Author Topic: The Dread Emperor  (Read 13100 times)

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Sobolev

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The Dread Emperor
« on: November 28, 2010, 02:02:52 AM »
I'm interested in making "The Dread Emperor" for a game I'm running, but level 20 is much higher than I need.  I'm thinking around CR 8.  I like the Armor, Shield, Imp Familiar, Cast-y that he has going, and the flavor but I'd like some non-Unique Ring of Dumbness reason for why he doesn't have spell failure, even if its just making him a Blackguard or some other class.  I'd like to preserve some spellcasting, as well as the familiar and armor.  The original entry can be found in BoVD on page 17 and should be reasonably well optimized as it will likely be some sort of boss fight.

Even if you don't want to submit a full build (and I don't blame you), if you know of a class that can wear plate, but can cast and maybe has an Imp Familiar.  I'm considering just making him a Cleric, but I'm tired so I can't think of how to get an Imp that way.
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Quote from: Negative Zero on November 04, 2009, 02:16:14 AM
In my humble opinion, CO is haberdashery. Some say we're mad, but we can all agree we're hatters. Yes, we have potential to make very sophisticated hats, very fancy hats, be they dark or light. But the truth is that the color of the hat does not come from the group of us - our community doesn't directly produce hats. We simply give average head circumferences, list current fashion trends, and point out some shiny, obscure baubles to add to the latest hat line.

LunaticsLament

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2010, 02:16:30 AM »
You can get an imp at lvl 7 with Dread Necromancer.  Not sure about the full plate.
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2010, 02:17:12 AM »
The Mystic Wanderer PrC grants a divine caster a familiar, and also Cha to AC. You could also go with something like Alternative Spell Source/Southern Magician, and Obtain Familiar.
You can get an imp at lvl 7 with Dread Necromancer.  Not sure about the full plate.
Take Battle Caster twice (or once, if the plate is mithral). Done.
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Nick

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2010, 03:12:27 AM »
You can try duskblade for gishing, not sure about the imp though.
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X-Codes

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2010, 03:56:33 AM »
Human Conjurer* 5/Demonologist** 3/Ultimate Magus 2
*Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning variants.  Prepare your non-summoning Conjurations and utility spells here, as well as stuff like Animate Dead and Command Undead.  Prohibit Enchantment and Illusion, neither of which are very nice to use on the party, anyway.
**Make it Lawful Evil, give it an Imp familiar, and call it a Diabolist, even though this is the class you're really using.

Flaws: Fussy, Noncombatant
Feats:
1) Violate Spell, Evil Brand, Lichloved, Spell Focus [Evil]
3) Sacrificial Mastery
6) Practiced Spellcaster [Demonologist]
9) *something that makes Violate Spell better/easier to use*

The only way to make it more Evil Overlord-y is to somehow cram in Rebuke Undead.  Biggest problem with this build are the demands on ability scores; needs at least 14 Charisma, 15 Wisdom (Sacrificial Mastery is a pain in the ass), and as much Intelligence and Constitution as possible, and Dexterity isn't all that bad of an idea, either.

For the armor, use Bracers of Armor that take up the robe slot instead of the arms slot--the rest is flavor.  For the shield, use a +1 mithral buckler.  Stick a deflection crystal on there and you get a very nice bonus vs. ranged attacks.

Violate spells like Great Thunderclap to get massive save vs. suckage with a little Vile damage tacked on for good measure.  A Violated Fireball (7d6) might be a nice opener, too.  Keep your own damage low and rely on summons to screen for you and to dish out any serious punishment.  Can be a force to be reckoned with given that it has virtually free access to a Nightmare mount (Call Nightmare on the Demonologist spell list).  Can easily escape from the party until put-up-or-shut-up time.

Flay Crimsonwind

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2010, 06:31:38 AM »
Whereas I think there was a homebrew discipline for this character, I can't help but picture this guy.

Lycanthromancer

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2010, 06:43:18 AM »
What, not the Magic Emperor?

« Last Edit: November 28, 2010, 08:09:16 AM by Lycanthromancer »
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Prime32

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2010, 09:18:59 AM »
Psion/thrallherd with undead thralls?
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The tier system in a nutshell:
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skydragonknight

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2010, 09:34:23 AM »
What, not the Magic Emperor?

[spoiler][/spoiler]
It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.

ninjarabbit

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2010, 12:55:19 PM »
CR 9 Human battlesorcerer7/abjurantchampion2

Feats:
1-power attack, battlecaster or improved initative if you use mithral breastplate instead.
3-combat casting
6-arcane strike
9-improved familiar: imp

Spells known:
1-shield, protection from good, grease, silent image
2-wraithstrike, wings of cover, glitterdust
3-dispel magic, stinking cloud
4-summon monster IV

Spells that target all 3 saves, a few good defensive spells as swift/immediate actions, and wraithstrike with power attack and arcane strike brings the offense.


Sobolev

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2010, 10:01:16 PM »
Human Conjurer* 5/Demonologist** 3/Ultimate Magus 2
*Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning variants.  Prepare your non-summoning Conjurations and utility spells here, as well as stuff like Animate Dead and Command Undead.  Prohibit Enchantment and Illusion, neither of which are very nice to use on the party, anyway.
**Make it Lawful Evil, give it an Imp familiar, and call it a Diabolist, even though this is the class you're really using.

Flaws: Fussy, Noncombatant
Feats:
1) Violate Spell, Evil Brand, Lichloved, Spell Focus [Evil]
3) Sacrificial Mastery
6) Practiced Spellcaster [Demonologist]
9) *something that makes Violate Spell better/easier to use*

I like where this is going, my only objection really is that Bracers of Armor are either terrible or expensive when they are high bonuses.  Otherwise, this looks good, I shall look in to this stuffs.
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Quote from: Negative Zero on November 04, 2009, 02:16:14 AM
In my humble opinion, CO is haberdashery. Some say we're mad, but we can all agree we're hatters. Yes, we have potential to make very sophisticated hats, very fancy hats, be they dark or light. But the truth is that the color of the hat does not come from the group of us - our community doesn't directly produce hats. We simply give average head circumferences, list current fashion trends, and point out some shiny, obscure baubles to add to the latest hat line.

skydragonknight

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2010, 10:08:04 PM »
I like where this is going, my only objection really is that Bracers of Armor are either terrible or expensive when they are high bonuses.  Otherwise, this looks good, I shall look in to this stuffs.

Greater Mage Armor. It's a Conjuration spell...
It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.

Sobolev

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2010, 10:46:17 PM »
I like where this is going, my only objection really is that Bracers of Armor are either terrible or expensive when they are high bonuses.  Otherwise, this looks good, I shall look in to this stuffs.

Greater Mage Armor. It's a Conjuration spell...

Yeah, I understand that, but the gimmick of the character is trying to get Heavy Armor, it was suggested that I use Robe Slot Bracers of Armor, but those would not be particularly good.
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Quote from: Negative Zero on November 04, 2009, 02:16:14 AM
In my humble opinion, CO is haberdashery. Some say we're mad, but we can all agree we're hatters. Yes, we have potential to make very sophisticated hats, very fancy hats, be they dark or light. But the truth is that the color of the hat does not come from the group of us - our community doesn't directly produce hats. We simply give average head circumferences, list current fashion trends, and point out some shiny, obscure baubles to add to the latest hat line.

Mixster

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2010, 11:28:20 PM »
Well if you waive the Dwarf Requirement of the Runesmith PrC, you could do something like:
Arcane Caster 8/Thrall of Demogorgon 1/Runesmith 1

Then you would be able to cast spells in full armour, without spell failure, and with a BAB of 6.
Alternatively you could use a semi-fast BAB progressing Arcane Caster and grab all this at level 8, but your casting would suffer a lot.
Monks are pretty much the best designed class ever.

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skydragonknight

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #14 on: November 28, 2010, 11:38:20 PM »
I like where this is going, my only objection really is that Bracers of Armor are either terrible or expensive when they are high bonuses.  Otherwise, this looks good, I shall look in to this stuffs.

Greater Mage Armor. It's a Conjuration spell...

Yeah, I understand that, but the gimmick of the character is trying to get Heavy Armor, it was suggested that I use Robe Slot Bracers of Armor, but those would not be particularly good.

Wasn't there some combination of armor properties that could get Full Plate down to Light Armor? Then just be a class that can cast in light armor.
It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #15 on: November 28, 2010, 11:44:55 PM »
Use SLAs that duplicate the spells you want, instead?
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X-Codes

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #16 on: November 28, 2010, 11:49:35 PM »
At this point I'm thinking it will probably be easier to somehow manage free Still Spell on everything, or perhaps cheese some method of using Spells as SLAs instead.

Maybe we can also manage to stick the guy into an Iron Golem or even Helmed Horror.  Those would achieve the same visual effect, even though platemail isn't technically involved.

Yes, I think that will get us somewhere.  Use a scroll of Magic Jar to possess an Iron Golem and then cast Imprison Possessor in order to permanently lock yourself in, apparently even after the Magic Jar spell ends, which means the focus becomes meaningless.

Sobolev

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #17 on: November 28, 2010, 11:52:09 PM »
At this point I'm thinking it will probably be easier to somehow manage free Still Spell on everything, or perhaps cheese some method of using Spells as SLAs instead.

Maybe we can also manage to stick the guy into an Iron Golem or even Helmed Horror.  Those would achieve the same visual effect, even though platemail isn't technically involved.

Yes, I think that will get us somewhere.  Use a scroll of Magic Jar to possess an Iron Golem and then cast Imprison Possessor in order to permanently lock yourself in, apparently even after the Magic Jar spell ends, which means the focus becomes meaningless.

Both of these are good ideas, can't think of a good way to get Still Spell to be 0, since most are minimum 1.
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Quote from: Negative Zero on November 04, 2009, 02:16:14 AM
In my humble opinion, CO is haberdashery. Some say we're mad, but we can all agree we're hatters. Yes, we have potential to make very sophisticated hats, very fancy hats, be they dark or light. But the truth is that the color of the hat does not come from the group of us - our community doesn't directly produce hats. We simply give average head circumferences, list current fashion trends, and point out some shiny, obscure baubles to add to the latest hat line.

skydragonknight

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2010, 12:01:06 AM »
Spell-to-Power Erudite and pretend to be an arcane caster?
It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: The Dread Emperor
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2010, 12:02:27 AM »
If you have LA buyoff allowed

Feytouched 0/Half-fey Transition 1 (buy off at 3) / Half fiend 2 (buy off at 6 and 9)

That nets a total SLA list of

Charm person at will, faerie fire or glitterdust 1/day, hypnotism 1/day
Detect law 3/day, enthrall or sleep 1/day
Protection from law 3/day
Confusion or emotion 1/day
Eyebite or lesser geas 1/day
Darkness 3/day
Poison 3/day
Desecrate 1/day
Unholy blight 1/day

Along with
Str +2, Dex +2, Con +2,Wis +2, Cha +2, immunity to enchantments, wings, natural armor +1, 2 claws, darkvision 60 ft., outsider type, bite, poison immunity, resistances (acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5), spell resistance (equal to character level).

For a +CR of either 0 or 2, depending upon how you count bought-off LA towards CR.  In either case, you've got a nasty evil overlord pseudo spell list, a nasty set of demonic natural abilities, and stat boosts to everything except intelligence.  

Dropping the second half-fiend transition level is possible, since the cooler abilities are granted by the first level.

Add that onto a dread necromancer going into prestige paladin of slaughter/tyranny., and you've got an intimidating baddy that isn't going to easily WTFcurbstomp the party.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2010, 12:07:14 AM by The_Mad_Linguist »
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