Villainous advice - thoughts on a BBEG

[Morganstern]

So I'm trying to decide on a way to make a villain loosely inspired by Arthas from WoW (aiming mostly for a undead anti paladin style character, but with heavy emphasis on ice and cold) who acts as the primary agent of a Dragon-God that holds sway over similar powers. What I'm trying to figure out, is how to give these ice-themed abilities to him before he becomes an undead, while he first encounters the party (they'll be 5th level by the time they encounter him).

I've been toying with making him a Gestalt character, but as the party isn't Gestalt I don't know how that would work out CR wise. Otherwise I was debating making a custom archetype, but before I resort to that I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas. Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks to everyone in advance!

[Frag Bait]

You could make him have a level of blood rage. Elemental cold. You could even add in crossblooded for undead later on. It'll give him some extra damage. As a bit of extra goodness why not give him an aura of cold 10ft away they need to make a fort save or rake some minor cold damage maybe even get staggered. Have his sword be made of ice. Same with his armor.

I'd say focus heavy on the fluff for this. I think that would be more likely see him as a master of cold rater then the mechanics.

[ElterAgo]

Bloodrager draconic (white) bloodline levels seems about perfect.

[DM-DR]

Morganstern wrote:

I've been toying with making him a Gestalt character, but as the party isn't Gestalt I don't know how that would work out CR wise. Otherwise I was debating making a custom archetype, but before I resort to that I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas. Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks to everyone in advance!

Gestalts (in my experience) generally rate about CR+2. Generally. It partially depends on what the base CR/ECL is. Some combinations are weaker and some much more powerful, but +2 is normally a good guesstimate. As a 5th level party with him being the BBEG, You would most likely want him to clock in as a CR 8. You don't want to accidently push him over into CR 9 or 10 by accident, so I might shy away from gestalt for a normal party.

If you do not want to dip classes or go gestalt, you could consider adding a template (or using a cold-based race). If you don't mind 3PPs, there are: Cold CR+2 and Icy CR+1 both from Green Ronin Publishing, LLC. There are a few others you could play with.

You could also take the Frost Man (as a race, see the sidebar on the right) from Tome of Horrors Complete. From there you can give him an undead theme or undead templete, the antipaladin undead archetype, etc.

[ElterAgo]

Also White Half-Dragon

[Morganstern]

Any suggestions as to a sentient sword (along the lines of a Blackblade, maybe with a few of powers thrown in) or cool magic items? Fight is going to take place on a frozen lake.