Playing a succubus

[Rainbownaga]

Just wondering, does anyone have any experience playing as succubus; either the 3.0 savage progression or the 3.5 version?

Looking at it, it seemed broken in both ways (too many good abilities and too many limitations), but has anyone had any experience actually playing one? How would you rate their capabilities?

[graymachine]

Well, going by the general rule-of-thumb that anything more than a +4 LA is way too much, I'd say that it costs too much for what it does. It's abilities are generally positive though in covering a theme, so if you aren't worried about a min-maxed game then it would probably do well.

Assuming you are talking about the general boosts it gets towards guile and, specifically, seduction, a bard does it better. While the succubus is going to have a better CHA that a bard of similiar power level, the bard is going to be toting around Glibness. Bluff covers a great many things, including pretty much everything a succubus does (admittedly, the bard wouldn't have the supernatural powers, but can compensate via other means, i.e. illusion.) A +30 to bluff is something that pretty much only PCs can resist, due to misuse of meta-knowledge.

That said, I think that the succubus pulls off a coherence of the idea better than the bard. What I would do in this situation would be to work with the DM to come up with a reduced LA/racial levels you'd need to take, cutting off all of the excess that you don't need to meet your character idea. Call it a succubus variant or some such.

It's strong, but that's because of the high number of levels that you need to sink into it, which will ultimately leave you dragging behind, from a mechanical standpoint.

[monty]

Alternately, play it in gestalt. Bard/succubus would be pretty insane.

[graymachine]

Alternately, play it in gestalt. Bard/succubus would be pretty insane.

Yes, but we would have to merge the powers of a seasoned seductress from 19th century nobility with the paranoid mind of a centuries-old politico to make a player able to play such a character.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Yes, but we would have to merge the powers of a seasoned seductress from 19th century nobility with the paranoid mind of a centuries-old politico to make a player able to play such a character.

So, a girl who survived high school, then?

[Gaiyamato]

I have 3 of them in my current campaign on rpol and they wreck havoc unless you find inventive ways to control them.
One of them is a succubus/fiend of possession and she is a real pain in the backside.

Teleport, shapeshifting, dominate and charm all mess up the less powerful npc's very quickly and easily.
One of them managed to dominate another PC, teleport him elsewhere and then force him to kiss her until he died.

I find I am always having random level 1 clerics walking around casting protection from evil on everyone, even the other evil players...

If I could start this campaign over again I would not allow succubi. Even with 12 levels taken up by the race they are stupidly overpowered if played right.

But yes, with the right build against them they suddenly seem very weak. Also a nice spell called Dictum works wonders on them. lol.

[The Professor]

I got to play one once, but only using the Savage Progression, and still, it was around level 4 or so.

I echo greymachine insofar that, it covers what the fiend does rather well. Min/Max-wise, you may want to find something else.

However... as a DM and a Player, I highly recommend limiting the teleporting ability. With a whimsical evil incarnation of chaos and illicit sex, that ability alone wreaks nine kinds of havoc for players, but especially for DMs.

[Devils_Advocate]

I think that the most fitting class for a succubus, conceptually, might be Rogue. Skilled, relies on trickery and surprise, not primarily a warrior but potentially an effective one.

Min-maxing a succubus is more a matter of adding your Charisma bonus to whatever you can. Marshal and Blackguard, off the top of my head, are obvious choices. (Not Cha-based spellcasting, though. Obviously actual caster levels would be better for that, and you've got spell-like abilities usable at will already.)

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I think that the most fitting class for a succubus, conceptually, might be Rogue. Skilled, relies on trickery and surprise, not primarily a warrior but potentially an effective one.

Min-maxing a succubus is more a matter of adding your Charisma bonus to whatever you can. Marshal and Blackguard, off the top of my head, are obvious choices. (Not Cha-based spellcasting, though. Obviously actual caster levels would be better for that, and you've got spell-like abilities usable at will already.)

Yes and no. You'll never be a great caster, but you'll have spell slots to spare, and a single level gets you access to a lot of fun tricks with staves as well as no need to UMD wands(though you might as well take the skill anyways). 1st level spells are nothing to sneeze at, if you pick the right ones.

[Gaiyamato]

I looked at a Succubus - Fiend of Blasphemy as an idea for a character as well.

Kind of cool having your own cult and all that jazz. lol.