Combat-oriented BBEG.

[Akennedy]

Hello Everyone!

In all other campaigns I have played, the BBEG has ALWAYS been a sorts of spellcaster; Mind flayer Lich 20 billion levels in wizard, the crazed elf wizard who wants to wake over the world, or the Cleric of *insert evil-deity here* who wants to sacrifice the world to *evil-deity*.
I want to break the usual spellcasting BBEG and make an effective combat and/or ranged (archery) bad guy. I still want him to have magical gear up the wazoo, but not spellcast. He might have a few cool abilities, but preferably not magic/psionics. I want him crazy physical skills (jump, tumble, climb, etc...) and 2h sword with a good bow.

So, I ask to teh playground, does any1 have any great ideas?

[lukelightning]

How about one of the new martial classes, from Tome of Battle? Maybe the BBEG is a super nasty sword sage.

[Fax Celestis]

Go fallen paladin. Paladin/Hexblade/Blackguard is a good mesh.

Alternatively, go Spellthief/Assassin and turn the PCs magics against themselves. Or try my new favorite assassin mix: Swordsage/Bloodclaw Master/Assassin/Jade Phoenix Mage.

[Swordguy]

*Cringes at the thought of all the people who will post here and say "he'll just get Timestopped-Forcecaged-AcidFogged-MetorSwarmed-EvansSpikedTentaclesofForcedIntrusion'd so casters FTW*

I agree with Lukelightning, by the way. Go TOB

[Morty]

If you're going to have melee-oriented BBEG, give him some uber-powered weapon and armor, preferably custom items, that make him/her nigh-invincible. Otherwise, as much as I don't belive I'm saying that, use ToB. It'll fit if you're going to make superhuman BBEG.

[Mike_Lemmer]

Give him plenty of trustworthy lieutenents as well. I'd suggest ranks in Sense Motive & Spot, so he knows he can trust them. After all, if the BBEG mage can have big heavies in his thrall, why can't the BBEG fighter have mages & psions in his service?

[VerdugoExplode]

I'm going to fourth ToB as well. The thought of a high level evil crusader would be a definite change of pace, especially after the party has done about 300 points of damage and still failed to kill him.

Now, if you wanted to be really mean, and you probably do, just give him a small army of level 1 peasants he keeps close by him at all times. At first the party will think that they're going to attack but they just stand there. Their purpose is to act as a reservoir for his aura or tyranny, which is going to suck amazing amounts of HP from them and transfer it to him making him even harder to kill. Crusaders are renowned for their survivability and having one who's evil makes it even worse.

[Draz74]

It would sure be an unusual -- and frustrating -- BBEG encounter to run into a typical high-power Archer build, just like the PCs would have made.

Something like a Ranger 2 / Scout 18 with Swift Hunter and Greater Manyshot, maxxed Hide and Move Silently, a couple maneuvers or stances learned from Tome of Battle via feats, and Favored Enemies that match the PCs' races ... could be very nasty. Just make sure he has something to get rid of Wind Wall, like a custom magic item of air-calming.

[valadil]

I'll second blackguard. Not just because they're scary in melee, but because of the character implications. A blackguard was once a paladin. Introduce the character as a paladin, and then have him fall from grace. I did this to my PCs once and it made them feel betrayed by that character, which made a way more effective villain than the usual behind the scenes methods.

[SilverClawShift]

The problem is, magic can completely change the face of any field of combat. High level baddies are often spellcasters just because they need to be able to shut the party spellcasters down.

If you're going to make a combat-centric BBEG, I'd at least make sure he has plenty of minions, a hoarde of low levels and a team of 'not as high level as me' right hands.

[Benejeseret]

1) A Bloodhound (perhaps Scout with a bit into Highland Tracker)
- Has marked the party for some misdeed initially and brings to justice.
- After party excapes/talks their way out he swears to bring them to some form of justice.
- Mainly uses many, many, traps rather than minions
- More of a nasty secondary villian than BBEG

2) Occult Slayer
- This prc class is the anti-wizard, perhaps fitting
- Has set out on his BBEG quest to rid the lands of the stink of magic
- Base it roughly on pre-wwII germany with the BBEG coming to political power and them attempting to exterminate all magical creatures and magic users

3) Replacement Killer/Spymaster
- Run a spycraft style game in dnd setting attempting to apprehend this Replacement Killer.
- The BBEG keeps infiltrating various organizations and turning them against each other, and his persuers (the pc's), until he is cornered and flushed out....only to move onto the next guild
- All to weaken the region through infighting until an invasion force from ________ arrives.

Bene

[BRC]

A sneaky assasin BBEG might be fun, I can picture it
DM: you reach the top of the tower, you appear to be in a lounge area, couches, tables, chairs, bookcases, and valuable paintings are all over the room. everybody make a spot and listen check
Players do, they all fail
DM: Player1 you hear the sound of a bow being fired and feel a sharp pain in your shoulder, you see an arrow pertruding from it, make a spot check
Player1:16
DM: you see somthing glistening on the end, about this time the world goes fuzzy and you feel yourself fall. Everybody else, Player3 is now on the ground foaming at the mouth.

And where is the BBEG you ask, hiding behind one of the many couches or chairs in the room? nope, he's up in the rafters with a magical longbow and lots of poisoned arrows, having taken the hint that the adventurers were coming. And he's about ready to throw down a bead of fireball as soon as the players cluster around their injured comrad, then flee through the window in the confusion. Rappeling down the wall as the tower burns down

[Akennedy]

I like all the ideas - especially Fax's and Mike_Lemmer's. I was maybe thinking he had a bunch of spellcasting minions and each one gave him a protection from (fire, cold, acid, slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, etc...)

If I were to go with Blackguard, I would need to kill the spell casting, but what can I replace it with?

- I don't possess the ToB -

[ndragonsbane]

I've used a Vampire before and that was rather effective. He had quite a few class levels in a melee class (though I don't remember which one). Particularly nice because of the nigh endless supply of vampire spawn and vampire minions.

The characters do have to like fighting undead though, and vampires can be particularly un-fun for unprepared PC's.

[terror_drone]

Use one of the homebrew fighter 'fixes' such as Bear With Laser's fix, which I'll try and hunt down for you.

[Duke Malagigi]

The Dicefreaks have a Prestige Class that you might like in chapter three of the Gates of Hell. It's called the Dark Marshal of Bael. It also makes the Book of Vile Darkness Warrior of Darkness Prestige Class look horrifically broken. I'll find the link for you if want it.

[Twilight Jack]

In 3.0, I ran a campaign that made use of a Ranger/Ghostwalker as a major antagonist. Decked out with the right magic items, he made life very difficult for the party. Spellcasting is only so good when you can't find a target.

[Yakk]

Artifact of Evil.

The Living Sword, the Bow of Darkness, the Armor of Evil, the Cloak of Corruption, the Ring of Power.

This lets you give the BBEG a bunch of special abilities that don't fit their race/class.

Such a BBEG should be effectively immune to spells and magical effects. He should, however, have lots of minions which are not immune to spells.

The group's mundane troops thus must defeat the BBEG while the casters help deal with the army of minions.

Sort of a nice inversion. :)

And if the players win, they get their hands on a cursed artifact of evil. If they use it, the character slowly becomes an NPC. (Use an escalating to infinity set of will rolls that go up with each touch, each period of possession/control over where it is, and with each use/kill. It starts out with minor compulsions, and eventually ends with the character being completely dominated...)

This segways nicely into a follow-up campaign -- get rid of the artifact of evil! :)

[Quietus]

I like all the ideas - especially Fax's and Mike_Lemmer's. I was maybe thinking he had a bunch of spellcasting minions and each one gave him a protection from (fire, cold, acid, slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, etc...)

If I were to go with Blackguard, I would need to kill the spell casting, but what can I replace it with?

- I don't possess the ToB -

Why kill the blackguard spellcasting? It's not a major thing, and it would certainly be interesting to have him do a little bit of self-buffing and the like. You can even reflavor it from "I can cast spells" to "I draw power from the Plane of Evil itself to reinforce my own abilities"

[Human Paragon 3]

The elusive target feat would make for a nasty surprise. As the PCs cluster around the BBEG to do him in, they accidentally smash each other in the face. Then, the barbarian swings his humongous great axe just to have his power attack eliminated. Levels of Knight would force the PCs to attack. Boost his AC into the stratosphere with feats and magical armor and shields, bracers of defense. Once all the PCs are in place, bust out whatever super-powered full attack you planned, preferably with a custom magic weapon.

Wizard cohort helps out with battlefield control spells. Slow keeps the PCs right where you want 'em.

[Dementrius]

Manoeuvrability and speed are generally weak points - give the BBEG a mount to be reckoned with.

An upsized iron golem in the shape of a griffon goes down a treat.

[cupkeyk]

*Cringes at the thought of all the people who will post here and say "he'll just get Timestopped-Forcecaged-AcidFogged-MetorSwarmed-EvansSpikedTentaclesofForcedIntrusion'd so casters FTW*

I agree with Lukelightning, by the way. Go TOB

Force cage/acid fog> shadow step from shadow hand

save or suck> iron heart surge

save or die> mind over body or thought before action

I totally agree with TOB.

Swordsage/master of nine

[Inyssius Tor]

Yes, those spell-types are indeed greater than those maneuvers.

[Dairun Cates]

Two words: Charismatic General.

Give him lots of minions for them to fight. In the actual encounter I might almost suggest a semi-heavy AC build. Maybe a Knight. This way the battle will last longer than 2 turns, but he won't overwhelm the party with damage. It should have some nice tension to it that way. Obviously, a high con modifier will be necessary. I'd recommend a high natural con plus an item to buff it. Give him some unusual style based feats like whirlwind attack. They're not useful for players, but they're nice for bad guys. Obviously, you'll want to surround him with a few minions to make it a fair fight.

Optionally, I hear tome of battle is excellent for making super powered fighter bad asses.

Optionally the second, you give him the powers of some God or Demi-God, give him supernatural powers like superstrength and flight and rationalize it with the God power and a level adjustment (You never said the villain had to be made purely of PC classes).

There's actually a lot of ways to go with this. People just think of Wizards as being powerful so they usually get the job. Personally, if I ever run a D&D campaign, I want the final boss to be a REALLY bad ass bard. Actually, I've done the equivalent of that in other systems. Imagine the look on their faces when they SYMPATHIZE with the villain because he has 26 Charisma and a high diplomacy check. Make it really conflicting.

[AslanCross]

I agree with TOB as well. I'd think a Storm Giant Swordsage or Warblade would make an epic BBEG. Blackguard is also good because it implies connections with some very unsavory folk (evil Outsiders).

[Draz74]

The elusive target feat would make for a nasty surprise. As the PCs cluster around the BBEG to do him in, they accidentally smash each other in the face. Then, the barbarian swings his humongous great axe just to have his power attack eliminated. Levels of Knight would force the PCs to attack.

Ooooh. I like it. Unusual, as Knights aren't usually the high-Dex type ... which is why they'll never see it coming. (Well, that, plus the fact that Elusive Target is generally thought of as a PC-only tool.)

If you still are thinking Blackguard, well, Knight and Blackguard have decent synergy. (High Charisma ...)

[its_all_ogre]

give him some fightery henchmen who go down the leap attack shock trooper line of feats, does not matter much that they are lower level, they should still hit for tons of damage anyway.
if you want them to be really hard make them duskblades, even only one level gives them true strike for a spell......

for a more stealthy character look at rogue/scout vampire with shadowdancer levels in a dungeon for a lair.....hide anywhere with max ranks and +8 racial bonus....calling of minions and massive charisma..add black guard for cha to saves too....