Building Fuhrer Bradley [PF]

[The Redwolf]

Alright, so in an upcoming campaign I'm going to be running I decided that one of the important NPC's should be modeled after Fuhrer King Bradley from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I already have some good ideas for it, but I'd like to hear what you guys think I should do. He's going to be a level 20 Bladebound Kensai Magus, with everything that gives access too. I'm planning on optimizing him as much as possible, so I figure you guys can help.

He's going to have some magic items to give him constant haste and give him some teleportation. Since I'm using Kensai he'll have a focus on dex, and I'll be using Mythic (it's currently in playtest, my group is doing the playtest, it isn't really important what it entails) which will let him have a version of weapon finesse that lets him use dex for damage and attack with any weapon he uses, along with some other goodies.

I'm going to jack his dex through the roof, and he'll have stuff to focus on speed and multiple attacks like haste and all that, but what are some suggestions you all have for how I can do this? Since he'll have that weapon finesse he'll probably use a longsword so I don't have to worry about all the scimitar shenanigans, and his casting gets dropped some from the archetypes but still works just fine.

Is there anything I should put on him feat or item wise that would be particularly amazing? Also, am I allowed to enchant his Black Blade? It didn't really seem to say one way or another on the archetype. If so, what would you think I should put on it? Stuff for extra movement, dodging or redirecting blows, and getting extra attacks are preferrable.

[Ryulin18]

As a fan of pathfinder and full metal alchemist, I take quite a bit of interest in this.

From Bradley's background: he was a man at the peak of his fitness, trained from birth to be the best with any weapon and in any situation. That sounds like fighter, all over. He'd pack a lot of weapon proficiencies and stuff to use his speed (weapon finesse, dervish dance, etc) and all the things needed to even the battle field like:

TWF and all it's friends
Blind fight to negate his one eyedness
Agile maneuvers to use DEX for his CMB
Improved and greater trip, bull rush, grapple, etc
Step up, following step, step up and strike (to tackle casters)
Pretty much the whole combat feat tree


His eye is attached to his immense speed, power and other physical abilities. Created using soul destroying magics, it could be made with the custom magic item rules.

Working out that he is a 20th level fighter with the feats to make his a power house, we'd have to work out his eye.

Custom magic item: Eye of Wrath (creation cost)
+6 to all mental stats (minimum) = belt of phys perfection +6 = 77,000gp
constant haste = 480,000gp
Huge dodge bonus (say +15) = 450,000
True seeing = 480,000gp
Anything else to keep him going

Well within level 20 territory.

[The Redwolf]

Fighter sounds like a good idea, but I'd like to keep him as a Bladebound Kensai because the blade gives all sorts of neat stuff and the Kensai gives all the specializations, the lack of armor, the enhanced speed and the use of his intelligence in battle, not to mention the spells he could use with range of self would be pretty useful. The agile maneuvers and blind-fight are great ideas, and I was already planning on his eyepatch giving him true seeing. I like the idea getting improved bull-rush, and hadn't considered the step-up feats. He's going to be the highest up under the guy in charge, much like the show now that I think about it, so he's going to be decked out in stat enhancements and all that, I mean, honestly he'll probably get the full +17 from items, wishes, and manuals, might even cheese the hell out of it and stack miracles and the psionic wish on there too just because it would be justifiable, although I'm not sure if you can do that since they're basically the same thing... Somehow I missed dodge, and you're right he needs an item to jack up dodge also, I'll have to see how his AC is when I get other stuff on, I might go with a ring of deflection instead of dodge since it applies to more, since it can always be flavored as him redirecting it with his sword. I was about to say I'm not sure if I should do two-weapon, but now that I think about it if I make the swords look the same they won't know which one is his Black Blade, so that's nice...

Overall it looks like it might be a heavier feat investment than I'd like, so I'll probably have to pick and choose since I want to stick with magus and therefore don't get the fighter bonus feats. Thank you for all the ideas, I hadn't put much into this yet, and you gave me a lot of ideas for how to make it work effectively. If you have suggestions to tweak it for magus instead of fighter I'd love to hear them, because you thought all that out great. Budget on items is no limit, because he honestly has as much cash and as many items as he wants, and custom works too. The players know he's going to be there, but they're going to be level 13 and he isn't actually evil or anything, just there because it's cool, so I really can make him as awesome as possible. One of them kinda wants to try fighting him if they make it up to 20, and I already told him it's not going to really go well for him if he tries.

[Sith_Happens]

Don't forget, he needs to be able to deflect ranged attacks up to and including heavy artillery.

[The Redwolf]

Don't forget, he needs to be able to deflect ranged attacks up to and including heavy artillery.

That's part of the reason I put Bladebound in, is because it's indestructible, so clearly he could cut a tank shell with it if he has high enough dex, which he does. :smallbiggrin:

[Ryulin18]

He very clearly has a preference in his own blade, shown when he stabs a guy to get his own saber back, but he can still use anything equally. I think that taking him out of pure fighter is completely redundant and against character.

The title for this thread should be "I want to roleplay someone like Fuhrer Bradley, but play something completely different."

At no point during any of his appearances has he ever shown to, or hinted at, use magic (Alchemy or D&D magic). At this point you're just going to be playing someone completely different from Bradley.

If you're trying to build Fuhrer Bradley, build him. Not his spell launching, single blade using alternate.

[AttilaTheGeek]

If you're playing a FMA campaign (which is, by the way, TOTALLY AWESOME) and you're really attached to the idea of a Kensai BBEG, then I would just make him be Scar, and have his chosen weapon be his unarmed strike. It's flavorful, too- just make him a force version of Shocking Grasp and you're good to go. He shouldn't have to use Elemental Spell because he actually is deconstructing the stuff he hits, not modifying an electrical spell.

I'm also of the belief that Bradley is more like a fighter, but to be both flavorful and not TPK he should have a whole BUNCH of attacks, and they should just do less damage. I.e, instead of hitting for 2d6+20 at +20/+15/+10/+5, make him hit for 1d6+10 at +20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5/+5 before two-weapon fighting. It's a good way to make him seem a lot more powerful without quantifiably affecting his damage output. Alternatively, I'm pretty sure there's one scene where he does take out all four blades at the same time... I mean, you'd have to have 8 d20s on hand, but it is President Furher-King Bradley we're talking about here.

[The Redwolf]

Alright, I'm going to clarify this. I'm not actually playing him, he's an NPC and in charge of an important organization in game. Using a Kensai Magus allows him to have stuff like haste to keep the feel of Bradley, gives him the ability to use his intelligence and analyzation to be harder to hit and fight better, which Bradley does, keeps him out of armor since Bradley never wore any sort of armor, and give him that supernatural speed that he had. The only other weapon he ever used beside his sword was Fu's sword/knife thing as far as I recall, and being Bladebound won't prohibit him from using other things at all, and with Kensai he can get specializations on swords, which are what he uses. Kensai diminishes his spellcasting and Bladebound reduces his arcane pool, so he isn't going to be using spells or arcana pretty much ever, but the one sword will have better properties to help explain how he does ridiculous stuff. I was just looking through and overall to build an insanely fast and skilled swordsman who doesn't use armor and can do more ridiculous stuff, this felt like a better fit than a fighter did. I also figure it's obligatory to give him the feat that lets him use any weapon or improvised weapon without penalty, so he will be able to use other stuff, he just won't have those bonuses from it being what he specializes in. I'm going to throw the two weapon fighting in because after you pointed it out it seemed like a great idea, just one sword will be slightly better than the other, it's not a big deal because it won't do anything flavor-wise.