DM help, optimize my fear BBEG

[Drackstin]

I'm a fairly new DM and i wanted to make a Minor BBEG and in the heart of the Halloween spirit i wanted to make a use of Fear.

i have asked around alot and found alot of sources, but i have some things i want to work out. here is what i have so far.

Human-Dark Creature
Rogue1/Bard5/ Free1/ Mindbender1/Dread Witch1/ Nightmare Spinner1/Sublime Chord2/ Dread Witch4/Nightmare Spinner4

Feats: Dreadful Wrath, Aberration Blood, Haunting Melody, Frightful Presence, Inhuman Reach, Doomspeak, Fell Frighte, Imperious Comman.
Trait: Unnatural Aura
Variant Ability’s: Inspire Awe, Bardic Knack, Spellbreaker Song.

some questions i have are, what can i fill the 1 free level with, maybe rogue, or bard, or maybe assassin, or something else completely.

next should i take the rogue variant to get a fighter feat?

will Dreadful Wrath and Frightful Presence stack, if not whats better, and what should i replace.

are the bard variants worth it? and would suggestion work for me if i took one more level of bard. ill be using perform-throw voice or perform-impersonation.

i hope this is a good build, he will be starting around level 8 or 9 for the first time the group meets him. any suggestions will help.

[PraxisVetli]

I'm a fairly new DM and i wanted to make a Minor BBEG and in the heart of the Halloween spirit i wanted to make a use of Fear.

i have asked around alot and found alot of sources, but i have some things i want to work out. here is what i have so far.

Human-Dark Creature
Rogue1/Bard5/ Free1/ Mindbender1/Dread Witch1/ Nightmare Spinner1/Sublime Chord2/ Dread Witch4/Nightmare Spinner4

Feats: Dreadful Wrath, Aberration Blood, Haunting Melody, Frightful Presence, Inhuman Reach, Doomspeak, Fell Frighte, Imperious Comman.
Trait: Unnatural Aura
Variant Ability’s: Inspire Awe, Bardic Knack, Spellbreaker Song.

some questions i have are, what can i fill the 1 free level with, maybe rogue, or bard, or maybe assassin, or something else completely.

next should i take the rogue variant to get a fighter feat?

will Dreadful Wrath and Frightful Presence stack, if not whats better, and what should i replace.

are the bard variants worth it? and would suggestion work for me if i took one more level of bard. ill be using perform-throw voice or perform-impersonation.

i hope this is a good build, he will be starting around level 8 or 9 for the first time the group meets him. any suggestions will help.
You've Nightmare Spinner in your build twice..
Definately a great class, Dread Witch as well.
I'm currently In a campaign playing a Fear based caster, I can find the link to the thread if you like, its also got a link to the Fear handbook, which I found to be immensly helpful.
Dreadful Wrath is hilariously helpful, I suggest it.
I don't know much on Bard though.

[JoshuaZ]

Dread Necromancer also gets a fun fear aura. Also, if Pathfinder stuff is ok then you may want to look at the Dread (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/dread).

[Red Fel]

It was a very interesting idea when you posted it in your other thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307737). Try to keep your builds contained to one build, one thread, in the future.

Note that Dreadful Wrath is a regional feat, requiring first level. On the other hand, as this is your BBEG, it's not like you need DM approval, now is it? Since both Dreadful Wrath and Frightful Presence refer to a "frightful presence," however, I'd argue that they do not stack. Pick the one you prefer - larger radius, 1d6 rounds, no effect on animals or dragons, or smaller radius, one minute, no limitation on targets.

That said, these make great openers for a fear build, because - if you recall the handbook linked in the previous thread - fear escalates. Start your enemies off Shaken by using your DW/FP. Then escalate them with your various abilities - from shaken to frightened, to panicked, to cowering. You want to get your targets to cowering as quickly as possible, because when frightened or panicked, targets will flee, but once they're cowering, they're basically helpless. A big bonus is confronting them in an enclosed space, like a maze, room, or corridor.

Also, consider packing area spells with a visual element. These can be empowered by the Dread Witch's Fearful Empowerment ability. You can do similar things with illusions via the Nightmare Spinner's Nightmare Phantasm.

The goal, as I've said, is escalation. As soon as you're in combat, every round, you should be doing something that gets people scared.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Why is the Rogue level even there? Also, you need 3rd level spells to get Nightmare Spinner, which takes Bard 7 casting to get.

I would make the build Bard 4/ Dread Witch 1/ Bard 3/ Nightmare Spinner 1/ Bard 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Dread Witch 4 /Nightmare Spinner 4. That gives you eight levels of Bard, for the increased range on Inspire Awe. You can trade your Inspire Competence or Suggestion song for Haunting Melody per ECS p34 without spending a feat on it. You can also use a Planar Bard substitution level to trade the other of those two for a different song. Then there's Healing Hymn in CC, which replaces Hypnotism.

Make him a Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), and use the Half-Humans variant on Races of Destiny p150. That makes him count as a half-orc and a human for qualifying for feats and other things, rather than counting as a half-orc and an orc for qualifying for things. He can still get Dreadful Wrath this way, and you can also say he visited the Otyugh Hole in Complete Scoundrel to get Menacing Demeanor without spending a feat on it. I'd also consider giving him Able Learner in RoD via flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (Aligned Devotion and Bravado (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258440#30)), so he's not paying cross-class cost for Intimidate ranks during Bard levels or for UMD and Hide ranks during prestige class levels.

I'd drop the Frightful Presence feat, Dreadful Wrath is better and they shouldn't stack as they both produce an effect of the same name. I'd also drop Aberration Blood and Inhuman Reach, just give him a reach weapon and a spiked gauntlet, or even EWP: Spiked Chain or Kusari-Gama accomplishes the same thing with one fewer feat spent. If you want him to have a longer natural reach, Willing Deformity and Deformity: Tall from HoH are more beneficial as he'll get +3 Intimidate out of the first one. Definitely consider Versatile Spellcaster in RotD, and possibly Lyric Spell in CV. Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) is also useful, as its Invest Skill Ranks can give him a huge bonus to Intimidate. Give him a custom Runestaff (MIC p224) to expand his available spells known.

For Intimidate checks, be sure to give him the Never Outnumbered skill trick in CS, but remember it's only usable 1/encounter. Give him armor with the Fearsome property (DotU), which gives +5 Intimidate and allows him to demoralize as a move action rather than a standard action. In a single round he can activate Inspire Awe with Haunting Melody (standard), Intimidate with Never Outnumbered (move), and cast a swift action spell to activate Dreadful Wrath (swift), for four saves/checks vs shaken on the whole party in the first round! The following round he can cast a Fell Frighten Sound Burst (using two 3rd level spell slots via versatile spellcaster or five uses of bardic music per lyric spell if necessary) for no-save damage to automatically make them shaken or escalate their existing fear condition again. Remember that per the Rules Compendium an escalated fear condition lasts until the duration of every effect that contributed to the escalated condition has ended on that creature.

[Drackstin]

Why is the Rogue level even there? Also, you need 3rd level spells to get Nightmare Spinner, which takes Bard 7 casting to get.

I would make the build Bard 4/ Dread Witch 1/ Bard 3/ Nightmare Spinner 1/ Bard 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Dread Witch 4 /Nightmare Spinner 4. That gives you eight levels of Bard, for the increased range on Inspire Awe. You can trade your Inspire Competence or Suggestion song for Haunting Melody per ECS p34 without spending a feat on it. You can also use a Planar Bard substitution level to trade the other of those two for a different song. Then there's Healing Hymn in CC, which replaces Hypnotism.

Make him a Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), and use the Half-Humans variant on Races of Destiny p150. That makes him count as a half-orc and a human for qualifying for feats and other things, rather than counting as a half-orc and an orc for qualifying for things. He can still get Dreadful Wrath this way, and you can also say he visited the Otyugh Hole in Complete Scoundrel to get Menacing Demeanor without spending a feat on it. I'd also consider giving him Able Learner in RoD via flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (Aligned Devotion and Bravado (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258440#30)), so he's not paying cross-class cost for Intimidate ranks during Bard levels or for UMD and Hide ranks during prestige class levels.

I'd drop the Frightful Presence feat, Dreadful Wrath is better and they shouldn't stack as they both produce an effect of the same name. I'd also drop Aberration Blood and Inhuman Reach, just give him a reach weapon and a spiked gauntlet, or even EWP: Spiked Chain or Kusari-Gama accomplishes the same thing with one fewer feat spent. If you want him to have a longer natural reach, Willing Deformity and Deformity: Tall from HoH are more beneficial as he'll get +3 Intimidate out of the first one. Definitely consider Versatile Spellcaster in RotD, and possibly Lyric Spell in CV. Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) is also useful, as its Invest Skill Ranks can give him a huge bonus to Intimidate. Give him a custom Runestaff (MIC p224) to expand his available spells known.

For Intimidate checks, be sure to give him the Never Outnumbered skill trick in CS, but remember it's only usable 1/encounter. Give him armor with the Fearsome property (DotU), which gives +5 Intimidate and allows him to demoralize as a move action rather than a standard action. In a single round he can activate Inspire Awe with Haunting Melody (standard), Intimidate with Never Outnumbered (move), and cast a swift action spell to activate Dreadful Wrath (swift), for four saves/checks vs shaken on the whole party in the first round! The following round he can cast a Fell Frighten Sound Burst (using two 3rd level spell slots via versatile spellcaster or five uses of bardic music per lyric spell if necessary) for no-save damage to automatically make them shaken or escalate their existing fear condition again. Remember that per the Rules Compendium an escalated fear condition lasts until the duration of every effect that contributed to the escalated condition has ended on that creature.

as for the level 1 rogue it was to have intimidate at level one and more skill ranks to play around with, but i mistook 2ed level spells for 3ed because of the 0 level spells when making the class, so ill have to adjust that.

as for the race and i would like him to be human, but i think the half human may work too. as for the Aberration Blood, Inhuman Reach, its just part of who the char is, but ill look into the other feats that might give him the same thing.ill also look threw the feats and see what i can swop and move around.

thank you all for all the help, i should be able to put something together with this information.

any other suggestions are welcome.