3.5 mid-campaign "bbeg leiutenant"

[Ayedi_Star]

Hey guys, this is my first post after registering, but I've been reading a lot so when I needed some advice, I knew just who to ask.

currently AFB from time of writing so please excuse any mistakes.

As a note, anyone who recognises my name please shoo, as I may be using this in a campaign I DM in my current group later.

As part of a campaign I'm making that stretches from 1-18th level, the BBEG has a number of loyal cohorts; this is about one of them, and I need some advice.

Before any of you cry foul when you read the details, The group I'm planning this for is really not into optimisation at all, I can get away with going for fluff rather than crunch in my designing and I would prefer to keep to at least a few points as-given.
Added to that (as a way of explaining where the hell this came from): I like to pick a book or concept as the theme for each major point; I picked the OA splatbook as the basis of this one.

The "Fighter" cohort of the BBEG is going to be a LN, female crow-hengenyokai samurai / iaijutsu master.

-Honor means everything to her, except for when it comes to the BBEG. then she'll do anything necessary. (she won't outright kill anyone on the PC team unless by formalised 1-on-1 deathmatch or if they force the issue by rushing her).

She will have the leadership feat (not sure on how it will play out yet, a hengenyokai clan of crows who are all warriors, spies and shaman? you're damn right I want to use the 'A murder of crows!' pun..)

Starting at about level 7 at first encounter? (before conditions and leadership makes her encounter CR whatever)
Build wise I just want OA Samurai 1 / IM 2+X / Whatever X as the base. you're welcome to fill in the blanks.

Mechanically I want her to be a recurring villain who ultimately has the chance to be redeemed to make the BBEG's other forces easier to fight. which is why she has to have a fair chance at surviving until then against a group of PCs.

(yeah, railroading, but nothing says they HAVE to redeem or at least take her prisoner when the time comes. it's just an option I want them to have at that time.)

So, aside from the build, What else can make her survive 2/3 encounters until the time comes? Aside from her own leadership feat, the BBEG cohorts will include a cleric and a wizard, so both sources of magic will be open to use for her.

I'd considered Hengenyokai shifting as an escape method, but:
1 - it's a full-round action.
2 - gear (and thus enchantments) is subsumed into the crow form.
3 - Nothing is stopping them from hitting her in retreat. I know one guy at least may well go eldritch-spear warlock and that's before tier 1 classes.
You get bonus points if you make this exit strategy survivable :D.

If you have any other suggestions, I'm more than willing to listen, but the main points stand - and I don't really want to go down the PO route unless it's purely to meet the fluff requirements.


EDIT: forgot something which may be important. I'm not outlawing any official 3.5 material except TO builds, planar handbook (it's not relevant) and will accept 3.0 if it's valid. Dragon magazine is... case-by-case basis only. PC builds will be vetted but only to ensure nothing like DW kobold loredrake, planar druid, or other "WHY!?" options are chosen.

To anyone with any ideas to help the fluff or mechanics, I thank you in advance!

[Fenryr]

Contingency Spell? When HP drops to critical levels (not 0) Teleport or Dimensional Door.

An Alternate Class Feature exists for some evil beings, which is Feign Death. Monk and Rogue (2nd level) or Ranger (9th level). This only works if your players don't burn the body or something similar. Exemplars of Evil book.

Make the cohort ready actions in order to save her. They don't act in the battle.

[Ayedi_Star]

Contingency Spell? When HP drops to critical levels (not 0) Teleport or Dimensional Door.

An Alternate Class Feature exists for some evil beings, which is Feign Death. Monk and Rogue (2nd level) or Ranger (9th level). This only works if your players don't burn the body or something similar. Exemplars of Evil book.

Make the cohort ready actions in order to save her. They don't act in the battle.

I wanted to give more people a chance to suggest things but it's been about a day, so I'll reply to just yourself and add a few things for consideration now that i've had a chance to look through my books.

Contigency would work fine at level 7, but after that the players may well invest in something like dimension anchor. on the other hand, it can be dispelled, right? might be a good idea to ensure she has that.
- but there's also the fact I don't want to over-use contingency, it may be good for one fight, but if she does it 2/3 times, it's going to make people bust out the meta-game knowledge to plan for how to kill her.

I didn't know about the feign death option, but strictly speaking her alignment is LN, not LE. I'll check the book for the necessary parts and see if it would work. I know none of the players i have in mind would suggest defiling the body, so not worried on that angle.
Thanks for this one!

my own thoughts:
One thing I considered was giving her ancestral katana the item familiar feat, and having its first bonus at level ten be the "special purpose, special power: dimension door itself and owner" greater power... expensive, but doable. (the ability to true resurrect her once a month, however, is far too expensive and would defeat the sense of victory).
Aside from the fact it wouldn't be useful for the first fight... pros and cons of this?

Would quicken SLA apply to the alter form ability?

Her level 5 cohort will most likely be a mystic of some sort though I haven't decided on class.. cleric / druid / shaman of some sort / shugenja or something else appropriate as a spiritual advisor. any 2nd / 3rd level spells they could have ready that would help intervine and allow escape?

The cleric and wizard will be more powerful by far at the time, at levels into the middling teens; the players start fighting the last leiutenants at about 14-15, any quick and dirty spells that could apply for the lower-level samurai?

[Runestar]

One idea is to adapt the xorvintaal concept in MM5. The BBEG's cohorts can have tokens to spend on various benefits, such as word of recall, or spending all its tokens to return to her master unconscious when she would be reduced to -10 hp. The exarch template is cr+1, IIRC.

[Ayedi_Star]

xorvintaal concept in MM5.

I know it's been a few days but I need to reply now that I've seen this and read it just now - this is exactly what I needed and is absolutely perfect. The exarch template is +2 but I can deal with that by refluffing / retuning it so that it's worth less. thanks a bunch for this and I consider the situation dealt with.

Decided to make her mostly warblade after the needed samurai/iaijutsu and not too worried about anything else now that I have a real cool idea involving the xorvintaal concept.