Villan

[maniacalmojo]

I want to make a really intimidating evil villain for my next game. The story is that he is an ancient moon elf necromancer that was locked away until the party eventually released him. I know there are exploits you can do to have crazy intense fear effects that are almost passively active and such but i am not sure the tricks as i very seldom deal with fear effects.

It is also a gestalt game so gestalting him is perfectly acceptable.

[questionmark693]

Dread Necromancer is a class that gives a fear aura at level five ish I think. Worth looking into

[maniacalmojo]

Things i would like him to do

--paralize foes
--High DC for resisting his effects
--Way to lower opponents saving throws
--Cause lasting effects like sickness, disease or ability drain
--Cast in light armor and use a sword preferably without needing to worry about ASF
--High AC or dr or something to resist / escape / avoid damage
--Weakaning effects ect.

[Diachronos]

If you're looking for strong fear effects, I'd recommend gestalting him with Dirge Bard. Dirge Bards get Haunting Refrain at level 5, which effectively boosts the DC of "any fear effects he creates" (so RAW it affects the abilities and spells of other classes!) by 1 + 1/5 level; it's technically a penalty to the saves of anything affected by it, but is that really so different from boosting the DC?

If you're looking to boost the DC of his saves further, there's a 3rd party feat called Magic Reservist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/3rd-party-feats/4-winds-fantasy-gaming/general-feats/magic-reservist) that effectively doubles the effective level (up to 9th) of your spells for determining its DC. The only downside is that it's restricted to classes that don't go above 6th level spells, but for a Bard it seems pretty good.

[Akolbi]

Things i would like him to do

--paralize foes
--High DC for resisting his effects
--Way to lower opponents saving throws
--Cause lasting effects like sickness, disease or ability drain
--Cast in light armor and use a sword preferably without needing to worry about ASF
--High AC or dr or something to resist / escape / avoid damage
--Weakaning effects ect.

Kinda soinds like a gesalt wizard/cleric might be good. Maybe raplace wizard with dread necro. Arcane armor trainjng is a possibility, as is mith ral, but sucking those swift actions can be painful.

[Curbstomp]

Umm. Do you mean ideas for roleplaying him in an intimidating way? Or are you trying to Fear/Intimidate the PC's?

Making the player characters scared does very little in game mechanics after the first encounter or two b/c becoming immune or functionally immune to fear is pretty easy with items or a little level progression. Additionally it is not directly linked to the players being worried for the safety of their characters. And unless they are actually fleeing the combat, a buff spell or ability can remove the functional negatives in much the same way that Remove Fear actually negates them.

Making the players scared, on the other hand, with good roleplaying and abilities on your villain that they might not be familiar with could be AWESOME.

For example, I could make a barbarian with a great intimidate modifier. Skill Focus, high ranks, Intimidating Rage, etc. Or I could make a level six barbarian that (during combat) is immune to fire and cold, gets stronger as he gets injured, and won't drop due to hit point loss. That second option with some good roleplaying can scare your players; which in my experience results in them roleplaying their characters fear far better than the actual Fear/Intimidate game mechanics.

[Curbstomp]

And yeah, if he's a Lich he can paralyze them which is pretty scary by itself and harder to fix immediately that Fear. Dread Necromancer as mentioned above is pretty sweet.

Additionally if it is Gestalt consider putting all the LA stuff on one side of the build so that the other can be full caster. I should note that a Gestalt villain is pretty busted and other than as a campaign villain for Gestalt characters probably should not be done.

One improvement to the Dread Necromancer would be giving him Arcane Disciple a couple times to round out his spell selection or speed up his ability to create undead. A Dread Necromancer Lich with Flame Strike or Implosion could be pretty surprising.

Also don't neglect Craft Contingent Spell as a way for a Dread Necromancer to turn himself into a Lich will full benefits to stats and HP that it entails. Finally Craft Contingent Spell is a great way to keep that villain on his feet and fighting against the PC's or as an escape mechanic.

[maniacalmojo]

i know there are ways to make fear effects bypass normal immunities but forgot what they were.

[Curbstomp]

Yeah, Dread Witch can if I recall correctly. There are also a couple feats and skill tricks that assist with it, but while they ignore immunity they allow a save (or an opposed skill check in one case) which can mean functional immunity for some PC's. Additionally they can be removed with Remove Fear the spell. So they can be pretty awesome as an occasional effect, but repeats are likely to get shut down hard by the PC's shy of DM Fiat.

[Xerlith]

What levels are you working with?

[maniacalmojo]

its a level 1-20 Gestalt campaign so the villian can be level 15-25 gestalt.

[Curbstomp]

You can shenanigan your way into 3+ fear effects per round simultaneously and while your players may run the first time or two, they will find a way around it if it is a campaign villain. You'll need something else other than a fear aura, skill trick, and intimidation for the long term. My suggestions above could apply for your lich. You also might consider making it a Dracolich and add in a little dragon fear. There are several variants for dragon fear in Dragon Magic or Draconomicon.

[Red Fel]

If you're looking for fear effects, a Bard/ Nightmare Spinner/ Dread Witch/ Sublime Chord with the right feats and ACFs gets you all the fear and intimidate you could want, along with ways to bypass immunity. However, I'll echo what Curbstomp said, and point out that frightening the players is so much more satisfying, but requires more than just mechanics.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

This fear Bard build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?252815-3-5-Evil-Campaign#4), but you'll have to skip Dreadful Wrath. Necropolitan is optional if you want to make him a Lich. Obligatory Fear Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809.0) link.

Combine that with Dread Necromancer all the way down one side of the gestalt, with a ghostly visage familiar that always possesses him and manifests over his face in combat to use its paralyzing gaze. Its DC is 13 + 1/2 his HD, and like all gaze attacks it can spend a standard action every round to focus the gaze on a target to affect it (again) even if they're not looking. One of his Advanced Learning spells should be Aura of Terror, which increases his DN Fear Aura to 15 ft., gives it a +2 DC, and causes it to make opponents frightened instead of shaken.