Thematic builds: Mounted Death (Ghost Rider Lich)

Guide for my Ghost Rider build with the Lich mythic path, made for Core difficulty or below. Features a walkthrough with tips for all acts and commented leveling details. DLC "The Lord of Nothing" required!

About the build + Disclaimer

Hello and welcome to another entry in my Thematic Builds series!

This time, we'll be using one of the new DLC classes, the Ghost Rider!

I got the idea for the Lich version of with inspired by Arthas, from Warcraft 3, and I was actually creating a RP build for him. But then, after putting all the ideas on paper, I realized it would not be a great character. First, starting with 8 levels in paladin to follow his story would really hurt the mount's progression and make it not viable, and starting the game already with Ghost Rider would skip all of his lore and previous story in favor of build optimization. While technically possible, this wouldn't really be a roleplay build like I wanted it, so I dropped the idea and changed it to a regular, scythe-wielding death rider. I'm quite happy of how it's turned out!

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Now, the important stuff:

This is a theme-focused build. As such, I avoided multiclassing and made flavour choices to keep the theme of the character, as mentioned above.

Yes, I am aware X class is better, that Y feat does more damage, that Z weapon has more crit. I know Angel is op. You get the point.

Sometimes you just wanna play some cool, thematic character, and not a weird mix of several different classes, or whatever someone said would be the "best dps", you know? It's a roleplaying game after all.

That being said, the build is optimized enough to be played and finish the game comfortably on Core or below. With a little bit of party optimization, can even be used on Hard, which I did for a good portion of the game.

If you are a new player, stick to normal/daring mode at start. However, you'll soon realize this build is too strong to the point of making combat trivial on normal mode. Consider raising the difficulty after you learn the basics of the game.

Another important thing to mention: the walkthrough section of this guide is focused on the combat and exploration parts of the game. I won't be telling you what to do for story choices, what to say to get X outcome, how to get Y ending. If you need any help with any of that, I'll be glad to help you in a comment or chat, but this is not meant to be a story guide.

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If this guide helped you in any way, feel free to give it a positive rating and/or add it to your favorites! if you see anything wrong, please let me know and I'll be happy to edit it accordingly.

Check my other guides if you need additional help:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006752479
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2968096295

Character Creation

Attribute	Choice	Comment
Race	Dhampir – Moroi Born	For the goth vampire vibe, of course.
Background	Regional: Ustalavic Peasant	RP choice.
Stats	19-14-10-10-10-16	Racial bonus and all extra points to STR. Charisma will give you 3 uses of your cavalier ability and become your health when you get your full Lich transformation, which is why we're not putting any points into CON. But don't go with negative CON either!
Skills	Mobility and Persuasion max, then Athletics.	Most important thing here is that you take mobility on every level. The rest are not too critical.
Order	Cockatrice	Good fit and some nice passives. Can't complain.
Deity	Urgathoa	RP choice that fits the character. There's some great reactivity to it during acts 3 and 5. However, you can of course pick anything else you want.
Alignment	Neutral Evil	You can start with anything, as long as you end there for Lich later.

Here's a portrait for you:

Source/Artist: Jose Parodi[paizo.com]

Leveling Progression

Note: take Cavalier - Ghost Rider on all 20 levels.

Level	Feat	Bonus feat	Comment
1	Mounted Combat		Requirement for other mount feats. Also the reason for the Mobility skill points.
2			You'll get the Dazzling Display feat for free here. Remove it from your bars and forget about it. We only want it because it is a requirement for another feat later. Don't waste a turn using it.
3	Weapon Focus: Scythe		Flavour choice for the reaper vibe. If you want to use a different weapon, choose it here. The equipment section will take scythes into account.
4
5	Spirited Charge		Double damage. Can't say no to that.
6		Power Attack
7	Outflank		Take this feat on every martial character in your party, ideally at the same level!
8
9	Shatter Defenses		Your Frightful Gaze ability now works even against enemies immune to fear effects! Abuse this.
10
11	Improved Critical: Scythe		Or any other weapon you have picked.
12		Improved Initiative	You can't charge if enemies all come close to you at the start of the fight, so that's a little help with that.
13	Combat Reflexes
14
15	Focused Strike		Now you don't have to worry too much about turning power attack off for high armor enemies.
16
17	Iron Will
18		Indomitable Mount
19	Improved Iron Will or Shake it Off		Only pick Shake it Off if you also take the same feat on other companions.
20

Mythic progression

Mythic Feats and Powers:

Level	Choices	Comment
1	Danse Macabre, Last Stand	Will make you immune to negative levels and resistant to death effects. Perfect. We can't afford to die, can we?
2	Weapon Focus (Mythic): Scythe
3	Mythic Charge (feat) - Fear Control (power)	A good boost to hit chance, which gets even better with your Shatter Defenses feat and your Braggart cavalier passive if enemies get shaken by your fear aura. Pick anything you like for your skelly companion. I picked Vanguard to have him at the frontline with me.
4	Power Attack (Mythic) - Bard Skeleton upgrade	We pick bard solely because of Dirge of Doom. Even if enemies resist your fear aura, you'll have your skelly to apply it with no chance of resisting, assuming the enemy is not immune to mind-affecting effects.
5	Leading Strike	If something lives your charge, this should be enough to finish them off.
6	Improved Critical (Mythic), Death Rush (power)	Go first, go hard.
7	Ever Ready
8	Improved Initiative (Mythic)
9	Always a Chance or Inspirational Leader (ability), Weapon of Death (power)	An extra 2d6 of damage against living creatures, and your attacks will reduce the target's spell resistance. Activate it from your abilities tab. For the ability, you can pick whatever you want since you already have the important ones. I recommend either Always a Chance or Inspirational Leader if you don't have it on any other character.
10	Extra Mythic Ability: Unrelenting Assault - Any skeleton upgrade	This is it, you are complete!

Useful Lich Mythic Spells

In order of importance.

Level	Spells	Comment
1	Shield	Keep Shield up all the time. This is the only spell that matters here. Unless you already have an Alchemist providing it.
2	Mirror Image, False Life	Two more buffs to keep up on you. The rest is whatever.
3	Power from Death	Cast Power from Death before the combat and enjoy the boost during the fight, especially when there's a lot of enemies around. Haste and Displacement are great, but you should have someone in your party taking care of those, and Keen Edge does not stack with Improved Critical so you don't need it.
4	Vampiric Blade, Greater False Life.	Vampiric Blade is awesome sauce. You'll probably have someone in your party able to cast Greater Invisibility on you.
5	Repurpose	Repurpose is the best thing ever.
6	Bone Shield, False Grace, Create Undead	Bone Shield will be a +2 AC since you already have the regular Shield spell. So False Grace can be more useful so you don't have to slot a bunch of Greater False Life from a companion.
7	Restore Undead	Use it to heal your servants. Also works on Dhampir companions.
8	Frightful Aspect	That's all that matters. Use it against the big baddies.
9	Corrupt Magic	Save this for the bosses.
10	Pit of Despair, Death's Realm	Flavour spells that look really cool.

Horse Leveling and gear

Skills: Athletics, Mobility.
Class: Deathtouched.

Yes, Bulwark would be "better" since it gets the two armor feats for free, but it doesn't really matter unless you're playing on unfair. I like the flavour. ;) And honestly, with good buffs and the tether ability, your horse will hardly ever die.

Level	Feat	Comment
1	Toughness
2
3	Armor Proficiency (light barding)	You'll find your first barding at the Gray Garrison later (statues puzzle).
4		+1 INT. We'll need it for some feats later.
5	Armor Proficiency (medium barding)	The first one can be found at the Conundrum Unsolved, start of act 2.
6
7	Outflank	Take this feat on every martial character in your party, ideally at the same level!
8		+1 CON
9	Improved Unarmed Combat	Required for the lvl 13 feat.
10
11	Dodge
12		+1 CON
13	Crane Style	Making our big boy a better tank. From now on, activate the Fighting Defensively toggle ability to enjoy the boost to AC.
14
15	Armor Proficiency (heavy barding)
16		+1 CON
17	Iron Will
18
19	Improved Iron Will or Shake it Off	Take Shake it Off if you're going to pick the same feat for the main character and/or other companions.
20		+1 STR

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Gear

All of those can be found in Act 3.

Use the other pair on the main character.

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This is how my horse's AC looks at high level (took this at level 18).

Horse is basically untouchable against 99% of the endgame enemies on core.

Equipment

A list of some good and/or thematic equipment for the build. If any slot is not mentioned, that means there's nothing particularly unique there and you can use anything.

Slot	Name	Source	Description
Weapons	Wide Sweep	Act 2, Camp shop	A good cleaving weapon to deal with high amounts of trash mobs. It is kinda expensive, though.
	Deadly Toll	Act 3, Crusade (east of Heart of Mystery)	+4 bonus to critical hit confirmation rolls. There's a few of other good scythes, but honestly, using this one will be pretty good for the rest of the game. It's basically a free Critical Focus feat.

Chest	Lady Callandra's Chainshirt	Act 1, Tower of Estrod	Good bit of protection and no mobility penalty. You'll use it for a good while.
	Royal Messenger's Chainshirt	Act 4, Wirlong Black Mask, Fleshmarkets	Improved version of the Act 1 armor. It gives a +10 competence bonus to Mobility, so it does not stack with the act 3 belt you're probably wearing by then. Buy the next belt on the list at the same vendor.

Cloak

Cloak of Blood Scent

Act 3, Drezen

+2 attack bonus against wounded enemies (i.e. enemies not at full health) whenever you are under a Rage effect.

Only use this if you have a source of Rage in your party, either from the Rage spell (wizards, sorcerers, alchemists, bards, or witches can cast it) or if you're running with my Skald mercenary. :)

Cloak	Bound of Possibility	Act 3, Areelu's Lab	Gives a bonus +4 STR, CHA, and DEX to all undead at your command. To get this cloak, find the piece of the cloak in Areelu's Lab, then take it to the Storyteller along with the necessary reagents (check below) so he can restore the cloak. Can be done at act 3 or later.
	Wrath of the Undead	Act 5, Ineluctable Prison (kill Alderpash)	All undead allies receive a +4 circumstance bonus on attack rolls against enemies under fear effects (like your fear aura) and deal additional 2d6 precision damage on a successful hit against such targets.

Those two cloaks will be especially good if you're running with some of the Lich-exclusive undead companions. If you don't have any undead in your party, it doesn't really do anything for you and you should use something else. I had Delamere and Staunton in my party, so it was a great buff to them. For maximum benefit, use the Bound of Possibility on the main character, and the Wrath of the Undead on a companion.

Reagents for the cloak:

Head	Act 5, Ziggurat	The Steward of Skein's Defiled Helmet	+1 circumstance bonus to attack and damage rolls (maximum of +6) for every corpse or undead around you. Pretty cool, huh? You'll get this from a certain character attacking your Ziggurat some time after your transformation. Just follow your mythic quests. Use the best charisma headband you can find for the intimidation bonus and health until you get this (and of course, have someone use the +4 CHA spell on you, ideally a 24h version).
Rings	Ring of Imminent Demise	Act 4, Krebus, Fleshmarkets	+2 competence bonus on attack and damage rolls. In case you don't have a source of this type of bonus from your party.
Boots	Boots of the Battle Herald	Act 3, Wilcer Garms shop (Drezen)	Permanent Greater Heroism (+4 to attack rolls, skill checks, and saves). Will be great for the whole chapter until you can have someone in your party to cast it on you. Then you can switch it for anything else until you get to the next act.
	Boots of Stampede	Act 4, Nexus cave (right at the start of the act)	Adds your Ahtletics rank as bonus damage to your charges.
Necklace	Half of the Pair	Act 3 (one bought from Arsinoe in Drezen, one dropped from the dragon from the Dragon Hunt quest)	+2 circumstance bonus on attack rolls and to AC. Use this with your horse so your bond is extra powerful.

Belt	Belt of Improved Protection	Act 3, Paralictor Aminus shop (Regill quest)	+10 competence bonus to mobility checks.
	Display of Power	Act 4, Wirlong Black Mask, Fleshmarkets	+6 to STR and an aura that applies a -2 to WILL saving throws for enemies around you.

Since you should already have the relevant +4 bonuses to STR, DEX, and CON from spells, you got this slot free. Use the first belt until you get to Act 4 and buy the new chest armor, then you can switch to the Display of Power Belt from the same vendor. This belt makes it easier for your fear aura to land since the range on the belt's aura is bigger than yours, so it will always be applied first to reduce enemies saves against your shaken effect. At this point your skelly companion's Dirge of Doom won't be used much.

Last Sarkorians DLC exclusive items (OPTIONAL):

Belt

Belt of the Last of the First Humans

Act 5, after finishing Ulbrig's quest

+5 sacred bonus on attack rolls and a +10 sacred bonus on damage rolls with weapons. Plus, you roll twice for initiative.

To get the belt, you need to keep the relic for yourself when choosing its outcome after finishing Ulbrig's quest. Then, take the relic to the Storyteller and ask him to convert it to a belt.

Walkthrough and tips

I'll repeat an important part here:

This walkthrough section is focused on the combat and exploration parts of the game. I won't be telling you what to do for story choices, what to say to get X outcome, how to get Y ending. If you need any help with any of that, I'll be glad to help you in a comment or chat, but this is not meant to be a story guide.

Prologue and Act 1

At the start of the game, equip any 2H melee weapon from the chest so you can mount up. Don’t use armor to avoid the mobility penalty and to keep your DEX bonus. Don't worry, the horse is your tank. Keep the tether ability toggled on and always try to charge from out of combat to get the surprise attack.

Remember that both you and your mount are not healed by regular spells and potions. You must use the inflict wounds potion/spell. Always good to have a helpful shaman around. ;)

Your Frightful Gaze ability can paralyze a whole screen worth of enemies. Good to use when you can't charge or need to control the numbers on the battlefield.

Check the mongrel camp shop and buy the cold iron masterwork greataxe for your character (assuming you've picked everything to sell up to this point). It’s the best available weapon at this moment. Don’t spend all your gold though; save it to hire a mercenary after the prologue.

Enemies on the Shield Maze will not be a problem. Explore and loot everything. You can even defeat the Water Elemental if you're feeling brave. For this you'll need to use every buff you have, including scrolls. Let Seelah go first in defensive fighting while you charge it. You might need to walk away from it to charge a couple of times, but it's totally doable with a bit of luck and help from your party. If you really want to make this easier, you can pick the protective luck hex on Camellia at level 2 and spam it. However, don't use the enlarge person spell on yourself, otherwise you won't be able to mount your horse.

After getting to the tavern, visit the merchant outside to buy a masterwork scythe if you didn’t pick one in the shield maze. Or use Finnean, if you have him, which would be better.

If you want a cool Dhampir buddy to go along with you, I recommend recruiting a mercenary (talk to Hillor inside the tavern) and using my Demon Dancer. :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3376244495

Finish everything you want before heading to the Gray Garrison. You’ll find a barding for your horse there, in the statues puzzle room. You should have no problem with the whole dungeon, even the minibosses.

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Act 2

Your horse should be so good that most enemies here will need to roll a 20 to hit you.


The only tough fights here will be the blighted animals, but you'll eat gargoyles and ghouls for dinner. Make use of your Frightful Gaze ability when lots of enemies start to show up.

Now, before heading to Leaper's Smile, a few preparations are in order. If this is your first time, I suggest you make a manual save here in case things go wrong, because you can't leave the place until you finish the quest.

• You'll need some aoe magic damage from your party. You should have at least one companion with some offensive magic at this point, and you can also buy scrolls at camp. Ice and acid spells are better since swarms don't have damage reduction against it. Channeling negative energy also works if you have someone that can do that;
  
• The level 1 spell Unbreakable Heart (which most of your companions can cast) can help you resist their confusion aura, as shown in the picture above. Slot a lot of those and keep the effect up on your whole party. Especially important for the horse;
  
• And, if you have recruited Ulbrig, get his necklace; it allows you to do full weapon damage against swarms and resist the confusion effect. If you don't have it, consider buying a good bludgeoning weapon for your melees;
  
• As always, grab all inflict wounds potions and scrolls you can find to heal yourself and the horsey.

The boss should be a piece of cake. It couldn't even land a hit on my horse... charge her from out of combat, challenge her, and finish her. Should be done in 2 turns.

After dealing with the boss (save some of its slime!), there's something special we must do in the cave here, so don't leave Leaper's Smile yet. This will be needed to unlock the Lich mythic path.

Enter the cave. Take the first left and go all the way down until you find a bunch of undead around the Wand of Zacharius. You have to click it during the fight and take it or the undead will keep respawning. Attention: put the wand in your bag, don't pick any other option.


When you get to the Lost Chapel map, enter the chapel and go downstairs through the secret passage on the false wall next to the statue.


Then, go straight up until you find Zacharius and give him his wand back.

Congrats, you've unlocked the Lich path!

Drezen should not be a problem if your party is up to speed. Keep your buffs up and you'll get to the end of it with no big issues. The bosses should not last much longer than your initial charge + follow up turn.

Act 3

Your first priority here is your mythic quest. Zacharius will be giving you tasks and/or calling you to meet him. While you wait for those events, complete some companion quests you might have, explore new places, play with the crusade (ew), complete some decrees, build stuff on Drezen, etc. There's a LOT going on this act. I suggest you leave Wintersun for level 11+. Blackwater doesn't have to be done on this act but, if you do want to go there, I recommend level 13+ (if it is your first time). Ivory Sanctum should be your last stop since it will progress the story.

At some point, Zacharius will tell you to find a mysterious place. Completing this part of the quest will give you another mythic level, so that's why it is pretty important that you do it as soon as possible to make your life way easier since this act has some really tough fights.

Mysterious Place

The place is called Desolate Hovel, located south-west of Drezen.

The place is pretty simple, just walk around killing everything you see until the end. There's a handful of great items there, so explore everything. Some hard fights, but you should be ok with all of them as long as you keep your buffs up. Remember to check your enemies stats to check their saves and use abilities/spells according to their weaknesses. For example, those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ carnivorous crystals can be killed in one turn by DEX damage, which should be no issue if you slot some appropriate Lich spells.

Finish exploring the place before you leave. Getting to the "end" and talking to the NPC is not the end, even if it gives you the option of leaving right there.

When you're feeling brave, at level 13 or so, head to the Ivory Sanctum to advance the main story. Be prepared, it's a long one.

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Ivory Sanctum

The main character could easily kill everything here alone after receiving all the buffs. My party was there only to die and waste ressurrections provide buffs and the occasional magic damage to pick off low health enemies and to help kill swarms during the Xanthir Vang fight (I recommend you equip that same necklace you've used for Leper's Smile if you have it).

Horsey was rocking ~54AC at level 13 with equipment, feats, and buffs so nothing really hit him and I could stand there all day killing one by one. These are all common buffs that you most likely have at your disposal at this point (and you should have them), with the exception of the Shield spell that has to be provided by an Alchemist. Check the equipment section for information about the Half of the Pair necklace.


One of the bosses was even dead in one crit charge...

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After you return to Drezen from Ivory Sanctum, story will be on hold for 1 game month. This is your time to finish everything you have pending on this act, including crusade affairs and companion quests. After this 1 month passes, you'll be called to Drezen again to procede with the story, and that will take you to the final segment of Act 3 and there will be no coming back.

The last place on your journey from this act shouldn't be too hard. You have to kill 3 generals and get their keys, then bring the keys to the hall where you started and put each key in its statue. The only real enemy will be the one holding the next passage. If you're struggling to hit, turn power attack off. But it should not be necessary if you got all the good buffs. You only need to hit the first hit to be able to make the enemy flat-footed. He was dead in 2 turns for me.

legendary proportions go brrrrrr

Act 4

Welcome to the Abyss :)

Explore the city as you like. There's plenty of action to be found. Just remember that demons don't really play nice and ambushes are common around these streets. Always be on the lookout.

One important thing to mention in the lower city is the Battlebliss Arena. By talking to the arena healer, you can accept a Demongraft for 30k gold. It gives you some great permanent bonuses: +2 AC, +2 to checks to overcome spell resistance, +2 DC to your spells and +2 to attack and damage rolls. However, there's a big catch... if you get to below 20% health, you get into a frenzy, losing control of your character until it dies or combat ends. Think very carefully if you wanna accept this. I didn't. Nenio can also receive it if you have her with you, which is probably a better idea. If you want Nenio to get it, make sure you decline the offer after she volunteers for it, then talk to the healer again and select the option for Nenio, otherwise it will be done on you.

At some point, close to the end of the main story here, Zacharius will show up and tell you to do something. That is your priority. If you don't know where to go after completing the task: go back to the mage's tower and ask the Storyteller to deliver a message to Zacharius, which will then show up as soon as you leave the tower.

Continue with your affairs until you get a call from the city's ruler. Trying to force your way into the palace by killing the guards works, but you won't find anyone inside. You have to wait for her to directly contact you.

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Whenever you're ready, head to the palace to talk to Nocticula at last. Before talking to her, explore the place, there's something interesting to be found there (even if you did enter the palace before).

Now, head to the main hall and prepare for story time. :D At the end of your conversation, you'll have the option to depart immediately to your next assignment. But don't do it yet. Say you need more time to prepare. Now is your chance to finish up everything you have pending around Alushinyrra, including companion quests. There will be no coming back once you sail to Colyphyr.

Now, Nocticula did ask you about the Lexicon of Paradox. If you give it to her, she can bestow her Profane Gift upon you. This is a +6 profane bonus to your STR and +4 to your CHA. It is up to you if you want to accept that or not for roleplaying reasons. Consider the offer carefully. If you don't have the book, she will still make the offer again later.

Colyphyr

All enemies here should be dead if you just look at them funny. There is only 1 notable fight: Melazmera.

The dragon is really tough. She has 72 AC on core, but only 18 touch AC. You'll have a really hard time hitting her with normal attacks, so touch attacks like polar ray or hellfire ray are your best bet. And some dispels can obviously help too. I got a good hit on her, which made the next hit target her flat-footed AC and score a good crit. She was dead on my following turn.

Here you can see my buffs at the moment:

Nothing too weird, no extreme min-maxing needed (skald rage was not even active for this attack, which would be another +5), you should have all of that at your disposal fairly easily. Moment of Triumph is your lvl 15 cavalier ability. Make sure you use that just before the fight, since it only lasts for one round. Also, you might wanna turn Power Attack off to make it easier, at least until you score your first hit.

Now, the final boss will be a fun one. I won't spoil it. Good luck. :D

Before you leave, return to the Fulsome Queen to finish her quest. If you want, you can also accept her Unclean gift: +2 CON, +2 natural armor, and 50% chance of treating critical hits or sneak attacks against you as normal hits. However, you also receive a -4 penalty on CHA. Not gonna lie, not a great offer, but you do you. Just remember that CHA will be your health after you turn undead.

Act 5

Becoming a Lich

First order of business: go talk to Zacharius. It is time we finish your Lich ascension. Start rebuilding your Ziggurat as soon as possible, since it takes 21 days. After that is done, and you have also finished the other task he gives you, return to your boss.

During the ritual, Zacharius will ask you to sacrifice a few things from your life in order to become a Lich. You need to sacrifice 2 out of the 3 things to complete the ritual.

The 3 sacrifices are: your luck bracers from the start of the game, your youth, and your romance companion, if you have one (if you don't have one, it will count as if you have agreed to this sacrifice).

If you're playing on core or higher, my only recommendation, from a gameplay perspective (not roleplay), is that you don't sacrifice your youth. The penalty for doing that is a permanent 20% miss chance on attack rolls, -2 STR and DEX, and reduced move speed. This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Of course, that means you have to accept the other two. I hope you're ready for that. Feel free to proceed however you like.

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Main story quests can be done at any order here, so this will only be my suggested route.

Go to the Ineluctable Prison first to get all the juicy gear from there. You'll have a random encounter just before getting there, and one of the enemies ambushing you will have the key to the Prison. The place itself is pretty straighforward and you should have no big issues with the fights there. Just explore everything to find the necessary key to the main chamber. And make sure you kill Alderpash. We want his cloak. The final boss should pose no real threat to you. There's also an optional secret boss somewhere in this dungeon.

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When you're feeling like settling some unfinished business, it's time to head to Iz.

There are 3 main objectives in Iz: the temple, the sword of valor, and the queen. If you don't wanna risk losing one of those things, make sure you head to it first. It's your call.

If you got this far, then the big bad guy here won't be an issue. Enjoy finally putting an end to that. :)

Return to Drezen to have the last place of your journey revealed to you. Threshold is the point of no return: remember to do everything you want/need to do before heading there. Once you step in, there will be no coming back!

Act 6

This is it. Time to put an end to this.

Lots of big, scary enemies at the Threshold gates. The hardest part was actually chasing after the enemies feared by my Frightful Aspect...

Uhhhh spooky. Too bad it died in two turns.

Khorramzadeh is a ♥♥♥♥♥ though. Hope your Last Stand is up if you don't kill him in one turn. I forgot to check if he has ascendant element, but if not, it helps to have protection from energy (fire). I got to lvl 20 after this fight.

Before entering the fort, you can rest and buy items by talking to Arsinoe. This is also your chance to have a few last words with your companions. And oh, make sure they are all leveled up and geared to defend themselves.

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As soon as you enter, Nocticula will pay a visit to either offer you her profane gift or give you something if you've already accepted it before.

There's 1 particular enemy you should focus during your siege: Desolating Gallu Stormcallers. Not because they are hard to kill, since you can kill them in one or two turns, but because they can spam a bunch of aoes at once. Don't give them time to do that and it should not be too hard. Keep Protection from Energy up (fire, cold), along with extra hit points from Greater False Life/False Grace. Remember that you can use Repurpose to get some enemies to fight for you. ;)

The only enemy you can't really just click and kill by yourself are the swarms. lol But your horse's bite can do a bit of damage on them. Make your casters work for a change. Other than that, no enemy here should even have enough attack bonus to land a hit on your 70 AC horse, so dying to regular attacks is out of the question.

I mean, there's Imezlen, rocking 76 AC and 56 attack bonus (on core), so I hope you either have some touch attacks ready for it or can use all of your good buffs to hit him. If you have my skald mercenary, all the correct equipment, and all the basic buffs, this should not be a problem.


Keep going until you fight an old Echo. After disposing of it, the next map transition you find will lead you to the final fight. Make a manual save now, rest, buff with all you have and go in.

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Areelu has 70 AC on core, which is totally killable by you alone. If you're struggling, consider bringing some dispels, or using your Corrupt Magic as a last resort. You can reduce her defenses to like 56AC~ this way, making it easy to hit even if you don't have a lot of buffs. She will heal to full health three times when her health gets to half, so it should probably take you 3 or so turns to finish her off.

Only read the next part if you want to know about what happens after the fight. Otherwise, good luck! And enjoy the music.


For the next phase, you just have to survive. The fight will be over after a few turns. So do your best to stay alive. You can cross the whole place on your horse easily to stay away from her. Make good use of your Restore Undead to heal yourself as needed.

There is a way of avoiding this phase, but that requires passing a DC 50 persuasion check. Which is impossible for this build. So yeah, you'll have to fight.

[Roque the Rogue]

It is my pleasure to please, I recognize your efforts in making the most interesting builds I've seen so far, do let me know if you any help with concept craft in any future builds, got a couple of ideas I've been trying forever to make work.

[Sophis]

Also, thank you, glad you liked the guide and the writing! That took a long time to make and I'm happy it turned out so well! I'm already working on the next one.

I'll check your story suggestion on youtube!

[Sophis]

Yes, Arthas was indeed the inspiration! I was actually creating a roleplaying build inspired on his story. It was going well but I came to a halt.

Switching to Cavalier at level 8 or 9 would make the mount really weak since it would start as level 1. And we can't even pick the Paladin horse before otherwise we would not be able to switch to GR.

We'd need to pick a few things to make the mount catch up to us. But then we'd be playing with a weaker mount for a good part of Act 3, which really hurts, at least for Core. I still need to do some testing on the whole mount leveling thing following this idea. If I can make it viable, I'll do it.

So then I decided to abandon the idea and turned it into a scythe-wielding rider. I still chose Deathtouched as the horse's class in homage to Invincible. At least that makes the WoW player in me happy.

[Roque the Rogue]

Have you ever read Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock? (dont remember if I asked it before)
there are audio books and videos on yt if you're interested, I have tried making his class and character a couple of times in Pathfinder, I recomend his story, delicious dark fantasy.

[Roque the Rogue]

Took me a while to get to this one, you have such perfect, humorous writing backed by a lot of knowledge of the game, I feel entranced.

If only we got oathbreakers or blackguard classes to represent antihero or evil aligned paladins, well.. there's inquisitors but, would not fit Arthas Menethil

Curiously, I have noticed such a beautiful homage in your guide, I wonder if it's intentional, to Invincible, Arthas's steed and your build making it truly.. Invincible,
Arthas as the lich king despite having no heart, still found time to honor his loved companion with a poem
I had to go listen to the WoW songs 'Invincible' and 'Arthas my Son' again and it always gives me shivers - I have played Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne in my teens, I.. think that experience, some animes such as berserk and overlord have cemented my RP, class and characters choices forever, oh such good memories.. thank you.

[Sophis]

Thank you Roque :) that's the theme I was going for! And I've used your suggestion for the background!

This build ended up really strong, I've used it to faceroll Inevitable Excess and the boss from Lord of Nothing too.

[Roque the Rogue]

This is such a well constructed build, ghost best friend to carry you to the coolest mythic path IMO, Scythes always look so great, this guide sounds like you are the horsemen messenger of death!

[Dramn]

thank you!

[Sophis]

Not the lesser one, but it does get the normal animate dead at mythic 4

[Dramn]

Does Liche get the lower level animate spells?