Big Bad Evil Melee Guy

[Starman]

Take a page from Trailblazer. It has a template called 'Solo' for the big bads that the party faces. Without adjusting the CR, you multiply the creature's HP by the number of members in the party. Then you give it a number of action points equal to the number of party members. Action points can be spent to improve a d20 roll, negate a critical hit, auto confirm a critical hit, use a limited resource ability (e.g. "per day"), and a few other things. It's a great way to beef up your BBEG.

 

[GreyLord]

I know in 3.5 I made a Rogue who could do ~750 points of damage in around. Far more than enough to kill a Wizard in a first strike sneak attack.

If you could do a one, two kill and out thing with two first strikes like that, it probably would hurt the party tremendously in a martial combat encounter.

HOWEVER...the biggest threat a martial character could have is reminescent of older editions. The Wizard..they spend money and time researching and getting magic and spells. The Fighter...he raises an army. So where the Wizard has that death spell...The Fighter has 1000 soldiers at his beck and call...and perhaps more. A very high level Fighter might control a nation...and he may have high level spellcasters as his bodyguards...which means instead of just ONE BBEG spellcaster...he'll have half a dozen.

 

[Shoe]

So my question is this. How can you create a melee fighter that can stand up to a PC arcane caster without dropping in a two or three rounds?

Minions.

This is how 2nd edition D&D handled high level wizards versus high level fighters, fighters attracted an army. Make the final battle 10,000 men versus the party with the BBEG at the end. whittle down their magical resources with his sheer numbers. That's how I always handle the power gap. a critical hit always hits, so 10,000 actions against a wizard will eventually hit. Even if they have to wait for protection from normal weapons to wear off. Hell, he could even equip them all with +1 swords if need be, high level fighters are usually pretty rich!

 

[Shoe]

Sarevok from baldur's gate was a fighter if i remember right...he has a "tasty strength bonus" which was only available to fighters in 2E

 

[Varthol]

re

Percentages of STR score between 18 and 19 (ie 18/01 to 18/00[100]) are gone (thank god).

Don't go looking at previous editions to solve one in a current one, unless you'd like a 0-level spell to impose a -4 on all saves (lol light, YES light). Having an army or etc is part of the leadership feat not a fighter class feature .

On topic, if your BEEG is going to have a few (>2) minions during the final battle you can try using a cavalier, great teamwork and cavalier's challenge is a little op if the boss can just spend them all on one combat (contrary to a player char).

If your BEEG is going to fight it on his own you can try an Anti-Paladin. I don't know if CE fits the villain you want, but they have great AC, dmg with smite, saves and a nasty aura (and please don't say but he can cast spells).

 

[Shoe]

Percentages of STR score between 18 and 19 (ie 18/01 to 18/00[100]) are gone (thank god).

Don't go looking at previous editions to solve one in a current one, unless you'd like a 0-level spell to impose a -4 on all saves (lol light, YES light). Having an army or etc is part of the leadership feat not a fighter class feature .

On topic, if your BEEG is going to have a few (>2) minions during the final battle you can try using a cavalier, great teamwork and cavalier's challenge is a little op if the boss can just spend them all on one combat (contrary to a player char).

If your BEEG is going to fight it on his own you can try an Anti-Paladin. I don't know if CE fits the villain you want, but they have great AC, dmg with smite, saves and a nasty aura (and please don't say but he can cast spells).

I'm well aware that tasty strength bonuses are gone, I was merely using them to support my claims that saervok was in fact a fighter.

As for the leadership feat, does every boss of every dungeon have the leadership feat? Designing villains doesn't need to follow the rules for pc creating. Bbeg is NOT a dm pc, having cohorts as meat shields is totally in flavor for an evil warrior class