Making a compelling Warforged boss fight.

[StevenC21]

So, for the final fight of my campaign, I am going to have the PCs face off against a slightly tweaked version of the Lord of Blades, from the "Five Nations" book. Since Solo fights are terrible, I was planning on giving him a team of Warforged bodyguards.

Note that, on his own, the LoBster is already a Fighter 2/Warforged Juggernaut 5/Barbarian 9. I changed his alignment to NE to allow for the Barbarian levels.

The party will be between levels 11 and 14, depending on how many side quests and such they do along the way.

However, I don't really know how to build the characters.

I was originally hoping to add mostly martial (bleh, I know) characters, since he himself is martial, but over time I changed my mind and decided that instead, I would be going with the standard adventuring party. One beatstick (LoB), one caster, one specialist (the specifics can be up to you!), and one healer/buffer of some type. Side note, I'm the DM and am in no way tied to using any given array, so the -2 WIS and CHA doesn't really affect these guys.

The race can be either the standard Warforged, or the Warforged Scout.

Any of the appropriate racial feats can be applied, at your discretion.

Since Warforged are a rather... unique race, I was wondering what classes would be the best choices to suit these NPC bosses?

I have the following Books:

Player's Handbook
Monster Manuals I, II, and III
Dungeon Master's Guide
Book of Vile Darkness
Complete Arcane
Complete Warrior
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Miniatures Handbook
Spell Compendium

I also have enough budgeted to purchase one more book, if there is a really, really good class that I don't have available in the above books.

If possible, I would also like suggestions on how I might run the characters, if it is not very straightforward.

[Troacctid]

What sort of terrain is the battle taking place in? You can usually make combat encounters more compelling by utilizing the environment. For example, the battle might take place in a foundry, with the Lord of Blades at ground level where the players enter and his caster and archer minions on catwalks above, out of easy melee range for non-flyers. Pipework could represent a source of cover and a potential environmental hazard if a breach creates a scalding cloud of steam. Careless spellcasting may cause equipment to go haywire and threaten to explode. The active forge could also be an environmental hazard—perhaps the Lord of Blades attempts to grapple PCs and throw them into it.

[StevenC21]

The party was going to encounter him in his home base, after rampaging through his stronghold like the insane murderhobos they were born to be.

The foundry idea is really, really good. I might use it. As in, literally have his throne room built into a foundry. I very, very much like that.

[Troacctid]

He's rumored to have his own creation forge, which is why I thought of a foundry. There's actually a lot of interesting story questions about the Lord of Blades and what links he might have to Aaren d'Cannith, Bulwark, the Mourning, the Quori...

Canonically, the Lord of Blades has two homunculi named Hilt and Pommel, who assist him in combat with flanking and aid actions. I would make them persistent harriers, but since you don't have Magic of Eberron, the standard homunculus (advanced to Small size) should be sufficient.

[StevenC21]

Hilt and Pommel are interesting little guys, but I'm trying to do the absolute least bookkeeping necessary, as I'm already going to be managing 3-5 complex NPCs, AND environmental effects.

[Psyren]

What sort of terrain is the battle taking place in? You can usually make combat encounters more compelling by utilizing the environment. For example, the battle might take place in a foundry, with the Lord of Blades at ground level where the players enter and his caster and archer minions on catwalks above, out of easy melee range for non-flyers. Pipework could represent a source of cover and a potential environmental hazard if a breach creates a scalding cloud of steam. Careless spellcasting may cause equipment to go haywire and threaten to explode. The active forge could also be an environmental hazard—perhaps the Lord of Blades attempts to grapple PCs and throw them into it.

I'd add to this list some hazards that warforged specifically don't have to worry about, like poison gas, or some kind of energy drain pylon.

[StevenC21]

Sounds good guys!

Right now for the fight, on top of environment effects:

Lvl 12 Warforged Knight with +3 Adamantine Composite plating.

Lvl 7 Warforged rogue/lvl 5 assassin with +3 Mithral, and Mithral Fluidity to mitigate penalties.

Lvl 12 Warforged Warmage. Pretty basic here.

Plus the LoBster.

This is for ~lvl 13 PCs, which will include a Wizard, Barbarian, Rogue, and Cleric. Will this be a good enough fight, generally speaking?

[Falontani]

Instead of the knight I suggest a warforged charger with shock trooper and combat brute. Throw him the heaviest hammer you can, and finish with some warhulk. He'll charge in and attempt to smash the party's weapons before smashing them with huge amounts of strength. If he seems too dangerous just role play a little creature on his head controlling him. Without control he doesn't attack intelligently and will actually hit pipes and whatnot, using them for the sundering cleave.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The forge should include a huge vat of molten metal that can be spilled into the room. This should emulate a Rock to Mud (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/transmuteRockToMud.htm) spell as if cast on the ceiling, dealing fire damage instead of bludgeoning damage to those in the area and creating an area of difficult terrain that causes 4d6 fire damage per round to anyone who moves across it or starts their turn in it.



You need an arcane-ish caster:

Warforged Psion (Shaper) 12, Adamantine Body, Psicrystal Affinity, Overchannel, Talented, Psionic Meditation, Up the Walls, Expanded Knowledge: Energy Missile, and Improved Fortification.

Quick trait (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm#quick), probably also the Focused trait. Psicrystal should be Nimble. Items are a +2 enhancement on his Adamantine Body, a Headband of Intellect +4, Ring of Protection +1, Amulet of Natural Armor +1, Cloak of Resistance +2.

Powers known: 1st: Vigor, Force Screen, Astral Construct, Psionic Minor Creation, Crystal Shard; 2nd: Psionic Repair Damage, Share Pain, Energy Missile*, Energy Stun, Energy Push; 3rd: Time Hop, Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Greater Concealing Amorpha, Dispel Psionics (assuming magic/psionics transparency); 4th: Psionic Freedom of Movement, Psionic Fabricate (story reasons), Psionic Dimension Door, Telekinetic Maneuver, Energy Adaptation; 5th: Hail of Crystals, Psionic True Seeing, Psychic Crush; 6th: Crystallize, Temporal Acceleration, Psionic Contingency

He keeps the psicrystal in a compartment on his person, nobody ever has line of sight or line of effect to it so it can't be targeted directly or hit by area effects. Any time he uses a power that could benefit it, he shares it with it. Keep in mind its Hardness 8 reduces every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by as much.

Tactics:
Pre-buff (pp cost): Share Pain (3) on his psicrystal (no warning), max augmented/overchanneled Vigor (14) shared with the psicrystal (if warned of their approach), Force Screen (1) (if warned of their approach), overchanneled (+1) Energy Adaptation: Fire (7) shared with the psicrystal (if warned of their approach), Psionic Contingency (0) for Greater Concealing Amorpha (0) if he's attacked (used on a previous day, no cost today).
Priority: Temporal Acceleration, Telekinetic Maneuver to release the vat of molten metal onto the intruders if someone else hasn't already done so. Normal time actions are the typical round.
Priority: Temporal Acceleration and then max-augmented Vigor (shared with psicrystal) if his temporary hp runs out and his psicrystal's is at least down to half. Normal time actions are the typical round.
Priority: Temporal Acceleration and max-augmented Psionic Repair Damage (shared with psicrystal) if he's below half hp, then spend the normal action to Psionic Dimension Door to a safer position.
1st round: Max Overchanneled/Augmented Hail of Crystals if it can hit every opponent, targeting one with a spell component pouch if it will still hit everyone if centered on them.
2nd round: If the Hail of Crystals looked to be extremely effective, and they can all still be hit by it, repeat 1st round.
Typical round: Augmented Energy Stun (fort save) on multiple opponents if able to hit at least one character who has a spell component pouch; or Ectoplasmic Coccoon on an armored opponent with a holy symbol or divine focus; or Psychic Crush on an armored opponent who has no spell components or holy symbol; or Crystallize on an unarmored opponent who has a spell component pouch or a lightly armored dual-wielder; or Time Hop on the primary weapon of someone who appears to be able to hit hard but has no divine focus or spell components; or Energy Push or Telekinetic Maneuver to knock someone out of position.

[Eldariel]

I'm a bit surprised you don't have Eberron Campaign Settings if you're running a rather Eberrony game up and including Warforged. 'cause if you did, I'd definitely just roll with an Artificer as the caster. It's by far the most Warforgedy casting class and it just so happens to be incredibly versatile and rather powerful, and Warforged subsitution levels are quite good (both, the Weapon Familiar and the Tools of War). It can buff the whole team and access any arcane or divine spells as desired. Honestly, Psionic Artificer, Artificer, Artificer & Lord of Blades would probably make for a pretty solid cast (Artificer is a class that can easily take on any role including the skill monkey).


Anyways, I second Falontani's suggestion of Warforged Charger as the second big melee brute. Though a Warforged Charger Knight could also be amusing and rather efficient; the race makes good use of at least Thicket of Blades. Then you could add Warhulk as suggested, since Warhulk's abilities go superbly with natural attacks as you don't gain iteratives anyways.

[Seto]

One thing I like to do with Warforged is to make use of their immunities. So, pairing them with creatures, class levels or effects that spread disease, poison, paralysis etc. in an area of effect.
One of them could be a mage spamming Stinking Cloud, and the others can go into the cloud unaffected to pick off PCs.

[fallensavior]

I did a big LoB battle once.

I statted LoB as an Artificer/Warblade, with a special "docent" (Xulo) that got to take it's own actions.

He also had a squire standing there that just handed him things and held things for him as needed. (No stats, had him die in one hit)

I used Hilt and Pommel as described in Five Nations.

Backup was 2 Artificers and 2 Crusader/Paladin of Tyranny.

On a different note, I also did a boss fight with big bad Cannith Artificers riding Warforged Titan mounts...