BBEG for solo campaign

[big teej]

well. this being my first post (yay) I will do my best to not be overly verbose.
first, some plot exposition

this past week, I began to run my friend in a solo campaign, He is playing a paladin of sigmar (from warhammer), the campaign is extremely player-centered and i'm not entirly positive i wish to include a BBEG, however, inspiration being the fickle being that it is, struck me. and now i have a BBEG to use should i desire too. in fact, i have already figured out his 'intro' scene, it involves the destruction of a small village and the song "u can't touch this"

anyways

the onto the reason for the post!
i am in need of help

the BBEG is meant to be a partially scaling villan, i intend to introduce him around level 15 and scale him up as/if necessary for the final confrontation.
the BBEG concept is a mystic theruge/fighter. however being 'relativly' new to the game, i lack optimization skills, i'm a much more fluff and flavor based gamer, and most of my characters reflect that (or at least i like to think so ) so what i'm asking for, you oh so brilliant forum members, is advice/suggestions/opinions on how best to optimize a mystic theruge/fighter.

any additional information you require shall be supplied with all Alacrity

be gentle, it's my first post!

[Protecar]

Firstly, welcome to the boards!

Secondly, mysthic theurge/fighter? Seems kinda strange(not in a bad way necessarily, but I'm sure many would call that unoptimized--you'd need like wizard 3/cleric 2 also or something to qualify for MT).

What kind of "feel" or flavor are you going for with your character? What is he? Who is he? What does he do/his motivation for power?

Edit: and are you just using core(i.e. the big three books: PHB, MMI, and DMG)? Or what other sources do you have access to?

[Saint GoH]

Well, you could do Wizard 3/Archivist 3/Mystic Theurge 9 and have all your spells based off Intelligence... but you wouldn't have any room for fighter levels at that point. But like Prot said going Theurge isn't especially optimized...

Please, o tell what you are interested in. Give a run down of Mr Bad if you will.

[Mando Knight]

Isn't the best Mystic Theurge/Fighter a DMM-Persist-Divine-Power Cloistered Cleric with the Magic domain and the Initiate of Mystra feat? Or are there better ways of adding Wizard spells to your list?

[big teej]

Firstly, welcome to the boards!

Secondly, mysthic theurge/fighter? Seems kinda strange(not in a bad way necessarily, but I'm sure many would call that unoptimized--you'd need like wizard 3/cleric 2 also or something to qualify for MT).

What kind of "feel" or flavor are you going for with your character? What is he? Who is he? What does he do/his motivation for power?

Edit: and are you just using core(i.e. the big three books: PHB, MMI, and DMG)? Or what other sources do you have access to?

i went with a theruge/fighter because (much like the player's character) I wanted a character that was 'roughly' self sufficient, being a theruge gave him access to offensive and healing spells. and being a fighter made him tough enough to go toe -to -toe with the paladin

as far as "feel" this is a bad guy who's driven by the need for vengence against (drum roll) certain members of the order of the fiery heart (the order the character's paladin is from) so the plan is for this guy to show up every now and again demoloshing some part of the world hunting these individuals.

as for the combat flavor, i wanted a bad guy who could cast spells (eletric orbs being the main offensive spell that comes to mind, no matter what) and go toe-to-toe with the paladin.... deja-vu, anyways
I wasn't sure how to get the right mix of caster to fighter, but after observing the thergue in OOTS it looked like thats what I was aiming for. however, it may turn out that the far more feasible and workable option is a sorcerer/fighter. and if this is the case I'm more than willing to tweak it.

I'm currently waiting for inspiration to strike again. so this is basically what I have right now.... I'm also in need of breakfast.

as far as sourcebooks and resources I have, they are pitifully few
I have access to/use regularly
the SRD/dnd wiki
a copious library of fantasy books (mostly warhammer books)
a mistakenly purchased 4th edition monster manual
this forum (as well as you, my fellow forum posters)
the webcomics I read
and my imagination.

of these, I rely most heavily on the SRD/wiki, and my imagination, followed by my library. (I've only just added the forum to my resources this past week)

I'm looking for 3.5 sourcebooks whenever I go book shopping, but as of this post I only have the 4th edition monster manual, which, while helpful, isn't as useful as it could be.

edit: and thankyou for welcoming me to the boards

[Protecar]

If you really want to balance casting/fighting with a decent build: have you considered a straight evil cleric? Decent hp, full spellcasting + ability to melee.

Also, if it's a solo campaign against a paladin(the player), you really don't need to optimize too much. However, to qualify for MT you'd need wizard 3/cleric 3 at the least(6 levels right there) and you'd pretty much want to take MT as far as you could to make up for the loss of caster levels. That said, a lvl 15 char with 6th level arcane/divine spells? I'd pick him in a fight over a level 15 paladin.

If you still want to add a more melee feel to the character, have you considered a Blackguard? It's a pretty appropriate opponent to a paladin and gets some minor spellcasting.

[big teej]

If you really want to balance casting/fighting with a decent build: have you considered a straight evil cleric? Decent hp, full spellcasting + ability to melee.

Also, if it's a solo campaign against a paladin(the player), you really don't need to optimize too much. However, to qualify for MT you'd need wizard 3/cleric 3 at the least(6 levels right there) and you'd pretty much want to take MT as far as you could to make up for the loss of caster levels. That said, a lvl 15 char with 6th level arcane/divine spells? I'd pick him in a fight over a level 15 paladin.

If you still want to add a more melee feel to the character, have you considered a Blackguard? It's a pretty appropriate opponent to a paladin and gets some minor spellcasting.

well in addition to what i've already posted, (i wasn't sure if equpment mattered, and i'm not sure it makes a difference, but in case it does)

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I know what basic equipment i'm giving the bbeg
a spiked chain of ungodly building demolishing power
and bracers similar to jaraxle's in the sell sword series (for those of you unfamiliar with the novels, the bracers create throwing daggers as fast as the wearer can throw them) in addition to these, i'm giving the bbeg several AC raising equipment

I hadn't considered a blackguard, that would make a very good enemey for a paladin, but i don't know if it gets the spells i want it to have. and in the future i may indeed use that, however this time around, given the bbeg's reason why he's the bbeg,

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the man was originally just a fighter, but for -insert plot device- reason, templars of the order burned at the stake/killed/whatever, his lover, and now he's out to kill those specific individuals not the order or world as a whole. however, being of that order, our hero obviously must try to stop him. and to me, being a blackguard just doesn't fit that motivation, thats more to the order of 'the order destroyed EVERYTHING' his life, his wife, his family, the inn he built with his own two hands, and his little dog too

i don't think blackguard fits, and i've already kinda decided on "fighter with spells" for his combat abilities.
that said, i greatly appreciate the input and feel rather not smart for not thinking of a blackguard.

[Protecar]

Hmmm....well if you have your heart set on the melee/mage thing going, it's kinda hard to find good combination builds in the srd(I think they're referred to as "gish" builds? I dunno. I'm behind on my terminology).

I'd suggest wizard/monk as opposed to wizard/fighter.

Two reasons:

1: All of the wizards AC buffing spells(i.e. shield, mage armor) would stack nicely with an unarmored/unshielded monk(but would probably be useless for a fighter).

2: Casting spells as a fighter in any kind of armor will incur spellcasting failures(which suck).


Another note though: if the fighter is unarmored: well, he's missing out on some nice bonuses to ac from monk but that's really no big.

Go fighter x/wizard x For healing you could just get some healing items. I think you can get some arcane wands of cure light wounds or something. It wouldn't be a killer build--but I think you could tweak it to give your Paladin player some headaches in combat.

I mean, if you really need to push it: grab a monk's belt(if you choose monk), or an Orange Ioun Stone to pump your casting up another level and get some nice stat boosting items to help your melee(maybe con too, whatever you like).

You're the dm though: you can add as much backstory/flavor as you want(or none at all) to deck your BBEG out in an expensive arsenal of power.

[big teej]

Hmmm....well if you have your heart set on the melee/mage thing going, it's kinda hard to find good combination builds in the srd(I think they're referred to as "gish" builds? I dunno. I'm behind on my terminology).

I'd suggest wizard/monk as opposed to wizard/fighter.

Two reasons:

1: All of the wizards AC buffing spells(i.e. shield, mage armor) would stack nicely with an unarmored/unshielded monk(but would probably be useless for a fighter).

2: Casting spells as a fighter in any kind of armor will incur spellcasting failures(which suck).


Another note though: if the fighter is unarmored: well, he's missing out on some nice bonuses to ac from monk but that's really no big.

Go fighter x/wizard x For healing you could just get some healing items. I think you can get some arcane wands of cure light wounds or something. It wouldn't be a killer build--but I think you could tweak it to give your Paladin player some headaches in combat.

I mean, if you really need to push it: grab a monk's belt(if you choose monk), or an Orange Ioun Stone to pump your casting up another level and get some nice stat boosting items to help your melee(maybe con too, whatever you like).

You're the dm though: you can add as much backstory/flavor as you want(or none at all) to deck your BBEG out in an expensive arsenal of power.

as a matter of fact, yes i am set on the melee/mage thing

thankyou for the monk idea, i hadn't thought of that either.

and i'll probably need to post something again later, because i woke up about 15 minutes ago, and i'm not thinking of much of anything right now. TO BREAKFAST!!!!

[Iferus]

If you really want to be a good caster AND a warrior, cheat. You're the DM, you can do what you want. Just give your BBEG full base attack and fighter feats at half the normal rate.

[Runestar]

Red dragon with lvs in abjurant champion.

[Eldariel]

Realmshelp and Crystalkeep are fine sources for other feats and stuff. And yeah, I'll second the motion for a Cleric. When you build Cleric with certain Domains and Feats, he'll be almost as good a caster as a Wizard, much better a warrior than a Fighter and he'll still maintain clerical spellcasting.

The Domains involve Spell-domain with PHBII Spontaneous Domain alternative class feature (it replaces your ability to spontaneously cast Cures or Inflicts with the ability to spontaneously cast spells from the chosen Domain), another Domain which supports something you are going for (Planning is excellent for the free Extend Spell & eventual Time Stop, Travel deals with some semi-necessary stuff, Magic has a few good spells and allows you to use Magic Items as if you were a Wizard, but you probably want Time as it has all the key spells from level 5 up; assuming he's gonna level with the PC, it's gonna help a ton) along with maybe Prestige Classes that support domainery (Contemplative is a good one).

That takes care of the casting. Then, martial abilities; you can either have him cast some buff spells (Divine Favor, Divine Power and Righteous Might are good), Quickening them as appropriate, or just Divine Metamagic to keep on Persistent Spell on said buffs (and others if desired), feeding the feat with Rebuke Undead-attempts from Extra Turning, Nightsticks (scroll down; and limit yourself to some non-ridiculous number, of course - they can empower Divine Metamagic something severe though). And Monk's Belt is a fine piece of equipment if you don't want the evil mastermind walking around in armor. Wisdom to AC for a character with 18 starting Wisdom and putting all his level-ups and magic items and Tomes in Wisdom is quite impressive.

[Choco]

If you are running a solo campaign, it will probably pay off to increase the point buy to something like 45 and use the Gestalt optional rules, for both the PC and the important villains. That way the villain can simultaneously advance in melee and caster classes.

[Quietus]

Red dragon with lvs in abjurant champion.

This isn't a bad idea. No, hear me out - the first and best trick in a DM's arsenal is "nothing is what it actually is". You want a mix of spellcasting and melee? Dragons are BUILT for this. Obviously, you don't want a full-powered dragon, that'd wipe the floor with your player, but decide on what key spells you want, and pick something appropriate. For example, you wanna throw lightning orbs around; pick a blue dragon. See what caster level you want. For something around level 15, let's take a couple levels off the casting - level 13 - so we're looking at an Ancient blue dragon, as detailed here. Note that blue dragons can pick clerical spells known, as well as spells from the Law, Evil, and Air domains. As an ancient dragon, it's decidedly far too powerful a choice for most solo campaigns, so let's scale it back.

HD : Lots of'em. In this example, mature adult means 33 HD. You're caster level 13 (and cast as a sorcerer), you want something solid enough to take a couple whacks and keep going. If your player is a Paladin, you want roughly the same HP as he's got at level 15. So let's say, divide the dragon's HD by 3; This gives you 11 Dragon hit dice. First maximized and half for the rest is 65, plus 77 more for your big con, you're looking at 142 HP. All good saves means base 7 in all saves. Not too shabby for an opponent to a level 15 Paladin so far.

Movement : You've got flight (clumsy, but still), and burrow speeds. You can either keep or toss these, depending on how cool they seem. I'd go with standard Human sized movement, with flight for twice that at the dragon's maneuverability.

Natural armor : This one's a bit brutal. I'd say take the amounts listed there, subtract 1 if it's odd, and divide it by 2. Then call it "dragonhide plate that doesn't interfere with spellcasting", and decide how much of that AC is magical, and how much is the "dragonhide plate". I'd go with 1/3 of your HD is magical, so at Ancient we're looking at 32 base, for 16 armor from your special dragonhide plate, with 3 points of that being magical. Going this route, you can probably skip some AC-increasing things, since this IS a remarkably strong suit of plate For a rough fight, you want your Pally to be looking at a 50% chance to hit on his first (standard) attack. Give it an armor check penalty of 1/2 its nonmagical bonus, 6 in this case, and 0 max dex. It's damn near a power suit at this point, you aren't gonna be dodging much of anything.

SR : Your character is a Paladin, he won't need to worry about this. If he picks up a spellcaster friend, however, you're looking at 27 SR versus a level 15 character; If they pick up spell penetration they have a 50/50 chance of breaking through that. Pretty fair.

Frightful presence : I'd keep this. Your Paladin is immune, but having everyone ELSE run screaming at the sight of a man in massively huge plate armor forged from the scales of an Ancient Blue Dragon, his fingertips occasionally letting a trail of sparks drift harmlessly to dance along the ground.. very cinematic.

Breath weapon : Line of electricity, 20d8 damage, reflex half. Little rough... but you want orbs of lightning? Easy. Make this do 10d8 damage, same recharge (Every 1d4 rounds), and it's a ranged touch. If the Paladin thinks to grab some electric resistance, he'll withstand it, but 10d8 lightning is not pleasant. Particularly when it gives a finger to his Paladin-level saves.

Ability scores : keep'em. Fluff-wise, this character hasn't just beaten a dragon and made a suit of armor out of its skin. No - he hates the order so much, he made a fell pact with a dragon at the end of its life, merging its soul with his to gain a portion of its power, to be used against those he hates from the depths of his being. He's INCREDIBLY strong and hearty, and dangerous to boot.

So, statblock wise, we're looking at something like this.

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Medium Dragon [augmented human]
HD : 11d12+77 (142 HP)
Speed : 30 feet, fly 60 feet (clumsy)
Base attack/grapple : +11/+23
AC : 26 (+0 dex, +16 armor)
Attack : +23 (damage by weapon)
Full attack : +23/+18/+13, damage by weapon
Space/reach : 5 feet/5 feet
Special Attacks : Lightning orb, ranged touch +11, 10d8 electricity damage, casts as sorcerer-13.
Special qualities : DR 15/magic, SR 27, Frightful Presence (DC 31), Dragon traits
Saves : Fort +14, reflex +7, will +12
Abilities : Str 35, dex 10, con 25, int 20, wis 21, cha 20
Skills : 8+int per level, +1 for base being human. Concentration recommended.
Feats : 5 to spend, at 1/1/3/6/9.

Spells per day : 6/8/7/7/7/7/4
Spells known : 9/5/5/4/4/3/2

From there, flavor with skills, feats, magic items and spells known to taste. Spells are drawn from the wizard/sorcerer/cleric lists, with access to the air/law/evil domains on top of that.

[big teej]

If you are running a solo campaign, it will probably pay off to increase the point buy to something like 45 and use the Gestalt optional rules, for both the PC and the important villains. That way the villain can simultaneously advance in melee and caster classes.

our group on the whole doesn't use a point buy, the player wanted high powered so he rolled 5d6 toss lowest 2

If you really want to be a good caster AND a warrior, cheat. You're the DM, you can do what you want. Just give your BBEG full base attack and fighter feats at half the normal rate.

i've considered that, but as a dm i like to make the bad guys play by the rules too. however, if fudging it a bit is the only way to make it work, i might. but this for me is an 'after the last resort' option, in most cases.



which leads to a rather funny story completely unrelated to the topic

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the first character i ever rolled was a mid power barbarian (4 d6 toss lowest) his stats were str 18, dex 17, constitution 17, int 15, wis 12, cha 9. i love that barbarian. unfortunately, given that he was my first character ever, and nobody else's stacked up for whatever reason. (some legitimate, others being fault of the player) the entire gaming group subconciously compares there characters to him now

after looking at everything said thus far, I think what comes the closest to what I have in mind is a cleric/fighter. and .... I think that's what i'm going to run with.

now i just need to learn how to stat out a 15th level character oh goody


on a quasi related note

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does anyone happen to know what the alignment for Thor is?
if I run with the cleric/fighter I'm going to make it a cleric of thor with the lightning domain. because i really really really want this BBEG to be able to use eletric orb. (no i don't know why, the idea popped into my head and just stuck there)

and once again thankyou everyone for helping me out

[big teej]

This isn't a bad idea. No, hear me out - the first and best trick in a DM's arsenal is "nothing is what it actually is". You want a mix of spellcasting and melee? Dragons are BUILT for this. Obviously, you don't want a full-powered dragon, that'd wipe the floor with your player, but decide on what key spells you want, and pick something appropriate. For example, you wanna throw lightning orbs around; pick a blue dragon. See what caster level you want. For something around level 15, let's take a couple levels off the casting - level 13 - so we're looking at an Ancient blue dragon, as detailed here. Note that blue dragons can pick clerical spells known, as well as spells from the Law, Evil, and Air domains. As an ancient dragon, it's decidedly far too powerful a choice for most solo campaigns, so let's scale it back.

HD : Lots of'em. In this example, mature adult means 33 HD. You're caster level 13 (and cast as a sorcerer), you want something solid enough to take a couple whacks and keep going. If your player is a Paladin, you want roughly the same HP as he's got at level 15. So let's say, divide the dragon's HD by 3; This gives you 11 Dragon hit dice. First maximized and half for the rest is 65, plus 77 more for your big con, you're looking at 142 HP. All good saves means base 7 in all saves. Not too shabby for an opponent to a level 15 Paladin so far.

Movement : You've got flight (clumsy, but still), and burrow speeds. You can either keep or toss these, depending on how cool they seem. I'd go with standard Human sized movement, with flight for twice that at the dragon's maneuverability.

Natural armor : This one's a bit brutal. I'd say take the amounts listed there, subtract 1 if it's odd, and divide it by 2. Then call it "dragonhide plate that doesn't interfere with spellcasting", and decide how much of that AC is magical, and how much is the "dragonhide plate". I'd go with 1/3 of your HD is magical, so at Ancient we're looking at 32 base, for 16 armor from your special dragonhide plate, with 3 points of that being magical. Going this route, you can probably skip some AC-increasing things, since this IS a remarkably strong suit of plate For a rough fight, you want your Pally to be looking at a 50% chance to hit on his first (standard) attack. Give it an armor check penalty of 1/2 its nonmagical bonus, 6 in this case, and 0 max dex. It's damn near a power suit at this point, you aren't gonna be dodging much of anything.

SR : Your character is a Paladin, he won't need to worry about this. If he picks up a spellcaster friend, however, you're looking at 27 SR versus a level 15 character; If they pick up spell penetration they have a 50/50 chance of breaking through that. Pretty fair.

Frightful presence : I'd keep this. Your Paladin is immune, but having everyone ELSE run screaming at the sight of a man in massively huge plate armor forged from the scales of an Ancient Blue Dragon, his fingertips occasionally letting a trail of sparks drift harmlessly to dance along the ground.. very cinematic.

Breath weapon : Line of electricity, 20d8 damage, reflex half. Little rough... but you want orbs of lightning? Easy. Make this do 10d8 damage, same recharge (Every 1d4 rounds), and it's a ranged touch. If the Paladin thinks to grab some electric resistance, he'll withstand it, but 10d8 lightning is not pleasant. Particularly when it gives a finger to his Paladin-level saves.

Ability scores : keep'em. Fluff-wise, this character hasn't just beaten a dragon and made a suit of armor out of its skin. No - he hates the order so much, he made a fell pact with a dragon at the end of its life, merging its soul with his to gain a portion of its power, to be used against those he hates from the depths of his being. He's INCREDIBLY strong and hearty, and dangerous to boot.

So, statblock wise, we're looking at something like this.

Spoiler

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Medium Dragon [augmented human]
HD : 11d12+77 (142 HP)
Speed : 30 feet, fly 60 feet (clumsy)
Base attack/grapple : +11/+23
AC : 26 (+0 dex, +16 armor)
Attack : +23 (damage by weapon)
Full attack : +23/+18/+13, damage by weapon
Space/reach : 5 feet/5 feet
Special Attacks : Lightning orb, ranged touch +11, 10d8 electricity damage, casts as sorcerer-13.
Special qualities : DR 15/magic, SR 27, Frightful Presence (DC 31), Dragon traits
Saves : Fort +14, reflex +7, will +12
Abilities : Str 35, dex 10, con 25, int 20, wis 21, cha 20
Skills : 8+int per level, +1 for base being human. Concentration recommended.
Feats : 5 to spend, at 1/1/3/6/9.

Spells per day : 6/8/7/7/7/7/4

From there, flavor with skills, feats, magic items and spells known to taste. Spells are drawn from the wizard/sorcerer/cleric lists, with access to the air/law/evil domains on top of that.

i am rather..... dumbstruck, so i shall simply list my reactions in order that they occured
shock.
awe.
O.O - whatever you wanna call what goes with that facial expression
and last
giddy...
I LIKE IT

you sir, are a genius, and i am totally terrifying my players with this monstrosity

oh my....

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now i need to find a way to decide which idea to run with

[Protecar]

I love the quasi-dragon/human monstrosity build. Please go with that and give us the details of how it went later (that would certainly be a memorable BBEG).

[Quietus]

i am rather..... dumbstruck, so i shall simply list my reactions in order that they occured
shock.
awe.
O.O - whatever you wanna call what goes with that facial expression
and last
giddy...
I LIKE IT

you sir, are a genius, and i am totally terrifying my players with this monstrosity

oh my....

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now i need to find a way to decide which idea to run with

Glad I could be of service. Even if you don't use it... I probably will.

As a nice side thing - make sure, when he beats that BBEG, he gets to use that armor, or at least has the option of claiming it as his own. Players LOVE cool stuff, and unique dragonhide armor from a badass opponent with abilities they don't understand... well, that always counts as cool stuff.

::Edit:: As to spells - he's got sixth level spells. If you really wanna be a pain, Heal is available to him and can restore 130 HP (out of his 142, that's a "If he's still standing, he's at full". And he has four 6th-level spells per day. You can also snag Dimension Door and/or Teleport, for quick getaways. And that's BEFORE getting super mean, with greater invisibility, grease, and all that. Forgot to mention in that stat block that his spells known would be : 9/5/5/4/4/3/2, I'll edit that in.

[big teej]

I love the quasi-dragon/human monstrosity build. Please go with that and give us the details of how it went later (that would certainly be a memorable BBEG).

oh how i want to

but with something THAT good, i'm more tempted to spring it on the group as a whole, instead of this one person.

if i'm going to use something that.... terrifying, i want to spring it on a buncha people. however, i do feel that......

oh my... inspiration has struck. i'll be back later i need to write this down

[big teej]

in my last post I had to leave mid sentence because inspiration had struck...

my solution is simple
why pick one? when I can do both?

I can easily tie in a dragon that has a grudge against the order for whatever reason. and -insert hackneyed plot device- must use -clericfighter- as his instrument of revenge.

the plan is already starting to form. I continue on with my initial idea of a cleric/fighter out for revenge against certain individuals (that just happen to be a part of the order)

I also, at some point insert 2 blue dragons into the story, one being an encounter to be slain by the hero (which shall be good fun all its own) and it's parent, who is immesurably ancient, and on it's deathbed from age. finds the fighter cleric (After he's been killed off by our 'beloved' hero) raises him and charges him to not only obliterate the order of the fiery heart, but to murder every sigmarite in existence, and binds with him to accomplish this, - enter final boss-

i like it i like it i like it!!!!
-giddy hopping-

[Quietus]

Sounds like a fun storyline. If you establish the fighter/cleric beforehand, then introduce the young dragon to be killed... then played properly, the player should **** himself when he meets the fighter/cleric again, and said character is visibly beefier with crazy blue dragon armor and new powers.

Hope it goes awesome for you!

[big teej]

@^
that's the idea

and as i was going for a walk
it struck me
I NOW HAVE THE NAMES FOR THESE MONSTROSITIES!!! =D

Natoii - cleric8/fighter7

karaghan - "young" blue dragon ( age category not actually determined)

kharagul - ancient blue wyrm.

oh this is gonna be sooo much fun =D

unfortunately, there's still work to be done. but as for now i shall be happy with having names for these guys.

I'll try and stat out natoii sometime over the weekend and put him up for critique (and having my terrible build torn apart, but oh well)

if anyone has any questions about natoii they want to go ahead and start tearing him apart with feel free to either post them or PM me.
so far i have

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his name (new!) his primary melee weapon, primary ranged weapon (both probably super overpowered) his diety, his alignment, height/weight etc, his reason for being a bad guy, and a few ideas for magic items i want him to have

[big teej]

I don't suppose anyone could tell me at what level a young blue dragon becomes an appropriate encounter for a lone paladin? (granted, a lone paladin with level inappropriate equipment, and perhaps a bard npc buddy)

If I'm going to persue my plan... I need to know when to throw the dragon at him and it be a tough fight


thanks in advance

[Quietus]

I don't suppose anyone could tell me at what level a young blue dragon becomes an appropriate encounter for a lone paladin? (granted, a lone paladin with level inappropriate equipment, and perhaps a bard npc buddy)

If I'm going to persue my plan... I need to know when to throw the dragon at him and it be a tough fight


thanks in advance

Well, let's see; AC 21, 102 HP, +15 to attacks, 6d8 breath weapon (line of electricity, DC 18). No fancy spellcasting, no crazy abilities yet, no DR... I could see a well-prepared Paladin pulling through around level 6, IF he's got time to buff beforehand, and you're straight forward with the dragon. A bit of electricity resistance and some AC boosters are obviously required, though the damage being thrown by the dragon is kinda weak - those five attacks per turn do add up. At 6, with forethought, and with you not doing anything to outright screw him over, it'd depend mostly on luck - a very tough fight, to be sure, but 1d8+3, 2x 1d6+1, and 2x 1d4+1 isn't HUGE. If he's an AC tank - full plate, tower shield, both +1 by this point, with 12/13 dex - then that first attack only has a 50% chance of landing, and the other two have far less.

For a mounted build, if he's smart about it, he could stand a chance at splattering the wall with the dragon at level 6, particularly if he's a human with power attack, mounted combat, ride by attack, and spirited charge. 3d8+3x (1.5xstr + weapon enhancement + power attack) from a lance is pretty nasty. Given 16 strength and a +1 lance, that's 4+5+12 at full power attack, so 3d8+21; A crit would smoke the dragon pretty handily.

So really, it depends on the player and the build. We'd need to know more to answer better than that. By 10, however, it should be a cake walk, if the character is even remotely competent, barring tricks you could pull.

[big teej]

for starters, my apologies for the much longer time between my responses than normal

i can't even remember friday, i went to a gaming con saturday (my first one ever, spent all my money) and yesterday i was to drained to do anything.

anyways, thankyou for the suggestions, and I will reply again with any questions I had after i've woken up enough to be coherent.

oh, and as far as his equipment goes
he's at level 2, and since it fit the story (which IMHO trumps crunch in a solo campaign, up to a point) he has full plate, a magic shield of....... bashing i believe (i gave him 4 choices and i can't quite remember what he picked) he's been given far more skill points than a normal paladin, and he has three health potions of what our group calls
'the good stuff'

Spoiler

Show

these are health potions our dms typically give out to cleric/healer less parties, partly due to make up for that, and partly because (me especially) our dms are aware that they have the potential to screw up and TPK the party by accident, which we believe should be avoided. (knowingly throwing a potential TPK is okay, accidentally? we try to avoid it)

that's basically the extent of his 'magic' or 'non level appropriate' items
in addition to earning his spurs, he will be given a light warhammer. and a mundane heavy warhorse, and a lance.

I plan to make him quest for his paladin mount.

well that turned out far longer than it was going to.

[Ossian]

Battle Sorcerer + Cleric + Mystic Theurge if you absolutely have to. Then Eldritch knight would be ok for the full BAB and the D8. Combat Casting and some kind of armored mage feats (or a really dandy dragonscale armour that works as light and does not hamper your sorcerer's abilities) would seem pretty nice.

O.

[big teej]

I have decided to go with the cleric/fighter....

also, in regards to the dragon. my party in another campaign just fought with a youngn and suffered our FIRST PLAYER CHARACTER DEATH EVER at level 4 (technically it's the 2nd, but the first one was a suicide so the player could roll a cleric, so we don't count it)

why do i tell you all this?

because it gives me justification to throw that young blue dragon at the paladin much sooner than i thought i would.

also, I'm not sure if i'll be able to throw up the bad guys on here after they've been statted out.... i fear my player may discover this thread..... and that would be bad.

thoughts suggestions? (including 'put it up anyways, which i'll probably do)

thankyou all for your continued help. it's much appreciated

[big teej]

greetings all, finally, after much procrastination and brainstorming, i am FINALLY statting up natoii (the human fighter/cleric that shall be both the first and final boss)

i am statting him up as we speak, being completely new to stating a multiclass character i have a question i need answered before i post him


do i combine the babs of the fighter table and the cleric table?
or just take the best one?

fighter table (7th level) = +7 +2
cleric table (8th level) = +6 + 1
combined total = +13 +3


which set is the correct one to use?
thankyou in advance, and the sooner i get this answered, the sooner yall get to pick apart natoii's build

=edit=
it would seem I must also have this question answered to take natoii's remaining feats, as i plan to use some of the playground fighter feats by mister Rich Burlew, as the ones i wish natoii to have have BAB requirements