What sort of creatures would you use to populate a fortification/dungeon ruled by an undead lord in the style of Minas Morgul (set in a general D&D style world, not Middle Earth)? The party is starting the adventure at 7th+ level.
I've got various wraiths, specters, and wights, some other misc. undead, some evil trolls, and some vermin. Does anyone have anything outside those parameters that jumps out as a really fitting encounter for such a setting?
Shadows.
Shadows with Oracle levels [Bones Mystery/Bleeding Wounds Revelation].
Fiend-Infused Irespan Basalt Stone Golems.
Haunted Marrowstone Golems.
Soulbound Shells with the Lich template.
Hags.
There is a Ghoul Dirge Bard called the Masked Murderer... give her two more levels of Dirge Bard, for a total of 10. At level 10, she can grab Animate Dead via Secrets of the Grave, and now qualifies for the Agent of the Grave prestige class. Give her all five levels of Agent of the Grave.
Shadows.
Shadows with Oracle levels [Bones Mystery/Bleeding Wounds Revelation].
Fiend-Infused Irespan Basalt Stone Golems.
Haunted Marrowstone Golems.
Soulbound Shells with the Lich template.
Hags.
There is a Ghoul Dirge Bard called the Masked Murderer... give her two more levels of Dirge Bard, for a total of 10. At level 10, she can grab Animate Dead via Secrets of the Grave, and now qualifies for the Agent of the Grave prestige class. Give her all five levels of Agent of the Grave.
Nice! I'll mess around with those.
What is the nature of the undead lord? A vampire warlord and a necromantic lich are probably going to have completely different minions. Is the undead lord a full spell caster with access to undead creations spells? Or is it some form of undead that has the ability to create more of itself? Something link this should be designed from the top down instead of from the bottom up. More information would be helpful.
The Witchking of the Ringwraiths/Nazgul is the BBEG, I presume.
Minas Ithil had mostly perished from a plague by the time the Witchking and the Nazgul started their 2-year siege to take the fortress. After the Witchking took Minas Ithil, it became Minas Morgul... and is just a melting pot of all things evil. You probably have extensive freedom in choosing its inhabitants.
There would probably be plenty of Plague Zombies available, given that huge portion of the population died to a plague. All the horror and sadness and sorrow that lingers from a time before the fortress fell.
The Witchking and the Nazgul/Ringwraiths could be any number of things, from ghosts to wraiths to liches, and everything in-between. Fellbeasts are just dragons.
a Forge Spurned at the castle's smithy should be a nice surprise. (the archive have him in the 3.5 ruleset so you should convert him to pathfinder. but that shouldn't be too hard).
you can increase the cr by increasing his chain's links.
a picture for reference sake.
note that if the PC do not destroy the chain but take it to use. while the owner get full control of the item he is at risk of turning into a forge Spurned himself. and the original owner can't be killed as long as the chains are intact. so he would be up for revenge sooner or later. luckily the creature's loot include an adamantium hammer to help break said chain.
Thanks for all the great suggestions. I'm going with some form of Fighter/Hell Knight skeleton (CR 11 or 12) for the final big bad; not a Nazgul, per se, but a powerful Evil warrior. Several of the PCs are Chaotic, so it will get a bit of a damage boost from Smite Chaos.
I'll probably throw in some minions for the final battle to make it harder to concentrate attacks, but we're a ways away from that, so I've got some time to fine-tune.