PDA

View Full Version : Help with statting up villains [3.5]



dragonfan6490
2010-01-15, 10:43 PM
Howdy fellow Playgrounders!

So for my current campaign, I've got 4 villains that need to be statted, and being the creative genius that I am (read:saracasm), I have come to a road block as to what classes they should be. So, I come to you, who are more knowledgeable than I, asking for your aid.

Revenent: The Master-mind of them all, serves the Lich-Lord Alerion the Dark. He is an Evolved Shade with ~26 Class levels to work with. I was thinking Wizard/6 Cleric/6 Dread Necromancer/14. Is this good?

Kazyr: The leader of the lesser three villains, who is unknowingly working for Revenent. He is seeking to restore magic to its former glory, ie. Eberron-style magic-filled world. Complete with Magitiech. He is most difficult to stat, I have no idea for his race or classes, but he's got ~24-30 Class levels to work with and is some sort of Spellcaster, I want him to be the most difficult to defeat.

Sadoul: The strongarm of the trio, Sadoul is the leader of the legions, commanding the armies to conquer the citadels of life. He is some sort of fighter, naturally, I was thinking a gish or possibly Paladin/Blackgaurd type deal. He has ~22 Class levels.

Andolon: The monetary and political backing of the trio, Andolon is a politician first and foremost, a scoundrel, liar, and a cheat. I was thinking some sort of Rogue with a good prestige class or two. He has ~19 Class levels.

The books that I have available are: Any FR or Eberron, the Completes, and most official WotC published books.

Thank you in advance!

Lysander
2010-01-15, 10:59 PM
How about making Kazyr a wizard/cleric/mystic theurge/archmage?

Glimbur
2010-01-15, 11:00 PM
First should go straight Dread Necromancer, or possibly PrC out of it.

Second should be an Artificer.

Third should be a Fighter/Paladin of Tyranny.

Fourth is a Bard.

Dread Necromancer is in Heroes of Horror, Artificer is in Eberron Campaign Setting, Paladin of Tyranny is in the SRD under class variants, and the rest is core.

dragonfan6490
2010-01-15, 11:20 PM
I think I meant for Revenent to be a True Necromancer, rather than a Dread Necromancer, sorry.

Hawk7915
2010-01-15, 11:29 PM
Here's an actual build for Sadoul, or at least a skeleton of one:

Sadoul: Human Fighter 8/Rogue3/Blackguard 10 (32 pt buy)
STR: 20
DEX: 10
CON: 14
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA: 16

Feats (9+5 Fighter Bonus): Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Combat Brute (CWar), Shock Trooper (CWar), Awesome Smite (CChamp), Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Blind-fight, Craven (Champs of Ruin), Improved Initiative, Dire Charge (epic).

Give him a lance with his awesome blackguard mount. He can do a lot of nasty things, including sunder like a champ, sneak attack during the surprise round at 5d6+21 damage, get free knock-downs when he smites (which is +3 attack, +10 damage), has some blackguard spells, has Evasion, can full attack on a charge during the first round...he can get a lot more sneak attacks off with Darkness, and he has Blind Fight to minimize it on himself.

His saves will be pretty good with a CHA boosting item or Tome, but his big weakness will be HP. Even maxed hp is 240 which is pretty puny for such a high level monster. His greatest strength is uber-charger build, mounted charger build, good smiting, and good sneak attacks giving him monstrous damage dealing potential. How's that look for the big bad warrior?

Thrice Dead Cat
2010-01-15, 11:31 PM
First off, True Necromancy is the likes of which Admiral Ackbar specializes. Don't.

Second, you if you want groups of undead, straight Dread Necro does the job well. That or cleric. You're in epic territory, so things will be silly if you want to go big, which luckily makes TN less of a trap.

For Revenent: (If you want to stick with dual casting, which I advise against) go Archivist 3/Wizard 1/Mystic Theurge 10/True Necromancer 12 (since, it's epic, and he'll have double 9s any how) Also, this is all Int-based, so wisdom is just for show.

For Kayzr, look here. (http://coboard.wikia.com/wiki/Treantmonk%27s_guide_to_wizards:_Being_a_God) Also, get someone with less scruples to explain epic magic.

Sadoul: Epic level fighters are like American churches: there aren't any. For a gish, do you want Sorcadin or Int-based casting? You have enough levels here that either would be legit. The first is Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight whatever's left. The wizard base would drop the Pally levels and go Swiftblade/AC instead of EK/AC.

Andolon: Factotum 19. Done.

Hyooz
2010-01-15, 11:37 PM
Yeah, as far as necromancy goes, Dread Necromancer is the way to do it. Crazy numbers of undead, a nicely focused spell list, lots of cool little class abilities. One of those base classes you can take to 20 without screwing yourself.

If you want the divine casting aspect in there too, though, go Ur Priest part of the way through Dread Necro, and then take Walker in the Wastes. This will get your touch attack to pretty crazy levels eventually (especially with touch spells like Harm) and the really freaking sweet Dry Lich template.

Hawk7915
2010-01-15, 11:45 PM
Also, how about Beguiler for Andolon? What makes a better lying, cheating, sneaking, charming politician than someone who totally specializes in enchantment with a rogue's skill list and free silent/still spell? With the ability to feint as a free action if he needs to duel to defend his honor (by taking Improved Feint comboed with his class features).

Fishy
2010-01-15, 11:53 PM
Sadoul is a Bone Knight, from the Eberron book Five Nations. Bone Knights get a skeleton steed that stacks with Paladin/Blackguard levels, armor and weapons made out of the bones of their enemies, all the delicious undead immunities, and the ability to take command of undead troops that someone else has created for them.

For Revenant, True Necromancer is not very good, but if you have that many class levels to work with and aren't using Epic Spellcasting, you can probably get 9th and 9th level spells anyway. But yeah, Dread Necromancer is several times better. Take the Corpsecrafting tree, create massive numbers of stupidly powerful skeletons, give them to Sadoul to command and do it again.

Andolon: Aristocrat 19. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0289.html)

Runestar
2010-01-16, 09:14 AM
If you are comfortable with tome of battle, Sadoul can either be a warblade or crusader. Since there is no official epic progression for martial adept classes, I would likely put him at warblade20/fighter2 (which allows you to take weapon supremacy). Maybe focus on white raven, iron heart and diamond mind.

dragonfan6490
2010-01-16, 09:59 PM
Wow, thanks for the help folks.

I'm torn between making Sadoul a Warblade or a Sorcadin Gish. Both seem to embody what I feel him to be. Hmm. Can we have a vote?

For Revenent, since I'm not wanting to go into Epic Spell Territory, I think the Wizard/Cleric(Archivist?)/True Necromancer will work.

Factotum definitely seems like something for Andolon. I'll go with that.

Now for Kazyr. Great Pelor in the sky is he hard. I think I'm going to go Wizard, but what prestige class should he be? Possibly Magelord from Lost Empires of Faerun?

So basically now I just need help confirming Sadoul and Kazyr. I really appreciate all of ya'lls help.

Edit: What would making Kazyr use Incarnum do for him? I don't entirely understand the system, so it would be a bit of a gamble, could someone point me in the direction of a good guide to Incarnum?

Runestar
2010-01-16, 11:11 PM
Well, you know my vote already. But I went for warblade as I felt that your npcs had enough spellcasters already, so a pure melee foe or two should help add some variety. It should also be easier to stat, and you don't have to grapple with spells known.

He will need some spellcasting support from the others though, since straight melee won't really cut it at epic lvs, though his maneuvers can go some way towards mitigating whatever the party throws at him (eg: diamond mind vs SoDs, iron heart surge vs maze, wall of blades vs ranged touch spells etc).

Take those feats which let you take 10 (steady concentration, stance of absolute law, weapon supremacy), speeds things up since you know you succeed without even having to roll.

Thrice Dead Cat
2010-01-16, 11:23 PM
If you tack on Incarnum and use one of the combo classes, it'll just add some weird options to Kazyr. That or a slew of natural attacks. Incarnum doesn't really have an overt, OMG magic feel to it, which seems against his character.

I may be able to get Glimbur to help it explain it a bit more: he's one of the local "experts" on the subject.

EDIT: PrCs to consider: Master Specialist, Archmage, Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, Incantatrix, Shadowcaster, Shadowcraft Mage, and whatever the hell that other shadow-weave based PrC is in Player's Guide to Faerun. Oh, and Escalation Mage (Magic of Eberron?).

dragonfan6490
2010-01-20, 12:08 AM
Ok, so I've decided to make Kazyr into a Wizard/Magelord/UrPriest/ArchMage. Does this sound good to ya'll? And for Sadoul, he's going to be a Sorcadin/Eldritch Knight/Abjurant Champion.

Thanks for the help folks! Wish me luck!