Help building the villian

[emanresu]

what level are you starting out at?

some random thoughts

a gestalt Vampire Lord could prove interesting
you could have a wight & Vampire army (so 2 spk)
make one of your mind controlled "friends" or cohort a Werewolf, every new werewolf is under his control now you have a were wolf army as well.

Have your vampires take 1 or 2 levels of shadow dancer, hide in plain site and have a low level magical item or spell that gives them bonuses to hide is shadow...this ought to piss off players as seeing inviso at higher level is common place but a maxed out spot skill is not but with 1 maybe 2 of the party.

Have your were wolves take the Feral template, give the wolfy leaders as much warshaper as possible = your werewolf army will be vicious!

ohhh and having a Vamp Lord waste levels in rogue or any non spell casting class is less than efficient so have him charm/recruite/intimidate the local assassins and thieves guild masters so the party will have to save vs death strike from the shadows every once in awhile.


and if you can have one of the bad guys be a psion, get the spell larval flayers (p 91 complete psion) augment it to max you can and have the em already attached, empower it for a little extra umph and you will instantly have 1 or more players with a severely handicapped int if not 0....no save no spell/power resistance its a touch attack unless you augment already attached, then its basically a brain drain all you can eat fiesta.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

In the last campaign I ran, (a vs. the undead campaign), I came up with a few real nasties that could help make your badguy memorable.

The key one at the low levels was what I called the Thrall Mark. The Necromancer branded his living servants/slaves/casual acquaintances with his mark, which gave them a small skill bonus that made them more valuable to him, but which cast Cause Minor Wound on them once a day...to remind them who their master is...and when they die, it casts animate dead on their corpse...and continues to cast Cause Minor Wound once per day.
This made the players' opponents much nastier, since they would fight cunningly to avoid death, but when they do die, the players now have to deal with an undead. If you give it a 5-10 minute delay on animating the corpses, they party may have moved on, not realising that a zombie horde is rising in their wake. I also ruled that unless the skellies/zombies were disposed of properly, the Cause Minor Wounds would slowly repair the undead over time causing further problems for the players.

Another was a Torc of minor control. It allowed the casting of Animate Dead once per month, and allowed the wearer to controll half their hit dice worth of undead. Relatively cheap for the Neromancer to make, or have his lackeys create. Not for their own use, but to grant as "favours" to allies. I scattered these things around everywhere.
Picture a poor miner, barely scraping a living out of his copper mine. Then he finds this, and suddenly he no longer has to pay wages or feed his miners, and they will work 24/7 without complaint...the possibilities are endless, as is the corruption of the owners souls, and the distraction it makes for the party. Did the local labour boss dig up the graveyard for cheap labour, or was it a fell necromancer building an army?

As for build. You're doing a gestalt? go Wizard 20 Cleric (death) 20 and bulk him out with Item Creation feats. Make Necromancy a favoured option, not his only option. As a generalist, he lacks limitations. Make any weaknesses he manifests be faked for the purpose of making his enemies underestimate him. Employ misdirection early and often. Dark robed masculine and imposing figure turns out to be the short, rather effeminate, younger son of the king...not the hugely muscular vampire lord who they thought they killed six months ago...who is the boss? both? neither? let them figure it out...

I hope you don't mind if I shamelessly steal this idea for a campaign of my own sometime. The regenerating necromancer minion idea, I mean. That's just mean.

OP: I'm not sure how Summoning is seen as a weak spellcasting method though, since you can basically create an army with a few rounds of time.

 

[Turik2100]

The Boneyard (LM) is just plain nasty. Given how it's abilities work, you may want to avoid this if you just want a small encounter with the PCs most likely to survive.

Entropic Reaper (LM) can be fun too. But the warping ability can be devastating if you're not prepared to counter it.

Death Knights (MM2) are a good fall back of mine. I like having them as guards to BBEG. I also used one for a Sleepy Hallow themed Halloween adventure.

Dang!! Those guys are crazy!! The boneyard has to be the scariest thing I have ever seen, I mean ripping bones out of people. Thanks for the suggestions, I have a crazy amount of new content I want to add to my story.

 

[aglondier]

I hope you don't mind if I shamelessly steal this idea for a campaign of my own sometime. The regenerating necromancer minion idea, I mean. That's just mean.

OP: I'm not sure how Summoning is seen as a weak spellcasting method though, since you can basically create an army with a few rounds of time.

Not at all, I'm happy to have someone using my ideas in a campaign.

A really nasty threat I hit my players with during my last vs the undead campaign was what we called a Reaper.
It was an extraplanar undead, something around 20HD and a real combat monster. It would walk on foot directly towards the nearest large population of living things, and kill them. Anything it killed would rise 5-10 minutes later as an appropriately powerful undead. Commoners and lvl 1 characters would become skellies and zombies, lvl 7-10 characters would arise as vampires, etc... And the best thing about the reaper was that if you didn't have the right ritual and the right casters, the best you could hope for is to banish it from the plane for a year and a day...after which it would reappear right where it left off. I had one appear during the height of the War, right near one of the three military encampments, which it then proceeded to slaughter. Shortly afterwards, that entire well-armed military camp arose as zombies, ghouls, mummies and vampires. The players won, but it was a hard earned victory...

 

[Turik2100]

A really nasty threat I hit my players with during my last vs the undead campaign was what we called a Reaper.
It was an extraplanar undead, something around 20HD and a real combat monster. It would walk on foot directly towards the nearest large population of living things, and kill them. Anything it killed would rise 5-10 minutes later as an appropriately powerful undead. Commoners and lvl 1 characters would become skellies and zombies, lvl 7-10 characters would arise as vampires, etc... And the best thing about the reaper was that if you didn't have the right ritual and the right casters, the best you could hope for is to banish it from the plane for a year and a day...after which it would reappear right where it left off. I had one appear during the height of the War, right near one of the three military encampments, which it then proceeded to slaughter. Shortly afterwards, that entire well-armed military camp arose as zombies, ghouls, mummies and vampires. The players won, but it was a hard earned victory...

Wow!! That's one of the greatest ideas for a vs udead campaign I've ever heard. You sir, are a genius.

 

[aglondier]

Another fun plot was to have the party arrive to confront the evil mastermind for a final showdown, but as they burst into the throne room, the badguys pet oracle gives a prophesy declaring the newborn son of a party member is to be either the next great hero or villain, and badguy orders his swiftest followers to secure the child. Party can stay and fight the badguy or race after the undead converging on the helpless baby.