Need help building a custom BBEG


Advice

Liberty's Edge

Ok, so firstly, in the off chance that you are a player in the "Planebreak: End of an Age" campaign, then kindly turn right around and scamper back out.

Spoiler:
Anyway, I'm working on the third incarnation of the campaign's "end boss". First was gonna be a generic Pit Fiend (boring), followed by a Star Spawn of Cthulhu (Too obvious as of last session). So instead, I'm gonna sorta rip off of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. No no, not pastel colored ponies, but rather the "Nightmare Moon" character. A corrupted/evil goddess banished to the ether/space by their sister. The short of it, she comes back (Having manipulated some outer planar entities to break through the planar barrier that the older sister goddess threw up) wanting revenge and what she feels is rightfully hers (The world and everything associated with it).

Here's the problem though. I'm basically building this creature from scratch, using really only the Amalgam template to combine a Drow Noble and a Shae, then going from there, and I'm not really sure what to do. The idea is that the PCs will be ~lvl 15 when they have to duke it out with her the first time, so I figure that by the time they get around to really kicking her can for good, they'll be level 20 and she'll be like CR 22 or so.

So I'm looking for help, specifically with the following:

1) Should I give her class levels, or just beef up her stats and such?
1a) If yes for class levels, what class/s? I was thinking either Sorcerer or Oracle with things that pertained to space/the Dark Tapestry/the stars.
2) What sort of gear should I be looking towards for her at level 15?
3) How much is too much in terms of abilities and sheer power?

And just general help I suppose. :smalleek: *Overwhelmed by stuff*

The current stat sheet (pretty unfinished at this time)

Spoiler:

XP 3200
*A Medium Outsider (Extraplanar)
Init +5; Senses Darkvision 60ft; Perception +3
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DEFENSE
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AC 27, touch 15, flat-footed 22 (+5 Dex, +6 natural, +6 Armor)
hp 77 (9d10+27)
Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +11; +2 vs. enchantment
Defensive Abilities amorphous, blur
Immunities Sleep, Cold SR 15
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee Touch +14/+9 (1d6 Cold)
Ranged Star Blast +17/+12 (3d6+3 Cold/Fire)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; Concentration +)
Constant - Blur
At will - Lesser Shadow Evocation
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +9; CMB +11; CMD 26
Feats Combat Expertise, Iron Will, Arcane Armor Training, Arcane Armor Mastery, Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency
Skills: Acrobatics +22, Bluff +10, Diplomacy +10, Disguise +10, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (Planes) +10, Perception +12, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +22 (+32 in regions of shadow or low light or darkness), Use Magic Device +16
Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, +10 Stealth in regions of shadow or low light or darkness
Languages Common
SQ Outsider Traits
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Outsider Traits
An outsider is at least partially composed of the essence (but not necessarily the material) of some plane other than the Material Plane. Some creatures start out as some other type and become outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence.
-Darkvision 60 feet.
-Unlike most living creatures, an outsider does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an outsider is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don't work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection to restore it to life. An outsider with the native subtype can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be.
-Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Native outsiders breathe, eat, and sleep.

------------------------------
ECOLOGY
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Environment:
Organization:
Treasure: +4 Mithril Breastplate


Okay, here's a quick and dirty way to do it.

Fast-ish BBEG:

1) Start with a 20th level sorceror. There's one over at d20pfsrd (right here); he's undead bloodline but you can fix that easily enough.

2) Make her a shae. The shae's SLA's are pretty meaningless at 20th level, so that's not why. What's great about them is their racial stats. (Well, and that thematically a shae villain is cool and all.) A shae starts with Str 16, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 21, Wis 13, Cha 17. But! Since this is a major NPC, you get to adjust those by +4, +4, +2, +2, 0 and -2. So your sorceress will be starting with Cha 21. Add 20 levels of stat boost and it's Cha 26, and that's before boosting items.

Boom, that's your rough draft. Now you just need to change the bloodline, adjust saves, skills and spell DCs, and add treasure to reflect the fact that she's CR 22 instead of CR 19. (Though honestly, I think she's really CR 21. The shae's other abilities pretty much fade into insignificance at this level, so I'd say the CR boost is +2 rather than +3. I would consider adding a +1 template to bring her up to full power.)

This will go a lot faster if you have software, of course. Still, even if you don't, you can calculate things like hp and saves pretty easily just by using the Shae entry and the 20th level sorceror, and the sorceror entry will give you a default spell list to start with.

Good luck!

Doug M.

Liberty's Edge

Any suggestion on bloodlines? At the moment I'm leaning towards Void-Touched, if only for the flavor of it.

Edit: Also, do the Shae's SLAs go up CL-wise as the Shae gets character levels?


Caster level should run on any hit dice or class levels that grant the ability. Usually those won't coincide, so they'll just be based on the racial hit die. The only time class levels will affect cl of spell like abilities is if a creature doesn't have racial hit dice.


Quote:
Any suggestion on bloodlines? At the moment I'm leaning towards Void-Touched, if only for the flavor of it.

Well, if you're going full 20 on Sorceror, I'd say look hard at the capstone (20th level) abilities. They vary a lot, from a handful of rather blah immunities to some really interesting and unique abilities. For instance, the Dreamspun bloodline's capstone is the ability to go Incorporeal for 20 minutes/day. Pretty appropriate for a Shae, and also good for a BBEG. In fact, the Dreamspun bloodline generally is good for a BBEG, especially the sort that spends a lot of time messing with PCs from a distance rather than standing up and slugging. You get Arcane Eye to spy on them, Dreamshaper to get information and mess with their memories, and if they ever get to combat range you get +5 Initiative. A shadow-creature that lives half in dreams: how's that for a BBEG? And it lets you work up a bunch of nightmare and shadow-themed creatures to work for her.

Quote:
Also, do the Shae's SLAs go up CL-wise as the Shae gets character levels?

Unfortunately not. They really should, but no. Monster SLAs generally don't go up with level. So you're still stuck with (for instance) that same d6 of extra damage.

On the plus side, that Blur is always good -- 20% miss is 20% miss, whether your attacker is 1st level or 15th.

Doug M.

Liberty's Edge

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:
Quote:
Any suggestion on bloodlines? At the moment I'm leaning towards Void-Touched, if only for the flavor of it.

Well, if you're going full 20 on Sorceror, I'd say look hard at the capstone (20th level) abilities. They vary a lot, from a handful of rather blah immunities to some really interesting and unique abilities. For instance, the Dreamspun bloodline's capstone is the ability to go Incorporeal for 20 minutes/day. Pretty appropriate for a Shae, and also good for a BBEG. In fact, the Dreamspun bloodline generally is good for a BBEG, especially the sort that spends a lot of time messing with PCs from a distance rather than standing up and slugging. You get Arcane Eye to spy on them, Dreamshaper to get information and mess with their memories, and if they ever get to combat range you get +5 Initiative. A shadow-creature that lives half in dreams: how's that for a BBEG? And it lets you work up a bunch of nightmare and shadow-themed creatures to work for her.

Quote:
Also, do the Shae's SLAs go up CL-wise as the Shae gets character levels?

Unfortunately not. They really should, but no. Monster SLAs generally don't go up with level. So you're still stuck with (for instance) that same d6 of extra damage.

On the plus side, that Blur is always good -- 20% miss is 20% miss, whether your attacker is 1st level or 15th.

Doug M.

Well, opted for the Void-Touched (at the moment), mostly due to the capstone enabling the NPC to see in all sorts of darkness, then gave her spells that work off of magical darkness and Cold spells (Dropping Deeper Darkness type spells to hide movements, dropping Ice Storms on herself when in melee, etc). Since I was having trouble choosing spells anyway, do you figure Crossblooded with Dreamspun would work at a -2 Will (She's got Iron Will already) and one less spell per spell level?

Spells are as follows:

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 20th; concentration +29)

9th (6/day) Meteor Swarm (DC 28), Winds of Vengence (DC 28 Fort), Interplanetary Teleport (DC 29), Mass Suffocation (DC 28 Fort/Partial)
8th (7/day) Prying Eyes, Polar Ray, Sunburst (DC 27), Form of the Dragon III (DC 27)
7th (7/day) Reverse Gravity, Hungry Darkness, Lunar Veil (DC 26), Spell Turning
6th (7/day) Repulsion (DC 25), Contingency, Fluid Form, Unconscious Agenda
5th (7/day) Overland Flight, Cone of Cold (DC 24), Nightmare (DC 24), Dominate Person, Siphon Magic
4th (8/day) Call Lightning Storm (Fire damage, DMG+ at night), Dimension Door, Ice Storm, Moonstruck (DC 23), Wall of Ice (DC 23)
3rd (8/day) Blink, Haste, Displacement (DC 22), Vengeful Comets, Call the Void (DC 22)
2nd (8/day) Glitterdust (DC 21), Blindness-Deafness (DC 21), Mirror Image, Spectral Hand, Invisibility, Frost Fall (DC 21)
1st (8/day) Unseen Servant, Expeditious Retreat, Ray of Enfeeblement (DC 20), Magic Missile, Shield, Grease (DC 20)
0th (at will) Ray of Frost, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Disrupt Undead, Mage Hand, Acid Splash, Ghost Sound (DC 19), Prestidigitation, Arcane Mark


One thing is, she needs minions in order to be distractions, unless you give her multiple turns on initiative

Liberty's Edge

CWheezy wrote:
One thing is, she needs minions in order to be distractions, unless you give her multiple turns on initiative

Was planning on adding a Shadow creature template on some Shining Child/Children as her minions.

Liberty's Edge

Ok, something not build related, anyone have any advice for "signs" of the BBEG's return?

I kinda want to have it "feel" like a Cthulhu thing coming to wreck the world, at least to throw the PCs off OOC (They've got FAR more experience than i do and I kinda wanna use that against them in this regard). Basically I want them to think "Oh, the semi-inexperianced DM is trying to be subtle with that whole 'The stars are right' thing he slipped in, but WE know he's gonna be using that Star Spawn of Cthulhu" when in reality I'll be using this little number here.

Ideas so far:

1. Meteor showers, possibly depositing nasty not-of-this-world horrors that ravage the countryside/cities.
2. Solar eclipse that lasts an unusually long time, possibly leaving some after-effect in the sky.
3. An increase in lycanthropy or activity regarding were creatures.
4. "Abductions" by "Star creatures".
5. The sun completely vanishing/not rising after a few days of progressively rising" late" and setting "early".

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