Crafting a powerful NPC Boss

[StevenC21]

IF YOUR CHARACTER NAME IS DON STONEFOOT, RULGIR, CELHANI, OR DIRK GENTLY, STOP READING NOW!





Hello all! I am looking for a way that I can create a powerful, individual NPC boss for my party. They include:

A Psychic Warrior, which I am playing as a DMPC (Expanded Psionics Handbook)
A Cleric
A Druid
A Binder (Tome of Magic)
A Rogue

Since this is a group of five, I was wondering what kind of NPC boss would be the most effective for him? I have access to the following books:

The Players Handbook
The Dungeon Masters Guide
The Monster Manual
Complete Arcane
Complete Warrior
The Book of Vile Darkness
The Epic Levels Handbook
The Miniatures Handbook
The Expanded Psionics Handbook

I'm not looking to go into Epic Levels, but the party would most likely be about level 15 when they encounter this guy. He should be a level 20 foe, with any multiclass combo allowed, so long as its not homebrew, and its present in one of the sourcebooks mentioned.

I know this is me basically begging strangers for help, but I figured that at least one of you might find it enjoyable. I'd do it myself but I don't really have the encompassing knowledge to understand what classes are Over/Underpowered.

:P

[AlanBruce]

Your scenario reminds me a lot of a boss battle my party is facing now. They are ECL 14 and very well optimized. If you are the DM, take some liberties regarding sources. Especially if you are going to introduce a memorable villain for them to finish off.


I used a Jackal Lord (Fiend Folio) and giving him the Elite Array, build a Rogue 3/ Cleric 5/ Divine Trickster 10

The last one is a class found in this site, made by Rich Burlew. As a DM, you can relax some of the requirements to fit your boss. Point is, the base creature has a very good chassis. This comes with SLAs, unique and very thematic (Su) abilities and they advance as clerics, being their favored class.

I gave mine Extraordinary Spell Aim ( Complete Adventurer, p. 109) and him cast Anti Magic Field around himself, as well as Practiced Spellcaster. With the feat, his buffs are unaffected and he can cast through the field, making a melee fight against him very difficult, since by level 15, PCs rely almost exclusively on magic items.

The other feat bumps his CL by 4, for purposes of dispelling his buffs and other CL dependent factors.

One of your PCs is a psion of sorts. You may have to clear the whole psionic/magic transparency issue. Even if he is a DMPC, since your players may want to try that class later. Do note that a Jackal Lord alone is a dangerous threat. These guys are smart and although they don't work well with others of their kind, they usually hire assassins and act as head honchos for sinister organizations, making them for good- if not end game material- mid game.

[StevenC21]

Sadly I do not have access to the Fiend Folio. The books I have access to are at the top of the post. Do you have ideas, off the top of your head?

[Mike Miller]

Wizard/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil/Archmage

Any 5 on 1 won't be memorable. Make sure the big bad has plenty of minions so the party doesn't crush him with the power of action economy.