Café de Nuit

Ha! Nitpicked by an Aussie... Serves me right.

Mythic Adventures is out. I think Mythic makes for really neat darklords. Strahd isn't just a vampire or even just a vampire wizard. And it's an alternative to stacking levels to boost CR.

What lords should be mythic? And what rank?

I'm not sure I like the Mythic Adventures design. At a fundamental level, mythic tiers are just prestige classes. You progress through your tiers in your chosen archetype in exactly the same way you'd choose a prestige class and get levels that way.

However, if you like the idea of mythic adventures, I'd be inclined to say all darklords are mythic. Not in terms of power, necessarily, but because they have the eye of the Dark Powers on them and the weight of story behind them. Some might be more or less so, but they're all mythic in some way.

In which case, you'd have to tie the mythic rules into the advantages of failing Powers checks.

I don't necessarily think all Dark Lords would be mythic, but certain individuals in Ravenloft certainly could be, Hyskosa, for example. He is prophesied to bring an end to the Demiplane of Dread, along with the entire Vistani race...

The greater wolfwere offspring of Harkon Lukas may have a mythic template. Lukas's inferiority complex would torture the hell out of him.

Strahd claims to be the first vampire, but we all know that isn't true. He might be considered mythic though, at least in his own mind. Having toyed with his stats and the mythic template, I'm now feeling more inclined to say that being a 20th level character and an ancient vampire is enough...

I always wanted Adam to be one of the tougher dark lords. He is the Prodigal Son of Mordenheim. Making him mythic would reflect that fact nicely. Even in Gothic Earth, The Monster gets the shaft stats-wise, but in all the old Universal flicks, Dracula admires the unbound strength of Frankenstein's creation...

Can't really think of any other canonical dark lords that I would consider Mythic, other than the Godlike beings: Gwydoin, the Godbrain, Kas and Vecna, etc...

I think both Jester and Ryan have good points. At it's core, the Mythic rules aren't that crazy.

But they are a way to differentiate the Darklords from the PC's in a real way that can't be duplicated, at least until (and if) the PC's become Mythic themselves.

One thing I would choose though, is that if one Darklord is mythic, they all should be. The key is, where does the mythic power come from? If it comes from the Dark Powers (which is the source I would choose) why would they make some Darklords mythic and others not?

Nemesio wrote:I don't necessarily think all Dark Lords would be mythic, but certain individuals in Ravenloft certainly could be, Hyskosa, for example. He is prophesied to bring an end to the Demiplane of Dread, along with the entire Vistani race...

The greater wolfwere offspring of Harkon Lukas may have a mythic template. Lukas's inferiority complex would torture the hell out of him.

Strahd claims to be the first vampire, but we all know that isn't true. He might be considered mythic though, at least in his own mind. Having toyed with his stats and the mythic template, I'm now feeling more inclined to say that being a 20th level character and an ancient vampire is enough...

I always wanted Adam to be one of the tougher dark lords. He is the Prodigal Son of Mordenheim. Making him mythic would reflect that fact nicely. Even in Gothic Earth, The Monster gets the shaft stats-wise, but in all the old Universal flicks, Dracula admires the unbound strength of Frankenstein's creation...

Can't really think of any other canonical dark lords that I would consider Mythic, other than the Godlike beings: Gwydoin, the Godbrain, Kas and Vecna, etc...

Ahem.... don't you mean First VAMPYR? <.< or some strange spelling like that? xD

He's so old he predates spelling.

If I were to go back to designing Ravenloft for Pathfinder now I'd probably use some version of the mythic rules to handle darklords and failed powers checks. Would probably come up with some variant mythic paths, though (representing different paths of darkness). A character would probably hit darklord around tier 6 or so, so not all darklords would be created evil. Strahd and Azalin are definitely 10-tier darklords.

The rules certainly would have to be tweaked a bit. For example the version of mythic power granted by the dark powers would be inherently tainted. If you kill a dark lord, you gain his power, in addition to inheriting his curse, or at least a portion of it... You would never gain untainted mythic tiers in that way. Killing dark lords would no longer be an option for most PCs though...

If steeling mythic power from dark lords carried no consequences, every power monger in Ravenloft would be taking their chances trying to assassinate known dark lords to steel their "power". That would make things very interesting, but it would make a Ravenloft campaign resemble a Birthright campaign.

I still don't understand why the Dark Powers would necessarily be the ones supplying mythic power to darklords. Why couldn't they just pick up a few mythic characters and contain them like they do everything else. They held a Demigod once, and they still contain an unspeakably powerful outsider from the plane of shadow, an omnipotent aberration, etc...

By saying that some beings in Ravenloft are intrinsically mythic, or have gained such power without the aid of the Dark Powers, you don't have to create a separate mythic rule system for Ravenloft. If one of you guys created such a rule set, I would certainly consider it though...

Well, I assume the mythic power comes from the Dark Powers because of the way the Darklords gain benefits when they become Darklords. I believe every Darklord has gained some boon from the DP's; it's just natural for me to assume they would get their mythic abilities from them. And I like the idea of the mythic tiers from the DP's being "tainted."

Of course, this doesn't preclude having characters gaining mythic power from other sources. That can open up interesting avenues.

Ryan Naylor wrote:I'm not sure I like the Mythic Adventures design. At a fundamental level, mythic tiers are just prestige classes. You progress through your tiers in your chosen archetype in exactly the same way you'd choose a prestige class and get levels that way.

True, but it has the advantage of stacking with existing levels, so you can progress at both at the same time. And you can gain a mythic tier at any level.

However, if you like the idea of mythic adventures, I'd be inclined to say all darklords are mythic. Not in terms of power, necessarily, but because they have the eye of the Dark Powers on them and the weight of story behind them. Some might be more or less so, but they're all mythic in some way.

Ryan Naylor wrote:In which case, you'd have to tie the mythic rules into the advantages of failing Powers checks.

There are ways but it'd be tricky. Because you don't want failing checks to be entirely positive. It could just be that final step into becoming a darklord when you gain a domain you gain a tier. And as you more from demilord in some forgettable pocket to the lord of a Core you gain a tier or two. Most of the time.

Having had a look, it's actually not that hard:

At 1st mythic tier (for example), the character gains some more hit points, a mythic feat, hard to kill, mythic power and surge, plus a path ability and whatever special ability they get for their path (archmage, champion etc).

A darklord gets persistence, mastery, some abilities related to being tied to the land (immunity to curses, close the borders etc) and often some individual transformation as well.

Persistence is more or less the same as the Longevity path ability.

I'd rule that becoming a darklord gives you a mythic tier if you don't already have one. The darklordship counts as your path for that tier, and takes up the path ability (Longevity or Undying Soul, depending on who were talking about), and the special ability (all the other darklordy powers).

The other general mythic abilities just stack on top.

So, the only difference between canon Strahd and mythic Strahd (tier 1 - I'm not going to argue about what tier he might be, I'm just using him as an example) is a few extra hit points, a mythic feat, mythic power and surge.

You can then stack other mythic tiers on top (Archmage for Strahd, for example).

And for some more fun: fiends!


Fiends

There are few things in the Lands of the Mists as horrifying as fiends. They are the living embodiments of evil, creatures that exist solely to spread corruption and fear. Unlike the undead or werebeasts, fiends share nothing with the world of mortals. They are alien creatures, more inhuman than any aberration or ooze, driven by alien needs. They may enchant mortals, entrapping them with their beautiful illusions and honeyed promises, but to them, mortals are no more than flies or game pieces. They use mortals to get what they want and then kill them for sport when they have no further use.

Fiends are purely, relentlessly evil; they have no sympathetic qualities and are completely unable to ever truly understand the higher virtues of mortals, like true love or self-sacrifice. They are incapable of redemption.

However, they remain darker reflections of humanity. They are sin, temptation, despair, hatred, violence – evil – made solid. Simply meeting such bald-faced depravity should be devastating for any character. More horrifying, however, is the fact that many fiends can hide behind a charade of humanity, worming their way into the hearts and minds of those around them and using the subtlest of temptations to twist them into evil.

Like undead, fiends are able to project a screen of false thoughts, making them almost undetectable when masquerading as normal people. Should a mortal be unfortunate enough to make contact with the unrestrained malevolence of the fiend’s pure thoughts, they must make a Madness save. Considering that most fiends communicate telepathically as well as verbally, this can make them truly terrifying to deal with. They can crush their opponents with a simple thought.

Phylacteries
Fiends in Ravenloft gain the following special quality:

Rejuvenation (Su): Upon entering Ravenloft, a fiend is granted a phylactery. The phylactery is typically an unusual object symbolic of the fiend’s nature or personality. Examples include a golden pen, a porcelain doll or a huge black whip. Regardless of its form, the phylactery typically has 40 hit points, hardness 20, a break DC of 40 and a caster level equal to their fiend’s Hit Dice plus its Wisdom bonus (minimum 10th). The fiend does not have to create the phylactery; it just appears in some safe place when the fiend is drawn into the demiplane.

When a fiend is reduced to 0 hp, its spirit retreats to the phylactery for 24 hours. After that time, the fiend can attempt to possess any living humanoid or monstrous humanoid that passes within 10 ft per Hit Dice of the phylactery, as magic jar (at the phylactery’s caster level). If the fiend succeeds, its victim is killed and the fiend permanently takes possession of their body. Over the next few weeks, the victim’s form slowly warps to recreate the fiend’s natural form, although the fiend can typically use all of its special abilities from the moment it is reborn. If the magic jar fails, the humanoid is immune to possession attempts from that fiend for 24 hours. The fiend can make new possession attempts at will as a full-round action.


Power Rituals
Under normal circumstances, a fiend exerts no special powers within their reality wrinkle. However, through power rituals—arcane rites known only to fiends—the outsider can draw great power from the land. Each ritual is unique, and each fiend can only attempt one power ritual in each domain.

If the ritual is successful, the size of the fiend’s reality wrinkle is decreased (divide the reality wrinkle's radius by its number of corruption points), and its bond to the Land of the Mists grows stronger. The fiend gains the land based power for the domain in which it performs the ritual. Although the fiend gains power, each successful ritual gives it 1d4 corruption points, making it harder to successfully complete power rituals or to return to the extraplanar realms.

If the ritual fails, the fiend suffers 6d10 points of damage, which can only be recovered through natural healing (not regenerated or magically healed). The fiend also suffers a permanent negative level, although this can be restored through magic. Other consequences are also possible.

Corruption Points % Failure
0 0
1-2 10
3-4 20
5-6 30
7-8 40
9-10 50
11-12 60
13-14 70
15-17 80
18-21 90
22+ 100

Fiendish Templates

A fiend can choose to adopt one of these templates when it is drawn into Ravenloft. It can later change templates with a successful power ritual.

The Fiend of Blasphemy Template

Creating a Fiend of Blasphemy

“Fiend of blasphemy” is an acquired template that can be added to any outsider with the Evil subtype and at least 7 Hit Dice. The fiend of blasphemy retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted below.
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +2.
Special Abilities: The fiend of blasphemy retains all of the special abilities of the base creature, and also gains the following.

Blasphemy (Sp): The fiend of blasphemy gains the ability to cast spells as a cleric of level equal to half its Hit Dice. It can choose whichever domains or subdomains it desires, although these typically reflect the fiend’s philosophy or inner nature. It also gains the granted powers of those domains.

Blood Oath (Su): A fiend of blasphemy has the ability to perform a ritual of initiation that binds cult members to the fiend’s service. The ritual forges a magical, mental bond between the fiend and those mortals who participate. It requires one day of preparation, during which time the fiend must meditate and ready a room in which the ritual will take place. The ritual itself lasts for 2 hours, plus an additional 10 minutes per mortal initiate. If either the preparation or the ritual is interrupted, the process is ruined and the fiend must start again.
All creatures in the room (and no more than 60 feet away from the fiend of blasphemy) when the ritual begins or that enter that area during the ritual must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ fiend’s Hit Dice + fiend’s Cha modifier) or be affected as if by an enthrall spell. Willing participants in the ritual receive a –4 penalty on this saving throw, while hostile onlookers receive a +4 bonus.
After the first 2 hours of the ritual, each initiate is subjected to the fiend’s individual attention for 10 minutes, during which time the bond between the two is formed. If an initiate wishes to resist the bond, she can attempt a Will saving throw (DC 15 + ½ fiend’s Hit Dice + fiend’s Cha modifier). Willing participants may voluntarily fail their saving throws. If an initiate makes a successful saving throw, the fiend of blasphemy is aware that the bond was not properly formed, but this does not interrupt the ritual. Fiends often allow mortals to believe their resistance went undetected until after the ritual is complete.
At will as a move equivalent action, a fiend of blasphemy can use a supernatural power identical to locate creature to sense the location of any creature that has sworn a blood oath with the fiend. As a full-round action, a fiend of blasphemy can scry on any creature that has sworn it a blood oath, as if using the scrying spell. The fiend cannot scry on cultists on other planes (including other domains). The fiend can use this ability on any given cultist once every 24 hours, but there is no limit to how many cultists it can scry in a day.
The fiend can also inflict pain on those who have sworn it a blood oath. Distance is not a factor, but the fiend cannot torture a cultist who is on a different plane (or in a different domain). When the fiend uses this power (a full-round action), the target cultist suffers excruciating pain. The affected creature is nauseated for 1 round per Wisdom bonus of the fiend (minimum 1). A successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ fiend’s Hit Dice +fiend’s Cha modifier) lessens the penalty to being shaken.
Most horribly, a fiend of blasphemy gains the ability to kill those who have sworn it a blood oath if they displease it (as a full-round action). Distance is not a factor, but the fiend cannot kill a cultist who is on a different plane (or in a different domain). The affected creature must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ fiend’s Hit Dice +fiend’s Cha modifier) or die. If the save is successful, the creature takes 2d6+6 points of damage. This is a death effect. If the cultist’s save succeeds, it cannot be the target of this ability for 24 hours.

Liar (Su): A fiend of blasphemy gains immunity to detect thoughts and discern lies spells and abilities.

Sponsor Worshipper (Su): A fiend of blasphemy can channel spellcasting ability to mortals with levels in the cleric class. A fiend can sponsor a cleric whose level is no higher than twice the fiend’s Wisdom modifier (to a maximum of the caster level of its spell-like abilities -2). Thus, a fiend of blasphemy with Wisdom 22 and caster level 14th can sponsor a cleric of up to 12th level, who receives access to the full complement of cleric spells as well as any two cleric domains offered by the fiend.

Transfer Spell-Like Ability (Sp): A fiend of blasphemy can use a power similar to the cleric spell imbue with spell ability to grant its cult members access to its spell-like abilities. A fiend can give one creature that has sworn it a blood oath access to as many of its own spell-like abilities as it desires. The cultist can use the ability once per day, with all variable characteristics (including caster level and save DC) determined as if the fiend were using the ability.
When it transfers a spell-like ability, the fiend cannot use the ability as often as usual: it can use abilities normally available at will only 4 times per day, and loses one use per day from other abilities. A fiend can bestow the same ability on multiple worshippers, or allow worshippers to use the ability more than once per day, but in doing so loses more of its own daily uses of the ability.
For example, a glabrezu of blasphemy can grant two of its cultists the ability to use dispel magic once per day, or grant a single cultist the ability to dispel magic twice per day, but the glabrezu itself can only dispel magic three times per day as long as the cultists retain their ability.
The fiend of blasphemy can revoke the transfer at any time as a free action. If the cultist had already used the ability during the current day, it counts as if the fiend had used it that day as well.

The Fiend of Corruption Template

Creating a Fiend of Corruption
“Fiend of corruption” is an acquired template that can be added to any outsider with the Evil subtype and at least 7 Hit Dice. The fiend of corruption retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted below.
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.
Special Abilities: The fiend of blasphemy retains all of the special abilities of the base creature, and also gains the following.

Change Shape (Su): The fiend of corruption gains the change shape ability, as the spell alter self. They can assume the form of any Small or Medium humanoid.

Fiend’s Favour (Su): Once per day, a fiend of corruption can grant a touched creature a +2 profane bonus to one of the creature’s ability scores. This bonus stacks with any other bonus the creature may already have (including a succubus’ profane gift), and lasts for 24 hours. When the effect expires, the creature takes a –2 penalty to the same ability score for the next 24 hours. Another application of fiend’s favour not only negates the penalty, but restores the full bonus.
Fiends of corruption are quite free with this ability — at least at first. They often approach people who are in need of a short term ability boost for a specific situation, offer them the “favour” for free in exchange for performing a simple task. The next day, when the affected creature is suffering from the penalty, the price for restoring the favour gets slightly higher, and so on — until a power-hungry character is willing to do just about anything in return.

Liar (Su): A fiend of corruption gains complete immunity to detect thoughts, discern lies, and any attempt to magically discern its alignment.

Soul Bargain (Sp): A fiend of corruption gains the ability to enter a binding agreement with a mortal, at the cost of the mortal’s soul. The mortal victim must enter into the soul bargain willingly; the fiend cannot use any of its spells, spell-like abilities or supernatural abilities to coerce the victim, although it can use mundane trickery. Entering into a soul bargain is an unforgivably evil act, which might alter a character’s alignment, blocks divine spellcasters from receiving spells from good-aligned deities, and prevents resurrection.
A fiend of corruption can grant a wish to a mortal (not an elemental, fey, outsider, or nonliving creature) once per day. Using this ability inflicts a negative level on the fiend, so fiends never use this ability lightly.
Upon the mortal’s death (by any means), her soul is transferred to a gem (prepared as with the soul bind spell when the bargain is forged), even if the gem and the mortal are not on the same plane (or domain) at the same time. (A soul in Ravenloft cannot reach a gem outside the demiplane, however.) The fiend cannot directly cause the death of someone with a soul bargain.
The bargain requires 1 hour to complete, and is utterly inviolable once forged. The only way to escape a soul bargain is to recover the gem after the mortal’s death and break it, freeing her soul and allowing her to be restored to life through the normal means. The fiend can break the contract at any time, although it only does so under extremely rare circumstances. Fiends can sense when a creature has sold their soul, and so don’t waste their time bargaining with those who have nothing to offer them.
It is quite common for fiends of corruption, as soon as a soul bargain is complete, to return to their native plane and await the mortal’s death, or at least deposit the gem in a safe place before returning to the Material Plane to hasten the victim’s demise. Of course, this is not possible in Ravenloft, so fiends of corruption trapped within the Demiplane of Dread take pains to hide their soul gem collections.