Need Help with D&D Villain

[pawsplay]

So here's the thing, I've got a game to run tonight, and I'm getting cold feet about the main encounter. The villain is a drow wizard living in a ruined keep in a remote swamp, around which he has built a little kingdom of bandits and outcasts, mostly drow, goblins, and giants. The PCs worked out a temporary agreement with him before to fetch a magic item in return for one of his, but he plans on betraying them.

Now, originally, I had decided that he was an actually an ogre mage sorcerer who killed the actual drow wizard and took his place. I'm still kind of partial to the idea. However, I'm having trouble writing him up satisfactorily. If I give him more than a couple of levels of sorcerer, his CR shoots way up, and I have to wonder how it's going to interact with his other abilities. If I don't give him enough, he has little reason to actually cast spells (why would he cast magic missile, for instance, when he can probably hit harder?). I had considered giving him just two levels in sorcerer and giving him a staff or wand, but I'm starting to suspect that's hedging the system and might lead to a TPK.

So I'm open to alternate suggestions. The basic idea is that he is NOT who he seems, pretty much for no reason that the PCs can tell. Some time during the battle, or after he is killed, the drow wizard, who has demonstrated some rather weird abilities, suddenly turns out to be something else. I'd really like to go for some kind of "what the....?" reaction, the more surprised the better.

The party averages 7th level, and is going to be four or five characters. They're pretty well equipped for their level, having just taken out some mind flayers. The foe should ideally be a spellcaster, probably LE (though that's flexible), and should have the ability to change shape. The 4th level spell polymorph is acceptable for the last.

Some current front runners in my mind:
- The ogre mage, as above, with two sorcerer levels and a staff of fire or something.
- A drider. This is probably less exciting, but easy to stat, and already has caster levels.
- A doppelganger. Freaky! But maybe too quirky. Why would a doppelganger decide to set himself up as a petty king?
- A dark naga. With one sorcerer level, he could have polymorph. And it's very strange. But almost too strange. What would appeal about masquerading as an infamous drow wizard to a dark naga? He doesn't even have hands, for goodness's sake.
- Some other kind of humanoid, maybe something weird, like a half-orc or gnome sorcerer. Sicne a simple disguise or alter self spell would take care of the drow appearance, they could maybe be an arcane trickster or spellthief or something odd like that (but still capable of masquerading as a wizard).

Help me out here. What would make my players say, "Well, that was strange?" I'm looking for a real con artist, something that will make them laugh when they unmask the "drow wizard," but something plausible.

 

[shilsen]

Why not just use a human wizard, who's using illusion spells to appear as an ogre mage?

Or just make him an ogre mage but use the stats for a human wizard of the appropriate level. That way you get the flavor you want (ogre mage) as well as having the mechanics you want (an effective spellcaster). After all, who says all ogre mages have to have the same stats as the one in the MM?

If you want to make players go "That was strange," the easiest thing to do is use the standard mechanics with changed flavor. A magic missile spell is something players/PCs are used to. But when an enemy lifts a palm at a PC from 150 feet away and makes a clutching gesture, causing the PC to feel as if something grabbed his heart and take 5d4+5 pts of damage without a save, that's liable to freak the players out a bit. It's still just the same as a magic missile, but the changed flavor makes it memorable.

I wouldn't do that all the time, since you want the PCs to benefit from their Spellcraft and Knowledge skills, but doing it some of the time is a great way to change things around.

 

[Wraith Form]

If you want to make players go "That was strange," the easiest thing to do is use the standard mechanics with changed flavor. A magic missile spell is something players/PCs are used to. But when an enemy lifts a palm at a PC from 150 feet away and makes a clutching gesture, causing the PC to feel as if something grabbed his heart and take 5d4+5 pts of damage without a save, that's liable to freak the players out a bit. It's still just the same as a magic missile, but the changed flavor makes it memorable.

Wonderful. Consider yourself officially "yoinked". (Not for the first time, I'll bet...)

 

[shilsen]

Wonderful. Consider yourself officially "yoinked". (Not for the first time, I'll bet...)

In public? You guys!

 

[Wraith Form]

In public? You guys!

[lisp] Stop it, you silly sailor. [/lisp]

 

[Drowbane]

...A magic missile spell is something players/PCs are used to. But when an enemy lifts a palm at a PC from 150 feet away and makes a clutching gesture, causing the PC to feel as if something grabbed his heart and take 5d4+5 pts of damage without a save, that's liable to freak the players out a bit. It's still just the same as a magic missile, but the changed flavor makes it memorable...

yeah, thats awesome.

I dimly remember someone mentioning having done something similiar with a MM... involving "slashing motion with a dagger, causing 5 slashmarks to appear under the fighter's armor" and totally freaking out the party.

 

[shilsen]

yeah, thats awesome.

I dimly remember someone mentioning having done something similiar with a MM... involving "slashing motion with a dagger, causing 5 slashmarks to appear under the fighter's armor" and totally freaking out the party.

Yes, I remember that post too.

What I mentioned above can be applied just about everywhere in the game. I just ran a major combat in my Eberron campaign where the PCs fought (among other things) a giant fly-like monster, which spit dissolving fluid at them and used its claws to attack, grapple, rend and rake them. Mechanically it was an annis hag with the half-dragon template, but changing the flavor made it a much more evocative encounter.

If you take this approach of blending existing (sometimes slightly tweaked) mechanics with your own flavor, just the three core books are enough to keep one in business for decades.

 

[Land Outcast]

I remember the magic missile/dagger post too...

I also remember one about "graveyard maidens", women of striking white skin and pitch-black hair, who made the claws of the dead below resurface to hold their victims and who fused into the headstones with their name carved on them.

Dryads.

 

[Wraith Form]

I remember the magic missile/dagger post too...

I also remember one about "graveyard maidens", women of striking white skin and pitch-black hair, who made the claws of the dead below resurface to hold their victims and who fused into the headstones with their name carved on them.

Dryads.

See, it's thinking outside the box--and then having you guys post it--that makes dummies like me happy to be at this site!

Yoink, yoink and more yoink. Would you like some yoink with that?

 

[pawsplay]

Well, inspiration did not strike, so I went with the encounter as planned. I used an ogre mage with two sorcerer levels, and gave him a staff of fire. The "drow wizard" opened up with his cone of cold, causing my players to become more than a little bit scared, then they totally bugged out when he turned invisible. However, before he could cook them, they ran around a bunch until they bumped into his invisible form, then laid into him. Through a good combination of effects, including Powerful Charge and a dwarven axe, they laid him low, then did a double take as the fallen drow wizard transformed into a fallen. regenerating giant. They eventually executed him with a flaming dagger

Then they spent 45 minutes arguing about how to leave the keep without getting attacked by the villain's followers, who were unaware of his true nature.