[RPG] What’s a Solid Way to Strike up a Conversation With a LE Devil outsider without the Gate Spell

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My DM has allowed me to make a vampire / hexblade player character for our weekly game. Naturally, my character's motivations include betraying her old boss (vampire lord) and murdering him.

Her back story includes being raised, forgetting her old past as an adventurer (presumably tried to fend up a vampire attack and failed). She's not bound to the vampire lord who created her. He tossed her out to enslave more powerful minions. She's been dormant in a coffin for awhile and has reawakened.

My character's alignment is LE – she won't necessarily get her hands dirty most of the time, and may almost be helpful to resident humanoids if working with them helps her reach her goal. Part of this "not getting your hands dirty" business would involve not making her own vampire minions by force – ie it would be out of character for her to overpower a villager and bite / claw them. It's much more her speed to draw up some sort of incredibly evil contract, exploit psychological flaws, find willing and able-bodied would-be vampire soldiers to rope into her control.

The contract is the sort of thing you'd call up a LE outsider to work with. Literally a "deal with the devil." Promise an outsider the souls of anyone who betrays her (after a vampire tends to be an evil backstabber) – and agree to whatever else this business-suit devil has in mind.

My character is starting at level 13 (this is intended to be a power game with PCs starting out well above the easy-mortality line) – and has about 9k gold to her name. How do I set up this initial meeting with a LE outsider without having access to the gate spell myself?

Best Answer

Contacting a LE Outsider

There are several ways in the Player's Handbook to talk to or just hang out with a LE outsider for a while, however many methods are spells, and few of those spells are on your list. That's okay: your +4 to your Charisma score from being a vampire should be sufficient for Use Magic Device skill checks, even if the skill is cross-class. Otherwise, you'll either take the feat Leadership (PH 97) and hope for a spellcaster, pay for spellcasting services (PH 129), or use the dominate supernatural ability on someone who can cast the spells. Or, y'know, ask politely via the Diplomacy skill, ask impolitely via the Intimidate skill, or just lie via the Bluff skill to get the spells cast.

  • Contact a devil that's part of your character background via the spell sending [evoc] (PH 275-6). Invite him to chat over tea and murder. The sending spell is on your spell list and clerics get it earlier, so a used wand of sending shouldn't break the bank.
  • The spells lesser planar ally [conj] (PH 261), planar ally [conj] (PH 261), and greater planar ally [conj] (PH 261) can get you an audience for 1 hour for 500 gp per the allied creature's HD--which is expensive but not unreasonable. I am personally fond of the devilish barrister tracking billable hours.
  • The spells lesser planar binding [conj] (PH 261-2), planar binding [conj] (PH 261), and greater planar binding [conj] (PH 261) can get you an unwilling audience, but depending on what you're summoning a bargain might be reachable.
  • The spells commune [div] (PH 211) and contact other plane [div] (PH 212-3) get answers to questions, and the answers to the right questions (like, "Does this plan even have a chance of working?") will make your unlife easier.
  • If the DM balks at the feat Leadership, the feats Obtain Familiar (CAr 81) and Improved Familiar (DMG 200) combined get you an imp (MM 56) who can use as spell-like ability an effect like the spell commune for up to 6 questions 1/week.
  • In your character background become exposed to the spell commune or contact other plane and take the feat Omniscient Whispers (UA 93), letting you 1/week get a question answered as if with the spell commune.
  • Explore dungeons. Seriously. I mean, you'll probably do it anyway, but if the DM is using the DMG's Random Dungeon Encounters (78-81), at level 2 appears the imp (MM 56), upon whom you might impress the importance of casting commune on your behalf. Or keep exploring--at level 4 appears a barghest (MM 22-3), 5 a greater barghest (MM 22-3), and 6 an actual for-reals chain devil (MM 53). Given the right approach, all should be open to negotiation (although the former two might want to eat some sentients and the latter torture some, but you brought hirelings, right?). The deeper you go, the higher up the devil food chain you'll go.

If the DM says no to the sending, the planar ally route's the way to go. Explaining your plan to the called devil should at least pique its interest in spreading further evil.

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