Designing Big Bad

[Judge_Worm]

I need help deciding what to do with the BBEG build. So far he's a gestalt Paladin of Tyranny and Sorcerer (in a non gestalt campaign). I was thinking of doing five more pally levels, and then five Eldritch Knight or just doing ten Crusader, and on the other side, doing 10 levels of Diabolist. The general theme is fire/paladin gone horribly right wrong. He's gonna be a reoccurring villain that doesn't seem that bad at first, just a little bit crazy, the unfettered when it comes to stopping chaos, to the point he commands legions of undead, and plans on collapsing the celestial plane onto the material plane, then merging this with the nine hells and launching an invasion of the chaotic planes, but hey we all get a little wacky from time to time. Even so, the plan is that the players won't realize how truly despicable (and insane) he is until they visit his lair on the elemental plane of fire.
His background is as a paladin with natural arcane powers. He used to be*the number one paladin, until he decided he would fight the forces of chaos for all eternity- so he became a lich, which isn't how he fell. He fell because his phylactery was a living creature, his Pegasus mount. He later*created a second (and third) phylactery, the second is his fortress on the elemental plane of fire. The third is created during the campaign. Because of using it as a phylactery, his mount fell when he fell, his original familiar left him at this time as well.


Yakkob Devith the Burning Knight
Half-Fire Elemental Elf Lich
Medium Outsider (Undead)
Paladin of Tyranny 10/Sorcerer 10
Deity: Wee Jas
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 16, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 22
HP: 110
Languages: Common, Infernal, Elven, Draconic, Ignan, Celestial
Special: Has smite/detect chaos instead of good
Items: Masterwork Cloth Armor (+3, no AC penalty), +3 Ignan Adamantine Kukri, +3 Implacable Silver Kukri, +2 Darkwood Bow of Mighty Smiting, +1 Cold Iron Arrows of Cold Fire (count as magical cold for overcoming resistances and dealing damage)
Special: Lay on Hands (instead of Inflict Wounds), and Smite/Detect Chaos (instead of Good)

Mount: Winged Nightmare (formerly a Pegasus)
Familiar: Imp
Cohorts: Erinyes, Necropolitan Half-Elf cleric of Wee Jas, Incarnate Blackstone Gigant

[Blackhawk748]

personally id say go another 10 levels of Paladin of Tyranny and 10 Diabolist on the other side. Paladin spells are pretty nice especially if you have Battle Blessing

[The Ravensong]

If you aren't dead set on Sorcerer as the secondary class, Warlock into Hellfire Warlock would provide an interesting gish options. It would give him access to tricks like flight, entropic shield, animate dead with relatively low upkeep on your part. And with access to the Hellfire Blast from Hellfire Warlock he can burn points of his own constitution to do extra damage... which sounds pretty fluffy for a crazy pyromancer. You'd have to burn a couple feats to keep the imp as a familiar with that route, however...
That said, in the adaptation for hellfire warlock it does have options for retooling the mechanics to work for a sorcerer instead.

For the current build, Daggerspell Mage (ignoring the good requirement) would be an excellent choice as it would allow you to cast spells while dual weilding those kukri. Going this route I would suggest Paladin of Tyranny all down the one end with Sorc5/Daggerspell5/Hellfire3/Daggerspell5/x2

Another interesting option would be to instead go into the Pyrokineticist PRC from Expanded Psionics, which would give him the ability to basically gain an improved version of the flaming weapon ability on his kukri (+2d6 fire at level 4, +4d6 at level 8). And he can set himself on fire. That's pretty cool.

Also depending on his particular flavor of crazy, The Evangelist PRC from complete divine has some interesting bard-like abilities that can allow him to give himself and all allies within 30ft the effects of fire shield (except half of the damage is divine) as well as the ability to *ahem* "Convert the Unfaithful". This functions like a charm effect that has the added effect temporarily CHANGING THEIR ALIGNMENT TO MATCH HIS. At the end of the effect the target has the choice of staying the new alignment or shifting back... but they have to make a save if they want to continue to benefit from any alignment based powers they have. So if this particular antagonist is building an army/cult/posse/whathaveyou, this would be a pretty fluffy option to represent his ability to draw other people into his madness.