Building Aladdin and Jaffar

[gallagher]

so last night while watching my younger sister while my parents went out for their anniversary, i was watching aladdin. this got me all inspired to think up how to build both aladdin and jaffar. problem is, i am terrible at building based off of character concepts.

seeing as aladdin is this street-rat, i started to think he would be played as a monk. then i realized the faults there... he is an unarmed swordsage, with hide, move silently, slight of hand, tumble, escape artist and bluff maxed

but what is jaffar? i will admit, unless it is a cleric, i am terrible at building casters. and what kind of bonus does a parrot familiar grant?

[Kaje]

A parrot familiar is just a refluffed raven, so Appraise iirc.

Jafar would probably be just a wizard, or perhaps beguiler?

And Aladdin would certainly have some rogue in him.

[gallagher]

A parrot familiar is just a refluffed raven, so Appraise iirc.

Jafar would probably be just a wizard, or perhaps beguiler?

And Aladdin would certainly have some rogue in him.

why rogue? the only thing off the top of my head would be to make him able to disable locks and traps and such, and in the movie (the disney one anyway) only Abu shows talent for being a rogue

[Eldan]

In most versions of the story I know (I don't remember the disney movie too clearly), he's a thief, so rogue isn't too bad. He was stealing things at least, wasn't he? Thief-Acrobat, perhaps.
Jafar is probably a pretty good fit for a wizard. Though as a Vizier he probably also needs quite a few skill points. Social skills, knowledge, all that. Bard, perhaps? It's a disney movie, so I'd assume he's singing

In the end, he's also the world's stupidest Efreet, for living in a bottle voluntarily.

[Murdim]

Jafar is probably a pretty good fit for a wizard. Though as a Vizier he probably also needs quite a few skill points. Social skills, knowledge, all that. Bard, perhaps? It's a disney movie, so I'd assume he's singing

Wouldn't Aladdin himself fit better as a bard, though, or at least a non-supernatural equivalent ? I mean, he is the main protagonist. Of a Disney movie. From the 90s. Also, Sleight of hand, social skills, and Use magic device.

Jafar is more of a Beguiler type, really.

[Greenish]

Jafar is probably a pretty good fit for a wizard. Though as a Vizier he probably also needs quite a few skill points. Social skills, knowledge, all that. Bard, perhaps? It's a disney movie, so I'd assume he's singing.

Most decidedly.

[Urpriest]

Jafar, like all good evil viziers (oxymoron much?) should take the Eunuch Warlock PrC. He'd cheese the entry requirements with Alter Self to allow him to still go after Jasmine.

[grarrrg]

seeing as aladdin is this street-rat, i started to think he would be played as a monk. then i realized the faults there... he is an unarmed swordsage, with hide, move silently, slight of hand, tumble, escape artist and bluff maxed

I'd say he's MUCH more Rogue than Monk/Swordsage, he's fairly skilled (not a "trap" rogue, more a "stealing" rogue).
Process of elimination otherwise?
He's definately not a caster, so no cleric/wizard/etc...(although he has a big blue 'cohort' who is)
He prefers not to get into a straight up fight. Most/All the 'fights' he won in that movie he won more with smarts than anything else, so no Fighter/Barbarian/etc...
And a good hit against Monk is that he doesn't seem very "Wise", he's definately a quick thinker though, so avg/poor Wis, but good/great Int.
Good Cha.
Out of Core that pretty much leaves Rogue (dash of Bard for the singing maybe)

but what is jaffar? i will admit, unless it is a cleric, i am terrible at building casters. and what kind of bonus does a parrot familiar grant?

Definately a caster of some type, I agree with the "reflavoured Raven" idea.

Mmmmmm reflavoured raven *drools*

[Lev]

Jaffar is a wizard with a parrot familiar.

Alladin is a rogue with a pet monkey, and MAYBE levels in street fighter, but I've seen no reason why he can't be a rogue with improvised weapon proficiency, thief acrobat is a good assessment too.

[Xefas]

Jafar never actually casts any spells whatsoever (until he wished to be like a 10th level Wizard or something). He has his Snake Staff, which casts Charm Person (a 1st level spell), and he had a massive gizmo in his laboratory that allowed him to use Scrying (a 3rd-4th level spell) with a material component of a giant diamond.

He is clearly a low level Artificer with Obtain Familiar.

Also, keep in mind that Aladdin doesn't have much in the way of fighting skills. He wins most of his conflicts by running the hell away or by just being fast and sneaky. I guess if you had to shoehorn him into D&D, you could do some kind of Unarmed Swordsage with a few Setting Sun maneuvers, and the less combative Desert Wind maneuvers.

[RelentlessImp]

Jafar never actually casts any spells whatsoever (until he wished to be like a 10th level Wizard or something). He has his Snake Staff, which casts Charm Person (a 1st level spell), and he had a massive gizmo in his laboratory that allowed him to use Scrying (a 3rd-4th level spell) with a material component of a giant diamond.

Correction: An arcane focus of a giant diamond.

Also, his INT can't be that high. He turned into a snake. Turning into a snake never helps.

[Urpriest]

Correction: An arcane focus of a giant diamond.

Also, his INT can't be that high. He turned into a snake. Turning into a snake never helps.

I don't know, Genre-Savvy seems like it would be governed by Wis, really.

[endoperez]

Out of Core that pretty much leaves Rogue (dash of Bard for the singing maybe)

Perhaps the variant Rogue who gets feats (as a Fighter) instead of sneak attack? Thief-Acrobat also fits. But what is Abu? Some kind of familiar or animal companion, probably, but no idea what, exactly.

[Xefas]

Perhaps the variant Rogue who gets feats (as a Fighter) instead of sneak attack? Thief-Acrobat also fits. But what is Abu? Some kind of familiar or animal companion, probably, but no idea what, exactly.

Abu is a Rogue 6 with Leadership. Aladdin is his cohort.

EDIT: Cohort/Mount

[Fhaolan]

In the Disney animation, I would still put Aladdin as a rogue. His combat is mostly acrobatics, survives as a street-rat, and he heavily uses bluff. Depending on his level, he might have the thief-acrobat PrC, and he likely spent a feat on that wild cohort feat to get a monkey animal companion. Or that's another character being played under the Noble Wild third-party suppliment.

Jaffar is a wizard who's trying to get the prereqs for a homebrew PrC version of the Sha'ir class.

[Greenish]

In the Disney animation, I would still put Aladdin as a rogue. His combat is mostly acrobatics, survives as a street-rat, and he heavily uses bluff.

Could be a factotum, too.

[grarrrg]

Abu is a Rogue 6 with Leadership. Aladdin is his cohort.

EDIT: Cohort/Mount

For that, you win +1 internets.

[Swooper]

Jafar turned into a cobra that was at least huge sized. Cobras are neither vipers nor constrictors, but viper is probably a closer fit. A huge viper is a 6HD animal, so a 7th level wizard could turn into one via Polymorph Self. Jafar also used Wall of Fire, another 4th level spell. The mental influence he had over the sultan and the scrying was the result of his magical items, not his own ability, as has been covered, so neither matters here. So far, Wizard 7 seems a good fit.

Trapping Yasmine in the hourglass is more tricky. Any thoughts on that trick?

[Urpriest]

Trapping Yasmine in the hourglass is more tricky. Any thoughts on that trick?

Shadow Major Creation?

[MarkusWolfe]

I haven't got a clue what you're all talking about. Jafar is clearly a sorcerer. He specifically asks the genie to make him the world's most powerful sorcerer. He's got to have a high charisma to have fooled everyone for so long. (remember, Charisma=/=attractiveness)

[Greenish]

I haven't got a clue what you're all talking about. Jafar is clearly a sorcerer. He specifically asks the genie to make him the world's most powerful sorcerer.

An expert can call himself a sorcerer and UMD what little magic Jafar has prior to being boosted by the Genie.

[Xefas]

(remember, Charisma=/=attractiveness)

I'm not sure why this even needs to be stated. I think Jafar qualifies either way.


Pictured: Jafar's "Seduction Face"

...watch out, ladies.

[grarrrg]

Jafar turned into a cobra that was at least huge sized....also used Wall of Fire, another 4th level spell.....Trapping Yasmine in the hourglass is more tricky. Any thoughts on that trick?

All of these happened AFTER he wished to be "The most powerful Sorcerer IN THE WORLD!"

So apparently the 'second' most powerful Sorcerer in Aladdin's world is level 6.

[Xefas]

So apparently the 'second' most powerful Sorcerer in Aladdin's world is level 6.

Which makes a scary amount of sense if you're using E6 rules.

"Most powerful sorcerer in all the world!" *BAM* Level 7

[Valameer]

Abu is a Rogue 6 with Leadership. Aladdin is his cohort.

EDIT: Cohort/Mount

GAH! Darn it, now I have rice on my monitor! Rice!

Xefas, you'll pay for this!

[Lev]

Abu is a Rogue 6 with Leadership. Aladdin is his cohort.

EDIT: Cohort/Mount

You just won the thread.

[grarrrg]

Which makes a scary amount of sense if you're using E6 rules.

"Most powerful sorcerer in all the world!" *BAM* Level 7

Too bad he didn't say "most powerful Wizard", he could have had Level 4 spells.

[Mando Knight]

Genie, however, is probably a Noble Djinn with at least 7 levels of Bard for extra uses of Major Image, or 8 or more levels of Sorcerer (for Polymorph in addition to the Major Images) and a penchant for singing.

[Eldan]

Shadow Major Creation?

Reflavoured hold person? Force cage (seems to high-level)?

[AslanCross]

Aladdin as depicted in the Arabian Nights version of the story would indeed be a rogue or factotum.

Things he did:
1. Sneak into the princess's bathhouse and sneak out undetected.
2. One could argue that he had Use Magic Device, since he activated the magic ring and the magic lamp blindly (more properly, it was his mother who activated the lamp first), but conversely they could just be activated by manipulation.
3. He was intelligent enough to figure out that it was his fake uncle (the unnamed villainous magician) who used the genie of the lamp to teleport away the palace and the princess.
4. He was able to devise a plan to poison the magician.
5. After the death of the magician, Aladdin was able to stab the magician's brother (who had disguised himself as a famous healer and infiltrated the palace; the genie saw through the disguise) and kill him instantly. (Sneak Attack)

He's never done anything that demonstrated any martial arts ability, so I don't agree that he would be a swordsage or monk. All of his heroics in both the Arabian nights version and the Disney movie were performed by keeping his wits about him and improvising.

Jafar in the movie is a combination of two different characters in the AN story: the magician (who was evil) and the grand vizier (who wasn't evil, but did want his son to marry the princess). Either way, Jafar is best represented as a Wizard, and Wizard 7 would be fine.

The AN story describes his magical feats as fairly minor, though:
1. Convince Aladdin and his mother that he was indeed the boy's uncle despite the mom believing he had been dead for years. This might have just been a successful Bluff, or a Charm Person spell.

2. Open/Close (a level 0 spell) on the entrance to the wondrous tomb.

Apart from this, his greatest feat was simply using the genie of the lamp to teleport Aladdin's palace away. The story called him a "Powerful Magician," but in the AN story he did nothing that a Lv 1 Wizard (or probably a Beguiler, as they also have Open/Close) couldn't do.