Liches and Vampires and Death Tyrants, oh my!

[dukeofwolfsgate]

I need a little help choose a final type of undead for a plot thread in my current game.

My group's usual DM is a little flaky, and on the nights he cancels we play a fast and loose "sky-pirates" game that I GM. There are lots of flying ships, floating islands, and the 4e lineup of gods from the DMG. One of the players has build a unique character with my supervision. He is playing a soul returned to the mortal realm by The Raven Queen to hunt those who have either escaped the afterlife without her permission or cheated death through un-life.

After hunting down a pirate captain/Reventant with the help of the party, his goddess has given him five new targets. I've created a Lich, a Death Tyrant, a Dracolich, and a Vampire as future villains that he and the rest of the party can take on. However, I'm having trouble coming up with a cool/unique final undead foe for him.

Can anyone give me some ideas?

They don't necessarily have to be from the MM, but either way I would like something unique about them, as I have put a lot of effort into making the other four different and memorable.

[Naanomi]

You have nothing incorporeal on that list, I'd start there (Spectre, or Ghost with class levels?)

Bone Naga also has potential, and Munmy Lord as well

[Envyus]

Mummy Lord or Death Knight. Mummy Lord if you want all of your undead to be legendary. An Acererak style Demilcih in it's lair is the most powerful undead in the game currently so that is a good option too.

[Once a Fool]

Sky pirates, huh?

Definitely a Death Knight, but flavored to look like a skeleton with a cutlass. And an eyepatch.

[Inevitability]

Maybe use something that is not exactly undead, but very close to it? A shadow dragon, for example. Said dragon may be flying around seemingly at random, killing mortals with its necrotic breath and raising them as shadows everywhere. Eventually, it takes over a ship and starts using it to spread its shadowy servants all over the islands. You decide at which point the PC's come in.

I suggest to keep the description of the Raven Queen cryptic for this one. Imagine your player's surprise when they discover their foe is not undead at all!

[Aramis Rhett]

Why not a homebrewed "Frankenstein" made of bits and pieces of long dead wizards with power borderlining, or equaling, that of the Chosen?
Though made of the dead, given "life" in a Frankenstein-esque manner, you could have a super monster, neither undead nor living but a half-dead. With the strengths of both, but none of the weaknesses.
Would be a great pinnacle to a story like what you describe. Imo anyway.

[Fwiffo86]

They don't necessarily have to be from the MM, but either way I would like something unique about them, as I have put a lot of effort into making the other four different and memorable.

Sort of a Reverse Lich. A man who maintains immortality (not actual undead) by stealing and consuming the souls of others. These souls are bound to him and trapped until his is forcibly removed from his own mortal coil.

[Shining Wrath]

What about a cleric of an evil god of death who, instead of being undead himself, has set himself up as a one-stop shop for those who wish to become undead themselves? If you want to become a vampire, he's got a vampire on call who will drain you dry and then set you free. If you want to perform the unspeakably evil ritual to become a lich, he's got a whole book of rituals to choose from, a selection of foul laboratories, and a wide assortment of sentient life forms for the ritual sacrifices.

As one might imagine, he charges high prices for his services, and as a result has been able to hire the very best guards, equip them and himself with the very best magical doo-dads, and set himself up as the classic BBEG who's only modestly tough - if you can get past his minions, who are EXTREMELY bad dudes.

Oh, and he uses black magic of some sort to prolong his own life - bathing in the blood of children mixed with the tears shed by their mothers, that sort of vile stuff.

[mrumsey]

Possibly some form of Neutral Cleric who has been saving people from certain death/perma-death through a complex ritual. His services only include extremely wealthy/important/powerful individuals, as his existence isn't well known. This ritual could take a portion of the soul of the target to fuel his current life (not necessarily un-death, but well beyond his normal means). The ritual could even have originally been given to him by the Raven Queen to be a tool for rewarding her faithful, and he modified it to extend his life, bypassing their contract or some such. It could be an interesting twist that would throw in an additional wrench of having a boss be 1) not evil and 2) not undead.

[Louro]

I'd go with shinning wrath suggestion, but if you don't have time enough to set up that (bodyguards, lair, traps...) and want some epic unknown foe here you have my blood prince.

Medium undead. Speed 30 ft. Evil.
Vulnerable to radiant damage.

Curse of the necrotic blood 1/day.
AoE for slow effect that records all necrotic damage over 3 rounds to deal it again when expires. Will save for slow effect, con save for half dmg.
Reaction: Blood mist 5/6. Turns his body into mist filling an AoE for 1d8 necrotic damage while invulnerable to single target stuff, last until next round.
Action: Cantrip "Blood transfer" trading 2d8+bonus. Attack roll.
Action: Blood shield C up to 1 min. Anyone within 5 ft suffers 1d8 necrotic dmg
Bonus action: whenever anyone suffers necrotic dmg, he can cast blood transfer as a bonus action.
Bonus action: Blood boil: If below half HP he can enter frenzy to get physical, acid and fire resistance. If he gets cold damage the frenzy finishes immediately rendering him exhausted.

Nasty. He offers a chance for previous research. Finding the cold damage weakness makes a big difference. Add HP and change damage according to party level.