Stretch-2-3-4 (The Four Fantastical: Richard the Reed)

Crisis of the World Eater – Copyright ©2016 LPJDesign

With the initial successes of the Crisis of the World Eater Kickstarter (Already Over 200% Funded) we thought we’d take a look at the inspirations behind the mega-3pp Crossover-Adventure and its rather Fantastic Roots… Who better to fight off the coming of a world devouring cosmic monster than characters inspired by the originals… Presenting the Four Fantasical: Richard the Reed!

The Four Fantastical – Richard the Reed

As we consider the source material of brave cosmic adventures facing off against world-eating threats of Galactic proportions, the opposition of one group of four adventures has opposed and driven off the Hungerer time and time again…

So, to fill the ranks of the Four Fantasical, we poured over the extended body of the 3pp offerings to come up with our iconic leader, Richard the Reed.

The Concept: Richard the Reed is the super-intelligent front man of the Four Fantasical with powers of metamorphic elogation and elasticity, not to mention an intellect verging on super-human.

The Class: Metamorph. Looking at the options for our stretching smart man, it seemed clear the persistent altered state abilities of the metamorph from Amora Game would allow us to get the most of his bases covered the fastest. While a synthesist summoner may have been slightly more powerful in terms of evoloutions, Richard can never loose his powers through damage which is in better keeping in our estimation.

Point Buy: Since the Four Fantastical are cosmic heroes we will go with a high fantasy budget of 20 points.

1st Level – Metamorph (Scholarly/Reconstructed) 1 – Evolutions: Slam, Reach – Slam (1), Improved Natural Armor (+2), Improved Damage – Slam. Adaptive Defense. Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple; Traits: Classically Schooled, Secret Knowledge or Dangerously Curious

Stats: STR 12, Dex 14, CON 10, INT 18 (Racial with a 16), WIS 13, CHA 10

At this level we have slightly resilient Richard with decent unarmed slams at a range of 10′. The most difficult part of the build is capturing the Knowledge skills Richard should probably have. Selecting the Reconstructed phenotype and our two Traits we will get access to Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and one more Skill of his choice. His Adaptive Defense and natural armor start him with an AC of +3 above his Dexterity modifier. Not great but it will rise at least 1 per level for the next several levels.

5th Level – Metamorph (Scholarly/Reconstructed) 5 – Evolutions: Slam, Reach – Slam (2), Improved Natural Armor (+2), Improved Damage – Slam, Compression, Grab. Adaptive Defense, Enhanced  Natural Attacks (+1), Natural Armor (+1), Vitality Surge. Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Aspect of the Beast (Leaping), Improved Grapple, Deadly Grappler, Evolution Surge. Traits: Classically Schooled, Secret Knowledge or Dangerously Curious , Gear: belt of giant strength +2, circlet of intellect +2

Stats: STR 14, Dex 14, CON 10, INT 21, WIS 13, CHA 10

At this point, Richard can squeeze through narrow confines, slam at 15′ and make free grapple attacks with his slam damage that ramps to 3d6 in grapples. Most importantly he gets his first access to Vitality Surge and the feat Evolution surge. We have been careful about NOT maxing his evolutions until this point because he can now adapt new abilities on the fly. This can increase speed, reach, and armor at this point. Speaking of AC, we are not looking at +5 from Adaptive Defense and a natural armor of +3. Not bad for a guy in tights.

10th Level – Metamorph (Scholarly/Reconstructed) 10 – Evolutions: Slam, Reach – Slam (2), Improved Natural Armor (+4), Improved Damage – Slam, Compression, Grab, Damage Reduction (5/adamantine), Hooves. Adaptive Defense, Enhanced  Natural Attacks (+2), Natural Armor (+2), Vitality Surge. Ability Increase (Int +2) Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Aspect of the Beast (Leaping), Improved Grapple, Deadly Grappler, Evolution Surge, Master Craftsman, Craft Wondrous Item, Multiattack; Traits: Classically Schooled, Secret Knowledge, or Dangerously Curious Gear: belt of giant strength +4, circlet of intellect +4, various wondrous items

Stats: STR 16, Dex 14, CON 10, INT 24, WIS 13, CHA 10

Richard has got a lot better at all of his basics, but most importantly he has gained the ability to make magical knick knacks and sky chariots for his team. Slam attacks are now out to 15′ and the temptation to take Combat Reflexes is pretty high, but for Richard we don’t. His Evolution Surge adds a second point of versatility and he is now becoming damage resistant to mundane harm. AC is now a respectable +7 from Adaptive Defense and a natural armor of +6 (at a minimum). Adding “hooves” to him boosts the amount of flailing limbs in the fray though we hope GM would let them just be feet. Multiattack makes the secondary attacks less painful.

15th Level – Metamorph (Scholarly/Reconstructed) 15 – Evolutions: Slam, Reach – Slam (3), Improved Natural Armor (+4), Improved Damage – Slam, Compression, Grab, Damage Reduction (10/adamantine), Hooves, Gore, Constrict.. Adaptive Defense, Enhanced  Natural Attacks (+3), Natural Armor (+3), Vitality Surge. Ability Increase (Int +4) Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Aspect of the Beast (Leaping), Improved Grapple, Deadly Grappler, Evolution Surge, Master Craftsman, Craft Wondrous Item, Multiattack, Grapple, Greater, Pinning Knockout, Rapid Grappler. Improved Critical (Slam); Traits: Classically Schooled, Secret Knowledge, or Dangerously Curious Gear: belt of giant strength +4, circlet of intellect +4, various wondrous items

Stats: STR 16, Dex 14, CON 10, INT 27, WIS 13, CHA 10

Richard is now a very capable grabber and can make multiple checks against foes to maximize his feats and constrict ability. He also has a broad array of attacks and formidable defenses (+14 AC before Evolution Surge or magic items and DR 10/adamantine). His surges can provide a dizzying amount of versatility. Additionally, he has an arsenal of magic items customized to his adventures. Not bad Richard, not bad. Again we hope the GM lets us skin gore and hooves to flailing stretchy limbs and fist maces.

To 20th level and Mythic: Richard is pretty straightforward as he moves to 20th level, gaining more strength on all his basic fronts, consider taking extra limbs and more slams as you gain attack slots. More grappling feats and magic item manipulation feats may make sense too. If your game is going mythic definitely grab Dangerously Curious as a trait to select Super-Genius mythic path. The abilities of the path will dovetail perfectly with magic item activation and adding Intelligence to damage for slams.

We hope you enjoyed the first of the Four Fantasitcal! Tomorrow we will meet Grim Ben and explore the powers that make him such a big thing. Mythic Paths of the Lost Spheres including the Super-Genius path are available at: d20pfsrd.com, drivethruRPG, Paizo and RPGNow. Don’t forget the GM Sales going on until March 10th at Paizo! And til’ the 17th at drivethruRPG and RPGNow!