Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at an Iconic Design for Marceline, the Vampire Queen.

Happy Halloween!

Since Halloween falls on a Friday this year, I wanted to do something festive for my Iconic Design. But which character would be best?

How about a Vampire Queen?

I did Ice King and Princess Bubblegum and since now seems like a great time to add another Adventure Time character to the roster: today’s character is Marceline the Vampire Queen.

Background

So all of the details on Marceline are a bit hazy, but through MANY episodes of Adventure Time, we have a pretty good concept of Marcy’s backstory. If you care about Adventure Time spoilers, stop reading here and skip to build concept.

Essentially, Marcy is half-demon. Her father is the king of Adventure Time’s version of Hell, the Nightosphere. After giving birth to her, something happened and Marcy became lost on Earth following a nuclear war that resulted in the apocalypse. She was raised by a man named Simon who was slowly going crazy because of a magic crown he was in possession of. At some later point, she was transformed into a vampire and became the Queen of Vampires, allowing her to live forever. In the context of Adventure Time, Marcy is stated to be roughly 1,000 years old and has a host of supernatural powers to go with that age. As a vampire, she has all of the weaknesses of being as such, though she eats the color red rather than blood. For example, she can “suck” all of the red out of an apple’s skin, leaving it withered and white. Marcy is a good example of a Chaotic Neutral hero; she prefers good to evil, but she sometimes does bizarre, downright mean-spirited things just because she can. This makes sense for someone who is effectively an undead demon.

Build Concept

Let’s take a quick look at how we’ll be building Marceline the Vampire Queen.

• Dhampir: Hey, what do you know? No kitsune this time! By all accounts, the most accurate portrayal of Marcy will have her as a tiefling with the vampire template, but since that’s too powerful for players (and not allowed by PFS), my suggestion is to go dhampir. We need the daylight weakness and technically being dead takes precedence over being a demon.
• Skald: Marcy’s rock-and-roll attitude fits perfectly with this new hybrid class. Although the skald’s magic won’t be able to cover all of Marcy’s powers, we’ll come very, very close with this class.
• Totemic Skald: This archetype trades spell kenning and one rage power for some neat, animal-themed abilities. This archetype will allow us to mirror some of Marcy’s shapeshifting powers, particularly her ability to transform into a bat.
• Abyssal Blood, Undead Blood: We’re going to be loading tons of special, blood-based powers onto Marcy via the Abyssal Blood rage powers and Eldritch Heritage: Undead Bloodline. Together, we’ll have a fairly accurate simulation of an undead fiend, which is exactly what we’re going for.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: Skald (Totemic Skald) 7
• Feats: Skill Focus: Knowledge (religion) (1st), Eldritch Heritage: Undead (3rd), Weapon Focus: Greataxe (5th), Extra Rage Power (7th)
• Abilities: bardic knowledge, inspired rage +2 (+2 Str/Con), lore master 1/day, rage powers (lesser abyssal blood, lesser spirit totem), raging song, scribe scroll, song of the beast, song of marching, song of strength, totem (bat), totem empathy 1/day, versatile performance (sing, string), well-versed, wild shape 1/day
• 3rd-Level Bard Spells Known: gaseous form, haunting choir
• 2nd-Level Bard Spells Known: enthrall, invisibility, haunting mists, pyrotechnics
• 1st-Level Bard Spells Known: chord of shards, jitterbugs, saving finale, vanish, ventriloquism
• Bard Cantrips Known: dancing lights, ghost sound, mage hand, open/close, prestidigitation, spark

By far, skald is an imperfect choice for Marcy’s character. We aren’t able to match one of her defining powers: levitation and flight. She has also been shown to have some level of telekinetic ability and necromantic ability, but we can’t really match that with this build either. Luckily, there are plenty of magic items that will allow Marcy to fly around, move stuff, and raise the dead. Use those.

I personally picked Bat as Marcy’s totem because she transforms into a bat-monster more often than any other. This means that Marcy grants darkvision to herself and her allies whenever she uses her raging song. This isn’t the best possible use of the totemic skald archetype by a long shot (I personally think stag’s movement speed bonus or mouse’s evasion are the best for a skald), but ultimately it is a neat perk. Besides, the real reason we’re going with this totem is so Marcy can transform into a bat via wild shape.

One of the interesting things that barbarians got in the Advanced Class Guide are the bloodline rage powers. There are a lot of neat ones to chose from, but to me, the Abyssal one is very important for Marcy: it gives monstrous claws and later allows her to increase her size when she performs. This is absolutely perfect for Marcy, as she is known to shapeshift into bigger, badder monsters when provoked.

Spell-wise, my selections were mostly around A) what Marcy can do in the TV show and B) what powers are appropriate for an undead demonic singer/songwriter. I think most of my selections speak for themselves.

One final thing to note: lesser spirit totem. The spirit totem rage power line is AWESOME for a skald because it essentially adds a free attack to every person who hears your raging song, made at your full base attack bonus. This rage power allows the spirits of the dead to literally rise up to attack Marcy’s foes when she performs her inspiring rage, which just sounds cool.

Oh, and if you didn’t get the joke, Marcy’s got Weapon Focus: greataxe because her instrument of choice is a guitar. With blades on both sides. It is literally an “axe.” Because Marcy’s metal like that.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: Skald (Totemic Skald) 14
• Feats: Skill Focus: Knowledge (religion) (1st), Eldritch Heritage: Undead 1 (3rd), Weapon Focus: Greataxe (5th), Extra Rage Power (7th), Skald’s Vigor (9th), Improved Eldritch Heritage: Undead 9 (11th), Improved Eldritch Heritage: Undead 3 (13th)
• Abilities: bardic knowledge, dirge of doom, DR 2/– inspired rage +4 (+4 Str/Con), lore master 2/day, rage powers (abyssal blood, lesser abyssal blood, lesser spirit totem, spirit totem), raging song, scribe scroll, song of marching, song of strength, song of the beast, song of the fallen, totem (bat), totem empathy 3/day, versatile performance (percussion, sing, string), well-versed, wild shape 2/day
• 5th-Level Bard Spells Known: shadow evocation, shadow walk, stunning finale
• 4th-Level Bard Spells Known: greater invisibility, shadow conjuration, shadow step, virtuoso performance
• 3rd-Level Bard Spells Known: At the Heart of it All (masterpiece), exquisite accompaniment, fear, gaseous form, haunting choir
• 2nd-Level Bard Spells Known: alter self, bladed dash, enthrall, invisibility, haunting mists, pyrotechnics
• 1st-Level Bard Spells Known: blurred movement, chord of shards, jitterbugs, saving finale, vanish, ventriloquism
• Bard Cantrips Known: dancing lights, ghost sound, mage hand, open/close, prestidigitation, spark

In the mid-games, Marcy mostly focuses on upgrading what she already has. Skald’s vigor is her answer to, “I can’t cast inflict wounds spells,” as it grants her (and her allies) fast healing while she performs her raging song. This is one of the most powerful feats at the skald’s disposal, to the point where I think that it might be a must for characters of the class. Furthermore, Marcy upgrades her Eldritch Heritage at 11th and 13th levels, gaining the ability to manifest skeletal arms that grasp at opponents and protect herself from many different types of damage. Meanwhile, Marcy is also slowly upgrading her abyssal blood and spirit totem rage powers as she levels up while grabbing new rage powers that are appropriate for a vampric character, such as shadow walk, shadow step, and shadow evocation. I also picked a bardic masterpiece, At the Heart of it All, to represent Marcy’s musical mastery. The build is rounded out by taking versatile performance (strings).

One of the REALLY neat things that Marcy can do involves Improved Abyssal Blood. Once per day when she rages, Marcy can increase her size, effectively transforming herself into a horrible monster. Only as a skald, she gives this power to her allies too. This isn’t something she ever does on the show, but it’s pretty awesome to visualize conceptually. Let’s move on to the endgame so we have more awesome stuff to visualize conceptually.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: Skald (Totemic Skald) 20
• Feats: Skill Focus: Knowledge (religion) (1st), Eldritch Heritage: Undead 1 (3rd), Weapon Focus: Greataxe (5th), Extra Rage Power (7th), Skald’s Vigor (9th), Improved Eldritch Heritage: Undead 9 (11th), Improved Eldritch Heritage: Undead 3 (13th), Power Attack (15th), Greater Eldritch Heritage: Undead 15 (17th), Furious Focus (19th)
• Abilities: bardic knowledge, dirge of doom, DR 3/– inspired rage +6 (+6 Str/Con), lore master 3/day, master skald, rage powers (abyssal blood, greater abyssal blood, greater spirit totem, lesser abyssal blood, lesser spirit totem, spirit totem), raging song, scribe scroll, song of marching, song of strength, song of the beast, song of the fallen, totem (bat), totem empathy 3/day, versatile performance (horn, percussion, sing, string), well-versed, wild shape 2/day
• 6th-Level Bard Spells Known: animate objects, brilliant inspiration, eyebite, mass charm monster, pied piping
• 5th-Level Bard Spells Known: deafening song bolt, greater heroism, shadow evocation, shadow walk, stunning finale
• 4th-Level Bard Spells Known: feast on fear, greater invisibility, primal scream, shadow conjuration, shadow step, virtuoso performance
• 3rd-Level Bard Spells Known: exquisite accompaniment, fear, gaseous form, haunting choir, jester’s jaunt
• 2nd-Level Bard Spells Known: alter self, bladed dash, enthrall, invisibility, haunting mists, pyrotechnics
• 1st-Level Bard Spells Known: blurred movement, chord of shards, jitterbugs, saving finale, vanish, ventriloquism
• Bard Cantrips Known: dancing lights, ghost sound, mage hand, open/close, prestidigitation, spark

Again, nothing very surprising here. As I promised, the build finishes off the abyssal blood, spirit totem, and Eldritch Heritage chains. Marcy picks up some more neat undead type spells, such as eyebite and animate objects. I also gave her a few “strange” spells, like pied piping and deafening song bolt. Just because. My ultimate conclusion was that Marcy needed a real chill build, you know?

The elephant in the room is levitation. Marcy flies everywhere, and flying / levitation spells are not on the bard’s list. In this regard, I think your best bet is to try and save for a ring of levitation or develop some boots of flying or something. Flight is one of the few, cool abilities that are beyond the bard and since we traded spell kenning for wild shape, gaining flight is something that is sadly beyond Marcy’s build. Maybe an especially modified ring of spell knowledge that stored overland flight within it could do it for a very high-level Marcy.

Whelp, that’s this week’s build! What do you think? Do you like the idea of sharing things like spirit totem and abyssal blood with raging song? Any other cool characters or build concepts that you’d like to see me tackle? Tune in next Friday to see what crazy builds I come up with next on Iconic Design!

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex’s favorite color is blue, his favorite Pathfinder Race/Class combination is kitsune skald, and his favorite Marcy song is “Remember You.”