Ideas for a crafty general/warrior?

[DarkEternal]

Hey Playground. My campaign is coming to an end, and it deals with the party storming the heart of the evil empire. Before they reach the emperor himself, however, I would like it they fought against one of his most trusted generals. Now, I envisioned him to be a crafty old bastard, the real sly one that managed to stay alive through subterfuge and making things go his way. He's loyal to the emperor to the fault, even if he condemns the empire for being rotten and corrupted. But allegiance is allegiance.

Even with all that, I kind of envisioned him as a cleric...or at the very least some kind of a warrior with magical abilities, and I'd like your help in making it an encounter which the party will prevail over but say afterwards stuff like "Damn...no wonder they kept this old guy to guard the final encounter". The party level is 14 and they are fairly optimised, though not overly so. They are made out of a scout, wizard, psi warrior, soulblade/dragon disciple, and a homebrew guy who focuses on ranged touch attacks and status effects with his minions.

I was thinking, he'd use stuff like talking to them while poisonous gas(that he's immune to via some spell or antidote) would slowly seep into the room, and the party would catch wind of it just before it's too late, or having some other trap above trap settled before him so that it seems like he's always in control of the situation, or at the very least aiming more towards things that are not just "rush in buffed to the teeth and break faces".

Think you can help me make this an encounter to remember?

[Th3N3xtGuy]

Duskblade 3/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Sorcerer 11

Wear Medium Armor and use a blade while casting spells like a pro!

Edit: Well you could lower the Sorcerer level down to make him weaker if needed. Also make sure he uses a type of mage armor to boost his AC +Abjurant Champions AC boost.

[Zaq]

Well, action economy makes fighting him as a single target pretty much a non-starter on your end. Unless he's just so powerful that the party basically can't win against him, there's no good way of making a single enemy really threatening and memorable, just because the party will action economy him into the ground.

So you either have to stack the environmental deck, a lot, or you have to give him some kind of underlings. Now, I don't know which of those options will work best for your group. (You might even combine them.) I'm not sure what kind of environmental challenges the party is still vulnerable to at level 14, for example. If you do give him underlings, consider making him a Warblade or a Crusader with some high-level White Raven maneuvers, making him a real force multiplier. (If you still want him to have magic, perhaps he could be a Ruby Knight Vindicator.) It kind of sounds like you want him to be all alone, but I don't think that's likely to be a good idea, just because action economy is king.

[DarkEternal]

Well, action economy makes fighting him as a single target pretty much a non-starter on your end. Unless he's just so powerful that the party basically can't win against him, there's no good way of making a single enemy really threatening and memorable, just because the party will action economy him into the ground.

So you either have to stack the environmental deck, a lot, or you have to give him some kind of underlings. Now, I don't know which of those options will work best for your group. (You might even combine them.) I'm not sure what kind of environmental challenges the party is still vulnerable to at level 14, for example. If you do give him underlings, consider making him a Warblade or a Crusader with some high-level White Raven maneuvers, making him a real force multiplier. (If you still want him to have magic, perhaps he could be a Ruby Knight Vindicator.) It kind of sounds like you want him to be all alone, but I don't think that's likely to be a good idea, just because action economy is king.

I don't have a problem with underlings, just that he's more of a villain that actually uses stuff to his advantage. Keep the party talking while his underlings buff up, or while some trap is set in motion, and then strike. I was thinking of giving him at least two or three underlings which would wait in another room, maybe waiting for the signal to strike.

[Seclora]

Seconding Warblade. It is the Int based warrior class really. Give him the 5 ranks in balance, make all the floors ice, or have him throw marbles. Use Gust of Wind or Wind Wall traps to give him an advantage against Archers, fliers too to a certain extent, and have him set them off on purpose. Fog Cloud Trap on the entire room that resets every round, and him with Hear the Air so he can fight in reduced visibility.
Or make him a cleric, keep those traps, cast Blindsight. Maybe cast Deeper Darkness instead of Fog Cloud, give him the Baator planar domain(Hell LOVES loyal to a fault) so he can see even in magical darkness. Summon Devils, which can also see and have good teamwork ability.

[DarkEternal]

Seconding Warblade. It is the Int based warrior class really. Give him the 5 ranks in balance, make all the floors ice, or have him throw marbles. Use Gust of Wind or Wind Wall traps to give him an advantage against Archers, fliers too to a certain extent, and have him set them off on purpose. Fog Cloud Trap on the entire room that resets every round, and him with Hear the Air so he can fight in reduced visibility.
Or make him a cleric, keep those traps, cast Blindsight. Maybe cast Deeper Darkness instead of Fog Cloud, give him the Baator planar domain(Hell LOVES loyal to a fault) so he can see even in magical darkness. Summon Devils, which can also see and have good teamwork ability.

Nice. I definetly believe Blindsight-darkness combination might be a good thing.

[Maxrim]

If you are interested in a 1v5 against the party, there are ways to make that work. The point that Zaq brought up about the action economy is valid, but not the end-all-be-all.

If this fella has a way to take advantage of those odds, it could make an interesting fight. Robilar's Gambit provides that against your melees. Being a Karsite or using Spell Turning can turn it against the casters. Alternatively, depending of course on how your casters fight, he could just have high saves.

A Warblade/Blackguard would be somewhat MAD, but you could just give him nice stats. High Cha for saves, High Dex for Combat Reflexes/Robilar's Gambit, and Int/Str/Con for stuff.

Another way to show that he's prepared and to increase the encounter's scale is for him to have Revivify and Dimension Door (or what have you) contingencied for when he would die.

[Doctor Awkward]

Well, action economy makes fighting him as a single target pretty much a non-starter on your end.

Factotum 20.

Problem solved.


They are the definition of warriors who can use their Intelligence to it's fullest in combat. They even come complete with your choice of cherry picked arcane spells, sneak attack, standard action nova, and any other 15th level Ex class abilities you think he would find useful.

[DMVerdandi]

Surprised no-one suggested ruby knight Windicator yet.

Cloistered Cleric 5/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10
Take the magic domain and trickery domain. Load him up with wands and other magic items.

Possibly take leadership to get him a cohort. Cleric of shadow and trickery perhaps. Or maybe just an illusionist wizard/war weaver. Give that cohort a cohort, maybe this time just a straight bruiser. Half orc Barbarian.

Get the smiting spell and quicken spell metamagic feats for the general so that you can add your spells to your maneuvers and attacks.
Also Practiced spell caster so that he can make up for the loss in caster levels.

And Craft Contingent spell. Have the casters say a power word to start up all of their favorite buffs.

[DarkEternal]

All great suggestions. I definetely have my hands full now trying to think of the one that would thematically be the best.