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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sheep" data-source="post: 1443692" data-attributes="member: 4965">How about the following: an orog death knight Bard 2/Fighter 6/Blackguard 7.  This is built by-the-books (more-or-less) so you'll need to make some slight adjustments to make it exactly fit your criteria.  In particular, you'll need to fix:He's currently a CR 18, but if you feel the need to beef him up you could always pile on more fighter or blackguard levels.Enjoy!----Cloron Shattersoul, orog death knight Bard 2/Fighter 6/Blackguard 7Medium Undead (augmented humanoid, orc)Hit Dice: 15d12 (103 hp)Initiative: +2Speed: 30 ft.AC: 33 (+2 Dex, +13 armour, +5 natural, +3 deflection), touch 14, flatfooted 31 Base Attack/Grapple: +14/+24Attack: Shattersoul's wrath +28 melee (2d6+20/19 and 2d6 unholy); or touch +23 melee touch (1d8+5 negative energy and 1 Con)Full Attack: Shattersoul's wrath +28/+23/+18 melee (2d6+20/19 and 2d6 unholy); or touch +23 melee touch (1d8+7 negative energy and 1 Con)Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks: Abyssal blast, aura of despair, bard spells, blackguard spells, command undead, fear aura, smite good 2/day, sneak attack +2d6Special Qualities: Bardic knowledge +2, bardic music, damage reduction 10/magic, dark blessing, darkvision 120 ft., fiendish servant, fire resistance 5, immune to cold, electricty and polymorph, light blindness, orc blood, spell resistance 25, turn immunity, undead followers, undead traitsSaves: Fort +17, Ref +16, Will +17Abilities: Str 30, Dex 14, Con --, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 24.Skills: Bluff +12 [5 ranks, +7 Cha], Diplomacy +18 [7 ranks, +7 Cha, +4 synergy], Gather Information +12 [5 ranks, +7 Cha], Hide +2 [5 ranks, +2 Dex, -5 armour], Intimidate +17 [8 ranks, +7 Cha, +2 synergy], Knowledge (religion) +5 [5 ranks, +0 Int], Listen +8 [5 ranks, +3 Wis], Perform (oratory) +10 [3 ranks, +7 Cha], Ride +15 [13 ranks, +2 Dex], Sense Motive +8 [5 ranks, +3 Wis]Feats: Cleave, Daylight Adaptation, Divine Vigor, Improved Sunder, Leadership, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-by Attack, Weapon Focus (greatsword), Weapon Specialization (greatsword)Organization: SolitaryChallenge Rating: 18Alignment: Chaotic EvilPossessions: Shattersoul's wrath (see below), +5 mithral full plate, ring of protection +3, gauntlets of ogre power +2, periapt of wisdom +2, cloak of charisma +4Cloron Shattersoul was once a great orcish general, famed and feared for his ability to inspire and lead his troops.Cloron speaks orcish and common.COMBATBefore combat, or during the first round, Cloron invokes his Divine Vigor, which increases his speed by 10 ft. and gives him an additional 30 hp for 7 minutes at the cost of one command undead use.  Given the opportunity, he will also cast protection from elements against fire, acid or sonic energy, as he feels is most appropriate for the opponents he faces.In melee combat, Cloron enjoys sundering his opponents weapons: Shattersoul's wrath and his Improved Sunder feat mean that he does not take an attack of opportunity when sundering, has a total +37 bonus on his sunder attempts, does 2d6+22 points of damage, and ignores the hardness of his opponent's weapon unless it is more than 20.  This is more than enough to shatter most normal weapons.  Once his opponent is disarmed, Cloron attacks freely, often using power attack against lightly armoured foes.Bardic Music: Cloron can use his oratory twice per day to countersong, fascinate, or inspire courage.Detect Good (Sp): At will, Cloron can use detect good as a spell-like ability, duplicating the effect of the detect good spell.Poison Use: Cloron is skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.Dark Blessing (Su): Cloron applies his Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus on all saving throws.Smite Good (Su): Twice a day, Cloron may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack.He adds his Charisma modifier (+7) to his attack roll and deals 7 extra points. If Cloron accidentally smites a creature that is not good, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for that day.Aura of Despair (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, the blackguard radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of him to take a -2 penalty on all saving throws.Command Undead (Su): Cloron can command and rebuke undead. He commands undead as would a 5th level cleric.  Cloron has a +2 synergy bonus on command check because of his ranks in Knowledge (religion).Abyssal Blast (Su): 1/day---20 ft. spread of eldritch fire, range 880 ft, 15d6 damage, half fire, half divine (as flame strike), Reflex DC 24 for half.Fear Aura (Su): creatures of 5 HD or less within 15 ft. are affected as if by a fear spell, Will DC 24 negates.Undead Followers: Cloron attracts up to 30 HD of undead followers as a death knight, in addition to any undead he can command as a blackguard.  These undead are usually ghouls, ghasts, skeletons, wights or zombies, and new undead are attracted every week to replace any losses.Immunities (Ex): immune to cold, death effects, disease, electricity, mind-affecting effects, necromantic effects, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, stunning and anything which requires a Fort save unless it also works on objects.Turn Immunity (Ex): cannot be turned, but a holy word banishes him to the depths of the Abyssal Planes.Bard Spells Known (3/2 per day, save DC 17 + spell level): 0-detect magic, know direction, message, read magic, resistance; 1st-charm person, feather fall.Blackguard Spells (3/2/2 per day, save DC 13 + spell level): 1st-cause fear, corrupt weapon, doom; 2nd-darkness, inflict moderate wounds; 3rd-inflict serious wounds, protection from elements.ITEMShattersoul's wrath is a minor artifact.  It is a +3 unholy adamantine greatsword which, on a critical hit, bestows a negative level on the target and gives the wielder 1d6 temporary hit points for 24 hours, as a sword of life-stealing.  In addition, when wielded by a blackguard, it gives a +5 bonus on sunder attempts (including the normal +3 enhancement bonus to hit), a +5 bonus on damage when sundering (including the normal +3 enhancement bonus to damage) and can damage weapons with up to a +5 bonus.  Since it is made of adamantine, it ignores hardness of up to 20 when sundering or damaging objects.Notes:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> orogs are deep orcs taken from the Races of Faerun; the death knight template is in the Monster Manual II.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> the Divine Vigor feat is in the Complete Warrior (and Defenders of the Faith, I think)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Used a super-elite array of 17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 10 for base ability scores.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> this is pretty much by-the-book: you will want to replace the death knight's abyssal blast with fireball, increase the effect of the fear ability, and add power word: stun</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> I haven't statted out his fiendish familiar.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> In building him, I tried to make sure that he had very good social skills (for an orc), as would befit a good general.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> His equipment is somewhat over-valued for a character of his CR, but his is supposed to be a BBEG, so that's OK, I think.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> As with other undead warrior types, he is somewhat weakened by lack of hit points, but hopefully he is a fearsome opponent nonetheless.  His AC is perhaps a little too low as well, given his lack of hp.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> DR is a guesstimate, since the 3.5 update doesn't mention a death knight's DR <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />  For a little more beefiness, make it DR 15/magic and bludgeoning, like a Lich.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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