So my game has been running for a good while, and the party is level 6 now. We do milestone and all that good stuff. It's been a lot of fun doing, and I had the idea to introduce two new characters, one of them being a persistent threat that would appear and begin to hunt down the party members. I was thinking of putting it around CR 12 or 13 and appearing at the worst possible times to come and antagonize them. The problem is, it needs to be something they would genuinely fear, even if the monster itself isn't too crazy.
I'm no master of the game, and I'm certainly not familiar with the hundreds upon hundreds of official monsters, magazine monsters, expansion monsters, 3rd party monsters and so on.
If anyone has any ideas for what to use a base stat block for our dear Nemesis here, please leave it down below. I would greatly appreciate the assistance in helping create something that would both be exciting and terrifying for my party!
Edit: I've seen a lot of good examples tossed my way. I decided on using the base of an Iron Golem and homebrewing some special details. IF MY PLAYERS ARE IN HERE, YOU BETTER LOOK AWAY YOU PERVERTS!
The idea is that the creature absolutely cannot be fought alone, and requires 2 people in melee combat with it at all times.
It's melee attacks with do a flat +20 damage (2d10+20) to targets, but it's full damage split between the victim and allies within 5 feet of them.
I'll give it multiple reactions it can only use once per turn.
If struck in melee combat, it'll use a reaction to grapple the target and damage them.
If struck by a second person, it can't resist and drops the person he was holding.
If hit by a spell, it reflects it back at the caster.
If struck by a second spell, it will have lower resistances and take extra damage.
We only have 1 ranged guy right now so I won't give it anything to resist ranged attacks outside of a flat DR 15 on missiles and melee.
This'll act like a buffer, so a player has to sacrifice their own resources to null the Pursuer's defenses, before their ally can damage it.
While I do want this thing to be a hulking monster that they need to run from, they WILL need to confront it eventually while using teamwork and clever tactics. Because if someone goes all maverick it'll run them down. However, it'll have no ability to stop them from actually FLEEING the encounter. If they escape, and when it first arrives, I'll have the PCs make a group stealth roll, add it up, and every 5-10 minutes I'll have the Pursuer roll perception or search and subtract it's roll off of the total. When it hits 0, it finds them. They will actively be able to hear it searching for them, giving them reason to hurry up.
Why am I making a monster that's this strong against level 6 PCs? They aren't supposed to fight it. Fighting it means death, and they have NO means of resurrection. (I made it so only an item can do it, and they're rarely given. This way they aren't constantly going up and down in fights. Losing has often permanent consequences.)
At the end of this Arc when they hit around level 10 I'll give them the ability to kill the Pursuer, who I am now going to affectionately call, A.M.
"Ai thinks, therefore, I A.M." (Advanced Martial - ((instructor)) )