Sub Zero in 3.5 or Pathfinder?

[Krazzman]

Hello again Playground,

I've been watching some old episodes of NC (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic) and especially his episodes about Mortal Kombat grew some ideas for me. Ok I have to admit... Mortal Kombat might not be the best source to find PC/Villain ideas but I was searching for something.

In order to do this I searched a bit and found some good thoughts about this already.

For PF a Monk actually suffices. Actually it "has" to be a pretty high leveled Quinggong Monk that uses the Dragon Style (I think or another... someone actually made a villain with freezing and ice kicks and stuff).
Back to 3.5. For 3.5 they said there would be either Monk/Wiz Enlightened Fist going for Energy Substitution [Cold] or a Swordsage with Martial Lore maxed that establishes a new Discipline similar to shadowhand and setting sun with ice flavour.

Now the thing is how would you Build it and what would be the lowest level to achieve Sub Zero's abilities (Throwing Ice-Blasts, Ice Punches, Freezing enemies, Ice Teleport and his Ice glide)?

I hope you can help me with this as this began gnashing at the back of my head for quite some time now and I should really finally decide the first villain for the group I'm DMing right now.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Swordsage. Shadow Hand has everything you need for teleportation and some cold-based attacks. If you want more, multiclass with Cryokeneticist (suggested re-theme for Pyrokeneticist).

Alternately, Swordsage/Warlock with Hellrime Blast and Chilling Tentacles.

[Deth Muncher]

Oh man, I did this a while back. Let me hunt around the forum and see if I can find it - it's a bit hard with the Search function down, though.

[Susano-wo]

just going to add that there is the Elemental Fist featfrom the Avanced Players Guide. It has Monk-lvl uses per day and adds +1d6 energy damage

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/elemental-fist-combat

You would have to flavor-restrict yourself to Cold, since it can do any of hte 5 types, but it works for adding ice stuff ala Sub Zero

[ericgrau]

Wall of ice (level 4) hemisphere version lets you surround a foe with ice with no save for about a round until he breaks out. The wall and ramp forms are also handy. Slipstream (APG) boosts your move speed by riding on water; you could refluff it as slippery ice that rapidly melts. Chill touch is superb on monk/caster hybrids because every one of your punches gets an extra +1d6 damage (no save) and save or 1 strength damage.

If you can't get all that from qigong monk then you could try monk 1/sorcerer 4/dragon disciple X (white dragon type). Because your spells have no save, focus on str with the minimum necessary cha. Boost cha with magic items later on to keep up.

In combat I would start by icing foes at a distance then melee flurry when they finally manage to reach you. I'd hold the charge on chill touch all day but don't be afraid to lose the charge if you have a good chance to use range spells the way I said. Basically against multiple foes you start trapping the stronger ones in ice hemispheres to trade actions with no save while your allies pick off the weaker ones. Against single foes, against undead, or with no clear stronger foe and more than 4 enemies you can flurry chill touch.

Cold ice strike (UM) is a 6th level swift action ice spell dealing 1d6 ice damage in a 30 ft. line. Very nice in melee. There's also cone of cold of course. For teleporting there's dimension door.

[Krazzman]

For my Pathfinder group I would like to use this as a major recurring villain (the Contingency Clone sort of villain).

So far they have some recurring madness stuff that follows them just to mess with them. The Frostelven Swift Hunter [3.5 Scout upgraded for pathfinder] has seen her Mirrorimage do seppuku (or how you write it), the Barbarian/Oracle has a Stuffed Teddy Bear following him around and for the Witch and Druid... I'm still uncertain.

So in that sense Stats would be pretty "I-don't-care" sort of while I'm thinking about how to actually build him without killing them when I play him intelligent. I thought about using either 5d6b4 as our old dm did that most of the time for his villains or just using an "Villain Elite Array" (18 16 14 14 12 10).

Monk1/Sorc4/DD1 would be a CR6 for a Party of 4 right? I'm unsure about using 1, 2 or 3 levels of DD for his first occurence.

Still open would be Race - probably going for a sort of possessed Human - and Feats (between 3 and 4 Feats).

Thanks for the advice so far.

[ericgrau]

If he's a lone villain against the party then trading actions with a single party member becomes a bad deal. But as he learns the party weaknesses he might still hemisphere certain people once he gets 4th level spells. For example if the wizard doesn't prepare any direct damage. Mage armor is also major on monk/caster hybrids. Greater magic weapon is nice too. I noticed ki arrow (UM) which does your unarmed strike damage in an arrow from up to 100 feet away. I assume elemental fist would apply too. But that would disrupt his held touches from chill touch. In general I'd mage armor long before attacking, hold a chill touch and that way he can start attacking round 1. Or if he has time to buff he could down a potion, such as protection from good, so he doesn't disrupt his held touch.

Dragon disciple wouldn't work in 3.5 alone because it doesn't advance casting, but it works in PF. Depends on the rules you're using.

Generally in PF, NPC CR is level - 1. So the above is CR 5. But they also normally get reduced wealth compared to PCs and normal elite array ability scores. If you make the CR equal to the party level, it would be a routine encounter; probably not what you want for a memorable villain. I'd go 2 higher for a challenging fight. Or 4 higher if you want him to have about a 50:50 shot of winning, but that means a 50:50 shot of TPK or capturing the whole party. The party's optimization level is also a factor.

[Krazzman]

Hmm not soooo much Lone as part of a greater thing with his own minions.

But should be the "endboss" on a short escapade.

I think I have to elaborate a bit more.

The PC's are part of a pretty hardmixed tribe in the northern borderregion of Rashemen. The Winter might be Hard but food is "plenty" thanks to the Tribe leader being 2 Druids, a Witch and a "Dragon Shaman".

The PC's itself are a Frostelven Swift Hunter with a Timberlion Pet (not AC yet) with Favoured Enemy Dragons (due to being part of a Dragon-Hunter/Protector-Tribe), 2 Humans: a Witch and a Lame-Cursed Oracle/Barbarian with a Greatsword and the newbie a Half Elven Druid with a Mountain Plate and the Trickery (Only the first level ability) and Weather Domain.

So far they started with finding a new place for the Tribe and ridding a Mountainsite of their Cobold-Cave and found out it actually was a Dwarven Mine before.
The Tribe now uses this as Base of "operations". They fortified the place and the Party was sent to kill a Wendigo Spawn (CR 5).

In my Plans "SubZero", the Necromancer and the Orcs from the North work together. Additionally there are a few Dragons in "close" proximity (the nearest a 2 day travel away) and a few Dragon-Kobolds nearby.

Now I plan to start with SubZero's Minions (Elemental Monks) attacking them to free their Master out of a "dungeoncrawl" because the PC's already have the key for that. At the End they have to fight him but he'll get resurrected by either his White Dragon Patron or the Necromancer.

TL;DR: PC's base is a Mountain with some NPC's (roughly level 10) and such as a Tribe. They function as "Magic'R'Us" and spiritual guidance. Later War against Invading Orc Tribe, Attack from Below (Drow/Other deepdwellers) and Necromancer attack and "Sub Zero" Incident not in that order.

I hope this helps envision the stuff I have planned a bit more.