Printable View
Hi all,
I'm looking for a good class for an npc mobster. This character would be the de facto leader of small settlement outside of the main civilization. He should have decent wisdom and intelligence, but charisma can be optional.
His CR should be no more then 5, so most PRC's would be out. Fullcasters are banned, and I don't want him to be overtly magical anyways.
I'm thinking rogue, but the mechanics don't really fit. I'm also thinking marshal, but it would have to be refluffed.
Thanks :).
i don't know if marshal/bard or marshal/warblade can be optimized at level 5..
edit: which race? how many flaws? etc etc...
Honestly? Aristocrat would make sense. If you wanna give him some more power I guess you could Bard or Splat book classes. Or just fighter with some good mental stats.
Maybe do a Dark Paladin if you're feeling that way too.
It doesn't need to be super optimized. I'm aiming for more of a character who has low physical stats, but high mental stats, and relies on minions to deal with any combat that happens.
Edit:
'Doh, forgot about aristocrat :). Though it doesn't seem to have much, other then money, that an expert doesn't have more of.
A marshal sounds like your best bet, what with descent physical stats and those ever-so-much-fun auras. I'd say to give him a charisma score primary and use the minor auras to cover his skill bonuses, with wisdom and intelligence your tertiary choices. It would keep him reasonably intelligent and keep him from becoming too much a melee threat in his own right. A marshal would work really well in the fluff too; as the mobster changes tactics, so too would his auras:
"You look like the kind of guy who could use some...'protection'" [minor aura: charisma]
"I'm sorry to hear that..." [major combat aura]
You can afford to add a level or two of rogue if you need him to be a bit sneakier and less direct.
I have a crime organization in my games, led by a bard. It's roughly the Joker Bard build (Changeling Bard). I like how you can use Melodic Casting with Perform (Oratory) and have him cast Suggestions via speaking to you.
The race is still up in the air, although I'd like to avoid any elves, and stick pretty close to core (eg. no illumians, or anything that requires too much explanation (What is a drow doing on the surface leading human rogues, etc.). I think for simplicity's sake I'm probably going to go with human. He can have two flaws, which will probably ones that penalize his combat, and I'll likely make him old as well for the boost in mental stats.
I suggest Beguiler. They have a rouge's sneakiness and their spell list includes some on the better mind altering spells.
Otherwise Bard is always fun, as is Marshal.
No fullcasters. It's looking like some bard/marshal/rogue combination is going to be my best bet.
A Marshal or a refluffed Bard would work best.
As for race, dosn't hurt to go with a Human.
Really, with this character, roleplay will be the most important part of establishing him. Give him a good nickname depending on some feature of him or his organization. He should be somebody who commands respect just by his very presence or mention.
If he started out more street level, a level or two of Rogue might be good.
Bard, Beguiler and Thrallherd make for good manipulative sneaky types.
If you want the guy to be nonmagical and to rely on other people to do his fighting, Aristocrat probably isn't such a bad choice. (In that case, it's not about optimization. It's about finding a class with an appropriate skill list and fluff.)
If you want an obscene Charisma based character, a barshal (bard/marshal multi-class), is exceptionally powerful by level 5 in the support role.Quote:
Originally Posted by noiadodh
Repeating crossbow is basically required, see?
Bard is the most useful overall, but marshal has the best flavour.
Failing that, at level 5 you don't exactly have a ton of choices in that direction; just make your own.
Swashbuckler, maybe? They're mechanically inclined to have high INT and get some decent skills.
Failing that, Factotum always works in all scenarios for all things. I actually ran a one-shot where every NPC was a factotum once. It worked surprisingly well.
Honestly, you could just make him an Expert. If he mostly avoids being anywhere near combat, he's probably going to be relatively poor at contributing to a fight in any way, and is probably more likely to flee via a pre-planned escape route.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nich_Critic
I remember a game where the party attacked a vampire crime boss who was an Expert, and the hard part was getting through his minions. He had UMD, sure, but by the time he had dug the wand he wanted out of his desk, I don't think that he even got a chance to use it before the heroes reduced him to mist. ("We can resolve this peacefully. I have something you want. We just have to work out what that thing is." "Resolve THIS.") Then they trashed his base of operations and destroyed his coffin. But, they speculated, there wasn't any reason to think that a vampire of his means, intelligence, and paranoia wouldn't have multiple backup coffins in several locations, so the odds that they had taken him out for good, or ever would, seemed pretty low.
You could make your villain a vampire Expert 5 or a vampire spawn, if you'd like to make him annoyingly recurring.
There's a rogue-entry Yakuza class in OA.