3.5 Character Driven Campaign Villain Help

[Blackhawk748]

Ok so me and my group are running an entirely character driven campaign in Ravenloft, this means that we dont have an overarching plot, just whatever was in our characters backstories, and anything we can toss at ourselves. Now the party consists of the following;

1.Half Elf Warblade/Bard gonna be a Warchanter and a Bladesinger (me)
2.Tel-Amhothlen Wizard/Rogue/Daggerspell Mage
3.Tel-Amhothlen Rogue
4. Aasimar Shugenja
5. Gnome Wizard (golem crafter)

Characters 2 and 3 are brothers and thieves, the Wizard learned his spells necause they stole a Wizards spellbook, so he is their past Villain, he just isnt stated out yet. (for those of you who are undoubtedly confused as to what a Tel-Amhothlen is i shall enlighten you, its a Half Elf half Orc from KoK)

The Aasimar just kinda dropped into the campaign, quite literally, so as such doesnt have a villain in her past, which is kinda problematic.

The gnome is gonna be pulled in in the next session from Eberron, and he loves golems and is probably gonna be a bit of a warmonger.

Now heres where we need help
1. We have nothing on the Wizard. The thieves never saw him and as such we have no idea as to his power, now its up to those to players to make him but i would like to give them some suggestions.

2.We have absolutely nothing for the Shugenja, i mean at all. She got pulled into Ravenloft from an Oriental setting, now shes NG so we figured that a NE......thing? got pulled in too, just to balance things out. The problem is what.

3. Now the gnome plans on making golems and selling them, so we can screw with him with that as he is gonna start out by arming both sides in a war, and then try to avoid slipping to starting his own for profit.

4. And finally me, im playing the Barblade, and my personal BBEG is a Vampyre that is going to try to take my characters love away from him, now aside from him being a suave SoB all ive got for concept on him is that he is a very formidable swordsman.

So thanks in advance, and any and all help is much appreciated.

[Grayson01]

Okay for the Shugenja you can have a rivel Demon or Devil of the Celestial parent have had him sucked into Ravenloft as a way of getting back at the Parent. Or you could have a "Mad Scientist" (Or Alcemist) Dark Lord of Ravenloft be extreamly intrested in the half breed or in their rare form of Divine Magic and summoned them here to capture and exsperment on him/her. For the Devil or Demon I like a Chain Devil with some Class levels maybe Warlock or Warblade.

For the Vampire I just got the idea of a LE Vampire Knight, how focuses on Swordplay has this strict code of honor and challenes you to duels and tries to win your lover over by showing her that he has more prowess with the blade He can have dominated Bard minons who follow him around as his heralds play drums as he martchs and lists his accomplisments such as who he has drained and brides he has taken.

For the WIzard you should make him a Lich who inhabits both Ravenloft and the otehr plane. Basiclly people who cross him he curses to enter Ravenloft so that his other half can punish them slowly! Or he can be an evil counter part a Good living version in the other relm and an undead Evil version in Ravenloft and what happens to one happens to the other so when you stole the book from one teh book cursed you drawing you to it's counter point.

[Blackhawk748]

I like the idea for the vampire, its totally awesome and works great for what i had in mind. Now for the Aasimar, we actually just came up with something similar. The player used the PF Blood of Angels to make his character and as such accidentally made a catgirl, so we are gonna make a tiefling that is a Water Shugenja and wolf themed, so his polar opposite.

Now for the wizard, i am intrigued by the evil opposite idea, so ill run that by them.

[Fable Wright]

For the Shugena, the character that draws divine power from the elements around her, why not make a Tiefling Ur-Priest/Entropomancer? Someone who steals divine powers to fuel the lack of elements. Hexblade might make an interesting lead-in class for Ur-Priest in this case.

The Wizard is someone I would make a Diviner, the exact worst person for a thief to steal from. Someone who knows everything about the thieves, where their book is, and exactly the best way to punish them for stealing it, through indirect means.

As for the gnome... really, if he's from Eberron, he needs to have a Warforged enemy. A sentient war-veteran constructs who despises war-mongers, especially those who use golems, and who will stop at nothing to stop the gnome. I'm thinking totemist: Linked to organic creatures, as opposed to inorganic ones, and a machine that is very much alive and has a soul.

The Vampire... really shouldn't be a Knight, if you want him to be suave. Consider a Bard 7/Swiftblade X with Snowflake Wardance; now he has a use for incredibly high charisma in swordplay, access to a huge number of social skills, spells to give him an edge, and a natural foil to a bardblade in combat. He focuses on stacking a huge number of bonuses (racial Vampire Strench and Charisma, Inspire Courage, and so on) on a flurry of rapid attacks that are otherwise unaugmented, as opposed to a ToB character, who makes few, but extraordinarily impressive, attacks in a round. For fun, make him LE, have him call himself a Knight, and have a strict sense of honor and challenge people to duels all the time, but have no mechanical repercussions if he fights underhanded.

[Blackhawk748]

For the Shugena, the character that draws divine power from the elements around her, why not make a Tiefling Ur-Priest/Entropomancer? Someone who steals divine powers to fuel the lack of elements. Hexblade might make an interesting lead-in class for Ur-Priest in this case.

The Wizard is someone I would make a Diviner, the exact worst person for a thief to steal from. Someone who knows everything about the thieves, where their book is, and exactly the best way to punish them for stealing it, through indirect means.

As for the gnome... really, if he's from Eberron, he needs to have a Warforged enemy. A sentient war-veteran constructs who despises war-mongers, especially those who use golems, and who will stop at nothing to stop the gnome. I'm thinking totemist: Linked to organic creatures, as opposed to inorganic ones, and a machine that is very much alive and has a soul.

The Vampire... really shouldn't be a Knight, if you want him to be suave. Consider a Bard 7/Swiftblade X with Snowflake Wardance; now he has a use for incredibly high charisma in swordplay, access to a huge number of social skills, spells to give him an edge, and a natural foil to a bardblade in combat. He focuses on stacking a huge number of bonuses (racial Vampire Strench and Charisma, Inspire Courage, and so on) on a flurry of rapid attacks that are otherwise unaugmented, as opposed to a ToB character, who makes few, but extraordinarily impressive, attacks in a round. For fun, make him LE, have him call himself a Knight, and have a strict sense of honor and challenge people to duels all the time, but have no mechanical repercussions if he fights underhanded.

These.....................are awesome. Now the Shugenja wants his enemy to be another Shugenja, so can a Shugenja qualify for Ur-Priest, because that concept is awesome.

[Fable Wright]

These.....................are awesome. Now the Shugenja wants his enemy to be another Shugenja, so can a Shugenja qualify for Ur-Priest, because that concept is awesome.

Technically, yes. However, as Shujena is a Divine class, Ur-Priest will cause the Shujena to lose their previous spellcasting ability. As the Shugenja has a rather poor chassis and only abilities at first level, however, I would recommend keeping any Shugenja levels as a 1-level dip only. Perhaps spin the tale of a young, cursed Tiefling warrior (e.g. Hexblade) who sought to learn healing magic to learn to rectify the effects his bad luck had on others, but was cast out of the temple when his bad luck disturbed the tranquility of the Shugenja, who then, angered at the uncaring and aloof nature of the shugenja, turned to stealing energy from the primal forces of the universe and sought to master the element of Void in a way no Shugenja ever could, embracing his cursed heritage in the process. Mechanically, this would be a Hexblade 4/Shugenja 1/Ur-Priest 5/Entropomancer 10 as the final progression, retraining a bunch of the Hexblade skill points on the Shugenja level as part of his training in the Shugenja ways, and nabbing the Dark Companion ACF to boot. While it's only got one level of Shugenja and so might not fly too well with the player, the build gets a lot out of Hexblade 4 in fluff and crunch, the Shugenja level does make a difference in the build (access to the skills needed for Ur-Priest) and ties in well with the backstory.