Undead Masterminds

[Dr. Cliché]

Basically, I'm looking for a list of undead monsters which make the best masterminds/BBEGs for campaigns.

This also includes Templates that turn their recipients into undead - e.g. Vampires, Liches, Dracoliches etc.

Any further suggestions?

[Alex12]

Could go with the old standby of a Necropolitan.

[Fax Celestis]

Common rat.

Props to AKA_Bait for making one of my favorite villains in the history of D&D.

[Coidzor]

Common rat.

Props to AKA_Bait for making one of my favorite villains in the history of D&D.

Daaang. That is pretty nifty.

[Phelix-Mu]

Hive mind all-consuming hunger! Not even sure if that would work. Or just make it sentient/possessed. Anyway, All-consuming hunger, winner of Best Monster Name for 2007, is from the Underdark supplement for the FR supplement (which is an overall awesome book worth a quick read).

[Dr. Cliché]

Common rat.

Props to AKA_Bait for making one of my favorite villains in the history of D&D.

Wow, that's amazing.

[Psyren]

Alhoon, aka Illithilich.

Ghosts keep their class levels and are really hard to kill, so they can be tough customers.

Brain in a Jar.

[Diachronos]

Pathfinder has Graveknight, and the Undead Lord template for buffing an undead creature.

[captain fubar]

http://web.archive.org/web/201306041...d/re/20040112x
perhaps some inspiration from a source that is likewise undead.

[Vhaidara]

MM5's Skull Lord is good if your campaign is aimed to end around mid levels. It's a CR 7 that has the ability to create a single CR6 minion (Spectral Rider, same entry) alongside an EL7 encounters worth of Bonespurs (CR3, same entry), Serpentirs (CR4, same entry), and mundane skeletons. For a big villainous plot, relax the limit, and have it be plotting to uncover the bones of some massive, ancient monster like a dragon.

Of course, they also have their own plot. Canon, there are 12 of them, attempting to raise the defeated lich Vrakmul.

Give the last one levels in wizard or sorcerer, and you have an apocalyptic plot spanning the entire level set.

[Optimator]

I made a Lich Bard/Dirgesinger/Stormsinger who fancied himself a ninja as a BBEG once. Extraordinarily memorable.

[Fates]

Common rat.

Props to AKA_Bait for making one of my favorite villains in the history of D&D.

Huh. Why doesn't Silus just use animate dead on his children then cast awaken undead? That's an arcane spell and it works on a huge number of creatures at once.

[Hazrond]

Huh. Why doesn't Silus just use animate dead on his children then cast awaken undead? That's an arcane spell and it works on a huge number of creatures at once.

because he didnt want awakened UNDEAD rats, just awakened normal rats

[ArqArturo]

Brain in a Jar. Alhoons also come to mind, and I think they are better than brains in a Jar. There's also vampire illithids that no one knows how they are made, and they hunger for both brains an blood

And I've used both the Brain in a Jar and a vampire illithid too, in a game. They were two masterminds at war on each other on the simple fact that the illithid wanted to eat it, and the brain hired (well, sort of, it controlled the bard) the players to off the vampire.

[Fax Celestis]

Huh. Why doesn't Silus just use animate dead on his children then cast awaken undead? That's an arcane spell and it works on a huge number of creatures at once.

Undeath is a necessary perversion in order to ensure his peoples' survival, but he won't inflict it on anyone but himself.

[AlanBruce]

An often overlooked undead that I have used rather well as a mid level mastermind is the Grimweird (MM3).

These undead look like old withered men and are paranoid to the extreme, constantly summoning and binding creatures (in fact, they can do it constantly every X rounds).

The Grimweird advances by class level, so giving it some conjurer levels would be approrpiate and he could have bound outsiders to run errands for him, making people believe it's a demon/devil invasion when in fact it's a paranoid summoning undead that never stops summoning.

Fun fact: Their entry states that outsiders hate these guys because, being undead, they never rest and are constantly summoning/calling them from their home planes.

[Vaz]

Alhoon, aka Illithilich.

Ghosts keep their class levels and are really hard to kill, so they can be tough customers.

Brain in a Jar.

Brain in a Jar Psions are outstanding BBEG's.

If you want a different style, there is a Vampire Demon of Undead type in the Fiend Folio.

Also, how does Silus get the Lich Template? It requires humanoid type.

[Fax Celestis]

Maaaaagic.

Aka: it makes a good story, so the rules were bent.

[KingAtomsk]

The Death Knight template has the nifty and flavorful passive ability to attract undead from around the world to come serve him, meaning as a BBEG he could be constantly re-stocking on undead mooks to toss at the PCs