It's a silent night under the dark skies of Narshe, as silent as death should be; the screams and the brawls are over, leaving rotting rests of human flesh. Later, that morning...
Officer: "This is the sixth consecutive night it happens, a dead body without skull, any ideas?" Priest: "I'm as baffled as you are, I would've never known there is such a creepy killer in the loose." Officer: "Has the body been identified?" Recruit: "He seems to be a guard from the mayor's, they take lonely guard outside, he was killed without any struggle, and look at this bloodshed, it appears to have received a single claw in the chest and died instantly, his sword was never drawn." Officer: "Very well, prepare the body for its burial; I won't have rotting corpses all around town." Recruit: "Yes sir, immediately."
Officer: "Commander, set a perimeter around town and place a guard in every corner, I want to ensure this won't happen again tomorrow." Commander: "Aye, leave it up to me; my men are ready to strike justice!" Officer: "Nice, go and get everything ready." Commander: "Right away."
Officer: "Is there anything else?" Priest: "The way the body was left, is quite odd. You see, this body was killed and ripped of his skull for some reason, that fact renders useless any resurrection attempt, but I fear there might be some other reason to do so." Officer: "Such as?" Priest: "I'm not sure, but I know for certain that human skulls are vital ingredients for some necromancy spells, probably someone is replenishing his stock." Officer: "I won't have that, you know that." Priest: "You think the militia will be good enough to stop the murders?" Officer: "That's my best bet, except you're offering yourself to track the killer." Priest: "Might not be such a bad idea, you know I'm more than capable of it." Officer: "You think eh? I trust you will be able to gather something Grant, keep me informed." Grant: "Of course."
The day went by without any concerns, and as ordered, a guard was placed on every corner of the town, but with so much darkness, torches seemed useless. The guards were not aware that with such a stand, they became the next victims, but Lord Grant Firescythe was well aware of it, as he watched from atop the church, the only thing he could view were the torches itself, but nothing else.
Grant: (To himself) “This is ridiculous, thinking I would be able to see the killer from here...”
Suddenly, one of the guard's torches faded, no one noticed anything... except Grant, he went as fast as he could, fearing the worse. And there it was, the guard's body on the floor in a bath of his own blood, without a head, “But how?”, he asked to himself, when he realized he was not alone...
“A bear?”, yes it seemed so, a bear was peacefully walking away from the scene, didn't show like any kind of suspicious being, but Grant was not naive, a bear like this would mot definitely take him to his master, but why a druid would want human skulls? Grant was too intrigued, so he followed, quietly.
The bear had a way into town, crossing the perimeter laid by the guards, a secret tunnel beyond the walls, leading to a small cliff by the town, in which there was a cave, everything started to make sense... as he heard a voice from the inside.
"Finally, I was beginning to think the guards were able to catch you, he he he, of course they didn't, ah, another skull, fascinating, I think this one is the last one, yes yes, this one is the last one, no more waiting, he he he, tonight will be one to remember, he he he."
Grant entered the cave after hearing all that, still confused about the meaning of it, but very sure that man was the killer, so he was ready for battle.
Suspicious man: "Oh dear boy, you were followed, now now, who are you sir?" Grant: "My name is not of importance, but rather yours fiend, who are you and why did you kill those men? (wielding his scythe) answer now!" Suspicious man: "So, a hero appears?, ha, nice try, you can call me Ashkran, if a name you wish to know, but it will have no purpose, now my bear, kill this man."
The bear jumped against Grant very quickly, with his teeth and claws ready to kill, but Grant was already expecting an attack, and received him horizontally slicing through the bear's head, pummelling its body against the cave wall, killing it instantly.
Ashkran: "What, how?"
Grant did not waited idle for a second wave, and attacked his next target, but just a few inches from his hit, he stopped in pain engulfed by energy.
Grant: "What is this!?" Ashkran: "Fool, you thought the runes on the ground were mere decorative? Symbol Stun is the name, a very useful spell for unwanted visitors, and now you're the puppy to die. However, I'm too busy preparing the destruction of your town, so you'll have to excuse me, do not worry, my little friend will play with you now."
Ashkran said some incomprehensible speech, after which the dead bear reanimated.
Ashkran: "I don't think I need to repeat the order, you know what to do." And he left the place, as the undead bear readied to attack..
Ashkran calmly walked to a plain location outside of town and borrowed the skull he just received, after which he went into the city, using the passage his bear had made.
Avoiding the guards with ease, he made his way up to the town's graveyard, where he casted aloud:
"Invoco los poderes infernales de Khael Mirtus, ˇRevitae Totalus!"
The ground started to shake and rumble, in resemblance of an earthquake. The whole town was quickly covered by a dark fog, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, and suddenly, hell rised, as a gigantic Fire Star symbol engraved itself across the whole town, where its pillars were the 7 skulls strategically positioned to make the star formation.
The earthquake started to fade, as dozens of skeletons emerged from their graves all at once, covered by a dark flaming aura, they instantly started attacking at will, and most of them spread out against the buildings, while Ashkran left with a small group of them towards the Mayor's Manor.
All the guards were confused, as they easily fell against the powers of the darkened fire skeletons. After dying, their corpses reanimated and became a part of the undead armada, there seemed to be no hope.
The mayor fell dead as any other, he could oppose no resistance. "What wimps, it took me only about 5 minutes to defeat the whole city, well, I'm the Great Ashkran after all" he mumbled, as he grabs and wears a pendant which was used as decoration of one of the walls at the manor.
Suddenly two of the undead skeletons were cut in two, as Grant's body emerged from the shadows.
Grant: "And all of this for a stupid pendant!? You will pay deeply for this." Ashkran: "Impossible, you should be dead by now." Grant: "Ridiculous, have you not known that Clerics can Turn Undead!"
A big wave of light engulfed the skeletons, but nothing happened.
Grant: "What!?" Ashkran: "I suppose my bear succumbed easily to that, even if you were stunned, but my darkened fire skeletons cannot be turned within my All Undead Zone." Grant: "Then we'll do it the rough way."
He destroyed the rest of the skeletons with a single blow.
Ashkran: "You never learn do you?"
The walls of the manor exploded all at once at the attack of the skeletons from outside, coming to aid Ashkran.
Ashkran: "But you will learn one way or another, this "stupid pendant" as you call it, is the phylactery of Khael Mirtus, one of the three Emerald Liches, and with its power, I am beyond undead!"
The skeletons began to glow in their own dark fire, and suddenly jumped into a single point, between Ashkran and Grant, melting their bones into a greater being.
Ashkran: "Meet the Darkened Apocaliptic Boneguard, and die already."
The Boneguard was indeed mighty, 8 meters tall with enormous knives instead of hands, blazing in a dark fire that towered above the whole city (as the manor was torn apart and burning).
The Boneguard quickly trashed against Grant, literally throwing him to the skies. He reincorporated, although badly hurt.
Grant: "Don't think I'm down so easily, any good Priest knows a healing trick or two" -as he heals his wounds. "Now, it's time for you to taste a bit of your own magic, Darkfire!"
The ground started rumbling again, but this time flames sprouted from all directions into Grant's scythe, which he positioned over his head, the scythe absorbed the dark fire, same which was used to maintain the All Undead Zone, the Boneguard felt his power fading for a moment, as if Grant was actually draining Ashkran's spell.
With a tremendous jump Grant placed himself right in front of the Boneguard's torso, about 6 meters from the ground, and slashed horizontally twice, creating fire waves with his scythe, and finishing with a vertical slash that effectively broke the whole chest of that monster, after which the mountain of bones fell down by its own weight, smashing the ground in a cloud of dirt.
Ashkran: "Unbelievable!" Grant: "Very much so."
With a final thrust, the scythe pierced the phylactery and made its way through Ashkran's chest, lungs, heart, or whatever crap he had inside, if he was still a living human, killing him where he stand. The fog faded off a minute after that, along with his spell and all the undead and fire in the city.
Ruins were all it was left, as Grant realized he was the only survivor...
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Lord Firescythe (Fighter 14/ Cleric 19 / Weapon Master 7)
I like this class combination a lot, makes very powerful builds, but I noticed something, the other builds in the searcher with this spread retain BAB above 25, so they can't use Divine Power Exploit, and if my calculations are correct (please tell me so if not), a Cleric will only cap buffed AB (+20) if his BAB is 25 or below (using Divine Power), so the real loss in any low magical environment to taking BAB 25 is none, and potential loss is minimum, while the exploit gives a nice gain of AB in the fourth attack.
To take advantage of Divine Power exploit, I needed to get at least 17 cleric levels pre-epic, so there it goes for the spread, Weapon Master had to be taken in epics, so I decided to take it at the very last, to take better feats first. Impressive that with 14 Fighter levels I still miss some of the usual combat-related feats suck as Toughness and Armor Skin, but if I lower the Cleric level further it will lose significant power instead of winning it.
Alignment: any
Playable levels: 1-40 PvP and PvM
He's designed for level 40 PvP, but I'm completely sure he's well playable, I've never had troubles leveling Cleric builds.
Dwarf
Abilities: STR 14 (26) DEX 13 CON 16 WIS 15 (19) INT 13 CHA 6
War Domain was taken for the great boost Aura of Vitality gives, but if the environment would not allow Haste on items, Travel might be ultimately best.
AB: 38 + 20 (+5 Divine Favor +5 Divine Power +2 Battletide +5 Greater Magic Weapon +1 Bless +1 Aid +1 Prayer) + 5 (Empowered Bull's Strength and Extended Aura of Vitality) = 63/58/53/68
Damage: 2d4 + 30 + 5 magical + 1d6 + 9 fire (32-38 + 5 magical + 10-16 fire, total 47-59) Critical: 160-190 + 25 magical + 50-80 fire (235-295)
Pros and Cons: Buffed stats such as damage and AB are very good, HP is not bad either, but AC and saving throws are quite low, while AC doesn't worries me that much, the low saves will make him susceptible to necromancy spells and the like. Unbuffed stats are not very good...
Some variants to suit your style:
You can change Fighter for Champion of Torm with no problems, you lose EWS but gain +7 to all saves, Divine Wrath and Smite Evil will be unuseable though.
Cleric level 18 could be taken on a later epic level for more viable skilldumps, but I prefered the slots sooner.
You can easily change Knockdown for Toughness. I believe Knockdown is best in combat but Toughness is safer as Knockdown can be covered. With an easy rearrangement of feats you could change it also for Armor Skin.
The scythe is my favorite weapon when making Weapon Masters, I can't give up the critical X5, but it will be easy to change Exotic Proficiency for Toughness or Armor Skin.
You can take off 2 Fighter levels, losing Knockdown or Empower Spell, for 2 Cleric levels, thus increasing Darkfire's power to max (+1 fire damage) and 1 more slot on levels 8 and 9, as well as slightly increasing spell durations.
You can lower CON to 14 and increase DEX and INT to 14, trading 40 HP for 1 AC (the AC bonus will fade away when buffed with Aura of Vitality) and 43 skillpoints, which might work well for Tumble (+4 AC). I prefered to keep HP higher since AC won't help against mages, and with his healing spells, HP might work better than a slight AC boost, while Tumble is not the only available skill to take, I believe it would be the best in this case.
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