+Cha for a Sorc

[LiL KiNG]

I'm looking at making an NPC that will join our party for an adventure but will become a villian in her own right, going for a 3rd level Sorc build to match the party level and am looking for a template with a good Cha boost.

I know I want the dragon heritage feat (gold), and the regional feat bloodline of fire (going with the text that says +2 CL for spells of fire descriptor) - both of those would give a +3 CL with fire spells.

Since I need the dragonblood thing for dragon heritage I was looking at a dragonborn lesser aasimar (+2 Cha), no LA, so far.

Now I'm just looking for a good template to add buku Cha to her. I've seen Half-Fey and not really a fan, for the game setting having fairy wings would draw too much attention.
Phrenic is another neat template with +4 Cha, but then I've got a mixed psionic/sorc thing going on... for a psion build though that be a nice template.
Pedal is a no-go, even though it has phenomenal Cha, plus its a tiny race in its own right.
So, are there any +4 Cha or higher templates out there for only +2LA or less?

 

[Dandu]

Can I talk you out of any of this, or are you dead set?

 

[Wyvernhand]

Friends don't let friends play DMPCs...

 

[Empath Negative]

Remember that whole debate about rollplayers vs. roleplayers?

What a lot of people don't get is that it's situations like the above that they were talking about.

 

[LiL KiNG]

Does anyone know the issue # of the Dragon magazine with the 'spell-touched' template?

[MENTION=85158]Dandu[/MENTION] - Could maybe... but rather vague, what do you mean?
[MENTION=97681]Wyvernhand[/MENTION] - there is a point behind the storyline and why this should happen. Thanks.
[MENTION=6690794]Empath Negative[/MENTION] - yes, I want this character to have strong Fire spells, what's wrong with that? Again, part of the storyline the party is going into.

So far, thanks for the help!

 

[Dandu]

Leave aside all mechanical talk. What is it that you want out of the NPC?

 

[LiL KiNG]

Leave aside all mechanical talk. What is it that you want out of the NPC?

Charisma as high as I can get it without going into monster races - I need her to look somewhat human. A 'her' because this all male group will eat it up. This will help max her bluff, diplomacy and disguise. One of our rogues is skill based for infiltrating and nearly maxed in all like skills, need to have a chance of topping his roll without just fudging a DM roll. Way I play, if the player beats the check, they beat the check. Even if this means the master villain dies from a massive damage hit and failing his Fort save in the first round of combat, so be it.
I want her to be a strong 'fire' caster, looked at war mage even for the Edge ability, but like the Sorc flavor better for utility spell options. The high Cha plays into having a couple more spells per day as well. When the betrayal happens she needs to be able to hold her own against the party, and frankly take them by surprise. She will play out not necessarily 'weak and helpless', but a lot less powerful than she is until she turns on the party to steal the artifact from them that they're after.

Because we're down 2 members right now the party decided to try and "hire" another NPC member for this adventure, a caster since everyone else is melee or rogue'ish. They've made no attempt to be discrete in their reasons and objective for hiring around town, so have drawn attention to themselves, giving me the opportunity to slip someone amongst them.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm looking at making an NPC that will join our party for an adventure but will become a villian in her own right, going for a 3rd level Sorc build to match the party level and am looking for a template with a good Cha boost.

Why are you wasting your time? It's an NPC, thus you can give her all the Cha you want.

I think you should first design your character concept wholly, including his racial nature for instace, the backstory and the personality type, and also think of what mechanical crunchy bits you want her to have (in your case it seems you want very high Cha and very high CL).

Once you're defined these requirements, don't let the rules use you... If it was a PC it should be legit (for a reason of equity with the other players) but as an NPC it doesn't have to be. So if you just want her to have a 24 Cha, just give her that (but be aware of course what you are going to get yourself into, mechanically...). You don't have to shoehorn yourself into e.g. a monstrous race or templates just to make the NPC look somewhat legit. You don't need to.

 

[Empirate]

Why are you wasting your time? It's an NPC, thus you can give her all the Cha you want.

I think you should first design your character concept wholly, including his racial nature for instace, the backstory and the personality type, and also think of what mechanical crunchy bits you want her to have (in your case it seems you want very high Cha and very high CL).

Once you're defined these requirements, don't let the rules use you... If it was a PC it should be legit (for a reason of equity with the other players) but as an NPC it doesn't have to be. So if you just want her to have a 24 Cha, just give her that (but be aware of course what you are going to get yourself into, mechanically...). You don't have to shoehorn yourself into e.g. a monstrous race or templates just to make the NPC look somewhat legit. You don't need to.

While I do agree in principle, that's not every group's playstyle. For example, I totally make up stuff on the fly, but major NPCs and villains are always statted out completely rules-legit. My players aren't great on metagaming, but they do appreciate the feeling that things are 'fair' on them. I.e., I don't make up stuff just to spite them. Knowing I play by the same rules as them helps make them feel comfortable with the game's general fairness and prevents frustration from time to time.

Of course, my system knowledge is vastly superior to that of my players, but even that makes them feel more comfortable, as they expect me to know the game well enough to come up with mechanically interesting stuff that's still not overwhelmingly powerful. Special villains will use mechanics that are very strong from time to time (e.g., we don't generally use ToB and class variants, but our last campaign's archvillain was a Cloistered Cleric/Crusader/Ruby Knight Vindicator), but I'm not fudging anything or dream up weird stuff, so my group's content.

 

[Li Shenron]

While I do agree in principle, that's not every group's playstyle. For example, I totally make up stuff on the fly, but major NPCs and villains are always statted out completely rules-legit. My players aren't great on metagaming, but they do appreciate the feeling that things are 'fair' on them. I.e., I don't make up stuff just to spite them. Knowing I play by the same rules as them helps make them feel comfortable with the game's general fairness and prevents frustration from time to time.

Are you sure that it really makes sense to think that things are 'fair' only if NPCs are statted completely and "legit"? How is an NPC of level N with some off-the-book tweaks (boosts or nerfs) less "fair" than throwing a perfectly legit NPC of higher level against the party?

(somehow I feel like I already had this same discussion in another thread...)