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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7014078" data-attributes="member: 20323">The Bonfire is the ruthless enigmatic leader of a nefarious arcane secret society known as the <a href="http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Brotherhood_of_the_True_Flame" target="_blank">Brotherhood of True the Flame</a>. Help me design him! <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/glasses.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt="B-)" title="Glasses    B-)" data-shortname="B-)" />[SBLOCK=Players in my Al-Qadim game!]You may wish to avert your gaze to save yourself spoilers. OTOH, if you feel able to separate player and character knowledge, and like homebrew stuff, feel free to comment and read. There are many stories about The Bonfire...not all of which are true.[/SBLOCK]Step 1: My groupWe play-by-post here on ENWorld. Five players of a well-balanced party currently at 11th level, probably confronting The Bonfire around 16th level. However, there will be opportunities to interact with The Bonfire without violence, likely remotely, before then. We use feats and multi-classing, and I'd consider it a high magic game with magic items a little more prevalent than suggested in the DMG treasure tables.Step 2: D&D loreAccording to the Al-Qadim: Land of Fate boxed set, The Bonfire, also called Nar-Aidiya, is a human male 20th-level flame mage. While his face and true name are unknown, his actions and commandments are not; settlements and oases are put to the torch, and rival wizards are slain by holy slayers in his employ. According to A Dozen and One Adventures, he speaks to his followers through special magic mirrors, appearing as a blazing face with shrouded features. He operates from a fortress deep within the Haunted Lands in the rainless Great Anvil, protected from both genies and other elemental wizards.We learn more in DRAGON #268: Secrets of the Brotherhood of True Flame! The secret fortress is known as Krak al-Mazhar, hollowed out of an extinct volcano, and it is described as an "impregnable hideaway." The Bonfire is described as commanding Imperishable Mamluks (slave soldiers with magic tattoos granting fire resistance), Flamedeath holy slayers, and Shig'harakh (lesser flame mages studying under The Bonfire). He is described as an exceptionally paranoid man who keeps his true appearance hidden from even most in the Brotherhood. He appears to be in his early 40's with glossy black hair, a goatee, and piercing black eyes, and he is described wearing a shimmering scarlet robe embroidered with gold, a white sash, and a white turban.Sidenote: "Mazhar" is a tricky word to translate from Arabic. Perhaps the closest meaning is a "manifestation (of the divine)." So Krak al-Mazhar might translate to Fortress of the Manifestation.Been looking for a good picture online, and so far this may be the best contender...<img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/16/1c/74/161c745c27182cfce7af153dc73ef7ba.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Lastly, the DRAGON article tells us about some of The Bonfire's magic items... a special robe of the archmagi keyed to flame mages; the unique incandescent eye which protects him from fire elementals, allows him to feed on fire to heal, and summon a fire elemental 1/week like a brazier of commanding fire elementals (well, the AD&D version... the 5e version is 1/day); the golden mirror which combines features of a crystal ball and a mirror of mental prowess among other cool things; and an artifact gifted by the efreet called The Molten Throne which grants immunity to fire, acts as a rod of rulership, and allows him to cast these spells at-will: ESP (detect thoughts), chastise (similar to suggestion), and flame of justice (which is a unique Al-Qadim spell I've already converted using a flame to discern truth from lies).Step 3: A target to aim forLet's shoot for making The Bonfire a 20th-level spellcaster , a legendary monster with legendary actions & lair actions, and of a higher CR than an archmage (which is CR 12 in the MM) but lesser than Imix (CR 19 in Princes of the Apocalypse). I'd like to "be inspired by" the wizard PC class but not be limited by it; I want him to recognizably be a wizard but also to have some surprises to throw at the players. And I'm planning on giving him maximum hit points for whatever his hit dice work out to be.Step 4: Brainstorm!Obviously I have a ton of ideas (and I'm working on a more fleshed out backstory for The Bonfire), but before I overwhelm you with those, I'd love to hear about your thoughts! Any creative ideas spring to mind? Old sourcebooks you'd recommend? Pitfalls to watch out for in creating a BBEG? Suggestions for how such a leader of a secret society would operate? Cool minions you'd suggest he employ? Homebrew spells or DM's Guild products that might support my endeavor? Throw them at me <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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