Converting PCs to enemies

[deleteme123456]

Warning: If you're one of my PCs and you're reading this, I'm going to give this enemy +10 on all attacks against you

In a preliminary / warm-up campaign through Kobold Hall, the Warlock in the party decided to take out the survivors of the fight at the end of that dungeon. Since he was going to switch to a Paladin anyway for group balance and I found a way to work it into their current campaign (KoTS). I'm going to have him be K-------'s henchman, and I've got him pegged around a Level 6 Elite ... Skirmisher I suppose, although the way he played the Warlock (wearing plate nonproficiently) I'm tempted to call him a Level 6 Elite Soldier (Human).

I'm currently giving him Eldritch Blast and at an-will that represents the pact he's on (I actually don't recall which pact he was using but it's either Star or Infernal, and I'm not necessarily partial to either one for this build), a Level 3 encounter power as a recharge and a level 5 daily as an encounter power.

I'm thinking of building him up like a PC, so arguing that he could have picked up feats to get the Plate proficiently (he was CON-based after all). I'm also thinking of multiclassing Paladin to get "Unholy Challenge" which works like Divine Challenge except it's necrotic.

At this point, is giving him magic armor and weapons too much? I was looking at Dwarven Plate and a Rod of First Strike (both +2 although he can only count +1 as a level 6 monster).

Here's what I have in total, and I guess I'm asking, is this too much for a Level 6 Elite?

Mayhem (Level 6 Elite Skirmisher)
Medium Natural Humanoid (Human)
Init +3 Speed 5 Perc +3 AP 1 Saves +2
HP/Bloodied 168/84
AC 23 F 20 R 17 W 19
STR 15 CON 20 DEX 8 INT 15 WIS 10 CHA 18

Dagger (standard, at-will); weapon; +8 vs AC; 1d6 + 4 dmg
Eldritch Blast (standard, at-will); Ranged 10; +10 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 6 dmg
Hellish Rebuke (standard, at-will); Ranged 10; +10 vs Reflex; 1d6 + 6 fire dmg. If Mayhem takes damage before the end of his next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 + 6 fire dmg.
Vampiric Embrace (standard, recharge ); Ranged 10; +10 vs Fort; 2d8 + 6 cold dmg, and the target grants combat advantage to all enemies and gets -2 to AC until the end of Mayhem’s next turn.
Crown of Madness (standard, encounter); Ranged 10; +10 vs Will; 3d8 + 4 psychic damage (Miss: half damage). Sustain minor: the target makes a melee basic attack against one of its adjacent allies of Mayhem’s choice.
Unholy Challenge (minor, encounter); Divine, Necrotic, Close burst 5; Mark one creature in burst. The first time before the start of Mayhem’s turn that creature makes an attack that doesn’t include Mayhem, it takes 7 necrotic damage. This mark expires at the end of any of Mayhem’s turns in which he doesn’t attack or end adjacent to the target.
Warlock’s Curse (minor, at-will, once per round); Curse the nearest enemy Mayhem can see. All attacks against a cursed creature deal an extra 1d6 damage on a hit. When a cursed creature drops to 0 HP or fewer, Mayhem gains 5 temporary HP.
Prime Shot; Mayhem gets an additional +1 to attack rolls on targets when none of his allies are closer to the target
Dwarven Armor (free, daily); Magic Item; regain 42 hit points
Rod of First Strike; Magic Item; deal an additional +1d6 on critical hits, or +1d8 against creatures who have maximum HP. All hits on creatures with max HP deal +1d8 damage.

 

[Stalker0]

The DMG has already done a lot of this work for you

There are class templates in the DMG, including a warlock one. What you do is a make a monster the same level of your player. Use a human monster for example, and then use the leveling rules to get him to the right level.

Then apply the template. That will create an elite monster of the party's level.

 

[deleteme123456]

I know, I looked into that, but that fails to capture the elements of this particular PC who was a memorable character. The template doesn't even give you any encounter powers, and only gives +1 to 2 defenses instead of the Elite +2 to 2 or 3. Then there's the need for a good human character of the right level... or we have to uplevel, and by the time we uplevel and apply a very weak template, I'm not sure what's really left...

If we take a Human Mage and uplevel it by 2 and apply the template, we wind up with 2 wizard powers that are encounter based, and OK, I could sub those out for a warlock's powers, replace magic missile with the warlock's at-wills and the quarterstaff with the dagger... but as an elite, we should either get an immediate reaction or a multiple-target attack. It would wind up with AC 19 (a level 6 elite should have at least 22 in most cases), +8 attack rolls (should be +9; I used +10 for the +1 weapon)... so I just don't see how the uplevel and template gets you anywhere near the correct power level.

 

[Stalker0]

I know, I looked into that, but that fails to capture the elements of this particular PC who was a memorable character. The template doesn't even give you any encounter powers

Not true!! Template gives you one at will, one encounter, one daily, and one utility. And to me that's the key, this monster is going to use its daily and utility in the fight if it can, which is pretty significant. Try this on for size:

Warlock (6th level elite)

HP: 124
AC: 22
Fort: 17
Ref: 17
Will: 18

Speed: 4

Attack:
Eldritch Blast +9 v Ref, 1d10+5
Eyebite +9 v Will, 1d6+5

Encounter
Eldritch Rain +10 vs ref, one or two targets, 1d10+5
Thunder Burst: +9 vs Fort, 1d8+5 thunder, target dazed (save ends).

Daily

Daily
Curse of the Dark Dream +9 vs Will, 3d8+5, slide target 3

Utility
+2 AC, Fort, -2 Speed (included in stat block)

What I did was take the human mage, bump it 2 levels, and then give it the warlock array. You have a creature with a powerful AC, does a great amount of damage, and should generally be a good fight. I basically swapped int and cha for its stats, so I used the int bonus for its attacks and cha bonus for its secondary stats. I also converted magic missile to eldritch blast. Finally I gave him leather armor, which grants him another +1 to AC (I looked at the effective AC given to me in the DMG, it was already a +1 for armor, which meant the +2 leather armor only added 1 more).

 

[deleteme123456]

helps to read page 182 doesn't it? I was only reading the template itself on 183 (I had 184 open and was working backwards) and missed where you get to choose more powers. No recharge on the encounter powers means it could be a little boring once it's down to him and the PCs. I'll probably use him in the second to last fight because fighting him and Mr. K at the same time would be a little much I suspect, and what good right-hand man doesn't try to delay the heroes while boss gets his plans all set?

HP 126 seems low... must be from all those levels as artillery. Since the original warlock was CON-based, I'll swap the wizard's INT for CON and the wizard's wis for INT and the dex for STR, at which point it's easy enough to fudge into STR 15/CON 15 so the guy can justify having plate mail (it was really important to his character and one of the reasons he changed to paladin).

I'll probably add the magic items back to bring up the AC, attack roll, and damage value by 1 each, maybe 2 in the case of AC if I figure that leather + secondary INT is worth about +5 at level 6 where plate is worth +8, and there's the magic +1 to consider. The brutal rogue in the party will probably eat this guy alive (he has that at-will weapon vs Reflex) but oh well, not much for that unless I can actually hit with eyebite while being marked by a paladin or fighter. Maybe if the human berserkers actually keep the defenders busy... it could work.

I expect them to be level 3 and possibly 4 by this point since they came in with 600-800 XP each depending on how many of the prelim sessions they were at, so a level 4 encounter with an extra elite thrown in should be a challenge but not too bad.