[3.5] Build-A-Badguy Workshop

[Deth Muncher]

Okay. So that campaign that I started a while back that has a campaign journal that's fallen to the wayside? That's still going on. And now, I need help building the minions to the main bad guy. (Link to old thread.) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174563) The minions will be as follows:

- Two caster brothers (codenamed Frio and Fuego at this point). One's Ice themed, the other is Fire. While I'm tempted to go for Wu-Jen, since they're elemental casters, I'm not sure I want that. I also don't know if I want them to be the same class. They should, together, present an CR15 encounter (roughly). They're The Gentleman's lieutenants, and as such should be just barely weaker than him, though sufficiently weak enough they're not going to usurp his power.

- A warrior named Spike. His theme is, of course, spikes. The only thing I've got, though, is spiked armor and the magical shield that shoots 3 spikes a day (which I'm tempted to increase). He's kind of a dirty fighter, kind of rougeish, but not necessarily a rogue. Maybe a Streetfighter? CR10ish.

- The Red Wizards of Thay. As in, the organization from Faerun. The evil, evil wizards. I need more input as to what spells they would want to cast - perhaps spells that benefit from a high caster level, since they would be Circle Casting most of them. These should also be CR 15, I guess.

-A Blue, referred to in the past...as Blue. In the past few encounters with him, he's been out of the book, but I want to advance him in whatever psionic class would be appropriate. I'd say also CR10ish.

Possibly more later.

What I need from you guys is optimized NPC builds for these concepts - not character concepts, mind you, but NPC. As in, they should be good, well built characters, but ultimately designed to lose.

[RndmNumGen]

Don't know anything about your campaign, but some ideas:

For the fire brother, Pyrokineticist had a lot of fun fire spell-like abilities, though it's more of a fighter than a caster. If you're not 100% sold on them being casters, something like Swordsage 4/Ranger 2/Pyrokineticist 5 would work. A decent threat in both melee and at range, lots of fire abilities, and can wear light armor.

For the ice brother, I'm less sure of, though you could probably go with a Cold Domain Wizard and give him some of the metamagic feats from Frostburn. Lord of the Uttercold is nice, could throw some Fell Drain in there as well.

I think there is some sort of one-handed spiked chain somewhere... don't remember the name, but I think it was in one of the Eberron books. That could be Spike's main weapon, and grant some nice reach with trip attacks.

No idea about the Red Wizards of Thay.

For the Blue... what about Psion? Seems like it should work just fine... Very standard, nothing fancy, but ir works well.

[Kobold Esq]

Look in sandstorm and Frostburn for ideas for your casters. Both have feats that will let them push through resistances. Otherwise you risk one trick ponies who can be nullified with a simple resist elements.

[Fable Wright]

Hm... For the spike fighter, try making him a thug (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighterVariantThug) with this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighter). As for the spikes, if his armor and shield have spikes on them, try Improved Shield Bash and Shield Slam (Complete Warrior). Armor spikes are useful, and if you choose to use them, take Two-weapon fighting so that you can make attacks with it. Alternatively, spiked chain for battlefield control within reach, possibly having him hook a bag of caltrops on the end of it. Although there are no rules for it, you could perhaps rule that as an attack action, he can snap the chain back and have the caltrops released anywhere in his reach. Or give him a level 1 dip of a focused conjurer with abrupt jaunt. The ability to teleport 10ft as an immediate action, stinking cloud, and the caltrop spell several times in combat seems pretty good, even if it does take a standard action; possibly have him set it up before the players see him. For the arcane spell failure, give him Twilight Mithral armor on his medium armor to give him the advantages of light armor, and a low spell failure chance. Plus, it will completely catch the players by surprise. For added awesomeness, give him travel domain. Because having a fighter that's everywhere, breaking charges using summoned caltrops, and can avoid the battlefield control of the casters can seriously shake a party. This will be great for the party for an initial fight, when they are meant to retreat, but with proper planning and ranged combat, they will eventually be able to take him out in a fight.

For the ice casters, there was Elemental Savant in Complete arcane, as well as one focused ice spellcaster in Frostburn. That's all I have to give there, really. Tell us how it works out.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Any race specifics on Frio and Fuego?

Spike:
Spike
Warforged (MM3), upgraded as follows: Large size (+1 CR), orcish facial features (qualifies for orc and half-orc feats), +4 Cha.
Fighter 9, Dungeoncrasher ACF in Dungeonscape, Zhentarim Soldier (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a) substitution levels reflavored big-bad-bully with no association to any organization.

The Dwarf Fighter 1 racial substitution level in RoS grants d12 HD for just that level, Axe Focus (Weapon Focus with all axelike weapons) in place of the bonus feat, and grants Kn: Dungeoneering as a class skill for that level. Adapt this to a Warforged Fighter 1 substitution level to grant d12 HD for just that level, Spike Focus (Weapon Focus with spiked armor and spiked shields) in place of the bonus feat, and probably Kn: Arcana as it applies to constructs.

HD: 1d12+8d10+54 (110 HP average)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft.
Armor Class: 26 (+12 armor, +3 heavy shield, +2 natural (size), -1 large size), Touch AC 9, Flat-Footed 26
BAB/Grapple: +9/+19
(Power Attacking for -1 to hit)
Attack: Two-Handed Shield Bash +15 melee, 3d6+12
Full Attack: Two-Handed Shield Bash +13/+8, 3d6+12, and Armor Spikes offhand +13, 1d8+4
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Knock-Back, Dungeoncrasher, Blood-Spiked Charger, Swift Demoralization
Special Qualities: Living Construct Traits, DR 2/Adamantine
Saves: Fort +13, Reflex +4, Will +5

Str 22 (14 base, +8 size)
Dex 10 (12 base, -2 size)
Con 22 (15 base, +2 race, +4 size, +1 levels)
Int 8
Wis 8 (10 base, -2 race)
Cha 16 (13 base, -2 race, +4 upgrade, +1 levels)

Bonus Feats: Iron Will and Menacing Demeanor via the Otyugh Hole in Complete Scoundrel.
Flaws: Inattentive (-4 Listen and Spot), Shaky (-2 ranged attacks)
Feats and Class Features: Adamantine Body (1), Spike Focus (F1), Power Attack (flaw), Improved Bull Rush (flaw), Dungeoncrasher (F2), Knock-Back (RoS) (3), Skill Focus: Intimidate (ZF3), Heavy Armor Optimization (RoS) (F4), Extended Intimidation (irrelevant) (ZF5), Dungeoncrasher (F6), Imperious Command (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070430a&page=2) (DotU) (6), Greater Heavy Armor Optimization (RoS) (F8), Blood-Spiked Charger (PH2) (9), Swift Demoralization (ZF9).

Skill Trick: Never Outnumbered (Complete Scoundrel)
Skills: Listen -5, Spot -5, Intimidate +22 (12 ranks, +3 cha, +3 skill focus, +4 menacing demeanor) Don't forget about size bonuses to Intimidate!

Possessions: +1 Bashing Large Spiked Heavy Steel Shield, +1 Adamantine Body, +1 Large Armor Spikes on a leather harness, Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC), +1 Cloak of Resistance. Slightly over budget, but it doesn't really matter. One of those red wizards can cast Bull's Strength, etc. on him before combat if you think he'll need it.

Knock-Back: On every successful attack he can initiate a bull rush without provoking an AoO or entering an opponent's space. Shield bash hit bull rush bonus is 14 + double power attack penalty, armor spikes hit bull rush bonus 14 + power attack penalty, +2 when charging for either.

Dungeoncrasher: If he bull rushes an opponent into a solid obstacle, they take an additional 8d6+18 bludgeoning damage from the impact.

Swift Demoralization: Once per round Spike can use the Intimidate skill to demoralize an opponent he threatens in combat. Due to his Imperious Command feat an affected opponent will cower for one round, and then be shaken on the following round. If most of his opponents are within ten feet he'll use his Never Outnumbered skill trick to demoralize all of them with an intimidate check.

Blood-Spiked Charger Maneuvers:
Spiked Avalanche: When charging he hurls himself into the air, becoming a deadly spiked projectile. (Power attacking for -1, charge bonus included) Attacks: Two-Handed Shield Bash +15, 3d6+24, and Armor Spikes +15, 1d8+16.
Spiked Slam: As a full round action he braces himself behind his shield and rushes forward into an enemy's space, provoking attacks of opportunity. (Power attacking for -4) Attack: Two-Handed Shield Bash +12, 3d6+1d8+30. After this attack he stumbles back into his original square, and until the start of his next turn he does not threaten any spaces.
The third maneuver is based on fighting defensively, which I doubt he would ever use.


Red Wizard PCs will typically use Simulacrums of themselves, often stored in a Portable Hole, to do circle magic. If their Simulacrums are high enough level that they can lead the circle, they all contribute spell levels toward each other while inside the hole and not resting to recover their spells. Each uses those spell level to Heighten one spell to 20th level. When they do circle magic with their master, each casts that 20th level spell, so he gets an extreme number of total spell levels. This is probably not what NPC villains will do, but keep in mind it takes quite a bit of time to do circle magic so none of them should do it more than once or twice per day.

I'd make the Blue a Shaper with the Personal Construct (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) ACF. With Psionic Meditation and no Complete Psionic nerf, he could make an Astral Construct (swift, spend focus), manifest an Energy Stun or similar (standard), and recover his focus (move) every round. With a Psicrystal, Share Pain with it, and Vigor with Share Powers with it, considering its hardness as well, he could prove quite a difficult encounter.

[Deth Muncher]

First post updated to include the original thread where discussions were made.

Now:

@RNG: I had thought about the Pyro, and it would probably be good to have one of them be a little more melee oriented.

@Stuff in Frostburn: yeah, that's probably where I'll go.

@DMoD: Having a Spiked Chain Fighter who bodyslams people with his armor/hits them with his shield is exactly what I want. Since he'll have Sneak Attack too, he can go right into Street Fighter. Also, the one level dip is both hilarious and awesome. I may have him do that.

@Biff: No race specifics on the twins. That build looks pretty solid though. The only thing I'm not sure I like is his shield - I did want to give him the specific shield that shoots spikes, but other than that? Yeah. Bam. Also, if his BAB is 9, doesn't that actually mean it's 9/4 or something?

[Fishy]

From the "Interesting but probably terrible" files, Frio and Fuego could be a Dvati Psion. The Energy Ray/Arc/Burst/Wall/Claw/Hamster/Emanation line can all be used as either [Cold] or [Fire] powers, and Vigor helps offset the pain of having half HP.

[Deth Muncher]

From the "Interesting but probably terrible" files, Frio and Fuego could be a Dvati Psion. The Energy Ray/Arc/Burst/Wall/Claw/Hamster/Emanation line can all be used as either [Cold] or [Fire] powers, and Vigor helps offset the pain of having half HP.

I had thought about Dvati initially, but the "If one of them casts/manifests, the other one can't" kind of sucks, in my opinion.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Maybe use Frost Folk from Frostburn for one, and it would be pretty painless to adapt the racial abilities to fire for the other. (Cold subtype to Fire, the frost attack from the eye becomes fire, and snowsight can maybe change to smokesight or sandstormsight.) They get 4 HD of Monstrous Humanoid at CR 2 and they're mostly a melee brute race, so spellcasting class levels would be nonassociated and +1/2 CR for the first four levels. A Human Wizard 13 is CR 13, and a Frost Folk Wizard 13 would also be CR 13 but have considerably better HP, BAB, and saves, plus get Practiced Spellcaster for +4 CL.

The cold-based spellcasting feats in Frostburn are dependent on having snow on hand (unless you want to use Eschew Materials cheese) and casting when the outside temperature is extremely cold (-40F or lower), which wouldn't work out for the fire-based brother unless the room was somehow split between a freezer and an oven. Making them each a Psion (Kineticist) would definitely be worth it, but you already have the Blue as a Psion so this calls for something different.

You could make them Magic-Blooded from Dragon magazine, which gives Wis -2, Cha +2, and some minor spell-like abilities for +0 LA/CR, which would offset the Frost Folk Cha -2 so Sorcerer or Warmage would work. I'd actually do exactly that, make one a Sorcerer and the other a Warmage, give both of them Spell Thematics so even their non-energy spells like Black Tentacles would appear as though made from fire or ice. Frio should be a Sorcerer so he can get Freezing Fog, Warmage gets spells like Fireball and Greater Fireburst so he should be fine. The cold twin should be mostly focused on crowd control while the fire twin deals most of the damage. The Sorcerer can also buff them both with Protection from Energy.

The elite array is 25 point buy, so I'd make them each middle age and put a 17 on Cha and put level ups there, 13s on Dex and Con, and nothing else really matters. The last two points should put Int to 10 so they can get Spot and Listen via their racial HD, then max out Concentration and have points left for enough Spellcraft for Practiced Spellcaster. Without Kn: Arcana they probably won't be able to take any prestige classes, but they should be fine regardless.

Frio
Frio
Magic-Blooded Frost Folk Battle Sorcerer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#sorcererVariantBattleS orcerer) 13
Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Cold)
HD: 17d8+34 (114 HP average)
Initative: +6
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 20 (+2 Dex, +6 Armor, +2 Natural) Touch 12, Flat-Footed 18
Buffed AC: 26 (+4 Dex, +6 Armor, +2 Natural, +4 Shield), Touch 14, Flat-Footed 22
BAB/Grapple: +13/+13
Attack: Melee +13, Ranged +15
Full Attack: Melee +13/+8/+3, Ranged +15/+10/+5
Special Attacks: Spells, Ice Blast (racial, irrelevant)
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., frost folk traits, immunity to cold, snowsight, vulnerability to fire
Saves: Fort +7, Reflex +10, Will +11

Str 11 (8 base, +4 race, -1 age)
Dex 14 (13 base, +2 race, -1 age)
Con 14 (13 base, +2 race, -1 age)
Int 10 (9 base, +1 age)
Wis 8 (9 base, -2 race, +1 age)
Cha 26 (17 base, +1 age, +4 levels, +4 enhancement)

Skills: Spot +6, Listen +6, Spellcraft +6, Concentration +22
Feats: Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conjuration, Spell Thematics (cold), Practiced Spellcaster, Water Bloodline (Dragon 311), Winter's Blast (CM)

Possessions: Circlet of Rapid Casting (MIC), Cloak of Cha +4, +1 Blue Ice (FB) Breastplate, Healing Belt (MIC), Eternal Wand (MIC) of Hound of Doom (CW) (the summoned hound appears to be made of snow and frost)

Battle Sorcerer Spells/day: 5/7/7/7/7/6/4, CL 17 (18 for cold spells), DC 18 + spell level (+1 for conjurations)
Battle Sorcerer Spells Known (note that everything cast appears as some sort of snow, ice, or other cold effect even if it normally isn't): 8/4/4/3/3/2/1 plus one bloodline spell per level
0- Detect Magic, Read Magic, Message, Mending, Mage Hand
1st- Expeditious Retreat (b), Grease, Shield, Benign Transposition, Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd- Fog Cloud (b), Wings of Cover, Obscuring Snow, Cat's Grace, Cloud of Knives
3rd- Water Breathing (b), Heart of Water, Icelance, Sleet Storm, Protection from Energy
4th- Quench (b), Wall of Ice, Greater Mirror Image, Ice Storm
5th- Transmute Rock to Mud (b), Waves of Fatigue, Cone of Cold
6th- Otiluke's Freezing Sphere (b), Freezing Fog

Tactics: Prior to combat cast Cat's Grace and Protection from Energy on himself and his brother, cast Obscuring Snow, Heart of Water, and Shield. Summon Hound of Dooooom.
1st round: Use the Circlet to cast Cloud of Knives and make an attack with it, cast Freezing Fog on as many opponents as he can hit, move to mask his position in the Obscuring Snow. Be ready to cast Greater Mirror Image or Wings of Cover if attacked.
2nd and 3rd round: Waves of Fatigue two rounds in a row to Exhaust as many opponents as he can hit. If he didn't use an immediate action use the Circlet to cast Ray of Enfeeblement on a strong looking opponent.
4th+ round: Use Sleet Storm, Ice Storm, Wall of Ice, and Rock to Mud (cast it on the ceiling!) to contain and split up the opponents. Use Cone of Cold or Freezing Sphere to deal damage if foes are stuck in the freezing fog or otherwise incapacitated. Use immediate action spells to protect himself from attacks or use the Circlet on Ray of Enfeeblement.
If the fight goes on for quite some time, he can resort to using his reserve feat to deal damage, or making ranged or melee attacks (he's proficient in battleaxe, composite longbow, and any one other one-handed melee martial weapon).

Fuego
Fuego
Magic-Blooded Frost Folk adapted to Fire, Warmage 8/ Abjurant Champion 5
Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Fire)
HD: 4d8+8d6+5d10+34 (111 HP average)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20 ft. in medium armor, 30 ft. base
AC: 20 (+2 dex, +6 armor, +2 natural), Touch 12, Flat-Footed 18
Buffed AC: 31 (+4 dex, +6 armor, +2 natural, +9 Shield spell), Touch 14, Flat-Footed 27
BAB/Grapple: +13/+13
Attack: Melee +13, Ranged +15
Full Attack: Melee +13/+8/+3, Ranged +15/+10/+5
Special Attacks: Spells, Fire Blast (racial, irrelevant), Extended Abjuration, Swift Abjuration (3rd), Arcane Boost
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., frost folk traits, immunity to fire, snowsight, vulnerability to cold, Abjurant Armor
Saves: Fort +10, Reflex +9, Will +10

Str 11 (8 base, +4 race, -1 age)
Dex 14 (13 base, +2 race, -1 age)
Con 14 (13 base, +2 race, -1 age)
Int 15 (14 base, +1 age)
Wis 8 (9 base, -2 race, +1 age)
Cha 24 (15 base, +1 age, +4 levels, +4 enhancement)

Skills: Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +6, Climb +7, Concentration +22, Spellcraft +10, Kn: Arcana +8, Tumble (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) +22
Feats: Combat Casting, Spell Focus: Evocation, Practiced Spellcaster, Extra Edge, Spell Thematics (fire), Fiery Burst

Possessions: Circlet of Rapid Casting, Cloak of Cha +4, +1 Red Dragonhide Breastplate, Healing Belt, Eternal Wand of Hound of Doom (summoned hound appears to be made from molten rock and ash)

Warmage Spells/day: 6/8/8/8/7/7/5, CL 17 (18 for fire spells), DC 17 + spell level (+1 for evocation)
Eclectic Learning (PH2) spells known (taking a few Abjurant Champion levels after Warmage 2): Shield (2nd), Heart of Water (4th)

Tactics: Prior to combat cast Heart of Water, Shield, Fire Seeds four times (berry bombs), and summon the Hound of Dooooom. Snowsight works as-is, they can both hide in the Obscuring Snow.
1st round: Cast Black Tentacles to catch as many opponents as possible, use the Circlet to cast Pyrotechnics (smoke cloud) on any open fires near opponents or lacking fires cast Scorching Ray. If any opponents come adjacent speak the word to detonate eight of the Berry Bombs at a time until they drop (make sure no allies are adjacent!).
2nd+ round: Cast Greater Fireburst if opponents are nearby, or Flame Strike if they're well contained. Use the Circlet for more Scorching Rays. Other choice spells include more Black Tentacles, Fireball, Blast of Flame, and Orb of Fire.
If he runs low on spells he can use his reserve feat or make melee or ranged attacks (he's proficient with the battleaxe and composite longbow).

[Deth Muncher]

Biff, that works PERFECTLY. Especially since the party just kind of slaughtered some Frost Folk who got in their way. Admittedly, they supposedly killed all the people with a shred of competence, but hey, that doesn't mean the BBEG hadn't already been by there...bwahahaha. And actually, Fuego can be explained rather well in this setting, given the fact that I was already going on about the particular mountain that the Frost Folk were living in having a connection to the Plane of Shadow, and how that crossover has been tampering with the people who live there (hence the creation of the Frost Folk in the first place). It then only stands to reason that the latent magic could have continued warping the inhabitants.
tl;dr - Magic did it. I like it. Though I had thought about having Frio take that one PrC that was mentioned earlier...Lord of the Uttercold, I think? I dunno though. I'll take a look. Fine bits of work on the both of them though, top notch.

Also, as to Blue - so, I kind of figured he'd be a Thrallherd type character. Does that PrC work well enough on its own? Or is there a better way to do it?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Thrallherd is basically just a Psion with Leadership. It grants some mind control powers as bonus powers known, but nothing special. Enemy bosses and monsters can get lackeys via story and position rather than investing feats or prestige classes in Leadership or Thrallherd. Consider giving him an adaptation of Mindbender from Complete Arcane, though it only gets 1/2 casting progression. You could just use Psionic Dominate, but the duration is concentration so he wouldn't be able to do anything but control someone.

I was thinking there was a feat somewhere that would allow his psicrystal to maintain concentration on a power for him, but I can't find it anywhere. Still give him a psicrystal, have Share Pain manifest on it, and use Vigor with Share Powers so his damage buffer is 10 HP per pp spent. There's the spell Sonorous Hum in Spell Compendium which you could adapt to a psionic power, or give him a wand of it and max cross-class UMD ranks. That puts him behind in action economy, but you could use Quickened Synchronicity to fix that by hemorrhaging power points. He could use Quickened Synchronicity (swift, spend focus, gain a readied action), use the Wand of Sonorous Hum (readied), manifest Psionic Dominate (standard), and recover his psionic focus (move with psionic meditation) every round, skipping anyone with spell components or holy symbols.

He should also have some charmed melee lackeys, I'd stick to creature types which get a poor base Will save (Animal, Elemental, Giant, Magical Beast). Depending on how many pets you want him to have, an Air Elemental (Huge or Greater) should definitely be among them to use its Whirlwind to pick up opponents and deposit them into a pit or even over a cliff. A Dire Bear, Dire Polar Bear (FB), or an Ironclad Mauler (MM3) makes a capable grappler which could keep someone controlled. A Mountain Troll (MM3) or a Hydra makes a capable melee attacker to pose a danger to anyone moving near the Blue. That means putting him at level 13 or 14 probably, considering a Dire Polar Bear is CR 11, a Greater Air Elemental is CR 10, and a Cave Troll or 11-headed Hydra is CR 10.

Give the Dire Polar Bear and Hydra or cave Troll each masterwork studded leather barding, for which there's no nonproficiency penalty. If the Blue were a typical caster he could just put Mage Armor on everything, though you could instead give him a Wand of Mage Armor since he'll have UMD. He should be riding on top of the troll or hydra, and thus likely out of melee opponents' reach. You can even give him max cross-class Ride ranks and Mounted Combat. I'd make the air elemental start out flying high up and out of sight, so it can catch the back row characters by surprise. The bear should go after the physically biggest opponent that it can Improved Grab (so size large or smaller), and the troll or hydra should be at a spot where enemies will be moving over difficult terrain to reach it. A Hydra with the feats Snatch, and Improved Snatch and Multisnatch from the Draconomicon could actually be substituted for the bear if none of the PCs are bigger than medium. It can grab someone in each head, only that head is considered grappled, and its other heads can attack grabbed opponents as though from outside the grapple thus ignoring their Dex/Dodge bonuses to AC. The big guy he rides on should have Combat Reflexes with Large and In Charge from the Draconomicon.

[Essence_of_War]

I'm not great with magic items, so I left that mostly up to you with only a few suggestions provided. It's at least one idea of where to take it.

Blue - Psion(telepath) 5/Thrallherd 5:

Male Blue Goblin.
Blue is a compact blue-skinned goblinoid with glassy brown/black eyes. He walks with the aid of a walking stick (small quarterstaff) that is often capped by a shimmering crystal.
(Elite Array + racials and 4/8 stat increase, one on int, one to get wis up to meet the inquisitor feat pre-req)
Small Goblinoid
HP: 45 (+ up to 45 temp hp from Vigor)
BAB/Grapple: +4(+5, size) /+2 (+3, size)
Atk - +2 melee quarterstaff 1d4-2 or +5 ranged
AC: 10 + 1 (dex) + 6(armor)+1(size) = 18
Ini: +1
Str - 6
Dex - 13
Con - 14
Int - 18
Wis - 13
Cha - 8

Saves: F:+4; R:+3; W:+9

Skills:
Concentrate +16; Sense Motive +14; Diplomacy +12; Spellcraft/Psicraft +17; Knowledge(psionic/arcana) +17; All Other Knowledge +5

Feats:
Psicrystal Affinity, Exp. Know - Astral Construct, Exp. Know - Energy Missile, Inquisitor (req. for Thrallherd), Overchannel, Talented.
(If you're ok with dropping the inquisitor pre-req, swap with psicrystal containment)

PP reserve: 91 - 11 (inertial armor) = 80
Powers:
1 - Psionic Charm; Astral Construct; Mindlink; Inertial Armor; Detect Psionics; Force Screen; Vigor
2 - Energy Missile; Suggestion; Ego Whip; Specified Erg. Adaptation; Read Thoughts
3 - Erad. Invisibility; Touchsight; Psionic Blast; Dispel Psionics
4 - Psionic Dominate; Wall of Ectoplasm; Dim. Door; Freedom of Movement
5 - Ectoplasmic Shambler; True Seeing

All day buffs - Inertial Armor
Pre-Combat - Blue has a small army of believers who keep watch over his lair. If he believes hostility is iminent, he'll start by:
1) Summoning his Astral Construct
2) Manifesting Vigor
3) Manifesting Force Screen
He can trivially make the manifestor checks to suppress the display for all of these powers, so he may even be able to buff these while PCs are interacting with him.

In combat, he can use Ectoplasmic Shambler to throw up a damaging obscuring mist effect, use Wall of Ectoplasm to partition various foes for combat, deal direct damage with Energy Missile, go after low will save folk with some combination of Ego Whip, charm, dominate, or suggestion, or use immediate actions to put up a specified energy adaptation. I would probably lead with the battle control effects and then start in with Energy Missiles. For some odd reason PCs take kindlier to getting outright killed by those than by losing control of the big muscle guy to a dominate effect but YMMV.

In any sort of a combat scenario, he should have a level 6 Astral Construct (utilizing the overchannel+talented line), his thrall and a number of mooks/cannon fodder.

As far as mooks/fodder go, I envision a thrallherd character like this leading a small army of ordinary goblins and perhaps a number of interesting dominated creatures. His thrallherd leadership score entitles him to 15 1st level believers, and 1 2nd level believer in addition to any other creatures/humanoids he may have dominated/charmed. As far as 1st level believers, a mix of rogues and warlocks would probably be very useful since they're so easy to build. Give the warlocks spider climb and sickening blast, give the rogues a ranged weapon and you have an adorable army of annoying range strikers. Perhaps make the 2nd level believer a goblin cleric or something. If you take my suggestion and make the Thrall a powerful bugbear, it would be reasonable to expect a small band of dominated/charmed Bugbears serving under the thrall to serve as more warm bodies to put between the manipulative Blue and the party.



His Thrall - Atactyl the Bugbear

Bugbear 3 RHD + Fighter 2 + Warblade 4
I've sort of cheated with the bugbear. He should only be a 9th level character, and technically the RHD and LA drain a lot of the fun for a guy like this. I say give him the RHD and 6 class levels and ignore the LA. The PCs probably won't notice.
HP: 81
AC: 10 + 3 (NA) + 8 (mithral full plate) + 2 (dex) = 23
BAB/Grp: +8/+14
Trip: +18
Atk:+15/+10 (+1 spiked chain) 2d4 + 9
Ini: +3
Str - 22
Dex - 13 (15 with gloves of dex +2 to maximize AoOs)
Con - 16
Int - 13
Wis - 8
Cha - 8

Saves: F: +11; R +6(+9, Battle Ardor): W +1

Feats:
Exotic Weapon Prof - Spiked Chain; Combat Reflexes; Combat Expertise; Improved Trip; Knockdown; Power Attack

Skills:
Concentrate + 13, Tumble + 14, Jump + 15, Intimidate + 10, Climb +10
(Note: he auto-succeeds the tumble check to tumble through threatened squares.)

Maneuvers:
1 - Moment of Perfect Mind; Charging Minotaur
2 - Wall of Blades; Emerald Razor
3 - Insightful Strike
Readied: Wall of Blades; Moment of Perfect Mind; Emerald Razor; Charging Minotaur
Stances:
Stance of Clarity; Punishing Stance

The bugbear is pretty easy to play as a thrall, just have him interpose himself between Blue and the PCs and use his AoOs and tripping to take people down. He isn't totally optimized and thus he can't get enormous to get huge reach, but he's strong, has a high BAB, and should have a good shot at tripping party members. If you really think he needs to be better, give him a potion of Enlarge Person or something to drink when combat seems iminent.

[bokodasu]

I was thinking there was a feat somewhere that would allow his psicrystal to maintain concentration on a power for him, but I can't find it anywhere.

Wait, I know this one - it's a power, Solicit Psicrystal. Not actually that useful for what you're thinking of, though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Wait, I know this one - it's a power, Solicit Psicrystal. Not actually that useful for what you're thinking of, though.

Good find, but yeah at 1 round/level it's not extremely useful, especially considering Sonorous Hum at the minimum CL would last 50 rounds. Plus he could have multiple Sonorous Hums maintaining multiple Psionic Dominates, so that's definitely the way to go. A single targeted Dispel Magic on him could end all of them, but at least that way they'll stand a chance.

[Deth Muncher]

Now, while I appreciate that Sonorous Hum cheese, it begs for the question to be answered: is that too far for a villain who's not the BBEG? To be fair, he's probably going to be the BBEG's second in command, but still.

Also, for other bad guys:

So, there's going to be two more big ones to deal with. The first of which is The Colonel. For those of you who haven't read the previous thread I linked, he's an Ice Devil (or Gelugon, for those of you in the know), with a big frosty handlebar moustache, pith helmet and monocle. He, while not exactly MEANT to be fought, is going to be more of a bonus boss to the PCs. He should be a level 20 encounter, but I don't know what classes and such mesh well with Ice Devils. I'm more than up for re-feating him as well, within reason.

The second is also a bonus boss, meant to be taken on after the party defeats the BBEG. In one of the character's backstory, he mentions his whole motivation for adventuring is to kill this Lich who razed his village, took him under his wing (forcibly) and used him to scout out other villages for plundering, and when he finally sent him on his way, handed him a bow made from the bones of the boy's mother. Said PC is a Dread Necromancer now, looking to gain as much power to smash the Lich into dust. This Lich is meant to be an Epic level encounter. I don't really know what to do from there, other than he needs to be quintessentially lich-y and evil for no good reason other than for his own means. Hell, I don't even really know what I want him to be, other than this vague idea. I'm open to suggestions though.

[Essence_of_War]

How epic do you want the lich to be, and how optimized are your players?

If the answer to both is "quite" then I'd say make the bad guy have ascended to demilich-dom.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/demilich.htm
It casts as a 21st level wizard, so this should be able to give any party of around 20th level a severe run for their money.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If the Blue is going to be The Dragon (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon), then he should have powerful tricks. Be sure to give the PCs spellcraft checks for everything, and be sure to hint for them to keep Dispel Magic prepared. If they realize that Sonorous Hum is maintaining his dominate powers, and that he cast it from a wand at a likely low caster level, then dispelling it should be the logical conclusion to ending the dominate effects. If your players think the only solution to something they can't beat is bigger swords, then I guess you should tone it down a bit, but otherwise it should be a fun and challenging encounter. The Blue is a master of puppets, so he should have minions to protect him, and those minions shouldn't be a pushover. I'd actually expect Frio and Fuego to be more difficult than this guy, since they have so much crowd control, total concealment from the snow, Wings of Cover/Greater Mirror Image for one and an insane AC for the other, etc. Also keep in mind they'll recover two Circlets of Rapid Casting and two Eternal Wands of Hound of Doom from those guys!

[Deth Muncher]

If the Blue is going to be The Dragon (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon), then he should have powerful tricks. Be sure to give the PCs spellcraft checks for everything, and be sure to hint for them to keep Dispel Magic prepared. If they realize that Sonorous Hum is maintaining his dominate powers, and that he cast it from a wand at a likely low caster level, then dispelling it should be the logical conclusion to ending the dominate effects. If your players think the only solution to something they can't beat is bigger swords, then I guess you should tone it down a bit, but otherwise it should be a fun and challenging encounter. The Blue is a master of puppets, so he should have minions to protect him, and those minions shouldn't be a pushover. I'd actually expect Frio and Fuego to be more difficult than this guy, since they have so much crowd control, total concealment from the snow, Wings of Cover/Greater Mirror Image for one and an insane AC for the other, etc. Also keep in mind they'll recover two Circlets of Rapid Casting and two Eternal Wands of Hound of Doom from those guys!

I don't know that I necessarily want Blue to be The Dragon, but perhaps the plucky apprentice? Except, y'know, evil. Eager to please, disgustingly loyal, and with only a little bit of ambition for his own - he started out having controlled an Orc chieftain who was ruling over some goblins, and had had a fairly widespread (for that area) goblin raiding clan under his thumb until one of the PCs came and laid his foot down. But yes, I assume Frio and Fuego will be stronger than he, though Blue's minions might at least make the battle one of attrition.

[Tavar]

Hey, thought. For Spike, Swordsage from Tome of Battle. Use Desert Wind style, but flavor all the flames as spikes or the like, and dealing piercing damage. Tiger claw would also be good, as it has a general primal feel about it. Shadow Hand might give some more rogue stuff to it.

For the Fire and Ice twins, try Coldsnap and Sandstorm. They have PrC's and feats that help each of them.

[Deth Muncher]

Hey, thought. For Spike, Swordsage from Tome of Battle. Use Desert Wind style, but flavor all the flames as spikes or the like, and dealing piercing damage. Tiger claw would also be good, as it has a general primal feel about it. Shadow Hand might give some more rogue stuff to it.

For the Fire and Ice twins, try Coldsnap and Sandstorm. They have PrC's and feats that help each of them.

Frostburn. Coldsnap is a M:tG set. :P But yes. As you and I had discussed, Spike being an Unarmed Swordsage seems to be a wonderful way to go. Question to the masses though - Tavar and I were discussing the ability that lets you Jump as a Swift Action. Are there any Skill Tricks that can be abused with this?

[BRC]

Thinking about the Colonel, specifically his role as a commander, I'm going with giving him Minions. According to the Encounter Calculator, this works out to EL 20. No real character sheets yet, because I don't have time right now (Also because D20 SRD is down), these are just ideas.

The Colonel Himself gets four levels of Marshal (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b), bringing him up to CR 17, and giving him 2 minor auras and one major one, to pick as you choose, Ice Devils have 20 Charisma, so that's a +5 bonus for the minor auras. I say replace his Spear with a Halberd or a Sword of some variety.

Backing him up are his two Adjutants, each CR 15, and his honor guard of four Sergeants each CR 12.

The Adjutants are Spellcasters. I kind of like the idea of having them be Eriynes, with one Sorceror and one Cleric, but those don't synergize well, so it might be better to start them as Tieflings. The point is, they provide magical backup for the Colonel. If it's possible, give them a scroll of Mass Eagle's Splendor that they cast early on, boosting both the Colonel's Auras, and the Save DC's of the minion's SLAs.

the Sergeants are simply advanced Barbed Devils. They will try to Grapple the casters and Hold Person the Fighters, and generally be annoying while the Colonel dishes out the heavy damage. If you feel like it, give the Colonel Master of Tactics, and have the Sergeants flank PC's, getting a +5 bonus to damage from the aura.

The Colonel's tactics will be based around the principle of Divide and Conquer, he will use Ice Walls to split the party and his minions will do their best to lock down party members with their spells and abilities while the Colonel will move in and full attack. Remember that all these devils have Greater Teleport at-will, and will gladly use that to move around the battlefield.

If a PC gets locked down somehow, either paralyzed, or grappled or simply cornered, then the Colonel will teleport next to them then full attack next round. If it's possible to boost his caster level to the point where he could get Quicken SLA for Greater Teleport he wouldn't need to wait a round, simply teleport in an full attack.

[Deth Muncher]

Thinking about the Colonel, specifically his role as a commander, I'm going with giving him Minions. According to the Encounter Calculator, this works out to EL 20. No real character sheets yet, because I don't have time right now (Also because D20 SRD is down), these are just ideas.

The Colonel Himself gets four levels of Marshal (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b), bringing him up to CR 17, and giving him 2 minor auras and one major one, to pick as you choose, Ice Devils have 20 Charisma, so that's a +5 bonus for the minor auras. I say replace his Spear with a Halberd or a Sword of some variety.

Backing him up are his two Adjutants, each CR 15, and his honor guard of four Sergeants each CR 12.

The Adjutants are Spellcasters. I kind of like the idea of having them be Eriynes, with one Sorceror and one Cleric, but those don't synergize well, so it might be better to start them as Tieflings. The point is, they provide magical backup for the Colonel. If it's possible, give them a scroll of Mass Eagle's Splendor that they cast early on, boosting both the Colonel's Auras, and the Save DC's of the minion's SLAs.

the Sergeants are simply advanced Barbed Devils. They will try to Grapple the casters and Hold Person the Fighters, and generally be annoying while the Colonel dishes out the heavy damage. If you feel like it, give the Colonel Master of Tactics, and have the Sergeants flank PC's, getting a +5 bonus to damage from the aura.

The Colonel's tactics will be based around the principle of Divide and Conquer, he will use Ice Walls to split the party and his minions will do their best to lock down party members with their spells and abilities while the Colonel will move in and full attack. Remember that all these devils have Greater Teleport at-will, and will gladly use that to move around the battlefield.

If a PC gets locked down somehow, either paralyzed, or grappled or simply cornered, then the Colonel will teleport next to them then full attack next round. If it's possible to boost his caster level to the point where he could get Quicken SLA for Greater Teleport he wouldn't need to wait a round, simply teleport in an full attack.

Jeeeeeebas. If played intelligently, this group could easily wipe a party not heavily optimized. But oh well. I mean, he IS a bonus boss, or most likely will be anyway.

[BRC]

Jeeeeeebas. If played intelligently, this group could easily wipe a party not heavily optimized. But oh well. I mean, he IS a bonus boss, or most likely will be anyway.
Well yeah, that's kind of the point.

And it's not that tough if the party is playing smart. Individually, each member of the group is very weak for a CR20 encounter. For example, those Barbed Devils will only have a DC 16 will save to resist their Hold Person SLA's, a Fighter at 20th level has a +6 will save without any boosts from magic items or ability scores. Yes there are four of these guys running around, but unless their Charisma gets boosted, or the PC's punched right in the will saves, they're likely to waste rounds throwing Hold Person spells around. They'll probably have more luck grappling the Casters though.


The question will be whether or not the PC's are able to figure out the Colonel's strategy before he's perforated them with full attacks. Remember, Marshal gives very few bonuses to somebody fighting alone. If the PC's get one or two rounds to act freely ( without Minions in their faces) they can bring him down.

Of course, if they go in there with bad will saves, they're pretty much dead. Between the Colonel's Fear Aura and the Barbed Devil's DC 20 Fear spell on hit.
And obviously, they better have Good Aligned weapons.

And, if possible, have the Sergeants look like This (http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7JIhSB1-XuU/0.jpg), but with spikes everywhere. At least one of them should have spiky muttonchops.

Edit: Also, after the inevitable Pre-Fight Banter, have The Colonel say, in your best British Accent, something along the lines of "Honor Guard, To ME! Restrain these Savages!" at which point the Minions teleport in.

Edit II: I can't figure out a good way to make them Fiendish without throwing on a Level Adjustment, but if you're willing to just stat them as a human with glowing red eyes or something (give them the Fiendish Heritage feat from PHBII maybe) here is a fairly nasty spell list for a 15th level Sorcerer Adjutant.


Adjudant Spells Known
7th Level
Hold Person: Mass
Forcecage
6th Level
Eagles Splendor: mass
Greater Dispel Magic
Chain Lightning
5th Level
Overland Flight (already Active)
Mind Fog
Wall of Force
Teleport
4th Level
Wall of Fire
Wall of Ice (Hemisphere form traps PC’s)
Bestow Curse
Crushing Despair
3rd Level
Haste
Fireball
Hold Person
Dispel Magic

Edit:with two of those guys, I think this particular group could drop a 4-man party fairly easily. A Forcecage from each Sorcerer, a Wall of Ice Hemisphere from the Colonel, and the Four Sergants Dogpile the last member with grapples.

[Deth Muncher]

Hey, I know, let's actually start statting up something that'll be more appropriate for the level the PCs are! Right now, the PC layout is two Druids, a Beguiler, a Dread Necromancer and a Swashbuckler. They HAD a Samurai as well, but he's had to drop due to life conflicts. I may keep his character around to do stuff with though. But anyway. They're all ~level 5 or 6. The place they're in is high up in these mountains, and said mountain actually contains a portal to the Shadow Realm Plane of Shadow. As such, I'm thinking of sending shadowy-themed things at them. For the most part, this is okay, since I can just throw some Shadows at them. Hell, even some Greater Shadows, since those are only dangerous in numbers. I'm wondering though, are Wraiths too much for a team of level 5-6'ers to handle?

And this wouldn't be a "Build-A-Badguy Workshop" if I were just pulling things out of the book. No, I'm wondering, what things can be slapped on these things to make them bigger and badder without completely overshooting the level capabilities. The whole idea is that these guys are controlling the path to the Shadowstaff, so these guys are supposed to be bigger than normal - but obviously, since it's a group of lower level heroes, I don't want them outright slaughtered unless they do something stupid.

EDIT: And @ BRC, you're wonderful, as always. You don't live in VA, do you? Building this campaign would be a lot easier with you around. :P

[Fable Wright]

Look at the Dark template, from Tome of Magic, for more variety (read: aberrations) in your monsters. Also, I would definitely stick Evolved Undead from Libris Mortis on some of those Greater Shadows; if they are bolstered by all that shadow energy, then it's going to show up in the monsters.

[Deth Muncher]

Look at the Dark template, from Tome of Magic, for more variety (read: aberrations) in your monsters. Also, I would definitely stick Evolved Undead from Libris Mortis on some of those Greater Shadows; if they are bolstered by all that shadow energy, then it's going to show up in the monsters.

Would Evolved Greater Shadows be too much for the group, though? I mean, they're already CR 8.

[Fable Wright]

Would Evolved Greater Shadows be too much for the group, though? I mean, they're already CR 8.

Dread. Necromancer. I would worry more about keeping him away from too much level-draining tree-command-structure-self-replicating undead goodies that worry about him not beating them. Plus, two druids. The shadows are goners.

[Deth Muncher]

Dread. Necromancer. I would worry more about keeping him away from too much level-draining tree-command-structure-self-replicating undead goodies that worry about him not beating them. Plus, two druids. The shadows are goners.

Low level Dread Necromancer. He's actually maxed his limit of undead right now, since he's got an Ogre Skeleton (and is also lower level than the rest of the party - he may only be level 3 or 4, come to think of it).

And the druids...well. One of them is an atrocious fail druid. The other has a phynxkin, and is moderately competent.

[Fable Wright]

Low level Dread Necromancer. He's actually maxed his limit of undead right now, since he's got an Ogre Skeleton (and is also lower level than the rest of the party - he may only be level 3 or 4, come to think of it).
1. Command Undead (Which does not decrease total HD of undead controlled)
2. Rebuke Undead (Cowering = can't do anything, suffers penalties, though, against the Evolved Greater Shadow, it won't do much. It will kill average shadows horribly, and in a burst, though)
3. Disrupt Undead

If he can't do any of these right... he is a failure of a necromancer, no offense.

And the druids...well. One of them is an atrocious fail druid. The other has a phynxkin, and is moderately competent.
This might have been mentioned earlier. Do either have Natural Spell?

[Deth Muncher]

This might have been mentioned earlier. Do either have Natural Spell?

Nope. One's one of those Forest Lord elves or whatever - the ones who're real friendly with Green Dragons, so he gets all sort of draconic aspect things instead of Wildshape. The other one has been alerted to his failure of not taking Natural Spell, and will fix it next level up.

[Fable Wright]

Nope. One's one of those Forest Lord elves or whatever - the ones who're real friendly with Green Dragons, so he gets all sort of draconic aspect things instead of Wildshape. The other one has been alerted to his failure of not taking Natural Spell, and will fix it next level up.

Perhaps let them gain a level from killing normal shadows/evolved normal shadows before killing them with the Evolved Greater Shadow?

[Deth Muncher]

Perhaps let them gain a level from killing normal shadows/evolved normal shadows before killing them with the Evolved Greater Shadow?

That's probably a good idea - I'm also going to give them a chance to retreat to town before they head over into the Plane of Shadow, given that they're not going to be able to heal properly otherwise. Hell, they're just about due for another level sometime soon (we've been going on kind of a "as the story dictates" leveling system, but it's been working pretty well so no one has complained so far). This will also give me a way to judge how far the party can go, so I know just how evolved this thing needs to be.

EDIT: Also, should I just full-on Gygax this, or should I determine on my own what ability/ies should be gained through evolving? Also, assuming that Evolved Shadows prove to be too easy, I'm thinking I'll move onto evolving Wraiths.