RISE OF THE RUNELORDS SPOILERS [3.P] Building a Better Boss

[Novawurmson]

IF YOU ARE PLAYING RISE OF THE RUNELORDS OR HOPE TO AVOID SPOILERS, STOP READING NOW!

Good? Good.

I recently finished DMing Burnt Offerings for my Pathfinder group, and they had a blast. We did one session in Skinsaw Murders and are taking a break for a week or two for the holidays, so I've got time to plan for a little bit, which is a damn good thing, because they got way further than I planned.

The party spent little time puttering about the mill looking for clues and immediately left to see the infected bodyguard. Upon hearing the phrase "The Misgivings," an amazing Knowledge (Local) roll led them right to the mansion. The part took a lot of ability damage from the haunts, but steamrolled the undead (with the one exception of the undead bat, which they snuck past). They found the note from the lamia and now know that Aldern is undead and behind the murders - but I decided that Aldern was not in the house when they were, to save hunting him down for another session.

Aldern is supposed to be a dread ghoul aristocrat/rogue...which seems pretty lame to me, especially if the party is going to have to hunt him down. An idea came to me recently, though: Factotum. Extra standard actions will help him with action economy issues (the party is very smart about killing mooks before focusing the boss), and he'll have limited spellcasting - enough at least to use Alter Self to turn himself into the PCs and perform horrible crimes - casting heavy suspicions on the party that they'll have to stop him to overcome.

1. What cool undead templates are there? Necropolitan comes to mind, but he was supposed to be turned by a horrible disease; something that gives him a spore cloud or similar might be interesting.

2. What are some other suggestions for building him? The party is 6th level (fairly optimized), and consists of a Summoner (uses Haste, Eidolon can put out good damage and a little CC), Rogue (has a few 3.5 feats so that she can almost always get a full attack with sneak attack damage), a Ranger (swift hunter build, can put out a lot of damage when he gets skirmish), and a Warblade.

3. What are some evil things a Factotum who wants to hurt someone can do?

[Corlindale]

I totally agree that Aldern could use a boost. I ran him as written against my party, and they pretty much demolished him (and they are all total PF newbies, and their party is not really optimized at all). Really anticlimactic after all the cool horror of the house.

He's built for sneak attacking, but he'll never get to use that sneak attack much, since he is a solo monster, and explicitly announces his presence as soon as the PCs arrive in his room, if encountered in the house.

Factotum is a cool idea. As for offense Use Magic Device is always a powerful choice (esp combined with extra standard actions!) - and his mistress could easily have given him some potent scrolls to ease his work.

You do have some pretty powerful melee classes though, in what seems to be a fairly optimized party, so once they get to him he's pretty much dead - maybe give him some extra defensive power too.

Also consider his obsession - he may have acquired a scroll or learned another trick particularly appropriate for targetting whatever PC is the object of it.

On the subject of Skinsaw Murder bosses, you should also start considering Xanesha - because while Aldern is woefully underpowered she is clearly at the other end of the spectrum, and can easily destroy an unprepared party, especially since she is almost impossible to hurt for appropriately leveled PCs.

[Novawurmson]

Hmm...wands could be cool, especially because the Summoner has been pumping his UMD skill, so it would be good loot as well.

Any suggestions on spells to put in the wands?