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T O P I C    R E V I E W
Delnyn Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 02:10:38
Scribes,
I converted the 2nd edition specialty priest kit found in Powers and Pantheons, page 25 to a 3.5 edition prestige class format. I have not yet tried this prestige class -intended for NPC's- in active play. That said, I overhauled the class features based upon the feedback offered by the Candlekeep scribes, especially with regard to the original spell-like abilities. This rewrite uses rules from the Book of Vile Darkness(BoVD), Fiendish Codex II (FC II) and Complete Mage (CoM).

Without further ado,

Malefactor of Gargauth


Hit Die: d4

Entry Requirements


Alignment: Lawful evil
Patron Deity: Gargauth
Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Knowledge(the planes) 5 ranks; Knowledge(religion) 8 ranks
Languages: Infernal, Thorass plus two of the following: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, any Faerunian human language
Spells: Able to cast 4th level divine spells
Special: Must have either sacrificed a non-evil creature with at least 5 HD and Intelligence at least 8; or have converted said creature to the worship of Gargauth. Alternatively, a divine spellcaster of Bane/Xvim, Bhaal, Cyric, Loviatar, Shar, Talona or an archdevil may be substituted.

Level.BAB..Fort..Ref..Will..Spellcasting..Special
1 .....+0...+0....+0...+2....+1 divine.....obfuscation; fiendish expertise; easier feat qualifications
2 .....+1...+0....+0...+3....+1 divine.....spontaneous corrupt spells; switch guise on/off
3 .....+1...+1....+1...+3....+1 divine.....augment
4 .....+2...+1....+1...+4....+1 divine.....
5 .....+2...+1....+1...+4....+1 divine.....expanded spell selection
6 .....+3...+2....+2...+5....+1 divine.....augment
7 .....+3...+2....+2...+5....+1 divine.....
8 .....+4...+2....+2...+6....+1 divine.....
9 .....+4...+3....+3...+6....+1 divine.....augment
10 ...+5...+3....+3...+7....+1 divine.....

Class Skills: (4+Int modifier per level): Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Knowledge(arcana), Knowledge(local), Knowledge(religion), Knowledge(the planes), Listen, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language

Class Features


Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Malefactors gain no proficiency with any weapon, armor or shield.

Spellcasting: A malefactor gains new divine spells per day as if he or she also gained a new level in whatever divine spellcasting class granted access to the 4th level spells before becoming a malefactor. The prestige class does not grant advancement in other class features such as rebuking/commanding undead. If the malefactor had more than one divine spellcasting class, he or she must decide which class to add malefactor levels.

Obfuscation (Ex): Malefactors rarely present their true face to people and are adept at hiding or distorting personal information about them, their whereabouts and their doings. They get a competence bonus equal to their class level to Bluff and Disguise checks. Malefactors impose the same amount as an increase to DC on Knowledge, bardic lore and Gather Information checks used against them.
The malefactor also receives a spell resistance of 15 + class level to all spells, spell-like abilities or other magical effects that try to read thoughts, discern alignment, tease out personal information or scry on the malefactor. Furthermore, the malefactor gains a resistance bonus of +1 plus an extra +1 for every three additional class levels to maximum of +4 at 10th level to Will saves where applicable.

Fiendish Expertise (Ex): A malefactor gets a competence bonus to Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge(the planes) and Sense Motive checks when dealing with evil outsiders or navigating the lower planes equal to his class level. The same bonus applies to Forgery, Perform (acting) or Profession (lawyer) checks when inspecting or negotiating any infernal contract, including Blood War deals, Faustian Pacts, letters of passage or arguing the case of a damned soul in Baator. Finally, the same bonus applies to Knowledge(religion) checks when performing a sacrifice (see BoVD, page 26), but only once per day for the malefactor.
At 2nd level, the malefactor gains a +1 profane bonus to overcome spell resistance of an evil outsider and an equivalent resistance bonus to all saves versus spells, spell like abilities or supernatural effects from evil outsiders where applicable. The bonus increases to +2 at 5th level and to +3 at 8th level.

Easier Feat Qualifications (Ex): A malefactor effectively has all abilities as 4 points higher for the purposes of qualifying for devil-touched feats or vile feats. This feature does not affect other prerequisites such as minimum skill ranks or character levels for said feats.

Spontaneous Corrupt Spells (Ex): At 2nd level, a malefactor may spontaneously cast corrupt spells (BoVD, page 78 ) as an evil cleric may spontaneously cast inflict spells. Furthermore, the caster gains ability damage reduction equal to the total number of vile feats, fiendish heritage feats and devil-touched feats possessed when casting corrupt spells. If the caster has at least four such feats, he or she may ignore ability drain when casting corrupt spells equal to the number of said feats minus three. If the caster has six such feats, all level drain is treated as negative levels.

Switch Guise On/Off (Ex): At 2nd level, a malefactor may activate or deactivate any and all feats that simultaneously offers both a bonus and penalty, such as a devil’s flesh or deformity feat as a full-round action. He or she may perform this action as frequently or infrequently as desired. However, the malefactor may not pick and choose which feats to activate or deactivate; it is all or none. Furthermore, all feats deactivated do not

Augment: At 3rd, 6th and 9th level, a malefactor may choose one augment. Unless otherwise specified, the effects of augments stack if chosen multiple times.

  • Improved Feats: Choose either vile feats or fiendish heritage feats. All affected feats that provide a bonus and/or penalty have that bonus and/or penalty increased by 1. All affected feats that have a fixed number of uses per day (or other time interval) receive one more use per day (or other time interval). All affected feats that have a fixed use interval per time period (ex. 5 minutes per day) have that interval doubled. While the malefactor may take this feat more than once, two augments on a time interval is a tripling, not a quadrupling. Likewise, three augments is a tripling, not an octupling.

  • Improved Devil’s Touch: The efficiency of each devil-touched feat improves as if the total number of devil-touched feats increased by 1. This augment does not allow the selection of another devil-touched feat.

  • Improved Corrupt and Violate Spell: This augment only works if the malefactor has either the Corrupt Spell or Violate Spell metamagic feats, or both. All spells involved do not have their levels increased. This augment may be taken only once.

  • Outsider Expertise: Pick either chaos, good or law. The malefactor’s fiendish expertise bonus applies to outsiders and planes of the same type. Each time the augment is chosen, it applies to a different option.

  • Investiture Spells: The malefactor may cast these spells at +1 level. Each metamagic effect used to augment an investiture spell has its level adjustment decreased by 1, to a minimum of 0.


Expanded Spell Selection (Ex): At 5th level, a malefactor may add evil descriptor spells normally restricted to sorcerers and wizards to his or her spell list. The malefactor must also have a minimum Intelligence or Charisma of 10 + spell level as well as Wisdom to cast the spell. Wisdom still applies as the determinant of save DC and the spell is cast as divine, not arcane.
10   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Delnyn Posted - 31 Jan 2021 : 16:12:32
All, based upon the feedback, I decided I would go away from the Powers and Pantheons specialty priest and allow for any type of spellcasting, psionic manifesting or warlock invocations. The devil horns suggested by Bloodtide_the_red reminded me of an old Japanese super robot cartoon Getter Robo G, known in the US as Force Five: Starvengers and I think Formators in the UK. For any of you familiar with that cartoon, would you consider Gargauthan servants acting much like the agents of the Pandemonium Empire?
SaMoCon Posted - 15 Jan 2021 : 07:02:41
Just chiming in with what was brought up earlier - 28 ranks of skills is a steep requirement for a base 2 class like cleric. An average intelligence human cleric that has the Trickery domain and devotes every available skill point (12 starting + 3 per level) exclusively into those 5 skills would be able to get there by level 7... except for languages there is a requirement that this PrC has to speak 4 of them (only 1 is free at character creation for an average intelligence human) bumping the minimum level to 8th.

Then I started writing a whole bunch of stuff, but, really, you can just ignore the following because it is not helpful towards your stated intent of updating a 2e kit to 3.Xe PrC format. I am leaving the following here because the idea: was sparked by this, really doesn't deserve its own thread, and may be useful to or inspire others interested in what you are doing to create worthy nemeses for their own campaigns.

quote:
Why not take this as an opportunity to decouple this PrC from the cleric/divine caster classes and incline it towards a more sinister development? Open the realm of candidates by dropping the spell casting requirements so as to attract those seeking these corrupting powers but are denied such because of "limited intellects." What if all it takes to wield these powers is demonstrating the necessary skills to discover the taboo trucking with infernals, the use of lies to ferret out this information unnoticed from a host of sources across the civilized races, finding an unholy priest willing to officiate the empowering rites as a mentor, and proving to that priest that one has the skills necessary to hide these new powers from civilizations to further blight the lands over the long term as wished by the defiler deities that evil cleric serves? Now we suddenly have eligible npc aristocrats & experts that can easily clear the 28 skill point hurdle & be diversified into other skills to round out their abilities by level 5. The rites to gain this PrC still use the sacrifice (and specifically sacrifice by the NPC's hand) to gain the favor of a minion of the dark gods AND the performing cleric to guarantee that the dark lord's bidding be done by the newly christened malefactor. This grants the ability of casting divine spells like a cleric of the PrC level or increases the divine spell casting level if the NPC already had one with the caveat that these spell casting powers may be suspended by the mentor priest (if he chooses to stick around and micromanage this one subordinate convert). Because the spells are channeled from an extra-dimensional source, the mental limitations on spell levels is lifted allowing those of normal or less attributes to cast spell levels they have access to by their class ability regardless of their attributes. The DCs of the spells are still fully affected by the caster's attribute modifiers.

This creates new opportunities for villainous stories with heretofore "powerless" individuals, side-lined by their peers, whom overcome the obstacles and succeed where their future as nobodies was a forgone conclusion. The noble lord's spoiled son who was passed over for succession to a younger, more talented sibling suddenly winning back favor with remarkably shrewd negotiations & generally winning over the retainers/subjects at the same time that a scandal darkens the future of the sibling. The slighted bookworm that seeks vengeance on the socially adept adults of her community who is suddenly among the rumor-mongers with very accurate gossip that damages the standings of the most influential people. No one would expect these people to have any supernatural powers since the people in their social circles can vouch for their existence without magical training and there is no time that the NPC in question could have snuck off to do years of study.

The mentor priest essentially acts as a terror cell leader who can coordinate the activities of several malefactors towards some greater agenda for an entire region while each of the malefactors is unaware of the others since they are so consumed by their own goals. Since others discreetly sought out the priest, there is no perceived connection between each of the malefactors to the priest or each other. Additionally, a malefactor that achieves higher levels can become a mentor himself and start a new cell of subordinates. A pyramid scheme of evil is created that could encompass an entire civilization & beyond.


... If you'll excuse me, I gotta rewrite my adventure because this gave me a better idea for my villains & their win requirements.
Delnyn Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 18:03:38
All scribes,

Thanks for the feedback. This is actually going more smoothly than I anticipated. The consensus seems to be:

  • Don't worry about adhering to spell-like abilities as written in Powers and Pantheons.

  • I can safely bump up the power curve.
  • But I am dumping rebuke/command undead and replacing with something else.


Finding BoVD again opens up new options, especially with corrupt spells.
bloodtide_the_red Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 17:24:45
The 2E deity books are full of awesome lore and lots of unique spells......but they fail in the priest classes. You can tell they were written quick and easy as most have maybe one 'unique' feature then they get a bland list of 'can cast bland boring spell once a day'. So you have the vile, blood covered cleric half fiend of Gargauth with horns, red eyes and a spiked tail......and they cast...wow....charm monster....Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

So if you were looking for a direct....and boring conversion, this is not bad....it's just as dull and boring as the original. "Oh no...the vile, evil, malefactor is casting the dull, boring, normal by the book spell....run!"

When I convert, I like to take the time to make it unique. It should have powers and abilities that stand out and make an impact. So not boring 'charm monster'....but more like 'rips the soul out of a foe, forms it into a horrible twisted soul lance and hurls it at a foe wounding the foes soul. Players will never remember the boring foe that casts 'charm monster', but the foe that shot a twisted soul lance that had unique vile effects.....

Breakdown: So sadly most published books are written in some weird reality that simply makes no sense or is simply rushed and made "simple". So you see a lot of "this class gains insight to the secrets of arcane power...and, er, can once a day add +1 to a caster level check. Wow...knock me over with that 'power', right?

*Obfuscation: Perfect starting example. A 7th level plus cleric getting a +3 or +4 to bluff, disguise, and knowledge, bardic lore and Gather Information checks used against them. Vs the +10 or so they have to face vs normal foes is not too much. So make this straight level, not half. Add in a nice Spell Resistance of 20 plus class level vs divination spells 0 to 9th level(at 10th level)

*Devil Flesh: Natural armor +4, but loose armor bonus? Why? Just drop the loose part. And make it natural armor and damage reduction and fire immunity.

*Fiendish Expertise: So at 13th level ish, they get a +2 or +4 for planes skills. As the base 8th or so level cleric is already summoning things by planual ally, knock this one down to the first or second level ability. And make this per class level too.

Now with the three bases you want to add to them:

*Obfuscation: Add in Hide in Plain Sight (Su) and Slippery Mind (Su) and automatically become aware of any attempt to observe you by means of a divination (scrying) spell or effect and so on. To s immunity to all divination spells cast against it or cast to learn information about it. Such divination fails to reveal any information. The character immediately learns the name, appearance, and location of the caster who attempted the divination....at the final level.

*Devil Flesh: you want the slow transformation into outsider fiend, like the Acolyte of the Skin prestige class. And you for sure what Devil Horns that the character can attack with.

Then replace all the balnd spells with more unique abilities:

Inspire Dread (Su):can inspire hopelessness in all enemies within 30 feet. This ability imposes a -4 penalty on Will saves on all enemies within 30 feet. Delivering this oratory requires a full-round action to activate and requires concentration each round to continue the effect. The effect lasts as long as the character speaks and for 3 rounds thereafter. Inspire dread is a mind-affecting ability.

Convert the Unfaithful (Su)

Fast Talk (Ex):knows the right thing to say at the right time. He may make a rushed Diplomacy check as a full-round action with no penalty.

And other more "unique" abilities.
sleyvas Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 16:11:21
As Demzer said... I get that you want to do the "devil flesh" idea, but that doesn't really scream "Gargauth" to me. He's all about blending in, being in the shadows, tempting with his words. If you look at what your adapting from, it really pushes against what you're defining. It says

"At 7th level, malefactors gain a natural armor class of 6 due to internal skeletal and almost-imperceptible skin changes caused by increasing corruptions of their normal form brought on by their long term loyalty to Gargauth. They also gain one physical anomaly of a nuisance nature that looks fiendish and will scare the superstitious and uneducated away from them, such as a slightly hunched or twisted back, reddish eyes, slit pupils or clawlike twisted hands."

Plus, your turning around and using obfuscation to build disguise and then using devil flesh to make it decrease. The idea is that he looks normal the majority of the time, but he can scare people when he wants to by revealing his tainted nature. For instance, he might wear the equivalent of shades or a glamour to hide his eyes. For the person that just WANTS to all the time look dangerous, he might choose a particularly nasty appearance to scare folks, but that should be their option. So maybe a CHOICE of how repellent they want to be by offering options? One allowing for a more monstrous look but better intimidation and possibly enhanced natural armor bonus, but a corresponding penalty to disguise, diplomacy, etc... Maybe even allowing for a claw or bite(fangs) or head butt(horns) attack. I think few would choose this option though, and the other option might improve diplomacy by making skeletal changes that improve cheekbones, broaden shoulders, fill in hair more, etc... but they have to hide that they now have tiny horns in their hair, spellmarked flesh
tattoos, etc... by using disguise or magic.
Delnyn Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 10:47:32
quote:
Originally posted by Demzer

Uhm, sorry as this might come off as too dismissive but while I appreciate you said this is not a class intended for optimisers, it really loses too much against a regular cleric to be a PrC worthy of consideration. A cleric of Gargauth with the Charm and Trickery domains loses a huge chunk of HPs, spellcasting ability, fortitude saves and some bab and turning for ... some kind of non stacking armor class bonus which also makes it more difficult to disguise itself?
The 2 bonus skill points don't make up for everything that is lost.

I would look into more "exotic" spells for the spell-like abilities (from Book of Vile Darkness, Fiendish Codex II and similar) to spice it up, maybe even granting access to spells usually reserved for arcanes or skipping the corruption requirements.

I would also link the change in appearance to the obfuscation so as a free action the Malefactor can suppress his/her fiendish appearance or bring it forth, thus not inconveniencing the character ability to pass unnoticed.

For the spell-like abilities I would specify "divine caster level" and maybe spell out the spell DC (which might have Wisdom has the stat providing the bonus, if you want to give the character a small edge). Example: Charm Person (Sp): At 1st level, a malefactor may cast charm person once per day with a caster level equal to his/her divine caster level and a spell save DC of 11+Wisdom modifier+Enchantment spells DC modifier (i.e. Spell Focus feat).



This is useful. The good news is I finally found my old copy of The Book of Vile Darkness, which I really wanted badly when making the initial design. I need a little bit of time to work out the goodies for conducting sacrifies as described in BoVD and qualifying for vile feats. From Fiendish Codex II, I will need a bit of time to think out the impact of devil-touched feats and investiture spells.

For "exotic" spell-like abilities, I will replace dominate person with morality undone. I definitely like the idea of malefactors using corrupt spells from BoVD with lessened/eliminated corruption requirements. For example, ability drain becomes ability damage.

For obfuscation, I will add a supernatural ability that allows the malefactor to switch the fiendish appearance on or off. By default, the fiendish appearance is on. The longer the malefactor surpresses the fiendish appearance, the longer the "recharge period" needed when the surpress ability ends.I still have to work out these particular mechanics. In the spirit of Gargauth himself, this will be an actual transformation, not merely a glamer.

I will tie spells to Wisdom, but spell-like abilities to Charisma. Listing DC's is definitely a good idea.
Demzer Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 09:27:53
Uhm, sorry as this might come off as too dismissive but while I appreciate you said this is not a class intended for optimisers, it really loses too much against a regular cleric to be a PrC worthy of consideration. A cleric of Gargauth with the Charm and Trickery domains loses a huge chunk of HPs, spellcasting ability, fortitude saves and some bab and turning for ... some kind of non stacking armor class bonus which also makes it more difficult to disguise itself?
The 2 bonus skill points don't make up for everything that is lost.

I would look into more "exotic" spells for the spell-like abilities (from Book of Vile Darkness, Fiendish Codex II and similar) to spice it up, maybe even granting access to spells usually reserved for arcanes or skipping the corruption requirements.

I would also link the change in appearance to the obfuscation so as a free action the Malefactor can suppress his/her fiendish appearance or bring it forth, thus not inconveniencing the character ability to pass unnoticed.

For the spell-like abilities I would specify "divine caster level" and maybe spell out the spell DC (which might have Wisdom has the stat providing the bonus, if you want to give the character a small edge). Example: Charm Person (Sp): At 1st level, a malefactor may cast charm person once per day with a caster level equal to his/her divine caster level and a spell save DC of 11+Wisdom modifier+Enchantment spells DC modifier (i.e. Spell Focus feat).
PattPlays Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 07:40:00
Riiight. I just never heard of an AD&D prestige class. Thnx for context.
Delnyn Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 03:25:31
quote:
Originally posted by PattPlays

What I'm more curious about is how a low level d4 priest gets a hold of a non evil 5hd not braindead creature to sacrifice. Does make sense how its an NPC, they'd have their organization bring in the lamb for them I assume.



Keep in mind the minimum level to qualify is 7 in case of a cleric with d8 (not d4 hit points) that has the Trickery domain and some darn high Intelligence for skill points. More likely the level is 10 with Bluff and Disguise (cross-class?) skill requirements. And absolutely yes, a would-be malefactor gets other people to do the dirty work. Fair fight?! Hah!
PattPlays Posted - 02 Jan 2021 : 02:48:19
What I'm more curious about is how a low level d4 priest gets a hold of a non evil 5hd not braindead creature to sacrifice. Does make sense how its an NPC, they'd have their organization bring in the lamb for them I assume.

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