Suggestions for nasty vampire "archbishop" cleric

[redking]

Any build suggestions for a vampire cleric leader type? "The Archbishop" is a vampire cleric, with religious beliefs that see mortals as mere food for thirsty vampires.

The Archbishop should have cleric as a baseclass. Any PrCs that the Archbishop has should advance rebuke undead. Full casting is not necessary if the PrC is flavourful. The Archbishop does not necessarily need full casting or 9th level spells.

Concept: The Archbishop can create spawn, of course, but he can only control twice his HD in spawn.


Create Spawn (Su)
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a vampire’s energy drain rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.

If the vampire instead drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or lower, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or less HD and as a vampire if it had 5 or more HD. In either case, the new vampire or spawn is under the command of the vampire that created it and remains enslaved until its master’s destruction. At any given time a vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit are created as free-willed vampires or vampire spawn. A vampire that is enslaved may create and enslave spawn of its own, so a master vampire can control a number of lesser vampires in this fashion. A vampire may voluntarily free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.

Also assume that spawn under this ability cannot chain control. Any creature turned into a vampire by the Archbishop's spawn falls under the Archbishop's control and counts against the Archbishop's HD limit. This is not the case for vampires under the Archbishops control through rebuke undead, however, so a vampire rebuked and controlled by the Archbishop can have vampire spawn of its own. Assume that the Archbishop can get to epic levels, with access to the Undead Mastery epic feat.

Ideas?

[fallensavior]

Is the vampire religion in your world really so widespread and commonplace that it needs not only religious bureaucrats (bishops) to oversee each region, but an extra special honorary designation for the religious bureaucrats who oversee important regions (archbishops)?

[redking]

Is the vampire religion in your world really so widespread and commonplace that it needs not only religious bureaucrats (bishops) to oversee each region, but an extra special honorary designation for the religious bureaucrats who oversee important regions (archbishops)?

No. The Archbishop is self-titled. The Archbishop just lifted the title from other religions as blasphemous appropriation.

[Particle_Man]

Perhaps Master of Shrouds, although you would want to be NE to maximize summoning effectiveness. And expand your portfolio to “humans should be consumed by undead” not just vampires.

[Maat Mons]

Since vampires all start out as mortals, this religion should probably acknowledge that as a secondary purpose for mortals. They're mostly just food for vampires, but those who are sufficiently devout or badass can be chosen for ascension to undead status.

Doomedreamer (RttToEE) doesn't add to Rebuking, but does multiply it. Shame it's thoroughly tied to worship of Tharizdun though.

I'm not finding very many PrCs that add to Rebuking. And those few I do find mostly don't suit the theme. I suppose there's a niche use for Warpriest if going into epic. Cleric 16 / Warpriest 4 gets you to the +16 base attack bonus by level 20 cutoff.

I suppose you could use something like Sacred Outlaw (Dr357) to gain extra benefits from your Cleric levels. Shame I can't think of anything better than +11d6 Sneak Attack damage to gain from them though.

Well, I guess there's the good old Magic domain. With 20 Cleric levels granting you an effective Wizard level of 10, and Arcane Mastery (CArc) guaranteeing you a 10 on caster level checks, you can activate any scroll on the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list with 100% reliability. Though I'm not sure how frequently you'll be using high-level scrolls, even with minions to craft them for you.

Since you can't chain the Create Spawn ability, you'll want all your spawn to be Clerics, so they can Command a bunch of extra vampires on your behalf.

[mabriss lethe]

It's worth noting that the vampire template only allows access to Chaos, Destruction, Evil, and Trickery domains for your cleric levels (domains from other classes are unaffected.) Though there may be some rule somewhere that I've forgotten that allows you to bypass it.

[hamishspence]

It's worth noting that the vampire template only allows access to Chaos, Destruction, Evil, and Trickery domains for your cleric levels (domains from other classes are unaffected.) Though there may be some rule somewhere that I've forgotten that allows you to bypass it.
That makes sense for a "cleric of vampirism" as a holdover from the 3.0 days when all Vampires were CE (Vampire Spawn still being CE).

And this character's description sounds rather like that kind of cleric.



"The Archbishop" is a vampire cleric, with religious beliefs that see mortals as mere food for thirsty vampires.


I'd say it doesn't apply though to a cleric of an evil god who has no problem with vampirism, who later turns into a vampire. Such a cleric would retain access to whatever domains they had in life, IMO.

A cleric of Bane who's taken the Law domain, shouldn't lose it when they turn into a vampire, since Bane has no problem with undead in general (several clerics of bane are liches - "Baneliches".)

[mabriss lethe]

That makes sense for a "cleric of vampirism" as a holdover from the 3.0 days when all Vampires were CE (Vampire Spawn still being CE).

And this character's description sounds rather like that kind of cleric.

I'd say it doesn't apply though to a cleric of an evil god who has no problem with vampirism, who later turns into a vampire. Such a cleric would retain access to whatever domains they had in life, IMO.

A cleric of Bane who's taken the Law domain, shouldn't lose it when they turn into a vampire, since Bane has no problem with undead in general (several clerics of bane are liches - "Baneliches".)

TBH, I think it's a rather silly limitation, and probably poorly worded. Just pointing out that it is part of the template relevant to the build, and a fairly easy one to overlook.

[Doctor Despair]

Can I suggest the Mother Cyst feat to further control followers? Having a Necrotic Cyst makes all followers more vulnerable to necromancy spells (-2 to saves against them), and generally I think it's very flavorful for the living that are in the thrall of undead overlords.

[redking]

Can I suggest the Mother Cyst feat to further control followers? Having a Necrotic Cyst makes all followers more vulnerable to necromancy spells (-2 to saves against them), and generally I think it's very flavorful for the living that are in the thrall of undead overlords.

Mother Cyst, yes, but not for the domination, which vampires have by default anyway. It's for the Necrotic Empowerment spell. Persist it and it gets very nasty indeed.


While the spell is in effect, you gain a +8 enhancement bonus to Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom, a +8 natural armor bonus to Armor Class as your skin briefly crusts and hardens, a +5 competence bonus on Fortitude saves, and 100 temporary hit points.

So much winning there for a vampire cleric.


A cleric of Bane who's taken the Law domain, shouldn't lose it when they turn into a vampire, since Bane has no problem with undead in general (several clerics of bane are liches - "Baneliches".)

For all the fact that vampires lean towards chaotic even, there seem to have been quite a few lawful evil vampires. I suspect there is a lawful evil bloodline of vampires out their somewhere, and the ethical tendencies of any vampire reflects that of its first vampire progenitor.

[Doctor Despair]

Mother Cyst, yes, but not for the domination, which vampires have by default anyway. It's for the Necrotic Empowerment spell. Persist it and it gets very nasty indeed.



So much winning there for a vampire cleric.

I'm drawing a total blank, but there was some effect kind of like Empower Spell (but obviously not that, as that only affects variable effects) that had a funny interaction with Necrotic Empowerment. I wracked my brains for a few minutes, but it's not coming back to me. Maybe someone with a higher wisdom than I can remember it...

[redking]

I'm drawing a total blank, but there was some effect kind of like Empower Spell (but obviously not that, as that only affects variable effects) that had a funny interaction with Necrotic Empowerment. I wracked my brains for a few minutes, but it's not coming back to me. Maybe someone with a higher wisdom than I can remember it...

Fell Energy Spell metamagic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25030544&postcount=26) for another +2 to ability scores from Necrotic Empowerment. Master Astrologer capstone (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?630758-Optimize-this-class-ability-Master-Astrologer-DrM-340) to increase bonus by 50%. Here is a quote from the relevant thread.


This could be combined with Spell Versatility (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#spellVersatility) and the Ability Enhancer feat from Dragon Compendium as well as Fell Energy metamagic and Kiss of the Vampire spell to add 4 more to any spell-based ability score bonus and then multiply by x1.5. That would put Necrotic Empowerment at +18 Dex/+18 Int/+18 Wis/+15 Natural Armor, Divine Agility at +21, and Bite of the Werebear at +30 Str/+9 Dex/+18 Con/+13 Natural Armor.

Is this what you had in mind?

[Doctor Despair]

Fell Energy Spell metamagic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25030544&postcount=26) for another +2 to ability scores from Necrotic Empowerment. Master Astrologer capstone (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?630758-Optimize-this-class-ability-Master-Astrologer-DrM-340) to increase bonus by 50%. Here is a quote from the relevant thread.



Is this what you had in mind?

Master Astrologer was the one!

[redking]

Master Astrologer was the one!

Combine Master Astrologer with Cosmic Descyer's cosmic connection ability for absolute insanity. Just Master Astrologer alone gets you greater planar binding at 27 HD. By the time the cosmic descryer has cosmic connection , it now has +8 HD for calling creatures. So 18 + 8 = 26 X 1.5 = 39 HD. Probably unwise to do this even for a vampire archbishop, but it shows the potential.

Has anyone made any vampire statblocks?

[SteveLightblade]

You should really check out the Undead Lord Cleric archetype from Pathfinder's Ultimate Magic book