Hey all! We're taking a break from HotDQ to make May a 'one-shot month'. I have 6 players and will be running level 5 one shots. For our first one, I have the following idea and a couple questions....

One of my characters will actually be the BBEG. He was a wizard's apprentice, he turned on the wizard. The older wizard escaped and fled in the woods to hide. He's cast a spell to prevent evil characters from finding him. My BBEG character hires a group of good adventurers to find the wizard under the premise that he's in great danger. He pretends to be just another hired character on the same mission. Once they lead him to the wizard, he turns on all of them and tries to kill them all. The less good in the world, the better. He will be masquarading as a weaker level 5 character, but once the reveal happens, he'll unveil his actual stronger leveled character. So.....

1. What level character should I make him? He should be able to fight 5 level 5 characters and a wizard of whatever level I like.

2. Any fun ideas for plot or smaller encounters on the way to find the wizard?

Thanks so much for your help! Love this community.