I have a concept for a villain. Inspired by classic fantasy video games, notably the Final Fantasy games, I've thought up a concept for a villain seeking to open up a rift to the Positive Energy Plane inside himself and harness it to rule the world. This villain would be a master of manipulating positive energy in its various forms, but he'd be Lawful Evil. How can I build a deadly opponent using almost entirely positive energy magic? If necessary, I don't mind ignoring alignment restrictions on classes, feats and spells.
Give your BBEG and all of his minions the Vivacious template so that he'll just make them explode from positive energy / too many HP. ;)
You can summon Vivacious creatures with Summon Monster in place of another (fiendish/celestial, can't replace what you can't summon due to alignment) templete (check Planar Handbook for details).
As such, give him the Saint template (Fast healing), make him an Archivist with Sacred Exorcist so he can persist Positive Energy Aura and other such spells, and them give him a bunch of Vivacious minions to help him out.
JaronK
That would be funny, a level 12 Healer with uber Wis and Cha who everyone thinks is a wonderful guy but who secretly has evil ambitions and is manipulating everyone... he won't harm you directly, due to his oath, but he's not above leaving you to die in the middle of a trap.
Awww, and I thought you were going to make the BBEG an actual Healer, as in the class.
That would be funny, a level 12 Healer with uber Wis and Cha who everyone thinks is a wonderful guy but who secretly has evil ambitions and is manipulating everyone... he won't harm you directly, due to his oath, but he's not above leaving you to die in the middle of a trap.
And he has a sinister Unicorn pet, that’s the creepiest part.
And he has a sinister Unicorn pet, that’s the creepiest part.
Even better, the campaign begins with Evil Healer Guy asking you to take out his rival for political influence and behind the throne power in the country, a powerful Beguiler. Though of course he plays the concerned good hearted person fearing fiendish machinations of this manipulative mage...
OMIGOSH, I just made a Chancellor Palpantine Knock-off!
My plan for this guy is an outward persona of good, but a plan to gain power for personal gain. He's a former adventurer and that drove him to obsession with personal strength. Honestly, I'd love to give this guy the actual Healer class. That would be the most hilarious thing ever. Question is, can it be done? Is it possible to optimize a healer into a formidable foe?
A minor dip does boost your saves, and give you Handle Animal and Diplomacy as class skills (w/able learner).
beyond that nothing comes to mind.
A minor dip does boost your saves, and give you Handle Animal and Diplomacy as class skills (w/able learner).
beyond that nothing comes to mind.
Their are a couple of ways to add spells to the Healer list. Cerebrosis (Dragon 330) gives 11 Far-realm flavored spells, while Mother Cyst (LM) gives some evil out of combat choices (Necrotic Tumor FTW). However, even with a slightly expanded spell list, the Healer would still be pretty low on the power food chain.
If you don't mind stretching the rules a bit (a lot), enter Planar Shepherd as a Cleric instead of a Druid. Focus on spells that heal and any kind of con-damaging spells you can get your hands on. Your modes of attack are to keep the party at full HP so your planar bubble can pop them and lowering their con scores to make them pop faster.
Unless, of course, this is a BBEG for an Evil campaign (A.K.A. BBGG).
Anyway, isn't there a thing somewhere where you can throw a bag of holding into a gate and cause a dimensional tear between two different planes? Is that only the Astral Plane?
It'd be pretty cool to have the party fight the BBEG in a positive-energy infused battlefield where the party must slay him before succumbing to death-by-awesome.
It'd be pretty cool to have the party fight the BBEG in a positive-energy infused battlefield where the party must slay him before succumbing to death-by-awesome.
The obvious solution, at least to my mind, is to try and made the other guy die of awesome first, while delaying your own death by awesome.
Any suggestions on what spells would help with that?
The obvious solution, at least to my mind, is to try and made the other guy die of awesome first, while delaying your own death by awesome.
Any suggestions on what spells would help with that?
With Psionics you can overchannel Healing powers to keep his HP maxed.
I propose misguided motives!
Gimme a moment to recollect my archive of misguided motives... and, perhaps deftly make a topic for this in the "roleplaying" optimization board. =P
This thread is now about Optimizing a good Healer (the class) as a Big Bad Evil Guy without changing the rules, and staying whitin the aligment/oath boundaries! Mostly for the "why" rather than "how", seeing as healers are easy enough to optimize with their limited and little selections, we need to find out WHY would he be the "bad guy".
I propose misguided motives!
Gimme a moment to recollect my archive of misguided motives... and, perhaps deftly make a topic for this in the "roleplaying" optimization board. =P
you aren't the Original Poster so you can't really say what this thread is now about.
Dont mind me, I've been spending way too much time in /b/
Oh, right, wrong boards, here we have etiquette.
Dont mind me, I've been spending way too much time in /b/
make a new thread and it will be fine
As far as plans go, conquering the world with positive energy would probably not involve the same route to conquest an evil BBEG would take. Once he gets his powers, it wouldn't be at all hard for him to set himself up as a charismatic revolutionary. A man wielding holy power who "purifies" a city's leadership and takes over ruling the city as a despot, who destroys undead and demons with ease, whose very presence heals people, and who has a nearly unearthly charisma about him -- a man who, in short, will make all your problems go away and promises great things in the future, in exchange for your absolute obedience -- makes for a very dangerous leader. No part of this negates the burning ambition you're talking about; he may deep down simply want power, but he believes he doesn't want it, and is only taking it to "purify the world".
The number one rule for BBEGs (and BBGGs, apparently) is that the DM doesn't have to play by the rules. I like the idea of a Healer who (after going through whatever ritual you design) attains the powers of a Planar Shepherd, has fast healing, a bonus Good domain power and an extra set of domain spell slots, etc.. I like SquashMonster's idea of CON-damage spells and powers, too; make some variants of evil spells that do ability damage for him. CON damage and negative levels have the added benefit of lowering the PCs' max HP; should the fight go to the Positive Energy Plane itself, that will speed up the "death by awesome" effect. Throw in greater dispels to try to strip away any protective magics, and you've got a fight with very different rules.
/b/
EDIT : Another idea I just had. Give the BBGG vow of peace, since he'll be healing his foes in combat it's not an attack, thus not breaking the vow.
I do like the idea of making your "BBGG" misguided rather than actively evil. In fact, instead of Lawful Evil, make him Lawful or Neutral Good with a very strong "the ends justify the means" mentality. Operation_Shoestring had a good idea in having him hire the adventurers to remove those trying to stop him; the party might also help him explore ancient ruins or track down tomes with the knowledge and artifacts he needs to finish his plan.
Plus, most of his enemies are going to be evil and obviously so, reinforcing the initial impression of BBHG being a swell fellow.
As far as plans go, conquering the world with positive energy would probably not involve the same route to conquest an evil BBEG would take. Once he gets his powers, it wouldn't be at all hard for him to set himself up as a charismatic revolutionary. A man wielding holy power who "purifies" a city's leadership and takes over ruling the city as a despot, who destroys undead and demons with ease, whose very presence heals people, and who has a nearly unearthly charisma about him -- a man who, in short, will make all your problems go away and promises great things in the future, in exchange for your absolute obedience -- makes for a very dangerous leader. No part of this negates the burning ambition you're talking about; he may deep down simply want power, but he believes he doesn't want it, and is only taking it to "purify the world".
I love it! Has anyone here watched Angel? This is kinda like Jasmine...
Even better, the heroes, after uncovering the nefarious plot, find that it is almost impossible to nab the BBHG, he's surrounded by genuinely good people who would act to protect him, so taking him down without massive collateral damage is going to be a pain.
The number one rule for BBEGs (and BBGGs, apparently) is that the DM doesn't have to play by the rules. I like the idea of a Healer who (after going through whatever ritual you design) attains the powers of a Planar Shepherd, has fast healing, a bonus Good domain power and an extra set of domain spell slots, etc.. I like SquashMonster's idea of CON-damage spells and powers, too; make some variants of evil spells that do ability damage for him. CON damage and negative levels have the added benefit of lowering the PCs' max HP; should the fight go to the Positive Energy Plane itself, that will speed up the "death by awesome" effect. Throw in greater dispels to try to strip away any protective magics, and you've got a fight with very different rules.
Heck, may as well give him the backing of a short-sighted Demigod or something.
The neat thing about this idea is that the campaign can easily be either RP-centric City Intrigue or Hack-centric Artifact retrieval, if not both, with a bonus BATTLE OF AWESOME at the end.
Oh, right, wrong boards, here we have etiquette.
Dont mind me, I've been spending way too much time in /b/
rules 1&2
It might be more interesting to make the bad guy Chaotic Good, but crazy... he thinks by making himself the source of positive energy he can heal the world of all disease and death. Of course, if it works, he'll end up blowing up every living thing in existance, but he doesn't know that.
As such, give him the Saint template (Fast healing), make him an Archivist with Sacred Exorcist so he can persist Positive Energy Aura and other such spells, and them give him a bunch of Vivacious minions to help him out.
JaronK
This (and several other suggestions like it here) is just about literally what I ran as a (short) game some time ago... a misguided Solar (long story) planning a planar overlay to rid the world of all evil and 'tainted life'.
The final battle revolved around stalling him and the rest of the PCs frantically trying to destroy the portal on the positive energy side.
My experiences:
Death by Awesome is a cool way to go but higher-level adventurers will see it as much less of a threat... they can keep cutting themselves at times, and when it's getting dangerous they can just drop a point-blank fireball or whatever.
I'd suggest to up the Fast Haling considerably as they get closer to the nexus (10 or higher depending on the level of the PCs), give the BBHG some way of "inverting" blasting spells (so they contribute to the Death by Awesome), or use massive amounts of battlefield control and stalling tactics.
It only gets really scary if the PCs are prohibited from damaging themselves, or delayed much.
Walls, Black (White?) Tentacles and debuffs like Slow and save- and damage-lowering effects can really help.
I forget which MM it's in, but look up a creature called the Glimmerskin. It definitely contributes to the Death by Awesome.
It's in MM II, page 114.
Also, Healers can't technically be evil... or even Neutral. .
In order to take and/or advance in Healer you must be good.
You can, however, turn evil with out loosing your class abilities. (assuming you are done with healer advancement and moving on to a PrC for instance.)
The Ex-Healer paragraph says they loose their abilities if they violate their Ethos(ie. refusing to heal an ally etc.)
I recently made a
Healer/Walker in the Waste
Also, exposure to the rift causes blindness and healing/accumulation of temp HP. The elementals tactic is to defend the rift, spring attacking out of and into the rift which heals them.
The only way then encounter was survived was to have the ranger archer character with us pump my back side full of favored enemy human, human bane arrows while I faught off the things. I've never been so happy to be attacked by another players character in my life!
Definitely a cool plot event though.
Alright, got a Healer tricked out ... sorta ... now, the healer has precious few advantages and a slew of disadvantages. One of the more amusing little ones is that they don't need to rest to prepare spells - just meditate for one hour. Big downside (other than the restricted spell list) is the dual casting stat and the restricted spell list.
Alignment - any good
1 Healer 1 - Educated
2 Healer 2
3 Healer 3 - Skill Focus (K-religion)
4 Healer 4
5 Healer 5
6 Divine Oracle 1 - Oracle Domain - Worldy focus
7 Divine Oracle 2 - (cause you want the dodgey thing)
8 Sovereign Speaker 1 - bonus domain
9 Sovereign Speaker 2 - bonus domain
10 Sovereign Speaker 3 - bonus domain
11 Sovereign Speaker 4 - bonus domain
12 Sovereign Speaker 5 - bonus domain
13 Sovereign Speaker 6 - bonus domain
14 Sovereign Speaker 7 - bonus domain
15 Sovereign Speaker 8 - bonus domain
16 Sovereign Speaker 9 - bonus domain
17 Sacred Exorcist 1 - bonus domain (exorcism) ****
18 unknown
19 unknown
20 unknown
*** you can actually take the sacred exorcist level at 10th as soon as you add the good domain for Dispel Evil.
So, that's that. There's no reason why you couldn't put Exorcist at 10th, DMM as your 12th level feat. You're no cleric, but you've got loads more skills than a cleric. Who needs platemail anyway ... go non-metal. The speaker nets you enough martial profs.
For those last three levels you've got a few choices. Monk / Sacred Fist would work, but really - who needs that. Better choices would be Church Inquisitor (if LG works for the Sovereign Host - the pantheon is considered NG) .... or Contemplative. If you're an elf follow that up with Seeker of the Misty Isle. Warpriest nets a domain too, but it doesn't advance caster level.
So, there's my tricked-out healer. What is that, like 14 domains on a healer?
By 15th, domain spontaneity could be an option.
Divine Oracle - ORACLE: +2 caster level for divinations
Sacred Exorcist - EXORCISM: Exorcism 1/day
GOOD: good spells +1
MAGIC: Use magic items 1/2 cleric level
CELERITY: 10' faster speed (haste, blur)
COMMUNITY: Use calm emotions 1/day, +2 on diplomacy checks (prayer, bless)
LIBERATION: If affected by a charm, compulsion or fear you can reroll your save one round later
CHARM: Charisma +4 for 1 minute once a day
PRIDE: If you roll a one on a saving throw, you reroll (divine power)
TRAVEL: Free action or Weather
ONE OTHER: Metal, Artifice, Fire or Warforged
**If Warforged, take the Warforged domain. If not take Fire**
Warforged
18 Contemplative 1
19 Church Inquisitor 1
20 Dracolyte 1
SPELL: +2 on concentration and spellcraft
INQUISITION: +4 on Dispel Checks
DRAGON:
Elf
18 Seeker of the Misty Isle 1
19 Contemplative 1
20 Church Inqusitor 1
TRAVEL: Free Action
SPELL: +2 on concentration and spellcraft
INQUISITION: +4 on Dispel Checks
Step 2) Give him some nice minions.
Step 3) Keep the minions in the fight by constant healing.
Probably not optimized
Next:
Make up a positive energy elemental. Good for summoning.
Make up spells: Draining Energy
(FS or have Positive energy being sucked out and form a energy ball (to heal the BBeG? To shoot bolts? to open a summon? to form an elemental?)
In mass. For a Round/LvL.
Get the PC's vulnerable.
Undead? Or a reversed 'spark of life' spell? Curse?
Glimmerskins, positive energy elementals that, despite being incorporeal, relish physical combat, also must feature in this somewhere, or I'll feel I'm letting that Monster Manual (II?) down. Frankly there are so few positive energy beings across the Monster Manuals I might wind up using them all, in some fashion!
Is there anything else I should keep in mind when designing this villain, or planning the fight? This is, after all, a very unusual scenario. I'm not sure how to play it.
The eventual frustration from your players as they lob spells and keep hitting with full attacks not bring anyone around them down will really start to get to them. They won't fear the healer BBEG, they'll just want him dead with a vengeance from frustration.
Invent an inverted version of Slay Living, Finger of Death, and maybe some AoE spells. It would be hilarious to lob a Healing Fireball at someone, and they voluntarily fail the save against it thinking it was for just healing them up. Then, when they hit the critical point, BOOM! Pop goes the PCs.
Thing called healing blast for Warlocks. They won't know what hit 'em. Also, the last thing you said reminds me of that ad for Perfection! that kids game with the timer and puzzle pieces. It reminds me of it because you say BOOM! pop goes... which is dumb. In the ad they say, POW! pop goes perfection! from MILTON BRADLEY!. Do you see? If you say POW, it's not pop, it's POW! Why do you say pop after POW!? Like BOOM before pop? It's either pop or boom. IT'S NEVER BOTH! AAAAAAAAARGH! It's just like Quizno's commercials where they say, mmmmm... toasty. BUT IN FACT, their slogan is mmmm... SEE? Only FOUR m's even though they pronounce 5! GAH!
Looking at these replies, I'm definitely leaning toward an opponent who attacks the party by pushing HP too far into the positives. Twisting the rules to make him/her a Planar Shepherd seems like a good way to do this. An aura of positive energy surrounding the villain, healing the party until they explode... brilliant! Uh, no pun intended.
Needs Sculpt spell and Planar Bubble on the spell list. It's a positive energy finger of death DBZ attack. Although, a lot slower.
Frankly there are so few positive energy beings across the Monster Manuals I might wind up using them all, in some fashion!
The only ones I know of in MM1 is Ravid :p
Are there any rules for when you go *BOOM* from to much positive energy? ;)
The only ones I know of in MM1 is Ravid :p
Are there any rules for when you go *BOOM* from to much positive energy? ;)
This is a positive energy thread, no necromancy! :P
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4075709&postcount=8
Note that making Planar Shepherd advance Cleric entirely makes for a more powerful character.
This is a positive energy thread, no necromancy! :P
That makes the thread Deathless, doesn't it, instead of undead? :P