PDA

View Full Version : Hidey hole for a kobold wizard



Cuddly
2008-05-24, 07:38 PM
I'm working on a gestalt kobold wizard//factototum who is lawful evil in an high powered evil party. He of course needs to sleep safely for 8 hours, then study for an hour, every day. The party rogue will likely want to slit his throat and take his stuff.

Here's what I have for how he sleeps:

He has an Enveloping Pit. It's like a portable hole, but much deeper and much cheaper, and designed by the god of Kobolds. From SpC.

Inside will be his treasure horde/bed, and many, many books. Every night, he will turn invisible, then hide and move silently ~100 feet away from the party, where he will alter self into a white wyrmling, and use his burrow speed to go underground (alternatively, casting Xorn movement so there's no tunnel), making sure to collapse the tunnel behind him. He has the darkstalker feat and can fly, so he won't leave a trail that could be followed, save by a near-epic ranger or something.

After burrowing several hundred feet underground, he will lay out the enveloping pit, casting alarm spells (what other good glyphs are there?), followed by a private sanctum. He will then get into the enveloping pit, casting invisibility and nystul's aura on, then grabbing its edge and rolling it up while inside.

Then he'll have dinner or whatever.

How to make this better. Spell slots aren't a huge concern, nor is wealth. No items over 18k, though, and no custom ones unless it's clearly a reflavored item that already exists. Books allowed: all of them.

Emperor Tippy
2008-05-24, 07:42 PM
What level?

martyboy74
2008-05-24, 07:48 PM
What if the party is attacked while sleeping? Do you just sleep through? How do you get out quickly if need be?

Istari
2008-05-24, 07:51 PM
You could try fly rope trick or magnificent mansion

FlyMolo
2008-05-24, 08:07 PM
You're vulnerable to tremorsense down there, but it's otherwise basically perfect.

Tremorsense is fairly short range, usually. And in any case, you're really hard to find. The same trick, but hide the hole on the ethereal plane. Plane shift is your best bet, I'm afraid. Two seventh level spell slots is a bit much, though?

Cast imprisonment on yourself. Oh wait, temporal stasis. Umm, research an imprisonment spell, minus the stasis?

Try a double blind. fly up, cast wall of force, then cast invisibility, and ditch a BoH there. Then burrow down somewhere else. With detect magic, they'll find the hole and stop looking, and then you pounce from hiding when dawn comes.

Cuddly
2008-05-24, 08:09 PM
Tippy-
Level 9, but I can cast up to level 7 spells using some 3rd party splat books and poorly written rules.

Marty-
If the party gets attacked while they sleep, they can deal with it. The kobold is not there to baby them 24/7. As for a quick escape, I reckon I'll just move to the edge of the hole, spending inspiration points as I need them to get there, then grab the edge of the hole and cast teleport/dimension door/plane shift/whatever. Given how contrived the DM wants to make it, I may have to spend additional inspiration points to use wands/scrolls/sp abilities/etc to get out.

Itari-
If I use rope trick, the DM won't let me bring my extra-dimensional space into it, though. Besides, I like the idea of a portable home that's dark and narrow, much like a kobold tunnel.

Magnificent mansion is a cool idea, but I'm not sure if I want to burn my high level slots on that yet.

Everyone-
What sort of magic items should I stick in there? Something to breathe, for sure. Something that makes good food and drink, a good light source. What sort of amenities would you put in? Maybe an animated chess set. I also currently have a tiny snake familiar- is there anything I can do with that to make it able to stay on watch or make knowledge/spellcraft checks to see if a threat is worth waking me up over?

[edit]
FlyMolo-
I'm not sure if tremorsense will see into the extradimensional space. I'll have to ask my DM. At the very least, most tremorsensing creatures will set my alarms off at the same time their tremorsense picks up something weird.

[editx2]
What if I put the hole in a Force Chest (SpC), crawled in, shut the lid, then turned the hole invisible and rolled it up?

FlyMolo
2008-05-24, 08:24 PM
Bottle of air/necklace of adaptation, item of create food/water, and a continual flame rock or something.

Also, 7th level spells at level 9? Borked much?

SamTheCleric
2008-05-24, 08:32 PM
Drop some Blast Disks in your hole... land mines make everyone feel safe!

martyboy74
2008-05-24, 08:43 PM
Hope you don't sleepwalk.

Flickerdart
2008-05-24, 08:54 PM
So, you're going to blow 7 spell slots just to sleep at night? A single Extended Hold Person on the Rogue will do the job just as well.

FlyMolo
2008-05-24, 08:58 PM
So, you're going to blow 7 spell slots just to sleep at night? A single Extended Hold Person on the Rogue will do the job just as well.

Dominate person. Even better.

Emperor Tippy
2008-05-24, 09:05 PM
Dominate person. Even better.

And Smokey Confinement is even better, Rogue in a can.

Or just pay 3K for the scroll of mind rape and adjust him.

olelia
2008-05-24, 09:20 PM
And Smokey Confinement is even better, Rogue in a can.

Or just pay 3K for the scroll of mind rape and adjust him.

I don't know why but that made me lol.

Smiley_
2008-05-24, 09:21 PM
Mindrape is a viable option, considering that the wizard is evil.

Dominate person is probably eficcient, but not quite as neat or fail-safe.

What if he makes his save?
cast it again
What if he makes that save too?
Cast fly and get out

and now you have a grumpy rogue on your hands that, while he cannot do anything to hurt you, he can snitch on you. Then you have the whole party to worry about. Not to mention...the horrible, horrible talk on ethics and "teamwork" that you would have to endure or the complaining of the rogue's player.

Jack_Simth
2008-05-24, 09:26 PM
Let's see....

That's probably sufficient, really.

As for items...

1) You're a kobold, so you've got darkvision, and don't need a light source.
2) Food: You want some source of nourishment, be that a Ring of Sustenance, a Clear Spindle Ioun Stone, or a Sustaining Spoon.
3) Air: You want a source of oxegyn, be that a Bottle of Air, a Helm of Underwater Action, an Iridescent Spindle Ioun stone, or a Necklace of Adaptation.
4) Something to while away the hours. Maybe a chess set.

Which specific choice of items you go with on the optional ones of course depends on your budget, what flavor you wish to go with, and what other items you'll be using.

And yes, familiars make wonderful night watchmen - a Bat gets Blindsense (and some nifty bonuses to Spot/Listen), an Owl or Hawk gets big bonuses to Spot, the Cat, Rat, Snake, Viper, and Weasel get Scent. Blindsense tells the familiar what square the critter is in, Scent lets them know when something comes within 30 feet (or 15, or 45, depending on wind) but not what square unless it's very close. All familiars have your ranks. And as a Factotum, all skills are class skills for you. Get yourself some Spot/Listen.

Add Imbue Familiar With Spell Ability, and give your familiar a way to quickly move your hidey-hole, and you're pretty much set.

SamTheCleric
2008-05-24, 09:26 PM
Invest in a permanent Blur so he can't sneak attack you while you're sleeping! :smallsmile:

Smiley_
2008-05-24, 09:35 PM
Yeah, but then you would have a miss chance when trying to scratch your nose or...I'm not gonna say it. Too obvious.

Flickerdart
2008-05-24, 11:34 PM
@^ I don't think Kobolds work that way.

Anyways, isn't there some high-HD spell equivalent to Deep Slumber? Use that. It's not against teamwork...

And a Dominated teammate is the best kind of teammate.

Chronos
2008-05-24, 11:42 PM
2) Food: You want some source of nourishment, be that a Ring of Sustenance, a Clear Spindle Ioun Stone, or a Sustaining Spoon.Note that the Sustaining Spoon produces gruel with the approximate taste and consistency of wet cardboard. So you'll want to make sure you always have a cantrip slot reserved for Prestidigitation. Ta-da, now your sustaining gruel tastes like yummy halfling rogue!

Heck, you should always use a couple of cantrip slots on Prestidigitation, anyway. But this is just one more reason to do so.


As for Tremorsense, it won't detect the hole, because the hole isn't a creature. It won't detect the kobold inside of the hole, because it doesn't extend past the Material Plane. And it won't detect the kobold outside of the hole, thanks to Darkstalker. So there's no problem there.

Cuddly
2008-05-24, 11:58 PM
Ah excellent. Good to know I am well hidden in my hole.

I should probably trap the hell out of it for RP reasons, though a pissed off gestalt factototum//wizard at the bottom of a hole is probably the nastiest trap ever.

"The kobold wins initiative."
"Alright, whatever. He looks like a caster; I'm gonna splatter him on my turn"
"He begins casting a spell- Arlafax, you discern that it's Acid Splash."
*snickers*
"Annnnd, you take *rolls* 1d3 acid damage, and 50d6 sneak attack damage."

kme
2008-05-25, 03:15 AM
Are you doing all of that just to hide from other party members? If that is the case why don't you simply teleport to some place unknown to them (maybe a carefully prepared lair 1000ft below the ground)?

tarbrush
2008-05-25, 04:23 AM
Carefully prepared lair runs the risk that someone discovers the lair while you're awake and either cleans it out or waits in ambush. Current plan is good, as is Mindraping the entire party. And any strangers you happen to come across that might prove useful.

Cuddly
2008-05-25, 04:55 PM
Are you doing all of that just to hide from other party members?

And all the monsters that are out to eat me.


If that is the case why don't you simply teleport to some place unknown to them (maybe a carefully prepared lair 1000ft below the ground)?

We're going to be plane hopping, and I'd rather not invest a bunch of wealth in a stationary hole whose security could easily be compromised. My hidey hole, if the security is compromised, lets me move it, loot intact, to some unspecified location to lick my wounds and plan for revenge. Otherwise, I could just come back and find my secret underground lair totally looted.

Cuddly
2008-05-25, 05:17 PM
Are you doing all of that just to hide from other party members?

And all the monsters that are out to eat me.


If that is the case why don't you simply teleport to some place unknown to them (maybe a carefully prepared lair 1000ft below the ground)?

We're going to be plane hopping, and I'd rather not invest a bunch of wealth in a stationary hole whose security could easily be compromised. My hidey hole, if the security is compromised, lets me move it, loot intact, to some unspecified location to lick my wounds and plan for revenge. Otherwise, I could just come back and find my secret underground lair totally looted.

Behold_the_Void
2008-05-25, 05:39 PM
Once the Rogue is asleep, THEN dominate him. No Will Save that way. Suggestion may also be a valid alternative ("I suggest that instead of attempting to mess with me, you get some sleep so I don't have to flay the skin from your bones.")

Cuddly
2008-05-25, 05:49 PM
I could easily kill the entire party in a single round and take their stuff. However, that's not what I want to do to my friend's characters. So I'm going to go with the non-confrontational approach.

Jack_Simth
2008-05-25, 06:03 PM
Once the Rogue is asleep, THEN dominate him. No Will Save that way. Suggestion may also be a valid alternative ("I suggest that instead of attempting to mess with me, you get some sleep so I don't have to flay the skin from your bones.")

The "no save when unconscious" thing only applies to Harmless spells, not to other spells, sorry.

Behold_the_Void
2008-05-25, 07:19 PM
The "no save when unconscious" thing only applies to Harmless spells, not to other spells, sorry.

Really? Huh.

Dode
2008-05-25, 07:54 PM
If you can Extend a spell then use a lesser metamagic rod of Extend on it, at level 16 you can just merge into a block of stone and sleep there.

holywhippet
2008-05-25, 08:11 PM
Everyone-
What sort of magic items should I stick in there? Something to breathe, for sure. Something that makes good food and drink, a good light source. What sort of amenities would you put in? Maybe an animated chess set. I also currently have a tiny snake familiar- is there anything I can do with that to make it able to stay on watch or make knowledge/spellcraft checks to see if a threat is worth waking me up over?


For food and drink, see if you can get an item that casts Heroes' Feast once per day.