Statting Jack The Ripper

[Angel Tarragon]

I'm looking to stat out a Jack the Ripper type of character as an NPC for my homebrew. So, I'm turning to EnWorld for help. What should the characters ab scores be? What base classes, prestige classes, skills, feats and equipment should the character have?

 

[Land Outcast]

Lets see first what is it that you want:

Jack the Ripper as the shadowy misterious serial assassin of systematic and brutal character

or

Jack the Ripper as someone who just can´t be caught by natural means, a supernatural presence to punish humanity


I DMed a pair of "Jack the Ripperesque" adventures:

One included a wight with rogue levels (pretty gruesome detail: its forearms had been worn down to "bone blades" which gave some insane climbing bonuses), corpse stealing, and a hidden temple to "Oonvelshar" under a mausoleum in the graveyard.

The other was far more complex, it all started with the clean (not a drop of blood fell from the body) death of Lady Sarina (after a presumed private noble "exotic art critique party" at her home) and a chat with her housekeeper gnome-on-stilts. It included a summoner with a cat familiar, a bound yugoloth in disguise, a cat familiar transmuted into "cat-folk", the stealing of a shadowstuff blooddrinking ceremonial dagger from Lady Sarina's house, the threat of stealing Fiend's Embrace from Lord Arak's collection, and the strange smell of urine at all the crime scenes.
They ended up discovering the lead thanks to a librarian who fed cats who would come to his window (up at the last level of the library), and had noted the absence of a black cat.

The last one was the first adventure in which I required characters to do all the investigation work, a great game... I should write it down someday...

[sorry for the threadjack ]

 

[humble minion]

I ran Jack as an NPC in a rather Anno-Dracula-esque game a few years back, in an early d20 adaptation of Masque of the Red Death. It would depend on his motivations, narrative purpose, and desired power level, really. I went with human lawyer4/barbarian2 - but that's because IMC Jack was Jonathan Harker driven mad by his experiences in Transylvania, and who was now being used as a tool by a sinister London occult society in order to complete a powerful blood-sacrifice ritual to wake King Arthur from his sleep in the hope he's be able to save England from Dracula. So that might be a bit specialised!

Some ideas:
- give him some sort of barbarian level, to reflect his insanity and rage at being cornered. He's done inhuman things, make sure his behavour reflects it. Urban ranger with favoured enemy (humans) perhaps?
- look into the Item Familiar feat from UA - having his knife get more and more powerful with each kill, and having it eventually gain malign sentience and having him whisper to it at night, is nice and evocative. Keen, vampiric, wounding, death knell, passwall, and some sort of nondetection power are all good ability choices for the knife.
- escape route. Again, depends on the magic level of your campaign. At the very least, a ward against basic divinations. Then, items of teleporting, dimension door, invisibility or etherealness, obscuring mist, gaseous form, etc.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Jack the Ripper as the shadowy misterious serial assassin of systematic and brutal character

Looking for stats for this concept.

 

[Thanael]

The following is for a Ravenlofty Ripper:

As for the stats there`s a nice Ravenloft Anatomist PrC in the Book of Sacrifices that fits very well.

A different non Ravenloft Anatomist is available here: http://www.hallofhero.com/PC/ViewPressClass.cfm?IDPC=15

I think it's a conversion of the wizard kit the Complete Necromancer`s Guide, though it works with a non spellcaster too and IMO it works better for the Ripper than the one from BoS. (The RL one gains henchmen and some weird grafting powers...)

For scalpels I would use the stats of a (masterwork) straight razor (1d4 20/x3). Add in Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization (from the anatomist), perhaps Impr Critical if you can get it.

Start with Expert and/or Aristocrat. Some Rogue levels for sneak attack are a must.

Any Jack the Ripper type villian needs to be combat light:

The charm of "Saucy Jack" was in the thrill of the chase - the players, who represent law and order, are chasing down the murderer, who represents the wild savage man. Jack the Ripper is the wolf in sheeps clothing, preying on the flock and vanishing before the watch dogs can stop him. In fact, that is why the Ripper is so immortal as a villian - because in the end, he really did get away.

I might suggest that the typical encounter with the Ripper is a chase - the players always just out of reach of him, and just when they think they've caught him...
Someone opens a door into an alley, just after the Ripper, thus blocking the players and resulting in some damage
He ducks out of the alley and vanishes into a crowd - perhaps a power there?
He turns the corner, and suddenly vanishes from a deadend

I agree.
With some Rogue and Doctor levels and the anatomist being originally Prc for wizards (with d4 HD) this fits. He´s able to wield his scalpels quite well, but has a low BAB/HD/AC. With his (basic) sneak attack he won`t be able to catch most PCs anyways. Only a few levels each but they do yield lots of skill points. Put those into disguise, bluff, hide, etc. Feats: skill focus in any of the above, shadow, stealthy, persuasive, perhaps run/fleet of foot?, Iron Will?

from this thread on WotC' Ravenloft board

And

First, I'd definitely take mostly Rogue levels with a few levels of Ranger. Ranger will net you the Heal skill which, coupled with Profession (surgeon) or something like that will give you a Jack-esque background and a way to keep the girls you cut on from dying so quickly. You might also want to throw in a few levels of Assassin (for death attack) and a level of Spymaster (for the cover identity and undetectabe alignment).

Take the feats Craven from CoR and Deadly Precision from XPH to give you a nice surgical flavor to your sneak attacks. If you want, you can also go further in Spymaster to add your class levels to Will saves against scrying, dispel scrying sensors, and eventually make it so that the person divining on you can only find out information appropriate to the disguise you are in.

from this thread


More feats that come to mind: Arterial Strike (CW), Hamstring (CW), Death Blow(CAdv), Staggering Strike(CadV).

 

[Angerland]

Dungeon Crawl Classics has a ripper type adventure. The ripper there is played bya Redcap with levels of Ranger, damn thing was actually quite tough on the old party.