Hail Adventurers! I have called you to answer a very...interesting question:
How should a DM come about keeping his Villian(s) from becoming too strong? (i.e. Malakie is a 40th level character who has many levels in Paladin/Blackguard/Fighter/Sorcerer, and teams-up with a Lich Queen, named Mirage. How do I keep Mirage from making Malakie TOO powerful with her spells?)
It's a large question that may run in all DMs' minds. I've handed the general layout of how I want this "season" of my campaign to run, but he is very good at pointing out loop-holes in my plans. One of which was making Malakie too powerful.
Once again, thank you all for contributing, and should I EVER get the chance to create something for Wizards, I would be more than happy to list EVERYONE!!! Blessed Be (*)
Ouch, A 40th level character and you want to know how to Not make him more powerful?
Well, I will say up front that I have zero experience at that level of play so I'll keep my advice rather vauge on details.
How about creating some tension between the Lichqueen and this Malakie character? Maybe they are allied, but don't trust each other enough to drop their guard to allow spells to be cast on one another? (Remember, you have to voluntarily Fail a save to get most spells cast on you)
Or you could say that Malakie is so far advanced with his own skills that nothing the Lichqueen has up her sleeve will help.
Just a few thoughts, hope they help!
-Rath