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View Full Version : DM Help Opposites of player characters [3.5]



TallerSpine
2018-12-05, 11:50 AM
Background information: This is for an evil campaign. The idea is that evil characters can bend/break the rules of DnD. I take extremely generous readings of the rules. So, every character is gestalt. There are plenty of house rules. Basically, this was us having fun testing the limits of character building and seeing how much damage they can do in a world where only evil beings abuse the rules.

Major house rules: Characters gain feats at every level (Taken from Monte Cook's Book of Experimental Might) and Characters get +1 to two different ability scores every two levels (this replaces the +1 every four levels).

The player characters:
Half-ogre frenzied berserker/wizard/fleshwarper who is taking a homebrewed aberrant version of the Vow of Poverty (which grants him bonus aberrant feats every other level) - to make it funny, the idea is that his anatomy is very occasionally in flux. Not often enough to provide immunity to sneak attacks or critical hits, but once every round, his anatomy loses its coherence. So, any armor or weapons he may be wearing simply pass through him. But, living things don't, so he can focus on grappling. I did not describe the mechanic any more than that. He just really wanted Vow of Poverty with an evil character, and the point of the campaign was not to limit options, but allow almost everything. Honestly, this has been problematic for him as a wizard. He needed a spellbook, but he cannot really hold onto it for any period of time. And clothing was an issue. But, we got all that sorted out. For a while, he was memorizing his spells from the other wizard in the party's spellbook every day. When he reached sixth level, I allowed him to take a homebrewed feat, Aberrant Leadership. All of his aberrant feats granted bonuses towards attracting an aberrant cohort. I homebrewed a living spellbook. It is the only creature of its kind that the party knows about. So, if it ever dies, he is really out of luck. Honestly, he is the least powerful of his companions, so I was not worried about it not really being in the rules.

Half-nymph Lesser Aasimar Sorcerer 5/Wizard 1/Hexblade 3/Spellthief 1/Ultimate Magus 5/Ur-Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 3
Now this one is really powerful. I allow her to steal spells from herself faster than she can steal spells from others. Effectively, I allow her to treat her caster level for all spells as her spellthief caster level without increasing the casting time of her spells. So, her caster level is 21 for all of her spells. Again, very much breaking the rules, but very fun at the same time.

Half-nymph Lesser Aasimar Cleric / Dread Necromancer / Pale Master (I think). I don't have his character sheet up.
He is a very powerful undead minionmancer

Half-giant (half-halfling) Primordial Giant Telepath 5 / Cleric 5 / Thrallherd 5 / Sovereign Speaker 5
Basically, a minionmancer of a different variety. She can control people, and every domain she gains is one that offers rebuking/commanding of creatures. Her name is Alice, and she is basically Alice in American McGee Alice (an insane version of Alice in Wonderland, but she has "friends" who follow her around)

I am looking to create opposites of each of these characters. Basically Exalted versions of them. So, in many ways, they will be familiar, but in other ways, exact opposites. So, the opposite of the frenzied berserker/fleshwarper who enjoys slaughter is a Half-Ogre Werebear/Paladin/War Hulk who has taken the actual Vow of Poverty and Vow of Peace.

The opposite of the Dread Necromancer is a Half-nymph Half-elf who worships the Ascendant Councillors of Aerenal and is a Deathless master / Life cleric

The opposite of Alice would be Quinn Hartz, a Holy Liberator (who can liberate a body from its head).

But, the master caster is my chief problem. I can go pure opposite and make a mageslayer, but I want it to be familiar. Like, similar classes but they took their life a different route and became good. And, I want the end character to be interesting enough that the evil characters would want to play with them, not powerful enough to consider them actual enemies. So, kind of lame versions of the evil characters. Like, the War Hulk who took the Vow of Peace, lol.

Good characters must follow the normal rules for gestalt (a maximum of one prestige class at a time, and cannot take dual classes on one side of the gestalt, so mystic theurge / anything is right out). Any ideas that would be fun/funny?

Goaty14
2018-12-05, 12:10 PM
A wizard who declares themselves to be the "grand archwizard" because "nobody can cast spells better than them". In reality, they're a focused specialist Abjurer who instantly tries to weakly dispel any spells that they can see. Call him "Brutus the Brute Wizard" (BtBW). I think it'd go down like...

BtBW: "Aha, spellcaster, you have met your valiant end, for none shall cast spells better than I can!"
Master Caster: Casts a spell
BtBW: Casts Dispel Magic to counterspell... fails.
BtBW: "WOW, you must be a really good spellcaster! Alas, I haven't revealed my TRUE POWER yet!!1!"
Master Caster: Casts a spell
BtBW: Counterspell... fails
...
etc

TallerSpine
2018-12-05, 12:17 PM
A wizard who declares themselves to be the "grand archwizard" because "nobody can cast spells better than them". In reality, they're a focused specialist Abjurer who instantly tries to weakly dispel any spells that they can see. Call him "Brutus the Brute Wizard" (BtBW). I think it'd go down like...

BtBW: "Aha, spellcaster, you have met your valiant end, for none shall cast spells better than I can!"
Master Caster: Casts a spell
BtBW: Casts Dispel Magic to counterspell... fails.
BtBW: "WOW, you must be a really good spellcaster! Alas, I haven't revealed my TRUE POWER yet!!1!"
Master Caster: Casts a spell
BtBW: Counterspell... fails
...
etc

I like it! And counterspell is such a lame mechanic, it works perfectly with Good sucks because they are not willing to bend the rules theme I have going.

Quertus
2018-12-05, 08:44 PM
Well, I'm glad that you're stuck on the caster, because that's the only one I had a solution for. In fact, I have several.

So, my first (and craziest) thought was a completely different kind of opposite. They are all breaking the rules - what about a character that follows the rules? They can drown heal their allies. They can ignore death, because the dead condition does not specify that it limits their actions. Etc etc. To be the opposite of their beautiful, charismatic race, go Feral Arctic Orc. And, because the caster went for maximum possible tier 1 power in a somewhat complicated build, make their opposite go straight Commoner.

Or, a spoof of Quertus, my signature academia mage, for whom this account is named, could be an opposite number, tbh. NI level, roll on a d100 table for what spell he chooses to cast - but have him avoid casting anything, if at all possible.

Still not the kind of opposite you're looking for? How about a Beholder Mage, then? It matches the incredible magical power and speed, while being an aesthetic (and default alignment) opposite.

Or, combine all three - a RAW-using, tactically-inept Beholder Mage. Who has been turned to the light side by Sanctify the Wicked.

To parallel the Ur-Priest, who gets great power from disregard for the gods, have the opposite go all out, adorned with holy iconography, use religious phrases and invocations, etc - but just be a fanatic lay follower.

Whichever route you take, you could combine it with the Spellfire feat, to parallel the Spell Thief.

Lastly, to combine it with the cool idea on the first reply, you could have them spend lots of WBL on Eternal Wands of Dispel Magic, with feats like QuickDraw, Dual Wand Wielder, etc, to maximize the effectiveness of the tactic.

So, to combine it all: a tactically inept religious fanatic Beholder Mage, who prefers spend his actions trying to convert the PCs. He views the PCs as abominations that break the rules of reality, and randomly shows off things like drown-healing to try to convert them - "you break the rules, but I follow them", or something. He uses Arms of the Naga to duel-wield Eternal Wands of Dispel Magic, or holds an action to absorb targeted spells with Spellfire. And, as a Beholder, he believes that he's always successful, telling the caster how many "other" beautiful women he's converted (that number being the number of times he's encountered her).