Help me build/equip my secondary bad guy

[Retrom4n]

Im planning a secondary bad guy for ny party. He's the dead brother if one of my npc's and his job is corrupt the guardians of knowledge that the party must obtain.

He was taken in by Hextor and kept as his second in command.

My objective: find a cool way to build him.

He's gonna be a tiefling antipaladin and Id be thankful for tips on gear, multiclass that would work.
He's to be the typical dark warrior with godly power under his command

There are no restrictions and all books are valid.

The party is to face him at party level 10.

I await your feedback!!
Thanks
Dave

[Galithar]

First, don't build your mini BBEG by PC rules. Just give him the abilities you think he should have.

For an anti-paladin he should be in full plate for sure. A sword and board or greatsword is tropetastically appropriate for an anti-paladin, but might be a good opportunity to drop a magic item to the group so you might want to make him wielda similar weapon to what someone uses. Magical armor for his AC boost, if you don't want your party getting a +2 full plate (or whatever you use) custom it to only equip to an evil paladin, that way barring a heavy armor Thief Rogue no one can use it.

Spells or spell like abilities are gonna be needed to make him threatening. A necrotic smite might be good. If he's a martial focused anti-paladin he should definitely have a multi-attack. If not his spells should make up for it with enough damage to make your party feel threatened, without actually killing them (unless you're that kind of DM :P )

An Aura of Fear or control/create undead would be thematically appropriate abilities for him.

As for giving him 'multi class abilities' a warlock combo could be good for an evil unnaturally powerful person. Maybe throw in some curse abilities to hinder one or more of the party.

Edit: If you do use character creation rules be sure to make him considerably higher level then the party. A level 15 character isn't going to be a challenge for a level 10 party of 4 unless you throw in a lot of mooks as well. A 16 Paladin/7 Warlock would make them wet their pants though. Just make sure the build isn't overly optimised or you'll end up pulling punches to not TPK.

[Retrom4n]

Thanks! I'll sure take this input into the "build"

[Guy Lombard-O]

First, don't build your mini BBEG by PC rules. Just give him the abilities you think he should have.

For an anti-paladin he should be in full plate for sure. A sword and board or greatsword is tropetastically appropriate for an anti-paladin, but might be a good opportunity to drop a magic item to the group so you might want to make him wielda similar weapon to what someone uses. Magical armor for his AC boost, if you don't want your party getting a +2 full plate (or whatever you use) custom it to only equip to an evil paladin, that way barring a heavy armor Thief Rogue no one can use it.

Spells or spell like abilities are gonna be needed to make him threatening. A necrotic smite might be good. If he's a martial focused anti-paladin he should definitely have a multi-attack. If not his spells should make up for it with enough damage to make your party feel threatened, without actually killing them (unless you're that kind of DM :P )

An Aura of Fear or control/create undead would be thematically appropriate abilities for him.

As for giving him 'multi class abilities' a warlock combo could be good for an evil unnaturally powerful person. Maybe throw in some curse abilities to hinder one or more of the party.

Edit: If you do use character creation rules be sure to make him considerably higher level then the party. A level 15 character isn't going to be a challenge for a level 10 party of 4 unless you throw in a lot of mooks as well. A 16 Paladin/7 Warlock would make them wet their pants though. Just make sure the build isn't overly optimised or you'll end up pulling punches to not TPK.

So, it would help some if I knew what the OP meant by "secondary" bad guy. Is he in the company of the main big bad? If so, what is that main guy like and what can he do (so we can build in some synergy).

That said, Galithar basically went the exact same place I was headed. He didn't actually come out and SAY conquest paladin, but he definitely described him that way. Hexblade 2/Conquest 15+. And no matter what you do, no lone bad guy is gonna last long against 40 levels of (magic item toting) PCs. Not without some henchman to make him last longer/hit harder.

With the Conquest paladin, make good use of his Spiritual Weapon spell, his Conquering Presence, and buff his damage up with Hex (will boost the Spirit Weapon too) and maybe a Hexblade's Curse (to go along with his Improved Divine Smites and actual Smites). Build him with high CHA and good CON, and give him a Resilient CON feat, and he'll be a nigh-unshakable concentration machine (+13 or 14?) with great HP and the ability to cast Shield to dodge a few hits.

Maybe give him a couple of caster henchmen, to make his ability to bring the pain far, far worse with a Hold Person spell and possibly a Haste buff (maybe a Stoneskin for longer-lasting evil). He can Agonizing EB/Hex them 3 or 4 times at range every round, so they can't just pick him apart while flying or other distance. Once they close, he can lock down a couple of the PCs with a Conquering Presence (again, high CHA is vital here), and concentrate fire upon the paralyzed PC (auto crit & higher-level Smite-Crits should lay waste to even a 10th level PC in a round or two). Of course, he'll burn through his spell slots in about 2 or 3 rounds, too! But 4 10th-levels will probably take him down in 3 or 4 rounds anyhow.

[Unoriginal]

I would use the Blackguard NPC statblock as starter. If he's a corruptor, maybe use a Fierna tiefling rather than the regular one?

[dragoeniex]

Starting with a death knight and tweaking things to be less likely to insta-nuke could be a good route. It sounds like the flavor and power set might go along with what you're after.

It is a CR 17, though, so keep in mind the tweaking.

[ImproperJustice]

With him being a corrupter and anti-paladin, for some flavor you should have him despise his former life and all that is good.

He should try to exploit the moral codes of the PCs by fighting in public and endangering civilians. Taking hostages, and engineering ethics violations for paladins, clerics and druids while making offers of fortune glory for more “pragmatic” pcs to turn sides.

As a clever GM maybe allow the Pcs to gain an advantage by tapping into the good part of his former life somehow (very darth vader, I know), but a good story telling element.