Finding a CL 35 NPC at Level 4

[crunchykoolaid]

Alright guys, this is part practical advice, part thought experiment. In my current game, my fellow player (Fighter 4 taking ToB feats) recently gained an insanely powerful sword that would be a massive boon to his character, but it is cursed with a 50% chance of attacking its wielder every time it swings. Instead of dropping it and sticking with one of his less powerful weapons, he's decided to get it uncursed so he can use it without the backfiring.

My question is this, what can a party of 8 lvl 1-4 PCs do to gain access to a CL 35 caster to remove the curse from the sword? All I can think of right now is a Candle of Invocation or going on a massive quest to gain a boon from a god.

Any other ideas? They may be practical or not, I just want some help brainstorming. Whether or not we actually do this is an entirely different matter.

[Nifft]

1 - Are you in a big city? If so, ask around town. Who knows, you might get lucky.

2 - Do you have a high-level patron who gives you quests? Ask that person and/or entity.

3 - Commission armor which has a special defensive property "vs. THIS sword". Hopefully that will knock 99% off the item price and you can afford +5 Luck, +5 Circumstance, +5 Deflection, +5 Enhancement, 100% crit negation, etc. to AC vs. that specific sword.

4 - Take a season off and pray to the god(s) for help. Maybe they'll nerf the sword but also remove the curse, and the nerf will go away as the character levels up. (Granting the bonus of a normal level-appropriate item.) Don't call it a nerf, call it a "divine protective aura" or something.

[unseenmage]

What gameworld are you playing in? This can greatly affect the availability, and even common race, of high level casters. Faerun for instance has high level casters coming out of its ears. Eberron not so much; unless you count the dragons, which some DMs don't.

As an 11th level character with infinite gp my DM allowed me to buy any non-epic priced item/spellcasting service. To avoid dealing directly with creatures/NPCs who were of a drastically higher CR bracket than I was I hired proxies as go-betweens. Some of these proxies even hired proxies. We were playing in an anything-goes gameworld where Spelljamming and campaign setting hopping was possible, maybe even common. We used the Mercane race as the ultimate suppliers for basically whatever I wanted to buy including info and contact with higher level casters.

Hiring the proxies and spellcasting was calculated in time spent since my gp was infinite. Each search for a given NPC or spellcaster used the shopping guidelines in the MIC. Basically every one required a different Gather Information check and we added a houserule that the available goods/wealth/etc would recharge in a given community after one season or three months.

Using Greater Teleport and its equivalent Plane Shift variant allowed me to shop Sigil and the City of Brass and any other extraplanar metropolises where literally anything can be found and bought for the right price. However not all DMs allow Sigil or even any planar metropolis by default.

[SangoProduction]

If you want this to be a part of the story, I'd recommend giving hints of how to earn some greater deity's blessing, or perhaps to call upon a dead deity's powers. Of course, there'd be rumors around the more..."adventurous" crowds about..."contacting" these patrons, but nothing truly solid. And then through out their adventures, they will find pieces of the puzzle (not all of them, or it would start to seem really "convenient", but some).

Of course, the previous guy's suggestion of having a regular deity lock the power away to protect the character. It sounds like a weapon of legacy...or whatever they call it.

Final thing: just say they can't. There are few situations in which you should say this (OK, no, there are many, many, many, but not the point), but when the solution is to look for a level 35 spell caster, and they are level 4....well...They are going to have to wait.

[SangoProduction]

3 - Commission armor which has a special defensive property "vs. THIS sword". Hopefully that will knock 99% off the item price and you can afford +5 Luck, +5 Circumstance, +5 Deflection, +5 Enhancement, 100% crit negation, etc. to AC vs. that specific sword.

You think it would be easier (and thus cheaper, assuming the seller didn't want to make a profit) to defend against one specific sword as opposed to all swords in general?

[Zale]

I'm not sure why you would need a CL 35 caster to remove a curse from a sword, all things considered, as a level 4 character.

Anyone strong enough to remove the curse would probably either be a powerful outsider or a spellcaster of such renown that everyone should know and fear them.

So, like, ask your DM if there's anyone who fits those descriptors. Make a few knowledge checks, or some gather information checks. Getting said person to do what you want would probably be a pretty long quest in itself, so best of luck.

[crunchykoolaid]

Thanks for all the replies so far guys!

To expand upon this campaign world, this is the DMs custom world which is extremely similar to Greyhawk, except the church of St. Cuthbert is civilizing distant lands (think England "colonizing" Africa). This is how we were introduced to the world, found guilty by the church of some minor crime and shipped to one of their colonies to help their "civilization efforts".

We're currently on an island helping the natives (those blue people from Magic of Incarnum, that's sort of the theme of this whole island) who are in the middle of a civil war. The sword was given to us by their Elder as one of the Ancient Weapons the blue people's ancestors wielded. These people also do not use gold for trade, and have no high level casters.

The closest city is the Cuthbertian capital of Turnaround, 2 miles off the island proper. Our current plan after we end the civil war is to head to Turnaround, ask for lenience now that we have served our time, and get a ride back to our homes. The church of St. Cuthbert may have access to miracles or boons from the god himself, but they also consider us criminals.

Now that I'm typing this all out, I realize my DM may not want us to have access to shops for a while...
That and he totally stole the plot from James Cameron's Avatar :smalltongue:

[Zale]

Thanks for all the replies so far guys!

To expand upon this campaign world, this is the DMs custom world which is extremely similar to Greyhawk, except the church of St. Cuthbert is civilizing distant lands (think England "colonizing" Africa). This is how we were introduced to the world, found guilty by the church of some minor crime and shipped to one of their colonies to help their "civilization efforts".

We're currently on an island helping the natives (those blue people from Magic of Incarnum, that's sort of the theme of this whole island) who are in the middle of a civil war. The sword was given to us by their Elder as one of the Ancient Weapons the blue people's ancestors wielded. These people also do not use gold for trade, and have no high level casters.

The closest city is the Cuthbertian capital of Turnaround, 2 miles off the island proper. Our current plan after we end the civil war is to head to Turnaround, ask for lenience now that we have served our time, and get a ride back to our homes. The church of St. Cuthbert may have access to miracles or boons from the god himself, but they also consider us criminals.

Now that I'm typing this all out, I realize my DM may not want us to have access to shops for a while...
That and he totally stole the plot from James Cameron's Avatar :smalltongue:


It doesn't seem likely that he'll get to use that sword very soon, but I doubt the DM would give a player a weapon if he didn't want them to ever use it- something will probably happen eventually to make the weapon usable.

I would, personally, just start helping the natives kick Cuthbertian but, but I have a strong bias in that direction. Follow the winds of the plot, for it shall surely lead you to uncursing.

[Inevitability]

Two possiblities:

1. The sword is a plot hook, and the DM hopes you are smart enough to not use the sword until the Great Moment of Plot Relevance is neigh, or perhaps meet the all-powerful superbeing able to remove the curse.
2. The sword is a trap, and the DM likes to see PCs die.

In either case, I doubt you'll find someone who can remove the curse. Did the DM specify CL 35? Because that sounds a lot like 'there are maybe a few people in this setting who are that powerful, and I want you to go to a specific one'.