Let me know what you think.
Dote Mal Payne (CR 21)
Male human wizard 7/necromant 10/archmage 4
NE Medium humanoid
Init +1; Senses Listen +4, Spot +4
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Gith, Halfling, Kreen
AC 24, touch 15, flat-footed 23 (+1 Dex, +4 natural, +4 ring, +5 robe)
hp 123 (21HD); SR 18
Immune fear, negative energy
Resist fire 30
Fort +13, Ref +11, Will +23
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee dagger +12 (1d4+2)
Ranged –
Base Atk +10; Grp +10
Atk Options animate dead (1/day), command undead (1/day), create undead (2/day), vampiric touch (2/day)
Combat Gear rod of absorption, wand of shield (21) (39 charges), +2 darkwood dagger
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 21st):
DC 17 + spell level; +1 enchantment; +2 necromancy
9th—energy drain x2, gray rift, time stop
8th—clenched fist, create greater undead, horrid wilting, antipathy
7th—gray beckoning, insanity, spell turning, quickened dispel magic
6th—disintegrate, eyebite, quickened invisibility
5th—dominate person, summon undead V, symbol of pain
4th—bestow curse, black tentacles, claws of the tembo, stoneskin, summon undead IV
3rd—death whip, displacement, haste, extended fox's cunning, suggestion
2nd—cat’s grace, false life, protection from arrows, spider climb, summon undead II
1st—charm person, chill touch, endure elements, expeditious retreat, summon undead I, true strike
0th—detect magic, ghost sound, message, resistance
Abilities Str 10, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 25, Wis 13, Cha 9
XP -
SQ dead lord, gravespeaker, Gray casting, high arcana (arcane reach, mastery of shaping, spell-like ability [create undead, vampiric touch], summon familiar, undead presence
Feats Augment Summoning, Brew Potion, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Iron Will, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (spellcraft), Spell Focus (enchantment), Spell Focus (necromancy)
Skills Bluff +14, Concentration +27, Craft (alchemy) +27, Decipher Script +27, Disguise +14, Knowledge (arcana) +31, Knowledge (history) +17, Knowledge (the planes) +31, Knowledge (religion) +27, Listen +4, Literacy, Search +13, Spellcraft +36, Spot +4, Survival +4
Possessions combat gear plus 350cp of mundane equipment and coins; black robe of the archmagi, hand of glory, psychoactive skin of the defender, ring of greater fire resistance, ring of protection +4, ring of telekinesis, spellbook (pouch of runestones)
Spellbook spells prepared plus (9) gate, vampiric youthfulness; (8) dimensional lock, greater planar binding, symbol of death, sympathy; (7) banishment, control undead, plane shift, unliving identity; (6) circle of death, legend lore, mass suggestion, symbol of fear, veil; (5) cloudkill, mage’s private sanctum, permanency, telepathic bond, waves of fatigue; (4) animate dead, fear, nightmare, remove curse, scrying; (3) halt undead, phantom steed, summon undead III, tongues; (2) arcane lock, command undead, darkness, hideous laughter, obscure object, spectral hand; (1) alarm, detect undead, identify, ray of enfeeblement, unseen servant; (0) detect poison, disrupt undead, mending, read magic
Dote Mal Payne was the arena necromancer for King Kalak of Tyr. In that role, he would use his powers to animate, create and control undead to create a host of grisly horrors to battle mortal gladiators in the Tyrian arena games. Although known notoriously by the Veiled Alliance as a defiler, his presence was kept hidden from the general populace by Kalak’s protection.
When Kalak was slain, Dote knew the duration of his protections had ended, and he swiftly went into hiding. Beneath the city streets, in the twisted darkness of UnderTyr, Dote kept a small hideaway magically sealed from scrying eyes. There, he waited and watched. In the chaos surrounding Kalak’s death and the freeing of the Tyrian slaves, Dote snuck into the still-smoking ziggurat. There he found the ravaged corpse of his former mentor and the beginnings of a dire plot.
Dote spent powerful magics to transport the corpse to his hidden lair, and within hours began research to find a way to revive the sorcerer-king. He could easily animate Kalak as a zombie, albeit a powerful one, but instead he worked towards a much grander goal – bringing Kalak back to full-power and life.
It did not take long for Dote to realize there were others in Tyr with the same desires in mind, but he worked patiently and in secret to forward his plan. After two years, he introduced himself to Timor, Kalak’s former templar and current leader of the templar bureaucracy. They quickly formed an alliance, backed by a handful of Kalak’s former templars, still loyal to Timor and the memory of their toppled monarch.
Over the span of the next two decades, Dote Mal Payne and Timor have expanded their powers and knowledge into the disciplines of death and shadow, and have finalized their plans to revive Kalak with a mixture of the two focused through the arcane Pristine Tower.
Vitals: 57 years old; 5'5" tall; 135 lbs
Tactics: Dote surrounds himself with undead guardians of various types. With time to prepare, he will cast defensive spells upon himself and arrange the undead nearby into a battle formation. During the fight, he will remain behind the wall of undead and barrage his foes with spells. He will primarily use charms, dominates and suggestions to create chaos among the enemy's ranks. If the battle turns against him, he will use expeditious retreat and invisibility to get away.
We'll be tripping over them (dragons) soon - it would not surprise me if they started making more champions too, but that would be silly!
Anyway...
Here are a few things I noticed about your write up of DMP.
He should get additional languages for starters - some of the city-state dialects would be a good addition, like Tyrian ;). He should have # of languages equal to his Int bonus plus common. And grave speaker should be taken out of Su and put into languages.
Also - IT seems strange to me that a wizard with this many metamagic feats would only have one spell altered with them (ie the quickened dispel magic). I would use each metamagic feat at least once. And i addition to that, the DCs on some of these spells (especially if altered by metamagic effect) stays the same as the base spell - they do not get the DC of its modificed spell level - unless it is heightened. And the necro & enchantment spells would have a higher DC too because of his spell focus feats. The DCs should be can be shown for every spell to the DM does not have to bother calculating it out during the session.
One last thing - is he a defiler? Someone not knowing that he is would have no idea by looking at this write up.
Overall - I like him, these were just tiny nit-pics
Thanks!
Wait and see :D
Our DMP will kick your DMP's ass! :P
Wait and see :D
Sure - if you like lame "hey-look-I-became-a-dragon-in-10-years" guys. This guy was a low level defiler, so where did all of the psioncis and magicl training come in and where did he develope the dragon metamorphosis spell at?
When FFN comes out, you'll see, just as everyone else :P .
Oh, And DMP does rock in FFN.
Not as lame as a Cerulean Storm prc, I bet :P
That would be lame - thank the gods that I am not making anything with that name.
That would be lame - thank the gods that I am making anything with that name.
You know, I'm not a native speaker or anything, but I'm almost sure the "a" means that it is used as a function word before singular nouns when the referent is unspecified. So that would not mean the name of the prc, but its content or general objective :P
He should get additional languages for starters...
I used his original intelligence bonus (+5) to calculate his languages... also, while I like the idea of using city dialects, I haven't quite gotten there yet in implementation.
I'll move gravespeaker up to the languages, tho...
Also - IT seems strange to me that a wizard with this many metamagic feats would only have one spell altered with them (ie the quickened dispel magic)...
Good call - I'll take another look at his prepared spells and pick some to 'share the wealth'. Also a great catch on the DCs - I didn't even think of the original spell vs metamagic!
One last thing - is he a defiler? Someone not knowing that he is would have no idea by looking at this write up.
Yes, he's a defiler... or was. I don't use the DS3 feat system for defiling (not to be discussed here), so statistically my preservers and defilers would not be distinguisable.
However, its an easy convert if you use the feat system - just assume that he 'retrained' his defiler feats years ago once he started levels in Necromant. No need to further draw power from plants, etc.
Overall - I like him, these were just tiny nit-pics
Thanks for the point outs, Kal! I appreciate any feedback, positive or negative...
PCs hated them as IIRC I used the spell awaken undead on them as well.
I also thought about building DMP with levels towards Dry Lich, from -Sandstorm-. In the end, I figured he's more of a citymonger than a desert nomad.
Realized maximize spell didn't do much for him, so dropped it in favor of augment summoning which works great with the summon undead X spells (added from the -Spell Compendium-)
Once they arrive what is a CR 4-5 monster going to do in a combat suitable for level 9 PCs?
Our DMP will kick your DMP's ass!
Is that why my 12th level Dune Trader managed to kill him on his own? ;)
I find the summon spells to be a bit useless. A level 9 caster is required to cast Summon Undead 5 and can summon a Mummy, Shadow, Wight or Vampire Spawn. Such creatures arrive in the next round.
Once they arrive what is a CR 4-5 monster going to do in a combat suitable for level 9 PCs?
Thats a good point, and even more applicable when the groups facing a CR21 caster will be 16+!
Generally I think the summoned creatures shouldn't overshadow the threat of the summoner. With augment summoning, it increases their threat by +1 CR (IMO). Even thought they aren't on par with the party, numbers can make a big difference.
Is that why my 12th level Dune Trader managed to kill him on his own? ;)
You had avangion goggles! Not fair! :P
You had avangion goggles! Not fair!
Those had no in-game effect.
It was mentioned on an older thread that they went and made DMP into a fricken dragon!
Just one or two new ones doesn't hurt! Just helps to move the story of Athas along, everything has been frozen since T$R dropped the setting outside of a few dragon mag issuses and the Dregoth Ascending adventures.
I don't think that a royal necromant could be considered low-level, and he had access to Kalak's library, and even to his Golden Tower after his death.
When FFN comes out, you'll see, just as everyone else :P .
Happy to see he made the cut! I was worried he was not going to make it in. :D
Is that why my 12th level Dune Trader managed to kill him on his own? ;)
Yeah - see brun01 - If Jon's DUNE TRADER could kill DMP doesn't that show you how lame your DMP was. I mean come on - a fricken dune trader!!!
geesh
Yeah - see brun01 - If Jon's DUNE TRADER could kill DMP doesn't that show you how lame your DMP was. I mean come on - a fricken dune trader!!!
geesh
You don't know what you are talking about, Kal. Jon played really well and had some real good luck with his rolls. DMP isn't uberpowerful, he's the bare minimum level for becoming an AB. The ways the current rules are written, a single class character will probably be stronger than him, especially because he can't have feats like Practiced Spellcaster/Manifester.
You don't know what you are talking about, Kal. Jon played really well and had some real good luck with his rolls. DMP isn't uberpowerful, he's the bare minimum level for becoming an AB. The ways the current rules are written, a single class character will probably be stronger than him, especially because he can't have feats like Practiced Spellcaster/Manifester.
High level wizards also tend to have reasonably low hit points/spot scores. A mid level rogue/fighter that gets close enough....
You don't know what you are talking about, Kal. Jon played really well and had some real good luck with his rolls. DMP isn't uberpowerful, he's the bare minimum level for becoming an AB. The ways the current rules are written, a single class character will probably be stronger than him, especially because he can't have feats like Practiced Spellcaster/Manifester.
Now do we really have to get insulting?
I DO know what I am talking about - there was a thread poted here on the boards in which Jon and Brax detailed Jon's exploits of kicking DMP arse.
All I am hearing is excises - but the fact remains that a 12th level Dune Trader defeated an epic level AB, by himself! Now doesn't that seems strange? If he is written up so poorly, why is he bring made official?
Yeah - see brun01 - If Jon's DUNE TRADER could kill DMP doesn't that show you how lame your DMP was. I mean come on - a fricken dune trader!!!
:D That said, the version of Dote Mal Payne in this thread would have likely bit the dust as well. And to be fair, the character was a fighter/rogue/assassin/dune trader. The single level of dune trader was to give the character a contact network and a perfect cover identity as a trader.
:D That said, the version of Dote Mal Payne in this thread would have likely bit the dust as well. And to be fair, the character was a fighter/rogue/assassin/dune trader. The single level of dune trader was to give the character a contact network and a perfect cover identity as a trader.
Ah, cover identities. They are fun. Is your character an elf, cause then you'd have access to that wonderful PrC...
Yes, he's a defiler... or was. I don't use the DS3 feat system for defiling (not to be discussed here), so statistically my preservers and defilers would not be distinguisable.
Last I checked .org uses, for example, Wizard (defiler) 5/Psion 5 (egoist), as a way to write stat blocs. The new method of doing blocs may have changed this, though.
Also, remember that just because a player knows about a spell, that doesn't mean that a character does. in 2ed, only druids knew about resurrection. It just is not something that I allow a lot of in my games. Bring back people from the dead with a quick spell and no effort seems to fly in the face of the thematics of DS, at least to me.
in 2ed, only druids knew about resurrection.
I never realized that.