BBNG (Big Bad Neutral Guy)

[Hiro]

How does the playground rate this char I've generated for general use as a "Mentor" type or Big Bad Neutal Guy.

As in he's inclined to help people but pushing buttons too much will result in a very quick yet horrifyingly painful death. I also have "shock and awe" as a part of the build, or so I hope.

Note; This Character is a Gestalt character.

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Name: Valen Astrilyn
Race: Dread Vampire (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/dread-vampire-cr-3) Pure-Blooded Azlanti
Mythic Rank: 10

Traits: Pragmatic Activator, Clever Wordplay

Ability Score: Str 25; Dex 25; Con: - ; Int: 30; Wis: 30; Cha: 24

HD: 20d8+ 140 (cuz undead use cha instead of con for HP)
Total Base Attack: +22/+17/+12 (Melee/Ranged)
Total Base Saves: +19/+15/+22

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Class Abilities:

Wizard: Archetype: Focused Wizard (Class: Necromancy; Focus: Undead); Opposed Schools: Evocation, Enchantment

Bonus Feats/Discoveries: Opposition Research (Evocation); Split Slot; Empower Spell, Quicken Spell

Arcane Bond: Familiar (none at current)

Cantrips, Scribe Scroll

School Powers: Bolster Undead (+5 to hit/damage Saves +2, Turn Resistance +2 Duration: 10 rounds, 13/day); Power over Undead (Command Undead Channel 13/day, Bypasses Resistance); Life Sight (Blindsight that only picks up Living beings/undead within 40' for 13 rounds/day)

Spellcasting Per Day: (Inf/7/7/6/6/6/6/5/5/5) +1 Necromancy spell/level

Secondary Class: Cleric

Aura (Overwhelming Evil)
Channel energy (Negative- 10d6)
Orisons
Domains: Knowledge, Magic
--Doman Powers: Lore Keeper (Touch attack, Learn Abilities/Weaknesses); Remote Viewing (At-will Clairaudience/-Voyance 20rnds); Hand of the Acolyte (1 Weapon Attack 30' Range; +10 to hit; +7 Damage); Dispelling Touch (Dispel Magic 9/day)

Domain Spells: Knowledge- (Comprehend Languages, Detect Thoughts, Speak with Dead, Divination, True Seeing, Find the Path, Legend Lore, Discern Location, Foresight)
Magic- (Identify, Magic Mouth, Dispel magic, Imbue with Spell Ability, Spell Resistance, Antimagic Field, Spell Turning, Protection from Spells, Mage's Disjunction

Spellcasting: Same as Wizard spellcasting with the +1 for domain spells

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Feats: (In no particular Order)
Toughness, Skill Focus (Knowledge: Nature); Improved- Greater- Eldritch Heritage (Voidtouched)*, Martial Weapon Proficiency (Rapier), Weapon Focus (Rapier), Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Intensify Spell, Spell Perfection (Enervation), Extra Path Ability (Beyond Morality), Mythic Combat Expertise, Extra Path Ability (Mythic Presence), Mythic Weapon Focus (Rapier), Mythic Spell Lore (10 spells)

Mythic Vampire Abilities:

Negative Energy Focus , Overcome Weakness (All), Scabrous Claws (Slam+Energy Drain+1d6 Bleed), Channel Resistance (+16); Children of the Eclipse, Mist Shapes, Mastermind, Telekinesis (at-will), Flight (60'/Perfect for 1 hour), Blood Omen, Eclipse

Through use of Wish spells; Valen's gained the feats: Blood of the Deep (giving him a swim spell and removes water weakness), Sunlight Resistance (can walk in sunlight for cha mod rnds/day- resets if he gets to shade/darkness), and Vampiric Nobility

He has no listed equipment as a 10k year old Vampire Lord he has access to pretty much anything he wants really. Same with his spells: he prides himself on having the most complete Library of Magic anywhere.

I should mention: Deity- Nethys.

[Geddy2112]

Looks solid, but I would change up the feats.

At this level, a rapier is more of a showpiece-even with all the boons and mythic weapon focus, it is more of a toy than a serious combat weapon. Sure, carry one because it looks totally awesome, and being able to fence in your leisure keeps a 10,000 year old vampire spry(we all need some physical activity). It is not really a killing weapon though-even your slams are doing way more damage.

I assume you have improved disarm to use telekinesis to grab weapons and other things?

Why not take some more magical/advising feats than ones to make you a slightly okay fighter? Beyond morality would fit a BBNG who might be "evil" but at that age and power level, you stop fitting into the typical alignments and start to go into Blue-Orange morality/ethics. It also helps keep away those detect and smite paladins-you don't need to be dealing with stupid good.

Knowledge is power would help make you even harder to use maneuvers against, and make your telekinesis go into deific levels.

Overall, you have a pretty bauss god level NPC-you should easily be able to ghost low level parties in a single round, or pick off mid/high level characters round by round as they struggle to be meaningful. There is probably no way this character can be killed, unless the PC's are high level mythics themselves. But more important will be the motivation and actions for such a character. At this high of level, you are more powerful than the standard envoy of Nethys-hell you are probably the person who carries out 99% of his will on the material and most other planes. You can use wish and miracle to call in for him to do the few things you can't, but otherwise Nethys probably spends most of his days fishing, proud that a follower has reached the level of a lesser deity.

[Hiro]

Well the Rapier use is a little of Flavor for him; he considers himself a gentleman and fights accordingly. And yes the telekinesis and disarms are supposed to work together.

If you have suggestions for feats, I'm all ears. ^_^ This character is more as a "mentor" type there to advise people; though in a pinch he can be a wicked as hell bad guy.

One of his personal motivations is that he wants to Atone for being a really really nasty Villian in his "youth". He's adjusted to being a vampire and doesn't seek a cure or something like that. He tries to instruct other vampires in how to be "neutral" or even good in some ways. He also believes in teaching mortals and drawing out their full potential as heroes...or anti-heroes.

Valen actually regularly employs mortal servants like maids, butlers, etc. And in fact has a handful of Dhampir children himself. Which he takes responsibility for.

He wants to maintain as much knowledge as he can; preserving many Azlanti books, spellbooks, maps, etc to keep history alive. He's known the Runelords and has some of their relics- having survived Earthfall by hiding in an extra dimensional space

[Geddy2112]

Then just stick to proficiency with your rapier- you don't need the focus to be devastatingly good with stats and a level like that. You could probably solo a gestalt mythic party with just your rapier if they are level 6 or lower, walking away with hardly a scratch.

I would take the knowledge is power and beyond morality arcane discoveries instead of feats(wizards can use normal feats to get these). They are fitting for a larger variety of situations than just being a fencer. Pursuing fencing as a hobby and being dang good at it is probably all you need on somebody who is also the best wizard/cleric/undead master servant of Nethys. Does he need to be the most skilled duelist in all the land too, when instead he could defy petty alignment, and bend physics with the sheer might of his intellect?

His motives sound exactly like Nethys- balance his destructive and violent side with a creating and peaceful side. Then hoard all of the knowledge possible so that it is never lost. You could pretty much be Nethys by proxy in a fair amount of circumstances.

[(Un)Inspired]

What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or are they just born with a heart full of neutrality?

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Shouldn't he be a mythic vampire rather than have mythic tiers?

[Socksy]

His ability scores should be built as an NPC, or perhaps as a PC, rather than going "Right, let's arbitrarily assign high numbers."
Your CR+3 template 1) should eat into one half of the gestalt so the spellcasting should NOT be equal, and 2) means you have to be evil, defeating the point of a BBNG. Killing people who push his buttons is also an evil trait - imagine a commoner who bumped off people he didn't like.
Those aren't your base attack and base saves. Your base attack is +15 unless Mythic changes that. Your base saves are +12/+6/+12, again, unless Mythic changes that. I can't find anything which does either of those things in Mythic, but I may be wrong. Take out the word "base".
Mythic tier 10 is described as "basically a demigod". No. Do not. NEVER have the characters' mentor be a demigod, they will want to punch you. The BBEG, fine, at a push. But Mr. Katana-Wielding-Vampire-Demigod... please tell me you see how mary sue-ish that sounds on an NPC.
Don't take Toughness, or at least bother adding it to your HP total if you do.

[Hiro]

More or less, the character isn't really meant to be used actively- more for cameo and to be able to teach others. I tend to make characters and just straight up ignore CR modifications and such; I know it's a bad thing to do but I know most of my chars won't be used cuz of how strong they really are.

I have more that're fully balanced out.

[Malroth]

A Mentor is supposed to be a character the PC's should reasonably expect to surpass someday before possibly taking on protegees of their own once their characters story arcs are resolved. It should not be a max level max mythic tier vampire with unattanable stats that cannot be surpassed by any means short of Fiat.

[Hiro]

True.

Ok.

Keeping that in mind; any suggestions as a way to overhaul said character to still be ominously powerful but as you said able to be overcome by pupils later on?

I Have no issue with rebuilding from ground up really. I actually enjoy it very much.

Though I do like me sum gestalt characters. :p