Okay, to preface, my game has been going for several weeks, and my players are venturing through the final dungeon of my current campaign. This final dungeon happens to be a floating tower belonging to the BBEG, the quintessential evil never dying lich who has been plaguing the land for thousands of years. His back story is an amalgamation of tropes and bad guy cliches and he is kind of a mix of Voldemort and Morgoth/Sauron aka the Necromancer, which is how he is referred.
The final dungeon has consisted of 17 floors, some are puzzle/trap rooms, where some are battle rooms, and others are lair rooms.
So far, I have 5 main fights and 3 major puzzles prior to the ultimate battle with the BBEG.
Dungeon Rundown
Floor 2: Simple but elegant teleportation circle puzzle. There are ten rune circles drawn onto the floor, nine if you don't count the one the players arrive on. Stepping on one of these circles instantly teleports you to another one in the room. By stepping on one in the correct order, the runes light up and stay lit as you are teleported to the next circle. Stepping on the wrong circle teleports you back to the original circle you entered the room through forcing you to start over. Optionally, there are Linguistic checks to make of ancient texts in the room that reveal the correct order through a cryptic riddle. Finalizing the puzzle causes all the circles in the room to disappear except the orignal one and the final one which transports them to the next room.
Floor 3: Boss Fight, Swamp Room. By bringing back previous characters from the game, the players are immediately engaged in a grudge match with enemies from their past. Sort of a cronies henchmen final battle like at the end of a serial TV show like an anime or dare I make a comparison to Power Rangers (whose story formatting is actually fantastic for creating campaigns with recurring villains). This room happens to contain a black dragon who was an antagonist from one of my player's backstories along with enemies who have been augmented with CR+2 templates. Where before they faced a Vanaran Bloodrager with the black draconic bloodline (one of the players is a vanara with whom he shares a blood rivalry with this guy, something about claiming rights to the throne of aplhavanara/monkey king, and the death of my player's characters father) they now face a half-dragon Arcane Bloodline Primalist Bloodrager, 20th level.
In this room is another enemy of a different player, a Flind Mother who has become a Hyena Animal Lord Beastmaster Ranger with 2 hyena companions hellbent on vengeance against a player whose background story was about eradicating gnoll raids in the west lands and protecting the fields of the western kingdom.
The swamp room has poisonous fumes coming from the bog and deals acid damage as an acid pool.
Disposing of the threats allows for looting and the lighting up of another rune circle on the other side of a collapsible bridge.
Floor 4: Magical Clone Laboratory. Not to leave how these recurring villains recur unexplained, they find a full magical laboratory of clones of the vanaran enemy along with clones of the black dragon along with an artificial womb where some sort of splicing experiment was obviously successful. The clones are all incomplete and thus none reanimate, but the players should have the insight to destroy the remains of the laboratory anyway. Magical loot is abundant, such as crafting reagents and other material components for necromancy spells. There is another teleportation circle in the room to progress.
Floor 5: Another Clone Laboratory. This room has more clones, this time of the Flind Mother. There are also several Hyena and Hyenadon clones along with more splicing experiments done on corpses. Same kind of loot as before.
Floor 6: Boss Fight 2. The room is completely pitch black, save for some bursts of sudden bolts of electricity here and there but not really revealing anything. Within the darkness they encounter a form of mirage arcana showing them nightmares of an enemy they already defeated (a human magus who was a cultist/worshiper of the necromancer) failing in an attempt to use someone else's necromatic ritual to become a lich becoming horribly disfigured and becoming a forsaken lich. Said forsaken lich then proceeds to attack them along with the first major boss of the campaign brought back as a true lich. An elven spellbinder wizard who was known as the teacher and the greatest master of the Air school of wizardry in the elven capitol of Ellathel, where the first arc of the campaign took place. Being an Air wizard he specializes in blasting spells with the electricity damage type, and not only has Chain Lightning as one of his bonded spells, but has Spell Focus, Elemental Focus, and their greaters along with spell perfection to augment it. The magus specializes in Shocking Grasp, and uses it to attack enemies wearing metal. Present in the room are two Air Elemental Elders and two Lightning Elemental Elders. Defeating the enemies causes the room to light up (if it wasn't already) and the next circle appears.
Floor 7: Clone Room 3. This time it is full of human clones that are incomplete, but you also find what appears to be the remnants of an experiment gone horribly wrong and the leftover ritualistic materials of lich conversion including a soulless phylactery. There is another circle.
Floor 8: Clone Room 4. This time there are a bunch of incomplete clones of elves, obviously of the elven air master that they now have defeated twice. This room is a mini maze of sorts and has simple, easily disarmed (for high level characters anyway) magical traps composed of mostly wards which lead to a secret room holding the elven lich's phylactery. There is no circle present until the phylactery is destroyed, causing it to appear and leading to the next room.
Floor 9: Rune Puzzle. This is a fairly complicated puzzle in practice, as there are seven levers that are all pointed downward on the northmost wall of the room. Each of these levers has three positions they can be placed in, either up, down, or pointing straight out. Beneath the levers is a single word in an unknown script, when a lingustics check reveals them to say RELRERE. Beneath is is a text saying:
Righteousness is high
Evil is low
Life is neutral
RELRERE is the name of death
Each letter is represented with a different rune and inspecting the other three walls of the room shows the individual runes along with a single arrow sticking out of the wall. One is white underneath the rune representing R, one is grey underneath the rune representing L, and one is Black underneath the rune representing E.
The puzzle is meant to be a challenge where you must put the levers in the appropriate positions to the alignments they represent, the R being good and pointing up, the L being neutral and pointing straight out, and the E representing evil and pointing down.
Putting the levers in the correct position activates the next circle.
Floor 10: Boss Fight 3. Upon entering the room you seem to be in a form of desert full of white sand with what appears to be a beautiful nude women standing in the center next to an altar of some kind. A successful heal or perception check (DCs 20 and 25 respectively) reveals that the sand is actually bone dust, and upon approaching the woman the players notice how incredibly pale she is and her glossy pale blue lifeless eyes. She then cackles and summons up an army from underneath the sand of burning zombies of several varying sizes and next to her a large skeleton of a pit fiend rises up while she conjures an armor of bones around her body. The altar she was next to then animates and you see it take the form of a noqual breastplate with the interconnecting limbs being coated in searing flames. This fight is with an Undead Lord Aasimar Lich cleric and a formerly aasimar antipaladin graveknight. Four of the humanoid skeletons are carrying tower shields and are standing around the cleric aiding her defenses each round while she casts buffs and debuffs while the antipaladin and pit fiend skeleton (along with the army of burning skeletons) surround and attack the players. Part of this army is a bonestorm with 24HD. The graveknight's associated energy type as you can imagine is fire and the cleric launches Flame Strike attacks often. Upon defeating the enemies the bone dust in the center of the room seems to magnetically push itself away from the next circle. One of the players is an aasimar paladin who once shared a rivalry with the antipaladin who was once a paladin of good, who turned upon not being selected as the representative of the player's paladin order, and the cleric is a lich follower of the necromancer. Their backstories have them carry the titles of the fallen angel and the angel of undeath.
Floor 11: Clone Room 5. Here there are plenty of incomplete female aasimar clones along with a protected ward surrounding an easy to find phylactery within an altar of Ryuuek, my campaign's undeath deity. Destroying the altar reveals the circle and destroying the phylactery activates it.
Floor 12: Clone Room 6: Male Aasimar clones are here, but they are not developing as they are now all just corpses. Here they find a full armor and weapon smithing forge where the noqual deathknight was presumably created. Included is a pool of liquid fire from which the graveknight drew power, and throwing the noqual breastplate into it destroys it much like throwing it into an active volcano would. Doing so also activates the next circle. At this point the players gain their last level and become level 20.
Floor 13: Boss Fight 4. This is where the game gets interesting, kind of. The room is bone chilling cold, and without some form of cold resistance or endure elements going, the players will take 1d6 cold damage from exposure each round without a successful Fort save (DC 20). The room is also pitch black. For this last fight, they are faced with a Great Wyrm Ravener made from a clone of a dragon they just defeated.
Some backstory, the ravener is actually a silver dragon. This silver dragon was once the protector of the realm, and leader of a trio of metallic dragons who are tasked with maintaining order. In the story arc immediately prior to this dungeon, they met with the dragon to find out the secrets about these McGuffin artifacts they found in a dungeon crawl. Silver dragon ate all of the artifacts and told the players that the fight was useless and hopeless and that he had grown tired of fighting this necromancer every few hundred years. Having faced him enough times without ever successfully destroying him he had come to the conclusion that the world was doomed and gave into the necromancer's will. The silver dragon was defeated and the other dragons (along with an NPC mentor Gandalf figure) gave exposition to the players about the nature of the necromancer's plan to end all life on [earth]. The Gandalf figure revealed himself to be a silver dragon protege of the former and assumed his role as the new protector of the world. Defeating the dragon activated the McGuffin items, granting the players access to a Mythic Feat and a number of Mythic Power equal to 2+CON per day.
Onto the fight, pretty straight forward epic dragon fight, with an undead twist. Terrain all ice and thus difficult to travel across without an acrobatics check, and the dragon pretty much has all the best buffs known to him since he gets the cleric and sorcerer spell lists. Once the ravener is defeated the circle appears.
Floor 14: Dragon clone room. This room is full of dragon carcasses that have clearly been underdeveloped and one that was clearly discarded save for the bones and parts that became the ravener. They can use survival or heal to get 8 vials of dragon blood and a colossal silver dragon hide. The circle is not hidden to progress.
Floor 15: Final puzzle. Upon entering the last puzzle room, they notice a small altar with four multicolored orbs on it. There is a white one, blue one, red one, and a green one. Behind them is a large mural of four chromatic dragons, of the same colors. In front of them there is a door with a slot in it that fits one of the orbs. The players must place the orb into the door to open it, but the correct order must be done as opening the first door leads to a second and a third and a fourth. The order is fairly simple since it is the same order that the players faced each element in the dungeon. The green one corresponds to the dragon of the same color, and to acid, and opens the first door. The blue one to the dragon, and thus electricity opening the second. The red is third representing fire, and the white one is last representing ice. Opening the last door leads to a teleportation circle to the next room.
Floor 16: Full blown magical laboratory. This is where we find all of the Necromancer's crazy evil experiments. The place is full of bloodless corpses and for each corpse there is a corresponding jewel. There is also a large pile of diamond dust and other costly materials which has a reddish tint to it. Here they find a scroll that depicts the blood magic rituals that the Necromancer undergoes where he assumes his victim's body using Magic Jar and proceeds to Fabricate costly materials by using an advance necromatic version of Blood Money until his victim has no more life force remaining, leaving a bloodless corpse. There is also a cornucopia of lesser magic items and base items that could be upgraded into magic items like cloaks, belts, headbands, rings, and blank wands and staves.
The teleportation circle is not hidden in this room either.
Floor 17: Final Boss room. Entering the room has lots of pillars and multiple levels upon which to stand in a very ancient temple/Colosseum like aesthetic. Here the players have to face the final confrontation. I'm considering either a two part fight where they face the cronies of the Necromancer, then the Necromancer himself or where they face them all together. Using Undead Master and Command Undead along with the Control undead spell, he can have 3 level 20 skeletal champions/zombie lords with up to 34 HD serving as an antiparty for a full fledged fight of fights.
This enemy is pretty strong however, and I don't think it's really that good of an idea, but then again single opponents tend to die very quickly and easily.
The bastard himself
NE medium undead (augmented humanoid, human, mythic)
Initiative +33/13; Senses darkvision 60ft; lifesight 40ft; continuous truesight; spell perception; Perception +39
Aura: Fear (DC 39)
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DEFENSE
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AC 55, touch 21, flat-footed 46 (13 armor +9 DEX +4 shield +4 deflection +15 natural armor)
HP 520
Fort +24 Reflex +19 Will +24
Defensive Abilities: channel resistance +12 (immune non mythic sources), creeping paralysis, DR 15/bludgeoning, epic, and magic, SR 33, Immune cold, electricity, undead traits
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30ft. Fly 60ft
melee spiked gauntlet +41/36 (1d4+14 +1d8+10 negative energy plus paralyzing touch)
Special Attacks: Touch Attack 1d8+10 (DC 39); Bolster (19/day, +5, 10 rounds); Mythic Power 10/day; Surge 1d12; Arcane Surge; Prescience 19/day; Foretell 10 rounds/day; Paralyzing Touch (DC 39)
WIZARD SPELLS PREPARED:
- At-will Cantrips(DC 27): Detect Magic; Prestidigitation; Ray of Frost; Bleed
- At-Will 1st(DC 28): Chill Touch; Shield; True Strike; Magic Missle; Identify; Repair Undead; Ray of Sickening; Shocking Grasp; Ray of Enfeeblement; Bungle
- 2nd (DC 29): False Life; Blindness/Deafness (Mythic)(3); Mirror Image (Mythic)(3); Blur (2)
- 3rd (DC 30): Haste (Mythic) (2); Dispel Magic (Mythic)(3); Displacement (2); Sands of Time (2)
- 4th (DC 31): Enervation (Mythic)(5); Greater Infernal Healing (2); Curse of Magic Negation; Boneshatter
- 5th (DC 32): Vampiric Shadow Shield (2); Ghoul Army (2); Fickle Winds (2); Quickened Magic Missle (3)
- 6th (DC 33): Create Undead; Persistent Enervation (Mythic)(3); Globe of Invulnerability (Mythic); Greater Dispel Magic (3)
- 7th (DC 34): Finger of Death (Mythic)(3); Quickened Vampiric Touch (Mythic)(3); Control Undead; Limited Wish
- 8th (DC 35): Quickened Enervation (Mythic)(3);Persistent Major Curse; Persistent Disintegrate; Orb of the Void; Maze (Mythic); Greater Spell Absorption
- 9th (DC 36): Energy Drain (2); Mage's Disjunction; Time Stop (Mythic)(3); Mass Suffocation (2)
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STATISTICS
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STR 12; DEX 28; INT 45; WIS 26; CHA 38
BAB +10; CMB +36; CMD 47
Skills: Fly +32; Knolwedge(all) +40; Linguistics +40; Perception +39; Spellcraft +40
Feats
1)Scribe Scroll; Improved Initiative; Additional Traits (Focused Mind, Paragon of Speed); Command Undead
3) Weapon Finesse
5) Spell Focus- Necromancy; Craft Wondrous Item
7) Greater Spell Focus- Necromancy
9) Undead Master
10) Knowledge is Power
11) Destructive Dispel
13) Quicken Spell
15) Combat Reflexes; Persistent Spell
17) Eschew Materials
19) Toughness
20) Time Stutter
M1) Mythic Spell Lore; Mythic Spell Focus- Necromancy
M3) Mythic Improved Initiative
M5) Mythic Toughness
M7) Mythic Combat Reflexes
M9) Mythic Undead Master
Languages: Common, Necril, Draconic, (a lot more that don't matter)
SQ: Dual Initiative; Immediate Counterspell; Enhanced Spellcasting; Sustained by Magic; Enduring Armor; Eldritch Flight; Arcane Endurance; Flexible School (Divination-Foresight); Harmonious Mage; Perfect Preparation; Enhanced Ability (INT, WIS, CHA); Weapon Insight (custom ability, +INT on weapon attack rolls); Rejuvenation; Mythic Phylactery; Familiar (School Familiar, Undead Greensting Scorpion)
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GEAR
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Belt of Incredible Dexterity +6; Headband of Mental Superiority +6; +5 Dueling Agile Spell Storing Spiked Gauntlet; Truesight Goggles
I am still working on gear for him. Dusty Rose Prisms seem to be okay choices.
Stats are based of an Azlanti Human with venerable age calculated in and Tomes a plenty on top of his elite NPC array.
For the minions, I really would like to keep it simple. I can have undead of any kind, like devourers and such, but I personally think necro party would be more epic.
I kinda want a slayer for melee, plus an archer, and something else simple with not a lot of spellcasting going on.
I'm not a guy who plays mythic but even for mythic, isn't 55AC and SR 33 a bit much? Your talking about something that puts a torrasque (CR23) to shame and has any spell casting you want to give him on top of that. Only way I can even think of hitting that guy with anything martial is a crit fisher or a Druid with destruction domain summoning 7 giants.
Can't even stun lock him unless I brought my best cheese.
I should talk about the party, since they are going to be 20th level, and have optimized builds.
Most of them have around +40 to hit wihthout buffs, so I'm not worried about that.
I'm actually scared that he's too weak.
EDIT: also the 55 AC can be mitigated with spells, at least the shield bonus can.
I doubt the AC will be a problem for martials actually (at least, most mythic martials I've made recently took unstoppable strike on a legendary item -- and touch AC is 21)
Also, the SR is probably on the low side -- isn't in 11+CR as a general rule? That's just quibbling though, as most mythic arcane casters I've made recently had Channel Power, obviating need for SR checks. I suppose that Hierophants have no similar ability
I personally would not bother with tying three of your abilities into enhanced stats... those are (in my opinion) rather low on the power side for the options available. You could pick up divine source (for some SLAs) or Legendary Item (for layering more free metamagic with metamagician)
Also, I'd try for a different mythic feat than Toughness. You wont ever see the DR (undead are destroyed before negative HP), and +20 ish HP -- when you already have 500 ish -- is low balling what you can get for a feat. Off hand, I'd go with Mythic Paragon, if only to enhance the tier based effects of your mythic spells.
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A lot of that falls by the wayside if the party your running this for isn't full on mythic as well. You mentioned a dragon fight that looks an awful lot like a moment of ascension (or whatever its called)
If your party customized 10 tiers worth of abilities up to this point, You probably ought to optimize the boss a little more. If, on the other hand, they have limited mythic support which you've metered out, then the written boss is probably fine as is (maybe too strong depending on the party APL)
Yeah, APL is ~30. (6 characters, 20th level, plus mythic abilities) They aren't full blown Mythic, but they do have Mythic abilities and will have more after the ravener fight.
SR is calculated on the base CR, not the final CR for a mythic lich, which is 22, for SR 33.
I do really like Divine Source and Legendary Item.
Is Mythic Paragon really necessary? +2 AC and +1 Initiative are the immediate benefits, along with more HD to control of bad guys.
Overall good advice though, I just have to pick what item I wanna use. I am considering a staff of the master (Necromancy) with the metamagician, powerful, and unyielding abilities.
Not sure what else to give him item-wise. He seems pretty happy though he isn't really all that decked out.
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The benefit of Mythic Paragon is especially hard to judge for a caster, as they enhance the Tier based effects of your mythic spells.
For instance, its an extra critter in your M Time Stop.
I don't think there are a bunch of key abilities in the spells you've shown where it is excellent -- but you have a few more spells you could choose...
M Circle of Death - Creatures with 21 HD or fewer are affected! This makes the spell actually worthwhile in a level 20 fight. Also thematic
M Cloudkill - benefits pretty nicely off of it, and is thematic
M Contingency - you get one more contingent spell (more never hurt)
M Antimagic Field - you can allow up to 6 schools to function in your presence <- there are only 8 total, so this means you could say nuts to a set of spells you never plan to cast
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There are probably more too. Also, Mythic Paragon would let you choose 2 more mythic spells.
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Are you making this guy with the expected treasure for CR 25? Double/Triple?
So, this is what he's starting to look like:
NE medium undead (augmented humanoid, human, mythic)
Initiative +32/12; Senses darkvision 60ft; lifesight 40ft; continuous truesight; spell perception; Perception +41
Aura: Fear (DC 39)
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DEFENSE
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AC 56, touch 22, flat-footed 48 (13 armor +8 DEX +4 shield +4 deflection +15 natural armor +2 luck)
HP 480
Fort +26 Reflex +20 Will +28
Defensive Abilities: channel resistance +12 (immune non mythic sources), creeping paralysis, DR 15/bludgeoning, epic, and magic, SR 33, Immune cold, electricity, undead traits
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30ft. Fly 60ft
melee spiked gauntlet +23/18 (1d4+14 +1d8+10 negative energy plus paralyzing touch)
melee quarterstaff +19/14 (1d6+10 +1d8+10 negative energy plus paralyzing touch)
transformation melee spiked gauntlet +34/29/24/19 (1d4+15 +1d8+10 negative energy plus paralyzing touch)
transformation melee quarterstaff +33/28/23/18 (1d6+12 +1d8+10 negative energy plus paralyzing touch)
Special Attacks: Touch Attack 1d8+10 (DC 39); Bolster (19/day, +5, 10 rounds); Mythic Power 10/day; Surge 1d12; Arcane Surge; Prescience 19/day; Foretell 10 rounds/day; Paralyzing Touch (DC 39)
WIZARD SPELLS PREPARED:
- At-will Cantrips(DC 27): Detect Magic; Prestidigitation; Ray of Frost; Bleed
- At-Will 1st(DC 28): Chill Touch; Shield; True Strike; Magic Missle; Identify; Repair Undead; Ray of Sickening; Shocking Grasp; Ray of Enfeeblement; Bungle
- 2nd (DC 29): False Life; Blindness/Deafness (Mythic)(3); Mirror Image (Mythic)(3); Blur (2)
- 3rd (DC 30): Haste (Mythic) (2); Dispel Magic (Mythic)(3); Displacement (2); Sands of Time (2)
- 4th (DC 31): Enervation (Mythic)(7); Greater Infernal Healing (2); Curse of Magic Negation; Boneshatter (3)
- 5th (DC 32): Vampiric Shadow Shield (2); Ghoul Army (2); Fickle Winds (2); Quickened Magic Missle (3)
- 6th (DC 33): Create Undead; Persistent Enervation (Mythic)(2); Globe of Invulnerability; Greater Dispel Magic (3); Transformation (Mythic)
- 7th (DC 34): Finger of Death (Mythic)(3); Quickened Vampiric Touch (Mythic)(3); Control Undead; Limited Wish
- 8th (DC 35): Quickened Enervation (Mythic)(3);Persistent Major Curse; Persistent Disintegrate; Orb of the Void; Maze (Mythic); Greater Spell Absorption
- 9th (DC 36): Energy Drain (2); Mage's Disjunction; Time Stop (Mythic)(3); Mass Suffocation (2)
SPELL-LIKE ABILITIES (CL 20th)
- 1/day 1st(DC 25): Cause Fear; Protection from Good
- 1/day 2nd (DC 26): Death Knell; Ghoul Touch; Align Weapon
- 1/day 3rd (DC 27): Animate Dead; Magic Circle Against Good; Scare
- 1/day 4th (DC 28): Deathward; Enervation; Unholy Blight; Fear
- 1/day 5th (DC 29): Slay Living; Dispel Good
- 1/day 6th (DC 30): Create Undead
- 1/day 7th (DC 31): Destruction; Blasphemy
- 1/day 8th (DC 32): Create Greater Undead; Unholy Aura
- 1/day 9th (DC 33): Wail of the Banshee; Energy Drain; Summon Monster IX (evil only)
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STATISTICS
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STR 12; DEX 26; INT 45; WIS 26; CHA 38
BAB +10; CMB +35; CMD 46
Skills: Fly +31; Knolwedge(all) +40; Linguistics +40; Perception +41; Spellcraft +40
Feats
1)Scribe Scroll; Improved Initiative; Additional Traits (Focused Mind, Paragon of Speed); Command Undead; (Alertness)
3) Weapon Finesse
5) Spell Focus- Necromancy; Craft Wondrous Item
7) Greater Spell Focus- Necromancy
9) Undead Master
10) Knowledge is Power
11) Weapon Focus- Quarterstaff
13) Quicken Spell
15) Quarterstaff Master; Persistent Spell
17) Weapon Specialization- Quarterstaff
19) Idealize
20) Time Stutter
M1) Mythic Spell Lore; Mythic Spell Focus- Necromancy
M3) Mythic Improved Initiative
M5) Extra Path Ability (Divine Source)
M7) Extra Path Ability (Divine Source)
M9) Mythic Undead Master
Languages: Common, Necril, Draconic, (a lot more that don't matter)
SQ: Dual Initiative; Immediate Counterspell; Enhanced Spellcasting; Sustained by Magic; Enduring Armor; Eldritch Flight; Flexible School (Divination-Foresight); Harmonious Mage; Perfect Preparation; Enhanced Ability (INT, CHA); Divine Source (Evil, Death, Undead, Fear); Legendary Item (2); Rejuvenation; Mythic Phylactery; Familiar (School Familiar, Undead Greensting Scorpion)
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GEAR
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Belt of Incredible Dexterity +6; Headband of Mental Superiority +6; +5 Dueling Agile Spell Storing Spiked Gauntlet; Truesight Goggles; Ring of Wizardry IV; Ring of Spell Turning; Legendary Staff of Power (+5 quarterstaff, Metamagician, powerful (2), Unstoppable Strike, Unyielding, Foe-Biting)
I really wanna make a Slayer as one of them, most likely an Archery based fighter for another, possibly a warpriest for the last one? Not really feeling the magic ones because they could theoretically break the control undead thing happening. Another fighter? Tank? idk
EDIT: added a +4 book for STR.
Most likely triple treasure.
I think the final CR landed around 27
For a magical option for the minions you could go Sorcerer/Barbarian/Dragon Disciple or Bloodrager/Dragon Disciple. Magic's of the Boom variety but not so smart. Beyond that a Champion Barbarian could be brutal. A fighter with a Trip Build would be fun. For more work but some power a Anti-Paladin is fun.
If you're worried about spellcasters breaking through your command, you could smack them with a Threnodic Geas/Quest to always follow your commands with no attempts to break free of control. (normal +2 metamagic rod = 32500 GP, or change a feat)
You might be able to get away with them all being in the same room, if APL is as high as you indicate. You might need more goons to soak up some of that action economy too.
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Otherwise, it'll be a matter of statting them out.
If you have a Fighter/Slayer(rogue-like)/Wizard fronts covered, a divine based caster or demi-caster is probably right for the last slot. Warpriest looks like a fine choice.
Also there must now be an obligatory "You fools, this isn't even my final form!" joke now that I have Mythic Transformation in there.
I like the idea of the cronies being fallen heroes from the past who had faced him before centuries ago.
A warpriest that worships him with his new domains might be cool.
I believe I should base them on humans, with NPC wealth.
Definitely don't wanna do another full caster.
Human Slayer, Elven Archer, (something) warpriest.
I like it, just gotta stat them up.