BBEG Creation - Thoughts, build advice?

[Piggy Knowles]

Hey, all,

I'm working on the BBEG for a campaign I've been designing for some time. I'd love to hear some thoughts on it, and brainstorm out some build ideas...

Background, special abilities, and other relevant info:

He has undergone a magical ritual in order to achieve immortality. His body has turned an inky black and taken on a somewhat fluid nature. Among other things, this has given him an immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks, and it has given him a possession ability. This possession ability works similarly to a ghost's Malevolence. However, he is literally compressing his body and diving into the host body's open orifices, and taking over that way. Because it is a physical effect rather than a supernatural one, it is combatted with a Fort save, not a Will save (and the save DC is Constitution based). It is also not prevented or supressed by Protection from XXX and similar spells.

When he possesses someone, their appearance changes. They bulk up a bit, and their veins run black. This puts a lot of strain on their body, and their body starts to wear out quickly - three or four months is about how long it takes to wear through a body, maybe a little more or less depending on the body's size and strength.

The only known way to get this guy out of a body is to kill the host, at which point he resumes his natural form. (Later in the campaign, they will be compelled to find an artifact that DOES allow them to expel him from the body without killing the host, but let's just assume for the creation process that he can't.)

Here's the kicker: while he is possessing a body, he is basically unkillable. There is no known way to harm or restrain him when he is inside a host. However, he is basically limited to the abilities of the host at the time. When he is in his natural form, he's an extraordinarily difficult foe, but he is mortal. Because he is so obsessed with staying alive forever, he usually prefers to do what he can to immediately disable his opponents and escape. He is exceedingly cautious and does not want to ever take the chance of being killed.

This is nice because he can be a long-running enemy that the PCs can come up against many a time, without having to significantly water down his power.

Anyhow, I'm looking for ideas for his actual build. Remember that I'm adding on this magical template that gives him immunity to criticals/precision based damage in his natural form, and the possession ability (see the SBLOCK above for more details). I'm also planning to have the template also add innate spell resistance. I haven't even decided on a base race, beyond the fact that I want him to be humanoid (or at least humanoid-looking).

The CR is flexible, but I'm thinking in the CR 15-16 range.

Things I'd like to include:

1. While he needs to be very powerful in his natural form, I don't want him to be an all-powerful spellcaster. Some spells are fine, and he's certainly familiar with magic, but he's not an archmage. There's a few plot-based reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that I want to be able to scale his power based on the forms he's possessing. If he's a spellcaster, there's nothing stopping him from using those spells when he possesses someone.


2. He's got an extremely strong force of personality, intense ambition, and a keen sense of how society works. His modus operandi is to find people that are uniquely situated to have tremendous influence on the world, with the right push, and take them over. Warlords, diplomats, inventors, etc. He is the type of person who can hear stories about a soldier on the field that people respect, possess him, and turn him into a general that people will follow to the ends of the earth in just those few months. If there's a way to represent this mechanically, that would be nice. Imperious Command comes to mind, but it's not the only option.


3. When in his natural form, he should be a real terror to fight. Fast, dangerous, and also very good at disabling people quickly and escaping from very difficult situations. I want him to be incredibly mobile, hard to kill, and difficult to contain. He has had centuries of practice staying alive, and his build should reflect that. He should still be a credible threat, but mobility and self-preservation take precedence.


4. I haven't 100% settled on an alignment yet, but I'm leaning toward NE. He's more ruthless than overtly evil, but over the centuries he has crossed so many lines and become so jaded to death and destruction that he will do almost anything to achieve his ends. He is methodical to a fault, but he is also dedicated to actively destroying several aspects of society. He could almost be LE, but I think NE is a better fit. Just something to keep in mind if we're involving alignment-specific classes.

(And yes, I will be the DM, so I could theoretically handwave away alignment pre-reqs. However, I wouldn't let me PCs do that, so I certainly won't let the BBEG do it either.)

Anyhow, I've had a couple of thoughts. The first was some sort of shadow-pouncer, probably using Telflammar Shadowlord with either an Ardent or a Warlock entry. The second was a more straightforward Swordsage build, focused on Shadow Hand, which will give me the mobility and ability to disable enemies.

But thinking more, I also kind of like Factotum for this build... if I'm shooting for CR 15ish, Factotum 8/Trapsmith 1/Swiftblade 6 could also be pretty nice. Factotum will give me any skills I need, and the ability to use Inspiration to get out of sticky situations. Going into Swiftblade gives me some very nice defenses, especially Blurred Alacrity and Evasive Celerity. The Trapsmith casting is decent but won't overwhelm the PCs at lower levels.

So unless I get brilliant inspiration in another direction, I plan to build him as a Factotum 8/Trapsmith 1/Swiftblade 6. If I decide I need to bump up his CR a little bit, going up to Swiftblade 8 would be pretty nice - Diligent Rapidity would be a wonderful option for this guy.

If I do go this route, I'd be interested in build advice. Obviously I could go the easy route, just hit the pre-reqs for Swiftblade and take nothing but Font of Inspiration for the rest. That said, it might be nice to fit in Imperious Command and possibly Practiced Spellcaster. And I'm not absolutely tied to the Factotum/Swiftblade route, so if anyone has any cool thoughts, I'm open to suggestions.

[Qwertystop]

Looks cool.

[Kol Korran]

as have been said- it's a cool idea.

when i read the basic descriptions the idea that came to mind was Binder- he has learned enough of vestiges that now he is almost a vestige himself (in a weird perverted way, at least in operation). he can amplify his possessed victims in secretive ways, with the power of binding, and the PCs might suspect some sort of demonic possession going on.

i am not familiar enough with binders (just started reading about them) to suggest vestiges and a build on how to make him an escape master, but as i understood- there is a vestige for everything.

or, if you're using action points- the extreme explorer PrC might grant him enough action points and cool uses for them to make him survive a Loooong time.

i'd suggest making him a changeling- a man of many faces, taking on many faces. he may uses different faces in his natural form (and perhaps different vestiges) and displaying different personalities (perhaps associated to the possessed that was just killed?) so that the party might think these... apparitions are a new type of creature, perhaps one "coming out" of the deceased.

but the BBEG learns of the PCs, and perhaps tries to counter their tactics. this might give the party the feel of an organization against them. imagine their surprise when they find this is all the same... "person".

just my thoughts...

[Diefje]

Is that a half-ooze grappler with tentaclefuntime(ex)? Unholy mother of Vecna...

[Runestar]

Fiend folio has the fiend of possession prc. However, it effectively can only be taken by fiends (who are by definition virtually immortal), though savage species does have a ritual for granting the evil subtype.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7518.0

Here's the fiend of possession handbook.

[Gabe the Bard]

I'm always partial to bards, but I think it would be a good fit in this case. He could be an orator with high charisma, able to influence people with his speeches. He would be able to acquire the information he needs using bardic knowledge and gather information. He would have some spellcasting, including mobility spells like dimension door, but spells per day would be limited compared to a full caster, especially if you have martial classes in the mix.

I like shadow themes in general, but this BBEG's shtick seems more physical in its manifestation. I would stick to that, maybe even give him Spell Thematics so all his spells have a black, inky theme.

To make him a stronger combatant, I would look for something with higher hit points. Swiftblade is certainly fast and mobile, but it's a bit squishy with d6 hit dice. A crusader could soak up a lot of damage, and a bardblade would just be lethal, with song of the white raven to progress inspire courage and use it as a swift action.

Jade Phoenix Mage might be good if you want give him more casting, but it could also make the character's story more interesting. JPMs are immortal in a sense, since they are reincarnated every time they die and have to be awakened by another JPM. However, maybe this guy was a JPM would decided that he didn't want to hit reset over and over through eternity. Spiritual immortality was no longer enough; he wanted to keep the same body. He wanted to be free of the cycle of reincarnation, but the ritual that transformed him also corrupted his soul so that he can no longer be reincarnated if he dies. So in reality he sacrificed his true spiritual immortality for longer physical life. The irony of this is that he is now constantly taking over other people's bodies in order to stay hidden and stay alive because the other JPMs are hunting him.

[Son of Malice]

If you really want it to be a physical possession then I would say the Tsochar from Lords of Madness might be worth a look. They do almost exactly what you describe.