Building a skeleton companion?

[Squally!]

So, i am running a game and im in need of a nice cohort for a BBEG. BBEG is a blackguard, built to stab the party most viciously, and he is in need of an undead buddy!

Seeing as ive never built an undead cohort before, and honestly have no idea what direction i should go, if i should be a skeleton or a wraith or a ghast or what.
CR 14 or 15, no ToB, but practically any other cheese works. My party builds very optimized characters.
Any help or ideas would be good! thanks in advance :D

[Daftendirekt]

You could always throw the Death Knight template (MM1) on there. Do you want it to just hack the party to death, or complement the blackguard's melee-ness a bit and be a caster?

[Squally!]

hmm, a caster might be nice! *goes to look at the DK template as well*

Hmm, cant find that template? is it 3.5? :O

[Daftendirekt]

Well, not sure what to suggest for a caster besides lich, but I see liches being the Big Bad more than anything else; their phylactery above all else enforces that point.

[Thurbane]

You could use a Ghaele Zombie...pretty tough for CR 6. You could throw some templates on it to boost it's CR.

Or if you wanted to be really nasty, you could have it Awakened, then start taking levels in a non-associated class. That means it could have 16 levels and be CR 14! (Awakened doesn't have a listed CR adjustment, so maybe it sould count as +1 or +2 toward the CR).

[Squally!]

Yeah, a lich might overstep the BG.
Im honestly not sure where to go with it, hence the post here D:

[Daftendirekt]

hmm, a caster might be nice! *goes to look at the DK template as well*

Hmm, cant find that template? is it 3.5? :O

DOH. It's in MM2, not MM1. Page 207.

[Squally!]

ahh, yup! looks interesting! i think ill prolly go with that! :D