My conversion of Rule-of-Three. The Arcane Arranger is still from Urban Arcana. The Herald of the Abyss is from the Slayer's Guide to Demons. The particular method of naming cambions and the ancestry feat are from Aasimar & Tiefling from Green Ronin. The stats for cambions are, too, but that's really from the half-fiend template. I could have given him unique abilities since he's a half-glabrezu, but decided against it. He's pretty much a straight half-fiend with no wings and various class abilities and feats that make him unique.
The character is from Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. Some of his background comes from this story.
Rule-of-Three (Tre'Graz'ztaeum)
4th level rogue
4th level Arcane Arranger
4th level Herald of the Abyss
Race: Cambion (half human, half glabrezu); 2nd level outsider, native, chaotic, evil, extraplanar
Hit Dice: 2d8+4+4d6+4d6+4d8+8+8+8 (86 hp)
Initiative: +3 dex
Speed: 30 feet
Armor Class: +22 (+3 dex, +3 armor, +5 magic, +1 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +18
Attack: rapier 1d6+10 or dagger of venom 1d4+7
Full Attack: 2 claws 1d4+4 and bite 1d6+4, or rapier 1d6+10 or dagger of venom 1d4+7
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: spell-like abilities, spells, sneak attack +2d6, smite good
Special Qualities: class abilities, darkvision, acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10, DR 10/magic, SR 24
Saves: Fort+11, Ref+12, Will+10
Abilitites: Str 19, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 19, Wis 13, Cha 20
Skills: Diplomacy +14, Gather Information +17, Knowledge (the Planes) +21, Plant Empathy +14, Profession (Abyssal farmer) +10, Disguise +17, Innuendo +14, Bluff +15, Decipher Script +11, Escape Artist +7, Forgery +17, Hide +14, Intuit Direction +4, Listen +15, Move Silently +12, Read Lips +6, Search +3, Sense Motive +6, Spot +8, Swim +6, Use Magic Device +16
Feats: Jack of All Trades, Dark Speech (Vile), Ambidexterity, Awaken Ancestry, Fount of Deception (Ancestry), Scent
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Spells: Cause fear, expeditious retreat, charm person, detect thoughts, invisibility, whispering wind, clairaudience/clairvoyance, dispel magic, secret page, dimension door, scrying
Equipment: Masterwork studded leather armor, rapier +3 (sword-cane), hat of disguise, dagger of venom +3, Eye of Seeing, javelin of lightning, ring of protection +4, ring of shooting stars, cloak of resistance +1, bag of holding II, amulet of natural armor +1, rod of wonder
Potions: 12 cure light wounds, cure serious wounds potion, hiding, sneak, glibness, spider climb, 3 neutralize poison, haste, alter self, gaseous form
Scrolls: Dispel magic, fly, web, lightning bolt, confusion, 2 fireball
Spell-like Abilities: (1x/day unless otherwise mentioned) Darkness 3x/day, Desecrate, Unholy blight, Poison 3x/day, Contagion, Blasphemy
Smite Good: (Su) Once per day Rule-of-Three may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma modifier (if positive) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per level. If Rule-of-Three accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for that day.
Sneak Attack: Any time the rogue's target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks the target, the rogue's attack deals extra damage. The extra damage is +1d6 at 1st level and an additional 1d6 every two levels thereafter. Should the rogue score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level, a rogue gains evasion. If exposed to any effect that normally allows a character to attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage, the rogue takes no damage with a successful saving throw. Evasion can only be used if the rogue is wearing light armor or no armor.
Uncanny Dodge: At 3rd level and above, Rule-of-Three retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) if caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker.
Word on the Street (Ex): The Arcane Arranger filters information constantly and remembers everything. Through regular contacts, gossip, communing with his demon king, and other situations, he has a deep knowledge of everyday things. The Arcane Arranger can make a Gather Information check on general or specific information instantaneously, and spends only an hour making a Gather Information check for restricted information. Retries may be made under normal rules.
Protected information still requires 1d4+1 hours for a check.
The purchase DC for using Gather Information is reduced by 10.
False Allegiance (Ex): The Arcane Arranger fits in with whatever group he chooses to be with. At 2nd level, the Arcane Arranger can successfully emulate an allegiance he knows about. He gains the +2 circumstance bonus on Charisma-based skills when dealing with an individual of the same allegiance. The allegiance and its bonus is considered in effect until a check is failed, at which point the false allegiance is revealed. Supernatural and spell-like abilities that determine allegiance are not affected by the Arcane Arranger’s false allegiance ability.
Bonus Feats (Ex): At 3rd, 6th, and 9th level, the Arcane Arranger gets a bonus feat. The bonus feat must be selected from the following list, and the Arcane Arranger must meet all of the prerequisites for the feat to select it.
Arcane Skills, Armor Proficiency (light), Attentive, Builder, Combat Expertise, Educated, Gearhead, Improved Disarm, Jack of All Trades, Renown, Studious, Trustworthy, Windfall.
Shadow Resources (Ex): At 4th level, the Arcane Arranger is well-enough wired into the social system to be able to get the names and numbers of individuals with particular abilities and talents. Even if away from his home stomping ground a whispering wind spell can produce a contact with the needed resource. Make a level check, adding all Arcane Arranger levels and any levels of rogue. The difficulty of this task is based on how common the required abilities are:
Common Skill (Ride, Pilot, Treat Injury) DC 10
Uncommon Skill (subgroups of other skills such as Knowledge (arcane lore) or Craft (structural)) DC 15
Rare Skill (skills available for a particular class-Spellcraft, Psicraft, Use Magic Device) DC 20
Specific Feat DC 20
Class Feature (spellcasting, turn undead, psionics) DC 20
Specific Combination of Skills, Feats, and Abilities (someone with Knowledge (business) and the ability to cast the auguryspell) DC 25
Finding someone willing to perform activities secretly or illegally DC +5
Finding someone with a specific level of ability Add desired ranks to DC
A successful check indicates that the individual is available, and the Arcane Arranger knows about him. It does not guarantee the character contacted will be willing to perform the requested service-the party requesting the service must still negotiate for that person’s services. An unsuccessful check means that no such individual is immediately known or available to the Arcane Arranger. This does not negate trying again for a different skill, nor from trying to locate a skill resource through more traditional methods. The resource the Arcane Arranger knows about will have total ranks in the needed skill of at least the Arcane Arranger’s total character level +3.
Diplomatic Immunity (Su) The Herald of the Abyss is immune to the adverse conditions of any plane he visits for one hour per prestige class level (four hours, in Rule-of-Three's case). Further, by taking a standard action to identify himself as an extraplanar envoy upon entering a new plane, the Herald is protected as if by a magic circle against evil spell, except that it affets all natives of the plane he is visiting as if they were outsiders, preventing physical contact and some abilities for as long as the Herald remains on their plane or until cancelled. Both effects are immediately cancelled if the Herald attacks a native creature.
Tongues (Su): A Herald of the Abyss has a permanent tongues ability as if the spell cast by a sorcerer fo his total character level.
Silver Tongue (Sp): The envoy of the Abyss gains a truly demonic charm. Once per day per prestige class level he can cause a single creature to become fascinated by him. The Herald and his target must be able to see and hear each other and must be within 90 feet. The distraction of a nearby combat or other dangers prevents the ability from working. The Herald makes a Diplomacy check, which becomes the target's DC for an opposed Will saving throw. If the save succeeds, the Herald cannot attempt to fascinate that creature again for 24 hours. If the save fails, the creature sits quietly and listens to the Herald speak for as long as 1 round per the Herald's full character le vel. The ability otherwise functions as a bard's fascinate ability. The Herald may also plant a suggestion as per the spell (DC 13 + Herald's Charima modifier) to a creature he successfully engages in mind-affecting conversation.
Contact Abyssal Master (Sp): One per week per prestige class level, Rule-of-Three may contact his demonic master (Graz'zt) telepathically as if with a contact other plane spell cast by a sorcerer of his prestige class level, which means that Rule-of-Three may only ask two questions - something that annoys him to no end. He usually finds a way to ask three questions at once. Graz'zt only answers two of them, but at least he tried. Use the 'Outer Planes, demideity' row.
Breach the Planes (Sp): Once per week per prestige class level, the Herald chooses a plane of destination and then can plane shift to the nearest transitive plane. From there, the Herald knows the direction and time of travel to his destination's nearest entrance, even if he has to get there by his own means. This ability only affects himself; the Herald of the Abyss cannot take anyone with him.
Fount of Deception (Sp): For ten minutes per character level (Two hours for Rule-of-Three) per day, Rule-of-Three can change his appearance as per a change self spell. He can divide up the duration as he sees fit. He uses this ability when his hat of disguise is unavailable.
Background:
Rule-of-Three was born with the name Tre'Graz'ztaeum (Third Cambion Servant of Graz'zt) in Azzagrat to the glabrezu spy Gray Shadow and Iggwilv, a powerful conjurer being kept as a slave by Graz'zt. Iggwilv had summoned Graz'zt to the Material Plane and forced him to sire a son for her, the infamous cambion Iuz. When Graz'zt inevitably broke free he took Iggwilv (by then Witch-Queen of Perrenland) back to the Abyss with him and forced her to bear cambions to serve him. The fact that she survived three such births is a testament to the conjurer's extraordinary resiliance and will.
Graz'zt took a liking to his third such creation and brought him a tutor, a shadow fiend druid, to teach him the secrets of cultivating the serpent trees of his layer. Later, as he earned his way into Graz'zt's trust, he was made a envoy of Graz'zt to the planes beyond. He acted as Graz'zt's ambassador to the court of the Abyssal lord's son (and Rule-of-Three's half-brother) Iuz for a time, and when relations between the two fiendish rulers broke down he gave Iuz's true name to the wizard Zagig, allowing him to imprison the cambion beneath his castle. From there Rule-of-Three was sent elsewhere on the planes on a variety of missions. This is when he became somehow indebted to the deva Unity-of-Rings and became a confidente of the rilmani known as Center-of-All. When his attempt to corrupt the giants of Ysgard to Graz'zt's employ was thwarted by Duke Rowan Darkwood, Rule-of-Three followed the Agent of Heimdal to Sigil, where he became peripherally involved in Darkwood's schemes to make the Cage into his personal fiefdom.
In his true form, Rule-of-Three is a hulking humanoid covered in dark gray fur, with bestial features, large pointed ears, yellow fangs, and a third, smaller arm capable of more delicate manipulation than his two large ones. He uses his rogue skills and his hat of disguise to appear as an ancient githzerai, the better to shed the stigma of his birth. While attempting to break into a house in The Lady's Ward he lost an eye, which he has replaced with a magical orb that grants him the effects of a true seeing spell once per day.
Rule-of-Three spends most of his time in the Styx Oarsman, a tavern in the Lower Ward catering mostly to fiends. He is well known there as a valuable contact for information of all sorts, as a facilitator for shady deeds, and as a general troublemaker and lover of chaos. His current scheme is his most ambitious yet: he wishes to create an alliance between Graz'zt and powerful fiends of Baator in order to undermine the Blood War itself. He has Graz'zt's secret approval in this. He answers every question given to him three different ways and insists on three different methods of payment for his services. He enjoys being as difficult and annoying as possible with his responses, but he knows many things and people that other cutters don't, and for this reason customers keep coming back.
Odd, your version of Rule 'o Three here is seriously less powerful than your varient of A'kin you made. Whereas my own take on A'kin saw him gain some levels (not as many as your version), but Rule of Three gain far more than you gave him.
Nonetheless I like it.
Originally posted by Shemeska the Marauder
Odd, your version of Rule 'o Three here is seriously less powerful than your varient of A'kin you made. Whereas my own take on A'kin saw him gain some levels (not as many as your version), but Rule of Three gain far more than you gave him.
Actually, I would probably have made him even weaker than this. I rather like the idea that many of the bloods of Sigil don't have to be high-level to get respect; heck, several of the factols are only 8th or 9th level. I like the idea of people giving RO3 a wide berth not because he's a stone cold badass, but because A) he knows a lot of dangerous secrets, and B) everyone who's anyone knows who his father is.
Nice conversion, though; these two prestige classes are a perfect fit.
Of course, now that I have thought about it, there's no reason Rule-of-Three couldn't be of higher level than 12th. I'd probably give him more Arcane Arranger levels, or something completely different like sorcerer or loremaster. Maybe those aren't good examples of "completely different."
I did like that he ended up with three classes of equal level, and the levels he got gave him all the abilities I wanted to have.
Rip, you may also want to check out "Anger of Angels". There's a feat in there called "Humaniform" I think, that allows a fiend or celestial to have a single human-type form....they always have to assume the same shape/identity, but can do it whenever needed.
That feat might work well for Rule of Three.
Just some ideas, while you're tossing them around.
Banshee
P.S. On the topic of cambions, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has any ideas on how to make them (I guess half-fiends in this case) stealthy, like they were in 2nd Ed. They used to be able to move silently and hide in shadows even in plate armor. That's practically impossible now, without giving the character an astronomically high DEX score.
Originally posted by Banshee
There's a feat in there called "Humaniform" I think, that allows a fiend or celestial to have a single human-type form....they always have to assume the same shape/identity, but can do it whenever needed.
That feat might work well for Rule of Three.
Yeah, that sounds appropriate. I'm satisfied with the lesser abilities he as above, though. Although he has to compensate somewhat with his disguise skill, the spirit of the character is still intact.
I thought about changing his abilities to better reflect his glabrezu heritage, but I wasn't sufficiently motivated. Part of it was I was interested in seeing if I could approximate the character while still using the template "straight."
P.S. On the topic of cambions, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has any ideas on how to make them (I guess half-fiends in this case) stealthy,
Rogue levels are enough to satisfy me. Like I said, it's the spirit that's important.
But if you want them to be silent in full armor, just give them this ability:
Silent in Armor (Su): Cambions have the supernatural ability to ignore armor penalties when using their climb, hide, and move silently skills.