ccflier
2021-03-20, 10:43 AM
I need help optimizing how I will be using magic jar with my undead dread necromancer+jpm. The end goal is to be nearly unkillable plague during battle. As long as one undead remains, my soul will still be around to fight. My entire kit is meant to debuff the enemy and buff my team. Being almost unkillable would let me, as the current party leader, put myself at risk more to make more opportunities to help and protect other players, and the range would mean returning to the jar and then back to my body(2 standard actions) will let me possess a body far away and come back, making a fairly slow teleportation-esque effect. Recastings of Magic Jar will reset the spell duration. Here are my ideas so far:
Undead Mech
So far I have a really fun idea that takes advantage of me not needing to eat or breath, but I am yet to test it so there are a few kinks I need help working out. I made a bloodhulk giant with tons of girallons, leaving the second set of arms shriveled in comparison to the large, powerful, swollen main arms used for attacking. I start out by using magic jar, storing my soul in a gem within my armor hanging from a necklace. This will protect the jar from getting in LOS and being dispelled or destroyed unless the enemy is super luck and completely pierces through my adamantine full plate. This helps to limit the weakness of the jar itself ending the spell prematurely. In the future, I will replace my skull with a gem, permanently tying together the fate of both my life and the spell itself. I would need to have my skull completely crushed to destroy the jar, which would also kill my main body(ruled in my campaign).
The second layer of protection is the girallon bloodhulk. After possessing my bloodhulk via magic jar(it will be the only other creature with negative energy, since my party is living), I will use the host's secondary arms to pull my original body into a flesh pocket carved into it's chest, the secondary arms will also fold up into this fleshy cavity, holding the original body firmly in place. This will make is to that my host body cannot die outside of the range of my spell, unless something were to dissect me first. I can stay within this body for the entire adventuring day, gaining a huge boost to my physical stats.
This Undead Mech Setup is the safest way I have thought of, so far, to deploy magic jar for combat without having my host body forcefully separated from my original body, risking death(dm has made me "reviving" as an undead the same as reviving any other character)
The issues I have here are mostly AC and emergency escapes. After a few feats and some homebrew abilities, my original body, when fully kitted is at 37 ac and 107 hp, while the mech would have 22 ac and 282 hp. When comparing both numbers, something that could hit my main body 30% of the time, will be guaranteed to hit the host body 100% of the time. If I put armor on, it would cover my flesh pouch and make it harder to crawl out of the host body if the possession is forcefully ended. If I only make skeletons, getting out would be easy, but there would be even less hp.
Problem and Potential Solutions
I need an emergency exit that is both reusable as well as affordable. It would be nice if it was also transferable between new mechs I make in the future. ATM I have a bead of windwalking I am allowed to use. It is a standard action to use, and I can put it on a ring on my main body. My main body just needs enough room to be able to "speak" the command word and I will be able to slip through the cracks in my host's armor and flesh to escape the wreckage with both flying and high speed. Then use another standard action to dismiss the effect and return to combat. This is really slow though(the escape) so I am looking for better options. I also do not have access to the spell contingency as a dread necromancer. Even if I did, I would only be able to make spells I know contingent. To have armor, I need a new emergency eject button.
Undead Plague
For this, I am really stumped on how to make this one less vulnerable. Biggest idea here is to rely on teammates. I will give one of them both the jar as well casting a modified spell of something like Shrink Item or Reduce to make my main body portable. This way, wherever they go, I can possess the undead around me almost continuously while being protected. This is my grand vision, and depending on how it works I plan to work with the DM to find out how I can fuse this with chain spell. With chain spell, I would either be able to have my soul in multiple undead which would significantly expand the area of the auras I like to use, or be able to switch undead possessed even faster. As long as even an a tiny spider zombie is still alive, I can possess it and hide, and if the jar is nearby, I can even extend the duration of the spell until a host able to carry the jar comes by.
Problem and Potential Solutions
I need to follow my team very closely since my host and jar isn't bound to my original body as tightly as when I use the Undead Mech. If something drags me out of range and then kills me, I am really dead. Also, if I am going to use shrink item, it may make me unable to return to combat if I was forced back to my main body.
Biggest issue is that if somebody casts dispel magic on me while my original body is still dead or even if I am just simply out of range, I will die. Dispel magic becomes a lethal spell against me. So does teleportation spells that would take me out of range. If possible, I would want to attach the magic jar to my soul so that it comes with me. I need it to stay close but cannot think of any way to automate this.
TL;DR:
Using dread necromancer spell list and less than 2 feats, I need:
1. A fast way(preferably 1 standard action total) to teleport or maneuver from inside of a beasts belly to the outside
2. A way to make an undead portable and easy to carry around, without extradimensional spaces
3. A way to automatically keep my magic jar's jar within range of my host body, that blocks LOS of dispel magic but also protects it to an extent from damage
Undead Mech
So far I have a really fun idea that takes advantage of me not needing to eat or breath, but I am yet to test it so there are a few kinks I need help working out. I made a bloodhulk giant with tons of girallons, leaving the second set of arms shriveled in comparison to the large, powerful, swollen main arms used for attacking. I start out by using magic jar, storing my soul in a gem within my armor hanging from a necklace. This will protect the jar from getting in LOS and being dispelled or destroyed unless the enemy is super luck and completely pierces through my adamantine full plate. This helps to limit the weakness of the jar itself ending the spell prematurely. In the future, I will replace my skull with a gem, permanently tying together the fate of both my life and the spell itself. I would need to have my skull completely crushed to destroy the jar, which would also kill my main body(ruled in my campaign).
The second layer of protection is the girallon bloodhulk. After possessing my bloodhulk via magic jar(it will be the only other creature with negative energy, since my party is living), I will use the host's secondary arms to pull my original body into a flesh pocket carved into it's chest, the secondary arms will also fold up into this fleshy cavity, holding the original body firmly in place. This will make is to that my host body cannot die outside of the range of my spell, unless something were to dissect me first. I can stay within this body for the entire adventuring day, gaining a huge boost to my physical stats.
This Undead Mech Setup is the safest way I have thought of, so far, to deploy magic jar for combat without having my host body forcefully separated from my original body, risking death(dm has made me "reviving" as an undead the same as reviving any other character)
The issues I have here are mostly AC and emergency escapes. After a few feats and some homebrew abilities, my original body, when fully kitted is at 37 ac and 107 hp, while the mech would have 22 ac and 282 hp. When comparing both numbers, something that could hit my main body 30% of the time, will be guaranteed to hit the host body 100% of the time. If I put armor on, it would cover my flesh pouch and make it harder to crawl out of the host body if the possession is forcefully ended. If I only make skeletons, getting out would be easy, but there would be even less hp.
Problem and Potential Solutions
I need an emergency exit that is both reusable as well as affordable. It would be nice if it was also transferable between new mechs I make in the future. ATM I have a bead of windwalking I am allowed to use. It is a standard action to use, and I can put it on a ring on my main body. My main body just needs enough room to be able to "speak" the command word and I will be able to slip through the cracks in my host's armor and flesh to escape the wreckage with both flying and high speed. Then use another standard action to dismiss the effect and return to combat. This is really slow though(the escape) so I am looking for better options. I also do not have access to the spell contingency as a dread necromancer. Even if I did, I would only be able to make spells I know contingent. To have armor, I need a new emergency eject button.
Undead Plague
For this, I am really stumped on how to make this one less vulnerable. Biggest idea here is to rely on teammates. I will give one of them both the jar as well casting a modified spell of something like Shrink Item or Reduce to make my main body portable. This way, wherever they go, I can possess the undead around me almost continuously while being protected. This is my grand vision, and depending on how it works I plan to work with the DM to find out how I can fuse this with chain spell. With chain spell, I would either be able to have my soul in multiple undead which would significantly expand the area of the auras I like to use, or be able to switch undead possessed even faster. As long as even an a tiny spider zombie is still alive, I can possess it and hide, and if the jar is nearby, I can even extend the duration of the spell until a host able to carry the jar comes by.
Problem and Potential Solutions
I need to follow my team very closely since my host and jar isn't bound to my original body as tightly as when I use the Undead Mech. If something drags me out of range and then kills me, I am really dead. Also, if I am going to use shrink item, it may make me unable to return to combat if I was forced back to my main body.
Biggest issue is that if somebody casts dispel magic on me while my original body is still dead or even if I am just simply out of range, I will die. Dispel magic becomes a lethal spell against me. So does teleportation spells that would take me out of range. If possible, I would want to attach the magic jar to my soul so that it comes with me. I need it to stay close but cannot think of any way to automate this.
TL;DR:
Using dread necromancer spell list and less than 2 feats, I need:
1. A fast way(preferably 1 standard action total) to teleport or maneuver from inside of a beasts belly to the outside
2. A way to make an undead portable and easy to carry around, without extradimensional spaces
3. A way to automatically keep my magic jar's jar within range of my host body, that blocks LOS of dispel magic but also protects it to an extent from damage