suitable monster?

[Moe Ronalds]

What's a suitable evil outsider, suitable for the end battle of an adventure? THe party is made of 7, first level characters (due to... issues, only two of the characters have been made already. One is a necromancer, the other is a fighter who is also training to be a wizard and doesn't wear armor.). The outsider needs to be smart enough to lead an army of undead, and needs to be challenging and climactic, but I don't want to kill anyone. Any suggestions?

 

[Wicht]

They are 1st level at the start of the adventure. What level do you expect them to be at the end when they have the climactic encounter?

 

[Lord Ben]

Just use the outsider type to create your own, it's better when they don't have names. Make a 3hd outsider with some undead type spell-like abilities and appropriate stats and call it a day. BAB like fighter, all favored saves, darkvision, and a few spells.

Master of Undead
3d8+6hp (19hp)
speed 30ft (armored 20)
+2 init
AC18 (+5 breastplate, +1 dex, +2 natural)
+4 melee 1d8+1 longsword
+5 fort, +4 reflex, +7 will
Iron Will
12 str, 12 dex, 14 con, 12 int, 14wis 10 cha

1/day, Animate dead, command undead, invisibility to undead, disrupt undead, inflict light wounds (to heal undead).

Give him a suitably scary appearance, or make him ugly, or whatever floats your boat.

That kind of works, but it's probably not what you're looking for. I do this for my game though. I just slap the outsider template on something and create a 10hd demon fighter who can cast greater magic weapon and a few other spells and I use those as the Planar Allies the enemy casts.

 

[RogueJK]

Is there any particular reason why you are limiting it to an evil outsider? Particularly since they are leading a group of undead, I'd lean more towards one of the intelligent undead, such as a Mummy or Vampire.

As for your original question... after a quick look in the MM, I'd suggest an Imp. These make good "big bads". Nobody would suspect that such a tiny creature would be behind all of the trouble. Their DR (15/silver), Regeneration, and ability to cast invisibility at will can make them challenging to a 1st level party. Plus, you can use their Polymorph Self ability to make them appear much tougher when the party first encounters it. Imagine the look on their face when they enter the bad guy's lair and find a Barbazu, Juvenile Dragon, or other impressive Medium-sized creature waiting for them, when in actuality it's the Imp.

They're CR 2, so you might think about putting some other baddies in the final fight with him to bump the EL. Or you could give him a level or two in a character class (I'd suggest Sorcerer).

 

[Moe Ronalds]

What's a suitable evil outsider, suitable for the end battle of an adventure? THe party is made of 7, first level characters (due to... issues, only two of the characters have been made already. One is a necromancer, the other is a fighter who is also training to be a wizard and doesn't wear armor.). The outsider needs to be smart enough to lead an army of undead, and needs to be challenging and climactic, but I don't want to kill anyone. Any suggestions?

well, it's mostly got undead, from CR1/3 to CR 1 (I didn't want to kill anyone in the first adventure). It's also a rather short adventure, so I'd say they'd still be first level.

Is there any particular reason why you are limiting it to an evil outsider? Particularly since they are leading a group of undead, I'd lean more towards one of the intelligent undead, such as a Mummy or Vampire.

Well, I want the party to live, and it's not the outsider that's behind all the trouble, he's just kinda watching after his busy master's army. As for why it has to be an outsider, my answer is that I kind of want a horror tone to the adventure. Of course, if there is some suitably 'spooky' and suitably powerful non-outsider monster, suggest that and I'll just slap a fiendish template on to accent the spookiness.

 

[Lord Ben]

I still think tailoring your own "Undead overlord minion" is the best. New monsters aren't always the way to go, but sometimes they're the best way. Outsiders are easy to do because they vary so much from one form to another.