Naztharune Progression

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Now with 25% fewer levels!

bonuses 4/4/2/2/0/4

Vampire Lord Progression

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Questions

- Can we use feats drawn from Arcana Evolved? Specifically, the ones that imitate rogue class abilities (thinking into epic here)

fil here 4-13-- I'm really looking to close the door on everything AU related except races and Akashic

so in short, no.

- Can I use the OA version of Tattooed Monk instead of CW? The difference is dropping Endurance as a required feat. I don't have a con score, so spening a feat on Endurance is pretty lame.

fil here 4-13-- I flat out don't have OA anymore. But I think endurance is there strictly because he has to get tattood a lot. Flavorful, but a waste here.

So that you can at least have some sort of benefit from this, let's stick with the CW version, but switch endurance to skill focus: concentrate. This will be useful when you pick up psywarrior.

- Do we roll for evolved undead, or just take it if we fit the time requirements? (100+ years for each level)

fil here 4-13-- I don't have the book anymore (I barely have any due to some bad packing and miscommunication) so I don't know what this is referring to off hand. Give me more details and I'll make a decision then.

- Do leadership and undead leadership count as different feats for cohorts (like, 2 cohorts instead of one)

fil here 4-13-- you're team is mighty powerful as it is. other than the dominitrix whipping people literally back to health (which I absolutely love-- even doodled up a litle picture about her... ), there is little need for a cohort for anyone. ... but I did open the door, and I'm not going to close it mid- party.

I"m going to strike up a small conversation on a new page here to get some feedback before answering this question.

fil here 3-11

good work... the sr is going ot cause trouble tho... if this were a 20th ECL character, the SR would be SR25. pretty good agaist all bu tthe BBEG's. considerin gestalt flavoring, this could easioy get out of hand into the 40's if we look at it crooked. SO we're gonna call it SR5+CHARACTER level, starting at level 7 this is SR12. it will build to SR20 at level 15, then at level 16 it'll jump to SR27 ad max at lvel 20 as SR31, and build into epic.

I think this will keep you a bit more in scale with the challenges, and not make you immeidately immune to practically everything, while nudging it every level, and puttin you ahead of where you would be if you only played that as a race/class non- gestalt.

doesn't seem that powerful to me tho... are you interested only because of the shadowlord access at level 8?

1. how do you plan on deali with the groups anit telepotin tactics?

2. are you really only interested in multipouncing? because the dhraksis shadowlord str drain multipouncer puts practically everything else to shame. Yer welcome to steal it.

___

randomsyllable

The SR change is a good one - I hadn't thought that one through. Mostly I like the flavour of these guys. They're very...Eberron-y.

1. The two sub-optimal methods are by asking them nicely not to use it, or by staying outside it's radius. The other (cheesy) option is to be the recipient of the spell for the party. - Every time I blink, I take the effect with me, removing it from the area and allowing teleportation freely until I blink back in. Would this work? I don't know.

2. Not really. The actual Idea was to have this rakshasa as the centre of a slowly gwoing crime network in Sharn (using Leadership, etc.). Basically, he's running from something nasty in Khyber related to the Daelkyr. He's not a nice person, necessarily, but he's also in enough trouble he'd like to keep buried that he's a playable party member. I decided to add in multipouncing because I didn't want to be entirely useless in combat. Out of combat, I'm a decent skill monkey and depending on how I structure all the levels, a fairly good face.

The final progession would be something like Cobra Monk2/Fighter1/Swordsage2/Chameleon2/Shadowlord4/Chameleon8/Warshaper1//Naztharune Rakshasa 16/Swordsage 4 - The most significant feats will be craven (more SA damage), darkstalker (flank most everything with island of blades stance) and shadow blade (for dex to damage). I'd like to fit three levels of rogue in for the ability to deal half SA damage to SA-immune creatures. I'm not sure where though. Maybe I should take some flaws and drop the Fighter level...

^^fil ere

how do you anticipate this character interactin with celestine? He's pretty bent on killing off your species.... at least puttin the end to virtually all of Khybe and the Demon wastes... you to may want to bang yer heads together a bit.

also, sharn is abot two chapters, then it's off to the mournland for however long it takes... 3 maybe four chapters before options start to open up for you to decie. So you'll have little oppotunity to develop a crime network (which is a slight clash with the overall perspective and undertone of the team)

We also have two faces with Vin and Taner. Another can't hurt, but if that is the focus on this guy, he's dead weight.

-- I'm being kinda blunt and straight forward with you on this, huh? Not trying to caus you trouble. just making sure youre making the most of your time.

On a positive note, I really like the idea of a Rakshasa runnig from the Daelkyr and other rakshasa of the demon wastes... you'll have some nasty faction that I can make use of almost immediatly... to everyone's disadvantage.

If you all can bash out how the celestial on the team won't try to destroy the rakshasa immediately, then this can be a lot of fun.

Now, there is a background rumour/threat that the great rift in the Mournland is a potential pathway for the Daelkyr to come back to Khorvaire from the beyond. A rakshasa attemtping to prevent this would be a unexpected, but potentially useful ally as well.

some input from the rest o the crew here would be helpful as well.

-random

Don't worry - I really do apprecieate the comments.

re: Celestine - I wanted to talk about that actually, but I see it potentially being a lot of fun. If he doesn't zap me in the first little bit, at least. I need to finish coming up with a sample background before I'll feel comfortable suggesting something, however.

In a similar vein, the crime lord thing I see being put on hiatus due to the arrival of the other PCs in Sharn. Once this guy (who I really need a name for) learns that they're involved with any sort of rift, he'll be highly intruiged. The crime business will be left to his second (cohort - likely my original build).

The face thing isn't the focus of the build, it's just a natural outgrowth of change shape and high skill point totals.

In any case, I think I'll wait to hear feedback from other folks before I finish slapping together a build, but I'll start writing up a background.

ZarZak -

ZarZak here ... Celestine will not handle being with a raskshasa well, to the say the least. He's pretty hell-bent (haha, punny) on destroying everything even remotely related to hell. That said, if you can think of a good reason for him to be there, such that Celestine will desist from trying to destroy him outright, then the RP should be a lot of fun. :) One thing to note, OOC, is that for his legacy item Celestine had to take an oath to do no evil. That would include killing/murdering a good creature. So, if you can convince Celestine that your character is good, Celestine will be oath-bound to not kill your character.

fil here

good call, Zarzak. Nice safety valve. I really dig the idea of the character, so if you can figure it out, then yer good to go. You may want ot go with an alternate/hidden form initially until the the am fgures out who he really is... by then they mayt rely/accept him.

random-

I like that approach guys, so who about something along these lines: when he comes to sharn he's not at all a nice person, and starts to go about setting himself up as a local crime boss (Lawful Evil after all). However, he sends his second to steal a gem of security from a high-ranking noble after encountering one at a social event he was attending (in a different form, obviously). If he can't detect someone's thoughts, he doesn't want them reading his, etc. However, the amulet turns out to have the properties more or less of a Helm of Opposite Alignment, except it's a gradual shift. A couple of weeks down the road, he's into neutral evil from LE, then he hits N, and he's on his way to NG before he figures out why he doesn't feel the urge to punish failure with an immediate onset of death. He ditches the amulet, but it's too late - he's hovering around N, and his aura (for a detect alignment spell) is showing up N/NG (Never got to CG). The problem he faces is that he's getting better results by being 'better' than he was before. He still won't give money to the local orphanage out of the goodness of his heart, but he recognizes that by helping them, not only is he fostering goodwill in the community, they're doing a needed job (keeping street urchins out of his hair) better than he could.

Surreal here -

Anyone here ever watch Andromeda? I think Tyr's personality type would fit very well here. Supremely arrogant and selfish, and at times a gun for hire, but deep down also loyal (once earned). A manipulative bastard if you will, but just because you're evil doesn't mean you're malignant; merely looking out for number one.

DavidWL here -

Welcome to the team. Regarding the Amulet/"Helm of Opposite Alignment" - an interesting hook is to ask what happened to the noble it was taken from :)

3-12 fil here...

Opposite alignment gem = good idea. I'm sticking it to you... in that it's cursed. You've probably ditched that thing four or five times now and it keeps shoing up in your pocket etc. You've visited a few diferent catrs to break the enchantment, but when you found a real good one, they broke through yer disguise as wel.. rumours a plenty that week.. I tell ya!

This is a non- cost magic item that may have other annoying traits as I see fit. Yer character knows it's changing you... the challege will be, how much effort are you going to put forth to keep track of it? if you ignore the fact that yer cursed, you may end up nicer... which could be good, but it wasn't yer choice to do so... as you dig towards CN (go cn before ng... it adds to the drama.) yer gonna get ultra pissed that your freedom of will is being toyed with. if yer persistenat, you'll proably find the thing before it can shift you further... so you;'ll show as n/cn for some time, until you give up fightin it... then you become angry again for not fighting it; but what if it has handy properties that open up as your alignment shifts further? what then, eh? I think celestine would keep you around simply to see what would happen... he has his cruel streak as well.

Your choice, but I think this would make for a LOT more fun for you as chapters unfold. I'll trat it as a free item familiar that you don't invest anything in unles you decide to embrace it. if you do, then cough up the feat and ue it as you will. As long as youtry to get rid of it, I won't charge you naything or it.

one other note, I just (rightly or wrongly) chewed out Rashamon for what I thought was not reading all the material in the wiki and game threads. If you haven't done so already, I suggest you do before I go on a rant here as well.

fil here 4-11 (wow.. been a while, huh...)

good work,random.

yes, we did discus him taking a level of epic vampire blah in a PM... Im caveating this so he can play a vamp without being a complete liability to the team.

We origially drafted you because we meed more stron combatants. I'd recommend you adhere to that allowance. The party really needs it. Luckily, Vamps are terribly good at kicking the crap out of things whie retaining some suave control abilities. God solution to current and future powerscaling.

You may want to consider begin dipping into monk for grapple control, and flurry with wis/neg level attacks.. You'll become a veritable save or die durig full attack rounds (much like aurok!)

I'm gona rant here for a secod, and poit out that A fighters ability to kill something is obviously their primary function, and often thei only function... the real loss in power comes rom their lack of "utility"... but I'm thinking this actually becomes balanced if the casters focus on buffing, healing, control, and utility... althouh tey certainly CAN blast and saveordie, witha suficiently large team, they don't need to all tha much.

I think this larger group is going to actually help blance celestie and tanner to everyone else, simply because their role can be freed up.

I also propose that although aurok and other combatants' roles are "limited to combat".. the players are bringing lots to the table in crativity and input... it doesn't really matter if zarzak thinks of using stonetell or noldorforce did... celestine can do it, and as long as someone thinks of it, the party benefits.

So, here's to a large diverse party of creative gamers with the DM-awful ability to think their way out of paper bags!

edit... I personally am going to be amused/dreading when Niht begins tapping his Legion of Doom(c2007) for ider diersity and utility. we think leadership sis broken... how about an army of slaves for free...

(maybe you should consider dread necro for your's and sul's benefit... outsiders live orever.. so you can have a nice log history regarding the blood of vol is you choose.. :) )

-random

Would you quit reading my mind already fil - I was about to start rewriting my faction to include shenanigans with the Blood of Vol.

As to plans, I need to take imrpoved grapple for a class prerequisite, so consider that done and done. Additionally, I'm planning on using a Storguard Warrior/Shadow pounce routine for damage output (16-24 touch attacks for +5 damage on each attack next round followed by 16-24 attacks), but I'm holding off on the pouncing until later on in the build. In the short term, grappling for slam damage and simply using dominate person are going to be far more effective. As to utility, that's been one of the things I've been trying to deal with inasmuch as I have to find a way to get Celestine to not whack me within 3 seconds of meeting me. The solution thus far is a gross bonus to my bluff checks and a level of tattooed monk, which should hold through until Item familiar comes into play.

Also, I just added a section up top labelled questions I was hoping you could answer for my build. Thanks.

Fil here 4-14

Putting answers in to yer questios up top.....