E6 Vampires!

[Tvtyrant]

In my current campaign I have a Vampire Cult of Orcus which is attempting to open a door to the afterlife (the CR 9 Aspect of Orcus comes through if the door opens.)

I want the cult to have 5-10 vampires in it, but I only have 2 worked out.

1. Jeeves. The leader of the vampires and a level 6 Shaper Psion. Can use his powers in Gaseous Form and combines Overchannel with Talented. Works as a butler to hide suspicions.

2. Miranda. Second in command, a level 6 Warlock and vampire who uses the lesser invocation The Dead Walk to make an undead horde.

I need help making 3 or more vampires to add to their ranks. They should all be L0 humanoids with 5 or 6 class levels. No Wizards, Sorcs or other tier 1 classes though.

[Phelix-Mu]

1. Jeeves. ... Works as a butler to hide suspicions.

Is this really a good way to confuse the players, or just their characters? Cause "the butler did it" is a fairly common irl plot construct.

[lycantrope]

Clovis the Wellspoken
Illumiam Truenamer 6

Feats: skill focus (truespeak)
Empowered sigils
Quicken spell-like ability

Truespeak skill check at 18 (assuming 0 int bonus), 28 with the tome of magic item, 38 with appropriate wealth by level items (one +10 enhancement, the other +10 competence) which let him target level 6 player characters 11 times per utterance before he has to start making checks, 12 if he knows their true names. At level 6 he has access to up to 2 damage over time effects, and with quicken spell-like he can target two players during his first turn. With the universal aptitude utterance he can target players up to two more times per utterance. He can also grant freedom of movement to his allies with inertia surge and crowd control players with the same ability by keeping them from moving.

Edit: give him an additional +2 on the check with masterwork tools (a rosary? A book? A metronome?)

[Tvtyrant]

Is this really a good way to confuse the players, or just their characters? Cause "the butler did it" is a fairly common irl plot construct.

They know all about him. It is to get him into Folsam's inner circle as the butler. Folsam is a major business man who owns casinos, brothels, and hotels in the city of Megara.

[tasw]

Every vamp gang has to have at least 1 thug type character so I would build 1 fighter or psywarrior. Maybe a monk for a spin on it.

[Raven777]

Get an archery Ranger with a big nice wolf pet. I hear Rangers are really good in E6. Fluff him as a hunter (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EgomaniacHunter) who doesn't really care (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychoForHire) about the cult or Orcus at all. He's there to hound down the heroes, one by one, because he enjoys the challenge (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HuntingTheMostDangerousGame). Make him a skirmisher. At some point, the heroes have to retrieve a McGuffin or hostages or information from a building which he turned into his own little deathtrap. As the party makes its way through his hideout, tripping makeshift traps, he appears a couple times, takes shots from inaccessible vantage points, uses poisoned arrows, all the nasty stuff, until a final showdown.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The 'big guy' could be a (Magic-Blooded) (Desert (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs)) Half-Orc Wilder 6. Powers known should be Vigor, Force Screen, Share Pain, and Time Hop. Give him Hidden Talent: Expansion, Psicrystal Affinity (Bully), Menacing Demeanor via the Otyugh Hole in CS, Imperious Command, and the Never Outnumbered skill trick. Add on Dreadful Wrath (PGtF) and Skill Focus for it if using flaws (Bravado and Insomniac). Throw on Expanded Knowledge: Energy Missile with E6 feats, and maybe even Skill Focus: Intimidate, Willing Deformity, and Deformity: Teeth (HoH). Quick Recovery (LoM) will help him reduce Psychic Enervation to a move action. The Abrasive trait would be fitting.

He can wear light armor and use simple weapons without penalty, but I'd stick to using his level draining slam attack. Give him armor with the Fearsome property (DotU) which allows him to make an intimidate check to demoralize as a move action among other benefits. Remember that you get a +4 intimidate bonus per size category larger than your target, and he can wild surge expansion to get huge size, which makes his pants turn purple (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0387.html). I'd just use it for one size increase and augment for the longer duration.

He can keep the psicrystal in a compartment on his person so opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. He should keep Share Pain on his Psicrystal, so he takes half damage from all sources. Note the psicrystal's Hardness 8 will reduce every instance of damage from Share Pain by that much, regardless of the original attack's damage type. He can share buffs with the psicrystal, such as Vigor for a substantial hp cushion.

This guy is designed to be able to face multiple opponents at once thanks to intimidate, and outlast his opponents with his psionic buffs. That's why you get Time Hop, to take 2-3 opponents out of the fight for 6-7 rounds. Give him max ranks in Tumble, Concentration, and Intimidate, he gets Combat Reflexes from Vampire, and Expansion gives him a better reach. Energy Missile will give him a much needed long range attack that hits up to five opponents, and can also destroy weapons, armor, shields, divine foci, spell component pouches, etc.

Note that fear effects stack, and the cumulative effect lasts until the last contributing effect ends. For example, he Intimidates an opponent; they're Cowering for one round and Shaken on the next round. On that next round he intimidates them again, they're Cowering that round and Shaken on the next, but they were already shaken so they're Frightened. He intimidates them again on that next round, they Cower that round and Frightened is increased to Panicked for the next round. He doesn't even need to make them panicked, if they're adjacent to him and he's large size when they stop cowering at frightened they provoke an AoO when they run, even if they full retreat. He can intimidate twice in a given round, one of which can be Never Outnumbered. He can Never Outnumbered then Intimidate an opponent again, the next round they flee and get an AoO, and he intimidates someone else and Time Hops several shaken opponents who get a -2 on their save. The following round that last intimidated opponent flees and gets an AoO, and he can keep intimidating while he attacks or manifests powers.

Edit: Note that if he Time Hops an opponent who's Cowering, on the round they come back they're still Shaken for a round. If he intimidates them again they escalate to frightened, though they cower for a round first.

[Tvtyrant]

The 'big guy' could be a (Magic-Blooded) (Desert (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs)) Half-Orc Wilder 6. Powers known should be Vigor, Force Screen, Share Pain, and Time Hop. Give him Hidden Talent: Expansion, Psicrystal Affinity (Bully), Menacing Demeanor via the Otyugh Hole in CS, Imperious Command, and the Never Outnumbered skill trick. Add on Dreadful Wrath (PGtF) and Skill Focus for it if using flaws (Bravado and Insomniac). Throw on Expanded Knowledge: Energy Missile with E6 feats, and maybe even Skill Focus: Intimidate, Willing Deformity, and Deformity: Teeth (HoH). Quick Recovery (LoM) will help him reduce Psychic Enervation to a move action. The Abrasive trait would be fitting.

He can wear light armor and use simple weapons without penalty, but I'd stick to using his level draining slam attack. Give him armor with the Fearsome property (DotU) which allows him to make an intimidate check to demoralize as a move action among other benefits. Remember that you get a +4 intimidate bonus per size category larger than your target, and he can wild surge expansion to get huge size, which makes his pants turn purple (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0387.html). I'd just use it for one size increase and augment for the longer duration.

He can keep the psicrystal in a compartment on his person so opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. He should keep Share Pain on his Psicrystal, so he takes half damage from all sources. Note the psicrystal's Hardness 8 will reduce every instance of damage from Share Pain by that much, regardless of the original attack's damage type. He can share buffs with the psicrystal, such as Vigor for a substantial hp cushion.

This guy is designed to be able to face multiple opponents at once thanks to intimidate, and outlast his opponents with his psionic buffs. That's why you get Time Hop, to take 2-3 opponents out of the fight for 6-7 rounds. Give him max ranks in Tumble, Concentration, and Intimidate, he gets Combat Reflexes from Vampire, and Expansion gives him a better reach. Energy Missile will give him a much needed long range attack that hits up to five opponents, and can also destroy weapons, armor, shields, divine foci, spell component pouches, etc.

Note that fear effects stack, and the cumulative effect lasts until the last contributing effect ends. For example, he Intimidates an opponent; they're Cowering for one round and Shaken on the next round. On that next round he intimidates them again, they're Cowering that round and Shaken on the next, but they were already shaken so they're Frightened. He intimidates them again on that next round, they Cower that round and Frightened is increased to Panicked for the next round. He doesn't even need to make them panicked, if they're adjacent to him and he's large size when they stop cowering at frightened they provoke an AoO when they run, even if they full retreat. He can intimidate twice in a given round, one of which can be Never Outnumbered. He can Never Outnumbered then Intimidate an opponent again, the next round they flee and get an AoO, and he intimidates someone else and Time Hops several shaken opponents who get a -2 on their save. The following round that last intimidated opponent flees and gets an AoO, and he can keep intimidating while he attacks or manifests powers.

Edit: Note that if he Time Hops an opponent who's Cowering, on the round they come back they're still Shaken for a round. If he intimidates them again they escalate to frightened, though they cower for a round first.
Wow. This is really well thought out! I am totally going with this guy as the bruiser.

I also like the Truenamer and Ranger, especially with a level of Beastmaster on the end of the Ranger progression.

What are everyone's thoughts on an assassin/lurker type? Would a Ninja 5/Assassin 1 who death attacks from hiding and then turns invisible work?

[Yogibear41]

out of curiosity are you using the standard vampire template or something else? if standard what happens if one of your players becomes one? accidentally or even willingly?

[lycantrope]

Might be the first and last time you hear anyone call ninjas powerful. Give him some iajutsu focus and the players will be walking back to back until he's a confirmed kill.

[Tvtyrant]

out of curiosity are you using the standard vampire template or something else? if standard what happens if one of your players becomes one? accidentally or even willingly?

Standard template, with the caveat that true vampirism does not spread. The Vampire has to sell their soul to Orcus in a horrible ritual to become one, otherwise they show up as Wights. I picked that approach because otherwise it would be hard to justify everyone not already being a vampire or vampire spawn in an E6 world. (Liches come into existence in the same way in my world.)

If one of the players decided to sell their soul to Orcus to become a vampire, I would probably make them reroll but allow them to tell me their vampire's actions as a villain between sessions.