master crafter villain

[LordWolfKnight]

Hello Fellow Gamers,

As the title suggests, I am in need of a villain who is a master crafter. He is building an army of intelligent animated armors that worship him. This will in effect turn him into a god. The problem I am having is that the artificer does what I need him to for the crafting but not the combat I need for a final boss. I will consider anything that can accommodate this idea. You are my last hope.

[noob]

Artificers are quite cool final bosses when using action points.
Use a wand of unfettered heroism and you get a constant production of action points that allows to use infusions in one round instead of a minute.
then use greater weapon augmentation:


As lesser weapon augmentation, but you can choose any special ability whose market price is equivalent to a bonus of up to +5 or up to 200,000 gp, such as vorpal.

Which means that you can add the special ability "can cast time stop 50 times"(costs a little bit less than 200.000 gp according to the custom item crafting rules) then cast it 50 times and with all that time do more shenanigans.
but that costs 200 gp and you must do that before the battle(not really a problem since it lasts 10 min./level)

Who needs to be a god when you can stop time for 175 turns in a row on average(and have action points for all the duration thanks to your wand of unfettered heroism and a wand of power surge and possibly a wand of Weapon Augmentation, Personal if you want to stop time forever!!).

And the two wands you need for permanent time stop(wand of Weapon Augmentation, Personal and wand of power surge) can be made with Spell Storing Item.

But it is likely you prefer 175 turns of time stop to an unlimited number of turns of time stop so it is probably better to just use greater weapon augmentation.

with 175 turns of time stop the artificer can then use a staff of delayed blast fireball with energy substitution(any element to which the players are vulnerable) and use lots of power surge on the staff to cast a whole lot delayed fireballs.

Basically an artificer becoming a god is just reality understanding that the artificer was a god from the start.

[Telonius]

Artificers are very powerful in combat. Since he's a main baddie, he'll overcome one of the biggest problems they have: lack of time and funds to prepare their gizmos. Since you're the DM, he has all the gear you say he has. Blasting people with loads of wands is one of the things that Artificers are for.

If you're dead set against Artificer, something like this would be lesser-powered but thematic.

Race: Dwarf. Cleric of a cause (ascend to deity-hood). Your personal favored weapon is the Warhammer you've made. Domains: War, (something else).

Cleric7/Battlesmith5/(something else) 8

1: Endurance, Weapon Focus (Warhammer) (from domain)
3: Practiced Spellcaster
6: Extend Spell
8: Craft Magic Arms and Armor (class feature)
9: Divine Metamagic (Extend)
12: Extra Turning

You're losing 5 spell levels, but since it's a main villain you can outfit him with whatever items you want to make up for the lack in spellcasting. Your 5 levels in Battlesmith count for 15 caster levels for the purposes of creating magic arms and armor. Full BAB and d10 hit dice. Cleric fits the theme of ascending to godhood. Divine Metamagic could also be swapped out, since you're in control of how many buffs are active when he starts out combat.


Or, just have him be a Midgard Dwarf (from Frostburn) who's gone over to the Dark Side. Master Smith means that if he wants to craft a weapon or piece of armor, he just can. It starts out at CR 5 and 8 outsider HD; put whatever melee-centric build you want on top of that.

[Gruftzwerg]

if you still consider other classes, here is a warlock build:

Warlock 12 / Chameleon 2 / Maester 1 / Effigy Master 1 / Blood Magus 4

Warlock 12 gives you access to all spells for crafting

Chameleon 2 for the Floating Feat. Use it either for crafting or extra invocation (Animate Dead in downtimes and something else while in combat).

Master 1 for quick crafting (maybe not needed for the npc, up to you)

Effigy Master 1 for crafting an Effigy Army

Blood Magus 4 to inscribe any (class) spell as scroll/scratches into your skin and brew potions in your blood.

_____

Make an army of Effigies and a few undead, abuse "craft contingent spell" (via floating feat) on your minions.

[unseenmage]

For you Intelligent Armors consider the Sacred Guardian template from Bestiary of Krynn. Grants loads of superpowers and Intelligence and is deity themed.

[weckar]

Artificers are quite cool final bosses when using action points.
Use a wand of unfettered heroism and you get a constant production of action points that allows to use infusions in one round instead of a minute.
then use greater weapon augmentation:

Which means that you can add the special ability "can cast time stop 50 times"(costs a little bit less than 200.000 gp according to the custom item crafting rules) then cast it 50 times and with all that time do more shenanigans.
but that costs 200 gp and you must do that before the battle(not really a problem since it lasts 10 min./level)

Who needs to be a god when you can stop time for 175 turns in a row on average(and have action points for all the duration thanks to your wand of unfettered heroism and a wand of power surge and possibly a wand of Weapon Augmentation, Personal if you want to stop time forever!!).

And the two wands you need for permanent time stop(wand of Weapon Augmentation, Personal and wand of power surge) can be made with Spell Storing Item.

But it is likely you prefer 175 turns of time stop to an unlimited number of turns of time stop so it is probably better to just use greater weapon augmentation.

with 175 turns of time stop the artificer can then use a staff of delayed blast fireball with energy substitution(any element to which the players are vulnerable) and use lots of power surge on the staff to cast a whole lot delayed fireballs.

Basically an artificer becoming a god is just reality understanding that the artificer was a god from the start.
Magic weapon special abilities are a defined rules term. There's a good reason they appear in separate tables. You can't just apply the magic item creation guidelines to it :smallconfused:

[death390]

another option for master craftsman would be a warlock 12/ x whatever. if it is high enough. because warlocks can literally make anything if they have the feat to do so.

[weckar]

Depending on the intended CR of the villain, Warlock 12/Artificer 5/Chameleon makes for a stupidly proficient crafter.

[LordWolfKnight]

thank you all for the ideas, it was really helpful. i like the idea of stopping time because that would give him more attacks to hit the party with and that was one of the main problems i was having. thank you all for the advice. i will probably make a few henchmen using the other ideas just to have some variety in the game.

[LordWolfKnight]

i read up on time stop and well attacking creatures that are frozen just isn't going to happen as per the raw, and it seems like defenses are really the only option that i can use time stop for which causes my villain to less effective in combat to a degree. though the idea of using haste might be a way to do it but the dazed condition afterwards is the killer.

any other ideas as to how to get multiple attacks per round i need at least three attacks and the ability to move per round?

[unseenmage]

Minionmancy. The problem is that there aren't enough actions, the solution could be to add more actions.

Artificers make great minionmancers. Have his armor or equipment or throne room or whatever actually be a few powerful Constructs.

The artificer can make what would normally be a simple fight much more troublesome using infusions to boost their minions.

Alternatively, single use Custom Magic Items of Shapechange could alow our artificer to turn into anything with multiple limbs/attacks.

[LordWolfKnight]

i just found out that my idea doesn't work the way i want it to. i can not awaken an animated object so now i need to find something else to do. i could still use the animated armors as low level baddies, but i would need to actually make warforged for what i am trying to do. any ideas as to where i can look for the creation process or at least the history of the warforged?

[unseenmage]

i just found out that my idea doesn't work the way i want it to. i can not awaken an animated object so now i need to find something else to do. i could still use the animated armors as low level baddies, but i would need to actually make warforged for what i am trying to do. any ideas as to where i can look for the creation process or at least the history of the warforged?

But you can awaken an Animated Object. It just has to be Permanencied first.

And as the GM you could always have your BBEG research a Custom version of Awaken Construct spell that does what you want.

Also, there is the Minor Servitor spell from Savage Species which creates already awakened animated object style Constructs though theyre free willed.

The Awaken Sand spell from Sandstorm also creates free willed intelligent Constructs. Used on Shapesand from the same book the sand could even transform itself into armors, albeit slowly.

Though the above Constructs are free willed they are friendly with their creator so they could easily still agree to work with their artificer parent.

Additionally additionally, the Sacred Guardian template I mentioned earlier could theoretically be applied to an Animated Object, granting it intelligence, but only "at creation".

[kulosle]

my suggestion might not be appropriate. I might just enjoy the class too much. But in patherfinder there is a class called the blacksmith which is a non magical class that can make magical arms and armor. it is great at sundering and can give armors and swords buffs. it's wonderful.

[rel]

any other ideas as to how to get multiple attacks per round i need at least three attacks and the ability to move per round?

Here are a few options:

gain pounce then charge people and full attack

move as a swift action via hustle or something similar then full attack.

use spells that generate their own attacks like evards menacing tentacles to hit people while the character walks around casting.

generate extra actions via belt(s) of battle, celerity + daze immunity, swiftblade, etc then use them to move or punch as appropriate

A few other cunning tricks:

snap kick gives you an extra attack whenever you attack

Telflammar shadowlord lets you attack whenever you teleport

ruby knight vindicator grants you extra swift actions.


Remember you need not restrict yourself to one trick, you can use several in tandem.

[LordWolfKnight]

alright guys and gals thank you for all the advice, but i have a new plan. i am going to make an artificer ranger, whose favored enemies are the pc's races. this grants him some combat abilities as well as the crafting abilities i need for him. he will have some custom magic items that allow him to act during the entire round like celerity can. this will allow him to be a bigger pain in the neck for the players as well as to be more fun for me to play. once i have a complete work up on him i will post it in here so you all can see what you have inspired me to do with him. thank you for everything you were a great help.

[Gruftzwerg]

he will have some custom magic items that allow him to act during the entire round like celerity can. this will allow him to be a bigger pain in the neck for the players as well as to be more fun for me to play.

are you sure about this? how are you gonna handle the item after the fight when the PC looted it? doesn't sound like a good idea imho, sry.

[LordWolfKnight]

this will be the final fight of the game so i am not worried if they get a hold of it. i mean sure things can change and i might continue running the game but if the party splits the treasure then each member of the party would get one item that grants one partial action during an encounter. i mean for the baddie it will function more often than that but if i give it to the party then the uses will be different as i don't have to give them everything the way it was designed, or i can give it charges so it will eventually run out and without them knowing how to recharge the item it will only be around for a short time.