Four horsemen help

[Meierme176]

First off I’m a brand new DM, so please keep the “you should know this!!” to a minimum. My friends who have never played asked me to introduce them to D&D 3.5, so I took the mantle of King Cheese as I'm the only one who has played.

Now down to the help part. I have been writing a campaign revolving around mimics (I know they are a CR 4 but Ill adjust accordingly) and undead. I am trying to make four of the big bosses be the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I am using the Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War version (it changes with different beliefs). However, I have very little experience writing characters, and am not great at it yet. So, I am asking for some assistance.

Some Prerequisites:

• I would like them to be sequential bosses starting at CR15 and end at CR19, preferably in this order:

Pestilence (white horse and uses a bow)
War (red horse and uses a great sword)
Famine (black horse and carries weighing scales)
Death (pale horse and uses a scythe)

• They all must be good at mounted combat (a given)

Some additional information:

• They start off with a 32 point, point buy system (a bit high, I’m aware, but I want their first characters to be seen as legendary)
• I am allowing a LA buyoff as recommended by the d20 SRD

This is about the extent of my thoughts toward them. The rest is in the hands of your creative freedom. Thanks a lot for reading through all of this.

[darkela5]

Today is your lucky day as soon as i get home ill post the stats of the horsemen they are in a pathfinder monster manual cant remember in witch one it was tho. ;) ''Pathfinder bestiary 6''
=>page 12 (apocalypse horse)
=> page 165-167 The four horseman
(sry i cant post copyrighted stuff but you can use GOOGLEFU (kong fu for internet search) to find the book.)
PS: If you cant find it pm me for help.

[Shadowquad]

Today is your lucky day as soon as i get home ill post the stats of the horsemen they are in a pathfinder monster manual cant remenber in wich one it was tho. ;)

There you go : http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/horseman-of-the-apocalypse/

Note that their CR is much higher than you asked for, as follows:
Famine: 27
War: 28
Pestilence: 29
Death: 30

As a side note, I would advice against a high level campaign if both you and your players are beginners. The amount of book delving and complexity during fights can be overwhelming, especially with magic users. In any case, make sure your PCs don't level up too fast, and don't lay the stats of the final bosses straight from the beginning, just sketch them until they interact with the PCs.

[Telonius]

We had a Villainous Competition on this subject a while back; you might find some inspiration (or builds to steal) here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500829-Villainous-Competition-XV-The-Horsemen-Are-Drawing-Nearer).

Another older thread has some ideas: here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?171710-Advice-on-a-Four-Horsemen-of-the-Apocalypse-Campaign).

[umbergod]

As a side note, I would advice against a high level campaign if both you and your players are beginners. The amount of book delving and complexity during fights can be overwhelming, especially with magic users. In any case, make sure your PCs don't level up too fast, and don't lay the stats of the final bosses straight from the beginning, just sketch them until they interact with the PCs.

I second this. Its a lot easier to become frustrated and turned off by the experience of being a beginner and starting at high level. Highest level i'd start new characters at is 2nd or 3rd level. Low enough to be simpler than high level builds, but not so fragile that house cats are a genuine threat

[Meierme176]

Today is your lucky day as soon as i get home ill post the stats of the horsemen they are in a pathfinder monster manual cant remember in witch one it was tho. ;) ''Pathfinder bestiary 6''
=>page 12 (apocalypse horse)
=> page 165-167 The four horseman
(sry i cant post copyrighted stuff but you can use GOOGLEFU (kong fu for internet search) to find the book.)
PS: If you cant find it pm me for help.

Hmm I'll have to check that out. As posted later, they are a higher CR than I'm looking for. Ill have to look into what it takes to convert them from pathfinder and lower their CR.


There you go : http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/horseman-of-the-apocalypse/

Note that their CR is much higher than you asked for, as follows:
Famine: 27
War: 28
Pestilence: 29
Death: 30

As a side note, I would advice against a high level campaign if both you and your players are beginners. The amount of book delving and complexity during fights can be overwhelming, especially with magic users. In any case, make sure your PCs don't level up too fast, and don't lay the stats of the final bosses straight from the beginning, just sketch them until they interact with the PCs.

Sweet, thank you! I started them out at lvl 5 (as they were born into a fighters guild and have been training since they could walk). I know I have a very long time before they actually fight the PCs, so I'm not worried about writing them too quickly. However, the PCs and the Horsemen will meet eachother for the first time on friday (a prelude as to whats to come).

[Dekion]

I'll third the "start low" advice. I know it seems great to build super powerful characters and super powerful enemies to fight, especially if you have familiarity with the game, but, as a new DM, it's much better if you work up to that. Limited experience and familiarity with the rules will frustrate you and your players. If they (and you) really want to play as more than a one shot situation, start small, have fun, learn the rules from the DM's side, and teach them the rules from the player's side. It's a whole lot easier to deal with the problems that can arise with regards to a new group of players in low-level encounters than in mid to high-level encounters.

That said, if you are starting low (I did read that this was an end-game concept from what I could tell,) you have plenty of time to work up to your bosses, take the advised reading regarding the Pathfinder horsemen, who are pretty powerful daemons, and see what you can glean from that. Decide if you want your big bad guys to be mortal or something more resilient, like fiends or undead. Look up mounted combat rules and build ideas to get your flavor and stat them out around the power of other enemies that have the CR you are looking to emulate.