Evil cheats.

[Clopin Silk]

This is just me spitballing a couple of ideas for bad guys who might have difficulty dealing with the party in a fair fight, but are far too smart to ever get into one.

First up is a villain, probably a low-level operative of the BBEG, who uses spells like Mass Suggestion, Mass Dominate, or just plain plot magic to control child soldiers. It presents an interesting challenge in the simple fact that a good-aligned party can't risk hurting the children. If you want to be a real bastard, give one child a fireball wand, and have the villain threaten to make the child break it unless the party surrenders. To be an even bigger bastard, reveal that one of the 'children' was actually a halfling or gnome working with the villain, and have the little blighter take them by surprise.
The next idea is an old classic; the miniboss squad made up of people who each counter one member of the party. To win, the party needs to switch opponents.
And finally, something that could work nicely for the BBEG; make the bastard a psion or wizard who uses the Mindrape spell to make one of his underlings believe themselves to be him, and enjoy the looks on their faces when you reveal that actually, they killed the big bad's right hand man; they still have to deal with the real thing.
If you can work out how to make the first one work, please tell me, especially if it could work with a Bard for the whole 'pied piper' angle, and please share your own dirty tricks.

[John Longarrow]

For the first one, very high diplomacy check to get fanatical followers.

[Segev]

Look at the Necrotic Cyst line of spells on Liberia Morris. For your purposes, I draw special attention to Necrotic Domination and Necrotic Tumor.

Consider, too, the possibilities of detonating a sweet little urchin while the party tries to rescue him. Now they may also be infected with a Cyst.

[Efrate]

Children having no class levels or anything means they will have a +0 will, so with a large enough sample size even low DC spells will work well. Necrotic cyst is great, or madness of a sort brought on taint if you use taint rules as well. A more relevant idea that can be a hook is some kind of cursed cauldron or something that automatically dominates anyone who eats out of it, and then there is the orphanage in the big city taking care of all these children...

Disguise self works as well IIRC to make adults appear like children for a more effective group of soldiers.

Weird plot maguffin specific rituals that rob the children of their normal minds could also work, so they must be saved as well, adding another layer onto it. Because if you mind rape someone to the point of being a totally merciless killer your PCs can make an argument that they aren't children anymore and therefore they do not need to hold back. Its not a good argument, but its there.

I'm sure there is something with homonuculi and PaO that would do it as well.

Kidnap the parents/puppies and kill one every so often to keep the child army in line works as well. Fido lives if you kill the bad guys. If not, puppy is gone and its your dinner. Or mommy; whatever works. Long term conditioning of such would make for an excellent villain master plan.

Vampire domination, or being affected with lycanthropy also work.

[Clopin Silk]

Wow, you guys are... really, really good at coming up with ways to put together an army of child soldiers. It's actually kind of disconcerting.

[AvatarVecna]

Thrallherd (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/thrallherd.htm): a psionic-leadership class that lets you attract basically whatever kind of minions you want without regards to will saves, immunity to mind-affecting, having a mind at all, or anything else that would prevent them from being utterly devoted to you.

StP Erudite 5/Thrallherd 10 with Cha 18 has two thralls: one Wilder 5/Thrallherd 9 with Cha 22, and one Wilder 5/Thrallherd 8 with Cha 22. All three of them have Cha 18, the Undead Leadership feat, and the Extra Followers feat (assuming it's allowed to apply to Undead Leadership and/or Thrallherd, both of which are questionable). If you do that, what remains is 1 ECL 13 thrall, 1 ECL 12 thrall, 24 ECL 6 believers, 24 ECL 5 believers, 48 ECL 4 believers, 84 ECL 3 believers, 156 ECL 2 believers, and 1560 ECL 1 believers. Those ECL 1s can totally be children utterly devoted to the cult of you. No mind control to undo, nothing to dispel or cancel out. They're being attracted to you by an Ex ability with no SR/PR, no save, no descriptors, and no magic/psionics involved. You are the cult leader, and those children are your flock. There's no brainwashing to undo either; they're utterly devoted to you for the rest of their life even if they never meet you and kept away from you. Only death or your decision can release them.

[Red Fel]

Wow, you guys are... really, really good at coming up with ways to put together an army of child soldiers. It's actually kind of disconcerting.

I know, right? They make me so proud.

[Clopin Silk]

Seriously though, if you guys have any sneaky evil ideas of your own, pleas share.

[Flickerdart]

Working mass media is a great way to win a fight without ever getting into one. Turn the tide of public opinion against no-good vagabonds like the PCs' adventuring party.

Mind seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSeed.htm) is one of my favourite evil powers. You don't just trick a schmuck into thinking he's you, you make him into you.

[John Longarrow]

Bard with Alter Self can cause a LOT of problems for a party.

Bard finds out where the party is going. Gets their first and alter's self into one of the party members. Causes a lot of problems in town and disappears.

Party shows up and the towns folk want to LYNCH one of them. Evil bard is already in the next town singing about all the problems said party member caused in the other town so when the party shows up their reputation has preceded them.

[Clopin Silk]

.

Mind seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSeed.htm) is one of my favourite evil powers. You don't just trick a schmuck into thinking he's you, you make him into you.

Jesus Christ, that's perfect. That's just the perfect speel to let a BBEG mess with the party for ages.

[Clopin Silk]

Bard with Alter Self can cause a LOT of problems for a party.

Bard finds out where the party is going. Gets their first and alter's self into one of the party members. Causes a lot of problems in town and disappears.

Party shows up and the towns folk want to LYNCH one of them. Evil bard is already in the next town singing about all the problems said party member caused in the other town so when the party shows up their reputation has preceded them.
Ah, the evil impostor, a classic. I especially like your addition of having the bard spread the word; it's a great way to add a layer of difficulty to the whole affair.

[John Longarrow]

I was going for a low level approach. Once divination comes on line you start running into NPCs who can see through these disguises. Would suck for the BBEG to get caught because the PCs can figure out where he's going to be.

Course the same BBEG could be working to get pieces of the party for eventual simulacrum/ice assassin games.

[Clopin Silk]

I was going for a low level approach. Once divination comes on line you start running into NPCs who can see through these disguises. Would suck for the BBEG to get caught because the PCs can figure out where he's going to be.


Yeah, a stunt like that definitely works better for one of the big bad's operatives, rather than the big bad themselves, who still kind of has to be a powerhouse for the sake of the final confrontation.

[flappeercraft]

A good choice against a party is a doppelganger, right now I'm DM of a campaign and I'm going to do something like this.

A trick I like to call the "Dopple-Twins"

For this, the BBEG will secretly capture one of the NPC’s and replace him with a Doppelgänger under Monstrous Thrall effect, after which another Doppelgänger disguised as the character will kill the other Doppelgänger by backstabbing him revealing that the other one is a Doppelgänger. That way the characters will believe the Doppelgänger is actually the NPC after which the Doppelgänger will kill the characters in their sleep, sabotage something or something similar.

[Segev]

Working mass media is a great way to win a fight without ever getting into one. Turn the tide of public opinion against no-good vagabonds like the PCs' adventuring party.

Mind seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSeed.htm) is one of my favourite evil powers. You don't just trick a schmuck into thinking he's you, you make him into you.

Mind seed is a strange case where the soul is explicitly still the original, but the mind is so throughly overwritten that the character has your stats (minus a level or two). If the soul has a nature of its own, it could justify personality differences. Or not; whatever works best for your story/setting/game.

[Flickerdart]

Mind seed is a strange case where the soul is explicitly still the original, but the mind is so throughly overwritten that the character has your stats (minus a level or two). If the soul has a nature of its own, it could justify personality differences. Or not; whatever works best for your story/setting/game.

Well, the power itself states that the personality diverges over time. It feels like a reasonable assumption that part of that is the original soul exerting its pull.

[John Longarrow]

Yeah, a stunt like that definitely works better for one of the big bad's operatives, rather than the big bad themselves, who still kind of has to be a powerhouse for the sake of the final confrontation.

BBEG doesn't have to be a powerhouse in combat. Just has to be able to get one or more powerhouses to work for them. That's half the secret. By the time the PCs have to face off against their nemesis it doesn't really matter how good they are in a fight. Its much more important that the fight itself be memorable.

Example would be a high level controller type who uses very high Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate to keep a bunch of really powerful spell casters working together. Doesn't really matter how good the diplomancer is in a fight, they'll be buffed + have a bunch of spell casters (and summoned/dominated/what ever melee brutes) supporting them when the real fight begins. If the players can gang up on him he's dead either way. If he's got plenty of others to run interference his own abilities are not too relevant.

[Segev]

A villain I ran once was a wererat bard who infected kids in town and then convinced them that it would be fun to control their transformations. This made them LE and thus easier to manipulate into acknowledging him as their leader. He then used them as eyes and ears and occasional thieves.