Constructing Succubus NPC -- Psion or Sorcerer? (Second try)

[AF Stripes]

There were technical difficulties yesterday that prevented me from posting correctly. I managed to spam the page with four ghost threads instead. Sorry, how embarrassing! This is my second attempt to ask the Enworlders for assistance.

I'm building an NPC that I've had in my head for some time to torment the hell out of several of my PCs. I have done a lot of research into Succubi and abilities they should have/need ( http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?335365-Succubus-ability-that-is-missing ) and the direction i want to take this villain is mind control and dream manipulation via Oneiromancy and Lucid Dreaming.


What I'm stuck on is if the Psion is better or the Sorcerer. In Penumbra's Occult Lore there is a prestige class (The Oneiromancer) that specifically focuses on dream stuff and it advances by "existing class" instead of spell level. It can work with both base classes and the theme fits perfectly. The psion also has a fantastic formula for converting spells to psionics which would allow me to convert spells and stuff like Mindrape -BoVD. So I guess I'm just stuck on which one is better for this kind of build. Would there be any better ways to go about this, or alternatives the wise ones of this site might suggest?

 

[Keldin]

Completely aside from power list, I tend to favor Psion. Why? Because, if you have a level of a class that allows access to armor, said armor does not interfere with the Psion's powers, while it DOES do so for Sorcerers. Add in the ability to suppress the manifestation display with a concentration check (DC 15+level of power) and you can have someone wandering around in full-plate armor completely overwhelming the targets without anyone the wiser.

 

[AF Stripes]

Bump

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Sorcerer. Succubi are already swimming in arcane magic (flavor match), plus psionics uses Int in 3.5.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ditto sorcerer (or one of the sorcerer variants, like battle sorcerer) for the above stated reasons.

 

[AF Stripes]

Anyone else? The first argument for psion is pretty solid. I don't have much to go on for sorcerers besides "its a flavor match" and THAT isn't a strong argument to start with. If anything is still selling me for the psion over the sorcerer its the spell conversion rules.

I thought the sorcerer would have some better proponants on this one. Is it wrong to feel a tad disappointed?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of the strongest arguments for Psion is the ability to use Psionics in armor. That doesn't make it better.

1) there exist Sorcerer variants that can use armor. There are also ways to get around ASF like feats & special materials, as well as using spells that don't have somatic components. (See the Martial Arcanist link in my sig.)

2) if a succubus is wearing armor and engaging in melee, she's already failed, to some extent. At her core, she's a trickster, not a warrior.

3) sorcerer- in all incarnations- use Cha as their casting stat, whereas Psions use Int. Cha is the key stat for a Succubus.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

In Penumbra's Occult Lore there is a prestige class (The Oneiromancer) that specifically focuses on dream stuff

3rd party supplements sell in small numbers. I doubt any of us (besides you) have read Penumbra's Occult Lore or know anything about the Oneiromancer beyond what you have told us. Based on the info you've given us though, it works with casters as well as psions.

 

[AF Stripes]

Reading these replies has helped a little. The flavor match for arcane is appropriate but for this npc the battle ground is in the mind of the npcs when they sleep. Different flavored succubus.

think I see the problem though. That fat cha score is an obstacle if I don't want to allocate it simply to racial powers.

So couldn't I just lower the racial cha and put it into int? Or perhaps there is a feat that allows me to use cha as the primary class stat the same way that academic priest does for clerics? I was never worried about armor in the first place.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

There's no official feat, but if you're the DM you can always make one.

There's a Dragonlance feat called Dynamic Priest (or something like that) that lets a cleric use Charisma instead of Wisdom for spellcasting. Presumably you could make a feat like that for psionics.

Or you could make the dream thing a spell-like ability or some other "off-the-books" ability, using Charisma to set the save DC.