Help me boost my main villain, a 20th level cleric lich

[King of Nowhere]

Pretty much what it says on the title. I have established this guy (from now on referred as "Vecna boy") as the head of the church of vecna and generally uberpowerful villain. He is a 20th level cleric lich (former human), over 700 years old, and he's trying to become a god. He has the hand and eye of vecna. That's pretty much all I have established.
As the party is leveling up, the day of a confrontation approaches (unless they switch alliances, in which case the final boss may be the diamond golem) I can no longer leave this villain as some vague concept, but I must give him stats. I have established Vecna boy as the single most powerful humanoid in the world, and I want him to live up to his reputation. So I'm looking for some ideas to give him an edge.

My world is mostly limited to core as I don't have the time and patience to read dozens of splatbooks and figure out their interactions; so any non-core source is pretty much accepted, unless it breaks the game or the premises of the setting or it generally creates huge problems in some way. There are no epic levels, but there are epic artifacts, several of them, some pretty powerful like a few +10 weapons. Most are homebrewed.
I don't want anything game-breaking, just enough improvement over what I am generally capable of doing that my players will feel awed of Vecna boy, but won't accuse me of cheating. My players are going to be well-stocked with artifacts, so this guy will also be; feel free to suggest some artifacts.

Here is a list of things I need to cover.

1) wisdom score. I want it to be sky-high. So far I am at 41 (18 base, +3 aging, +2 lich, +5 from levels, +5 from wish, +8 from a periapt of wisdom (artifact)). Is there some other bonus I can reasonably pile up?

2) turn resistance. So far, Vecna boy has 24 hit dice for the purpose of resist turning, meaning any good cleric of equal level with a talisman of turning will send him fleeing with extreme ease. I need something. The ideal would be a feat to add CHA to turn resistance - WIS would be even better, of course

3) armor class. The party barbarian will be sporting around +50 to hit by the time they'll fight. liches don't have many hit points. I don't want poor Vecna boy to be oneshotted by a power attack. So far I am at 48 (+16 from a supermasterwork +5 full plate, +7 from a +5 shield, +5 natural, +5 deviation, +5 DEX) and I may add in some kind of boots of dodging, but there are all kinds of bonuses (luck, insight) that I don't know how to tap into.

4) protection from spells. the lich is already immune to most stuff, but a disintegrate hits hard that lack of CON score. I need some protection against disintegration, as well as spells that don't allow saves (though I can't think of any that would really be a problem, and anyway Vecna boy has disjunction from the magic domain, and has several scrolls. But maybe you know of somthing that I missed?).

5) spell selection. Clerical spells are powerful, but they are not terribly destructive, especially not for a high level party full of protective items. banshee's wail from the death domain looks great with the high WIS, but all the party will be protected against death (EDIT: I just discovered that Vecna does not have the death domain. So it's going to be magic and knowledge domains). What other options do I have?

6) eye and hand of vecna. They suck. they do nothing but give him a bunch of spells or spell-like abilities that he can already cast on his own, with far better saving throws DC. Plus, they drain WIS. Vecna boy has them for fluff, but I want an homebrewed version that's actually powerful and cleric-friendly.

Thanks everyone for coontibuting. Keep in mind that I don't have knowledge of most non-core material, so if you suggest some strange spell or item or artifact, you should either put in a link, or provide a description yourself.

[Jackalias]

How about the head of vecna?

[theboss]

Liches have Unholy thoughness, means they apply their charisma modifier inseath of their CON for their Hit Points, So you should pump charisma as well as his wisdom. Undead are already D12 so he's going to be really tanky if he has the right amount of chrisma.

so now, after we clreared the HP issues, you can give him concelment or even displacment to get him really hard to hit. There's a displacment cloak in MIC that gives the wearer displacment for 11 rounds total per day (55K), I don't see an option where your fight will last more than 11 rounds.

For selecting spells there's isn't really a problem, all the strong spells are from the spell compendium.

to increase his wisdom score, get him a tome of understanding (+X?)... You're the DM so it's up to you how much you wanna give him, keep in mind that each +1 is approximly 27.5K gp.

For his turning resistance, have you thought of giving him an undead leadership ?
if so, there's a cool persitage class posted by the wizards of the coast called "Lady/Lord of the undead" here's the

https://archive.wizards.com/dnd/arti...nd/dx20021031x

other than that, maybe the Improved Turn Resistance feat from libris mortis (the book of the undead)? or maybe both?

that's what I had in mind so far, I hope you get the best from I wrote.
And sorry for the grammar issues, english is not my native.

[Kobold Esq]

At high levels monsters and PCs need to avoid taking hits at all. Mobility, battlefield control, miss chance, etc. AC only keeps the iterative attacks away, or forces bruisers to use less power attack. regarding the turn undead issues, I assume the baddy will have minions. A room full of medium to high HD zombies will suck up those turns. Also don't forget to have his whole base Unhallowed.

For spells, if you're sticking with PHB spells, remember you have Gate and Planar Binding! That basically means your guy has access to anything. This guy didn't live 700 years by fighting his opponents single handedly.

[Eldariel]

Liches have Unholy thoughness, means they apply their charisma modifier inseath of their CON for their Hit Points, So you should pump charisma as well as his wisdom. Undead are already D12 so he's going to be really tanky if he has the right amount of chrisma.

so now, after we clreared the HP issues, you can give him concelment or even displacment to get him really hard to hit. There's a displacment cloak in MIC that gives the wearer displacment for 11 rounds total per day (55K), I don't see an option where your fight will last more than 11 rounds.

For selecting spells there's isn't really a problem, all the strong spells are from the spell compendium.

to increase his wisdom score, get him a tome of understanding (+X?)... You're the DM so it's up to you how much you wanna give him, keep in mind that each +1 is approximly 27.5K gp.

Unholy Toughness is a Dry Lich property. Normal Liches don't have it, and there's no real way to gain it. However, if the Lichification is done in a Desecrated Area with a shrine dedicated to Vecna (as it damn well should be), he's getting +4 HP / HD. If his body were crafted by someone with Corpsecrafter [Libris Mortis], that would add up to +2 HP / HD but on a Lich with how their bodies are formed, that doesn't feel doable. As for Tome of Understanding, he already has +5 Innate to Wisdom.


Now, far as what I'd suggest: This is a Lich of Vecna. As much as Clerics are great fighters, it just sits wrong with me for him to be primarily fighting. Thus I'd focus on a caster Cleric instead. Just from Core, Thaumaturgist prestige class plays up that angle. HD doesn't matter, Lich only gets D12s and BAB doesn't matter. Thus you get Contingent Summons and Extended Summons and Planar Cohort, which is really nice. Non-core prestige classes would offer much stronger options but in Core, this seems fine. I'd also consider giving him a level of Hierophant for Divine Reach, which is nice with all the touch spells.

For AC, forget about armor, give him Bracers of Armor +8 or just plain Mage Armor from Magic domain, and have him pick up Monk's Belt. This allows him putting his Wisdom and Dexterity to work. Then use basic spells to boost up the AC. Shield of Faith and its ilk have Deflection and Natural Armor comes from many sources.

For domains, Magic is indeed pretty good. For the second, Spell [Spell Compendium] is a pretty automatic domain for Vecna given his portfolio and would give access to much arcane awesomeness like Celerity [Player's Handbook II], Greater Mirror Image [Player's Handbook II], Draconic Polymorph [Draconomicon] & company. It would also provide him with Friendly Fire [Exemplars of Evil], which is the best way to negate Disintegrate. Though just Spell Resistance spell helps a lot of course as does high touch AC (see above about Monk's Belt and company). I'll add ideas more expansively once I have more time, provided nobody else beats me to it. Blasphemy is a great offensive spell option with caster level buffing, by the way.

For Wisdom, Owl's Insight (Druid 5, Spell Compendium) gives ½ Caster Level to Wisdom as Insight-bonus (in his case 10+) for 1 Hour (not 1 Hour/Level, mind). Cleric can use Miracle to replicate this and a Rod of Greater Extend to make it last two hours. Alternatively, Divine Metamagic [Complete Divine]: Persistent Spell [Complete Arcane] would allow making it last all day.

[King of Nowhere]

Many good ideas here, I oonly answer some.

to increase his wisdom score, get him a tome of understanding (+X?)... You're the DM so it's up to you how much you wanna give him, keep in mind that each +1 is approximly 27.5K gp.

That's already accounted for as wish bonus, but it can't get higher than +5

For AC, forget about armor, give him Bracers of Armor +8 or just plain Mage Armor from Magic domain, and have him pick up Monk's Belt. This allows him putting his Wisdom and Dexterity to work. Then use basic spells to boost up the AC. Shield of Faith and its ilk have Deflection and Natural Armor comes from many sources.

I houseruled out this use of monk's belt. I feel it's just too convenient and cheesy, and not really the intended use. So I interpret "gains the AC of a monk of 5th level" as "gains the +1 to AC monks gain at 5th level, but not the WIS to AC".
Thinking about it, dipping a level of monk would work well with that uber WIS, giving AC and stunning fist, at the cost of one 9th level spell (he already get 7 or 8 of those anyway). But it feels wrong thematically.

, I assume the baddy will have minions. A room full of medium to high HD zombies will suck up those turns. Also don't forget to have his whole base Unhallowed.

Minions will depend on how well the PC are doing. If nothing else, I established the church of Vecna has two more clerics capable of casting 9th level spells, and scores of lesser minions. But the PCs will also have allies. I plan to have the allies from each side go fight off some tangent battle, while I isolate the party with Vecna boy and just the right amount of mooks needed for a good fight.

For spells, if you're sticking with PHB spells, remember you have Gate and Planar Binding! That basically means your guy has access to anything. This guy didn't live 700 years by fighting his opponents single handedly.

On the other hand, he also didn't become so powerful by hiding behind other people's backs. I have nothing against a few summons, but I'd like him to get down and dirty at some point, casting spells by himself. Disjunction is the clear starter, removing all buff spells and a good bunch of magic items. I'll have to see afterwards, but once death ward is dispelled, he could just use a scroll of banshee's wail (he can cast arcane scrolls with the magic domain)

For domains, Magic is indeed pretty good. For the second, Spell [Spell Compendium] is a pretty automatic domain for Vecna given his portfolio and would give access to much arcane awesomeness like Celerity [Player's Handbook II], Greater Mirror Image [Player's Handbook II], Draconic Polymorph [Draconomicon] & company. It would also provide him with Friendly Fire [Exemplars of Evil], which is the best way to negate Disintegrate. Though just Spell Resistance spell helps a lot of course as does high touch AC (see above about Monk's Belt and company). I'll add ideas more expansively once I have more time, provided nobody else beats me to it. Blasphemy is a great offensive spell option with caster level buffing, by the way.

All good spells. And with all the research he did in his 700 years, and vecna's focus on secrecy, I have a perfect justification for giving him spells nobody else has.

so now, after we clreared the HP issues, you can give him concelment or even displacment to get him really hard to hit. There's a displacment cloak in MIC that gives the wearer displacment for 11 rounds total per day (55K), I don't see an option where your fight will last more than 11 rounds.

Problem with concealment is that the party has access to true seeing. I expect any illusory concealment to be completely ineffectual by the time the party reach the fight. Non-illusory options are still on the table. Blink is the first to come to mind, but it has a 20% chance of making you fail the spell...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Vecna hates divine spellcasters, even ones that worship him, so it doesn't make any sense that anything he gets from Vecna would boost his Wis. Using the hand and eye and especially continuing to use them is often viewed as foolish, and having them penalize Wis makes the character more likely to continue using them.

If you want to make use of a few select non-core items, I'd highly recommend the following:

Vecna-Blooded template (under the God-Blooded entry) in Monster Manual V. Say he's formerly Vecna-blooded and so he retains the appearance and the Cloak of Mystery. All knowledge of him prior to gaining the template is lost to everyone except himself and Vecna, but any stories of what he's done since gaining the template could still be told.

Whispered Secrets feat, Races of Destiny p155-156. This is basically an Initiate of Vecna feat, it adds a few fantastic spells to his Cleric spell list, adds Spot and Listen to his class skills, and has an ability that's redundant when combined with Vecna-Blooded, but this feat is thematically appropriate. He probably would have had it since 1st level, which would have been long before he became Vecna-Blooded.

Dagger of Denial, Magic Item Compendium (originally Complete Divine). This is a relic and an intelligent item, only four are known to exist. It's a decently strong item considering its intelligent item powers, it's thematically appropriate, and it opens up some role-playing opportunities.


Since he's undead, say he became a lich within the area of a Desecrate spell with an evil altar present to get +2 hp per level. You could even give him the Fell Energy Spell feat in Dragon Compendium, it's a +1 metamagic that increases the spell's numeric bonuses to undead by +2. That will benefit any buffs he uses (using Fell Energy Spell with Miracle for +1 Wis makes it +3 Wis, which can still stack up to five times!), and it makes his Desecrate's +1 hp/hd into +3 hp/hd, which is doubled to +6 by the presence of an evil altar. So that means he can get a +15 Wis instead of a +5 inherent bonus, and an extra +6 hp per level. He'll need something like Divine Metamagic to use Fell Energy Spell with Miracle, but that would definitely be worth it.


If you're using anything from the Complete-classes books, a Greater Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell in Complete Arcane can be used with Destruction, and the DC won't even be reduced for secondary targets since it would deal half damage to secondary targets on a successful save.


Consider giving him a Greater Ring of Desecration and/or a Greater Ring of Unholy Aura. That link also has a Cloak of Turn Resistance and the Lord of the Dead prestige class, both of which should interest you for this character.

[Hellpyre]

I highly recommend godblooded of Vecna for both flavor and the immunity to divinations, which will let you set up the fight the way you want it to go down.

[Eldariel]

I agree with BF's suggestions regarding Vecna-Blooded and Whispered Secrets if going down that route.

As for AC, without Wisdom to AC it depends on Dexterity. With +8 Dexterity (Divine Agility [Spell Compendium] gives +10 Dex making base 12 sufficient with +4 inherent) you could give him Celestial Armor and Mithral Animated Heavy Shield. Cast Magic Vestment on both and he's looking at 10 + 8 Dex + 10 Armor + 7 Shield + 5 Natural Armor. Give him further Barkskin or +5 Periapt of Natural Armor and Shield of Faith/other source of +5 Deflection and we're looking at 10 + 8 + 10 + 7 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 50 AC. You could of course get more Deflection and company, some other source of AC (Sacred/Profane, Insight, & co. exist), shapechanging (turning into a Balor or whatever would give you vast Natural Armor boosts), Defending weapons (an intelligent Defending weapon or two could easily do active defense duty without taking actions), etc. Of course, if you just remove the opponents' True Seeing, simple Greater Mirror Image would make him next to impossible to hit. Of course, you can't attack what isn't there; a more Vecna-like approach would be acting at a distance using stuff like Project Image, Contingency: Teleport (tied to a spoken word which is a free action that can be taken out of turn order), Antilife Shell, etc. help make it slightly more troublesome to get to him.

He can always have Contingency active: Miracle can replicate it just fine and for free and it lasts basically forever. He can also pump his caster level skyhigh: Divine Spell Power [Complete Divine], Beads of Karma [DMG], Orange Prism Ioun Stone would be +9 Caster Level. This would make spells like Blasphemy particularly lethal since the party take all the effects they're not immune to pretty much no questions asked. Chain Greater Dispel Magic is a great way to disable someone's magic items and of course something like Implosion would be convenient to have.

I'd definitely have him ride some Zombie Dragon; perhaps some good Great Wyrm he's defeated such as Copper Dragon (with a slow breath weapon) or Silver Dragon (AOE paralysis breath). Alternatively, something like Shadow Dragon [Draconomicon] to cause negative levels across the party after the protections have been disjoined or simple Pyroclastic Dragon [Draconomicon] for a disintegration line breath weapon. Those are pretty powerful underlings and a good use of his innate Animate Dead + Desecrate combination (Dragons have a special Zombie Dragon and Skeletal Dragon template in Draconomicon making this possible). I made a little compilation of the interesting Core + Draconomicon options here.

And if Thaumaturgist, Contingent Summon Monster IX would allow him to even out action economy a bit with e.g. 1d4+1 Bone Devils (readied actions to cast Wall of Ice would tremendously inconvenience the party) or Hezrou to spam Chaos Hammer and company on the party or things of that nature. They can make it much harder for party to actually get anything edgewise while the Lich is free to rain death on party members from a variety of sources. I'd definitely give him Spontaneous Domain Casting in one of the domains to enable him to cast stuff like Disjunction more than once. And yeah, AOE effects like Blasphemy, Earthquake & co. are probably the best way to attack although something simple like Implosion or the mentioned Chain Destruction can also work. Probably a good idea to just keep dropping save-or-dies on the enemies when their defenses are down.

I'd definitely also have him pack some Swift Action spells like Quickened Wall of Stone, Silence, Laogzed's Breath/Nauseating Breath [Serpent Kingdoms/Spell Compendium], Ice Slick [Frostburn], Greater Command [Spell Compendium], etc. to use the turns more efficiently making it harder for multiple enemies to come at him at once. I'd also expect that he have most 10 min/level buffs of relevance active, such as Magic Circle against Good, Resist Energy (each energy type), Freedom of Movement, etc. Mind Blank also from Whispered Secrets/Spell Domain. And definitely Antilife Shell if the party thinks getting to him is easy. Perhaps Antimagic Field with Mastery of Shaping (Extraordinary Spell Aim [Complete Adventurer] enables shaping it so it doesn't affect oneself) too. Obviously airborne at all times; Air Walk & Zombie Dragon mount for instance is a good combination.

Miracle is also one of the best offensive spells in the game, being able to replicate most arcane and Druid options. Control Winds for an immediate hurricane, for example. More to the point, it can become any spell you might need at any given time making it incomparably powerful in that sense.

Consumptive Field [Spell Compendium] could be a fun way to up the stakes, improving his caster level (and strength and granting him temporary HP) by every kill that takes place.

Perhaps enable Hand of Vecna to act as Spectral Hand for self-targeting spells like Antimagic Field, Blasphemy and company. That would be fairly powerful against him unless he wants to go martial since Cleric-list isn't nearly as good at non-magical conjuration as the Wizard-list. Of course, you should plan for the eventuality that he needs to fight someone with Antimagic Field on him. That might be a place to bust out Gate and send Infernal or some other big ball of stats to beat up on the sorry soul.

[King of Nowhere]

I realize a couple more issues.
First, somebody mentioned buffing caster level. How? Only ways I know are a ioun stone (just a +1) and archmage, that is only for arcane casters. (EDIT: ninja answered by eladriel)

Second, most important. I need to buff concentration.
The party will receive an artifact that is designed to interrupt spells. It basically creates a force boot that kicks the caster, and it is tuned to have a small, but significant chance of interrupting a 20th level caster with a maxxed concentration (including item boost) and stoneskin. It's magic bludgeoning damage, just what works against a lich. Now, vecna boy can get stoneskin by miracle, and he certainly has a +10 concentration item (the highest in my world) but if he lacks a CON score, he's in trouble. I was thinking heroism for another +4. Any more ways to boost concentration?


@biffoniacus: plenty of good ideas there. Many so good that they'd break the power level of my campaign world, so I won't use them.

Spoiler: Re: biffoniacus

Show

Vecna hates divine spellcasters, even ones that worship him, so it doesn't make any sense that anything he gets from Vecna would boost his Wis. Using the hand and eye and especially continuing to use them is often viewed as foolish, and having them penalize Wis makes the character more likely to continue using them.

Eh, the only material I had on vecan was the player handbook, which contains only a few lines. So I made the world and gavve it a different spin. What I established form my world is that vecna charged his followers to try and follow his path of ascension to godhood, as he believes those new gods would still be (somewhat) loyal to him. He has nothing against divine casters, and in fact his high cleric ascending to godhood is his best case scenario. One would think the guy who prayed to vecna for 700 years would be one he'd trust.

If you want to make use of a few select non-core items, I'd highly recommend the following:

Vecna-Blooded template (under the God-Blooded entry) in Monster Manual V. Say he's formerly Vecna-blooded and so he retains the appearance and the Cloak of Mystery. All knowledge of him prior to gaining the template is lost to everyone except himself and Vecna, but any stories of what he's done since gaining the template could still be told.

Whispered Secrets feat, Races of Destiny p155-156. This is basically an Initiate of Vecna feat, it adds a few fantastic spells to his Cleric spell list, adds Spot and Listen to his class skills, and has an ability that's redundant when combined with Vecna-Blooded, but this feat is thematically appropriate. He probably would have had it since 1st level, which would have been long before he became Vecna-Blooded.

Glibness is huge. So huge that it does not fly in my world. Bonuses to interaction skills (diplomacy, bluff, that kind of stuff) are limited to +5, and even then those items are super rare in a high magic world. those skills are cheesy enough as it is. As for the "protect from magical detect lies", any serious procedure of finding the truth does include dispelling any magic on the subject.
Mind blank is also very useful, but being a lich (and with a will save that simply reads "yes") already covers most of that. The other spells aren't that useful.
Immunity to scrying is also one of those things that won't fly in my world. Just too convenient, and I don't like flat-out immunities without ways around like that. At least an immunity stemming from a spell can be dispelled. Still, the main temple of vecna has some of the best anti-scrying buffers in the world.

Dagger of Denial, Magic Item Compendium (originally Complete Divine). This is a relic and an intelligent item, only four are known to exist. It's a decently strong item considering its intelligent item powers, it's thematically appropriate, and it opens up some role-playing opportunities.

not familair with intelligent items, but if I understand it correctly, the dagger gets its own turn, right? That's great, because it's still 1v6 and I need some action economy.

Since he's undead, say he became a lich within the area of a Desecrate spell with an evil altar present to get +2 hp per level. You could even give him the Fell Energy Spell feat in Dragon Compendium, it's a +1 metamagic that increases the spell's numeric bonuses to undead by +2. That will benefit any buffs he uses (using Fell Energy Spell with Miracle for +1 Wis makes it +3 Wis, which can still stack up to five times!), and it makes his Desecrate's +1 hp/hd into +3 hp/hd, which is doubled to +6 by the presence of an evil altar. So that means he can get a +15 Wis instead of a +5 inherent bonus, and an extra +6 hp per level. He'll need something like Divine Metamagic to use Fell Energy Spell with Miracle, but that would definitely be worth it.

Good suggestion. I'd use a more strict interpretation (stat bonuses from miracle/wish are still capped at +5, but now you can reach them with 2 spells instead of 5. The altar doubles the base bonus of desecrate, not this additional bonus, so it ends at +4 per HD), but it's still very powerful for an undead caster.

If you're using anything from the Complete-classes books, a Greater Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell in Complete Arcane can be used with Destruction, and the DC won't even be reduced for secondary targets since it would deal half damage to secondary targets on a successful save.

I'm not familiar with chain spell, and I don't like to add new mechanics in the face of players. But I can do something similar with a staff of spell storing (homebrewed, but the players already have one) with a banshee's wail in it. Cast quickened disjunction with a rod of sudden metamagic, then cast banshee's wail from the staff, with a save DC > 35 and the players denied most of their magic items.
Damn. I may have to actually help the party if I do that. Well, I have backup plans to recover from a TPK just in case.

Consider giving him a Greater Ring of Desecration and/or a Greater Ring of Unholy Aura. That link also has a Cloak of Turn Resistance and the Lord of the Dead prestige class, both of which should interest you for this character.

His inner sanctum is already desecrated, so no need for the ring. I loathe taking the cloak slot because I was counting on fortification (protection and resistance combined, it's homebrewed but it exists in the neverwinter nights videogames) but I can find some other slot.

EDIT: also eldariel has a lot of good stuff, but I'm not in the mood of commenting everything right now

[Eldariel]

I realize a couple more issues.
First, somebody mentioned buffing caster level. How? Only ways I know are a ioun stone (just a +1) and archmage, that is only for arcane casters. (EDIT: ninja answered by eladriel)

There are many more. Ankh of Ascension is a magic item from Magic Item Compendium that can boost a caster level by +4 three times per day by sacrificing another spell slot of a similar level. Book of Vile Darkness of course buffs divine caster level, and Hierophant class is available to divine casters and can also pump caster level (at the cost of some spell levels). Then domains of course buff caster level as well as many feats and spells. This thread is a somewhat detailed compendium; just pick the ones you want.

Second, most important. I need to buff concentration.
The party will receive an artifact that is designed to interrupt spells. It basically creates a force boot that kicks the caster, and it is tuned to have a small, but significant chance of interrupting a 20th level caster with a maxxed concentration (including item boost) and stoneskin. It's magic bludgeoning damage, just what works against a lich. Now, vecna boy can get stoneskin by miracle, and he certainly has a +10 concentration item (the highest in my world) but if he lacks a CON score, he's in trouble. I was thinking heroism for another +4. Any more ways to boost concentration?

First of all, by virtue of his Undead type he has Charisma to Concentration rolls. Divine Insight [Spell Compendium] can give up to +15 Insight bonus on a single Concentration roll, and of course all things that buff all rolls (Luckstone, Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone, etc.) also improve Concentration. Item Familiar is the nuclear option for boosting skills and comes with all other kinds of cool stuff too and might be thematically appropriate, so give it some thought as well if you want him to really shine at it. Permanencied Animated Objects (Cleric gets Miracle to Permanency and has Animate Object so can do this easily enough) for a bunch of Fine thematic objects like floating eyes or spellbooks or whatever can of course Aid Another him with the check easily enough giving him +2 each to the check. They can also Aid for AC or Attack in the right circumstances, and any other skill checks. Hauntshift [Libris Mortis] can also do all sorts of nonsense in this sense.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I wouldn't worry too much about Concentration:

Undead Type:

• Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.

You could also give him an Item Familiar, the Invest Skill Ranks ability allows him to add an untyped bonus to one or more skills that can be as high as his ranks in the skill. So if he invests enough skill points into it (which should be every 4th+ level skill point anyway), he'll be able to get +23 to Concentration from that. Plus it's an intelligent item, he can use the item creation rules to add powers and even a dedicated purpose himself without going through the Item Familiar abilities ("A creator can add new magical abilities to a magic item with no restrictions.") so it can use its own actions to spam a 10d6 Fireball or Confusion at will every round, or Dimension Door him around, etc.

He could also add more intelligent item lesser/greater powers to his Dagger of Denial if he has Craft Magic Arms and Armor. Note that each spell effect that's the same level and uses per day is the same price, so you could pick a different 3rd level spell to be usable 3/day and it's the same 16k price as all the others, or a different 2nd level spell at will and it's 44k like Detect Thoughts. Strong 3rd level 3/day choices include Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, and Wind Wall. Strong 2nd level at will choices include Web (especially if he has spider minions!), Ray of Stupidity (SC, probably too powerful), False Life (which it can spam on him every round), Silence (which can be readied to interrupt a spell with verbal components, target it on a point in space and there's no saving throw or SR), Inflict Moderate Wounds (which it can spam on him as often as needed), etc. You can also give it some lower level buffs usable 1/day priced as the Minor Image (2nd) or Major Image (3rd) powers, such as Barkskin, Mirror Image, Fly, Haste, etc. but those would be easier to dispel.

I wouldn't think an undead needs fortification, they're already immune to critical hits and sneak attack, but if you've house ruled it, give him a Gemstone of Fortification from the Draconomicon instead. It's a slotless item, but a non-dragon would need to use Limited Wish (from Miracle) to embed it into their body, you could say it's a dark gem mounted in his sternum. He can cast Superior Resistance in the Spell Compendium every day to get a +6 resistance bonus to his saving throws for 24 hours at a time, or +8 if he uses Fell Energy Spell with it.

He should also cast Energy Immunity also in SC three times each day to be immune to acid, fire, and sonic damage, he can even get two 6th level Pearls of Power and only spend one spell slot on it. He'd be more susceptible to Greater Dispel Magic or Disjunction, but a Ring of Enduring Arcana in Complete Mage adds +4 to the DC to dispel any of his spells, he can use a Bead of Karma to get +4 caster level when buffing, and the feat Divine Spell Power in Complete Divine also grants up to +4 caster level for a given spell.

[King of Nowhere]

He should also cast Energy Immunity also in SC three times each day to be immune to acid, fire, and sonic damage, he can even get two 6th level Pearls of Power and only spend one spell slot on it. He'd be more susceptible to Greater Dispel Magic or Disjunction, but a Ring of Enduring Arcana in Complete Mage adds +4 to the DC to dispel any of his spells, he can use a Bead of Karma to get +4 caster level when buffing, and the feat Divine Spell Power in Complete Divine also grants up to +4 caster level for a given spell.

But caster level does nothing for disjunction, as disjunction does not need any check to dispel non-permanent effects. I don't think any buff spell will stay in place longer than one round. So I just slapped three elemental resistances 30/- on his armor and shield. Money is definitely not a problem for this guy, churches sell healing and are incredibly rich.

As for concentration, I'm thinking to handle it in the rework of the vecna artifacts. I'm considering something simple like "grants +1 to all mental stats (stacking with everything), +3 to concentration (stacking with everything) and one spell slot of a level higher than your highest spell slot normally available (you can use a 10th level slot for metamagic). If you have both the eye and the hand, the DC to resist any spell you cast increase by 2". Simple, small, but stacking.
And buffing cha with miracle (with fell spell is cheap enough) also puts concentration where I want.
This puts his wisdom at 45 (+17), with an additional +2 to saving throws, which feels right. Very high, more than anyone else can really hope to achieve, but still survivable if one invested a lot in it.
For caster level, I think I'll stack up to +4 before a blasphemy becomes too game-breaking. though most of the party will be immune to the worst effects by virtue of artifacts at that point.

P.S. I houserule a hard limit on metamagic cost reduction at half the normal level increment, rounded up, but I don't think I'll try to use metamagic cheese on vecna boy anyway.

[Eldariel]

But caster level does nothing for disjunction, as disjunction does not need any check to dispel non-permanent effects. I don't think any buff spell will stay in place longer than one round. So I just slapped three elemental resistances 30/- on his armor and shield. Money is definitely not a problem for this guy, churches sell healing and are incredibly rich.

As for concentration, I'm thinking to handle it in the rework of the vecna artifacts. I'm considering something simple like "grants +1 to all mental stats (stacking with everything), +3 to concentration (stacking with everything) and one spell slot of a level higher than your highest spell slot normally available (you can use a 10th level slot for metamagic). If you have both the eye and the hand, the DC to resist any spell you cast increase by 2". Simple, small, but stacking.
And buffing cha with miracle (with fell spell is cheap enough) also puts concentration where I want.
This puts his wisdom at 45 (+17), with an additional +2 to saving throws, which feels right. Very high, more than anyone else can really hope to achieve, but still survivable if one invested a lot in it.
For caster level, I think I'll stack up to +4 before a blasphemy becomes too game-breaking. though most of the party will be immune to the worst effects by virtue of artifacts at that point.

P.S. I houserule a hard limit on metamagic cost reduction at half the normal level increment, rounded up, but I don't think I'll try to use metamagic cheese on vecna boy anyway.

Disjunction has some counters though, most salient of which is Ring of Spell-Battle. It allows redirecting Disjunction to hit the party instead. Obviously Antimagic Field is also a good one; AMF can be e.g. Contingencied to protect against it and subsequently Disjoined (unless you just plain use stuff that makes spells work in AMF, though that's a bit much). There's also Battlemagic Perception [Heroes of Battle], a long duration buff that allows counterspelling as a free action once to block the enemy Disjunction, and of course any kind of Contingency effect allows teleporting out or blocking the line of effect when targeted by DJ. Ultimately, Disjunction is very powerful though, and certainly something any high level caster has to plan around. It's a game defining effect much like Time Stop, Gate and Shapechange. Note, however, that simple readied action to cast Silence can prevent the caster from ever getting Disjunction off.

As for metamagic reducers, with that houserule I wouldn't feel bad about using Divine Metamagic. That way you're still paying a +3 slot for Persistent spells but they're still definitely worth it. +2 for Quicken as well is pretty nice in the end. Sure, it crowds your higher level slots but that's all good and kind of to be expected.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

But caster level does nothing for disjunction, as disjunction does not need any check to dispel non-permanent effects. I don't think any buff spell will stay in place longer than one round. So I just slapped three elemental resistances 30/- on his armor and shield. Money is definitely not a problem for this guy, churches sell healing and are incredibly rich.

Contingency or Craft Contingent Spell (CA): Whenever I make a Spellcraft check to successfully identify a Disjunction spell being cast that may be targeting me, Teleport me behind the creature casting it.

He automatically gets to roll Spellcraft to identify any spell he observes being cast, even if he only hears the verbal components or only sees the somatic components. The opponent casting Disjunction will have already targeted it on his former location when he teleports, so it won't hit him. He'll even get an AoO if the caster wasn't casting defensively, which can deliver his paralyzing touch.

Give him the feat Divine Defiance in Fiendish Codex II, it allows him to spend a turn/rebuke undead attempt to counterspell as an immediate action. That way he can Spellcraft everything as it's cast, and if it's something he really doesn't like he can use that to counterspell it without having readied an action ahead of time. In this case I'd even consider giving him Improved Counterspell, or even Spellfire Wielder in Magic of Faerun (using Cha instead of Con) (possibly make that an ability granted by the eye or hand of Vecna) and make Divine Defiance work with that if you want to make it really unfair for the party's spellcasters.

In any case he really needs to win initiative and not be caught by surprise. The latter is fairly simple, but winning initiative can be difficult if anyone in the party has made a point of having a high initiative check. He could cast Foresight prior to the encounter, or use Moment of Prescience to buff his initiative (which is a Dex ability check), or use Sign plus a Wand of Nerveskitter for a lower bonus than Moment of Prescience, etc. You can give him the Magic domain and put arcane spells such as Contingency (or Greater Shadow Evocation to mimic Contingency, which could even be used in addition to a normal Contingency) and Moment of Prescience on a staff so he can use them when he knows trouble is coming.

[King of Nowhere]

Oh, there is another problem I just realized, one that I should have realized immediately.

what if the party uses antimagic field?

Last time they fought a high level caster, they resolved the best solution was probably to have the wizard cast amf and have the barbarian toss the wizard at the enemy (there are no rules for using a party member as thrown weapon, but he certainly has enough STR to pick up a person and toss her like a stone, so I allow it).

That would nullify pretty much everything vecna boy could do. Disjunction only has a 20% chance to dispel an amf, I can't count on that. A contingency to teleport away would work, but I enforce a strict limit of only one contingency, so the trick would only work once. Similarily, I also don't use any "you can ignore an AMF" sheanigangs. And afterwards, how would vecna boy react? he can't harm the wizard inside the amf. if he went inside to kill the wizard in melee, the barbarian and rogue would kill him faster. Both of them will, by then, have artifact weapons which work in amf. Heck, grappling him into immobility would work, as paralyzing touch is su. He has several artifacts, but none of them helps here, and I'm reluctant to give him even more artifacts.
Being ready to counterspell the amf as it is cast is out of the table, he'd need to stay ready all the time. A couple guardian golems may help intercepting a squishy wizard that suddenly lost every AC buff and a lot of hp from CON buff, but setting up a big villain and then have him hide behind golems would be horribly anticlimatic. I could actually call some story reason that amf doesn't work in the place - it will be vecna boy's private sanctum, after all - but I'd rather use an option that smells less of DM fiat.