PC Class Villain?

[tdewitt274]

I've looked over the DMG and found plenty of "templates" for Monsters, but what about statted characters for the BBEG?

Basically, I'm looking for something to create a Nth level Wizard, throw in a couple of lackeys and call it an encounter.

Has anyone seen anything that allows this?

[tdewitt274]

Ahh, yeah. Found it, the section on NPCs in Chapter 10. However, I think they're getting hosed on the Powers. Might not be a bad idea to pump them up to Elite or Solo.

[Matthew Koelbl]

Trust me, the NPC rules make for plenty powerful guys on there own. While it might be worthwhile to toss another template on them and make them Elite anyway (especially if they are a big bad guy), the powers they get are generally much more potent than those available to most monsters. (Since PC powers are usually bigger than enemy powers.)

The reason they don't get the full onslaught of PC powers is simple - a player tends to conserve their power, so they can deal with several fights in one day. But a bad guy really only exists for one fight - if you give it a full selection of PC powers, it will often 'go nova', and a few Daily powers will often be a lot more than the players are able to handle. (Especially if you have a full team of enemy NPCs.)

You can probably get away with it if it is just one guy, and like anything else the DM might want to do, there is nothing inherently prohibiting it. As long as you keep in mind the effect it will have on the difficulty, and are ok with it, then it is pretty easy to add in a few extra powers or similar abilities, and see how it plays out.

My advice, though - stick with the standard methods. Use the normal NPC rules, and then toss on a template (or even a class template) to make them Elite. Then round out with minions and allies, and it should be as interesting and exiting a fight as needed. :)

[Astute1]

The new NPC rules are great. They let you make a bad guy who is very good in combat and "feels" like an NPC, without having to do all the work of actually creating a character. I'd suggest if you want to do the "boss & minions" style fight, that you make the guy a solo, and then throw in a few lackeys. I've found that elites can go down very quickly, especially if they get the defender lockdown early in the fight.

[TheNewGuy]

I use human/demihuman "monsters" from the MM and slap a template on them. It takes 2 minutes of work and the fact that they're now elite monsters virtually guarantees a memorable encounter and gives the NPC a very good chance to escape if I want them to.

Yeah, they don't have 900 powers, but they don't need them. They wind up with enough powers to do 2 or 3 things per round and their powers are strong and diverse enough to mix it up. If you have powers that recharge, the flexibility of the "monster" increases.

While I realize I might be in the minority here, I don't like spending lots of time statting up monsters and NPCs. The 4e templates are sweet for DMs like me.

That's my two cents.