Master Riven

[Ryshan Ynrith]

Master Riven, Avatar of Rythos
Medium Outsider (Evil)
Hit Dice: 6d8+236 (263)
Initiative: +9
Speed: 40 ft.
AC: 20 (+5 dex, +5 deflection) Touch: 20 Flat-Footed: 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+11;
Attack: Twilight +10 (1d6+6, Confusion) or Midnight +10 (1d6+6, Blindness)
Full Attack: Twilight +10/+5 and Midnight +10/+5
Face/Reach: 5ft./5ft.
Special Attacks: Streams of Darkness, Twilight Charge.
Special Qualities: Spell-Like Abilities, Wreathed in Night, Rythos’ Vigor, Rythos’ Revitalization, Uncanny Dodge, Dark Aura, Desperate Fury.
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +10
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 20
Skills: Spot +13, Listen +13, Bluff +16, Sense Motive +13
Feats: Improved Inititative, Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Toughness________________________________________
Climate/Terrain: Plane of Shadows
Organization: Unique
Challenge Rating: ?
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Streams of Darkness (su): Calling on the power of the Plane of Shadow, Riven may summon a whirling sheet of darkness as a full-round action. The dark envelope flows outward as a 15’-wide line, dealing 3d6 points of negative energy damage and 1d6 points of vile damage to all within the area. Riven may use Streams of Darkness once every 4 rounds.

Twilight Charge (su): Riven may make a full attack on any round he charges or uses his Dimension Door spell-like ability.

Dark Aura (su): The presence of Rythos within Riven absorbs illumination in the area around him. Within 200 ft of Riven, ambient light is darkened to shadowy illumination, unless it is normally darker. This is otherwise the same as a Darkness spell.

Uncanny Dodge (ex): Riven retains his dexterity bonus to AC even if he is flat-footed or surprised.

Rythos’ Vigor (ex): Possession by Rythos gives Riven enormous toughness. Riven has 200 bonus HP.

Rythos’ Revitalization (su): By drawing on the forces of the Plane of Shadow and his link with Rythos, Riven may, as a full-round action usable at will, restore 50 hp and 2 points of ability damage or drain to each of his ability scores. He is helpless while doing so.

Wreathed in Night (ex): Riven may add his Charisma bonus to his armor class as a deflection bonus, and may apply his full strength bonus to his off-hand weapon damage.

Desperate Fury (su): When Riven is reduced to 50 hp or less, he gains +5 to attack, weapon damage, and armor class. This is accompanied by veins of darkness writhing in the air and other cosmetic effects.

Spell-like abilities (su): Riven may use the following spells as spell-like abilities at will: Dimension Door, Fear, Sleep. His caster level for all spell-like abilities is 20.

Equipment:
Twilight: Effectively a +1 shortsword composed of swirling, murky half-light, living creatures struck by Twilight must make a will save (DC 12) or become confused for 1 round.

Midnight: Effectively a +1 shortsword composed of utter darkness, living creaters struck by Midnight must make a fortitude save (DC 12) or become blinded for 1 round.



A little background: Rythos is one of the 11 Iltani, which are the Shadow equivalents to archdemons and the like-just below gods. In my campaign, the amount of direct interaction a power can have is inversely related to its strength, so the Iltani are able to function in a much more straightforward manner than the gods, though they still cannot take physical form. This is someone who has bound himself to the weakest of the 11. I'm not sure of how much of a challenge he'll be, though, so I offer it to your discerning eyes.

What I want is a nice challenge (as befits a minor BBEG) for a party of powerful level 7-8 adventuerers. I think it's about right, but I'm not sure, so bring on the suggestions!

[Catch]

The HP is a trifle high. To keep him challenging, I'd give him more spell-like abilities and fewer bonus HP. For the Revitalization ability, I'd just have him provoke attacks of opportunity instead, unless you want your PC's to coup de grace him while he's healing. Which isn't a bad idea. The other idea is to just give him fast healing 5 or something.

In regards to spell-like abilities, if he's native to the plane of shadow, I'd say Darkness would be a must. Nothing like trying to fight the BBEG when you can't see him. Adds a nice bit of suspense and tension. Cause Fear and Sleep aren't going to be effective against your party, as they only affect 5 HD creatures or less. The spell Fear would work just fine, however.

Since your avatar is going to be dealing with your whole party at once, I'd reccomend giving him several crowd-control abilities like Fear, Confusion, and maybe Hold Monster. Nothing like watching the party's cleric cower in terror or having the fighter turn on you. Nasty.

But that's enough nitpicking. Awesome villian! The flavor is pretty neat, and I like the shadow abilities.

[Ryshan Ynrith]

Ah, forgot about Fear/cause fear.

The main thing about the huge amount of HP is that my players metagame a bit much, particularly with tracking HP damage. If they know he's taken 150+ damage without any apparent effect, it becomes very, very frightening to them. I'd also like it to be a long fight-I've seen wayyyy too many climatic fights finish in under three rounds, and I wanted someone threatening who wasn't going to go out so quickly. Fast healing and regeneration are good options, but it becomes more of a race to deal damage before it heals-which I think I'll have on another nasty, come to think of it.

The reason he's helpless while healing is to make it non-combat. I may add a bit of fast healing, but that ability is so if the party runs, he'll be back to full capacity basically within seconds. This opens the possiblity of nasty vengeance wherever the players have made ties. *insert evil laughter*

Thanks for the comment!

[The_Werebear]

I would give him a wand of silence.

He casts it on himself, and is in the middle of a 200 foot ball of darkness...and making no noise whatsoever.

He can see in his own darkness, correct?

[Maryring]

Change around on the ability scores. 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 is so... dull. And your skill points are very wrong. Outsiders have skill points like a rouge. And how on earth does it have +16 on bluff and +13 on the others? Shouldn't it be +15?

[Ryshan Ynrith]

Ack, skill points are a holdover from the stat template. Need to fix them.

Being an avatar of a greater entity, I gave him superhuman stats across the board. Besides, he's a bit more intimidating if he's simply better in every way-feels somewhat more alien. Or so I think. :)

Yeah, he can see fine, but again, it's the new darkness. More "Darkness Lite" than really dark, but it works. Essentially, he has 20% concealment from very dim (not pitch-black) conditions.

[Gyrfalcon]

I think Maryring more means, give some variance to his ability scores, such as Str 18, Dex 24, Con 21, Int 25, Wis 19, Cha 20... rather then flat 20s across the board. :)