Looking for Help statting up a villain boss

[marco0042]

I have GM'd other systems but I am new to running Fate and Dresden Files. My group went through the city creation and character creation process and we are pretty happy with what we built. The location is Baton Rouge, LA. I am going to give the necessary information on the group and the bad guy and hopefully you all can make some suggestions. The group power level is chest deep because someone wanted to play a wizard. There are 4 characters in the group, the aforementioned wizard, a red court infected with St. Giles tattoos, a True Believer Wiccan priestess and a Mortal with connections and money and a desire to help protect his city. Our first scenario was a hunt for a serial killer. The team has come to hate this guy as the mystery unfolded and they now know who the bad guy is and he doesn't know they are on to him. The bad guy is a member of the KKK who was a self taught sorcerer unknown to the white council. He used his powers for personal gain but always subtle and under the radar. But one day he discovered his daughter was in an inter-racial relationship with a minor practitioner. He broke the laws of magic, first to dominate her mind and force her to commit suicide in a horrible manner. Then he went after the boyfriend and used magic to kill. This was over a decade ago when our PC wizard's mentor was the face of the white council in Baton Rouge. The face of the Fae in Baton Rouge is a member of the Summer Court and the Winter Court has very little influence here. The Lawbreaker was afraid of being caught and judged by the white council so he made a deal with an entity of the winter fae. I made this entity up rather than using something that was in the book. It is a hoarfrost spider and it does not want to enter this place where summer is strong but it wants to spy on them. So it made a deal with the warlock and the spiral began. It needs the vitreous humor of magic practitioners who lived in Baton Rouge that can then be used in some ritual to spy on the city from the safety of the nevernever. In exchange for said fluid it gave him powers. The first was the ability to hide not only the taint of his evil deeds from his aura but his supernatural nature from the wizard sight. This allowed him to avoid the wardens for over a decade. But it will not help if someone actually soul gazes him. Over the years he has found Minor Talents and Focused Practitioners etc and murdered them and drained the vitrous fluid with a hyperdermic and sold it to the hoarfrost spider. OK so this big bad has some regular thaumaturgy and evocation powers, then he should have some lawbreaker abilities and also some powers granted by the fae spider. He should be powerful enough for the group to take but not a pushover. This will also be the first fate combat for the players and me.

[blackstaff67]

If said BB has a glamour to hide his supernatural powers/evil nature, will his magic deeds allow him to be tracked?  Will there even be a magical residue? 

That he can only be exposed via Soulgaze will mean nothing if none of the PC's can connect him to any crimes he's done.  Short of a Compel, the PC's will have plenty of bodies (until the supply of victims runs out) but no means to track down the murderer unless physical evidence that be used for Divinatory purposes can be discovered.  Perhaps his Glamour acts as a Block against Lore used in the Fine senses mode?

[Sanctaphrax]

You might be in for a tough time if this is your first-ever Fate combat. I'd suggest having the villain throw some weak summoned demons or a few minor Winter fae at the players before they fight him properly, because I wouldn't want to jump straight from nothing to a boss fight involving spellcasting.

Anyway, a single character fighting a group in this system generally doesn't go well for the single character. The group can just stack maneuvers and pummel them with their greater number of actions. You can mitigate this by giving the sorcerer some minions.

You can try making him tough enough to challenge the group alone, but sorcerers tend to be glass cannons so that might not work so well. Maybe his Winter buddy could bless him with Toughness-granting icy flesh or something.

Anyway, the exact best stats for the guy will depend both on the stats of your PCs and the skill of your players. If the players are new and unskilled enough, their superior numbers might not matter as much as they should. It all depends, really.

[Belial666]

Anyway, a single character fighting a group in this system generally doesn't go well for the single character. The group can just stack maneuvers and pummel them with their greater number of actions.

Untrue, if you do it as the book suggests. A single character is an "average" challenge against a group if he's of a refresh level equal to the group's total refresh.


For example, a character fighting 4 submerged PCs at once should be one with 40 refresh or so. Multiple actions or no multiple actions, if you're facing a Senior Council member, a Naagloshi, a Sidhe Sorceress or Nicodemus, chances are you will be curbstomped.