Nemquae
2013-12-24, 02:47 AM
So I'm GMing a 3.5/Pathfinder gestalt e6 game in a Dark Sun / Empire of the Petal Throne crossover campaign setting with all sources allowed... and yeah... it's awesome (no regrets!), but more complicated than anything I've ever run before.
That said, we've been playing for over a year and in our variant that means that the players are level 5 (nearly epic) with dozens of feats, extra skill points, extra power points... the works. We try to maintain a balance between RP and combat, and ultimately their power level is high compared to most e6 games, but I like it that way. I figured it was about time for them to meet a Sorcerer-King face-to-face, so I decided to put a build together.
Now, the way I figure it, any sentient non-deity character is restricted to six gestalt levels, but the Sorcerer-Kings each have a divine rank of 1 (effectively stolen), so they count as demigods and are usually in the 20 to 30 level range, which puts them easily out of reach for most characters, even epic champions like Rikus or Sadira at the start of the Prism Pentad.
King Kalak, however, is an exception in that he does not possess a divine rank (he was not a Champion of Rajaat in our game). Basically he's just an opportunistic tyrant who's managed to survive for thousands of years in the shadow of the other Sorcerer-Kings, mostly on account of controlling the one iron mine in the region. I've ruled that the RAW rules of D&D are effectively the magic system of the setting with only a few stipulations (no infinite loops, no other planes (besides Athas, the Gray, and the Black), and other setting material is refluffed for Dark Sun). Also, personally as a player, I hate encountering X characters without the crunch to back up their fluff. So that means that I had to come up with a 6 level build that would conceivably allow Kalak to survive against level 20 to 30 Sorcerer-Kings, but also be within reach for my player characters if ever they decided to go after him.
Not exactly a TO challenge, but beyond any PO I've ever had to do. The following is somewhat cheesy, but appropriate given the circumstances I think:
Lak of Nóm (King Kalak)
(Replace the word Drake below with Dragon if you're confused about the sources)
Race: Half-Drake (Primordial Fire Giant descended Half-Mihálli Half-Black-Loredrake White Drakespawn Abomination)
Classes: White Drakespawn 1 / Drakespawn Abomination 5 || Erudite 1 / Anima Mage 2 / Incantatrix 3
Type (subtypes): Drake (Augmented humanoid (human, giant, mihállu), fire, cold, lawful) (Basically the dragon type reflavored for Athas.)
Ability Scores (modified w/ items/buffs/etc.)
Str 18 (+15 w/ corporeal, =0 w/ incorporeal)
Dex 22 (+12)
Con 13 (+11)
Int 22 (+25)
Wis 1 (+15)
Cha 21 (+19)
Special Abilities
Invisibility (Sp, at-will, CL 1) From Primordial Giant.
Spellcasting (Na, as Sorcerer 1) Stacks with other sorcerer levels, but only for spellcasting purposes. From Dragonspawn.
Magically Talented (Ex, x15) +15 effective Sorcerer levels (for spellcasting purposes only). From Dragonspawn Abomination (template applied 5 times). << the ultimate cheese
Light Refraction (Ex, Blur at-will) When in well-lit areas, the abomination’s scales refract and scatter light, effectively blurring the creature.
Loredrake (Na) +2 effective Sorcerer levels (for spellcasting purposes only).
Wild Power (Su) 1d6+15 Cold damage vs. melee attackers as Fire Shield.
Cast from Spell Hoard (Sp) Cast as from Scroll, but from hoard instead.
Wizard Casting (Na) Cast spells as Wizard, not Sorcerer. No spellbook, memorizes spells from spell hoard.
Spell Hoard Burning (Su) May burn spells instead of 20 XP or 100 gp costs, and this is cumulative and of unlimited duration.
Spellcatching (Su) Improved Counterspelling. May use any spell of the same level or higher as long as it has the same school or descriptor. Expend a gem worth 100 gp or burn a spell. On success, adds countered spell to its spellhoard.
Restless Energy (Su) Free action to Haste, as the spell, 3/day for 18 rounds.
Convert Spell to Power (Na) May manifest powers as though casting arcane spells. May add spells to his repertoire.
Spells (Na) As Wizard 18.
Powers (Na) As Erudite 6.
Soul Binding (Na) As Binder 4.
Exploit Vestige (Su) Give up special ability of vestige for 9th level spell slot.
Cooperative Metamagic (Su) Apply metamagic feats to allies spells as a readied action. 19/day.
Metamagic Effect (Su) Apply metamagic feats to persistent spell effects already in place as a full-round action. 19/day.
Special Qualities
Adapted Speed (Ex, x2) +20 ft. land speed
Magical Knack (Ex) +1 CL for Sp
Extra Eyes (Ex) +5 Perception (visual)
Extremely Muscular (Ex) +4 Str
Sonic Resistant Scales (Ex) +10 Sonic Resistance
Black Drake Resistances (Ex) +10 Acid Resistance
Sovereign Archetype (Na) Cannot cast optional Cleric spells.
Warp-touched (Su) +4 Int
Unnatural Power (Su) 3 Consecutive rounds breath, +2 DC.
Eat or Die (Ex) Con drain each day unless 64 Tiny, 16 Small, 4 Medium, or 1 Large creature is consumed (or any combination). 2/day can attempt a Wisdom check DC 10+2x (days w/o enough food) to regain control for 1 hour. Otherwise in frenzy and must eat any edible with a Concentration check DC 15+(spell level) to cast each spell.
Analytic Mind (Su) Use Int for spellcasting bonus spells and DCs, but lose one spell slot of each level.
Fascinated by Riddles (Ex) By succeeding at an opposed Knowledge check (any type Kalak has ranks in), an opponent can temporarily fascinate him for 1d10 rounds.
Maze Vulnerability (Ex) Must succeed at three DC 20 Int checks to escape maze spells.
Spell Hoard (Su) Spells take physical form as runes or symbols scribed on scales. May prepare from these as a wizard, using a similar process.
Burned Magic (Ex) Half spells of each level per day, rounding down.
Spontaneous Illusions (Su) Audio and visual Illusions in 60 ft. spread. All attacks, including the drake's, suffer 20% miss chance. Str, Dex, and Con based skill checks suffer -4 penalty.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency (Na) Erudites are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff, and shortspear. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield.
Power Points (Na) 83/day
Unique Powers (Na) 4/day
Powers Discovered (Na, Repertoire) All powers up to 3rd level are known. Many 4th level powers known (via epic feats).
Magic Mantle (Na) You always treat magic and psionics as identical.
Focused Studies (Ex) Evocation is prohibited school.
Spell List
(* = Spells Peristed Each Day)
Loresong*, Path of Frost x2, Wings of Swift Flying
Reflective Disguise*, Discern Shapechanger, Scintillating Scales*, See Invisibility
Spellcaster's Bane*, Lesser Telepathic Bond x2, Vision of the Omniscient Eye
Freedom of Movement*, Forceward*, Ruin Delver's Fortune* x2
Transmute Mud to Rock x3
Superior Resistance*, Greater Anticipate Teleport*, Stone Body*
Greater Arcane Sight*, Energy Immunity*, Arcane Spellsurge
Ghostform*, Mind Blank*, Necrotic Empowerment*
Choose Destiny*, Foresight*, Shapechange (Chronotyryn)
Crafted Contingencies
When attacked... Disintegrate attacker
Each round, upon seeing any hostile Sorcerer-King... Greater Celerity x4
Upon becoming bloodied... Greater Teleport to Secret Lair
Suggestions?
Clarifications
The Half-Mihálli are a homebrew inspired by Empire of the Petal Throne content, but assume that they're a legit target for Primordial Giant.
Kalak used wishes to gain his templates (granted through various means) and characters have 1 free LA, so he's only taken one level of the Half-Dragon racial progression to count as a true dragon and he's got the 1 level version of White Dragonspawn (his master for this purpose is a secret)... so it mostly works out.
I'd prefer not to get into another discussion on Dragonwrought Kobolds and true dragonhood, but let's assume for this discussion that Half-Dragons are true dragons... as that was one conclusion last time, I believe.
Before his transformation into a Dragonspawn abomination, Kalak tried to maximize his luck rerolls to survive... basically tricking the other Sorcerer-Kings into thinking he was more powerful than he was. As he casted the Dragonspawn ritual, he used hundreds of luck rerolls liberally to get the Magically Talented entry on the percentile table as many times as he could. Slowly going insane is the main reason he didn't get it more often...
Magic/Psionic transparency is not the default in Athas, but I've taken the most liberal reading of Magic Mantle to say that it overrides this and then some.
Early entry into prestige classes requires the usual tricks, notably the Favored feat and the proper organizational support to gain more skill ranks than his level would typically allow, but as a Sorcerer-King I give him a lot of leeway.
Retraining is allowed, so in some cases feats or levels are retrained in such a way as to allow prestige classes and such to qualify for themselves.
Ask me any questions and I'll try to answer it.
Basically, Kalak thought he had discovered the means to ascend to Dragon-hood, but what he really discovered was a way to artificially progress his spellcasting by becoming a (highly advanced) Drakespawn Abomination. In game, this occurred just after his assassination attempt when he sucked the life force from everyone in Tyr (our rules for defiling magic are essentially the Taint rules turned up to 11). Each time the Drakespawn Abomination template was applied, he lost 4 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom (notably reducing him to 1), and he contracted another Dragon Psychosis as outlined in Dragon #313 (transformations like this always drive people mad in Athas), plus a lot of taint. For this he gained an average of 3 effective sorcerer levels per level of the template applied, but given that this was his trial run and he was under attack, he was only able to reach half of his potential (a max of 6 effective sorcerer levels per Drakespawn Abomination level).
Since then he's been able to free himself of the Nameless Psychosis, but not of the other four and he's lost control of Tyr. The players are working for him for the time being, but he secretly hopes to complete his transformation by sacrificing more people in the future, so that'll likely lead to a confrontation. For a Sorcerer-King or even your typical 18th level spellcaster in regular (somewhat optimized) D&D/Pathfinder, he's fairly weak with only 6 crafted contingencies and roughly half the spells-per-day. Most of his spells go to his persisted buffs, so really he's only got a few dozen left once items are taken into consideration (not really included above).
I figure that if the players are able to catch him off-guard somehow, such as after his daily buffs are dispelled and he's stripped off most of his items to begin his transformation, then it's conceivable that they could win, but it would certainly be a hard fight. Maybe half the player characters should die?
What are your thoughts? Is there a less cheesy way to do this? Is Anima Mage worth it just for that extra 9th level spell and a few low-level vestiges? Also, given the amount of taint he's likely accumulated, I figured it would be good to throw Tainted Scholar/Sorcerer in there somewhere, but is there a cheaper way than taking class levels? Anybody think it would be less cheesy to advance the Dragonspawn Abomination template with Uncanny Trickster rather than applying it 5 times?
That said, we've been playing for over a year and in our variant that means that the players are level 5 (nearly epic) with dozens of feats, extra skill points, extra power points... the works. We try to maintain a balance between RP and combat, and ultimately their power level is high compared to most e6 games, but I like it that way. I figured it was about time for them to meet a Sorcerer-King face-to-face, so I decided to put a build together.
Now, the way I figure it, any sentient non-deity character is restricted to six gestalt levels, but the Sorcerer-Kings each have a divine rank of 1 (effectively stolen), so they count as demigods and are usually in the 20 to 30 level range, which puts them easily out of reach for most characters, even epic champions like Rikus or Sadira at the start of the Prism Pentad.
King Kalak, however, is an exception in that he does not possess a divine rank (he was not a Champion of Rajaat in our game). Basically he's just an opportunistic tyrant who's managed to survive for thousands of years in the shadow of the other Sorcerer-Kings, mostly on account of controlling the one iron mine in the region. I've ruled that the RAW rules of D&D are effectively the magic system of the setting with only a few stipulations (no infinite loops, no other planes (besides Athas, the Gray, and the Black), and other setting material is refluffed for Dark Sun). Also, personally as a player, I hate encountering X characters without the crunch to back up their fluff. So that means that I had to come up with a 6 level build that would conceivably allow Kalak to survive against level 20 to 30 Sorcerer-Kings, but also be within reach for my player characters if ever they decided to go after him.
Not exactly a TO challenge, but beyond any PO I've ever had to do. The following is somewhat cheesy, but appropriate given the circumstances I think:
Lak of Nóm (King Kalak)
(Replace the word Drake below with Dragon if you're confused about the sources)
Race: Half-Drake (Primordial Fire Giant descended Half-Mihálli Half-Black-Loredrake White Drakespawn Abomination)
Classes: White Drakespawn 1 / Drakespawn Abomination 5 || Erudite 1 / Anima Mage 2 / Incantatrix 3
Type (subtypes): Drake (Augmented humanoid (human, giant, mihállu), fire, cold, lawful) (Basically the dragon type reflavored for Athas.)
Ability Scores (modified w/ items/buffs/etc.)
Str 18 (+15 w/ corporeal, =0 w/ incorporeal)
Dex 22 (+12)
Con 13 (+11)
Int 22 (+25)
Wis 1 (+15)
Cha 21 (+19)
Special Abilities
Invisibility (Sp, at-will, CL 1) From Primordial Giant.
Spellcasting (Na, as Sorcerer 1) Stacks with other sorcerer levels, but only for spellcasting purposes. From Dragonspawn.
Magically Talented (Ex, x15) +15 effective Sorcerer levels (for spellcasting purposes only). From Dragonspawn Abomination (template applied 5 times). << the ultimate cheese
Light Refraction (Ex, Blur at-will) When in well-lit areas, the abomination’s scales refract and scatter light, effectively blurring the creature.
Loredrake (Na) +2 effective Sorcerer levels (for spellcasting purposes only).
Wild Power (Su) 1d6+15 Cold damage vs. melee attackers as Fire Shield.
Cast from Spell Hoard (Sp) Cast as from Scroll, but from hoard instead.
Wizard Casting (Na) Cast spells as Wizard, not Sorcerer. No spellbook, memorizes spells from spell hoard.
Spell Hoard Burning (Su) May burn spells instead of 20 XP or 100 gp costs, and this is cumulative and of unlimited duration.
Spellcatching (Su) Improved Counterspelling. May use any spell of the same level or higher as long as it has the same school or descriptor. Expend a gem worth 100 gp or burn a spell. On success, adds countered spell to its spellhoard.
Restless Energy (Su) Free action to Haste, as the spell, 3/day for 18 rounds.
Convert Spell to Power (Na) May manifest powers as though casting arcane spells. May add spells to his repertoire.
Spells (Na) As Wizard 18.
Powers (Na) As Erudite 6.
Soul Binding (Na) As Binder 4.
Exploit Vestige (Su) Give up special ability of vestige for 9th level spell slot.
Cooperative Metamagic (Su) Apply metamagic feats to allies spells as a readied action. 19/day.
Metamagic Effect (Su) Apply metamagic feats to persistent spell effects already in place as a full-round action. 19/day.
Special Qualities
Adapted Speed (Ex, x2) +20 ft. land speed
Magical Knack (Ex) +1 CL for Sp
Extra Eyes (Ex) +5 Perception (visual)
Extremely Muscular (Ex) +4 Str
Sonic Resistant Scales (Ex) +10 Sonic Resistance
Black Drake Resistances (Ex) +10 Acid Resistance
Sovereign Archetype (Na) Cannot cast optional Cleric spells.
Warp-touched (Su) +4 Int
Unnatural Power (Su) 3 Consecutive rounds breath, +2 DC.
Eat or Die (Ex) Con drain each day unless 64 Tiny, 16 Small, 4 Medium, or 1 Large creature is consumed (or any combination). 2/day can attempt a Wisdom check DC 10+2x (days w/o enough food) to regain control for 1 hour. Otherwise in frenzy and must eat any edible with a Concentration check DC 15+(spell level) to cast each spell.
Analytic Mind (Su) Use Int for spellcasting bonus spells and DCs, but lose one spell slot of each level.
Fascinated by Riddles (Ex) By succeeding at an opposed Knowledge check (any type Kalak has ranks in), an opponent can temporarily fascinate him for 1d10 rounds.
Maze Vulnerability (Ex) Must succeed at three DC 20 Int checks to escape maze spells.
Spell Hoard (Su) Spells take physical form as runes or symbols scribed on scales. May prepare from these as a wizard, using a similar process.
Burned Magic (Ex) Half spells of each level per day, rounding down.
Spontaneous Illusions (Su) Audio and visual Illusions in 60 ft. spread. All attacks, including the drake's, suffer 20% miss chance. Str, Dex, and Con based skill checks suffer -4 penalty.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency (Na) Erudites are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff, and shortspear. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield.
Power Points (Na) 83/day
Unique Powers (Na) 4/day
Powers Discovered (Na, Repertoire) All powers up to 3rd level are known. Many 4th level powers known (via epic feats).
Magic Mantle (Na) You always treat magic and psionics as identical.
Focused Studies (Ex) Evocation is prohibited school.
Spell List
(* = Spells Peristed Each Day)
Loresong*, Path of Frost x2, Wings of Swift Flying
Reflective Disguise*, Discern Shapechanger, Scintillating Scales*, See Invisibility
Spellcaster's Bane*, Lesser Telepathic Bond x2, Vision of the Omniscient Eye
Freedom of Movement*, Forceward*, Ruin Delver's Fortune* x2
Transmute Mud to Rock x3
Superior Resistance*, Greater Anticipate Teleport*, Stone Body*
Greater Arcane Sight*, Energy Immunity*, Arcane Spellsurge
Ghostform*, Mind Blank*, Necrotic Empowerment*
Choose Destiny*, Foresight*, Shapechange (Chronotyryn)
Crafted Contingencies
When attacked... Disintegrate attacker
Each round, upon seeing any hostile Sorcerer-King... Greater Celerity x4
Upon becoming bloodied... Greater Teleport to Secret Lair
Suggestions?
Clarifications
The Half-Mihálli are a homebrew inspired by Empire of the Petal Throne content, but assume that they're a legit target for Primordial Giant.
Kalak used wishes to gain his templates (granted through various means) and characters have 1 free LA, so he's only taken one level of the Half-Dragon racial progression to count as a true dragon and he's got the 1 level version of White Dragonspawn (his master for this purpose is a secret)... so it mostly works out.
I'd prefer not to get into another discussion on Dragonwrought Kobolds and true dragonhood, but let's assume for this discussion that Half-Dragons are true dragons... as that was one conclusion last time, I believe.
Before his transformation into a Dragonspawn abomination, Kalak tried to maximize his luck rerolls to survive... basically tricking the other Sorcerer-Kings into thinking he was more powerful than he was. As he casted the Dragonspawn ritual, he used hundreds of luck rerolls liberally to get the Magically Talented entry on the percentile table as many times as he could. Slowly going insane is the main reason he didn't get it more often...
Magic/Psionic transparency is not the default in Athas, but I've taken the most liberal reading of Magic Mantle to say that it overrides this and then some.
Early entry into prestige classes requires the usual tricks, notably the Favored feat and the proper organizational support to gain more skill ranks than his level would typically allow, but as a Sorcerer-King I give him a lot of leeway.
Retraining is allowed, so in some cases feats or levels are retrained in such a way as to allow prestige classes and such to qualify for themselves.
Ask me any questions and I'll try to answer it.
Basically, Kalak thought he had discovered the means to ascend to Dragon-hood, but what he really discovered was a way to artificially progress his spellcasting by becoming a (highly advanced) Drakespawn Abomination. In game, this occurred just after his assassination attempt when he sucked the life force from everyone in Tyr (our rules for defiling magic are essentially the Taint rules turned up to 11). Each time the Drakespawn Abomination template was applied, he lost 4 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom (notably reducing him to 1), and he contracted another Dragon Psychosis as outlined in Dragon #313 (transformations like this always drive people mad in Athas), plus a lot of taint. For this he gained an average of 3 effective sorcerer levels per level of the template applied, but given that this was his trial run and he was under attack, he was only able to reach half of his potential (a max of 6 effective sorcerer levels per Drakespawn Abomination level).
Since then he's been able to free himself of the Nameless Psychosis, but not of the other four and he's lost control of Tyr. The players are working for him for the time being, but he secretly hopes to complete his transformation by sacrificing more people in the future, so that'll likely lead to a confrontation. For a Sorcerer-King or even your typical 18th level spellcaster in regular (somewhat optimized) D&D/Pathfinder, he's fairly weak with only 6 crafted contingencies and roughly half the spells-per-day. Most of his spells go to his persisted buffs, so really he's only got a few dozen left once items are taken into consideration (not really included above).
I figure that if the players are able to catch him off-guard somehow, such as after his daily buffs are dispelled and he's stripped off most of his items to begin his transformation, then it's conceivable that they could win, but it would certainly be a hard fight. Maybe half the player characters should die?
What are your thoughts? Is there a less cheesy way to do this? Is Anima Mage worth it just for that extra 9th level spell and a few low-level vestiges? Also, given the amount of taint he's likely accumulated, I figured it would be good to throw Tainted Scholar/Sorcerer in there somewhere, but is there a cheaper way than taking class levels? Anybody think it would be less cheesy to advance the Dragonspawn Abomination template with Uncanny Trickster rather than applying it 5 times?