Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Beowulf8989 07-19-07, 06:06 PM	Alright, so I was just kinda dumped into a high-level/epic campaign (17 levels I think). I chose Vampiric human Monk (named Aleister Crowley), mostly because I've never been a Vampire and I have fond memories of monks. I figure use my energy drain in conjunction with my improved unarmed. Improved grapple helped to drain con and my alternate forms were exceptionally useful. It worked out pretty ok. Leadership let me have a high-level cohort (cleric named Hohenheim) to tote my coffin around and blast some fairly powerful spells. Most of my minions were left behind so that I didn't have to deal with them. After I reached Monk level 12, I redid my minions and vamped a few (two over level 5, three under it). Story: Pelor is dead and we ended up in the Abyss (my knowledge Religion worked out awesome). We fought our way to someone who coulde help us (Graz'zt) and made a deal. Luckily I plan on betraying him... hard. Saint Cuthbert is mostly on our side, but some of the other big gods are just scrambling for power. My character background was something like: Alchemically created Vampire serving a minor god of knowledge (named Count of Saint Germaine) who undertook immortality to better serve his god. We recently decided to just institute a new pantheon to replace this one, I'm backing Bahamut as the new head god. So, my questions: 1. Do the vampires I control factor into my overall leadership? I say no, a fellow PC says yes. As an addendum, does vamping a minion count as a death for my leadership score? 2. My minions can have any level I feel like right? No reason I can't give them NPC levels of expert and call them butlers or maids or anything... 3. Should Rod of Undead Mastery increase the amount of vampires I can control? My gut reaction is no, but the description is just general enough that I wonder... 4. Do I need 20 class levels before I take epic feats, or can I take epic leadership as soon as I want as long as my ECL is above 19? 5. I'm considering using my next level to take the evolved undead template, is this overly useful in general? The abilities seem useful, and the stat bonuses are nice, but if my hd doesn't increase, I'm in a bit of a bind. 6. Any suggestions for boosting my character? Feats, Classes, Items? If you want I could list what I have already picked up. As a note, I have only a handful of the books with me and if it seems like I'm powergaming, then its probably because I'm trying to keep up with two other PGs in our group. If it seems like I'm under-powered well... that's why I'm asking for some help. Oh, and the reason I mentioned the names is because they were all historical mystery-men and proclaimed mystics/alchemists. All members of the religion dress in bowlers and suits and carry sword-canes. I figured it was funny and awesome.
BillTheManiac 07-19-07, 06:32 PM	1. Do the vampires I control factor into my overall leadership? I say no, a fellow PC says yes. As an addendum, does vamping a minion count as a death for my leadership score? 2. My minions can have any level I feel like right? No reason I can't give them NPC levels of expert and call them butlers or maids or anything... 3. Should Rod of Undead Mastery increase the amount of vampires I can control? My gut reaction is no, but the description is just general enough that I wonder... 4. Do I need 20 class levels before I take epic feats, or can I take epic leadership as soon as I want as long as my ECL is above 19? 5. I'm considering using my next level to take the evolved undead template, is this overly useful in general? The abilities seem useful, and the stat bonuses are nice, but if my hd doesn't increase, I'm in a bit of a bind. 6. Any suggestions for boosting my character? Feats, Classes, Items? If you want I could list what I have already picked up. 1. No and if your minions don't want to be a vampire. If they are one of those wierd death cult guys then no. 2. Yeah. Remember you had to kill them and make them a vampire, so can't be too strong. Ask your DM. 3. No 4. It's based on HD. 5. IDK 6. IDK 2.
WombleHunter 07-19-07, 06:33 PM	1. Not officially, no. Addendum: I'd say yes. 2. This is correct. 3. I abstain from this; AFB. 4. Yes, absolutely. 5. I would always go for the class level. 6. Try the Book of Vile Darkness for some cool life-eating PrCs. In general, all things Leadership are entirely under the purview of the DM. Clear everything with him.
rob_douglas 07-20-07, 12:21 AM	My turn.... 1. No, your Vampire minions are not part of your Leadership, that is a separate ability, so you add them both in. Just as an evil Cleric's undead don't count as followers for Leadership. 2. Yes, they could be any level, but your DM will have to decide what happened in the past to allow it. You could have a single minion twice your level, but that wouldn't make sense and the DM should limit them to 2 levels below your level, maybe more. 3. No, but I don't think it would be broken to allow it. 4. You need to have 21HD to take an Epic feat. 5. Shadowdancer is a possibility. Also you could take Master Vampire (from Libris Mortis). This will increase your minions. Evolved Undead and Spellstitched are not bad either, but getting too many templates is really going to hurt your HD. You are already paying a hefty +8 level adjustment, so getting into a class or PrC that will get your to 21HD and epic bonus feats is probably a good bet. 6. Libris Mortis has a lot, and Book of Vile Darkness is ok - there is a PrC there that helps a Vampire improve insanely, based on feeding on others: Beat of Xvim, or something like that? But it is a little broken, and I think you need racial HD to pull it off, not just class levels. I think the best thing you can do for yourself is find some kind of sunlight immunity, because otherwise Sunbeam is a save or die each round, and Sunburst is pretty bad too - not to mention Greater Turning (though your cohort using his turning to Bolster you would be helpful - especially if he takes Heighten Turning to increase your effective HD high enough to never have to worry - and this is also why you always want 20 or more HD of undead smaller than you just hanging around for fun. Now for some bad news, technically, according to the FAQ, you cannot energy drain as part of monk attacks. You have to choose to monk unarmed attack, or you can use your "slam" attack. You could also do your monk attacks and still use a slam at -5 as a secondary natural attack. If you flurry with the monk attacks, that works out ok. However, since unarmed strike is a natural weapon, I think the sage messed up on that one, and all the monk attacks also energy drain. You can also get enervating weapons that will allow you to energy drain through them. If the DM goes with the Sage, then argue for gloves, or gauntlets, or hand wrappings that provide the enervating property to get it back. ROB