| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"One bright day,
in the middle of the night;
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back,
They faced each other;
Drew their swords,
And shot each other.
If you don't believe these lies are true;
Ask the blind man,
He saw it, too."
-Cawn
He is a Tengu NPC designed to be either your best friend or your worst nightmare, from level one all the way to twenty.
Unless someone is equally dedicated to Sense Motive, anything Cawn says will be taken as truth, more often than not. He can spread great tales of the party's wonderful deeds... or nefarious untruths about awful the party is. You may be met with warm welcome or hostile contempt.
Make him Chaotic Neutral, without an outright obvious reason to ever actually kill him.
Tengu Rumormonger
(Max ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy)
Charlatan, Guild Agent UnRogue:
1. Finesse Training
1. Sneak Attack 1D6
1. Honor Among Thieves
1. Natural Born Liar
1(level): Lovable Scoundrel
2. Guild Connections
... Black Market Connections (rogue talent)
2. Rogue Talent
... Obfuscate Story
3. Finesse Training
3. Sneak Attack 2D6
3. Grand Hoax
... Rumormonger (rogue talent)
3(level): Long-nose Form
4. Debilitating Injury
4. Guild Connections
... Gossip Collector (vigilante talent)
4. Rogue Talent
... Steal Story
Brazen Deceiver Bard:
5./1. Cantrips
5./1. Spells (Bard)
5./1. Shameless Scoundrel
5./1. Bardic Performance (standard action)
... Deceptive Tale (unlikely lies)
... Fascinate
... Inspire Courage +1
5./1(level): Extra Rogue Talent
... Convincing Lie
6./2. Blatant Subtlety
6./2. Invoke the Blood
... Bleed
... Touch of Fatigue
6./2(class): Spellsong
7./3. Bardic Performance
... Inspire Competence +2
7./3(level): Persuasive
8./4. --
9./5. Devil's Tongue 1/day
9./5. Bardic Performance
... Deceptive Tale (far-fetched lies)
... Inspire Courage +2
9./5(level): Confabulist
10./6. Invoke the Blood
... Darkness
... Darkvision
10./6. Bardic Performance
... Suggestion
11./7. Bardic Performance (move action)
... Inspire Competence +3
11./7(level): Rhetorical Flourish
12./8. Bardic Performance
... Dirge of Doom
13./9. Bardic Performance
... Inspire Greatness
13./9(level):
14./10. Jack of all Trades
14./10. Invoke the Blood
... Shadow Conjuration
... Shadow Step
15./11. Devil's Tongue 2/day
15./11. Bardic Performance
... Deceptive Tale (impossible lies)
... Inspire Courage +3
... Inspire Competence +4
15./11(level):
16./12. Bardic Performance
... Soothing Performance
17./13. Bardic Performance (swift action)
17./13(level):
18./14. Invoke the Blood
... Shadow Evocation
... Shadow Walk
18./14. Bardic Performance
... Frightening Tune
19./15. Bardic Performance
... Inspire Competence +5
... Inspire Heroics
19./15(level):
20./16.
Honor Among Thieves (Ex)
A guild agent must remain a member in good standing of a thieves’ guild (he starts at rank 1 with her guild when using the organizational influence system on pages 109–117). If the guild agent leaves his guild, he loses all of the abilities granted by this archetype and does not gain their replacements. If he joins a new guild, the guild agent regains his abilities, though depending on how he joins the guild, he may regain his abilities all at once or gradually over time. Even if the guild in question operates in multiple locations, the guild agent chooses a settlement as a base of operations for his own activities.
Natural Born Liar (Ex)
At 1st level, when a charlatan successfully deceives a creature with a Bluff, that creature takes a –2 penalty on the charlatan’s Bluff checks for the next 24 hours. This ability does not stack with itself.
Lovable Scoundrel
Benefit(s): If you fail a Bluff check to deceive, an Intimidate check to gain a target’s cooperation, or a Sleight of Hand check to steal from another creature, you can immediately attempt a Diplomacy check against the same DC as a free action. If you succeed, your target assumes your actions were in jest or just some awkward tengu tradition, and its attitude toward you does not immediately worsen (though later actions can still shift its attitude toward hostile). You can use this feat only once per day per target.
Black Market Connections
Benefit: A rogue with this talent gains better access to magic items from black market connections. She treats every settlement as one size greater (see Table: Settlement Statistics) for the purpose of determining the gp limit of the base value of items for sale, as well as the number of minor, medium, and major magic items for sale in the settlement. If the settlement is already a metropolis, all minor and medium magic items are for sale, as well as 3d8 major magic items. With a successful Diplomacy check, the rogue can treat the settlement as two sizes larger. If the settlement is already a metropolis and she succeeds at the check, all magic items are for sale. If the settlement is already a large city and she succeeds at the check, all minor and medium magic items are for sale, as well as 3d8 major magic items. With a successful check, the rogue can also sell stolen items on the black market. If the check fails by 5 or more, the rogue does something to spook the market, and treats the city as normal for 1 week. Furthermore, those in control of the black market may alert the authorities to the rogue’s presence in an act of reprisal for spooking the market or to divert attention away from their illicit activities. The DCs of the checks are by settlement size and are given in the table.
Community Size: DC
Thorp: 10
Hamlet: 12
Village: 15
Small town: 18
Large town: 20
Small city: 25
Large City: 30
Metropolis: 35
Obfuscate Story
Benefit: While another individual attempts to give an account of an event, the rogue makes an opposed Diplomacy check to deftly interject comments or statements over the course of the storytelling that cause the individual to muddle his ability to recall accurate or specific details. If the rogue succeeds, her target remains unaware that the rogue’s interjections caused the confusion. However, if she fails, the target is allowed a Sense Motive check (DC equal to the rogue’s failed Diplomacy check) to figure out that she made deliberate attempts to confuse the story.
Rumormonger
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can attempt to spread a rumor through a small town or larger settlement by making a Bluff check. She can do so a number of times per week equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0). The DC is based on the size of the settlement, and it takes a week for the rumor to propagate through the settlement. If the check succeeds, the rumor is practically accepted as fact within the community; succeeding by 5 or more over the DC decreases the time it takes the rumor to propagate by 1d4 days. A failed check means the rumor failed to gain traction, while failing by 5 or more causes the opposite of the rumor or some other competing theory involving the rumor’s subject to take hold.
Community Size: DC
Small town: 18
Large town: 20
Small city: 25
Large City: 30
Metropolis: 35
Long-nose Form
Benefit: Once per day, you can assume the form of a human whose nose is the length of your beak. This spell-like ability functions as alter self with a caster level equal to your level. While in this form you gain the scent ability and a +2 bonus to your Strength score. Because your long nose in this form clearly indicates you are not fully human, you do not gain the normal bonus to Disguise checks for using a polymorph effect (however, you could possibly explain the nose as an unfortunate curse or deformity, or hide it with an item such as a plague doctor’s mask).
Gossip Collector (Ex)
The vigilante sits at the center of a web of gossip, granting him access to the latest scuttlebutt with baffling speed. Whenever the vigilante is presented with a topic about which he would normally need to spend 1d4 hours to gather information, he must spend only 1d2 hours instead. If he has the renown social talent and gathers the information in his area of renown, he must instead spend only 1d4 × 10 minutes, and if he beats the DC to gather a piece of information by 20 or more, he knows that piece of information without spending any time at all; he has simply already heard that gossip. This ability doesn’t allow him to gather information that isn’t available in the locale he is canvassing, even if that locale is his area of renown.
Steal the Story
Benefit: After muddling another’s account using obfuscate story, the rogue may make another opposed Diplomacy check to alter the details further in order to discredit, insult, or humiliate the target. If the check succeeds, the target takes a penalty on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks against anyone who heard the altered story. This penalty is equal to the rogue’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma bonus (whichever is highest), and lasts until the target is able to repair his reputation or discredit the rogue. The rogue must have the obfuscate story talent to select this talent.
Shameless Scoundrel (Ex)
A brazen deceiver adds half his level (minimum +1) on Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth checks.
Deceptive Tale (Su)
A brazen deceiver learns the deceptive tale bardic performance, allowing him to weave magic into his lies and imbue the most fantastic claims with the appearance of truth. While the brazen deceiver maintains this performance, he takes half the normal penalty on Bluff checks for unlikely lies (rounding down to -2). At 5th level, this effect also applies to Bluff checks for far-fetched lies, and at 11th level, it applies to Bluff checks for impossible lies. Deceptive tale relies on audible components.
Convincing Lie
Benefit: When a rogue with this talent lies, she creates fabrications so convincing that others treat them as truth. When a rogue with this talent successfully uses the Bluff skill to convince someone that what she is saying is true, if that individual is questioned later about the statement or story, that person uses the rogue’s Bluff skill modifier to convince the questioner, rather than his own. If his Bluff skill modifier is better than the rogue’s, the individual can use his own modifier and gain a +2 bonus on any check to convince others of the lie. This effect lasts for a number of days equal to 1/2 the rogue’s level + the rogue’s Charisma modifier.
Blatant Subtlety (Ex)
At 2nd level, a brazen deceiver has mastered the art of using magic without being detected. The brazen deceiver gains Spellsong as a bonus feat. Observers do not automatically recognize his bardic performances as anything other than ordinary speech or performance. Those specifically looking for abnormal effects must succeed at a Sense Motive check (DC = 10 + half the brazen deceiver’s bard level + the brazen deceiver’s Charisma modifier) to detect his performances.
Devil’s Tongue (Ex)
At 5th level, a brazen deceiver beguiles others with astonishing skill. This functions as the lore master ability, but its effects apply to Bluff checks instead of Knowledge skill checks.
Confabulist
Benefit(s): When you fail to deceive someone with a Bluff check, you can immediately attempt another version of the same basic deception against that creature at a –5 penalty by downplaying the failed Bluff and quickly moving on to another one. You cannot use this ability if the first Bluff was so egregious that further checks would have been impossible (as per the Bluff skill). If you fail the second attempt, you cannot retry the Bluff check and all further attempts to perpetrate that particular deception are impossible.
Normal: When you fail a Bluff check against a creature, that creature is innately suspicious. You take a –10 penalty on future attempts to deceive that creature, or at the GM’s discretion, such attempts may be impossible.
Rhetorical Flourish
Benefit: When using the Diplomacy skill to make a request or change a creature’s attitude, you can use verbal misdirection. To do so, make a Bluff check against that creature. If you succeed, you gain a +4 bonus on your next Diplomacy check against that creature if the check is made within the next minute. If you fail by 5 or more, you instead take a –2 penalty on your next Diplomacy check against that creature.
Alternatively, you can use this feat to retry a single failed Diplomacy check against a creature. You take a –4 penalty on your Bluff check when using Rhetorical Flourish in this way. If you succeed, rather than gaining this feat’s normal bonus, you can retry your last Diplomacy check against the creature if that check was made in the past minute.
I know nobody cares, but I just found the most perfect of traits to go with the Lovable Scoundrel feat... which is litetally the entire reason I built Cawn in the first place. This is hilarious, and worth the thread necro.
Check out the synergy between the Amiable Blunder social trait, and the Lovable Scoundrel racial feat for Tengu...
Amiable Scoundrel:
Your easygoing demeanor allows you to sometimes recover from potentially awkward social situations or even condemnatory faux pas. Once per day when you fail a Diplomacy check by 5 or more and would cause an NPC’s attitude toward you to worsen, you can immediately attempt another Diplomacy check against the same DC as a free action. If you succeed at this second Diplomacy check, the character’s attitude doesn’t change, as though you had failed the original check by 4 or less.
Lovable Scoundrel:
If you fail a Bluff check to deceive, an Intimidate check to gain a target’s cooperation, or a Sleight of Hand check to steal from another creature, you can immediately attempt a Diplomacy check against the same DC as a free action. If you succeed, your target assumes your actions were in jest or just some awkward tengu tradition, and its attitude toward you does not immediately worsen (though later actions can still shift its attitude toward hostile). You can use this feat only once per day per target.
And here I was expecting an undead warrior with darkvision and a gunblade from the intro. Possibly with a clouded vision oracle cohort.
Yep, all those backup rolls look like they work.
I cannot remember where I heard that poem, honestly... but I have literally known it since grade school, middle school at the latest... circa 1997. Lol.
But now that you say it like that, I have to build me a blind Gunslinger... I know there's a Rogue archetype that gets Blind Fight feats as Talents. A caster using Spell Cartirdges and some magical Tremorsense or something would probably end up being better... because magic. I will figure it out.
For Cawn, I considered 6 levels of Arcane Trickster after Deceptive Tale applied to Impossible Lies... but the hit to BAB, and the lack of Bard bonuses doesn't seem like it is a good choice. Not that BAB is that important to Cawn, I have him listed as a non-combat NPC.
Sound Striker stacks with Brazen Deceiver, though. Which is always fun... and makes those Bard levels even more important. Once again, not that important for a non-combat NPC, but it's fun he could literally hurt you with his words... besides ruining you with his lies.
"One bright day,
in the middle of the night;
Two dead boys got up to fight.Back to back,
They faced each other;
Drew their swords,
And shot each other.If you don't believe these lies are true;
Ask the blind man,
He saw it, too."
...
That was one of my favorite poems? as a kid.
That was one of my favorite poems? as a kid."One bright day,
in the middle of the night;
Two dead boys got up to fight.Back to back,
They faced each other;
Drew their swords,
And shot each other.If you don't believe these lies are true;
Ask the blind man,
He saw it, too."
...
You are the first to ever recognize it.
I sang it as a cadence once during an IBA run in the Army... nobody liked it or recognized it.
That was one of my favorite poems? as a kid."One bright day,
in the middle of the night;
Two dead boys got up to fight.Back to back,
They faced each other;
Drew their swords,
And shot each other.If you don't believe these lies are true;
Ask the blind man,
He saw it, too."
...You are the first to ever recognize it.
I sang it as a cadence once during an IBA run in the Army... nobody liked it or recognized it.
I learned it from... the same people who introduced me to The Princess Bride. I misquoted the movie for decades.