Hello, all. Title is simple enough. Let me give the details:
She will fight with two clockwork soldiers. As for her race and class, human that multiclasses as bard (detective) and gunslinger (mysterious stranger). Idea is that she buffs the soldiers as she attacks from a distance with her revolver (and even if her bardic inspirations wouldn’t normally work on the clockworks, I would give her an ability called Thassilonic Inspiration that allows her bardic inspirations to work on the soldiers).
I’m good in general with making stats, but I’m not knowledgeable in making bard/gunslinger NPCs, so I would love some input into good ways to make this encounter challenging yet fun.
I should’ve clarified this is 1st edition.
I’m aware of both, I was asking for some advice on specific gear for a bard/gunslinger NPC. I think I’ll lean more towards the gunslinger, with the main strategy using the gun to attack from a distance (especially if there are ways for a gunslinger to give debilitating effects with gun attacks).
I just had to download the book to see what you were dealing with. Have you decided which encounter to substitute? What room were you planning to use?
I just had to download the book to see what you were dealing with. Have you decided which encounter to substitute? What room were you planning to use?
This will be encountered in the Thassilon Library in part 4 (where in game the only “encounter” is an awakened clockwork librarian). Thematically it would be where the NPC would hang out the most, getting as much info on Thassilon as she can, and even finding and reactivating a couple of clockwork soldiers. All in the name of assisting Mokmurian’s goal to convert Varisia into a revived Thassilon.
Well, she'll need something to let her fly.
I had a mental image of the party walking in to see her two clockwork body guards standing near the column, the smoking clockwork librarian is between them looking up and pleading with Sophia to stop messing up the library. "worthless" books lie scattered on the floor while Sophia sits on a flying carpet with several stacked books sitting on the carpet... The "useful" books. An unseen servant holds a few more books open around her.
A funny thing could be, as she flies around on her carpet, fighting, the open books follow her around.
As for combat, I'd start with her casting Vanish and having her clockwork soldiers attack while she buffs. Either the Reach metamagic feat or a rod of reach and cast blur on the soldiers. Have both solders focus on disarming the first round then have one disarm while the other goes after spellcasters. Have a haunting mists spell ready. It will hinder everyone's vision, but the constructs will be immune to the shaken and wisdom damage.
The swipe spell could be useful against wand users.
If a spellcaster is close enough to a book shelf, have to unseen servant "move" the books off the shelf onto them. Maybe cause a CL check for a caster to cast.
As for equipment, aside from the possible metamagic rod of reach, a couple of arrow magnets will be useful against ranged attacks.... Of course, she can't shoot anybody that's got the cube in the way either, so no shooting back at archers.
An origami swarm could be a good distraction as well as throwing a jar of salve of slipperiness amongst the party.
Of course, the whole time the combat is going, the librarian gets in the way as it runs around trying to get books out of the way as it pleads with everyone to stop fighting in the library. LOL
ooh I love the idea of Mokmurian gifting her a magic carpet for flight. Otherwise boots of flying might work just as well.
And yeah, all those spells and magic items to make her as much of a supportive pest as possible while the soldiers do the fighting is a bard thing indeed, possibly switching to firing her revolver once one of the soldiers is down.
She could throw salve of slipperiness amongst the group and, if anybody falls, she can start shooting at them and comment something like shooting fish in a barrel... or rats in a grease trap. LOL
I only thought of the flying carpet because I had a mental image of her sitting with books stacked around her (the ones she thinks are useful) and a couple of open books floating around her and her reading from them.
By the way, a Dispelling pistol would be so mean.... Dispelling the party buffs with each shot...
Posting on this thread again. Need help with the specifics
-type of magic item quality for revolver
-magic items to help the NPC
-feats
Goal is for this NPC to be in complete range with her revolver, maybe using wands in her off hand? Either way the main fighters will be two clockwork soldiers whose weapons are buffed by magic weapon
Alright gonna try to work on this character. Considering she has two clockwork soldiers with her, I want this fight to be a CR of 12 or 13. So that would probably mean 10 or 11 levels of gunslinger (mysterious stranger) and 2 levels of bard (detective)?
Thinking base stats as Str 8, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 15, with her +2 bonus into Charisma, and the +3 to go into Dexterity or Charisma. Belt of incredible dexterity and headband of alluring charisma is a must, just depends on how much gold she has (I’m giving her gold equal to a PC’s wealth at her level with the +1 to CR as noted)
Will definitely go for the weaponwand idea, though not sure if she can no longer damage with her gun. I can fudge the rules and say that her weapon damage is applied along with the wand’s effect but it eats up two wand charges instead of one.
And she’s not gonna care about the chaos she causes in the library. She might have the clockwork servant incapacitated to keep it from interfering in the fight.
What kind of wand are you giving her? You can always make the revolver magic, built to take a wand and uses 2 charges from it every time it's fired and uses the wand at the same time.
If the wand has to be from the bard spell list to avoid constant UMD checks, hideous laughter would be a dangerous debuff.
Oh! I like that! Every time the target gets shot, they laugh while saying, "It hurts so bad!" LOL
Of course, it's a pretty easy save to make at that level. Unless, maybe, she targets only the fighters. If that's the case, Calamitous Flailing or confusion could be useful. Or maybe Mind Maze.... They get lost wandering around the library during the fight. LOL
A shotgun with various magical loads would do nicely. Maybe a tanglefoot shot and a shrapnel shot for the first encounter, then she reloads while her clockwork minions keep adventurers busy.
A shotgun with various magical loads would do nicely. Maybe a tanglefoot shot and a shrapnel shot for the first encounter, then she reloads while her clockwork minions keep adventurers busy.
The character’s using a revolver, but I like the idea of her having multiple bullets for debuffs.