Building a BBEG Solo for my group, help needed.

[Avalon2099]

Hey Playgrounders! I need some help, I've got a game I'm running it's around level 11 and one of the PCs has a villain chasing after him, it's the reanimated corpse of his father or so he think, it actually isn't but it's been designed by a BBEG to make him think so.

So far I've only used it for fluff and story I.e. They see him in the distance on the docks as they leave port via ship.

What I'm asking is for you guys to help me build this guy stat wise,
He needs to use a fullblade and needs to be a fighter, but I want it to be challenging for the whole group so he could easily be a solo.

Any help is appreciated.

[NecroRebel]

The easiest thing to do would probably be to find a reasonably-suitable creature in the 11-15 level range and refluff as appropriate. You could use a solo, or an elite with the Fighter template applied, though the latter wouldn't be quite as dangerous. There aren't really too many that are terribly appropriate, unfortunately, but there are some, and templating elites doesn't quite turn them into solos, but it could work.

Maybe a refluffed, Medium-sized Tombstone Golem deleveled by 2 or 3 with the Fighter template applied? The golem is in Open Grave. So is the Pit of the Abandoned Regiment, which might be appropriate if you're willing to fluff away the Huge size.

Solo creatures, generally, aren't actually very threatening relative to other creatures. If you look through the more recent monster supplements, you find that there are fewer and fewer solo creatures in each one, and that's probably because they don't actually work too well. You're probably better off making your false father be an elite and have him actually have some support.

[Avalon2099]

I've never templated monsters before where are these found generally?

[NecroRebel]

Templates are found in DMG1 starting page 176. Class templates start on 182. Both add some hit points, defenses, and powers. Class templates' powers come from the related class's power list. Templates are designed to make non-elites into elites, but you can also beef up elites with them to make sort of super-elites (they still aren't solo-level).

[NotScaryBats]

I had great success using a Skeletal Tomb Guardian (the four armed skeleton from MM1) as a solo. I think I gave him the Death Knight Template, maybe the Bodyguard one for counterattacks, but as a standard action the Tomb Guardian gets four attacks, which can add up pretty fast and get really threatening, which also simulates fullblade devastation.

There are a lot of vague rules about making monsters solo... I swear I read in the DMG that you can give an elite two turns, or make their encounters into at wills to up their threat.