[3.PF] The Subtle Kill

[Rasman]

Right now I'm playing a character, a druid, that seems like a nice guy. But...he has one REAL character flaw. He's very VERY passive aggressive. Outwardly, he'd never just kill an NPC that hadn't done any OBVIOUSLY wrong. Right now though, he knows of the doings of an NPC that needs to be "taken care of" but considering the kingdom they are in, if he just captures him, he'll wiggle out of the law system due to lack of actual proof.

I need a way though either feats or spells that I could kill him in almost plain sight without drawing attention or suspicion.

My druid is 11th level and just leveled last session, so I have a feat to work with.

His current feats are:

Greensinger Initiate
Combat Reflexes
Ashbound
Natural Spell
Initiate of Nature
Craft Wondrous Item
*Blank*

So far I've considered Nonverbal Spell as a start for feats and Mold Touch as my spell of choice.

This is something I'm more than willing to dedicate time or some levels to do since this is a "sub plot" of the campaign and is something that will still be there after some time.

[Pentachoron]

Wildshape into something, murder the problem NPC in the face, run away until you aren't seen and shift back could be a good approach.

*Edit* Provided you're only concerned about your character drawing attention, if you want to draw no attention whatsoever that's a different matter.

[faceroll]

Summon bears to do your dirty work.

[Xiander]

Wildshape into something, murder the problem NPC in the face, run away until you aren't seen and shift back could be a good approach.

*Edit* Provided you're only concerned about your character drawing attention, if you want to draw no attention whatsoever that's a different matter.

Alternatively, have a summoned animal murder him. Of course this is subject to the same problem clauses as the first suggestion.

[Goonthegoof]

Get the invisible spell metamagic and go to town.
Wait until he's in a basement or something and cast invisible create water a bunch of times.

Not because it's particularly effective but because it's an epic way to kill someone.
If you want real advice use invisible summon natures ally and attack him with invisible bears, no-one will ever trace it back to you.

Alternately wild shape into a cat, cast reduce person or reduce animal (can't remember which applies to wild shaped druids) so you're diminutive, cast invisible body of the sun and have someone slip you into his pocket.

[Rasman]

Wildshape into something, murder the problem NPC in the face, run away until you aren't seen and shift back could be a good approach.

*Edit* Provided you're only concerned about your character drawing attention, if you want to draw no attention whatsoever that's a different matter.

Problem is that that is SORT of trackable and not drawing attention is sort of the point, I'm afraid.


Get the invisible spell metamagic and go to town.
Wait until he's in a basement or something and cast invisible create water a bunch of times.

Not because it's particularly effective but because it's an epic way to kill someone.
If you want real advice use invisible summon natures ally and attack him with invisible bears, no-one will ever trace it back to you.

Alternately wild shape into a cat, cast reduce person or reduce animal (can't remember which applies to wild shaped druids) so you're diminutive, cast invisible body of the sun and have someone slip you into his pocket.

Invisible Create Water...that's awesome...but I sadly don't have a way to trap him in such a way...he also almost continually has a mental connection with a Wizard, so mentally he'd be able to call for help before I could take care of him. What it has to be is something that is fairly quick and deadly that isn't readily traceable.

This city we're in is FULL of Warmages and Eldritch Knights that would be able to discern the type of spell that did the deed and probably the type of caster. This is why I need to be discrete.

But Invisible Spell is an EXCELLENT idea. I found a Pathfinder spell out of the Advanced Players Guide, Swarm Skin that would do the trick nicely since it doesn't create anything magical, it's treated as a normal creature and it isn't summoned, so it would give me an out.

If I could find a way to make him helpless, an Army Ant Swarm could just eat him...

If he flies, it'd have to be a Wasp Swarm...next level I could have two...

any other thoughts?

[Lord Bingo]

Use Baleful Polymorph to turn the individual into a harmless animal, unbeknown to the general public. Then simply hunt him and slay him. Even better: have the general public hunt and slay him.

Alternatively you could just kill him in a dark alley. You do not have to kill him using your class features.

[Rasman]

Use Baleful Polymorph to turn the individual into a harmless animal, unbeknown to the general public. Then simply hunt him and slay him. Even better: have the general public hunt and slay him.

Alternatively you could just kill him in a dark alley. You do not have to kill him using your class features.

like I said, if and when he dies, it has to be either in a general public place or something like the comfort of his bed...he's not an easy person to get alone because of his standing within the system.

I can still use Wildshape with this though...what's a good Diminutive animal?

Unfortunately I can't use a Bird due to...circumstances...although it would be rather poetic justice if I did

[Dr.Epic]

Take a lesson from Mati from Captain Planet and summon some animals to kill them. Heart!

[CapnVan]

As anyone familiar with Paranoia™ will tell you, the best assassination is the one that you can't be tied to.

What can you put into place which will kill this NPC without you being even magically involved? Skills? Friends/contacts?

Where's the rest of the party on this?

Ultimately, the ideal is to manipulate someone else into doing the job for you.

Just thinking along...

[Sir_Ophiuchus]

Call up a small bird with sharp talons. Tip them with a really nasty poison with a delay, having protected the bird from that poison. Have it land on his shoulder some time he's distracted and nick him.

Wait.

He'll die of poison, not of magic. Much harder to trace.

[Sillycomic]

Why can't you just plant evidence on him that makes it impossible for him to just wiggle out of it?

Make journals/letters citing all of the things he's done wrong (and add a bunch of other things just for funsies)

Since you know he's done those wrong things, he can't even deny them without bluffing. If he wants to say those are lies put him in a zone of truth. Now he has to confess!

Also "witnesses" who are either bribed or suggested/dominated/charmed in some manner to say what this person did.

Not specifically something that a druid can do, but just get a decent skill monkey to do all the forgery stuff, get a wizard to do all of the witness stuff and you can just have various animals put these journals/letters/ and whatnot at his place of business, home, and also send some along to the local watch.

[Chuckthedwarf]

Deceptive Spell Metamagic from Cityscape could work.

It's a +1 metamagic that makes it look that your spell comes from a different source. Like, if you're a wizard and cast magic missile at someone in plain sight on a street in some city, it looks like it comes from some random window and can't be tracked back to you.

And since druids have a bunch of weather-themed lightning spells (at least one as I remember...) you just wait till there's a thunderstorm - or cause one... and use Call Lightning or something. Nobody can really blame you for a freak lightning, it's nature, man!

[Rasman]

Why can't you just plant evidence on him that makes it impossible for him to just wiggle out of it?

Make journals/letters citing all of the things he's done wrong (and add a bunch of other things just for funsies)

Since you know he's done those wrong things, he can't even deny them without bluffing. If he wants to say those are lies put him in a zone of truth. Now he has to confess!

Also "witnesses" who are either bribed or suggested/dominated/charmed in some manner to say what this person did.

Not specifically something that a druid can do, but just get a decent skill monkey to do all the forgery stuff, get a wizard to do all of the witness stuff and you can just have various animals put these journals/letters/ and whatnot at his place of business, home, and also send some along to the local watch.

I've tried most of that. He has class levels in something, I think it's a type of Psionics, but I just don't know what.

He's also a Genesai. So he's got a High Con and High Wis with lowered Cha. Immune to Charms and anything I summoned, if considered an Outsider, he'd get a +4 Dodge bonus against.

I've watched him use some of his racial abilities and, from what I can tell as to how he's used them, he's got the Racial feats as well.

Outside contracting is an option, but if it was managed that the assassin was captured, I'd get pinned in it.


Deceptive Spell Metamagic from Cityscape could work.

It's a +1 metamagic that makes it look that your spell comes from a different source. Like, if you're a wizard and cast magic missile at someone in plain sight on a street in some city, it looks like it comes from some random window and can't be tracked back to you.

And since druids have a bunch of weather-themed lightning spells (at least one as I remember...) you just wait till there's a thunderstorm - or cause one... and use Call Lightning or something. Nobody can really blame you for a freak lightning, it's nature, man!

That's true...

...invisible lighting...

can you even dodge invisible lightning?

[Doc Roc]

Lyre of building. Flesh is just another building material.

Alternatively, my favorite option is a scroll of mindrape. Why kill what you can use?

[ryzouken]

Problem with "murder" in D&D: with sufficient divination everything is knowable. You can never truly divorce yourself from a kill, only make it prohibitively expensive and complicated to reach the truth.

But good luck! And have some means of defeating divinations...

[Sillycomic]

Is the GM ok that you try to kill this guy?

Because this guy seems to be set up with some pretty sweet plot armor at the moment. I'm not sure if it's hard to kill him because the Gm wants it to be hard, or it's hard to kill him because the GM just doesn't want you to kill him.

Why isn't the rest of your group down with killing this guy? You supposed to do it by yourself? Are you screwing over your group by killing this guy?

[Hazzardevil]

My question is why dont you use deceptive spell on a summon natures ally and after the animal kills him kill the animals. If they are outsiders the body dissapears. the only flaw is that his AC might make it impossible to kill him.

[FMArthur]

That's true...

...invisible lighting...

can you even dodge invisible lightning?

You're confusing Deceptive Spell and Invisible Spell. Deceptive spell really does what Chuckthedwarf said (and even has artwork showing Mialee using Lightning Bolt the same way). You should combine it with the "Conceal Spellcasting" Sleight of Hand usage in Races of Stone or the Skill Trick which is actually named that, does exactly the same thing and costs you skill points. Either way you can make a Sleight of Hand check to disguise the verbal and somatic components of the spell as something else.

[only1doug]

Leadership feat:

Make your cohort a rogue/assissin and get him equipment that blocks divination magic.

the rest of your followers become an information gathering network for strinking at your targets.

[WildPyre]

Ah you're thinking far too straight forward on this.

You say he's doing things behind the scenes that put him into the area of "Needs to die"? Then what you need to do is not find a deceptive way to kill him, you need to find a deceptive way to expose him and let other people kill him.

Pull the curtain away from the wizard and expose him for the sad little man he is.

[FMArthur]

Alternatively, bring such utter ruination upon him in spectacular enough fashion and nobody will mess with you. Smashing into his mansion whilst riding a dragon, amplifying your voice, slaying guards right and left and causing lots of explosions everywhere does have a certain charm to it.

[Radar]

Lyre of building. Flesh is just another building material.

(...)
That's some nightmare fuel.
*Scribbles down for further study*

edit: more on topic. If your character is passive-agressive, then the right course of action would be to make his life a fate worse then death. Udermine his operations, frame him, crush his reputation, take away, what's dearest to him to the point, when he'll try to off himself.

[Ravens_cry]

Make the person you want to kill want to kill you, and when they come at you, kill them in self defence. Make sure their are plenty of sympathetic witnesses for when you kill the enraged one. Take a few blows to make it look good.

[Rasman]

That's some nightmare fuel.
*Scribbles down for further study*

edit: more on topic. If your character is passive-agressive, then the right course of action would be to make his life a fate worse then death. Udermine his operations, frame him, crush his reputation, take away, what's dearest to him to the point, when he'll try to off himself.

you make an excellent point...

...wrongplacewrongtimeitus is going around I hear...

[Radar]

you make an excellent point...

...wrongplacewrongtimeitus is going around I hear...
Thank you. :smallsmile:

Count Monte Christo used such tactics to great effect.

[Doc Roc]

Radar, will you help us add some subtlety to Legend? You too, Ras. I hear it has been passed down in your family for generations.

Largely in the form of some sneakly magic items?

[Tyndmyr]

Radar, will you help us add some subtlety to Legend? You too, Ras. I hear it has been passed down in your family for generations.

Largely in the form of some sneakly magic items?

I once made a cloak that was fairly tailor made for an assassin. It may or may not make sense, depending on cosmology/planes in a given world. In this one, it was the plane of shadows.

Whenever the cloak is worn, you suddenly find yourself on another plane. It is adjacent to the material plane, and is exactly like it in every respect except for the following: It is always dark and gloomy. Nothing live is there except for you. There is no water there, and water does not travel with you via the cloak.

While fairly simple, this leads to a lot of interesting complications. For instance, wood all comes from living trees. Most houses are made of wood, and thus, do not exist on the plane.

The uses for it are quite varied.

[Ravens_cry]

Wouldn't that kill you by desiccation?:smallconfused:

[Doc Roc]

Wouldn't that kill you be desiccation?:smallconfused:

Maybe, but a silver golem would survive... <injoke>

[Ravens_cry]

Maybe, but a silver golem would survive... <injoke>
I suppose one would. In fact ,the only common golem I imagine being even remotely affected would be those akin to Herr Frankenstein's most notable creation, though wood golems would get more easy to burn.

[Doc Roc]

I suppose one would. In fact ,the only common golem I imagine being even remotely affected would be those akin to Herr Frankenstein's most notable creation, though wood golems would get more easy to burn.

Karn (http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Karn)'t you take a joke? ;)

Actually, it's interesting. Would wood be able to jump over there? Would a blood-golem actually die due to dehydration? Or just become very strange?

[Ravens_cry]

Karn (http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Karn)'t you take a joke? ;)

Actually, it's interesting. Would wood be able to jump over there? Would a blood-golem actually die due to dehydration? Or just become very strange?

At the very least, a blood golem would certainly shrink a great deal, unless it was a blood golem like the blood golem of Hextor, encased in steel.
I had never heard of Karn before now, so no, I Karn't get that joke, until now anyway.

[Doc Roc]

At the very least, a blood golem would certainly shrink a great deal, unless it was a blood golem like the blood golem of Hextor, encased in steel.
I had never heard of Karn before now, so no, I Karn't get that joke, until now anyway.

I was thinking of the Hextorite one.

[WildPyre]

How did this become some strange in-joke thread? :confused:

[Rasman]

How did this become some strange in-joke thread? :confused:

I dunno...I just asked how to kill a guy that pissed me off...I mean...important plot NPC...

[VirOath]

Well, back on topic, I'm positive the best way is through non-magical means entirely. Deal with him by preparation.

You're a druid, so abuse it. Barter with a small animal (like a rat or mouse) to go into his home and poison his food, bed, soap, bathtub, clothes and anything else you see fit. You could likely cover everything important to him with contact poisons given enough time.

Best part, they use divination to show who poisoned the npc, they get a rat.

So in the comfort of his own bed by seemingly natural causes, death by rat.

[Rasman]

Well, back on topic, I'm positive the best way is through non-magical means entirely. Deal with him by preparation.

You're a druid, so abuse it. Barter with a small animal (like a rat or mouse) to go into his home and poison his food, bed, soap, bathtub, clothes and anything else you see fit. You could likely cover everything important to him with contact poisons given enough time.

Best part, they use divination to show who poisoned the npc, they get a rat.

So in the comfort of his own bed by seemingly natural causes, death by rat.

THAT IS BRILLIANT! I have the feat that lets me Turn and Rebuke animals like an Evil Cleric does Undead, so I can just command a snake to do my bidding...or Monkeys...yes...natures trickster...I think my plan just hit Jackpot...

Animals don't like Genesai anyway...MUHAHAHAHAHA!