Fiery undead cleric

[Gilladian]

Recently, I (as DM) had a hellhound drag the party's NPC cleric into a pit of flame and through a gate to a fiery place (unspecified but presumably hellish). He was most certainly dead, and roasted well by the flames; they made no effort to recover him, being perilously close to death themselves.

Later on, the PCs will be on a level of dungeon that is ruled by a demon.

Just for grins and giggles, I want the PCs to meet their poor cleric ally again, in the form of some sort of ghost or other undead. He has either been corrupted or is being dominated/controlled by the demon in some way.

What sort of creature/template would you use?

Note that this is an E6 campaign, so I don't want to go over about CR 8 on this encounter. The original cleric was a L4 human follower of a war god.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Spellwarped or whatever it's called sounds appropriate.

 

[freyar]

You could try a blazing bones.

 

[anest1s]

Add the vampire template and he should be CR 6...you could then add some lesser monsters to raise the EL Solo enemies live too short after all.

Or maybe he turn into a wraith when he died. Only his looks would be the same though, not his abilities

Wraiths are incorporeal creatures born of evil and darkness. In some cases, the grim silhouette of a wraith might appear armored or outfitted with weapons. This appearance does not affect the creature’s AC or combat abilities but only reflects the shape it had in life.

 

[Empath Negative]

Should undead foes that are commanded by the Evil Cleric be considered as part of the experience group?

I ask because the Cleric's Command Undead ability is functionally a power inherent to the Cleric and is presumably balanced accordingly. I don't award XP for surviving everyone of Evard's Black Tentacles, and I would rarely if ever award XP for a summoned monster.

Why should this be any different?

 

[anest1s]

Should undead foes that are commanded by the Evil Cleric be considered as part of the experience group?

I ask because the Cleric's Command Undead ability is functionally a power inherent to the Cleric and is presumably balanced accordingly. I don't award XP for surviving everyone of Evard's Black Tentacles, and I would rarely if ever award XP for a summoned monster.

Why should this be any different?

Because he won't have to build his undead army with dead he finds, you just give him the right undead for the job. Also it is an ability of the cleric that would be much stronger for NPCs than for PCs.

 

[was]

lich priest of orcus

 

[Empirate]

Undead clerics work really well with the Huecuva template (mostly defensive abilities, like NA and DR, plus a nasty disease; Fiend Folio). Give him the [Fire] subtype as well, and the fire elemental's Burn special ability, but don't increase CR for this, since he'll take extra cold damge that way. Also, have him accompanied by two Quasits and two Dretches. That makes for a nice and challenging EL 8 fight, with a boss and some underlings.
Quasits have good DR for their CR, Invisibility at will (be sure to have it pre-cast), flight, and a poisonous attack. Dretches are more about battlefield control with their Stinking Cloud and Scare SLAs, and they also boast nice resistances and good DR. The Huecuva priest should just cast Bull's Strength, Divine Favor, and Desecrate, and go to town in melee.

 

[Gilladian]

[MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] - do you have a source for the spellwarped? I don't recognize it.

Blazing Bones sounds fun, but really similar to the skeletons they just fought - but since it will be a couple of levels before they run into poor Wilhelm again, it would maybe just be a good reminder...

I really like the idea of the huecuva. He's going to be an addition to a pretty threatening dungeon level, already, so I don't want to ladle it on TOO heavy. I think I need to do some research!

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Spellwarped Template- MM III p.162