a Mystic Theurge to its full potential?
So we are nearing the end of the campaign, and problem is I waited until the last moment to stat the BBEG. That was probably a mistake. I underestimated the task. But even so, it would've been very hard for me to bring them to level 12 or 13 without introducing tons of filler and screwing the pacing. We've been running this campaign for a while now and they advanced only a few levels (we play on medium XP advancement).
I'll think of something...
The plus side of a mystic theurge is that you can have all the buffs. The downside is the lower BAB and other stats meaning you're starting from a lower point, and of course lower spell levels than a single-classed character. They're pretty poor blasters, fire snake is not a selling point.
Ok, so a solo encounter against a Mystic Theurge isn't really an exciting fight. Honestly the BBG will either squish the party with the first volley of spells or get crushed by his miserable defenses and subpar HP. A mystic theurge is perfect for buffing budyguards and acting as support.
Lower the BBGs level to 12. So Wizard 4, Cleric 3 and Mystic Theurge 5. He'll just barely be able to cast 5th level wizard spells, and 4th level cleric spells. This should make him equivellent to a CR 11 encounter by himself.
Now throw in a few Orc Barbarians around CR 8-9 to bring the total xp value up to a CR 12 encounter. Use the BBG as a support that casts Haste, Blessing of Fervor (used for the +2 to attack since they already have haste), Prayer, Bless, and continue casting more buffs as the fight goes.
The only prebuffing you should do is some defensive buffs on the BBG himself. When the BBG casts haste that should instantly draw a big target on his head. When he follows it up with a group buff every round like clockwork the party should go ballistic. Give the BBG a minor rod of quickening and cast a quickened summon monster III for the first 3 rounds. Also have the BBG have a pre-cast Spectral Hand to deliver up to 4th level healing spells from the back of the combat.
Should be a rather memorable fight.
Thanks so much, Meirril, I plan to stage the fight either inside Urgir or nearby, so having Orcs around makes lots of sense. This is a Dwarven-Orcish campaign.
And thanks everyone for the ideas.
Even after DMing for 1.5 years there is still so much to learn...
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